Comrades in the Military Commission of the People's Party who were relatively familiar with Chen Ke's working style probably all knew one thing now: after Chen Ke finished deploying strategy, he would generally talk about civil administration issues. Sure enough, after the grand strategy for the Second Counter-Encirclement Campaign was discussed, Chen Ke requested various units to assist the local common people in straightening out road traffic problems.

The Second Counter-Encirclement Campaign placed extra emphasis on the issue of interior line operational maneuvers of the troops. Chen Ke believed that the marching ability of the troops within the base area must be improved now. Establishing a transportation system solely for the military would be too wasteful; the efficiency of main roads used by both the military and civilians was the best.

After hearing Chen Ke's words, Hua Xiongmao didn't quite agree. "Chairman Chen, regarding the construction content of the transportation system, who do you plan to let take charge?"

The labor intensity of the army was too great; this was the consensus within the army. This wasn't because the army was lazy. From the founding of the army until now, practically all officers and soldiers hadn't rested much. Every day, apart from training, there was work. Hua Xiongmao very much hoped to take the opportunity after the end of this campaign to annihilate Li Yuanhong to conduct a major rest and reorganization, to restore the energy and physical strength of the troops. On this matter, even He Zudao supported Hua Xiongmao.

He Zudao followed up, saying: "Chairman Chen, fighting two battles in a row this time, some units walked hundreds of *li* in just over ten days. Plus, the troops began preparing for war just after completing the summer harvest. I feel we should let everyone rest a bit."

Both the chief military administration and military command officers believed the troops needed rest, so the comrades below stopped making a sound. If Chen Ke insisted on requiring the troops to continue working hard, they wouldn't oppose it. But when there was a chance to rest, they absolutely wouldn't oppose it either.

Chen Ke didn't think resting was wrong; he had just forgotten to consider this matter. Since everyone said so, he wasn't prepared to oppose. "Resting is allowed, but resting cannot be lying at home sleeping. During this major rest and reorganization period, I plan to conduct local elections. Since it is a people's government, grassroots organizations at all levels need election by the people. If we must rest, then let's split it into two parts to complete. First, each unit will concentrate for rest and reorganization; everyone will carry out maintenance of weapons and equipment. At the same time, conduct ideological education. Next, each unit will go home to visit family. During the family visit period, conduct the local government elections."

Although it was local civil administration elections, Chen Ke planned to rely on powerful military force as a background to deter the locality. Now, the common people had to be made to thoroughly understand who exactly held power in the base area.

Being able to rest, the comrades of the Military Commission were quite happy. As for the issue of ideological education, that was the work of the political work department; the military department would be much more relaxed. Before they could be happy for a minute, Chen Ke continued: "In addition, we must organize a portion of the elite troops to enter the Dabie Mountain area for work. We must take down the Dabie Mountain area before next year."

The Dabie Mountain area was an old revolutionary base area and also the area where enemy forces were weakest. This wasn't just a question of it being easy to carry out revolutionary work in the Dabie Mountain area; the Dabie Mountain area also had several important passes. Controlling these passes, the People's Party could freely attack Hubei, Henan, and even Sichuan. The military cadres, who had been happy for less than a minute, immediately fell silent.

After finally determining that the Third Regiment would undertake the work of entering the Dabie Mountain area, Chen Ke asked about the issue of injured captives before dismissing the meeting. In these two campaigns, quite a few Hubei New Army soldiers were captured. The captives from the second battle of Anqing, except for the military doctors, were all released. The Battle of Hefei was fought very miserably. Among the more than two thousand wounded Hubei New Army soldiers, those with light injuries were released after their wounds were treated and basically healed without causing issues like suppuration. There were still over one thousand four hundred people whose injuries were relatively heavy and couldn't leave. Given the Manchu Qing's current medical level, if they were allowed to return to Hubei, probably half of them wouldn't survive. So the base area simply kept them in Hefei locally for treatment.

Since the base area had already released a batch of uninjured captives and those whose light injuries had basically healed, the mood of the other injured captives was stable. Many people were just waiting to leave the base area after they recovered. The POW camp had no major problems for the time being. Chen Ke requested the troops to strengthen ideological education and revolutionary propaganda among the captives. A large part of Zhang Zhidong's Hubei New Army came from Hubei local families with innocent backgrounds. Chen Ke didn't expect them to thoroughly accept the revolutionary attitude just after dealing with the People's Party this one time. However, regarding the injured captives, the People's Party had some articles to write. The injured Hubei New Army soldiers definitely had dissatisfaction. At this time, one could talk about why everyone fought to the death, and when treating the Hubei New Army, one could talk about the revolutionary humanitarian spirit. The so-called "no discord, no concord" actually also had this process within it.

The comrades of the Military Commission disbanded after receiving a pile of tasks. The troops could rest, but the cadres couldn't rest. Not only could they not rest, but they were actually busier than when fighting. Military cadres were used to rectifying equipment, so that was fine for them. The troops had to promote election education internally and strive for the wounded soldiers of the Wuhan New Army externally. The military cadres were very tactful and dispersed early. Hearing Chairman Chen Ke give a speech on ideological and political education, everyone dared not listen inattentively. If He Zudao pulled everyone together for another such session, no one could stand it.

He Zudao held a briefing first with the four regiment political commissars in the division. Hearing that a big battle was to be fought, the political commissars were all very excited. Hearing that elections were to be held locally, these political commissars began to scratch their heads. The army was a unit that realized elections relatively early. The Soldier Committee was an institution truly produced by one person, one vote elections. Just discussing this form, the troops weren't strangers to it at all.

Looking at the varying performances of the political commissars, He Zudao expressed his own view. "I was thinking, these elections in our army are very different from elections in the locality. In the army, no matter who is elected, they must first obey discipline and listen to command, so no matter how they are elected, nothing will go wrong. After the local elections are completed, a large part of the power will be transferred to the hands of these locally elected organizations. If someone harbors unfathomable motives, then that wouldn't be right."

Originally, the political commissars' views each had their own focus. After hearing He Zudao's question, the political commissars immediately unified their thinking.

"Political Commissar He, how do you plan to handle this matter?" Xiong Mingyang asked.

He Zudao's working method was very democratic. He answered: "Let's list a constitution first. What exactly are the problems, what are the worries, what are the doubts? Write them all down, and then go ask Chairman Chen clearly together."

The regiment political commissars then summoned the battalion political commissars and the instructors of each company. The organization of the 104th Division completely imitated the PLA. Previously, when the troop scale was small, political commissars had been set up at the company level. Now, instructors were set up at the company level. Chen Ke wasn't serious when doing things back then; he had never considered why "the branch is built on the company," yet the branch head in the company wasn't called political commissar but instructor. Only when he really started formal troop organization did he "figure it out" using his own thinking.

Chen Ke believed that for a company, giving a pile of profound Marxist political philosophy was obviously unnecessary. The key now was that there had to be someone setting an example. As the Party branch secretary within the company, the company instructor must set an example for the soldiers and other party members in every word and deed. So Chen Ke believed calling them "instructor" was far more apt than calling them political commissar.

The company instructor was the secretary, and the company commander was generally the deputy secretary of the Party branch. But this time, military cadres were also summoned for a meeting to discuss the rectification of armaments, so those attending the meeting were all political work cadres.

The day after the battle ended, Chen Ke had already gone to the military hospital to comfort the injured comrades. That consolation was of a very high level; Chen Ke, He Zudao, Hua Xiongmao, and a group of cadres all went. There weren't many injured people in the troops, and they were all gunshot wounds. As long as the treatment was appropriate, there wouldn't be any major problems. The soldiers all knew that the troop leaders would come to comfort them after the battle. Although their mood was happy, they weren't very agitated.

Now Chen Ke prepared to take advantage of his free time to visit the POW camp. The POW camp was set up inside the city. One of the reasons for not setting it up outside the city was that the natural environment outside was bad. It was about to be the Beginning of Autumn, and Anhui's rainy season was also arriving. Wounds couldn't touch dirty water, otherwise they would easily get infected. Another reason was to silently boast of victory to the common people of Hefei city.

The second goal had been completely achieved. The People's Party had occupied Hefei for some days. The common people inside the city didn't resist, nor did they cooperate much. Only after thoroughly exterminating the Hubei New Army this time, holding the surrender ceremony, and transporting in so many Hubei New Army wounded soldiers, did the locals of Hefei truly know that the People's Party not only had a multitude of people but was also capable of fighting. The court's army of nearly ten thousand was completely wiped out in just over a day. The common people inside the city originally had no thoughts of resistance, and the wealthy households inside the city, as well as people with a bit of influence, dared not oppose now either. They saw with their own eyes that even the government army couldn't withstand a single blow, so what did their bit of power count for?

Through the construction over this past year and more, the fastest progressing technical branch in the People's Party was the military medical department. Chen Ke had started training medical students from the Shanghai era. In these years, China never lacked people dying violent deaths; in disaster years and wars, unclaimed bodies numbered in the thousands and tens of thousands. Chen Ke's actions were also grand; he directly allocated over two thousand people to engage in medical work.

After these two thousand-plus people underwent basic medical knowledge education, they started with dissecting cadavers. Very quickly, over two hundred of the two thousand people couldn't withstand the stimulation and quit. Of the remaining one thousand eight hundred or so, over seven hundred more were forced to go learn sanitation and epidemic prevention knowledge. The remaining one thousand-plus people finally managed to begin studies in internal medicine and surgery.

Chen Ke purchased a batch of medical books from abroad. Wang Qinian and some doctors from Shanghai, including medical professionals among the Japanese revolutionary youths, were gathered together. Added to this was Chen Ke's own medical knowledge. As the saying goes, practice brings true knowledge. Through massive cadaver dissection and re-suturing of cadavers, plus combat first aid during these days, progress was extremely fast in basic medical knowledge areas like treating gunshot wounds, extracting bullets from the body, preventing suppuration, as well as bone setting and treating falls and contusions.

Since the military doctors were soldiers, they naturally obeyed military orders. Every treatment had to be documented, and various discussions and experiments had to turn into literature and journals. The military medical system that developed full of vigor didn't have the slightest trace of academic tyranny; the atmosphere was extremely upright. Were it not so, the more than two thousand New Army wounded simply couldn't have been treated in time.

Calling the POW camp a field hospital might be more appropriate now. Almost everyone running back and forth wore white coats. Boiling cauldrons cooked blood-stained gauze bandages. Women hired to wash gauze wore dark blue work clothes and masks, busily working with sweat covering their heads. Except when cleaning and disinfecting, the operating rooms were performing various surgeries all the rest of the time. The other treatment rooms for bandaging and changing dressing were equally overcrowded. The smell of lime water permeated the air.

The deputy commandant of the POW camp was a vice-director of the military hospital. He was an epidemic prevention expert, so he didn't enter the operating room. When Chen Ke found him, this Vice-Director Li Cunxiao was directing people to burn those gauze bandages that had been thoroughly contaminated by bloodstains. Seeing Chen Ke arrive, Li Cunxiao saluted Chen Ke and then continued directing the burning work. Cloth prices weren't low these years. Even cloth strips thoroughly contaminated by blood that couldn't be washed clean no matter what, some laundry workers hired from outside would steal and take them out. To cut off this kind of problem, only burning them completely would do.

Seeing Li Cunxiao finish the matters at hand, Chen Ke asked: "How is it? Are there any difficulties?"

Li Cunxiao smiled bitterly, "Blood shortage. Too many people in the Hubei New Army have severe blood loss this time. Our comrades never have an opinion when donating blood to our own comrades. But asking them to donate blood to these Hubei New Army soldiers is extremely difficult."

Hearing Li Cunxiao's words, the guard beside Chen Ke couldn't help glaring at Li Cunxiao. Li Cunxiao knew why Chen Ke's guard wanted to glare at him. In these years, donating blood was seen by ordinary people as an almost life-threatening major event. To correct this attitude, at least to correct this attitude within the army, Chen Ke had already led by example and donated blood four times in public over the past year. Since Chairman Chen Ke had personally donated blood, other high-ranking cadres naturally couldn't fall behind. All high-ranking cadres donated blood in public. With these leaders setting an example, the party members, cadres, and soldiers below could naturally accept it. Plus, the troop casualties had always been small, so blood donation was also limited.

The soldiers of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army could be as warm as spring to their own comrades, but facing their enemies, even surrendered enemies, everyone absolutely refused to give their fresh blood for nothing. Treating the enemy's wounded soldiers was already a matter of extreme humanitarian spirit in this era. If the victors still had to provide their own blood to the defeated for free, this kind of thing was a bit shocking to the world no matter how you looked at it.

And the Hubei New Army themselves were equally extremely fearful of blood donation. Even if their own comrades needed blood donation, as soon as they heard their own blood was to be drawn out, they were already scared half to death and refused no matter what was said.

But many of these Hubei New Army soldiers were injured very severely and had lost massive amounts of blood. Those with lighter injuries could still be solved by infusing saline and glucose, but the severely wounded could only rely on blood transfusion to save their lives. Before the war, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army had a pre-war grand blood donation drive. When blood stocks were relatively high, it was barely enough. Now that the Revolutionary Army soldiers had mostly passed the critical period, where would there be anyone continuing to donate blood? Already thirty or forty Hubei New Army wounded had died from shock and various complications caused by postoperative blood loss. Li Cunxiao was a doctor after all; he still hoped to save those who could originally be saved. Without Chen Ke's push, the POW camp absolutely couldn't get enough blood supply.

Li Cunxiao didn't meet Chen Ke often. his original intention was to hope Chen Ke would push this matter, so he turned a blind eye to the guard's glare. After listening, Chen Ke pondered for a moment before asking: "Roughly how much blood is needed now?"

"Probably need twenty thousand milliliters." A light of joy already appeared in Li Cunxiao's eyes.

Chen Ke nodded. "How about this? I'll take the lead and donate 200 milliliters here. Then I'll go back and find party members to donate blood. But each person donates at most 100 milliliters. Director Li, list the required blood types and quantities clearly for me. Don't waste everyone's donated blood."

Hearing Chen Ke's words, Li Cunxiao was not only unhappy but actually frightened. Only now did he understand why the guard actually glared at him. Li Cunxiao knew Chen Ke had already donated blood multiple times this year. He originally thought Chen Ke would go back and make arrangements, but he didn't expect Chen Ke to actually lead by example in such a matter right here. If he had known Chen Ke was going to donate blood personally this time, give Li Cunxiao two guts and he wouldn't have dared to speak like that. Li Cunxiao didn't know if it was his psychological cause, but he saw the guard's gaze was no longer a glare, but a furious stare.

"Chairman Chen, this absolutely won't do." Li Cunxiao hurriedly stopped him.

Chen Ke laughed, "What won't do? Director Li, if I don't personally take the lead in such matters, I have no way to ask the comrades to do so. If even I can't think it through, how can the comrades think it through? Besides, those being saved are all Chinese; I don't oppose it. Come, lead the way. I'm going to the medical room to donate blood."

"This absolutely won't do. Chairman Chen, you are asking for my life. If this gets out, do I still want to live?" Seeing Chen Ke wasn't playing fake, Li Cunxiao was scared into speaking his inner thoughts.

Hearing Li Cunxiao's heartfelt words, Chen Ke couldn't help laughing heartily. "Relax, Director Li. Our People's Party won't make things difficult for you on such matters. Moreover, you did nothing wrong. If we want to save these people, if I don't take the lead, absolutely no one will donate blood to them."

How could Li Cunxiao dare to agree? He grabbed Chen Ke and refused to let Chen Ke go donate blood for the life of him. While the two were entangled, a person wearing a Hubei New Army uniform secretly ran over. Seeing no one paying attention to him, he rushed over violently, knelt on the ground, and hugged Li Cunxiao's legs. "Director Li, please save my younger brother. Is it not okay if I donate blood to him?"

Chen Ke's guard's attention had been attracted by the entanglement, and he never expected such a person to suddenly pop out. If this person harbored evil intentions and acted strangely, perhaps it would have triggered the guard's attention. But he happened to act naturally and without any murderous aura. In a moment of negligence, he actually ran over. The guard was startled; he flew a kick and kicked the person flying to the side. Then he pulled out his gun and pointed it at that person. That person took a heavy kick but acted as if he didn't care. Seeing someone forcing him with a gun, he dared not walk forward anymore, but knelt down on the spot and kowtowed like pounding garlic. "Director Li, is it not okay for me to give blood to my brother? I've already looked for everyone I know, but not a single person is willing to donate blood. I beg you, Director Li, my brother is visibly failing. Is it not okay if I donate blood?"

Li Cunxiao knew this wasn't the chance to speak, but Chen Ke took over the conversation. "What blood type are you? What blood type is your brother? If it's not the same blood type, you can't transfuse blood indiscriminately. It's not that our doctors don't let you transfuse indiscriminately; if the blood types don't match, transfusing blood isn't saving your brother, it's harming your brother."

The People's Party's military uniforms and hairstyles didn't differ much, and that person couldn't tell what official position Chen Ke held. Hearing Chen Ke take the conversation, "This officer lord, this comrade, my brother is... is D type. I am, I am... Ai type." Chen Ke couldn't hear clearly where in Hubei this dialect was from either. What was clear was that this Hubei New Army soldier obviously didn't know knowledge of blood types, and was even less clear about the pronunciation of these foreign letters A, B, O, AB. Chen Ke really couldn't figure out what blood types this D type and Ai type were.

Ten minutes later, a piece of news spread inside the POW camp. The Chairman of the People's Party, that is, the second ranked in the "Yan-Chen Rebel Gang," Chen Ke, was going to personally donate blood to a wounded soldier. This news shocked all the POWs and also frightened the officers and soldiers of the POW camp troops.

But Chen Ke didn't care. He donated blood on a platform. Below stood full of POWs who could move relatively freely. These people were wrapped in gauze bandages; some still had to rely on others for support. The POWs watched Chen Ke roll up his sleeve. Director Li of the POW camp first tied Chen Ke's arm with a cloth strip, and then drew out a tube of blood with a very thick syringe. Seeing the dark red blood in the glass syringe, the POWs turned pale with fright one by one.

That severely blood-loss POW had already been carried out, and this tube of blood was infused into the POW's blood vessel. Throughout the process, the POWs whispered to each other. The brother of that heavily wounded POW stood by the side. Seeing his younger brother's pale face actually improve a bit after the blood transfusion, he dared not approach Chen Ke either, but knelt on the spot, tears and mucus flowing across his face, kowtowing repeatedly. "Many thanks, Chairman Chen, for saving his life! Many thanks..." Speaking to the end, he was already choked with sobs.

When Chen Ke was in the 21st century, he often donated blood. At that time, it was 400 milliliters each time, and Chen Ke had no adverse reactions. This 200 milliliters was no big deal either. Pressing the needle hole with an alcohol cotton ball, Chen Ke said loudly to the POWs: "Donating blood is actually just such a thing. Everyone is a soldier; you all know people will die if they bleed too much. To replenish blood, we can only rely on external transfusion. You are all from Hubei; when you can save a fellow villager, I feel you should save him once. If you are unwilling to save him, then we of the People's Party are also willing to save him once. Why? Because everyone is Chinese, and Chinese saving Chinese is also a duty."

Quite a few Hubei New Army soldiers still couldn't recover from the scene of blood donation, but some had a look of shame.

Chen Ke's speech this time wasn't actually to solve the blood donation problem. He stopped talking about this topic and began to talk about other matters. "Everyone ran to Anhui to fight; I want to ask everyone, what was it for?"

The New Army soldiers below the stage didn't make a sound; they dared not make a sound.

Chen Ke smiled: "I heard the Hubei New Army stresses loyalty to the monarch and serving the country the most. In our People's Party base area, we actually don't talk about this. Our troops only talk about one thing: our army is the sons and brother soldiers of the common people. The common people are our fathers and mothers. We want to serve the common people, serve our fathers and mothers."

Having worked in the countryside for so long, the life of the people in the base area was witnessed by Chen Ke with his own eyes, so he naturally spoke of it very familiarly. The common people of Anhui and the common people of Hubei had no essential difference. They all farmed, labored, worked to death during the busy farming season, and relied on a craft or selling strength to eat during the slack farming season. Under the new system of the base area, the state assumed responsibility, not only guaranteeing everyone's land but also guaranteeing sufficient employment opportunities during the slack season. In fact, the lives the common people pursued were all about the same: having food and drink, having money to earn. Being able to go to school was even better.

Listening to Chen Ke describe the familiar labor life of ordinary peasants, as well as the unfamiliar new government and new system, the officers and men of the Hubei New Army were all entranced.

After talking about the changes in the Anhui base area, Chen Ke finally made a summarizing statement. "Brothers of the Hubei New Army, the army of our base area is the same as you; they all came out of common people's homes. They are all sons, brothers, and husbands of common people's families. The reason they want to fight is not for the high position and great wealth of me, Chen Ke alone. Nor is it for the high position and great wealth of our People's Party or the army commanders. Our People's Party is absolutely not about dyeing our top buttons and peacock feathers red with the blood of soldiers. Our soldiers want to defend the new life they have obtained now. No more landlords collecting rent from them, no more officials extorting them. Everyone relies on their own hands to work, and they can feed themselves, and can eat meat, eat rice and white flour. If you win this time, such good days will never exist again. First, their land will be snatched back by the landlords. The government office will extort everyone again. Everyone is from a commoner family; can the commoners' family belongings withstand the government's tossing about? This tossing about means ruined families and dead people. You say, why wouldn't our army risk their lives against you? You lost the battle, and there is still us, the People's Party, to care for you. If we lose the battle, we will die without a burial place. So, we must win, and we have won."