Accompanied by Shi Dekuan, Qiu Jin and the others entered Anqing city. It had been nearly two months since the People's Party attacked Anqing. Compared to that time, Qiu Jin's most immediate feeling was that Anqing city had become dirty and chaotic. Before the war broke out, the city's operations were at least at a normal level; the government's cleaning work was functioning, and the common people's own cleaning work was also running. Urban hygiene was at least maintained at a basic level. The Yue Wang Society had occupied Anqing for nearly two months, but the urban sanitation that should have been led by the government had completely stalled. Although the people were also cleaning the hygiene in front of their own doors, it was impossible for everyone to transport the large amount of garbage in the city out of the city. The result was that garbage piled up like mountains everywhere, sewage flowed across the city, and excrement and urine were all over the ground. The once decent Anqing city was now completely polluted by filth and stench.

Walking along the way, Qiu Jin saw that the market in Anqing was extremely depressed, with every household closing their doors. Not only were no businesses open, but large locks hung on the gates of many courtyards. Presumably, the whole families had fled Anqing city. This situation was quite similar to Chizhou city. Qiu Jin had once thought that after the revolution, the people would enthusiastically support it. Reality ruthlessly gave Qiu Jin a lesson. Revolution is first of all destruction; before a brand-new system is built, the people will not support the revolution unconditionally.

Qiu Jin covered her mouth and nose, smoked by the pungent smell of excrement and urine. But she still couldn't help asking, "Comrade Lu Zhengping, how does your People's Party organize sanitation in Fengtai County?"

Lu Zhengping replied calmly, "In our view, urine and feces are very good fertilizers. From the beginning, we established public toilets to collect manure for fertilizer. Defecating anywhere is prohibited in the base area."

Qiu Jin sighed slightly. "Wenqing is always unexpected."

Lu Zhengping replied proudly, "When the base area first began to establish the agricultural fertilizer collection system, Chairman Chen personally scooped out public toilets and pulled manure carts."

In these times, scooping manure was considered a lowly job. Hearing that Chen Ke had personally done this, both Shi Dekuan and Qiu Jin were startled. Shi Dekuan looked at Lu Zhengping with shocked eyes, but saw Lu Zhengping's face full of pride, without the slightest sense of shame that the Chairman of the People's Party had done the work of scooping manure.

Qiu Jin shook her head slightly. "Why does Wenqing demean himself so much?"

"What do you mean demean himself?" Hearing Qiu Jin's words, He Jinwu, who came with them, was immediately annoyed. Along the way, Qiu Jin had ignored the two of them, and they hadn't gotten angry. But hearing Qiu Jin say that working was demeaning oneself, He Jinwu immediately couldn't suppress his anger. "Everyone in our People's Party, from top to bottom, has scooped manure pits and pulled manure carts. Without collecting fertilizer, where would the good harvest come from? Is this shameful? What's shameful about this? Besides, look, you occupy Anqing, so you should treat Anqing as your home, right? Look at the appearance inside the city; is there anyone who treats their own home like this?"

Being scolded by He Jinwu like this, both Shi Dekuan and Qiu Jin were embarrassed and didn't dare say anything more.

Lu Zhengping understood He Jinwu's anger very well. The People's Party's education had always emphasized "China is the home of all of us; we must treat her well." Besides such slogan-style propaganda, the People's Party also had detailed regulations regarding execution. In addition to resolutely forbidding troops from disturbing the people, as long as the troops had leisure, they had to be responsible for local public health work. Organizing garbage was one of them. Lu Zhengping was now a Political Commissar of a reconnaissance detachment of the People's Party. He had to attend the collective training at the Party School. Chen Ke served as the principal of the Party School. In the cadre training course, he specifically talked about specific working methods. "If we ignore public health, what kind of mentality do you think this is? This is a passer-by mentality, a bandit mentality. Our People's Party is bound to liberate the whole of China. Even if we exist in certain areas for only a short time, we must assume the responsibilities of the government during this period. If there isn't enough time and we can't do big things, can't we even do the small thing of cleaning up hygiene? From a military perspective, by cleaning up hygiene, everyone becomes familiar with the local terrain. From a political perspective, the eyes of the masses are sharp. The people know everything we do. Living in a clean environment is always more comfortable than living in a dirty environment. The people will absolutely not support roving bandits. If our actions cannot show that we have the intention of long-term construction, if our actions cannot prove that we are the people's army, then we cannot obtain the people's heartfelt identification and support."

Many of Chen Ke's courses had always baffled many comrades. One of the reasons was that the content was too trivial and overly detailed. When comrades discussed in private, they sometimes thought Chairman Chen Ke was often "more meticulous than a young lady." The work content covered everything big and small. After doing it according to Chen Ke's requirements, the effect was merely that the common people watched coldly without saying a word. It wasn't until he saw the status quo of Anqing city with his own eyes that Lu Zhengping understood what result would follow if they didn't do as Chen Ke said. Lu Zhengping firmly believed that if he were a resident of Anqing city, he would absolutely not support the rule of the Yue Wang Society.

The group entered the Anhui Governor's Yamen. The leaders of the Yue Wang Society received the three with barely polite hospitality. Everyone introduced their origins to each other, and Bai Wenwei asked straightforwardly, "I wonder how many people the People's Party comrades have brought."

"Only the two of us. We are responsible for escorting Mr. Qiu Jin back to Chizhou," Lu Zhengping said.

"Are there no other reinforcements?" Bai Wenwei asked.

"No," Lu Zhengping spoke directly.

Hearing there were no reinforcements, the atmosphere in the hall instantly turned cold.

Chen Duxiu hadn't thought of how to break this awkward situation when he heard someone on his side stand up and ask sarcastically, "I say, Mr. Qiu, and the two from the People's Party. Since you have no reinforcements, what are you doing in our Anqing? To see a joke?"

"May I ask who this is..." Qiu Jin asked with a frown.

"I am Diao Dezhang," the speaker responded carelessly.

Qiu Jin sneered, "I haven't even heard your name. Someone like you behaves wildly in front of me?"

Diao Dezhang never expected Qiu Jin to be so impolite. Feeling he had lost face, he stood up abruptly in anger.

Before the conflict could erupt, Lu Zhengping said loudly to Chen Duxiu, "Mr. Chen, are the words spoken by this Mr. Diao Dezhang your meaning?"

Chen Duxiu was suddenly put on the spot. He actually didn't completely disagree with Diao Dezhang's words. But he indeed had no intention of authorizing Diao Dezhang. At this moment, criticizing Diao Dezhang wasn't right, and not criticizing wasn't right either.

Diao Dezhang rolled his eyes, curled his lips, and sneered, "I didn't expect you to be so glib. Then I ask you, firstly you didn't send troops to rescue, secondly you didn't send money or grain. What are you doing in our Anqing? What 'come over to have a look,' isn't it just that bullshit about sincere cooperation. Without us holding off the Manchu Qing here, your Restoration Society's Chizhou, and whatever People's Party's Fengyang, would have been taken by the Manchu Qing long ago. Where would it be your turn to pretend to offer condolences hypocritically here. I, Old Diao, have seen it clearly. The People's Party simply has bad intentions. They poked such a hornet's nest in Anqing and let our Yue Wang Society take the blame for you."

Watching Diao Dezhang spitting as he cursed the People's Party and the Restoration Society, Qiu Jin's face turned iron-blue with anger. However, Lu Zhengping and He Jinwu felt that Diao Dezhang was a thorough Jianghu ruffian who "wouldn't get up early without profit." The upper echelons of the People's Party knew that handing Anqing over to the Yue Wang Society was originally an ill-intentioned move. It was just that the leaders of the Yue Wang Society couldn't see through the situation. Before the People's Party could speak, they rushed up hurriedly to take the blame themselves. The People's Party was also happy to do such a favor with little cost. But for someone like Diao Dezhang, whose purpose in occupying Anqing was to get rich, it wasn't easy to fall for this trap.

Just then, with a bang, Bai Wenwei slapped the table. "Diao Dezhang, what exactly do you mean by these words? With the great enemy before us, you don't talk about how to resist the enemy, but instead say all this stuff. What do you want to do?"

Facing the angry Bai Wenwei, Diao Dezhang didn't care at all. "Mr. Bai, I've wanted to say for a long time, this Anqing can't be kept. The Manchu Qing has so many people and so many gunboats. We only have four or five thousand people; how can we hold Anqing? My meaning is, let's withdraw from Anqing quickly. There will be plenty of opportunities to make a comeback in the future. Defending Anqing to the death is a dead end."

Bai Wenwei raged, "Withdraw from Anqing? Where do we go after withdrawing from Anqing? Follow you back to your hometown?"

The quarrel broke out in the conference hall just like that. Lu Zhengping originally thought Diao Dezhang wanted to attack the People's Party, but after listening for a while, he found that Diao Dezhang's purpose wasn't this at all. He actually wanted to flee before the battle. And there were actually a few people echoing Diao Dezhang.

The quarrel lasted for quite a while. Finally, Chen Duxiu said to Qiu Jin with a tired look, "Mr. Qiu Jin, let's go inside to talk. Dekuan, you come too."

Avoiding the quarrel in the Governor's Yamen hall, the Yamen's living room was much quieter. There were very few people at the meeting: Qiu Jin, Lu Zhengping, He Jinwu, Chen Duxiu, and Shi Dekuan. Not long after everyone took their seats, Bai Wenwei also walked in angrily.

The six people sat around the table. Although Chen Duxiu still looked tired, without those internal separatists present, he quickly regained the elegance peculiar to literati. He asked, "This Mr. Lu, I wonder if Chairman Chen Ke instructed you with any special matters when he sent you here this time."

Lu Zhengping was one of the earliest People's Party comrades to propose liberating areas outside the base area. In the battle of Liujiapu in Wuhe County, his attitude was firm and his performance outstanding. He accumulated a lot of combat merits in the many battles that followed. Now he was a Political Commissar of the Reconnaissance Battalion. The Reconnaissance Battalion was the absolute elite force of the People's Party and performed extremely well in the Anqing Campaign. Although organizationally it was only a battalion-level unit, in reality, it was half a level higher than other battalion-level units. If it were just to escort Qiu Jin, Lu Zhengping and He Jinwu, the Commander of the Second Company of the Reconnaissance Battalion, would absolutely not have been used.

"I wonder what the special matters Mr. Chen refers to are?" Chen Ke had indeed given Lu Zhengping some tasks. Under permissible conditions, he asked Lu Zhengping to provide some military command assistance to the Yue Wang Society and the Restoration Society. But Chen Ke also made it extremely clear that even if he couldn't save the Yue Wang Society and the Restoration Society, Lu Zhengping had to return to the base area alive with He Jinwu. Lu Zhengping was extremely moved by Chen Ke's attitude of caring for comrades so much. So Lu Zhengping didn't rush to answer.

Chen Duxiu didn't beat around the bush either. He said frankly, "Now the Manchu Qing has attacked. We need support. Your party's troops are brave and good at fighting. We only need to borrow one thousand men. One thousand men is enough."

"Then how does Mr. Chen plan to use these one thousand men?" Lu Zhengping continued to ask. "Defend the city, or go out of the city to fight?"

Chen Duxiu didn't understand military affairs, so Bai Wenwei took over the topic. "We want your unit to go out of the city to fight."

Hearing this, He Jinwu turned his face away. It turned out the Yue Wang Society borrowing one thousand men from the People's Party was to use them for a suicide mission. Seeing He Jinwu's reaction, Bai Wenwei also felt very embarrassed. He couldn't continue with what he was going to say.

Lu Zhengping didn't mind this too much. He continued to ask, "Then what is the wartime situation now? Can Mr. Chen inform us?"

"Starting yesterday, the Qing army's navy stormed Anqing. They were beaten back many times by our batteries." Chen Duxiu could only talk about the combat achievements he could show.

Lu Zhengping acted as if he hadn't heard. He continued to ask, "I heard that the Hubei New Army came. I wonder where the Hubei New Army's navy is stationed? Where is the army stationed? How many people are there in total? Who commands these troops?"

"This... we haven't found out clearly yet." Chen Duxiu was also very disappointed about this.

The Yue Wang Society had occupied Anqing for nearly two months, yet they didn't even have a decent intelligence system. The People's Party was thousands of *li* away, but probably had more news than the Yue Wang Society. Lu Zhengping was an active soldier in the reconnaissance troops and was extremely disappointed with the Yue Wang Society's performance. If Chen Ke asked Lu Zhengping these questions, Lu Zhengping would rather commit suicide than have the face to say the words "haven't found out clearly."

The enemy came knocking on the door, yet they didn't know the basic intelligence of the enemy, and still wanted to borrow troops to go out to fight a field battle. This proved that the Yue Wang Society had completely failed militarily. The excrement-filled Anqing city outside was enough to explain the Yue Wang Society's political failure. The internal strife just now was enough to prove that the Yue Wang Society had also failed organizationally. Politics, military, internal organization—all failed. Lu Zhengping really didn't know what kind of "Revolutionary Party" the Yue Wang Society was.

As a member of the People's Party, Lu Zhengping knew very well that compared to People's Party Chairman Chen Ke, his ability was worlds apart. But compared to the Yue Wang Society, Lu Zhengping believed he was absolutely competent to be the leader of such a "Revolutionary Party."

Forcing his train of thought back from these useless feelings, Lu Zhengping began to consider how to help the Yue Wang Society. But thinking left and right, apart from letting the People's Party completely take over the Yue Wang Society and Anqing, there was surprisingly no other method.

But the situation now was that a dead horse had to be treated as a live one. Lu Zhengping recalled several military plans Chen Ke had told him about for a while, and then asked, "Mr. Chen, how many people in your unit can actually be pulled out to fight? I mean, how many people do you think can travel three to five hundred *li* in four days and still fight?"

"This..." Chen Duxiu turned his head to look at Bai Wenwei.

Bai Wenwei didn't know Lu Zhengping's meaning. "What does Mr. Lu mean by this? Are you laughing at us for not being able to fight?"

"Absolutely not. As far as I know, the ones coming this time are the Hubei New Army." As Lu Zhengping spoke, he took a map out of his satchel and spread it on the table. This was a battlefield map provided by the People's Party's Mapping Section.

"Since it's the Hubei New Army, their navy is also quite formidable. Within a hundred *li* along the Yangtze River, I'm afraid it has already been blockaded. So we have to walk at least one hundred and fifty *li* to avoid detection when crossing the river. I originally thought the Yue Wang Society knew the stationing situation of the New Army, and then we wouldn't fight north of the river. Instead, we would cross the Yangtze River and circle behind the Hubei New Army to fight. And we can't go east; Chizhou is to the east, and the Hubei New Army certainly has defenses. We must cross the river from the west. That's why I asked how many troops your unit has that can be taken out for three to five hundred *li* in four days."

Everyone's eyes moved on the map following Lu Zhengping's finger. They had never seen such a detailed drawing before. It was densely marked with various place names.

"Of course, if the Yue Wang Society and the Restoration Society cooperate fully, it would be better for both sides to send troops simultaneously." Lu Zhengping glanced at Qiu Jin after finishing, then continued, "Since everyone is here, I think we might as well tell the truth. Exactly how many capable soldiers do the Yue Wang Society and the Restoration Society have?"

Bai Wenwei and Qiu Jin looked at each other in dismay. Marching over three hundred *li* in four days—they had no concept of this standard at all, let alone having conducted training. It wasn't that they didn't want to answer Lu Zhengping's question, but that they simply couldn't answer it. Bai Wenwei probed, "I wonder how many people under the People's Party can achieve this level?"

Hearing this question, Qiu Jin immediately thought that Lu Zhengping and He Jinwu could absolutely do it.

Lu Zhengping replied seriously, "Mr. Bai, the one occupying Anqing now is the Yue Wang Society, not our People's Party. Don't you think you're straying too far from the subject with all this talk?"

Bai Wenwei argued, "Our army has about five hundred people who can meet this standard. But now the Manchu Qing army is at the city gates, and we find it difficult even to defend the city. how can we send these elites out of the city?"

Lu Zhengping immediately retorted, "Why are you defending this Anqing to the death? As long as the Hubei New Army is eliminated, this Anqing city will inevitably belong to the Yue Wang Society. If the Hubei New Army cannot be eliminated, the Yue Wang Society will inevitably be beaten passively. Mr. Bai, you should be able to figure out this bit of logic."

"Mr. Lu, according to what you say, did your party not want this Anqing city because you knew long ago that it couldn't be held?" Bai Wenwei couldn't help asking. In fact, he had long been puzzled by the People's Party giving up Anqing so readily. Although he was very dissatisfied with Diao Dezhang wanting to escape, Bai Wenwei actually agreed with Diao Dezhang's accusation against the People's Party.

Hearing Bai Wenwei's accusation, Lu Zhengping didn't even feel unhappy anymore. He asked Bai Wenwei in return, "As far as I know, before the war, the Yue Wang Society insisted on having this Anqing city. Now that you have obtained Anqing city, are you instead going to blame our People's Party for giving you this city?"

Seeing the situation turning into meaningless accusations again, Chen Duxiu, who had long been extremely bored with this, hurriedly interrupted the two. "Mr. Lu, is there no other way besides going out of the city to fight?"

"Mr. Chen, our People's Party has always advocated field warfare, and we only know field warfare and siege warfare. Asking me to defend a city, I really don't know how. Moreover, according to what we know, the Hubei New Army currently only has the strength of one Division plus one Brigade. The total number is no more than seventeen thousand. Those who can be pulled out to attack Anqing are at most ten thousand. When we war-gamed the Anqing defense battle, we felt we couldn't fight positional warfare with the Hubei New Army. Hubei has an arsenal; their bullets and shells are superior. If we let them suppress us, morale will be damaged no matter what. Only by weakening their firepower advantage in field battles and concentrating forces to fight a war of annihilation can we win. I wonder what Mr. Chen's military plan is?"