Yao Hongye indeed did not choose to stay in the base area. When Chen Ke asked Yao Hongye whether he wanted to continue prospecting or act as a messenger, Yao Hongye chose the task of delivering the letter to the Tongmenghui without hesitation. He sincerely hoped to accomplish the "big event" of delivering the letter. Since Yao Hongye would rather be a "postman," Chen Ke didn't force him. Chen Ke also had this mentality before, thinking that participating in a "big event" and undertaking one of the "links" made him complacent. In fact, honestly doing the job of the mining school is a more promising job in both the long and short term, and can even be said to be an extremely decent job. But when Chen Ke was young, he always chose things that seemed "radiant" but were actually meaningless.

Perhaps because of the change in mentality, Chen Ke actually couldn't remember why he was so foolish back then. Perhaps because he was no longer the original Chen Ke, he simply couldn't reconstruct the thinking mode of that year. The only thing he could remember was that Chen Ke was lazy at that time. Hard study took too much time. What Chen Ke wanted to do was to stand in that illusory light, absolutely refusing to do things down-to-earth.

Before sending Yao Hongye away, Chen Ke had sent an intelligence agent to deliver another letter to the Restoration Society. Departing at the same time as the intelligence agent were notification letters to senior cadres of various key departments in the base area. After dealing with all this, Chen Ke began to deal with the prospecting issue.

Chen Ke had never been in contact with prospecting. What he knew was just some news seen from news and character introductions. The impression left by Chinese prospectors on Chen Ke was just two words: "Hard work." Running outside all day, not going home for years. Chen Ke knew two students of Li Siguang at home. These two were unmarried all their lives and dedicated everything to the prospecting cause. As senior experts in prospecting work, ending up unmarried for life shows how hard their work was.

Mr. Li Siguang was not only a scholar with excellent practical work ability, but Chen Ke recalled that he also proposed many theories conforming to China's actual characteristics regarding the characteristics of China's minerals. Chen Ke didn't know these theoretical knowledges at all, and there was only one discussion about the characteristics of China's mining industry on the forum.

Facing the students of the mining school and the soldiers of the prospecting unit selected by Chen Ke, Chen Ke delivered the first discourse on mining knowledge in his life. "Students, everyone knows that China has a long history. One of the results of a long history is that many minerals easily mined in the shallow surface layer were used up long ago. Most of what remains on the surface now are minerals that were not easy to utilize with the smelting technology and smelting process at that time. So, the degree of your hard work can be imagined. You have to mine underground. You have to run in inaccessible mountainous areas for years. This is the reality facing prospectors. Are you mentally prepared for this?"

The officers and soldiers of the prospecting unit answered in unison, "We are prepared!"

Chen Ke nodded with satisfaction. After all, they were comrades in the army; their organization and discipline were different. This prospecting unit was organized two months ago. Chen Ke's map marked a mining area in the Longqiao area of Lujiang. This unit had already begun trying to drill mineral veins in that area. Chen Ke watched Antarctic science and education films and also saw the mode of drilling ice layers in the movie "2012." The drilling equipment was a power-driven Luoyang shovel. If they felt there might be a mineral vein underground in a certain area, they would start drilling down and analyze the extracted rock strata. If they were lucky enough to drill it, they would continue drilling nearby until the location and size of the mineral vein were determined.

Chen Ke felt this required special equipment and very wear-resistant drill bits. The base area didn't have any of these high-tech equipments now, so they could only rely on digging holes. Digging holes couldn't be done straight up and down. Not to mention anything else, without ventilation equipment, it was impossible to drill a large cave. Drilling personnel would suffocate to death after going down tens of meters deep. The People's Party had experience in digging coal mines, but no experience in digging metal mines. The general prospecting mode was to find a mountain that might have mineral veins, feel there might be hope here according to scientific or unscientific modes, and then find a place mostly at the foot of the mountain to dig a hole obliquely downward, support the tunnel walls with beams, and keep digging until digging into the mineral vein or deciding not to continue digging down.

Prospecting involves large investment and complex geological conditions. Heaven knows if you dig directly into a geological water-bearing zone. A geological water-bearing zone is an area similar to the source of well water. If you dig into such a place, you can only consider yourself unlucky. Water flows out rolling, completely submerging the mine tunnel. Either wait for the water to dry up, then pump out the water accumulated in the mine tunnel and continue digging down. Or only re-select a site to dig a new tunnel. Chen Ke didn't know how risky the prospecting industry was before. He just combined scattered knowledge with mining accident news, and could imagine why it was said back then that if prospecting succeeded, one would become rich immediately, and if prospecting failed, one would be bankrupt immediately.

Whether the People's Party was "rich" showed its advantage at this time. What prospectors fear most is not finding ore, and secondly, after finding ore, the minerals are taken away by others. So they have to smooth relationships and possess an armed force. Also involved are many interest relationships. The cost of these is so huge that ordinary merchants simply cannot bear it.

The base area is different. The base area controls political power, financial power, and possesses strong armed forces. There is only the possibility of the People's Party exterminating other mine owners and local forces. If other forces blindly want to snatch the People's Party's minerals, the People's Party doesn't mind killing a chicken to scare the monkeys. This unified huge force ensures the minimization of internal consumption.

When Chen Ke was really determined to do this, no one in the base area dared to disobey orders. Moreover, labor in the base area is cheap, and various materials belong to unified planning and will not be increased in price layer by layer during the purchase process. The accounting calculation formula is almost simplified to the level of "grain = labor." Chen Ke ordered to dig a hole at a 15-degree angle without saying a word, and dug a tunnel more than ninety meters deep in two months. Chen Ke also spared no expense to provide a coal gas internal combustion engine as power for ventilation equipment. In these two months, except for not knowing what the ore looked like, like Chen Ke, the prospecting unit already had a certain level of blasting and drilling exploration shafts. The various stones dug out piled up like a mountain. And luck was good; they didn't dig into a water-bearing zone.

Those students from the mining school didn't have such experience; most of them were at a loss. Students never thought about field work problems. For them, the whole of prospecting was everything they saw and learned in school. Running in mountainous areas for years was simply beyond the students' imagination.

Facing this group of confused students, Chen Ke cast his gaze on Cheng Xuhu and Linghu Guang. In the exam designed by Chen Ke, these two people really ranked in the top two as Chen Ke expected. Cheng Xuhu's score was even higher than Linghu Guang's. The exam content was simple: identifying ores and answering questions about metal properties. Only these two people recognized all the ore specimens carried, and only these two people didn't have a blank look on their faces. Cheng Xuhu looked a bit worried, while Linghu Guang had an indifferent expression.

Chen Ke was not prepared to incite the students' enthusiasm. Ideological work was the responsibility of the political commissar of the prospecting unit. What Chen Ke had to do was explain the work content. "I don't ask you to come up with any mineral theory now. I ask you to identify ores for me now. The hardest part of prospecting is finding where the mineral veins are. I already know where part of the mineral veins are. What you have to do is find out the depth of these mineral veins and the composition of each section of the mineral veins. Prospecting requires blasting, drilling, and drilling to collect samples. These tasks are completed by the specialized blasting team of our troops. In addition to learning this knowledge at work, fellow students also have to analyze samples. I see these knowledges are taught in textbooks. Besides analyzing samples, you also have to collect specimens. This is a meticulous and tedious job, and it is also a glorious job. Please do it well, students."

No one among the students spoke. Chen Ke's purposeful imperative lecture put great pressure on the students. Linghu Guang summoned up courage to ask, "Chairman Chen, how long do we have to work?"

"Prepare to work for five years first." Chen Ke answered without thinking.

Linghu Guang hurriedly said, "But the contract the school signed with us only says prospecting for three years."

"From now on, you don't need to go back to school anymore. Just work in the troops. Adding up, it's about five years." Chen Ke had seen the syllabus; students studied for three years. Now they have studied for more than a year. The remaining more than a year plus the three-year contract adds up to almost five years.

Hearing this answer, Linghu Guang fell silent.

"The troops will prepare today, and everyone will set off tomorrow." Chen Ke made such a conclusion.

With the troops responsible for commanding the students, Chen Ke was very relieved. In fact, the prospecting unit didn't need to go into the deep mountains and old forests at all; just prospecting near Lujiang was enough.

After solving the problem of the prospecting team, Chen Ke felt a big stone lifted from his heart. He began to discuss the military deployment in the Anqing area and the work arrangement for troops entering the Dabie Mountain area with the Military Commission. Many people in the troops were still visiting relatives, so the military meeting was not only a strategic deployment but also included a short-term training class. Cadres from low to high levels in various units had to undergo targeted training. It is estimated that this training will take two weeks.

Three days after the prospecting team set off, they sent someone back in a hurry to report that the prospecting unit had dug into a pyrite vein at 92 meters of the prospecting tunnel opened in these two months. Hearing this news, Chen Ke didn't know what to say. The one reporting was the deputy captain of the prospecting team. He was once eclectic with joy for this, but the excitement was worn away while running all the way on the road. Now the deputy captain was occupied by a feeling of helplessness. The students compared with the ore specimens and roughly determined it was pyrite. But the mine tunnel wasn't big originally. How big the entire vein was, where it extended, and what the content was, the students were confused, and the officers and soldiers of the prospecting unit were also confused. What they wondered most was how Chairman Chen Ke knew there was a vein there.

The cadres of the People's Party would make full preparations before reporting. Although everyone felt they must report the good news to Chairman Chen Ke under surprise, they knew nothing about how to continue after reporting the good news. How to build an iron mine, Chen Ke didn't know either. The People's Party had experience in digging coal mines, but coal hardness is low, and shovels and mine scoops can deal with it. The hardness of pyrite is much greater than coal. Chen Ke didn't know how to crush these iron ores and transport them out.

Chen Ke couldn't let the comrades wait in vain. He calmed down and said to the deputy captain, "Everyone continue prospecting first; don't slack off. Check information; the books provided by the mining school this time are our source of knowledge. The organization will go to Daye Iron Mine to get some technical personnel. Don't worry too much; there will be a way."

After speaking, Chen Ke asked the deputy captain to take all the prospecting books away and organize the troops to study by themselves. He felt it wasn't enough, so he asked people to transfer some chemistry teachers and coal mine technical personnel from Fengtai County to study together.

After the deputy captain left, the comrades of the Military Commission present were also at a loss. Hua Xiongmao looked at Chen Ke's frowned brows and asked, "Chairman Chen, can we smelt iron ourselves?"

"Far from it. I know nothing about prospecting either; we can only rely on the comrades' own efforts." Chen Ke told the truth.

If even Chen Ke was unclear about a problem, the comrades couldn't be optimistic either. Hua Xiongmao, who originally wanted to join the fun, stopped talking. Other comrades dared not act rashly.

Chen Ke knocked on the table. "Don't consider this problem; everyone continue to talk about the defensive deployment in the Anqing area."

After Anqing fell into the hands of the People's Party again, the opinion in the Military Commission was surprisingly unified: Anqing was too tricky; it would be better to give it up. But since the Yue Wang Society was driven away by the Hubei New Army last time, their reputation in Anqing was already ruined. If Anqing was handed over to the Yue Wang Society again, not to mention the Yue Wang Society would definitely be completely destroyed, the People's Party would also be implicated this time.

Chen Ke proposed an idea: simply promote elections in Anqing and elect their own local government. But Chen Ke also explained his worries. He couldn't predict whether this "local government" could be established and how long it could last. Including Chen Ke, everyone hoped Anqing would become a place to consume the Manchu Qing troops. It would be great if the Manchu Qing had the idea of never giving up until occupying Anqing. The problem was that looking around the surrounding areas, no Qing army with such courage was found.

Needless to say for the Hubei New Army, they only had ten thousand people left now. Defending Wuhan was already fearful; it was absolutely impossible to send troops to Anqing. The Jiangnan New Army was now made paranoid by the Restoration Society in the south. It would be good if the Jiangnan New Army could maintain public security in Jinling (Nanjing) now. If New Armies further away wanted to reach Anqing, they had to defeat the Anhui base area first.

Although Chen Ke hoped comrades could come up with good ideas, the result of the discussion was still to launch the Anqing local election first. At least a "Maintenance Committee" had to be created to maintain the normal operation of Anqing. The troops of the 1st and 4th Regiments occupying Anqing spent a whole month cleaning up the garbage in Anqing city. Since there was no landfill technology in this era, according to the report of Anqing garbage cleaning, half of the Yangtze River surface outside Anqing was covered with various garbage dumped into it.

The troops couldn't be responsible for garbage cleaning when they had nothing to do, but the new government had no money to hire cleaners. The expense of occupying a city and maintaining its operation was definitely not a small amount. When politics and economy were mixed together, Chen Ke dared not make a judgment easily. This problem dragged on and on; after talking for three days, there was no final solution.

Other comrades couldn't participate in the discussion because they didn't understand. Hua Xiongmao understood more, and his worries were actually no less than Chen Ke's. Chen Ke felt he couldn't drag on anymore. He proposed a final vote. Everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief; vote then. Solve the hot potato first. Just before voting, Zhang Yu, who hadn't spoken much, suddenly said, "Chairman Chen, I want to go to Anqing to preside over the work."

The comrades of the Military Commission were shocked after hearing this. Zhang Yu actually had such courage.

"How many people do you want?" Hua Xiongmao asked urgently. What he wanted most was to withdraw the troops back.

Zhang Yu said, "One battalion is enough."

Chen Ke didn't think much. "Comrade Zhang Yu, talk to me alone after the meeting."

While the People's Party was acting, Yao Hongye was also acting in a hurry. He wanted to rush back to Shanghai as soon as possible. Yao Hongye knew Sun Yat-sen when he was in Japan, but he didn't have the chance to talk about revolution with Sun Yat-sen freely. Mr. Sun Yat-sen usually either took his Japanese concubine around to contact Japanese officials and rich people, or talked about revolution with Chinese revolutionary leaders in Japan. In fact, he didn't have much time to discuss specific steps of the revolution in depth with ordinary overseas students.

The continuous military victories of the People's Party made the Tongmenghui very excited for a time, but when asked who the leader of the People's Party was, the Tongmenghui was not clear. The contradiction between the Restoration Society and the Tongmenghui had always been deep. Although Cai Yuanpei, the leader of the Restoration Society, had inclined towards the Tongmenghui, the backbones of the Restoration Society responsible for specific revolutionary work had a tendency to run counter to Cai Yuanpei. The Tongmenghui also asked Cai Yuanpei what kind of organization the People's Party was. Apart from getting the news that the leader of the People's Party was a returned student named Chen Ke, Cai Yuanpei actually had no other news to provide.

After asking around, the Tongmenghui gathered some information. For example, the leaders of the People's Party were actually Yan Fu and Yan Fu's disciple Chen Ke. Chen Tianhua did not join the People's Party. There was also some scattered news. Although the People's Party already possessed huge military power in Anhui, the Tongmenghui couldn't find a way to establish contact with the People's Party. This was an extremely surprising thing for the Tongmenghui. So they contacted Yao Hongye.

And as soon as Yao Hongye returned to Shanghai, he learned a piece of news. The Restoration Society announced its withdrawal from the Tongmenghui.

The purpose of the Restoration Society was very similar to the content of the Chinese Tongmenghui's "Expel the Tartars, Restore China," indicating that the two were consistent in their anti-Manchu stance. "Restoration and Alliance, separation and combination varied before and after, purposes were not very different, both aimed at racial revolution." Therefore, when the Tongmenghui was established, some Restoration Society members in Tokyo, Japan, joined the Tongmenghui.

But the political program of the Tongmenghui also included "Equalize land rights, establish a Republic," which was the key for the Tongmenghui to be different from old-style secret societies and become a modern political group. Revolutionaries headed by Sun Yat-sen advocated establishing a bourgeois democratic republic in China after overthrowing the Qing rule. On this point, the Restoration Society did not agree. The Restoration Society advocated restoring the Han house and establishing a regime ruled by Han people. Xu Xilin, Tao Chengzhang, and even Zhang Taiyan all had different degrees of imperial ideology. Tao Chengzhang once said: one of the leaders of the Restoration Society: Cai Yuanpei "Revolution is rebellion... changing dynasties." Zhang Taiyan believed in "On the Affirmation and Negation of Representation" that "one emperor holding power is better than constitutionalism; there is nothing bad." On the issue of revolutionary purpose, there were serious differences and antagonisms between the Restoration Society and the Tongmenghui. In addition, in terms of the mode of revolutionary operation, the Restoration Society advocated "besides propagating revolution, mainly lies in the exertion and implementation of revolution," and "democratic politics can only be implemented after seizing power by violence"; believing that "although the Tongmenghui also attaches importance to armed revolution, its leadership resides abroad mostly, so propaganda is more than exertion," and did not agree with this.

Due to different interests from the Tongmenghui purpose, "the gap was hard to sew," the Restoration Society withdrew from the Tongmenghui not long after and continued to carry out activities independently in the name of the Restoration Society.