There were two People's Party cadres responsible for supervising the meeting between female students and their parents: one was Ren Qiying, and the other was Zhang Xiuhua. Zhang Xiuhua was responsible for the military training of the female students; the performance of these young ladies in military training could be said to be quite good. Zhang Xiuhua was a female cadre who came out of the refugee camp. It took her three months to master basic military training such as marching in formation, turning left, turning right, and walking in step. But these female students were able to complete these drill contents neatly under the instructor's command in less than half a month.

Every time she saw these delicate young ladies, Zhang Xiuhua felt conflicted psychologically. In front of those upright and resolute male instructors, these girls always easily showed timid and fearful expressions on their faces, and often started crying at the slightest provocation. But such a group of people mastered the knowledge and skills that Zhang Xiuhua had to spend tremendous effort to master more easily.

Zhang Xiuhua was an activist for joining the Party and had already submitted her application for joining the Party. As long as she passed another three months of organizational testing, she could become a probationary party member. Since she took over the job of instructor for these female students, one of the tasks given to Zhang Xiuhua by the party organization was to monitor these people and not let them run away. Since receiving this task, Zhang Xiuhua had been very nervous. And what puzzled her was why the party organization had to guard against these female students on the one hand, but gave them education equivalent to key training objects on the other. These female teachers were lecturers at the Party School and Military Academy; when the base area developed to today's scale, they wouldn't give classes to ordinary people casually.

The Party Committee's explanation for this was "to gradually transform these students and make them qualified laborers for social construction." Zhang Xiuhua didn't understand what this meant. She didn't think too much about it either; since the organization instructed, Zhang Xiuhua confirmed that she only had to do two things: first, not let the female students run away; second, urge these female students to attend class in good condition. The families of these female students came all the way here. Zhang Xiuhua felt a little worried; if these fathers and daughters cried together, this situation would be hard to handle.

What surprised Zhang Xiuhua extremely was that although the girls cried like pear blossoms bathed in rain one by one, and those fathers were also tearful, no one begged to leave.

Looking at the situation in front of her, Ren Qiying had an indescribable feeling in her heart. She sincerely admired Chen Ke's vision and determination. The fact that these fathers could rush to the base area already showed that these fathers were by no means ordinary people. Like father, like daughter; these girls did not let down their fathers' love. They knew the power of the base area, and knew that with their fathers' ability, it was absolutely impossible to save them. So although they couldn't help crying after seeing their fathers, once their emotions calmed down, these female students began to comfort their fathers instead. Saying they lived very well in the base area and asking their fathers not to worry.

These were certainly polite words that had to be said, but these girls were only fifteen or sixteen years old. If they hadn't received good education at home, these female students couldn't possibly have such insight. Facing a powerless situation, they all chose the path that maximized the interests of themselves and their families.

Chen Ke should have calculated these before attacking Anqing, so he would be so decisive in forcibly bringing these female students back to the base area, right? Ren Qiying thought, it wouldn't take too long, just a year of training, at least these five girls in front of her could not only be competent for the position of teacher, but also competent for many grassroots official positions. The base area was promoting equality between men and women and encouraging women to come out to work; Ren Qiying could serve as a middle-level official now thanks to these policies. Seeing women who were very likely to compete with her, Ren Qiying couldn't feel happy no matter what.

Huang Chengxun was originally very apprehensive about the two People's Party female cadres monitoring nearby. He had originally made up his mind not to speak recklessly, but as soon as he saw his daughter appear before his eyes, these thoughts were immediately thrown to the nine heavens. Tears couldn't help flowing out哗哗. Let alone speaking with propriety, Huang Chengxun simply didn't know what to say. Blaming himself for being useless? Feeling his daughter was wronged? Hearing Ren Qiying's comment today that "we have all been swept into the torrent of revolution," although he had heartfelt dissatisfaction with Ren Qiying monitoring the meeting, Huang Chengxun had to admit that Ren Qiying's words pointed out everyone's situation. Since the People's Party was determined to overthrow the Imperial Court and showed enough strength, a war sweeping Anhui and even the whole country was inevitable. With Huang Chengxun's power, he simply couldn't fight the People's Party. After realizing this fact, Huang Chengxun also knew that it was impossible for him to take his daughter back this trip. Watching his well-behaved and sensible daughter comforting him instead, Huang Chengxun felt exceptionally uncomfortable.

Watching her father's painful expression, Huang Yuyue felt extremely uncomfortable in her heart. Just because she felt heartache for her father, she tried hard to comfort him instead. To be fair, Huang Yuyue didn't want to stay in the base area at all; she wished she could follow her father immediately. Because she truly wanted to leave, after repeated consideration, Huang Yuyue truly determined that she couldn't run away secretly. Being brought from Anqing to the base area, the hard journey of more than ten days made Huang Yuyue clearly understand one thing: without following a powerful team, in this situation of war and chaos, a woman simply couldn't return to Anqing from Fengtai County safely.

So after the fathers and daughters met and cried, they just asked about each other's well-being and informed each other of their respective situations. They didn't talk about leaving or staying at all. Since they were so tactful, Ren Qiying and Zhang Xiuhua were also much more relaxed.

The next day, Huang Chengxun and others wanted to visit Chen Ke again, but were told Chen Ke had no time to see them. Not only that, Ren Qiying, who was responsible for reception, told Huang Chengxun and others not to go out these few days. After speaking, Ren Qiying left in a hurry.

Something happened in the base area. Since the People's Party arrived in Fengtai County and continuously expanded the scope of the base area, the People's Party had always taken the initiative. But news came early this morning that the first violent incident in which opponents actively attacked the People's Party occurred within the base area. Although this matter was not big, it was the first time encountered for the base area. The People's Party Central Committee, which was already running at high speed, reacted immediately. Not only strengthening internal monitoring, but the main cadres also began to gather to discuss countermeasures.

This was a violent incident that occurred in Wuhe County. When the People's Party went on an expedition to Anqing, the civil affairs organ began to arrange for the disaster victims in the refugee camp to return to their hometowns in an organized manner. These more than a hundred thousand disaster victims gathering in Fengtai County put great pressure on public security. Plus the main force left the base area; appropriately diverting disaster victims back to their hometowns relieved internal pressure on one hand, and also prepared for spring plowing on the other.

Before the main force left, Chen Ke formulated this general direction, and the specific execution was handed over to the Party Committee members staying in the base area. Lu Huitian and others executed it well; through guidance and direction, they effectively evacuated nearly a hundred thousand disaster victims.

The local administrative institutions of the People's Party were now divided into three levels: Central, County, and District. County-level units were based on former county towns, while district-level administrative units were centered on conquered forts and larger market towns. As for smaller village-level units, because scattered settlements were basically destroyed after the flood, plus the problem of insufficient cadres, the base area had not yet been able to fully enter village-level units. News came early this morning that the disaster victims returning to Wuhe County suddenly attacked the District Government set up in Liujiapu. That is, the former fort of the Liu Eighth Family. The People's Party had an Armed Working Team [Wu Gong Dui] in each district, and the scale of each Armed Working Team was at least a company. There were more than four hundred people attacking the District Government. Because common people reported the news in advance, the Armed Working Team was fully prepared, and the attack of this group of people was completely smashed.

Specific combat details had not yet been sent. But in this battle, few enemies could escape; basically, including the leaders were caught. The People's Party didn't feel any joy about this victory; everyone wanted to know why these disaster victims who survived thanks to the People's Party attacked the grassroots organizations of the People's Party as soon as they returned to their hometowns.

Lu Huitian's face was ashen; the work of diverting disaster victims was his responsibility. With such a result, Lu Huitian knew he couldn't escape the blame. Seeing the complaining gazes of many comrades, Lu Huitian felt he couldn't remain silent like this. "I... I'll express my attitude first; I will take responsibility for this matter."

As soon as these words came out, even comrades who were not looking at Lu Huitian turned their eyes over. Now Lu Huitian felt even more uncomfortable. The People's Party claimed to serve the people wholeheartedly; now the result of service was actually people meeting in battle. This couldn't be justified no matter what.

Yuwen Badu was responsible for civil affairs work together with Lu Huitian. Seeing Lu Huitian made a self-criticism, he knew he absolutely couldn't get away with it. He became more uneasy in his heart. He said timidly: "Could it be that the working methods of the local comrades were not quite right?"

Just as he finished saying this, he immediately annoyed Chai Qingguo. "Badu, you are talking nonsense. How are the working methods of local comrades wrong? If they were wrong, it would at most be fighting and cursing. Could it lead to war? This is absolutely bad people in the local area."

Looking at Chai Qingguo's angry face, although Yuwen Badu ranked higher than Chai Qingguo, he couldn't help nodding repeatedly. "Makes sense, makes sense." Whether local comrades had problems with work or there were bad people locally, for Yuwen Badu, he had to push the responsibility away first.

"I think this matter cannot be separated from secret societies." Lin Shenhe couldn't help speaking. In the People's Party, the one who always maintained high vigilance against secret societies was Lin Shenhe.

Hearing Lin Shenhe's words, Lu Huitian suddenly regretted a bit. In the process of executing the work of evacuating disaster victims, Lin Shenhe, who was responsible for police work, proposed a suggestion to eliminate the leaders of various secret societies among the disaster victims, or at least control them temporarily. Lin Shenhe's reason was simple: these people also had rallying power locally; if they returned to other places in the base area, it would be inevitable for trouble to occur. Lu Huitian and others felt Lin Shenhe was making a fuss over nothing. These people behaved quite obediently when gathered in the base area; how could they dare to run wild and break the law when they returned home? Moreover, the People's Party was their savior after all. Now it seemed Lin Shenhe's vigilance was not unreasonable.

"Comrades, quiet down." Chen Ke spoke. As soon as he opened his mouth, others quieted down immediately.

Chen Ke was neither anxious nor angry. Such conflicts were only a matter of time. Chen Ke originally had some plans, and just took this opportunity to propose them. "Now that first-hand information hasn't arrived, it's useless for us to guess blindly. Today's meeting, I want to discuss the issue of army expansion with everyone."

The issue of army expansion had actually been put on the agenda long ago, but with frequent troop movements now, and army expansion not being a small matter, it couldn't be done just by saying it. The spring plowing period was busy, and there were wars to fight. Chen Ke just mentioned it a few times; everyone just listened tentatively, and many comrades didn't take it to heart. Now encountering the incident of enemies attacking grassroots governments, everyone had to focus on army expansion. If there were enough troops stationed locally, presumably such tragedies could be largely avoided. Everyone listened attentively to Chen Ke's next speech.

"I want to expand our troops to a corps, a scale of 40,000 people." Chen Ke said calmly.

Hearing this, almost everyone couldn't help sucking in a breath of cold air. 40,000 people; the troops in the base area now were at most 10,000. Chen Ke actually wanted to expand the army to eight times the scale [Note: 10k to 40k is 4 times. Maybe text implies from an earlier smaller number or "four times"? Text says "expand to eight times scale" (`八倍的规模`). Maybe current is 5000? Earlier text said 3000 went to Anqing, leaving some. 10,000 total mentioned before. 10k to 40k is 4 times. Maybe typo in text or math error by character/author. I will translate literally "eight times" but note it. Or maybe he means 8 brigades/regiments? No, "40,000 people". Let's assume the text means 40,000 is a huge jump.]

"By April, our base area population will be about four million. A force of 40,000 people is actually not much. Only one soldier in a hundred people. Moreover, these 40,000 troops are not all fighting; everyone knows our Worker-Peasant Revolutionary Army supports itself. The burden on the masses is not heavy." Chen Ke explained. In history, many base areas could easily pull up a scale of forty or fifty thousand people, and those base areas were in economically backward mountainous areas. With the current strength of the People's Party occupying the vast plain area, pulling out 40,000 people was not much.

"Then how to arrange these 40,000 troops?" Pu Guanshui asked. After the Battle of Anqing, Pu Guanshui completely got rid of the relationship with the Anhui New Army and became a senior commander of the Worker-Peasant Revolutionary Army. But he hadn't been assigned specific work yet; he was still a member of the Central Military Commission. If Chen Ke really wanted to expand the army to 40,000 people, Pu Guanshui could definitely be assigned practical work.

"One corps, four divisions. The base area will be divided into four military sub-districts, each stationing one division. And these four divisions are not completely concentrated, but stationed in various stations as regiments. Each regiment is stationed as battalions."

Hua Xiongmao reacted fastest. He said: "Then wouldn't every county be assigned a regiment?"

Chen Ke nodded. "About right. Our troops are different from old-style troops; our troops are propaganda teams and working teams. After the flood, the old social order is far from restored, and the new system has not been built yet. We say our new system is good, but the people haven't seen where it is good. We must prove through our own efforts that our system is indeed effective. This is the primary task of the troops after expansion. Fighting on one hand, engaging in production and construction on the other."

After this explanation, the comrades had a preliminary understanding of Chen Ke's purpose in expanding the army. Zhang Yu asked: "Then what about the local troops we have already started to organize? Should they be incorporated into the newly built regular troops?"

"Regular troops are to go out to fight. If local troops don't encounter special circumstances, they still focus on local battles. So we still have to maintain the existence of local troops. Even leave some backbones; otherwise, once the regular troops leave the base area, wouldn't the base area be singing the Empty City Strategy?"

"Then what about weapons and equipment? We don't have forty thousand guns. Weapons simply can't be replenished." Pu Guanshui cared about this issue very much.

"I said before, Manchu Qing politics relies on strongholds. Including their army is also like this. If we want to drive the Manchu Qing out of our base area, the best way is not defense, but offense. Destroy the Manchu Qing military forces around that can threaten us, seize their weapons and equipment. As long as our legs can reach places, we must destroy the enemies there. In this way, as this wanes and that waxes, we can absolutely gain strategic initiative."

After fighting Anqing, the morale of the troops was extremely high. Hearing Chen Ke's arrangement, the comrades of the troops expressed support first. Comrades in civil affairs were somewhat worried. "Then what about the grain problem?"

"For grain, the troops have to fight on one hand and farm on the other."

"Will that be too hard?" Comrades engaged in civil affairs had quite some scruples.

"Without these hardships, how do we know who is loyal to the revolutionary cause?"

While speaking, the guard brought a soldier into the conference hall.

The messenger saluted Chen Ke and then said loudly: "Report! I am the messenger sent by the Wuhe County Party Secretary. The preliminary investigation report of this rebellion incident has been delivered."

Chen Ke took the document, opened it and read it once, then asked: "Does Secretary Wu of the County Committee have any other message for you to bring?"

The messenger stood straight. "Secretary Wu asked me to bring a message: he apologizes to the Central Committee. This time he didn't take precautions; no matter how the Central Committee punishes him, Secretary Wu accepts it willingly."

"I know. You go down first."

The comrades in the conference hall all stared at the document in Chen Ke's hand. What they wanted to know most was how this rebellion was caused. Chen Ke handed the document to Qi Huishen and let him read the document.

This was a report written personally by Wuhe County Party Secretary Wu Liao. It turned out that among the disaster victims returning to near Liujiapu after the Spring Festival, a secret society leader named Liu Yongyi was a close relative of the Liu family destroyed by the People's Party. Learning that the local emperor Liu Eighth Master of Liujiapu was actually annihilated, and the Liu family's land was also distributed, this secret society Liu Yongyi simply mobilized the disaster victims, using looting grain as a rallying cry, and contacted secret societies in other areas to attack the fort.

Originally their plan was also detailed: first enter the fort through the Liu family's secret tunnel, and then attack from inside and outside to break the fort. They didn't expect that the common people were no longer on his side. The local area receiving reports from the masses organized military forces and caught Liu Yongyi and those he led in one net.

Hearing the report, the comrades couldn't help breathing a sigh of relief. Since it wasn't a direct conflict between local cadres and the masses, but bad people making trouble, this matter didn't need to be so worried about.

When Qi Huishen read the document aloud, Chen Ke had been thinking thoughtfully. When the document was finished reading, he looked up at Lin Shenhe. Lin Shenhe originally wanted to exterminate the secret societies in the base area completely. Seeing Chen Ke looking at him, Lin Shenhe immediately stood up. "Chairman Chen, local secret societies are always a scourge. I still think we should take advantage of now to get rid of them completely."

Hearing this, quite a few comrades couldn't help nodding. Up to now, the secret societies in the base area were still hiding quite deeply, and there was no sign of defecting to the People's Party. A Liu Yongyi could pull up a team of three or four hundred people; if other secret societies also made trouble like this, it would be endless trouble. Rather than responding passively, it would be better to strike first.

Chen Ke could understand everyone's thoughts. Actually, long before sending troops, he had considered whether to strike first to eliminate secret societies, but he finally didn't choose such a method. Seeing the comrades had roughly kept up with his previous train of thought, Chen Ke said loudly to the comrades: "We eliminate the secret societies, and then? They didn't do anything bad, but were eliminated by us; in the eyes of the common people, they are martyrs. This won't do. Hasn't this Liu Yongyi matter already proved that the common people have their own judgment? Between Liu Yongyi and our People's Party, the masses chose our People's Party. Since our purpose is to launch people's revolution and serve the people, then we must believe that the people are trustworthy. Deviating from this point, only playing with means of preventing trouble before it happens, what is the difference from the Manchu Qing?"

"But this is very likely to lead to the sacrifice of our comrades." Lin Shenhe continued.

Chen Ke did not agree with Lin Shenhe's view. "We talk about struggle for the sake of peace. Seeking peace in struggle, peace survives. Troops in various places should make full military preparations, but we absolutely cannot fire the first shot. The strength of secret societies lies in that to some extent they are rooted in the masses like us. Our struggle with secret societies is fundamentally a struggle for the masses. As long as we can win the masses over to us, what power do secret societies have? In this regard, don't comrades have confidence?"

Hearing this, although quite a few comrades still felt uncomfortable in their hearts, they couldn't help admitting that Chen Ke's view was reasonable.

Seeing the comrades had preliminarily accepted his view, Chen Ke continued: "Then let's discuss next how to compete with secret societies for the masses, how to let the masses know that secret societies are still products of the old era, and the new system we promote is what can truly save the common people. Then let's follow the previous convention, find the principal contradiction first, find the basis of the contradiction. Comrades, what are the characteristics of China's current countryside? Besides the small peasant economy, what are the characteristics of the countryside?"

Hearing this, Yuwen Badu couldn't help saying: "Chairman Chen, you'd better just say it straight. Letting us think, we can't think of the point no matter what."

"Secretary Yuwen, you are really lazy enough." Chen Ke said somewhat helplessly.

Yuwen Badu didn't look embarrassed at all for being criticized. He answered loudly: "Mainly there is no time. Being so busy now, delaying time won't do."

Cannot but admit, Yuwen Badu made sense. Chen Ke didn't mobilize the party members' thinking anymore. He said straightforwardly: "The characteristic of the countryside now, besides the small peasant economy, is the relief-oriented economy [assistance economy]. Whether clans or gentry, besides being in a leadership position, they also have to assume the responsibility and obligation of relief. Being fellow villagers, after something happens, these people have to pay money and help; this is the way they obtain rural leadership. And the flood completely destroyed the ability of these people to realize the relief-oriented economic model. This is the reason why our People's Party could obtain political power in Fengtai County, and further in such a vast area. Because our organizational model is a new model of government; whether from economic ability or administrative ability, we are comprehensively superior to the old model. When we enter the grassroots and combine with the masses, the masses will naturally choose us and abandon those old gentry and clans. And our next step is to win the masses over from the secret societies."