"April is a cruel season." A certain foreign devil poet sang. In China, the common people are far less sentimental than the foreign poets, and their evaluation of April is more straightforward and accurate. "Green and yellow not connected". Thousands of years of civilization have made the Chinese people's view of the world so realistic that the poet can only express his feelings in empty words, and the people have pointed out the reasons for the "cruelty" result. Last year's floods destroyed all production, and the grain stored in the base area was about to bottom out. Faced with such a dilemma, the People's Party's solution is somewhat similar to that of Liang Huidi, the only difference is that Liang Huidi only verbally asks, "Why don't you eat minced meat?" The People's Party provides the eggs in the farms to the maximum extent possible for the people in the base areas. Such a food supply model has undoubtedly benefited the five Yuewanghui cadres who are "guests" in the People's Party base area.

After nibbling on one of the duck legs assigned to him, Chang Hengfang's eyes couldn't help but fall on the other duck leg in the basin. However, in terms of his status, Chen Duxiu and Bai Wenwei are above him. So no matter what he wanted to eat in his heart, Chang Hengfang couldn't move the duck leg. He took a piece of duck rib out of the basin and chewed it with the soup and water. Chen Duxiu was not polite, the food he had eaten along the way was not good, and he let go of his appetite like other comrades and ate heavily. The five of them ate the food that had been served. When the orderlies of the People's Party cleaned up the table and retreated, Chang Hengfang secretly opened the doors and windows, and carefully checked and found that no one was eavesdropping, so he nodded to everyone.

"This Chen Wenqing is so bad, he actually sent us like this." Bai Wenwei first expressed her dissatisfaction. This is really not Bai Wenwei's reasoning, it stands to reason that Chen Ke will have to entertain the people of King Yue's meeting in the evening anyway, at least he has to sit with him during the meal. But Chen Ke actually asked the guards to send a few people to live on the grounds that he was busy with official business. And then just ignore it entirely.

"How busy can he be? Busier than the Emperor? Chang Hengfang has a deep-seated distrust of the People's Party, and as soon as he heard Bai Wenwei start to criticize the People's Party, he immediately followed.

Chen Duxiu didn't think so, he waved his hand, "I don't think Chen Ke is such a stingy person." The People's Party and we were founded almost together, and we now have no more than a thousand people in total. Chen Ke now has such a large territory, he must be extremely busy. ”

Bai Wenwei has been engaged in party affairs activities, and he is very concerned about the number of etiquette, after listening to Chen Duxiu, he said: "Handsome, no matter how busy you are, you can't spare time to have a meal together?" I think Chen Ke is deliberately belittling us. ”

"If you want to give us a horse, just leave us dry for a few days. Why do you want to see us as soon as we arrive? Chen Duxiu said, "I don't care about this matter, I said to Chen Ke, why we are Yue Wanghui, they are the People's Party." I really think it's very meaningful. ”

After listening to Chen Duxiu's words, everyone remembered the conversation with Chen Ke. When Chen Ke asked Yue Wanghui to build his own army, the cadres of Yue Wanghui were both surprised and angry. When the revolution was so critical, Chen Ke actually asked the people of the Yue Wang Association to be stationed in the army. Such a suggestion of "long-term consideration" was immediately rejected by the comrades of the Yue Wang Society.

Chang Hengfang was the first to object, "Mr. Chen, if you don't want to help, just say it, why bother to wait for words?" ”

The cadres of the Yue Wang Association didn't expect that after listening to Chang Hengfang's objection, Chen Ke's face actually showed a confused look, "If you don't have a military tun, what will everyone eat?" Hungry to fight the Manchus? ”

Chang Hengfang immediately retorted loudly: "You can't quench your thirst from far water!" ”

"What do you think is the most important thing?" Chen Ke asked almost knowingly.

"Of course, it's to gather people and send them back to Anqing." Chang Hengfang's voice was loud beyond the scope of politeness.

Regarding Chang Hengfang's gaffe, He Yaqing's face has changed greatly. Chen Ke waved his hand to stop He Yaqing, who was about to stand up, and he continued to ask calmly: "After the toss between King Yue and the Hubei New Army, how much food do you think there is still in Anqing?" Now even if you recapture Anqing now, what will you eat when you defend the city? ”

Hearing this, Chang Hengfang didn't know how to respond. Chen Ke pointed out the main point bluntly, Anqing City was out of food.

"Don't talk about your Yue Wang Hui, our People's Party has also bottomed out now. If there is no harvest this year, the people in our base area will starve to death. What do we eat if we don't have a military tun? What do troops eat when they go out? Chen Ke further said.

This was originally an upright word, but for some reason, it aroused Chang Hengfang's great disgust. He immediately retorted: "Our revolution is a great cause, and the people will definitely support us." ”

After talking for so long, Chen Ke's brows furrowed for the first time, "The people support you? The revolution was supposed to give the people a better life. You frantically exploit the people, why should the people support you? How are you going to raise food? Do you rob them from the people's houses? ”

"The overthrow of the Manchu Qing is a great righteousness, how can the people not support us? Well! Our Yue Wang Club is adhering to the spirit of Yue Wumu, and Yue Wumu has knowledge underground and will definitely support us. ”

Because of his anger, Chen Ke's voice became low, "Yue Wumu's spirit? Yue's army froze to death and did not demolish the house, and starved to death without plundering. This is for the people, this is the spirit of Yue Wumu. Will you Yue Wang do it? If you are really like Yue Wumu in Anqing, how can you be driven away by the Manchus? Let you Tuntian, you will push back, ask for guns, and chassis, you are unwilling to be left behind. You are just stealing Yue Wumu's name at all. That's why you will be called Yue Wanghui, and our People's Party will choose the People's Party as our name. ”

Being scolded like this, Chang Hengfang was almost mad, Chen Duxiu immediately stood up and stopped Chang Hengfang, "How can the general of the defeated army be brave?" Since we have lost the battle, let's not say anything. Listen to Mr. Chen Ke's arrangement. ”

Chen Ke was not polite at all when they first met at this time, and he said coldly: "My arrangement is very simple, since you have arrived at our base area, we will naturally not drive you away. Set aside a piece of land for you, one side of the military cantonment, and the other side of the training. Wait for the right time to call back to Anqing. ”

The meeting was so unhappy.

Recalling this incident, Chang Hengfang felt extremely annoyed. "Dashuai, what Chen Ke said about us, what else is there to mention?"

"Then why can the BJP win the battle and we can't?" Chen Duxiu asked.

This issue has never been seriously discussed within the Yue Wang Society, and when Anqing was just captured, everyone was indispensable, where could they think so much. After the new army came, everyone had no time to think. After being kicked out of Anqing, everyone was full of thoughts about how to fight back. I didn't even think about why the BJP was successful. When Chen Duxiu asked now, no one could answer.

Chen Duxiu saw that everyone was silent, and he said calmly: "Since the People's Party can win, we have lost. Naturally, it shows that the People's Party has outstanding qualities. As Chen Ke said, we began to train troops in Tuntian. Take a good look at how the People's Party was able to win over the Manchus. When we learn, we can naturally regain Anqing. ”

"Dashuai, when will it have to wait?" Chang Hengfang asked anxiously, "The situation is changing several times a day, and the People's Party has not yet conquered Hefei at that time. If the People's Party becomes strong and takes Anqing, they may not be willing to give Anqing to us again this time. ”

Chen Duxiu said calmly: "If you don't give it, you won't give it." Even if the People's Party occupies the north of the Yangtze River, can we still go south of the Yangtze River? The most urgent task now is to learn the methods of the BJP revolution. They have only been in Anhui for a year, and they will be able to do so, and we will learn from them for a year, and with our current manpower, we will still be able to create a career south of the Yangtze River when the time comes. I've decided, and I'll do it. ”

Seeing that Chen Duxiu had made up his mind, the other cadres of the Yue Wang Society had no other way. Bai Wenwei said tentatively: "Let's either meet Mr. Yan Fu and see what Mr. Yan has to say." ”

Chen Duxiu immediately replied: "It's enough to lose someone once, don't look for Mr. Yan." After meeting Mr. Yan, if Mr. Yan also said the same thing as Chen Ke, what are you going to do? ”

Seeing that Bai Wenwei was speechless, Chen Duxiu said: "If you don't have any other ideas, let's sleep." I'm going to see Chen Ke again tomorrow. Let's talk about how to carry out the revolution. ”

Early the next morning, everyone from the Yue Wang Association went to see Chen Ke after breakfast. The guards reported and led the men into Chen's office. Everyone looked curiously at the ruling center of the People's Party, and Chen Ke's office was really simple compared to the yamen of the governor of Anhui. There were thick piles of papers on the table. The people of the Yue Wang Association saw that Chen Ke's face looked a little duller than yesterday, and his eyes were slightly bloodshot, but in addition, his clothes and hairstyle were exactly the same as yesterday.

Chen Duxiu still studied quite hard, and when he saw Chen Ke's appearance, he couldn't help but ask, "Mr. Chen, didn't you sleep all night?" ”

Chen Ke's spirit is okay, he smiled: "There are a little more things, and I don't want to sleep." Have you made a decision to come so early? ”

Chen Duxiu never expected Chen Ke to be so busy, but he didn't want to say anything, "Exactly." We decided to take Mr. Chen's advice and start the military camp. But I don't know where Mr. Chen is going to let us go? ”

"Don't be in such a hurry, you don't think you have any experience in military tun. I'll send someone to show you around the military cantonments in our base area. Take a walk around the base. I'll talk more about it when you get back. After Chen Ke finished speaking, he immediately arranged people. He didn't even give King Yue time to continue talking.

The people of the Yue Wang Society were not familiar with Chen Ke, and since Chen Ke had arranged it, they had no choice but to obey. The group began their tour of the base area under the guidance of the staff of the People's Internal Affairs Committee.

Fengtai County is not much different from other counties of this era, and it is farmland outside the county seat. As the People's Party's longest-standing base, the countryside of Fengtai County is very different from that of other parts of Anhui. The first thing that catches your eye is the neat ridges. Anhui is mountainous and has many rivers. Floods are frequent, so land ownership changes dramatically. The ridges have always been criss-crossed, with large and small ridges ranging from a dozen acres to a fraction of the land, but after the People's Party divided the land, the land was redistributed. Although the shape of the entire farmland may not be regular depending on the topography, the interior of the farmland is uniform. This has the advantage of facilitating irrigation and drainage, and leaving room for roads and water facilities. Wheat is now planted in a large area in the base area of Fengtai County, and the wheat is heading in early April, and the green wheat fields are gratifying to look at.

There are some ponds between the fields according to the topography, and the people have not wasted them at all. Lotus leaves and reeds grew in the pond, flocks of ducks swam in the pond, and girls and women sprinkled something on the ground and in the water, and every time something was scattered, the ducks rushed up and grabbed it. Bai Wenwei couldn't help but ask, "What are you sprinkling?" ”

"Feed." The comrade of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs replied.

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

The comrade who took them on the tour squatted down and wrote these two words on the ground.

The people of Yue Wanghui looked at these two words curiously, and then asked, "Just let the duck find its own food." Why bother feeding it again. ”

To such a layman's words, the comrades of the People's Party replied with a smile: "Ha, such a large pond, where is there so much food." If you don't feed it, you won't be able to raise so many ducks. ”

"What's that feeding?"

"Earthworms and small fish and shrimp."

"What? Do you still have people digging earthworms? Net fish and shrimp? Bai Wenwei was even more surprised. Look at those women throwing a lot of earthworms and fish and shrimp, if this is specially dug out of the ground, netted out of the river, how much manpower it takes!

"How could anyone do this? This is our specially-bred earthworm and fish and shrimp. The staff proudly explained.

The people of Yue Wanghui were silent, and the People's Party was really weird everywhere. Can earthworms and small fish and shrimp be raised on their own?

The crowd continued to walk, and the fields were endless. Not all fields are grown with wheat, but also rape, soybeans, peanuts, and hemp. In some of the obviously not very good fields, it was planted with other crops, and upon inquiry, I learned that it was alfalfa for raising livestock.

There are not many people in the orderly fields, which makes everyone very puzzled. If the average peasant had such good land, he would have to move to the land. But there's not much of a person here.

"The work is done by the female comrades and a small number of male comrades. It's everyone's own land, and the people are very relieved. ”

After listening to the explanation of the staff, the people of Yue Wanghui were even more strange, and the people in Huaibei were fierce. My own land is not good to look at, what are those people doing? Do you sleep at home? They immediately asked the question.

"Everybody's got a guy to do. How is it possible to sleep? The staff explained. The base area experienced a flood last year, and everyone was poor and white, and many families did not even have dishes and chopsticks. Therefore, under the organization of the People's Party, the handicraft industry really developed. If you want to do a handicraft, you have to have raw materials. So everybody has a job, planting trees, growing bamboo, working in ceramic workshops, and working at various mining sites. As long as you work, you earn money. The supply and marketing department of the People's Party was also established. The supply and marketing department provides a variety of daily necessities, and does not accept gold, silver and copper coins, only the "renminbi" issued by the base, and the renminbi is paper money. You can exchange gold, silver and copper coins, or you can earn renminbi by working in various factories or construction sites run by "public families". After the flood, where did the people have money in their hands, and since there was a place to make money, in order to buy daily necessities for the family, everyone participated in labor to earn RMB. That's why there weren't a lot of people in the fields.

Hearing this, the cadres of the Yue Wang Society all showed incredible expressions on their faces. These things don't sound particularly strange, but the People's Party can actually start doing it in a county, and now it seems that it has a considerable scale. Chen Duxiu felt that the People's Party was simply putting the cart before the horse, and had spent a lot of energy to build up some efforts in the base areas, and if the Manchu army entered the base areas, wouldn't everything that had been built up so hard be wiped out? Is the BJP so confident? But Chen Duxiu thought about it, the People's Party could easily win Anqing, and naturally he was not afraid of the Manchu attack. Seeing that the People's Party already has such strength, Chen Duxiu really can't understand what method the People's Party used to accomplish such a feat in one year.

The other cadres of the Yue Wang Association were thinking about their own thoughts, and they were silent.

The comrades of the People's Internal Affairs Committee, who acted as guides, observed the performance of the cadres of the Yue Wang Society, and the words and deeds of these people of the Yue Wang Society had to be reported back. As a carefully selected comrade within the People's Party, there have long been rules on what should and can be said in this guided action. For example, this comrade must not reveal one thing, and that is the gist of the BJP's monetary calculations. Since the renminbi is legal tender, paper money has little value in itself. The actual calculations of the BJP are based on the grain produced. And now that food is scarce, the People's Party is completely playing the trick of the white wolf with empty gloves.

But it was obvious that these people from the Yue Wang Society did not have this knowledge at all, and their ideas could not penetrate into this level. The comrades of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

The beautiful rural scenery on both sides of the road made the people of Yue Wanghui more and more depressed, and they really couldn't think of how they could achieve such a feat by relying on their current more than 1,000 people. Putting hundreds of thousands of acres of land in good order is really beyond the imagination of these people. Chang Hengfang has always been angry about Chen Ke's refusal to cede Hefei to Yue Wanghui. He originally felt that with these backbones of the Yue Wang Society, plus more than 1,000 people, it would be more than enough to govern a small Hefei. Now that he has seen the situation in Fengtai County with his own eyes, he has to admit that his original request was too arrogant. Chang Hengfang secretly lowered the requirements by one level, he hoped that he would be able to let King Yue govern the territory of a county. Rather than just carving out a piece of land for them to garrison.

After walking for a while, the front suddenly became lively. Compared to the vast and sparsely populated area along the way, a large area of land with nearly 2,000 people gathered in front of it is extremely lively. The comrades of the People's Party pointed to it and said to the cadres of the Yue Wang Society: "That is where our army is located. ”

It's a lot of land, and it's a lot of land that's not as good as the fertile fields on both sides of the road. But fortunately, it was obviously sorted out, and there was nothing in the way like stones and roots. Moreover, the land is surrounded by some saplings into many obvious squares, which are extremely neat except for the lack of cultivation.

"What kind of food do you want to grow on such a big land?" Bai Wenwei asked.

"It's all cotton."

"What? All grow cotton? Bai Wenwei was impressed by the People's Party's strong plan, but the large grain fields were forgotten. This large area is almost impossible to see at a glance, and it is actually planted with cotton.

"How big is this land?"

"Five thousand acres."

"Planting 5,000 acres of cotton? How do you plant so much? "The cadres of the Yue Wang Association were extremely puzzled by the People's Party's approach.

"This land is not good, even if we count one acre of land to the top, we can harvest 400 catties of cotton. It's only two million catties of cotton. There are now 2 million people in our base area, to say the least. If each person is calculated according to four catties of cotton, this will cost eight million catties of cotton. Not only Fengtai County, but also other places will soon start large-scale cotton planting. ”

Hearing this, Chen Duxiu could no longer endure these stimuli, and he asked loudly: "Does the People's Party actually want to take care of all the people's food and clothing?" ”

For Chen Duxiu, the People's Party's approach is too drastic. For the revolutionaries of this era, they personally led the people to overthrow the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and then let the Chinese people have no worries about food and clothing. It's a dream they've all had. But seeing that the People's Party had actually begun to realize this dream, Chen Duxiu felt a great shock and loss.

The comrades of the People's Internal Affairs Committee looked at Chen Duxiu's gaffe, and their hearts were ridiculous and contemptuous. The Huai River basin is often flooded, and it is quite difficult to cultivate, but there is an advantage here that is not good, there is no shortage of water in the land. So the local people actually have a tendency to grow cotton on wasteland. The People's Party did not create anything special at all, but only learned from the people under the leadership of Chairman Chen Ke. These things that the people have mastered, these skills that could have allowed the people to have no worries about food and clothing, seem to Chen Duxiu to be incredible. In the eyes of the comrades of the People's Party, it is "incredible".

And along the way, the comrades of the People's Party have been waiting for Chen Duxiu and others to ask a question, that is, there are some pillars made of cement on the side of the road. The pillars were also inscribed with inscriptions.

In fact, the purpose of these pillars is very simple, the Huai River often causes floods. With the current strength of the People's Party, it is simply impossible to carry out a radical cure. These pillars are benchmarks that were used as landmarks after the floods. It is not known whether this will be achieved, but as long as the pillars survive the flood, it is clear where some of the infrastructure works that have been carried out can be clearly determined. It plays a guiding role in rapid post-disaster reconstruction. Since the Huai River floods cannot be eradicated temporarily, the People's Party has an obligation to minimize the damage caused by the floods.

But along the way, Yue Wang will ask every person. This one can not make people feel a little regretful.

The crowd stood on the edge of the land that was about to be reclaimed, but they heard the obvious sound of a gong.

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

"It's a big ploughing competition. These are the ones that come out to challenge you to see how much farm work a person can do at most. The 5,000 acres of land have already been preliminarily reclaimed once. This time before planting cotton, I will be willing to do it again. More than 1,000 of our troops were out, and there were hundreds of civilians. Two thousand people, one person can plane two and a half acres a day. Dig deep again tomorrow and you can start planting. In five days, the cotton fields will be planted. ”

As soon as he finished speaking, the gong sounded again. I saw that these young men had already picked up their hoes and started to work. Dust danced on the ground, and Saturn splashed everywhere. Chang Hengfang suddenly pointed to 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 who of the two brothers will win the plowing competition. ”

Chang Hengfang was completely speechless. He knew Zhou Yisheng, and when he was in the New Army, Zhou Yisheng was very wilted although he was a person. If it weren't for the fact that Chang Hengfang was very familiar with Zhou Yisheng, he would never have recognized that the first young soldier in this farmland was that Zhou Yisheng.