Since the Yue Wang Society started dealing with the People's Party, Zhang Yu hadn't thought much of the Yue Wang Society. Moreover, Zhang Yu had a strong aversion to Chen Duxiu. This was not just Zhang Yu's attitude alone. In the People's Party, including government cadres and staff throughout the base area, everyone's understanding gradually tended to be unified. Anyone who reaped without sowing could be classified as an enemy.

The Yue Wang Society believed that it had given the People's Party "immense help," but in the eyes of the People's Party cadres, the Yue Wang Society was a group of bastards who relied on the power of the People's Party to act wildly. But everyone was busy and had no time to think so much, and Zhang Yu had to deal with the Yue Wang Society frequently due to work reasons. He had to pay attention to the Yue Wang Society he looked down upon.

Zhang Yu knew he was not a magnanimous person. Even after volunteering to Chen Ke and finally taking office as the Mayor of Anqing, Zhang Yu didn't think he had made any progress in compassion. He didn't attack the Yue Wang Society, firstly because Chen Ke had instructed that the Yue Wang Society was a local snake after all, and letting the Yue Wang Society exist was more valuable. Secondly, since Chen Duxiu returned to Anqing, he had also begun to rectify the style of the Yue Wang Society. Although that rectification seemed like nonsense to Zhang Yu, at least the Yue Wang Society no longer dragged the People's Party back casually.

Now Chen Duxiu ran to find Zhang Yu with a modest look of asking for advice. Zhang Yu found that he actually had no idea of reprimanding Chen Duxiu. It wasn't that his view of Chen Duxiu or the Yue Wang Society had changed; Zhang Yu still thought the Yue Wang Society was incompetent and Chen Duxiu was an unqualified leader. If he had to say there was any change, Zhang Yu felt he could actually understand these "revolutionaries" including Chen Duxiu.

Chen Duxiu didn't know Zhang Yu's true thoughts; he could only clearly feel Zhang Yu's hidden dissatisfaction. Despite this dissatisfaction, Zhang Yu spoke with genuine advice and explanation, without making things difficult at all. This magnanimous act made Chen Duxiu admire Zhang Yu somewhat. He said, "Mayor Zhang, I admire the achievements of the People's Party very much. I very much hope that the Yue Wang Society can be like your party."

If it were before, even if Zhang Yu didn't scold immediately after hearing this, he would at least scold secretly in his heart. If the Yue Wang Society succeeded, what would happen to the People's Party? Now Zhang Yu not only didn't want to scold, he even couldn't help laughing out loud. "Mr. Chen, you have taken a fancy to what we the people have achieved. If you were really asked to repeat what we have done, I personally don't think you would still have such an idea."

What Chen Duxiu wanted to know most was the specific execution process of the People's Party. Seeing Zhang Yu meant to introduce it, Chen Duxiu's eyes lit up immediately. "That's not necessarily true."

Zhang Yu originally wanted to talk about the hard work of the People's Party in the past two years, but he felt it was meaningless. If Chen Duxiu heard it, his first thought would probably be to find a flooded place to try. In fact, in the rise of the People's Party, the Anhui flood certainly played a great role, but even without this flood, Chen Ke and the comrades would still succeed. Thinking of this, Zhang Yu felt he still made a mistake. He knew he didn't actually want to introduce the work of the People's Party to Chen Duxiu, but just wanted to gain a sense of psychological achievement by stating his hard work.

After sorting out his thoughts, Zhang Yu managed to pull his thoughts back to reality with difficulty. "Mr. Chen, I want to ask you one thing now. What exactly do you want to do here this time? If you just want to hear the history of our People's Party, I can find an old soldier to tell you. Everything I have experienced, the old soldiers have also experienced."

A look of disappointment appeared on Chen Duxiu's face, and he was even more disappointed in his heart. Even now that he decided to sincerely defect to the People's Party, once there was an opportunity to understand the experience of the People's Party, Chen Duxiu still didn't want to let it go. This experience contained success, victory, glory, and an infinite future. Anyone with ambitions to make contributions and establish a career would not let go of the opportunity to learn "success science." If Chen Duxiu hadn't truly realized that the gap between the Yue Wang Society and the People's Party was too large, he wouldn't have been forced to give up the interests of his own group.

Forcing himself to suppress his mood, Chen Duxiu said, "Mayor Zhang, I came here this time to talk about the Yue Wang Society joining the People's Party."

"Do you have the ability to make the Yue Wang Society join the People's Party?" Zhang Yu couldn't help blurting out the truth.

"..." Chen Duxiu was speechless for a moment. Zhang Yu's truth made Chen Duxiu feel extremely embarrassed. Zhang Yu was telling the truth. Everyone in the Yue Wang Society wanted to learn from the People's Party's success, but no one wanted to give up what they had obtained.

"Then what is Mayor Zhang's opinion?" Shi Dekuan interrupted seeing the situation was wrong. Shi Dekuan sincerely wanted to join the People's Party. He had a low rank in the Yue Wang Society, so he had fewer worries.

Zhang Yu looked at Shi Dekuan's clean clothes up and down. He laughed, "Comrade Shi Dekuan, if it were you, I think you could join our People's Party, and I think a few others are okay too. But for the vast majority of the rest, I don't think they can join our organization. What everyone wants is different."

Hearing Zhang Yu's recognition of himself, Shi Dekuan felt relaxed in his heart. He always felt that the People's Party suited his temper very well, but he couldn't say exactly where it suited his temper. Shi Dekuan asked, "Where exactly is this difference?"

"What is the reason for your Yue Wang Society's revolution?" Zhang Yu asked.

Chen Duxiu never forgot the purpose of the Yue Wang Society. He replied, "Emulating Yue Wumu resisting the Liao and Jin, unchanging until death. We must inherit his will and do our best to expel the Manchus."

Zhang Yu nodded. Revolutionaries of this era were all the same; they had nothing except "righteousness." Zhang Yu was also annoyed. As the Mayor of Anqing, his work piled up like a mountain every day. Talking nonsense with Chen Duxiu like this was just delaying work.

"Let me put it this way, Mr. Chen. Your Yue Wang Society wants to join our People's Party now; I cannot agree. Because you group of people want to come and be masters (*Daye*). Letting you collect taxes, you dare to play corruption on me. Letting you do physical work, you feel your talents are wasted. Letting you do government department work, you will criticize the common people arbitrarily. Everything you do is for one result: to make the common people admit that you are capable, admit that you have ideals and morals. And then willingly push you to high official positions..."

Chen Duxiu felt Zhang Yu was a bit too harsh. Just as he wanted to refute, Zhang Yu raised his hand to stop Chen Duxiu's thought of speaking. "Mr. Chen, don't say anything. I'll just ask you a question: what aspect of work does your Yue Wang Society want to undertake in Anqing City?"

"This..." Chen Duxiu hadn't thought about it either. Recently, apart from guarding the camp for the families of the Hubei New Army, the Yue Wang Society hadn't actually done any work.

"If you haven't thought about it, I also think I should give you job opportunities. I want you to be responsible for the municipal sanitation work of Anqing City."

"Municipal sanitation?" Chen Duxiu's face became ugly. Municipal sanitation means sweeping streets, transporting garbage, and especially cleaning toilets. In Chen Duxiu's view, this was a rather lowly job. If the cadres and soldiers of the People's Party hadn't done these jobs personally, Chen Duxiu would have rejected Zhang Yu's request on the spot.

"If you want to join our People's Party, you have to pass the test. Do you think sweeping and cleaning manure pits is shameful? When in Fengtai County, Chairman Chen personally led us to sweep the floor and clean manure pits. Officials of our People's Party from top to bottom have all swept floors and cleaned manure."

Chen Duxiu looked at Zhang Yu with doubtful eyes. The credibility of these words was actually not low. Although he hadn't seen Zhang Yu clean manure personally, Chen Duxiu had seen Zhang Yu personally lead soldiers to sweep the streets more than once. As long as there was no urgent work, Zhang Yu would lead the cleaning of the streets at the facade of the Anqing Municipal Government on time.

"Do it or not." Zhang Yu asked.

"If it is as government personnel, we can do it." Chen Duxiu drew the final bottom line. Without the identity of government personnel, Chen Duxiu knew he could absolutely not persuade the comrades of the Yue Wang Society to do these "menial" jobs.

"Then our Anqing government will hire you for three months first. These three months are a probation period. If you can pass this three-month probation, then you can be hired long-term. If unqualified, then we will not bear any responsibility for the personnel dismissed by the Yue Wang Society in the future." Zhang Yu proposed his own idea. He had long wanted to kick the Yue Wang Society people out of Anqing. If the Yue Wang Society just stuck together and lingered in Anqing like this, Zhang Yu would have to provide grain to them every day. If they chose to become government employees, it would be much simpler; unqualified people could be told to scram.

"Is this how your People's Party treats revolutionary comrades?" Chen Duxiu sensed this trap.

Zhang Yu laughed, "I don't ask you to do any amazing big things; I only ask you to do some small things within your capacity. I ask you to treat yourselves as ordinary people, work and live honestly. Mr. Chen, do you think living seriously is easy?"

Chen Duxiu indeed felt living seriously was easy, and he simply nodded in admission.

"Living seriously is not easy at all." Zhang Yu replied, "Living means eating, wearing clothes. Learning, working, resting. But in this era, wanting to live like this is actually very, very difficult. To eat, you must first have land to grow grain. The common people didn't have much land originally, plus one *mu* of land can only harvest more than one hundred *jin*. Encountering a natural disaster or something, the common people will starve to death. To wear clothes, there must be cloth; can the common people afford cloth? To learn, there must be schools; can China now provide these schools? It is not easy to find a business that can make stable money in rural areas; it is not that you can work if you want to work. As for rest, the purpose of rest is for better work and life. When the common people have no work in hand, they sit there and start worrying: where will tomorrow's meal come from? Without secured work, there is simply no rest..."

"So that's why we need revolution..." Chen Duxiu interrupted Zhang Yu.

"Revolution? Being able to let the common people eat, wear clothes, go to school, and rest now, this is revolution. This is the thing I and the comrades rack our brains every day and still can't do well. Mr. Chen, you open your mouth and say revolution, close your mouth and say revolution. As long as specific work is not involved, you can think of anything and say anything. Once specific work is involved, you pick and choose, either headache or ball ache. This is the biggest difference between the People's Party and the Yue Wang Society."

"Then someone has to fight." Chen Duxiu suppressed his dissatisfaction to the greatest extent and stated the work he hoped to undertake.

"You want to engage in military work?" Zhang Yu asked.

"Yes." Chen Duxiu replied.

"Okay, but I'll say this first. Fighting requires obeying discipline and listening to commands. When I ask you to fight, don't say I, Zhang Yu, am borrowing a knife to kill (*Jie Dao Sha Ren*)."

"It's a deal." Chen Duxiu felt that reaching such an agreement could always be explained to the comrades of the Yue Wang Society.

"However, even if you engage in military work, you still have to clean up." Zhang Yu added a sentence.

Hearing this, Chen Duxiu suddenly remembered that the troops of the People's Party still had to clean up and clean toilets every day. He thought about it again; among the People's Party troops he had seen, it seemed no one could avoid these jobs. This was also where the Yue Wang Society looked down on the People's Party most.

"How about this, Mr. Chen, you go back and discuss it again to see if you are willing to work and live honestly. If you are willing to work and live honestly like us, then we will talk again. If you are unwilling, we can't accept you either. In addition, Comrade Shi Dekuan, if you are willing to come to our People's Party here, I can arrange work for you now."

Shi Dekuan looked at Chen Duxiu in embarrassment. If he followed the People's Party now, it meant he broke away from the Yue Wang Society. This was to bear the reputation of "disloyalty." Shi Dekuan couldn't accept such a reputation yet.

"Comrade Shi Dekuan, if you think reputation is very important, then I won't force you." Zhang Yu laughed.

"I..., I am willing to come here to work now." Shi Dekuan answered hurriedly.

"Then that's it. Does Mr. Chen have anything else to say?" Zhang Yu issued an order to expel the guest.

After Chen Duxiu left the municipal government, Zhang Yu arranged for Shi Dekuan to work in the police department. Shi Dekuan engaged in inspection work in the Yue Wang Society. Zhang Yu knew that Shi Dekuan contributed greatly to the Yue Wang Society being able to maintain current discipline. This was also the reason why Zhang Yu was willing to accept Shi Dekuan. The Chengguan department in Anqing lacked cadres. An outsider like Shi Dekuan, who was impartial and familiar with the situation in Anqing urban area, was instead a suitable candidate to lead the work of the Chengguan department.

Having gained a general and shown his cards to Chen Duxiu, Zhang Yu's mood became much more relaxed. He leaned back in his chair with satisfaction and cast his gaze on the map of Anqing on the wall. A big reason why Zhang Yu could become the Mayor of Anqing was that Chen Ke believed Zhang Yu might have the ability to command a strategic direction. The Hubei New Army would definitely move out again, and Chen Ke couldn't put a regiment in Anqing. The level of Zhang Yu's command ability was of great significance to this front.

Although he hoped Zhang Yu could display his strength, Chen Ke still gave Zhang Yu the authority to give up Anqing freely. For this point, Zhang Yu was very grateful. He didn't want to fight hard with the Hubei New Army, so flexible command authority was of great significance to military commanders.

Staring at the map for a while, Zhang Yu still found that he didn't have enough troops to complete the strategic concept. To make the Hubei New Army stop near Anqing, resisting hard wouldn't work. Not to mention anything else, it was impossible to withstand the shelling of the Hubei New Army Navy on the waterway alone. The only way was to make problems arise within the Hubei New Army. After confirming his idea again, Zhang Yu asked someone to call Political Commissar Lu Zhengping back.

Lu Zhengping was arranging those "Liberated Warriors" of the Hubei New Army. Facing the attack of the Hubei New Army now, Lu Zhengping couldn't completely trust these "Liberated Warriors" either. Since these "Liberated Warriors" had decided to defect to the revolution, Lu Zhengping asked them to cut their queues first. He originally thought these "Liberated Warriors" would hesitate. Unexpectedly, the "Liberated Warriors" agreed carelessly.

After cutting the queues, Lu Zhengping arranged for the new comrades to stay and didn't ask about the internal situation of the Hubei New Army. Such considerate practice moved the soldiers very much. "Lord Lu, we want to tell you about the Hubei New Army." These soldiers actively asked to provide intelligence.

"Comrades, I ask you one thing first." Lu Zhengping said. The "Liberated Warriors" immediately stood at attention, waiting for Lu Zhengping's admonition.

"In our People's Party, there is no distinction between high and low status. I am the same as you; everyone is equal. In the army, we call each other comrades. My name is Lu Zhengping; you can call me Comrade Lu Zhengping, or Commissar Lu. But you can't call me any Lord (*Daren*). Please remember this point."

Hearing Lu Zhengping's words, the new soldiers looked at each other in dismay. They also knew this when they were in the POW camp, but they always felt that was the internal affair of the People's Party. At that time, many people laughed at the People's Party for not understanding hierarchy. Unexpectedly, the People's Party also treated these new recruits equally. The new soldiers felt very wrong.

"Regarding the military discipline of our People's Party, we have a military song called 'The Three Main Rules of Discipline and the Eight Points for Attention.' I think everyone doesn't need to learn anything else today; just follow our art and literature committee member to learn this song first and be able to sing it as soon as possible. What you should do is sung very clearly in this song."

In this era, there were also military songs in the New Army, and content regarding discipline would also be compiled into songs to sing. At least the Beiyang Army was like this. Just after arranging for the new soldiers to start learning songs, the communicator came to find Lu Zhengping. Handing over the work of new soldiers to the art and literature committee member and the life officer, Lu Zhengping rushed back to the municipal government.

After briefly introducing the situation of the new soldiers, Lu Zhengping made a small summary. "The new soldiers look quite simple. The materials say most of the Hubei New Army are children of good families; it should be true."

"Let's not have too high expectations for these people; it's fine as long as they can become qualified soldiers." Zhang Yu instructed.

"Doesn't Mayor Zhang want to use this repatriation matter?" Lu Zhengping was somewhat puzzled.

"If we intervene now, the intention is too obvious. It will be counterproductive instead. Chairman Chen specifically mentioned this matter when he wrote." Zhang Yu said.

Lu Zhengping came from a reconnaissance background. Reconnaissance soldiers are the troops with the most courage and offensive spirit. Even knowing Chen Ke's arrangement, Lu Zhengping didn't want to be so passive. He also hoped to perform better in the upcoming war.

"I don't want to give up Anqing actively." Zhang Yu said. Hearing this, Lu Zhengping's eyes lit up. Zhang Yu had never expressed any opinion on the war. It seemed that Zhang Yu was finally going to break the long-standing silence now.