When the intelligence provided by Zheng Wenjie was transmitted to the Confidential Section of Fengtai County, Chen Ke was in a meeting. The first phase of the election work was basically completed, and the heads of district committees of various counties and districts returned to the base area first for a summary meeting. Chen Ke should not have been easily disturbed at this time, but the classification of this intelligence was very high. Not only did Zheng Wenjie's report come, but also the report from the Beijing Station. The Beiyang officers who had gathered at the Ministry of Army in Beijing had returned to Tianjin or the Beijing barracks. Moreover, the requisition of ships also appeared in the canal shipping.

The confidential clerk sent the document to the venue, and the staff passed the intelligence to Chen Ke. At this time, Lu Huitian was speaking. "The situation facing Fuyang is mainly that we haven't been able to take root in the countryside. There are still too many areas that cannot be effectively managed. This takes time and cadres. Even in the areas we can enter, many areas have not undergone land reform; only a work team entered the area. Most of the work that can be done is still some health and education. The local people do not cooperate..."

This was actually not just the situation in the Fuyang area. Except for thoroughly controlling the area of Fengtai, Shouzhou, and Wuhe County, the situation in other areas of the People's Party was very complicated. It presented a situation quite similar to the Manchu rule. It was a situation of gradually expanding outward with the county seat and prefecture seat as the center. Now it is not the countryside surrounding the cities at all, but the cities radiating to the countryside. What is most lacking is nothing but cadres.

Yuwen Badu listened to the report and felt fortunate in his heart. If he hadn't taken up the work in Fengtai County but gone to a new area to undertake work like Lu Huitian, he knew he absolutely couldn't do it. Lu Huitian was already a quite capable one in the base area, with seniority and high status, so he dared to frankly admit that the work encountered great problems. But Yuwen Badu thought again; who among those who can be county-level cadres now has shallow seniority and low status?

Because he didn't have the same work experience, Yuwen Badu didn't resonate much with Lu Huitian's work. Chen Ke's act of silently flipping through the stack of newly transmitted documents attracted Yuwen Badu's attention. Watching Chen Ke looking through the documents expressionlessly, Yuwen Badu was very curious about what was written in the documents. Just then, "Cough, cough!" Ren Qiying beside Yuwen Badu coughed twice again.

The meeting level was high, so the doors and windows were closed. Since the base area could produce cigarettes, a considerable number of leading cadres with high work pressure had developed the hobby of smoking. Now the venue was filled with smoke, and Ren Qiying, who didn't smoke, was choked and coughed repeatedly.

Chen Ke raised his hand to ask to speak. Lu Huitian paused to let Chen Ke speak first. "Comrades, let's smoke during the recess. The venue is rolling with thick smoke; what if someone comes in to fight a fire? Either open the windows, and comrades who don't smoke sit upwind."

A burst of good-natured laughter came from the venue. "Which of the two methods do you choose?" Chen Ke asked next.

"The second one." Smokers expressed one after another. Smoking was to relieve pressure. Being so busy all day long, smoking a cigarette to refresh oneself was also a habit hard to get rid of. Comrades who didn't smoke didn't oppose either, so everyone stared at Chen Ke.

"Don't look at me; hurry up and open the windows and change seats." Chen Ke laughed.

After everyone changed seats, due to air circulation and movement, the mood also became much livelier. Chen Ke laughed, "I got news that the Beiyang Army will arrive in Xuzhou within a month at the latest. There's going to be a war."

A loud uproar rang out in the conference hall. Having fought big battles several times, the comrades were no longer as sensitive as before. The tense atmosphere no longer existed. The reason for such a big reaction was that the Beiyang Army disrupted the upcoming People's Congress election work.

Chen Ke laughed, "Comrades, we can't control when the Beiyang Army comes, but we can always control ourselves. Work still has to follow the plan. The matter of the People's Congress continues. If we follow the plan, the People's Congress meeting will have been held before the Beiyang Army arrives in Xuzhou."

Lu Huitian looked at the wide-open windows. "Chairman Chen, should we pay attention to confidentiality work?"

"What we are discussing now is not internal Party work, but administrative work like elections. What is there to keep secret? In the future, when conditions permit, I think these meetings should allow the people to observe. Since we serve the people, the people have the right to know how we serve the people."

Comrades looked at each other in dismay. In a meeting of this level, if some common people sat in to observe, no comrade could accept this practice.

"Observing must have rules; observers certainly cannot speak, and not all content can be observed. Please rest assured about this. Okay, let's not talk about this first. Let me talk about the work of this counter-encirclement campaign. First, the locality and the army cooperate to strengthen walls and clear fields (*Jianbi Qingye*). Help the masses hide grain, and valuable things should also be hidden well. Including where the masses hide after the Manchu Qing comes to avoid Manchu harassment. These all need to be prepared. Of course, *Jianbi Qingye* is voluntary. If the masses are willing to believe that the Manchu Qing will not commit the slightest offense against civilians, let them go. But what should be said, what should be told, what should be advised, we must do ourselves."

When Chen Ke spoke, many people began to record in their notebooks. Those who wrote fast were okay; some were obviously unskilled in writing and recorded very incompletely. They wrote while thinking, their faces red with difficulty.

Slowing down a bit, Chen Ke continued, "Second, land reform and election work must continue to be propagated. We must mobilize the masses and let the masses understand that these policies are sincerely serving the masses and can bring real benefits to everyone."

After saying these, Chen Ke suddenly remembered some words he had neglected before. "Let me add a point. Regarding *Jianbi Qingye*, the Manchu Qing won't come to some areas, so *Jianbi Qingye* doesn't need to be done so urgently. However, we must explain the matter of the Manchu Qing besieging the base area to everyone clearly."

This statement was very surprising. Not too long ago, less than a year ago, when the People's Party first started fighting against the Manchu Qing, Chen Ke paid great attention to blocking news. Not to mention the Manchu Qing attacking, even after a great victory, commendation meetings were only held in the core base area. This time Chen Ke actually asked to inform about this matter throughout the base area. Comrades whose thinking couldn't quite keep up with the situation inevitably began to be confused. The main leaders knew Chen Ke's meaning, especially Lu Huitian, who couldn't help showing a cold smile.

During the noon recess, Lu Huitian found Chen Ke. "Chairman Chen, I want to ask you for a person."

"Who?" Chen Ke asked.

"Can you transfer Comrade Ren Qiying to me to be the Director of the County Party Office?"

"Hehe," Chen Ke laughed, "Why don't you discuss it with Yuwen Badu?"

Lu Huitian also laughed, "Discussing with Yuwen Badu is like asking a tiger for its skin. If you are unwilling to come forward for this matter, then I won't say anything."

"I definitely won't come forward now; there are also many things in Fengtai recently. Moreover, it's not just Fuyang that lacks cadres in our base area. And I am also considering one thing: whether to move the command post to Hefei. If passed through discussion, I will take Comrade Ren Qiying to Hefei."

"Sigh..., it is easy to get a thousand soldiers but hard to find one general." Lu Huitian also sighed.

"Yes, we all have to step up cadre training." Chen Ke expressed profound agreement.

"Chairman Chen, I want to say something. I never understood why you have to be so tired. We are all relieved about the things you handle, but..."

"But I am a bit too dictatorial, right?" Chen Ke laughed.

"I never thought so." Lu Huitian said seriously. "Originally, I thought that when I arrived in Fuyang, the conditions were much better than when we first arrived in Fengtai County. When I really started working, I found it was much harder than when we were in Fengtai County. I really wish there could be a flood in Fuyang now."

"Haha, Comrade Huitian, I know your feeling. When we first started working in Fengtai County, with you comrades here, the work was indeed much easier to do. I look dictatorial now, actually because many comrades still don't know how to work. If I let them do it freely, they will make mistakes. How about your side?"

Lu Huitian didn't think there was anything wrong with Chen Ke's words. He had a rare look of frustration on his face. "Same on my side. Not to mention comrades don't know how to do it; I don't know how to do many things either. Letting them do it freely, they definitely caused trouble. The current situation is very different from when we were in Fengtai. Criticism and self-criticism; I criticize myself every day now. Where is the problem?"

"The problem is that land reform is originally an extremely difficult task. When we were in Fengtai County, the timing, geographical location, and human harmony were all with us, so land reform looked very easy. In fact, it's not like that. I failed to analyze this matter clearly to comrades; this is my work error." Chen Ke spoke his heartfelt words. For Chen Ke, land reform was just a result. Land reform had been completely finished decades before he was born. Discussions and reflections on the Republic's policies were all new policies implemented after the complete completion of land reform. Under such inertial thinking, plus the land reform in Fengtai County encountered no decent resistance at all, Chen Ke forgot with what superior force the Party forcibly promoted land reform after the founding of the People's Republic back then. Later, after local situations were constantly fed back, Chen Ke realized he had made this mistake.

Lu Huitian seemed to have really realized how difficult things were. He laughed, "If land reform cannot proceed, we cannot win over the people. I used to be responsible for the work of the labor camp and felt I was very capable. I could manage tens of thousands of people in perfect order. After arriving in Fuyang and letting me do this job myself, I knew I really couldn't hold on..."

Chen Ke knew exactly what Lu Huitian wanted to say. He immediately responded, "Don't ask me for Comrade Ren Qiying. Even if you ask me, I won't give her to you. Comrade Ren Qiying is particularly good at organizational work; I know it as well as you. When I promoted her, I didn't discuss it with the Organization Department. Now many comrades in Fengtai County still have knots in their hearts. If I give her to you, something will happen. It's not guaranteed that someone will say strange things; I can't do this."

Seeing he couldn't get Ren Qiying, Lu Huitian refused to give up. He said, "Then you have to transfer two more crack soldiers and capable generals to me, otherwise I can't hold on."

Chen Ke was also extremely embarrassed. Where were there so many excellent cadres now? Those who performed well had long been divided up by various departments. If he demanded people forcibly, various departments would absolutely refuse to release people. After thinking for a while, he suddenly remembered a person. "Huitian, are you afraid of Mr. Yan Fu?"

Hearing Yan Fu's name, Lu Huitian was a little timid, but at this time, getting people was the most important thing. He mustered up courage and said, "If I can get people, Mr. Yan Fu can beat or scold me as he pleases."

"He should have outstanding people under him, but they haven't done specific work. High quality doesn't mean work can be done well immediately. You have to understand this point. Also, whether Mr. Yan Fu is willing to recommend to you, I can't guarantee either."

Yan Fu was in charge of the Ministry of Education. The Ministry of Education in this era paid special attention to personal morality and quality levels. The only problem was that most of Yan Fu's subordinates were women. But Lu Huitian could ask for Ren Qiying by name, indicating that he didn't care about gender issues at all. That's why Chen Ke recommended Yan Fu to Lu Huitian.

With this connection, Lu Huitian couldn't sit still anymore. After bidding farewell to Chen Ke, he left happily. As soon as Lu Huitian left, Qi Huishen came in and said as soon as he opened his mouth, "Wenqing, transfer people to me. It's unrealistic to ask you for ten or eight; just give me Comrade Ren Qiying."

Ren Qiying didn't know she was already hot property. She was eating with Yuwen Badu. Yuwen Badu had a question in his heart and couldn't ask it in public, so he pulled Ren Qiying back to the County Committee for lunch. After getting food, he called Ren Qiying to his office to eat and talk. "Director Ren, does our Fengtai County also need to strengthen walls and clear fields (*Jianbi Qingye*)?"

regarding this "question" of Yuwen Badu, Ren Qiying felt it was too childish. Chen Ke actually made it extremely clear long ago, just short of assigning specific work. Although *Jianbi Qingye* is to let the people suffer less loss, there is a real purpose that hasn't come out. Chen Ke hoped to distinguish who followed him and who refused to follow him. Ren Qiying even suspected that Chen Ke planned to start killing on a large scale after winning the Second Counter-Encirclement Campaign. Yuwen Badu only understood what was said and didn't understand what Chen Ke didn't say.

But Ren Qiying dared not guess wildly. After all, this might involve killing people, and large-scale killing at that. The order in Fengtai County had been established, and executing counter-revolutionaries on a large scale again was unrealistic. The only ones who could be executed on a large scale were those who had been locked in jail for a year. Ren Qiying knew this matter involved too much, so she refused to guess on her own initiative. But since Yuwen Badu asked to such an extent, she couldn't say nothing. After thinking about it, Ren Qiying hinted, "If the Second Counter-Encirclement Campaign is won, it must be properly propagated in the base area. At that time, we can do a lot of things."

"Yes, many tasks including conscription, the masses will definitely cooperate more." Yuwen Badu replied.

Ren Qiying knew Yuwen Badu was just at the level of a magistrate in peaceful times, but she couldn't say much more. When Ren Qiying followed the People's Party back then, she really had the consciousness of putting life and death aside. For the interests of the family, Ren Qiying even had the mental preparation to lose her life. Yuwen Badu was not like that. Although he joined the Party early, Yuwen Badu followed the People's Party only because he had nowhere to go. He hadn't experienced the ideological struggle of facing death and stepping forward like Ren Qiying.

"Secretary Yuwen, since there is this task, let's propagate this task. After all, the Manchu Qing knows that Fengtai County is the base camp of our People's Party; they definitely want to fight into Fengtai County. It's not wrong to be prepared. There are so many people here now; retreating is not a simple matter." Ren Qiying said following Yuwen Badu's train of thought.

"True, Director Ren has to work hard with me on this matter." Yuwen Badu said with a slight frown. Thinking of carrying out *Jianbi Qingye* on the scale of hundreds of thousands of people in Fengtai County, Yuwen Badu felt a lot of pressure.

"I will work hard." Ren Qiying replied. Although saying so, Ren Qiying felt very helpless in her heart. If Fengtai County really wanted to *Jianbi Qingye*, how could it be Yuwen Badu's turn to come forward? Chen Ke would have issued orders personally long ago. Fengtai County gathered many units that were directly under the central government. Not to mention anything else, the arsenal of the National Defense Science and Technology Commission was in Fengtai County. And You Gou, the person in charge of the National Defense Science and Technology Commission, was also a member of the Standing Committee of the Central Committee, whose status and influence were only above Yuwen Badu. If *Jianbi Qingye* was really needed, who would lead whom was not certain yet. But these words could absolutely not be spoken. Ren Qiying cleared all thoughts irrelevant to work from her mind and then buried her head to start eating.

After hearing Ren Qiying's explanation, Yuwen Badu felt much more settled in his heart. After relaxing, he could also focus on eating. Of course, if Yuwen Badu knew that during the time he got food and ate, the persons in charge of three counties had already run to Chen Ke to ask for Ren Qiying, he would immediately feel like sitting on pins and needles now.

The reason Ren Qiying became famous was because of work. She improved the workflow of the County Party Office. As a member of the bureaucratic system, Ren Qiying's practice was unanimously praised and valued by revolutionary comrades, which was not easy.

The bureaucratic system has never received any good reviews, which is basically the same in countries around the world where the central government can effectively lead the local government. Bad reviews of bureaucrats are not divided by political stance. People in socialist countries scold bureaucrats, and people in capitalist countries scold them too. Even in this Manchu era, scolding bureaucrats is also the most basic norm.

Bureaucrats actually felt quite wronged. In fact, every bureaucrat doing specific work didn't have absolute power in their hands; power was dispersed in the entire bureaucratic system. Not to mention other political systems, just in the government system of the People's Party, power was also quite dispersed for effective management. Taking the housing application problem Ren Qiying encountered most frequently recently as an example, it was impossible for Ren Qiying or the staff of the department responsible for housing management to decide who to give a house to and who not to give a house to with a slap of the table. The current land system has determined that apart from the three *mu* of land for the people, the remaining land is directly owned and controlled by the state. Whether you have a rural *hukou* or an urban *hukou*, you live in concentrated housing after the state builds houses. Houses cannot be wasted there after building a lot. Leaving aside those with unit housing, those whose units do not provide housing have to apply to the government for housing.

Applying for housing must meet the application standards. Bureaucrats sitting in offices cannot follow the common people everywhere to investigate like detectives, so stamping official seals has become a necessary means.

Moreover, with the economic development of the base area, other departments also have their own scope of authority. The so-called bureaucratic style cannot but be established. The People's Party also tried its best to propagate government functions, but when the common people didn't use this knowledge, who would listen to you talking about a lot of content fundamentally unrelated to themselves like fantasy tales? Not preparing at ordinary times, naturally not knowing who to find when handling affairs.

And the essence of the bureaucratic system has never been responsible to the people. The bureaucratic system is responsible for state power, so the construction direction of the bureaucratic system is "to provide the highest service efficiency for the operation of state system regulations." The proportion of people in this system is not particularly large. So the style of the bureaucratic system is meticulous and rigorous, and it simply does not exist to make the people feel happy and comfortable. Even an organization like the People's Party cannot make any essential changes to this.

Now that the government is in its infancy, the bureaucratic systems everywhere have suffered a lot under the program of "serving the people." To improve work efficiency, Ren Qiying formulated new regulations for the Fengtai County Party Office. All office personnel must take turns doing front desk reception work. And leading cadres take double shifts.

The reason for this regulation is simple. Office personnel are more familiar with the organizational structure of the county committee and know which departments need to be responsible for which work. Their responsibility for reception can greatly improve reception efficiency. Ren Qiying grasped the main point. Now not only the common people don't know the operation mode of this new government, but in fact, including various government departments themselves, they are not completely clear about what exactly they should do and shouldn't do. After rotating reception, the understanding and comprehension of government comrades on their own work deepened greatly, and persons in charge at all levels could also experience the hardships of grassroots comrades when facing the people directly.

Not only improving the bureaucratic style, Ren Qiying also effectively improved the efficiency of meetings. Comrades faced tedious work and ignorant people all day long. Doing too much reception work would naturally make one irritable.

Every time Ren Qiying held a meeting, she discussed with comrades how to fight against irritable mentality. Naturally, she wouldn't talk about bullshit like "carrying forward revolutionary enthusiasm" at the meeting. Ren Qiying said clearly, "It is impossible not to be upset. Only by solving the masses' life problems more effectively can comrades' work be easier. To solve the masses' life problems, we have to rely on propaganda and guidance."

In addition to encouraging comrades ideologically, caring for comrades, and cheering up comrades. Ren Qiying further improved the bureaucratic working methods. Originally, comrades sat in offices. Now, except for personnel who must stay in the office, other county government staff began to personally lead the masses to handle various procedures. After the physical work intensity increased, Ren Qiying adopted the method of shortening working hours. Reception of new work would be terminated one hour in advance every day. After solving the problems of the people who had already been numbered, there would still be some time before getting off work. Everyone had to summarize the work content handled that day. In addition to summarizing the work content of the day, see what work was more today, and what work was more a few days ago. Why did these things related to people's life and work increase recently? Was a new factory opened? Or was some new policy implemented? In general, members of the bureaucratic system could basically grasp the relationship between policies and the people.

This was a remarkable thing. Not only was it a direct link between policies and their impact on people's lives, but it also gave the Party a more scientific basis for summarizing the influence of its own work. The statistics department could even use charts and curves to calculate the development direction after policy formulation. Although this curve needed to be constantly modified, having a relatively scientific prediction was always better than having none by several streets.

After establishing this train of thought, comrades working in the government could even effectively predict what would happen based on experience. After knowing in advance what annoying things they would encounter, people would always be more likely to be calm. Coupled with targeted advance organization and guidance propaganda, the operation speed and efficiency of Fengtai County's bureaucratic system greatly improved. People's satisfaction also improved greatly.

The People's Party stresses practical work. After Ren Qiying's practice was made into a document and released to various regions for propaganda, the persons in charge of various regions praised it greatly. At this time when excellent cadres, especially bureaucratic cadres, were extremely scarce, there was not just one or two people who had designs on Ren Qiying.

Ren Qiying didn't know she was being targeted. She finished eating and washed the bowl. There was still a while before the afternoon meeting. She went back to the dormitory to set the alarm clock. This was an alarm clock she bought with nearly a month's salary. A new product launched by the base area. The timekeeping was definitely not accurate, but the twenty-minute nap time could be guaranteed relatively accurately. Setting the alarm clock, Ren Qiying lay down and fell asleep.