"April is the cruelest month," sang a certain foreign devil poet. In China, the common people were far less sentimental than foreign poets. Their evaluation of April was more direct and accurate: "The green crops are not yet ready, and the yellow grain is exhausted (*qinghuangweijie*)." Thousands of years of accumulated civilization made Chinese people's view of the world so realistic. Poets could only use hollow words to express their feelings, while the people pointed out the cause of the "cruel" result with a single prick of blood. Last year's flood destroyed all production, and the grain stored in the base area was about to hit bottom. Facing such a dilemma, the People's Party's solution was somewhat similar to Emperor Hui of Jin, with the only difference being that Emperor Hui only verbally asked, "Why not eat meat porridge?" The People's Party provided the poultry and eggs from the breeding farms to the people of the base area to the maximum extent. Such a food supply model undoubtedly also benefited the five Yue Wang Society cadres who were "guests" in the People's Party base area.

After gnawing on a duck leg allocated to him, Chang Hengfang's gaze couldn't help falling on another duck leg in the basin. However, in terms of status, both Chen Duxiu and Bai Wenwei were above him. So no matter how much he wanted to eat it in his heart, Chang Hengfang couldn't touch that duck leg. He picked out a duck rib from the basin and chewed it with the soup. Chen Duxiu was not polite either; the food along the way hadn't been good, so he ate with abandon like the other comrades. The five people ate the meal delivered to them cleanly. After the People's Party orderly cleared the table and withdrew, Chang Hengfang secretly opened the doors and windows, checked carefully to find no one eavesdropping, and then nodded to everyone.

"This Chen Wenqing puts on quite an air, actually dismissing us like this." Bai Wenwei was the first to express his dissatisfaction. It wasn't really Bai Wenwei being picky; logically speaking, Chen Ke should have hosted a banquet for the Yue Wang Society people in the evening no matter what, or at least sat with them during the meal. But Chen Ke actually used busy official duties as an excuse, directly letting the guards send a few people to stay. Then he completely ignored them.

"How busy can he be? Busier than the emperor?" Chang Hengfang had a deep-rooted distrust of the People's Party. Hearing Bai Wenwei start attacking the People's Party, he immediately followed up.

Chen Duxiu didn't think so. He waved his hand. "I don't think Chen Ke is such a petty person. The People's Party and we were established almost together. We now have a total of only a thousand or so people up and down. Chen Ke now has such a large territory; he must be extremely busy."

Bai Wenwei had always engaged in party activities and cared very much about etiquette. Hearing Chen Duxiu finish, he said, "Grand Commander, even if he's busy, can't he spare time for a meal together? I think Chen Ke is deliberately slighting us."

"If he wanted to show us his power, he just needed to leave us hanging for a few days. Why meet us as soon as we arrived?" Chen Duxiu said. "What I care about is not this matter. Regarding what Chen Ke said, why we are the Yue Wang Society and they are the People's Party. I really feel it has deep meaning."

Hearing Chen Duxiu's words, everyone remembered the dialogue with Chen Ke. When Chen Ke proposed the request for the Yue Wang Society to engage in military farming (*tuntian*) themselves, the cadres of the Yue Wang Society were both surprised and angry. At a time when the revolution was so critical, Chen Ke actually wanted the people of the Yue Wang Society to farm. Such a "long-term plan" suggestion was immediately rejected by the Yue Wang Society comrades.

Chang Hengfang was the first to stand up and oppose. "Mr. Chen, if you are unwilling to help, just say it directly. Why use such words to decline?"

The Yue Wang Society cadres didn't expect that after hearing Chang Hengfang's opposition, Chen Ke's face actually showed a confused look. "If you don't do military farming, what will everyone eat? Fight the Manchu Qing on an empty stomach?"

Chang Hengfang immediately retorted loudly, "You are using distant water to quench immediate thirst!"

"Then what do you gentlemen think is the urgent matter?" Chen Ke asked almost knowingly.

"Of course, it is to gather troops and fight back to Anqing." Chang Hengfang's voice was loud beyond the scope of politeness.

Regarding Chang Hengfang's loss of composure, He Yaqing's face had already changed greatly. Chen Ke waved his hand to stop He Yaqing who was preparing to stand up. He continued to ask calmly, "After the tossing by the Yue Wang Society and the Hubei New Army, how much grain do you think is left in this Anqing? Even if you retake Anqing now, what will you eat when defending the city?"

Hearing this, Chang Hengfang didn't know how to respond. Chen Ke pointed out the key point straightforwardly: Anqing city had no grain left.

"Not to mention your Yue Wang Society, our People's Party's grain has also hit bottom now. If there is no harvest this year, the people in our base area will all starve to death. Without military farming, what do we eat? What do the troops eat when they go on campaign?" Chen Ke said further.

This was originally an upright statement, but for some reason, it aroused Chang Hengfang's great resentment. He immediately retorted, "Our revolution is for righteousness; the people will definitely support us."

After talking for so long, Chen Ke frowned for the first time. "The people support you? The revolution should have let the people live a better life. You frantically squeeze the people; why should the people support you? How do you plan to raise grain? Rob from the people's homes?"

"Overthrowing the Manchu Qing is righteousness; how could the people not support us? Mn! Our Yue Wang Society inherits the spirit of Yue Wumu. If Yue Wumu knows underground, he will definitely support us too."

Because of anger, Chen Ke's voice became deep. "Yue Wumu's spirit? The Yue Family Army would rather freeze to death than dismantle houses, rather starve to death than loot. This is for the people; this is Yue Wumu's spirit. Did your Yue Wang Society achieve this? If you were really like Yue Wumu in Anqing, how could you be driven away by the Manchu Qing? When asked to farm, you make excuses; when asking for people, guns, and territory, you are unwilling to lag behind others. You are simply stealing Yue Wumu's name. That's why you are called the Yue Wang Society, and our People's Party chose the People's Party as our name."

Being scolded like this, Chang Hengfang was almost driven mad with anger. Chen Duxiu immediately stood up and stopped Chang Hengfang. "How can a defeated general speak of bravery? Since we lost the battle, let's say nothing more. Just listen to Mr. Chen Ke's arrangement."

Chen Ke completely lacked the politeness of the first meeting at this time. He said coldly, "My arrangement is very simple. Since you gentlemen have arrived at our base area, we naturally won't drive you away. We will allocate a piece of land for you to farm on one hand and train soldiers on the other. Wait for the opportunity to fight back to Anqing."

The meeting broke up unhappily like this.

Recalling this matter, Chang Hengfang felt extremely annoyed. "Grand Commander, Chen Ke said that about us; what else is there to mention?"

"Then why can the People's Party win battles, but we can't?" Chen Duxiu asked.

This question had never been seriously discussed within the Yue Wang Society. When they first took Anqing, everyone was arrogant; who would be willing to think so much? After the New Army attacked, everyone had even less time to think. After being driven out of Anqing, everyone was full of thoughts about how to fight back. They had never thought about why the People's Party could succeed. Now that Chen Duxiu asked, no one could answer.

Seeing everyone silent, Chen Duxiu said frankly, "Since the People's Party can win and we lost, it naturally shows that the People's Party has superior qualities. Let's do as Chen Ke said and start military farming and troop training. Take a good look at how the People's Party can win against the Manchu Qing. Once we learn it, we can naturally retake Anqing."

"Grand Commander, how long will that take?" Chang Hengfang asked anxiously. "The situation changes several times a day. At that time, the People's Party hadn't conquered Hefei. If the People's Party becomes strong and takes Anqing, they might not be willing to give Anqing to us again this time."

Chen Duxiu said frankly, "If they don't give it, they don't give it. Even if the People's Party occupies the north of the Yangtze River, can't we go south of the Yangtze River? The urgent task now is to learn the People's Party's method of revolution. They have only been in Anhui for a year and can be like this. If we learn from them for a year, with our current manpower, we can still create a career south of the Yangtze River. I have decided; we will do this."

Seeing Chen Duxiu make up his mind, the other cadres of the Yue Wang Society had no other way. Bai Wenwei tentatively said, "Shall we meet Mr. Yan Fu and see what Mr. Yan says?"

Chen Duxiu replied immediately, "Losing face once is enough; let's not look for Mr. Yan. If after seeing Mr. Yan, he says the same thing as Chen Ke, what do you plan to do?"

Seeing Bai Wenwei speechless, Chen Duxiu said, "If there are no other ideas, everyone go to sleep. Tomorrow I plan to meet Chen Ke again. Ask properly for advice on how to promote the revolution."

Early the next morning, the Yue Wang Society people ate breakfast and went to visit Chen Ke. After the guard reported, he led these people into Chen Ke's office. Everyone looked curiously at this ruling center of the People's Party. Compared with the Anhui Governor's Yamen, Chen Ke's office was really very simple. However, there were thick piles of documents on the desk. The Yue Wang Society people saw that Chen Ke's face looked a bit dimmer than yesterday, and there were slightly bloodshot eyes. Apart from this, his clothes and hairstyle were exactly the same as yesterday.

Chen Duxiu studied quite hard. Seeing Chen Ke like this, he couldn't help asking, "Mr. Chen, did you not sleep all night?"

Chen Ke's spirit was okay. He smiled and said, "There were slightly more things to do, so I didn't want to sleep. Gentlemen coming so early, presumably you have made a decision?"

Chen Duxiu never expected Chen Ke could be busy to this extent, but he didn't want to say much more. "Exactly. We decided to accept Mr. Chen's advice and start military farming. But I wonder where Mr. Chen plans to let us farm?"

"No rush for this. Gentlemen presumably have no experience in military farming. I will send someone to take you to visit the military farming in our base area. Walk around the base area. We'll talk in detail when you return." After Chen Ke finished, he immediately arranged for someone. He surprisingly didn't give the Yue Wang Society time to continue talking at all.

The Yue Wang Society people were not familiar with Chen Ke. Since Chen Ke arranged it, they had to obey. The group started the itinerary of visiting the base area under the leadership of the staff of the People's Internal Affairs Committee.

Fengtai County was not much different from other county towns of this era. Out of the county town were farmlands. As the People's Party's longest-held base area, the rural areas of Fengtai County were very different from those in other parts of Anhui. The first thing that caught the eye was the neat field ridges. Anhui has many mountains and rivers. Floods are frequent, so land ownership changes drastically. Field ridges have always been crisscrossed, with large and small fields ranging from a dozen *mu* to a few fractions of land. But after the land distribution in the People's Party base area, the land was reallocated. Although responding to the terrain, the shape of the entire farmland might not be regular, the interior of the farmland was uniform. The advantage of this was facilitating irrigation and drainage, leaving space for roads and water conservancy facilities. Fengtai County base area now planted wheat on a large scale. In early April, the wheat was heading, and patches of green wheat fields looked delightful.

Between the fields, according to the terrain, there were some ponds. The common people didn't waste them at all. Lotus leaves and reeds grew in the ponds, and flocks of ducks swam in the ponds. Girls and women scattered some things on the ground and into the water. Every time some things were scattered, the ducks rushed up to snatch them madly. Bai Wenwei couldn't help asking, "What are they scattering?"

"Feed," replied the comrade from the People's Internal Affairs Committee.

"Feed?" Bai Wenwei didn't understand the term.

The comrade taking them on the tour squatted down and wrote these two characters (*Si Liao*) on the ground.

The Yue Wang Society people looked curiously at these two characters, then asked, "Just let the ducks find food themselves. Why feed them specially?"

To such lay words, the People's Party comrade replied with a smile, "Ha, in such a small pond, where is there so much to eat? Without feeding, we can't raise so many ducks at all."

"Then what are they fed?"

"Earthworms and small fish and shrimp."

"What? You even have people specially digging earthworms? Netting fish and shrimp?" Bai Wenwei was even more surprised. Seeing those women scattering handfuls of earthworms and fish and shrimp, if this was specially dug out from the ground and netted from the river, how much manpower would it take!

"How could anyone do that? These are earthworms and fish and shrimp we specially farm." The staff member explained proudly.

The Yue Wang Society people fell silent. The People's Party was really weird everywhere. Could earthworms and small fish and shrimp also be farmed?

The crowd continued forward, and stretches of farmland stretched endlessly. Not all the fields were planted with wheat; there were rape, soybeans, peanuts, and hemp. In some obviously not very good fields, other crops were planted. upon inquiry, they learned it was alfalfa for raising livestock.

There were not many people in the orderly fields, which puzzled everyone. If ordinary farmers had such good land, they would move to live by the fields. But there was no one here.

"The field work is done by those female comrades and a small number of male comrades. It's all everyone's own land; the people are very reassured."

Hearing the staff member's explanation, the Yue Wang Society people were even more surprised. The folk customs in North Huai were tough. Not watching their own land properly, where did those people go? Sleeping at home? They immediately asked this question.

"Everyone has work to do. How could they sleep?" The staff member explained. The base area experienced a flood last year; everyone was destitute, and many families didn't even have bowls and chopsticks. So under the organization of the People's Party, handicraft industry really developed. To engage in handicraft industry, you must have raw materials. So everyone had a job: planting trees, planting bamboo, working in ceramic workshops, and working on various mining and coal digging sites. As long as you worked, there was money to earn. The People's Party's Supply and Marketing Department was also established. The Supply and Marketing Department provided various daily necessities and did not accept gold, silver, or copper coins, but only the "Renminbi" issued by the base area. Renminbi was paper money. You could exchange it with gold, silver, and copper coins, or earn Renminbi by working in various factories or construction sites opened by the "public." Where did the people have money after the flood? Moreover, since there was a place to make money, in order to buy household necessities, everyone participated in labor to earn Renminbi. That was why there were few people in the fields.

The Yue Wang Society cadres listened to this, and incredible expressions appeared on their faces one by one. These things didn't sound like particularly strange principles, but the People's Party could actually start doing this in a single county, and looking at it now, it had a considerable scale. Chen Duxiu felt that the People's Party doing this was simply putting the cart before the horse. Spending so much energy to build these things in the base area—if the Manchu Qing army broke into the base area, wouldn't everything built with hard work vanish in smoke? Was the People's Party so confident? But Chen Duxiu thought again; the People's Party could even take Anqing easily, so naturally, they were not afraid of the Manchu Qing's attack. Seeing that the People's Party already had such strength, Chen Duxiu really couldn't figure out what method the People's Party used to complete such a feat in one year.

Other Yue Wang Society cadres thought about their own concerns and remained silent.

The comrade from the People's Internal Affairs Committee acting as a guide observed the performance of the Yue Wang Society cadres. The words and deeds of these Yue Wang Society people had to be reported back. As a carefully selected comrade within the People's Party, what should be said and what could be said in this guiding action had actually been stipulated long ago. For example, this comrade absolutely could not reveal one thing, which was the gist of the People's Party regarding currency calculation. Since Renminbi was fiat money, paper money, it had no value in itself. The actual calculation of the People's Party was based on the grain produced. And now that grain was scarce, the People's Party was completely playing the trick of "white wolf with empty gloves" (gaining something for nothing).

But obviously, this group of people from the Yue Wang Society simply didn't have knowledge in this aspect, and their thoughts didn't go deep into this level. The comrade from the People's Internal Affairs Committee secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

The beautiful rural scenery on both sides of the road made the Yue Wang Society people more and more depressed the more they looked. They really couldn't figure out how to achieve such a feat with just their current thousand or so people. Managing hundreds of thousands of *mu* of land in perfect order—this kind of work was really beyond these people's imagination. Chang Hengfang had always held a grudge against Chen Ke's refusal to give Hefei to the Yue Wang Society. He originally thought that with these few backbones of the Yue Wang Society plus more than a thousand people, governing a small Hefei would be more than enough. Now seeing the situation in Fengtai County with his own eyes, he had to admit that his original request was too arrogant. Chang Hengfang secretly lowered his request by one level; he hoped to let the Yue Wang Society govern the territory of a county. Instead of just allocating a piece of land for them to farm.

After walking for a good while again, the front suddenly became lively. Compared with the vast and sparsely populated areas along the way, a large piece of land ahead where nearly two thousand people gathered seemed extremely lively. The People's Party comrade pointed there and said to the Yue Wang Society cadres, "That is the place for our military farming."

This was a huge piece of land. Compared with the fertile fields on both sides of the road, the land here was obviously not that good. But fortunately, it had obviously been organized once, and there were no hindering things like stones and tree roots. Moreover, this land was surrounded by some saplings into many obvious squares. Except for looking insufficiently reclaimed, it was extremely neat.

"What grain to plant on such big land?" Bai Wenwei asked.

"All cotton."

"What? All cotton?" Bai Wenwei was impressed by the People's Party's strong planning, but large stretches of grain fields were one thing. This large piece of land stretching almost out of sight was actually going to be planted entirely with cotton.

"Exactly how big is this land?"

"About five thousand *mu*."

"Planting five thousand *mu* of cotton? Why plant so much?" The Yue Wang Society cadres were extremely puzzled by the People's Party's practice.

"This land is not good. Even if we count it as top-notch, one *mu* of land can harvest four hundred *jin* of cotton. That's only two million *jin* of cotton. Our base area now has at least two million people. If calculated at four *jin* of cotton per person, that would require eight million *jin* of cotton. Not only Fengtai County but other places will also start large-scale cotton planting soon."

Hearing this, Chen Duxiu could no longer endure these stimulations. He asked loudly, "Does the People's Party actually want to manage the clothing and food of all the common people?"

For Chen Duxiu, this practice of the People's Party was really too radical. For revolutionaries of this era, personally leading the people to overthrow the Manchu Qing and then letting the Chinese people have no worries about food and clothing—this was a dream they all had. But seeing the People's Party actually beginning to practice this dream, Chen Duxiu felt a great shock and loss.

The comrade from the People's Internal Affairs Committee looked at Chen Duxiu's loss of composure, feeling amusement and contempt in his heart. The Huai River basin often suffered from floods, and farming was quite difficult, but there was an advantage here that couldn't quite be called an advantage: the land didn't lack water. So the local people actually already had a trend of planting cotton on wasteland. The People's Party didn't create anything special at all, just learned from the people under the leadership of Chairman Chen Ke. These things the people had already mastered, these skills that could have allowed the people to have no worries about food and clothing, actually seemed incredible to Chen Duxiu. In the eyes of the People's Party comrades, it was instead a kind of "incredible."

Moreover, along the way, the People's Party comrade had been waiting for Chen Duxiu and others to ask a question, which was about some pillars made of cement by the roadside. Text was also carved on these pillars.

In fact, the purpose of these pillars was very simple. The Huai River often flooded. With the current strength of the People's Party, it was impossible to cure it completely. These pillars were markers, intended to be used as landmarks after the flood. Although it was unknown whether the goal could be achieved, as long as these pillars could survive the flood, the locations of some infrastructure that had been carried out could be clearly determined. Playing a guiding role for rapid reconstruction after the disaster. Since the Huai River flood could not be temporarily eradicated, the People's Party had an obligation to minimize the losses from the flood.

But having walked all the way, none of the Yue Wang Society people asked. This couldn't help but make one feel somewhat regretful.

Everyone stood by the land preparing to be reclaimed, only to hear a distinct gong sound.

"What is this doing?" Bai Wenwei looked at dozens of people wearing military uniforms or ordinary civilian clothes standing in front of the land and asked curiously.

"This is the Digging Grand Competition. These are the challengers who came out to see how much farm work one person can do at most. This five thousand *mu* of land has been initially reclaimed once. Reclaim it one more time before planting cotton this time. Our troops sent more than a thousand people, plus a few hundred civilians. Two thousand people can dig two and a half *mu* per person per day. Deep plowing once more tomorrow, and we can start planting. Five days later, this will be a planted cotton field."

Just after speaking, the gong sounded again. These young guys were seen swinging their hoes and starting to work. Dust flew on the ground, and soil particles splashed. Chang Hengfang suddenly pointed at one of the young soldiers and said in surprise, "Isn't that Zhou Yisheng of the New Army?"

"Comrade Zhou Yisheng and his brother Zhou Yizheng are model workers of our Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. Let's see which of the two brothers can win the championship of this Digging Competition."

Chang Hengfang was completely speechless. He knew Zhou Yisheng. When in the New Army, although Zhou Yisheng was honest, he was very listless. If Chang Hengfang wasn't very familiar with Zhou Yisheng, he would absolutely not recognize that this lively and vigorous young soldier in the farmland was that Zhou Yisheng.