After the Military Commission meeting adjourned, Hua Xiongmao hurriedly left the venue. His heart was filled with a new understanding of the People's Revolution. Just as he was about to stride out of the camp gates, he suddenly heard a familiar voice call out from behind him: "Zhenglan, don't go just yet."

Hearing Qiu Jin's shout, Hua Xiongmao felt a jolt in his heart. Since Qiu Jin had arrived at the base area, Hua Xiongmao had tried his best to avoid meeting her. He was well aware of Chen Ke and the Party Central Committee's attitude toward the Yue Wang Society and the Restoration Society, and he personally supported this attitude. The People's Party had no obligation to provide military and political aid to the Yue Wang Society or the Restoration Society. The greatest significance of these two revolutionary parties now was merely to attract the attention of the Qing court in Anqing and Chizhou. Chen Ke was not a "nice guy"; after the Anqing Campaign, the reason the People's Party handed Anqing and Chizhou over to the Yue Wang Society and the Restoration Society involved some rather cruel considerations in Chen Ke's plan. The Yue Wang Society was a local secret society, and the Restoration Society was a revolutionary party from Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Neither was likely to be completely wiped out by the Qing. However, the Qing court would certainly want to exterminate these two parties that had caused such a "commotion." Just rooting them out would consume a tremendous amount of the Qing's strength. These two parties would inevitably buy the People's Party a lot of time.

Hua Xiongmao knew that Chen Ke was not plotting against Qiu Jin personally, but Qiu Jin was, after all, Hua Xiongmao's aunt. Hua Xiongmao could not violate security discipline to reveal the People's Party's internal intelligence to Qiu Jin, yet he felt a sense of guilt toward her. The result was that Hua Xiongmao tried every possible way to avoid contact with Qiu Jin. Today, despite his caution, he had slipped up and been blocked by her.

Pretending not to hear Qiu Jin's call was certainly a way to solve the problem temporarily, but Hua Xiongmao could not bear to do so. He stopped in his tracks, turned around, and saw Qiu Jin running over quickly.

Stopping in front of Hua Xiongmao, Qiu Jin said straight to the point, "Zhenglan, I have a favor to ask. Lend me some troops. You decide the number, it doesn't need to be many—ten or twenty men will do. But they must be able to help me and your uncle, Xu Xilin."

"Aunt, I can't help with this," Hua Xiongmao replied regretfully. "In our People's Party, the Party commands the gun. Without an order from the Party Committee, I cannot mobilize a single person."

Qiu Jin stared at Hua Xiongmao as if looking at a monster. After a long while, she asked in that specific tone of anger that comes from being made a fool of, "Zhenglan, you have thousands of men under your command. You won't even lend me ten people?"

"Aunt, I'm not trying to fool you. This is the system of our People's Party. If the Party Committee makes a decision, I have to lead thousands of troops out to fight. Without a decision from the Party Committee, I can't take a single person away." Hua Xiongmao tried hard to convince Qiu Jin.

"Zhenglan, do you think these words can trick me?"

Hua Xiongmao didn't know how to explain it to Qiu Jin because he had never thought about this question before. As he struggled to think, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind. This was something he had not considered before, but now this thought streaked across his thoughts like lightning, giving Hua Xiongmao a sudden feeling of enlightenment. "Aunt, it is precisely because our army has such discipline that our People's Party can be invincible. Our army is the Party's army, not my personal army. Our army fights for the common people, which is why we can win battles. If the army became my personal army, who would be willing to listen to me?"

If these words were spoken to the Military Commission of the People's Party or the soldiers, Hua Xiongmao could absolutely successfully convince them. But he was now facing Qiu Jin, who was outside the People's Party. Qiu Jin could not understand what Hua Xiongmao was saying at all. Because Qiu Jin also held an important position in Chizhou, she knew that as the leader of a political party, one must set an example. So Qiu Jin could actually understand why Chen Ke could not agree to lend people. With the People's Party also facing the Qing siege today, Chen Ke could not easily explain it to his subordinates. After thinking it over, Qiu Jin felt that Hua Xiongmao could definitely help. Hua Xiongmao had thousands of men under him; wouldn't it be incredibly easy to support with ten or twenty men? She never expected that Hua Xiongmao would use such an inconceivable excuse as "without an order from the Party Committee, I cannot mobilize a single person myself" to refuse her.

"Zhenglan, you can't even lend me a dozen men from your personal guard?" Qiu Jin was thoroughly enraged.

"My personal guard?" Despite seeing Qiu Jin's angry face, Hua Xiongmao almost laughed out loud when he heard this. The military cadres of the People's Party did not have their own guard units. The only guard battalion was the direct unit used to protect the Party Central Committee. The guards for commanders at all levels were arranged by Political Commissar He Zudao. To put it bluntly, even if Hua Xiongmao wanted to leave with Qiu Jin right now, he wouldn't dare take his guards. Because the guards might not necessarily agree with Hua Xiongmao's idea of leaving without permission. But Hua Xiongmao knew clearly that he couldn't explain this problem to Qiu Jin. If he really explained it this way, Qiu Jin would still be completely unable to understand the organizational model of the People's Party.

Just as he didn't know how to handle the situation, Chen Ke's guard appeared. "Mr. Qiu, Chairman Chen invites you over."

These words finally rescued Hua Xiongmao from his awkward predicament, but this feeling of relief did not last long. Qiu Jin glared at Hua Xiongmao with eyes full of anger. That resentment, born of extreme incomprehension, made Hua Xiongmao feel a chill in his heart. He suddenly felt a sense of grievance. The organizational model of the People's Party eliminated the private control of military cadres over troops in the army. The troops were completely controlled by the Political Department. All of Hua Xiongmao's power came from the authorization of the Party Committee. Although Hua Xiongmao himself had a high status in the army, he was merely a member of the Standing Committee within the Party Committee. As a standing committee member, he also had to accept the resolutions of the Party Committee. He could not issue orders on his own initiative.

Qiu Jin did not give Hua Xiongmao a chance to explain; she turned and left with Chen Ke's guard.

Hua Xiongmao turned and walked toward the outside of the military camp, dejected. Honestly, since following Chen Ke, Hua Xiongmao had never thought he would so quickly become a commander in charge of over ten thousand troops. But the organizational model constructed by Chen Ke did not reveal anything special at the beginning. The like-minded comrades were all young. Facing the sudden great flood, everyone lacked experience and had to discuss everything. At that time, Chen Ke personally led by example on the front lines, leading everyone through life and death situations. Since Chen Ke wasn't afraid, what could anyone else say? Just follow Chen Ke, the founder of the People's Party. A whole set of systems was established unknowingly in Chen Ke's seemingly inadvertent arrangements. Every comrade saw that they shouldered their own responsibilities, and every matter could find a relevant person in charge. Hua Xiongmao was very satisfied with this system. Today, he discovered that even for someone in a high position like himself, it was absolutely impossible to use this system to do private business that violated the principles of the People's Party. If he wanted to send troops privately to help Qiu Jin, there would have to be a huge man-made loophole in this already established system. And Hua Xiongmao asked himself, he did not hope for such a man-made loophole to appear.

The Party Committee had long discussed what support Qiu Jin could get from Chen Ke. The People's Party would send people to escort Qiu Jin back to Chizhou. Since the systems of the Restoration Society and the People's Party were completely different, any help given to the Restoration Society would not have any real effect. Rather than wasting comrades' lives, it was better to simply not help either side. The Restoration Society had once cooperated with the People's Party, and as a return, the People's Party had already handed Chizhou over to the Restoration Society. In the eyes of the People's Party comrades, even if Chen Ke's strategic design was not indifferent, the Restoration Society had already greatly publicized its existence by occupying Chizhou. Capturing a city was something the Restoration Society would have had to pay a huge price to accomplish, but the People's Party had done it for them. Everyone had already settled the account according to the previously discussed plan. As for what would happen next, the Restoration Society sought what it wanted and got it. They should have no complaints. However, Qiu Jin and Xu Xilin were Hua Xiongmao's relatives after all. Knowing they faced danger yet being unable to help, this feeling was still very poor. Hua Xiongmao lowered his head and left the military camp. The guard had already prepared a horse for him; this was a warhorse of the New Army captured in the Anqing Campaign. After Hua Xiongmao mounted the horse, he couldn't help but look back in the direction of Chen Ke's office. Qiu Jin should be arguing with Chen Ke about the issue of aiding the Chizhou Restoration Society by now. Hua Xiongmao thought of this and couldn't help but sigh slightly, then urged his warhorse to rush toward the station at Yuezhangji.

The dispute between Hua Xiongmao and Qiu Jin happened at the gate of the Fengtai County military camp, and many cadres saw it. Yan Fu came out together with Hua Xiongmao, and he also saw this scene of relatives arguing. Seeing Hua Xiongmao's dejected appearance, Yan Fu even felt a sympathy from the bottom of his heart. Sympathy aside, Yan Fu did not think there was anything wrong with Chen Ke's attitude toward Qiu Jin. Yan Fu knew that Chen Ke and Qiu Jin were old friends. Both wore the same style of expensive watch on their wrists, which was enough to prove that their relationship was quite unusual. Yet as the Chairman of the People's Party, Chen Ke took the interests of the People's Party as the highest standard. Yan Fu strongly agreed with this attitude.

Before the Anqing Campaign, Yan Fu had also harbored some illusions about the Yue Wang Society, hoping to get their help when attacking Anqing. Before Yan Fu mentioned the Yue Wang Society, Chen Ke didn't even know of its existence. Yet Chen Ke could grasp the characteristics of the Yue Wang Society based on imagination alone. In the Anqing Campaign, Chen Ke's positioning of the Yue Wang Society was "malicious neutrality." At the summary meeting after the Anqing Campaign, everyone exchanged the various things that happened when they contacted the Yue Wang Society, and the comrades were full of praise for Chen Ke's foresight. "Secret societies" are unreliable—this was the unified thought of the People's Party high command.

However, with Yan Fu's experience, the lowest level he could imagine was secret societies. Although Yan Fu had heard Chen Ke speak of "People's Revolution" countless times, he still couldn't quite accept what Chen Ke called "People's Revolution." In Yan Fu's view, the people needed to be educated by their superiors. Whatever the People's Party said, the common people just had to follow and do it. Wasn't it a matter of course for superiors to guide and educate the people?

Yan Fu could feel that Chen Ke also had many thoughts similar to his own in his heart, but Chen Ke himself was struggling hard against these thoughts. Chen Ke not only constantly educated the comrades of the People's Party—"The people know reason, the people can distinguish right from wrong, we must trust the people"—but Yan Fu could also see that Chen Ke was constantly trying to convince himself to believe in this attitude. When formulating policies, Chen Ke required People's Party cadres to explain them clearly to the people in words they could understand before execution. Yan Fu felt this was where Chen Ke contradicted himself. If the people could only understand the significance of a policy when they received benefits, didn't this approach imply that the people were a group of petty individuals who didn't understand righteousness and only knew how to pursue their own interests?

Whether it was secret societies or the people, neither was reliable. Yan Fu couldn't help but think. However, Chen Ke still had relatively good vision. When they captured Anqing, he had at least snatched a group of female students from the Anqing Girls' School, preparing to cultivate them into teachers. Although this method was indeed a bit radical, Yan Fu felt that from a long-term perspective, it was a good method. Moreover, Anqing was about to become a new battlefield immediately. Yan Fu did not trust the discipline of the New Army. Once the New Army retook Anqing, there would inevitably be a military disaster. These female students would be much safer in the base area. The future defense of the base area was unlikely to involve naval battles, and the Party Committee hoped Yan Fu would strengthen the education system of the base area as soon as possible. So Yan Fu decided to go to the Normal School to have a look.

When Yan Fu arrived at the Normal School, the female students had just finished their farming tasks for the day. Having been in the base area for so long, their habits as young ladies had weakened significantly. Wiping sweat with cloth towels, they sat on small stools they carried with them to rest. At this moment, it was confirmed that Ren Qiying, serving as the temporary ideological committee member, was speaking to everyone.

"Students, everyone said yesterday that simplified characters are ugly. I admit this. However, simplified characters are easy to learn and recognize, far easier than those traditional characters. We will all be people's teachers in the future. We teach, teaching everyone to read, with the goal of letting the people master the tool of writing. Writing is a tool, not a symbol of status. By reading, by learning culture, the people can learn many skills through more books. These skills can make the people's lives better. This is the purpose of education. We educate the people to teach the masses a skill for a better life, not to cultivate a bunch of bastards who want to be masters over others just because they know a few broken characters."

"Then Mr. Ren, why does the base area still have exams? I see in the base area's regulations that civil servants recruited in the future will all need to take exams?" a female student asked.

Hearing the student's question, Ren Qiying smiled. "The civil servants of the base area are public servants of the people. If they don't know how to read, many jobs won't be done efficiently. As the saying goes, a dull pencil is better than a good memory; only by mastering the tool of cultural knowledge can one work better. We promote cultural education to let everyone work better, not to become officials. This is the biggest difference between our base area and other political organizations. We must realize that at any time, we ourselves are common people just like everyone else, not lords high above just because we know a few characters. We are all equal."

"According to what you say, Chairman Chen Ke is also a common person equal to us?" the female student asked somewhat timidly.

"Correct. In the base area, there are only differences in division of labor, not differences in status. Chairman Chen Ke is a political leader; this is an already existing fact. But this does not equate to Chairman Chen Ke having privileges over us."

"Then when we were farming, why didn't Chairman Chen Ke farm together with us?" a student who looked a bit mischievous said in a low voice.

Ren Qiying did not get angry at such a complaint. She smiled and said, "Then when Chairman Chen Ke fights battles, why don't you go fight?"

Hearing this, the student who complained in a low voice blushed and dared not make another sound.

"This is the difference in division of labor. Because we believe Chairman Chen Ke is indeed stronger than us in this aspect, we elected Chairman Chen Ke to the position of Chairman. Comrades, our People's Party does not engage in privileges. Chairman Chen Ke becoming the Party Chairman is also the result of everyone's voting. As a member of the People's Party, I also participated in the voting. Chairman Chen Ke was elected by us, not self-appointed. Nor did he obtain this status through coercion and bribery."

Hearing this, the female students, who originally did not agree with Ren Qiying's political education from the bottom of their hearts, couldn't help but widen their eyes. They originally didn't know that the instructor before them had such great power, actually being able to participate in such a major event as electing the Chairman of the People's Party. In their view, Chen Ke was at least equivalent to a county magistrate. Qing county magistrates were never elected. This fact greatly shocked the girls' worldview.

Yan Fu frowned slightly upon hearing Ren Qiying's words. It wasn't because the fact that Chen Ke was elected by People's Party members puzzled him. In Yan Fu's view, education was a means for the government to transform the people, but in Ren Qiying's explanation, education was merely letting the people master a tool to transform themselves. This viewpoint, which was almost diametrically opposed, made Yan Fu feel a genuine shock.