Comrades in the Military Commission of the People's Party who were familiar with Chen Ke's work style now roughly knew one thing: when Chen Ke finished deploying strategies, he would generally talk about civil affairs issues. Sure enough, after talking about the general strategy of the Second Counter-Encirclement Campaign, Chen Ke asked the troops to assist the local people in straightening out road transportation problems.

The Second Counter-Encirclement Campaign paid special attention to the issue of internal line operational troop movement. Chen Ke believed that the marching ability of troops in the base area must be improved now. Establishing a transportation system solely for the army would be too wasteful; the efficiency of main roads used by both the military and civilians was the best.

After listening to Chen Ke, Hua Xiongmao didn't quite agree. "Chairman Chen, who do you plan to put in charge of the content of the transportation system construction?"

The labor intensity of the army was too great; this was the unanimous view within the army. It wasn't that the army was lazy. From the establishment of the army to now, all officers and soldiers had hardly rested. Every day was either training or working. Hua Xiongmao hoped to take a major rest after the campaign to annihilate Li Yuanhong ended, to restore the energy and physical strength of the troops. On this matter, even He Zudao supported Hua Xiongmao.

He Zudao followed, "Chairman Chen, fighting two battles in a row this time, some troops walked hundreds of *li* in ten days. Plus the troops began preparing for war just after completing the summer harvest. I think everyone should be allowed to rest."

Both the chief military administration officer and the chief military command officer thought the troops needed rest, and the comrades below stopped making sounds. If Chen Ke insisted on asking the troops to continue hard labor, they wouldn't oppose it. But when they could rest, they would absolutely not oppose it either.

Chen Ke didn't think rest was wrong; he just forgot to consider this matter. Since everyone said so, he wasn't prepared to oppose. "Rest is allowed, but rest cannot be sleeping at home. During this major rest period, I plan to hold local elections. Since it is a people's government, grassroots organizations at all levels need people's elections. If we must rest, then complete it in two parts. First, all troops concentrate on rest and reorganization. Everyone carries out the reorganization of weapons and equipment. At the same time, conduct ideological education. Next, all troops go home to visit relatives, and conduct local government elections during the family visit."

Although it was a local civil election, Chen Ke prepared to deter the locality with powerful military force as the background. Now the common people must be made to thoroughly understand who exactly holds power in the base area.

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

The Dabie Mountain area was an old revolutionary base area (historically) and also the area where the enemy forces were weakest. This was not only because it was easy to carry out revolutionary work in the Dabie Mountain area; there were also several important passes in the Dabie Mountain area. 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 3rd Regiment would undertake the work of entering the Dabie Mountain area, Chen Ke asked about the issue of injured captives before the meeting ended. Many Hubei New Army soldiers were captured in these two campaigns. The captives of the Second Battle of Anqing were all released except for military doctors. 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 wound treatment and when the wounds basically healed without causing suppuration. There were also more than one thousand four hundred people with serious injuries who couldn't leave. With the current medical level of the Manchu Qing, if they were allowed to return to Hubei, probably half of them wouldn't survive. So the base area simply kept them in Hefei for treatment.

Since the base area had already released a batch of uninjured and basically recovered lightly injured captives, the other injured captives were emotionally stable. Many people were just waiting to leave the base area after recovering. There were no major problems in the POW camp for the time being. Chen Ke asked the troops to strengthen ideological education and revolutionary propaganda among the captives. A large part of Zhang Zhidong's Hubei New Army came from innocent Hubei local families. Chen Ke didn't expect them to completely accept the revolutionary attitude just after dealing with the People's Party this one time. But for the injured captives, the People's Party had some articles to write. Injured Hubei New Army soldiers definitely had dissatisfaction. At this time, they could talk about why everyone fought to the death. When treating the Hubei New Army, they could also talk about revolutionary humanitarianism. The so-called "no discord, no concord"; actually, this process was also in 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 even busier than when fighting. Military cadres were used to reorganizing equipment, so they were okay. The troops had to promote election education internally and win over the wounded soldiers of the Wuhan New Army externally. The military cadres were very sensible and scattered early. Everyone dared not listen carefully when Chairman Chen Ke gave a lecture on ideological and political education, but if He Zudao pulled everyone together for such a lecture again, no one could stand it.

He Zudao held a briefing with the four regiment political commissars in the division first. Hearing about fighting a big battle, the political commissars were 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 Soldiers' Committee was an institution truly produced by one-person-one-vote elections. Just discussing this form, the troops were not unfamiliar at all.

Looking at the different performances of the political commissars, He Zudao expressed his view. "I was thinking, these elections in our troops are very different from local elections. In the troops, no matter who is elected, they must first obey discipline and listen to commands, so no matter how they are elected, nothing will go wrong. After the local elections are completed, a large part of the power is transferred to these locally elected organizations. If someone harbors malicious intentions, that would be wrong."

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

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

He Zudao's work method was very democratic. He replied, "Let's list a charter first, what exactly are the problems, what are the worries, what are the doubts. Write them all down, and then ask Chairman Chen clearly together."

The Regiment Political Commissar then summoned the Battalion Political Commissars and the Instructors (*Zhidaoyuan*) of each company. The organization of the 104th Division completely imitated the PLA. Previously, when the troops were small, political commissars were set up at the company level. Now instructors were set up at the company level. Chen Ke was not serious in doing things back then. He never considered why "the branch is built on the company," but the branch head in the company is not called a political commissar but an instructor. It wasn't until he really started formal troop organization that he "figured it out" with his own thinking.

Chen Ke believed that it was obviously unnecessary for a company to talk about a pile of profound Marxist political philosophy. The key now was to have someone set an example. As the Party Branch Secretary within the company, the Company Instructor must set an example for soldiers and other Party members in words and deeds. So Chen Ke thought calling them "Instructor" was much more appropriate than calling them Political Commissar.

The Company Instructor is the Secretary, and the Company Commander is generally the Deputy Secretary of the Party Branch. But this time military cadres were also summoned for a meeting to discuss the reorganization of armaments. Those attending the meeting were all political work cadres.

The day after the battle ended, Chen Ke had already visited the military hospital to comfort the injured comrades. That visit was high-level; Chen Ke, He Zudao, Hua Xiongmao, and a group of cadres all went. Not many people in the troops were injured, and they were all gunshot wounds. As long as the treatment was proper, there would be no major problems. The soldiers knew that the leaders of the troops would come to comfort them after the battle. Although they were happy, they were not very excited.

Now Chen Ke prepared to visit the POW camp while he had free time. The POW camp was set up inside the city. One of the reasons for not setting it outside the city was that the natural environment outside was not good. It was about to be the Beginning of Autumn, and Anhui's rainy season was coming. Wounds cannot touch dirty water, otherwise, they are easily infected. Another reason was to silently boast of victory to the people of Hefei city.

The second goal had been completely achieved. The People's Party had occupied Hefei for some time. The people in the city didn't resist, nor did they cooperate much. Until this time when the Hubei New Army was completely wiped out, the surrender ceremony was held, and so many wounded soldiers of the Hubei New Army were transported in, the Hefei locals truly knew that the People's Party was not only numerous but also capable of fighting. The court's army of nearly ten thousand people was completely eliminated in just over a day. The people in the city originally had no thought of resistance, and the wealthy households in the city, as well as people with some influence, dared not confront anymore. They saw with their own eyes that even the government army was vulnerable; what did their little strength count for?

After more than a year of construction, the fastest progressing technical branch in the People's Party was the military medical department. Chen Ke began training medical students from the Shanghai era. In these years, China never lacked people who died unnatural deaths. In disaster years and wars, there were thousands of unclaimed unnatural deaths. Chen Ke was also generous, directly allocating more than two thousand people to engage in medical work.

After more than two thousand people received basic medical knowledge education, they started with dissecting corpses. Soon, more than two hundred of the two thousand people couldn't stand the stimulation and quit. Among the remaining one thousand eight hundred or so, more than seven hundred were forced to learn hygiene and epidemic prevention knowledge. The remaining one thousand or so finally could start learning internal medicine and surgery.

Chen Ke bought a batch of medical books from abroad. Wang Qinian and some doctors from Shanghai, including medical professionals among Japanese revolutionary youths, were gathered together, plus Chen Ke's own medical knowledge. As the saying goes, practice brings true knowledge. A large number of corpse dissections, re-suturing of corpses. Plus combat first aid these days, at least in basic medical knowledge such as treating gunshot wounds, removing bullets from the body, preventing suppuration, bone setting, and treating traumatic injuries, progress was extremely fast.

Since military doctors were soldiers, they naturally obeyed military orders. Every treatment had to be documented, and various discussions and experiments had to become literature and journals. The military medical system developed with vigor had no academic tyrants at all, and the atmosphere was extremely upright. If not so, more than two thousand New Army wounded simply couldn't be treated in time.

It might be more appropriate to call the POW camp a field hospital now. Almost everyone running back and forth wore white coats. Bloody gauze bandages were boiled in boiling cauldrons. The women hired to wash gauze wore dark blue work clothes and masks, busy with sweat all over their heads. Except when cleaning and disinfecting, the operating room was performing various surgeries all the rest of the time. Other treatment rooms for bandaging and changing dressings were also overcrowded. The air was filled with the smell of lime water.

The Deputy Battalion Commander of the POW Camp was a Vice President of the Military Hospital. He was an epidemic prevention expert, so he didn't enter the operating room. When Chen Ke found him, Vice President Li Cunxiao was commanding people to burn those gauze bandages completely contaminated by blood stains. Seeing Chen Ke coming, Li Cunxiao saluted Chen Ke and continued to command the burning work. The price of cloth was not low these years. Even for cloth strips completely contaminated by blood that couldn't be washed clean no matter what, some hired laundry workers stole them out. To cut off this problem, they had to be completely burned.

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

Li Cunxiao smiled bitterly. "Insufficient blood. Too many Hubei New Army soldiers lost severe blood this time. Our comrades never have objections 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 glared at him. In these years, blood donation was considered an almost fatal matter by ordinary people. To correct this attitude, at least correct this attitude in the army, Chen Ke had donated blood four times in public leading by example in the past year. Since Chairman Chen Ke donated blood personally, other senior cadres naturally couldn't lag behind. All senior cadres donated blood in public. With these leaders setting an example, the party members, cadres, and soldiers below could naturally accept it. Plus the casualties of the troops had always been small, 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 was absolutely unwilling to give blood for free. Treating the enemy's wounded soldiers was already a very humanitarian thing in this era. If the victor had to provide their own blood to the defeated for free, this kind of thing was a bit shocking no matter what.

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

But many of these Hubei New Army soldiers were injured very heavily and lost a lot of blood. Those with lighter injuries could be solved by infusion of saline and glucose, but the seriously injured could only be saved by blood transfusion. Before the war, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army had a large pre-war blood donation activity. When the blood stock was relatively large, it was barely enough. Now most of the Revolutionary Army soldiers had passed the dangerous period; where would anyone continue to donate blood? Thirty or forty Hubei New Army wounded had already died of shock and various complications caused by postoperative blood loss. Li Cunxiao was a doctor after all; he still hoped to save those who could have been saved. Without Chen Ke's promotion, the POW camp would absolutely not get enough blood supply.

Li Cunxiao didn't see Chen Ke much. His original intention was to hope Chen Ke would promote this matter, so he turned a blind eye to the guard's glare. After listening, Chen Ke pondered for a moment before asking, "How much blood is needed now approximately?"

"Probably twenty thousand milliliters." A joyful light appeared in Li Cunxiao's eyes.

Chen Ke nodded. "Let's do this. I'll take the lead in donating 200 milliliters here. Then I'll go back and ask Party members to donate blood. But each person donates at most 100 milliliters. President Li, list the required blood types and quantities clearly for me. Don't waste everyone's blood donation."

Hearing Chen Ke's words, Li Cunxiao was not happy but frightened instead. Only now did he understand why the guard glared at him. Li Cunxiao knew that Chen Ke had donated blood many times this year. He thought Chen Ke would go back and arrange it, but he didn't expect Chen Ke to lead by example in such a matter. If he had known Chen Ke wanted to donate blood personally this time, even given Li Cunxiao two guts, he wouldn't dare to speak like this. Li Cunxiao didn't know if it was his psychological reason; he saw that the guard's gaze at this time was no longer glaring, but angry glaring.

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

Chen Ke laughed, "What won't do? President Li, if I don't take the lead in this kind of thing personally, I can't ask comrades to do so. If I can't figure it out myself, how can the comrades figure it out? Besides, those saved are all Chinese; I don't object either. Come, lead the way ahead; I'll go to the infirmary to donate blood."

"This absolutely won't do, Chairman Chen. You are killing me. If this matter spreads, do I still want to live?" Seeing Chen Ke wasn't playing fake, Li Cunxiao was so scared that he spoke his heartfelt words.

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

How dared Li Cunxiao agree? He grabbed Chen Ke and refused to let Chen Ke go donate blood no matter what. While the two were entangled, a person wearing a Hubei New Army uniform ran over secretly. Seeing no one paying attention to him, he rushed over, knelt on the ground, and hugged Li Cunxiao's legs. "President Li, please save my younger brother. Is it okay if I donate blood for him?"

The attention of Chen Ke's guard was attracted by the entanglement. He never expected such a person to pop out suddenly. If this person harbored evil designs and acted strangely, he might have attracted the guard's attention. But he acted naturally and had no killing intent. In a moment of negligence, he actually ran over. The guard was startled and kicked the person away with a flying kick. Then he pulled out his gun and pointed at that person. That person took a heavy kick but seemed not to care at all. Seeing someone forcing him with a gun, he didn't dare to move forward anymore, but knelt on the spot, kowtowing like pounding garlic. "President Li, can't I transfuse blood to my brother? I have looked for everyone I know, but no one is willing to donate blood. I beg you, President Li; my brother is obviously failing. Can't I donate blood?"

Li Cunxiao knew this was not the chance to speak, but Chen Ke took over the conversation. "What blood type are you? What blood type is your brother? Those not of the same blood type cannot transfuse blood randomly. It's not that our doctors don't let you transfuse blood randomly; if the blood types don't match, blood transfusion is not saving your brother, but harming your brother."

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

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

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

The severely blood-loss POW had been carried out, and this tube of blood was transfused into the POW's blood vessel. Throughout the process, the POWs whispered to each other. The older brother of the seriously injured POW stood by. Watching his brother's pale face actually improve a little after the blood transfusion, he didn't dare to approach Chen Ke either. He knelt on the spot, kowtowing repeatedly with tears and snot flowing. "Many thanks, Chairman Chen, for saving his life! Many thanks..." He choked up at the end.

Chen Ke often donated blood in the 21st century, 400 milliliters each time back then, and Chen Ke had no adverse reactions. This 200 milliliters was no big deal. Pressing the needle hole with an alcohol cotton ball, Chen Ke said loudly to the POWs, "Blood donation is actually just like this. You soldiers all know that people will die if they bleed too much. To replenish blood, we can only rely on external blood transfusion. You are all from Hubei. When you can save a fellow villager, I think you should save him once. If you refuse to save, then our People's Party is also willing to save once. Why? Because everyone is Chinese; it is also a duty for Chinese to save Chinese."

Many Hubei New Army soldiers still hadn't recovered from the scene of blood donation, but some looked ashamed.

Chen Ke's speech this time was actually not to solve the problem of blood donation. He stopped talking about this topic and started talking about other things. "Everyone ran to Anhui to fight; I want to ask everyone what it is for?"

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

Chen Ke laughed, "I heard that the Hubei New Army stresses loyalty to the monarch and serving the country 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 army of the common people's sons and brothers; the common people are our parents. We must serve the common people, serve our parents."

Having worked in the countryside for so long, the life of the people in the base area was witnessed by Chen Ke personally, so he was naturally very familiar talking about it. There was no essential difference between the common people of Anhui and Hubei. They all farmed, labored, were busy to death during the busy farming season, and relied on a craft or physical strength to eat during the slack 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, what the common people pursued was similar lives: having food and drink, having money to earn. Being able to go to school was even better.

Listening to Chen Ke describing the familiar labor life of ordinary farmers and the unfamiliar new government and new system, the officers and soldiers of the Hubei New Army were fascinated one by one.

After talking about the changes in the Anhui base area, Chen Ke made a concluding speech. "Brothers of the Hubei New Army, the army of our base area is like you, all coming from the homes of common people. They are all sons, brothers, and husbands of common people's families. The reason they fight is not for the glory and wealth of me, Chen Ke alone. Nor is it for the glory and wealth of our People's Party or the army commanders. Our People's Party is absolutely not trying to dye our official buttons red with the blood of soldiers. Our soldiers are to defend the new life they have obtained now. No landlords collect rent from them anymore; no officials extort them anymore. Everyone relies on their own hands to work, can feed themselves, and can eat meat, white rice, and white flour. If you win this time, such good days will never exist again. First, their land will be snatched back by landlords. The government will extort everyone again. Everyone is from a common people's family; can the common people's belongings withstand the government's tossing? This tossing means family ruin and death. Tell me, why wouldn't our army fight you desperately? You lost the battle, and there is still our 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."