The matter of local elections was not proposed by Chen Ke just now; as early as a year ago, Chen Ke had proposed the concept of this election to the landlords. However, with successive battles afterwards, no one had time to mention this matter again. After the soldiers learned that local elections were to be held, their biggest feeling was "bewilderment." This was not about whether they supported or opposed it; the troops had long talked about local elections, and the soldiers knew what local elections were for, but everyone didn't know why local elections were held at this juncture.

The political commissars greatly praised the "sensitivity" of the soldiers. Chen Ke said that the eyes of the people are sharp, and this remark was fully confirmed. One of the purposes of promoting local elections was to complete the legitimacy of the regime. Once the people in the base area formed their own grassroots government, it actually meant that the people in the base area completely drew a line with the Manchu Qing regime. Chen Ke dared not raise the revolutionary banner directly a year ago because he was worried that raising the banner too early and forcing the people to take sides would be counterproductive.

For Chen Ke, this was nothing. His revolutionary purpose was actually not to overthrow the Manchu Qing; Chen Ke wanted to build a new China, and overthrowing the Manchu Qing was just a task in the process of this cause. The purpose of the common people was to live a good life, and they had no interest in overthrowing the court. So Chen Ke's practice was disaster relief and establishing a new order. These actions that could practically meet the needs of the masses were easily echoed by everyone.

Chen Ke regarded the Manchu Qing as dried bones in a tomb, but most comrades did not have this magnanimity and understanding. The vast majority of comrades believed that the Manchu Qing was the biggest enemy and were holding back their energy to overthrow the Manchu Qing. No matter how Chen Ke propagated "revolution is for the people," everyone subconsciously wouldn't think so. Thanks to the consecutive victories against the New Army this time giving confidence to the comrades, plus Chen Ke personally leading the preparatory work, the propaganda finally didn't create contradictory things among political commissars. The political commissars didn't mention a word about the Manchu Qing, only propagating that "people's revolution" was to let the masses be masters of their own house. The people should manage their own affairs, and grassroots elections naturally had to be decided by the people.

After this propaganda, the soldiers roughly understood what exactly grassroots elections were to do. Chen Ke learned from historical experience. Historically, grassroots political power had great power. At the peak, village cadres could decide the life and death of villagers. These powers created many inappropriate things. Limited by the current communication level, if the grassroots units didn't have great power, it would be complete chaos. Chen Ke knew that there were wronged deaths in every dynasty. This was not because Chen Ke deliberately turned a blind eye to this, but because real technical means restricted the operation of many powers. To solve these problems, Chen Ke had to appropriately weaken the power of the grassroots.

First was the concentrated living of the population. As the saying goes, "many people, many mouths," which can be seen as some degree of people's supervision. If it is a natural village with a small number of people, then village cadres might be able to clamp down on the people of the whole village. If it is a large village or even a large town, cadres cannot clamp down on so many. After the base area suffered floods, the resistance to concentrated living was small. At least in several old base areas, small villages had been replaced by collectively built residential points.

Secondly, it was the division of land. The people's contiguous land, military farms, state-owned farms, and cash crop farms were mixed in location, and the government's coercive management ability was greatly improved.

Finally, the elected official positions were also determined. Village heads, town heads, only these official positions and people's representatives were elected. People's representatives mainly participated in tax distribution issues. In fact, the so-called participation was only participating in discussions and then notifying everyone of the news. The base area established state-owned enterprises, and these state-owned enterprises in the base area actually controlled the financial power. Whether village heads and town heads, or the people's representative assembly, they were all poor government offices (*Qingshui Yamen*). These situations would be adjusted in the future, but for the current stage, it was so. If one must say, the People's Party only needed to obtain legal tradition through the system of People's Party representative assemblies. Proving that its power was not self-appointed, but came from the people's election.

Chen Ke played such political tricks under the banner of the people. He actually felt a little embarrassed in his heart, but the situation was stronger than people. If Chen Ke really promoted a thorough election system, it would only be seeking his own destruction. It was fundamentally impossible to complete the revolution.

What the soldiers cared about was actually not political tricks; they didn't care about such things. To put it extremely, whether the People's Party came to power or the Manchu court was on stage, the people didn't care. What everyone cared about was living a good life. The political structure of the People's Party was not the content soldiers cared about at all; everyone cared about more detailed content. For example, the "Production Team" launched by the People's Party. This new policy aroused great attention from the soldiers.

In these days of propaganda, the most common sentence among soldiers was "Brother So-and-so, let's persuade our families to form a production team after we go back, shall we?"

The production teams engaged by the Party in history were very cute, a great integration of "Left-leaning Egalitarianism." When Chen Ke was in the 21st century, he knew some "strong running dogs" of large American capital consortiums, and everyone discussed agricultural issues after land reform. These brothers could mix to the status of "strong running dogs," so their knowledge was naturally extraordinary. They had criticized the problems of old-style production teams in detail. At that time, the biggest problem with rural production teams was deviating from the basic principles of economics, political interference in the economy, and lack of state intervention.

According to the views of those brothers, the purpose of forming production teams is to achieve the effective combination of "production capital and labor force." Egalitarianism and "Big Pot Rice" (everyone eating from the same big pot) are unacceptable. The state forcibly engaged in "matching" back then, distributing strong labor force and weak labor force together. It even deviated from the basic principle of socialism. Socialism stresses "distribution according to work." letting strong labor force and weak labor force take the same remuneration, no one was satisfied. Under the wrong guidance of "egalitarianism," both strong labor force and weak labor force felt they took less. Strong labor force felt they worked more and took less; weak labor force felt they needed more care and should take more. The government's idea of "internal relief" ended up pleasing no one.

Instead of pleasing no one like this, Chen Ke positioned the government in the role of a referee, and let the masses form production teams themselves. The government was only responsible for ensuring the execution of contracts.

The army is a highly specialized large group organization, and its members are all young and strong. Even positions like military doctors who are not good at fighting have professional skills. The organizational model looks more average, but it is precisely not "Big Pot Rice." The soldiers of the troops actually didn't care about the election. Now that the election system had been made public, the army only needed to ensure that no riots occurred during the election.

The People's Party's agricultural reclamation allowed soldiers to personally experience the benefits of collective labor. The efficiency of dozens or hundreds of people working together was high. Soldiers with agricultural reclamation experience hoped to increase their family's grain output by forming their own production teams. Since the People's Party provided a large number of positions in breeding and industrial departments, these positions could earn a lot of money. The land was cultivated by strong laborers, and women could work in those breeding farms and factories. This model could greatly increase family income. If done by one's own family alone, the efficiency would be lower instead.

Comrades-in-arms are simple relationships tempered on the battlefield. These soldiers inevitably wishfully thought they could persuade their own families. After receiving feedback on these situations, Chen Ke felt very satisfied. In fact, soldiers might not be able to persuade their own families. Cultivating with other families, just this income distribution would take long-term discussion, and cooperative labor needed even more running-in. This was not something that could be done overnight. What made Chen Ke happy was that after experiencing advanced production modes, the soldiers actively began to promote them to the broad masses. Regarding these spontaneous actions of soldiers, Chen Ke strictly ordered political commissars not to participate. If soldiers asked political commissars for advice, political commissars could provide opinions, but absolutely could not make mandatory requirements on soldiers.

The discussion in the troops was in full swing, and the situation in the base area was even livelier. Hearing that village officials would no longer be dominated by clan elders or local powerful people, the common people were happy mixed with uneasiness. Everyone could vote, but for those big families with many people and great power, who exactly should they vote for?

The Standing Committee members each led a county. It could be said that except for Yuwen Badu, other Standing Committee members understood Chen Ke's meaning after reading the documents and letters sent by Chen Ke. In other counties, the People's Party cadres in rural areas began propaganda work. The propaganda naturally wouldn't be "must vote for our People's Party," but propagating "what exactly is a good life."

Yuwen Badu had made great progress in work since partnering with Ren Qiying these days. After reading the documents and letters, his first reaction was to call Ren Qiying over.

Ren Qiying had now been officially promoted to Director of the County Party Office. After reading the documents handed over by Yuwen Badu, Ren Qiying already had a plan in her heart. "Secretary Yuwen, actually this matter is easiest for us in Fengtai County. We have a good foundation; Secretary Chen completed the preliminary preparations long ago. We just need to work according to the regulations."

Yuwen Badu roughly understood the regulations, but he lacked confidence. "Director Ren, what do you think we should do?"

"What we have to do is explain to the common people what these official positions are for. When the common people encounter problems, who should they go to. Who the common people elect is their own business. Let's not participate."

"But other counties have started propaganda; don't we need to propagate?" Yuwen Badu was very puzzled.

"What should be propagated in our Fengtai County has been propagated. Doing it again is useless." Ren Qiying answered very simply.

"True, true." Yuwen Badu nodded repeatedly.

Seeing Yuwen Badu so obedient, Ren Qiying was also quite proud in her heart. She continued, "Since Secretary Chen has done the previous work, we have to be one step ahead of other counties. I suggest we focus on organizing production teams."

"Good, we must complete the organization of production teams." Yuwen Badu continued to nod in agreement.

As soon as these words came out, Ren Qiying was immediately speechless. To save Yuwen Badu's face, Ren Qiying handed Chen Ke's letter to Yuwen Badu. "Secretary Yuwen, Chairman Chen specifically said in the letter that the government is not allowed to force the formation of production teams."

Reading the letter again, Yuwen Badu indeed found this sentence. He was a bit confused. Since Ren Qiying had already noticed this matter, why did she want to make organizing production teams a key point?

"Secretary Yuwen, Chairman Chen specifically said at the Party member and cadre training meeting that our People's Party cannot do things with a beginning but no end. If we start, we must have a beginning and an end. If production teams are forcibly organized, it is equivalent to production teams organized by our government. What's the difference between that and the state-owned farms currently running? This production team is to be organized spontaneously by the people. We want to propagate and guide, but we absolutely cannot have the slightest coercion, or even let the common people feel that we are instigating."

Hearing Ren Qiying say this, Yuwen Badu scratched his head. "Director Ren, doing it this way, what's the difference from not grasping the organization of production teams?"

Ren Qiying laughed, "Secretary Yuwen, Chairman Chen repeatedly emphasized at the training meeting that preparations must be made for everything. Which departments will sign the production team contracts? Production teams can apply for loans from the government; which department should handle this loan? We have to contact them well anyway. Moreover, after the production teams are formed, many people will definitely come to work in factories. Which factories are recruiting? We also have to contact and arrange, right? If we make these preparations, no matter how many common people organize production teams themselves, the subsequent work won't make us flustered. This is the proof of us opening up the situation."

These words were a bit complicated for Yuwen Badu, but after all, Yuwen Badu had done so much work with many Standing Committee members. Although designing these things was not his strong suit, Yuwen Badu had wide connections and much knowledge. Frowning and thinking about who to contact, Yuwen Badu suddenly beamed with joy. "Right, not to mention anything else, after the cotton is harvested, the textile factory will start soon, which just needs people. This solves a big chunk of manpower demand."

Ren Qiying smiled as she watched Yuwen Badu mention a long list of departments needing labor after finishing the cotton mill. Looking at Yuwen Badu's cheerful appearance, Ren Qiying felt somewhat helpless. Yuwen Badu was actually not a bad person, nor could he be said to be incapable. But this thing cannot be compared. Compared with Chen Ke and other Standing Committee members, Yuwen Badu seemed inadequate. Even without comparing with others, Ren Qiying felt that if she were not a woman, with her ability, she would absolutely refuse to be under Yuwen Badu.

However, this thought disappeared in a flash. It was not Yuwen Badu who promoted Ren Qiying, but Chen Ke. Ren Qiying firmly believed that Chen Ke had long anticipated such a situation now. If Ren Qiying tried to climb up without Chen Ke's authorization, Chen Ke would absolutely not turn a blind eye.

Thinking of this, Ren Qiying said, "Secretary Yuwen, since we want to organize production teams, I'll go home first to talk to my family. You also know that my family lacks manpower. My father doesn't know how to farm. My family actually needs to engage in a production team most, combining production with families with thriving manpower. So can I go home for two days first?"

"Sure, sure!" Yuwen Badu agreed profusely. He actually didn't want Ren Qiying to steal his limelight at this critical moment either. Now some people had begun to say strange things, like Fengtai County was actually managed by the County Party Office. Ren Qiying was transferred by Chen Ke's order, so everyone dared not say anything about Ren Qiying's promotion. So the fire was concentrated on Yuwen Badu. Having finally figured out Secretary Chen Ke's meaning thoroughly, Yuwen Badu still wanted to justify his name. It was better for Ren Qiying not to be here at this time.

As soon as Ren Qiying returned home, her mother Ren Xu Shi immediately came to welcome her daughter with a beaming face. Ren Qiying was now the Director of the County Party Office, and rumors outside said she was about to serve as the magistrate. Neighbors said countless good words about Ren Qiying to her face. With her daughter so successful, Ren Xu Shi naturally had great face. Seeing her daughter, Ren Xu Shi's face almost bloomed with laughter.

"Mom, where is Dad?" Ren Qiying asked. Before coming back, she actually ran to the College of Education to look for her father Ren Yugang who studied and taught there, but the news she got was that her father Ren Yugang asked for leave to go home. Ren Qiying was quite worried that something happened at home.

While speaking, the main room door opened, and Ren Yugang walked out. "Girl, go to your room to talk." Obviously, there were some things Ren Yugang didn't want Ren Qiying's mother to mix in. If in the main room, he couldn't drive Ren Xu Shi, the mistress, out. In Ren Qiying's room, he could shut Ren Xu Shi out.

After the father and daughter sat down, Ren Yugang first listened silently to Ren Qiying finish talking about the recent general election situation and the detailed ins and outs of organizing production teams. He listened very carefully, and Ren Qiying wasn't worried at all that Ren Yugang would miss anything. This focused attitude was Ren Yugang's style, and Ren Yugang also required Ren Qiying to do so since childhood. When she was young, Ren Qiying felt her father was a bit too strict. Until joining the People's Party, Ren Qiying knew what precious wealth her father's education was to her.

"Girl, do you mean to let our family form a production team with other families first?" Ren Yugang asked.

Ren Qiying replied, "Dad, if you think forming a production team with others is too troublesome, we can stay out of this matter."

Ren Yugang shook his head. "This is not troublesome. You also know that our family has no one to farm. Your mother can't work in the fields, and I only know how to teach. Your younger brothers and sisters are still young and are studying now. Our family's land is actually farmed by no one. Our family's land is now entrusted to your uncle's family to farm. Forming a production team is quite good; the government guarantees the contract, so there won't be so many troublesome things."

After saying this, Ren Yugang looked at Ren Qiying's slightly flickering eyes and tightly pursed lips. He asked, "Girl, do you have any ideas that are hard to say?"

Ren Qiying thought for a moment again, gritted her teeth, and said, "Dad, have you ever thought about simply making the production team bigger?"

"What do you mean?" Ren Yugang knew his daughter was quite ambitious. Since she hesitated for a long time before saying this, presumably she had some ideas.

"Before the war a while ago, I reported work to Chairman Chen. Talking about rural issues, Chairman Chen casually said that production teams of small farmers are good, but small farms might be more suitable for China. I asked a few more questions. Chairman Chen said he hadn't done rural work. Although large farms of tens of thousands of *mu* have high overall efficiency, they may not be suitable for China. China has little arable land, so this kind of production team of one or two hundred *mu* also has high yield per *mu* and relatively high efficiency. Perhaps it is more suitable for China's situation. After Chairman Chen finished speaking, I went to check Chairman Chen's documents. Chairman Chen once wrote a lot of things about this aspect. Although messy, they are very interesting."

Ren Yugang listened to his daughter explain these farming matters to him. He actually really didn't understand farming. The reason he listened here was just that as a father, he must support his children. And he also had to watch them not to go the wrong way. As for what specific work to do, Ren Yugang felt that doing one's best was enough. So he only roughly understood what Ren Qiying said. Ren Qiying planned to contact several more peasant households to form a production team of 150 *mu*. This production team would fully imitate the production methods of the army farms and state-owned farms currently running. Instead of just a few families uniting to exchange what they have.

As a layman in farming, Ren Yugang actually understood the introduction of Ren Qiying, who was also a layman, and felt it was very feasible. He was very satisfied with his daughter's consideration. But what Ren Yugang asked was another question. "Girl, did you say you learned these from what Chairman Chen wrote?"

"Yes." Ren Qiying was somewhat puzzled by her father's digression. After answering the question, she looked at her father with slight surprise.

"Exactly how many things has Chairman Chen written?" Ren Yugang continued to ask.

"That's a lot. I think there must be millions of words." Ren Qiying replied.

Ren Yugang nodded slightly. "Girl, I won't say anything else. Chairman Chen has such great ability. You must not be half-hearted towards Chairman Chen."

Hearing her father's words, Ren Qiying said seriously, "Dad, don't worry. I won't make a mistake about who to follow."