The plaques at the gate of the Anhui Governor's Yamen had been replaced by two new ones: "Anqing Municipal Committee of the People's Party" on the left and "Anqing Municipal People's Government" on the right. However, both plaques were very crude, just logs casually brushed with varnish and then written with names by someone with good handwriting. Zhang Yu, the Mayor of Anqing, didn't take these two plaques too seriously himself. As the most forward outpost of the People's Party, Anqing City now had only one battalion stationed. This battalion was a full-strength four-four system unit with a total of one thousand people. Including Zhang Yu, no one in the unit felt that these one thousand people could hold Anqing by force. It was no secret that the Hubei New Army would attack again. The troops knew this very well. But the troops didn't have the idea of quitting. The Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army naturally had its own practices and style. The troops had already formulated retreat routes and plans. After determining the retreat route, the troops carried out their work without any worries.

Under Zhang Yu's organization, this battalion was not so much a garrison as a work team. Restore order and operate city life. Zhang Yu and the comrades worked enthusiastically and with relish. Since returning to Anqing, the first thing restored was urban hygiene, and then the dock resumed operation at least. Although the number of merchants decreased greatly, the life order in Anqing returned to normal anyway. Next, the People's Party opened cooperatives and established the Anqing Municipal Bank. Relying on grain transported from outside and the issuance of Renminbi, life in Anqing could also be maintained. Anqing City, which had experienced war three times in the past six months, finally managed to operate normally.

Now within the People's Party, Zhang Yu undoubtedly had the largest office. The office of the Anhui Governor was now occupied by Zhang Yu and the Municipal Party Secretary. Early in the morning, Zhang Yu arrived at the office. He had an important job today, which was the task of handing over the wounded soldiers of the Hubei New Army. In the Battle of Hefei, the People's Party captured many wounded soldiers. Those who couldn't hold on had died, and those who could hold on were completely out of danger. Now that a war was about to break out, the People's Party sent these wounded soldiers to Anqing, and then Zhang Yu sent them across the Yangtze River, thus completing the repatriation work.

Although Anqing claimed to have complete Party and government teams, in fact, no one took this seriously. Zhang Yu served as the Mayor of Anqing and the Minister of the Armed Forces of Anqing, while the Municipal Party Secretary was Battalion Political Commissar Lu Zhengping. These two sets of teams were completely the military team putting on the title of civil institutions. Since the main leaders were all soldiers, there was naturally no such tenderness when discussing repatriation issues.

"There is only one company of troops escorting the captives. Should we keep this company?" Lu Zhengping asked. Although his current status was actually higher than Zhang Yu's, Lu Zhengping was still not used to giving orders to his old boss. When discussing problems, he involuntarily centered on Zhang Yu.

Zhang Yu replied, "I have already sent a report to the Military Commission. We will know when we wait for the Military Commission's reply." When war could break out at any time, even just one more company might have a different impact on the war situation.

"In addition, it is said that some ashes of the war dead were sent this time. Where should the families set up the mourning hall?" Lu Zhengping was engaged in political commissar work after all, and he had sufficient sensitivity to these civil affairs works. The People's Party didn't hide anything. Before this repatriation of captives, the People's Party specially sent several captured Hubei New Army officers and soldiers to Wuhan to notify Zhao Erxun, the Governor-General of Huguang who had only been in office for a few months. And let them inform Zhang Biao, the Commander of the Eighth Division of the Hubei New Army. Hoping they could send ships to pick up these New Army officers and soldiers.

Neither the military nor the government of Hubei responded. Instead, many families of captured Hubei New Army soldiers rushed to Anqing, preparing to pick up their relatives. The People's Party arranged for them to live collectively in the Ma Ying barracks in the west of the city. Of course, many spies of the Hubei New Army mixed in with these people. The People's Party had caught many people carrying guns, but these people insisted they were relatives after being caught. After confiscating their guns, the People's Party still allowed them to live in the barracks.

Facing this memorial problem, Zhang Yu replied, "Let them set up their own mourning halls in Ma Ying. By the way, notify the merchants in Anqing who engage in funeral business to prepare to sell paper money, incense, and candles. They are not allowed to raise prices."

After discussing some details for a while, the two felt there were basically no problems, so Lu Zhengping went out to arrange work.

In Anqing city, besides the People's Party, there was another political force. They were the Yue Wang Society returning to Anqing. Now the reputation of the Yue Wang Society in Anqing was very low. The people of Anqing remembered the trouble brought by the Yue Wang Society vividly. Except for brothels and casinos, no one was willing to pay attention to them. And this time Chen Duxiu and others strictly enforced the discipline of the Yue Wang Society. Any member of the Yue Wang Society was absolutely not allowed to visit prostitutes or gamble. As a result, the Yue Wang Society was completely ignored in Anqing now. Chen Duxiu was not discouraged; he actively asked to undertake work. So he was assigned the task of guarding the families of the Hubei New Army temporarily living in Ma Ying.

More than four hundred people of the Yue Wang Society were divided into three shifts, guarding the key points of Ma Ying and patrolling day and night. It was Chen Duxiu's shift in the morning. He led the patrol team out for inspection. Halfway through, Bai Wenwei and Fan Chuanjia joined the team with a few people. Chen Duxiu knew they must have something, so he slowed down his pace. Sure enough, Bai Wenwei pulled Chen Duxiu. "Mr. Chen, news came from the Tongmenghui. Mr. Sun has gone to Nanyang, saying he wants to rebuild the Tongmenghui headquarters in Nanyang."

"Rebuild?" Chen Duxiu was very surprised by this word. Literally speaking, this word meant that the headquarters of the Tongmenghui was destroyed. Even if the headquarters of the Tongmenghui no longer remained in Japan, it could only be said to be a "transfer." Did the Tongmenghui really fall apart? Although the Yue Wang Society withdrew from the Tongmenghui, Chen Duxiu still paid close attention to the Tongmenghui. "What exactly happened?" Chen Duxiu asked.

Bai Wenwei's face looked very bad. He took out two letters. "This is what I received today."

The first letter was from Sun Yat-sen. In the letter, Sun Yat-sen vigorously praised the contribution of the Yue Wang Society in "initiating revolutionary forces to occupy the provincial capital," followed by some words about continuing sincere cooperation.

The second letter was jointly signed by Huang Xing and Song Jiaoren. The letter said that the Huaxinghui originally active in Lianghu was re-established. As "neighbors," they hoped to cooperate fully with the Yue Wang Society.

Chen Duxiu was a smart man. He had guessed that Sun Yat-sen had parted ways with Huang Xing and Song Jiaoren. Sighing slightly, Chen Duxiu put away the letters.

"Mr. Chen, what does the letter say?" Xu Youfeng, who was following Chen Duxiu, asked.

"Read it yourself." Chen Duxiu didn't want to speak ill of the Tongmenghui. He handed the letter to Xu Youfeng.

"Mr. Chen, if the Tongmenghui moves to Nanyang, what should we do? Cooperate with Mr. Huang Xing?" Fan Chuanjia had read the letter and asked somewhat anxiously.

"Company Commander Fan, since we decided to cooperate with the People's Party, let's not provoke other forces." Chen Duxiu replied. His words were already very impolite. And Bai Wenwei simply glared at Fan Chuanjia. After returning to Anqing this time, some people in the Yue Wang Society were originally quite honest. But seeing that the People's Party only left one battalion of troops in Anqing, and the number of people in the Yue Wang Society reached four hundred again. Those who were originally unconvinced with the People's Party began to have thoughts in their hearts again. Fan Chuanjia was a representative of them.

"Grand Commander, why should we be under the People's Party?" Although Fan Chuanjia knew this was unrealistic, he couldn't help complaining, "Grand Commander, you have outstanding prestige in Anhui; you should be the Mayor of Anqing anyway."

"What if I become the Mayor of Anqing? Let the Hubei New Army drive me away again?" Chen Duxiu asked.

Now Fan Chuanjia was silent. The Hubei New Army would attack sooner or later. This news was not a secret. If the People's Party withdrew, the Yue Wang Society would absolutely not stay alone to defend Anqing to the death. When there were thousands of people, the Yue Wang Society couldn't hold Anqing; now with four hundred people, it was even more impossible to hold.

While talking, a messenger of the People's Party ran over from a distance. The messenger brought news that the wounded soldiers of the Hubei New Army had arrived in Anqing, and Zhang Yu asked the Yue Wang Society to prepare to receive the wounded soldiers. After the messenger ran away, Xu Youfeng returned the letter to Chen Duxiu. Everyone didn't say much anymore and went towards Ma Ying. At the camp gate, Xu Youfeng took an opportunity to leave Chen Duxiu's side. He called over a member of the Yue Wang Society and instructed him for a while. That person quietly left Ma Ying.

Zhang Yu might be the only person in the entire People's Party who cared about the fate of the Tongmenghui. He had been collecting news about the Tongmenghui. This was not because Zhang Yu cared about "revolutionary comrades." The Yue Wang Society once joined the Tongmenghui. Even today when they announced their withdrawal from the Tongmenghui and cooperated fully with the People's Party, there were still many people in the Yue Wang Society who had illusions about the Tongmenghui. And although the current Yue Wang Society was spurned by the citizens of Anqing City, Zhang Yu, as the Mayor of Anqing City, still dared not underestimate the Yue Wang Society. After all, the People's Party had only one battalion in Anqing, while the Yue Wang Society now had nearly four hundred people.

Since the Yue Wang Society returned to Anqing, many people who had left the Yue Wang Society returned. Those who defected to the People's Party were sent to Hefei by Zhang Yu. Some former Yue Wang Society members were unwilling to go, so these people chose to rejoin the Yue Wang Society. The number of members of the Yue Wang Society recovered somewhat. Of course, some members of the Yue Wang Society "returned to the Yue Wang Society" under Zhang Yu's arrangement. Their task was to provide information to Zhang Yu. Xu Youfeng was the person in charge among this group of people. Sending someone to deliver the latest news to Zhang Yu, Xu Youfeng found Chen Duxiu again and began to get busy.

Some of these families waiting for the Hubei New Army soldiers had arrived for five or six days, and some had just arrived. Hearing that their relatives were about to arrive, everyone gathered at the camp gate with apprehension. The People's Party provided a list to the Hubei military and government, but obviously, Hubei did not publish these lists. The families learned the news that their relatives were captured and repatriated through those soldiers. But as to who survived and who died, they only saw the roster after arriving in Anqing.

Seeing the names of relatives who were still alive on the roster, their families were naturally overjoyed. Those families who saw that their relatives had died in battle cried loudly at that time, but they held the hope that the People's Party made a mistake. Hearing that relatives were coming, no matter whose family they were, they had anxious looks on their faces and stretched their necks to look.

When the long queue of wounded soldiers finally appeared in sight, the families couldn't help but want to rush up. The members of the Yue Wang Society immediately lined up to block the families preparing to rush out. "Don't be chaotic, don't be chaotic." The soldiers of the Yue Wang Society shouted. They managed to block the families with difficulty, but dense running sounds came from behind. The people of the Yue Wang Society turned their heads and saw the officers and soldiers of the Hubei New Army running quickly. After entering the city, they were told that some people's families came to meet them. Most of them thought this was a joke played by the People's Party. Unexpectedly, seeing the figures of familiar relatives from afar, the soldiers were ecstatic in their hearts. After experiencing that cruel and bloody battle, they really didn't expect to see their relatives so soon. Seeing some people with guns blocking their relatives, they couldn't care about so much anymore, and everyone ran towards their relatives.

"Make way." Seeing the situation was uncontrollable, Chen Duxiu shouted hurriedly.

The people of the Yue Wang Society hurriedly dodged to the side. The two streams of people rushed together directly like this.

Everyone was looking for their relatives. Relatives reunited were happy, calling father and mother, calling brother, calling pet names, jumping and laughing. Those who didn't find their relatives temporarily couldn't help walking around in the crowd, asking if their family members had come when seeing acquaintances and neighbors.

In this jubilant atmosphere, someone suddenly began to cry loudly. Those were the relatives who confirmed that their loved ones had died in battle beginning to cry bitterly. Watching this scene where pain and joy coexisted, both the people of the Yue Wang Society and the comrades of the People's Party had mixed feelings.

Those who could run from Hubei to Anhui were from families not short of money. Their number was actually limited. At least more than half of the New Army soldiers had no one to pick them up. Watching others' family reunions, these Hubei New Army soldiers felt extremely uncomfortable in their hearts.

Seeing everyone had met almost enough, the leader of the People's Party shouted with a megaphone: "Brothers of the Hubei New Army, elders of Hubei. We have sent people to notify the Governor-General of Huguang and Commander Zhang Biao of the New Army Eighth Division, asking them to send ships to pick everyone up. Now the ship has not arrived yet. But we cannot let everyone stay here for long. Those who want to cross the river now, we have ships to send you. If you want to go back via Jiangbei, please hit the road."

Hearing this, the faces of many New Army families changed. They hurriedly grabbed their newly reunited relatives. The leader of the People's Party thought everyone misunderstood his statement, so he shouted again: "Everyone, we ask everyone to leave quickly not meaning to harm you. A war is about to be fought again soon; it is really inconvenient for everyone to stay here. Please understand our difficulties."

"Comrade, can we rest here for a while?" A Hubei New Army soldier shouted.

"Resting here is allowed. We also provide you with food. Although not much, seven days of dry food for each New Army brother is available. In addition, if there are relatives who want to pay homage to the relatives killed in battle here, we also sell incense, candles, and yellow paper. Because our troops don't have these things to use, everyone has to pay money to buy them from merchants. Don't worry, we will absolutely not raise prices to cheat everyone."

Hearing such humane treatment, the faces of the New Army and their families looked much better. At this time, someone was heard shouting: "Everyone, we don't want these rebels' things. They killed many of our brothers; we absolutely cannot let it go with them."

Hearing this, everyone was stunned. The people of the Yue Wang Society all carried guns, and many people prepared to raise their guns to aim at the crowd. Seeing the situation was wrong, Chen Duxiu immediately shouted loudly: "No one is allowed to move guns. Our Yue Wang Society comrades return to the city."

Hearing Chen Duxiu's order, the Yue Wang Society crowd suppressed their anger and began to retreat. During the retreat, someone shouted from the crowd of captives and families: "Who are you? You are not our brother; why are you shouting randomly?" Listening to this, it was obvious that the newly released captives caught the person who shouted randomly just now.

A moment later, several released captives had dragged a person out of the crowd. Under the supervision of the People's Party, the Yue Wang Society had searched the bodies and luggage carried by these families. At that time, both Zhang Yu and Chen Duxiu strictly ordered that body searches were allowed, but absolutely no property of the common people could be taken; violators would be killed without pardon. So many weapons were found. Everyone saw the person dragged out clearly and had an impression. This person carried a very nice pistol. The pistol had been confiscated and now belonged to Chang Hengfang of the Yue Wang Society.

Seeing he was dragged out, the person obviously failed in his action to incite the captives. He simply stiffened his neck and shouted: "Are you blind? Look who I am!"

The officers among the captives looked carefully, and someone couldn't help shouting: "He is a Regiment Commander (*Guandai*) of the Manchu Battalion."

As soon as these words came out, the New Army and families were stunned.

There was a Manchu Battalion in the Hubei New Army, responsible for searching for revolutionaries. Equivalent to supervising the army, these Manchus regarded themselves as superior and were usually very arrogant. Now seeing people from the Manchu Battalion appear, and an officer at that, the New Army already knew clearly in their hearts. Although the Hubei official side did not send ships, they were actually prepared.

Seeing his identity exposed, the Manchu Battalion Regiment Commander sneered, "Don't believe the words of these chaotic bandits buying people's hearts. When we fight back another day, we will definitely take these people's lives."

But the families obviously didn't believe this. Suddenly someone shouted: "Everyone go back to Hubei by yourselves; never go with him. The New Army soldiers who returned to Hubei a while ago were tormented miserably by these people."

The difference between new and old sources of soldiers inevitably affects the inherent quality of soldiers. Old troops "are all rabble, come and go without constancy," "residence is uncertain, good and bad are hard to distinguish," "inveterate bad habits, incurable," so the "New Army" adapted from this inevitably carried strong bad habits of the old army. Zhang Zhidong also tried to adapt the old army at first, but after finding that the Guard Army Central Battalion adapted from the Wu Armor Left Battalion "showed no improvement in training," he immediately "ordered complete abolishment." Since then, he basically gave up adapting the old army and concentrated on "recruiting other strong and robust men." When recruiting new soldiers, in addition to requiring physical strength and health, it was stipulated that the family address must be reported, clans and neighbors must guarantee, and "those who are usually restless and have committed crimes" were rejected. The new recruits raised in this way must be mostly simple and robust young people. That is to say, compared with the Beiyang New Army adapted half from the old army, the Hubei New Army composed basically of new recruits had relatively simple soldiers with fewer prejudices and habits.

However, Hubei's implication and punishment of the New Army had not relaxed at all. The purpose of these families rushing here was to take their relatives away from the New Army quickly.