Chen Duxiu left Zhang Yu's place and walked towards the new station of the Yue Wang Society. Since many people had returned to the Yue Wang Society these days, their original station was no longer enough. Moreover, under the governance of the People's Party, Anqing gradually restored order, and the common people also began to return to Anqing gradually. After negotiation, the People's Party allocated an area in the military camp currently stationed to the Yue Wang Society for stationing.

As soon as he entered the military camp, he saw the People's Party troops busy as usual. Since new troops escorting wounded soldiers had arrived in Anqing, the People's Party was arranging for these soldiers to be stationed. The rooms for these soldiers to live in the military camp were prepared long ago, and the soldiers lined up to be assigned rooms. The only thing that seemed a bit underprepared was some equipment carried by these troops. To transport the wounded soldiers, the troops carried stretchers and other spare items. These things had to be sorted out and stored. Moreover, some wounded soldiers needed to change gauze and so on. Before sending them away this time, they changed their gauze for the last time and did bandaging and finishing. And the removed gauze also needed to be washed and dried for reuse.

The People's Party was short of manpower. The hired female laborers were ready long ago, and they had already started their work. Steam filled the air above the boiling cauldrons, and women stood by the cauldrons holding long poles stirring the gauze. The boiled gauze was picked out with long poles, cooled slightly, and then washed.

Chen Duxiu had always attached great importance to observing the People's Party. He wanted to figure out what was different about the People's Party. In these days, Chen Duxiu didn't see the People's Party do anything shocking. Just eating when it's time to eat, sleeping when it's time to sleep, washing clothes when it's time to wash clothes, taking a bath when it's time to take a bath. Patrolling the streets, moving supplies, various military training and drills. In short, this organization, this army, was all very normal. Busy from morning to night every day.

After watching for a while, Chen Duxiu turned back to the area where the Yue Wang Society was stationed. Before entering the gate, he heard the noise inside. Although the People's Party had more people than the Yue Wang Society, the two sides were almost completely different. When there was noise in the People's Party camp, it was mostly during collective actions. On weekdays, they didn't speak loudly. Especially the officers; Chen Duxiu had never seen officers shouting loudly at soldiers. This was diametrically opposed to the Yue Wang Society. In the Yue Wang Society, whoever had a loud voice and sufficient volume must be of higher rank, or at least thought he was not of low rank.

The people of the Yue Wang Society disapproved of the quiet style of the People's Party. They even ridiculed the People's Party privately as "like women." The playground of the People's Party dedicated to drying clothes was always full of clothes. Although during tense periods, such as this time when there were a large number of medical items that needed to be washed and dried, the People's Party also hired laundry people, but usually, the cadres and soldiers of the People's Party washed their own clothes. Big men washing clothes themselves was rare in this era, let alone thousands of big men doing this. Chen Duxiu had seen the scene of Zhang Yu and people from the People's Party government departments washing clothes together in the evening.

But the Yue Wang Society was different. No one liked to do these small things personally. Even if there were, except for a few people who could persist, the others gradually stopped washing under the ridicule of their companions. So the two camps were close at hand, but the smell in the air was very different.

As soon as he entered the camp gate, he saw people from the Yue Wang Society gathering in groups bragging. The content was naturally about this handover. Nearly a thousand family members came to pick up the wounded. The Yue Wang Society had never had the experience of managing so many people's eating, drinking, and sleeping at one time. Talking about these families, almost everyone in the Yue Wang Society had a superior expression on their faces. Some mocked the "Hubei guys" for speaking unpleasantly, some said the "Hubei guys" were relatively rich, and some maliciously ridiculed the mourning of the deceased's families as too unruly. There were also some who talked lustfully about the few pretty young wives among these families.

"Yue Wang Society is good, Hubei guys are bad!" This was the core view of the conversation. On this point, the grassroots personnel of the Yue Wang Society were quite consistent.

Entering the conference hall, the main cadres of the Yue Wang Society had already gathered together. Seeing Chen Duxiu come in, Bai Wenwei hurriedly came up. "Mr. Chen, what did those surrendered Hubei New Army soldiers say?"

Chen Duxiu replied, "Mayor Zhang let them think clearly for themselves, whether to choose to stay with the People's Party or choose to go home by themselves. Those Hubei New Army soldiers are still considering. What's wrong?"

"Mr. Chen, why don't we go and contact those Hubei New Army soldiers now? They are desperate now. Without joining the revolution, there is absolutely no way to live. This time we can definitely persuade many Hubei New Army soldiers to join us." Bai Wenwei proposed the result of these high-level discussions to Chen Duxiu.

Chen Duxiu had not failed to consider this issue. He asked Bai Wenwei, "Leaving aside whether the Hubei New Army can join us, what will they eat after joining? We don't have grain for them to eat."

The People's Party provided grain to the Yue Wang Society, but the supply method was supplying three days' grain at a time. This was calculated per capita, neither more nor less. Now if the grain for the Hubei New Army was suddenly increased, the Yue Wang Society would have to apply to the People's Party in advance. Otherwise, the Yue Wang Society would have to pay to buy grain themselves. And in the current Anqing, except for the People's Party's supply and marketing cooperative which could still supply grain cheaply, those grain shops had either closed long ago or sold grain at extremely expensive prices.

Chang Hengfang immediately said habitually, "The People's Party is guarding against our Yue Wang Society in their hearts."

If it were before, someone would definitely echo Chang Hengfang's words, but now that these words were said too much, everyone was tired of it long ago. No one paid attention to Chang Hengfang at all. Shi Dekuan even looked at Chang Hengfang with disgust. "Mr. Chen, if we want to pull people in now, we don't have enough grain at all."

Chen Duxiu knew what Shi Dekuan wanted to say. He said, "Dekuan, the Hubei New Army simply won't recognize our Yue Wang Society. We are the defeated opponents of the Hubei New Army, while the People's Party is the victor now and saved the lives of these New Army soldiers. If they defect, they will also defect to the People's Party. Impossible to defect to our Yue Wang Society."

Chang Hengfang saw that his instigation just now didn't get everyone's response at all, and hearing Chen Duxiu explain the matter clearly, he knew Chen Duxiu was right. He felt even more unhappy in his heart, and he started talking about how the People's Party didn't talk about morality. Shi Dekuan ignored him completely. He asked, "Mr. Chen, the People's Party lets us live in this Anqing and also gives grain supply. They also let us do some things together, but why don't they mention cooperating with us? I don't see you mentioning this matter either, Mr. Chen."

Chen Duxiu smiled bitterly. "Everyone sit down first." He waved his hand.

The cadres of the Yue Wang Society sat down in turn. Chen Duxiu then said, "It's not that I don't want to mention it. When marching to Anqing this time, everyone said on the road that we should learn from the People's Party properly. But after arriving in Anqing, having a house to live in and grain to eat, I see everyone slacked off immediately. A few days ago, you still washed your own clothes. Now? Except for drill being somewhat punctual, where else has everyone learned from the People's Party? That drill is not our own credit either. Every day when the People's Party blows the wake-up call, we follow to move. Calling people to get up is not that easy either; every day there are always people unwilling to get up. The People's Party has the Three Main Rules of Discipline and the Eight Points for Attention (*San Da Jilu Ba Xiang Zhuyi*). We also learn to sing this song like others, but in reality? How much have we truly achieved ourselves?"

Listening to Chen Duxiu analyze specific work item by item, the people of the Yue Wang Society lowered their heads one by one and stopped speaking.

Chang Hengfang reacted fastest. He looked up, "Mr. Chen, our discipline is indeed not good. But comrades are always not fighting now and have nothing to do; this morale can't be maintained either. I know some people are not good at doing things, but we only have this few people. If we drive some people away, what do we have left? If we only have one or two hundred people left, who will still take us seriously?"

Chang Hengfang's words resonated with many Yue Wang Society cadres. After experiencing painful lessons, the Yue Wang Society had completely lost faith in things like "raise an arm and shout, and eight directions respond." The people did not echo the revolution launched by the Yue Wang Society. The secret societies that echoed the Yue Wang Society ran away without a trace after making a big profit. Now that the People's Party retook Anqing, not a single secret society member appeared. Moreover, the People's Party itself seemed to have no interest in secret societies either and didn't recruit troops on a large scale at all.

The Yue Wang Society had no money anymore. If not for the supply from the People's Party, plus earning some wages by working for the People's Party, the Yue Wang Society would have fallen apart long ago. In fact, Chen Duxiu was very surprised that these comrades could gather until now without completely disintegrating.

After listening to this, Shi Dekuan didn't refute Chang Hengfang anymore. He said, "Mr. Chen, I think we should formally propose joining the People's Party. I know everyone originally wanted to rectify the team first, and then joining the People's Party would have confidence. Looking at it now, if our own rectification is tight, the comrades below are unhappy. If it is loose, it is like now. I think if it really doesn't work, then simply join the People's Party first, and then talk about rectification. I wonder what Mr. Chen thinks."

Before Chen Duxiu could speak, Chang Hengfang spoke up, "Dekuan, listening to you, if Mr. Chen doesn't mention joining the People's Party, are you going to defect to the People's Party yourself?"

Hearing Chang Hengfang question his stance, Shi Dekuan was not angry. He said, "If our Yue Wang Society is still like this now, I will go to the People's Party myself. This is obviously not the appearance of making a revolution. What's the use of everyone muddling along like this? At this point, I think we also have to figure out whether we want revolution or maintain our Yue Wang Society. If we want revolution, we might as well follow the People's Party to revolutionize vigorously. If you gentlemen just want to maintain the Yue Wang Society, then I quit."

If someone said this before, internal strife would definitely break out immediately in the Yue Wang Society. But this time Shi Dekuan made it clear, and even Chang Hengfang didn't have the energy to refute. He just sighed deeply and didn't continue to say anything. Chen Duxiu saw that none of the cadres opposed it. He laughed, "If everyone has no objection, then I will go talk to Mayor Zhang about this matter. Dekuan, come with me."

Everyone didn't expect that Chen Duxiu didn't let backbones of the Yue Wang Society like Bai Wenwei and Chang Hengfang go with him this time, but found the young Shi Dekuan to go with him. Astonished looks appeared on their faces. Chen Duxiu didn't care so much; he got up and left with Shi Dekuan.

The two didn't walk very fast. Shi Dekuan could see that Chen Duxiu had something to say to him, so he also slowed down and followed Chen Duxiu.

"Dekuan, what do you think is the difference between the People's Party and our Yue Wang Society?" Chen Duxiu asked. He thought about this question for a long time, but he hadn't been able to come up with an explanation that convinced himself.

"Looking everywhere is the same, but everywhere is different. Letting our Yue Wang Society do what the People's Party is doing now, if it's a few days, maybe it's okay, but we will absolutely not do it for months or even years like this. But the feeling the People's Party gives me is that if they decide to do something, they will definitely do it for years or even a lifetime. And they seem to be more and more energetic as they do it. I have contacted the People's Party a lot these days. Their revolutionary principle is actually based on how to live a good life, and this good life actually looks harder than ordinary life. It's really puzzling."

Chen Duxiu knew what Shi Dekuan was talking about. The fastidiousness of the People's Party's style really exceeded Chen Duxiu's imagination too much. Everything the soldiers did, from maintaining personal hygiene, washing clothes, cooking, purchasing, or operating the city and issuing currency. From top to bottom, they could actually attribute things to themselves. Officers and soldiers all believed that making their lives more regular, cleaner, and tidier was an important part of revolutionary work.

As for fighting, from soldiers to officers, they knew the purpose of those battles they had fought. Everyone spoke logically, but in the final analysis, it was to eliminate "bad guys" and give the common people a bright sky. An army that can attribute everything to itself, yet fights for the people. This kind of thinking made Chen Duxiu feel incredible.

Confucius did mention such people, but those were all gentlemen (*Junzi*). Few cadres and soldiers of the People's Party had read the *Analects*, yet they acted like Confucius. This couldn't help but make Chen Duxiu feel a strong sense of unreality.

"I must ask clearly this time what is different about the People's Party. Dekuan, don't talk too much." Chen Duxiu instructed.

Shi Dekuan nodded. "I know."

Chen Duxiu had always done his best to observe the actions of the People's Party. From the execution level, Chen Duxiu could completely understand what the People's Party was doing. In fact, not only Chen Duxiu, ordinary people could also basically understand what the People's Party was doing. In fact, whether patrolling or cleaning, the daily work that the common people had to do, the People's Party was doing. But Chen Duxiu completely didn't understand why the People's Party did certain things at a certain time. Chen Duxiu already understood that this was the reason why the People's Party could continue to win, but he couldn't understand how the People's Party came up with this order of doing things.

Chen Duxiu was very puzzled about the captives this time. An army of benevolence and righteousness naturally wants to save people; this is a matter of course. Not forcing others to join one's own team, this is also the attitude that benevolent people should have. However, the enemy seemed to try every means to cooperate with the People's Party, messing things up first themselves. Originally, after the base area released the captives, the Hubei New Army got a batch of soldiers who knew the reality of the base area. If propaganda was organized well, it could have allowed the Hubei New Army to fight better when facing the People's Party again. But the Hubei New Army insisted on persecuting these released New Army officers and soldiers.

After persecuting the first batch, if the Hubei New Army sent ships openly to pick up the second batch of people, at least it wouldn't cause unrest in the second batch of New Army soldiers, and they could still transport these people back to persecute slowly anyway. But the Hubei New Army could forcefully force its own troops to the point where some people defected to the People's Party.

When Chen Duxiu arrived at the municipal government again, after Zhang Yu arranged those soldiers who came to surrender, Chen Duxiu frankly asked Zhang Yu why the People's Party arranged the wounded soldiers like this.

After listening to Chen Duxiu's question, Zhang Yu looked at Chen Duxiu with some confusion. After thinking for a long time, Zhang Yu said, "Mr. Chen, you and the Hubei New Army both committed a fault, which is thinking too much. You only see the result, you only want to get the desired result, you never care how difficult it is to do one thing."

Being criticized by Zhang Yu like this, Chen Duxiu completely couldn't understand what Zhang Yu was saying. Fortunately, Zhang Yu didn't mean to be pretentious. He continued, "Mr. Chen, you only see that the Hubei New Army is unstable internally now, and we can repatriate the wounded of the Hubei New Army on a large scale. That is because we cured so many wounded. Being able to cure so many wounded is because we built military hospitals early, so we could save so many people. Building military hospitals was because we opened the Shanghai Renxin Medical College in Shanghai two years ago, so there were teachers, and there were various technologies and knowledge accumulated gradually. Otherwise, even if a bunch of people were pulled in temporarily, they wouldn't know how to treat injuries. If you don't look at these processes, what's the use of just looking at the result?"

Chen Duxiu was an extremely smart person. As soon as Zhang Yu said this, he felt as if he could grasp the vein that he could feel before but had never been able to see. Lowering his head and thinking about Zhang Yu's words repeatedly for a while, he suddenly realized and said, "Could it be that from the moment the People's Party arrived in Anhui, this victory was already destined?"

"What do you mean by destined?" Zhang Yu could roughly understand Chen Duxiu's thoughts at this time. "Chairman Chen often educates us usually. If there are one hundred steps in a matter, then you cannot miss a single one of these one hundred steps. The problem is that whether it's your Yue Wang Society or the Manchu Qing, you only know to run for the result. As long as you have the result you want, you don't care what the process is at all. This is putting the cart before the horse."