Chen Ke had done quite a few things watching others go to die helplessly. For Chen Ke, if someone was destined to die, why bother to persuade them? Whether the Yue Wang Hui or the Guangfu Society, no matter how much these revolutionary predecessors tossed about, Chen Ke just wanted to obtain maximum benefits from the path these people were bound to take. As for the people masses, Chen Ke knew the people masses didn't want to die. As long as a lifestyle that didn't lead to death could be provided, the masses could only follow the general trend for themselves.

Even a hero like Yuan Shikai, in the situation where his subordinates were captured, could only silently endure the insults of a few brats coming to his door. Although Chen Ke had reflected on his own immaturity, this didn't mean Chen Ke would have true sympathy for Yuan Shikai when judging the situation.

But facing the impervious He Qian, Chen Ke felt he simply encountered a rolling knife meat (tough person). His kindness was completely ignored; He Qian didn't care about Chen Ke's worry at all and insisted on returning to Beijing. Chen Ke became more and more annoyed in his heart. If He Qian cared so little about He Ying's feelings, he might as well let He Qian go herself. Chen Ke felt he had done his utmost.

He Ying was pregnant and originally had various worries in her heart. Now encountering her aunt's matter, and Chen Ke quit these days and didn't go home at all. He Ying was Chen Ke's wife, but the People's Party didn't care about your identity at all. Without organizational status, no one's relatives had privileges. This group of young people who took clarifying the world as their own responsibility was in a period full of drive. Anything that made people feel unreasonable had no market at all among the high-level officials of the People's Party. Everyone was polite to He Ying, but He Ying couldn't do anything no matter what she wanted.

Seeing Chen Ke and He Qian's dispute turned into a battle of will, He Ying subconsciously pressed her bulging abdomen gently with her arm. This action was just an instinctive movement of pregnant women, but concerned looks appeared on the faces of both Chen Ke and He Qian.

He Ying knew this was her last chance to speak. "Aunt, Wenqing absolutely has no malice." She had to stabilize He Qian first. After speaking, He Ying turned to Chen Ke, "Wenqing, just listen to Aunt obediently, okay?"

These words were just the most basic conversational cultivation for He Ying, but for Chen Ke, they were like a flash of lightning, instantly finding the answer to the problem Chen Ke worried about most recently. Chen Ke's eyes suddenly lit up; a look of ecstasy appeared on his face, and the whole person looked unusually excited and happy.

These days, Chen Ke racked his brains on how to design the optimized revolutionary route. Any design idea would encounter insurmountable difficulties. Chen Ke even thought he absolutely couldn't solve this problem. He Ying's simple sentence made the dark clouds all over the sky disperse immediately. "Listen to others!" Correct, just listen to others.

In the beginning, facing the death brought by the flood, everyone didn't need to say anything. Everyone understood that if they didn't work hard, they would die. Afterwards, for Chen Ke to establish a new system, what he said were specific steps to establish the system. Chen Ke was the Party Chairman; whatever he said, everyone just did it.

Arriving at a brand new stage, Chen Ke actually didn't need to say anything. When it was time to listen to others, everyone's demands were different. The people needed revolution, and there was also a revolutionary base area, a revolutionary banner, and power. Did Chen Ke still need to say anything? Saying anything more would be drawing feet on a snake. The hardest stage had passed; Chen Ke no longer needed unconditional support from others. Now was the time for Chen Ke to support everyone. What was needed at this time was no longer chattering endlessly, but listening to others patiently and carefully, finding revolutionary needs from others' words.

Although he wanted to show a calm and composed bearing, lifting heavy weights as if they were light, the ecstasy of this realization made Chen Ke close his eyes and sigh to the sky. If not facing the pregnant He Ying, Chen Ke actually wanted to laugh loudly to the sky. Sometimes, some truths were just that simple. But being in the maze, after having strong subjective "delusions," the essence of Chen Ke as an immature little boy was revealed completely.

Managing to calm his emotions with difficulty, Chen Ke swept other thoughts out of his mind completely. If one couldn't maintain focus at all times, efficiency would drop to the lowest. This was the simplest skill hard work taught Chen Ke. To maintain focus, one's mind must be clear and bright, with no distracting thoughts disturbing the train of thought.

Both He Ying and He Qian looked at Chen Ke with eyes like looking at a mental patient. Such abnormal behavior was really surprising. However, after Chen Ke recovered to normal soon, He Ying wanted to save some face for Chen Ke, so she didn't say a word. He Qian didn't have any special concern for Chen Ke; the surprise only lasted for a moment. Like usual, He Qian quickly expelled all other thoughts from her mind, waiting quietly to hear what earth-shattering words Chen Ke would say. Since he performed like a shaman dancing, Chen Ke definitely had to say something.

"Aunt, He Ying loves you very much, respects you very much, and cares about you very much. I also feel I have an obligation to your personal safety. If you encounter danger, He Ying will be very sad." Chen Ke repeated the words just now. He already understood that this was the basic point where he could communicate with He Qian.

He Qian nodded slightly. These words just now really moved He Qian. But what Chen Ke said next was all bullshit. She pursed her lips, ready to hear what Chen Ke prepared to say this time.

"What exactly does Aunt plan for the future? Please tell me and He Ying. We hope to help Aunt as much as possible. Even if we can't help..., no, even if Aunt doesn't want us to help. At least if Aunt tells us the future plans frankly, we also feel in our hearts..., also feel as if we are not too far from you."

If calculated based on a full score of one hundred, what Chen Ke said this time could score at most sixty. But He Qian didn't feel these words were annoying at all. Relatives, saying this was normal.

Seeing Chen Ke speaking incoherently but finally not talking nonsense, He Ying's face immediately appeared radiant.

He Qian calmed herself. Actually, regarding what would happen in the future, she didn't have a complete plan herself either. The speed of change in this era greatly exceeded He Qian's expectations. Ever since the Beiyang Third Town was destroyed and the whole He family was imprisoned, He Qian had completely lost any possibility of deciding her own future direction.

Watching He Qian pondering, He Ying hurriedly seized the opportunity to say: "Aunt, you might as well stay with us. I am pregnant now, and Wenqing spins around like a small mill every day. With you by my side, I also feel at ease. Anhui is so far from Beijing; I can't go home even if I want to."

Seeing her niece He Ying pretending to be pitiful like this, He Qian smiled bitterly. "It won't do if I don't return to Beijing. I know you worry someone wants to harm me after I go back. But if I don't go back, there are so many people who want to harm Yongsheng, want to harm our Sun family. As long as Wenqing doesn't lose battles, the court definitely won't dare to touch our He family, but there are as many people as you want who dare to use the Sun family as a scapegoat. Letting me ignore the Sun family, I can't do it."

Hearing this, tears were already in He Ying's eyes because of anxiety. He Qian smiled and pressed her niece's hand. "If Wenqing can really fight into Beijing city, by then your child will also be able to speak. Bring the child to see me then; I, as a grandaunt, have prepared the gift money long ago."

After confirming that He Qian insisted on leaving, there was no meaning for Chen Ke to stay either. He left first on the grounds of arranging He Qian's itinerary. Arranging the itinerary wasn't troublesome at all; the traffic line of the People's Party was quite mature. Confirming to let He Qian leave with comrades would do.

In the office, Chen Ke lay on the bed for a while, and then got up to flip through records; his train of thought jumped completely back to work. "Listening" was just a general term. This didn't mean Chen Ke listened to others speaking everywhere; this meant handing over the work completely to comrades to do. Chen Ke just undertook the work and responsibility his position needed to undertake. What he had to do was listen to reports, and then verify and summarize the content done by comrades. If before it was Chen Ke teaching comrades to make revolution, now it was comrades letting Chen Ke see how revolution was done exactly, and Chen Ke deciding whether it should be done this way. In this process, the first point was being able to "listen to others speak." Regardless of whether Chen Ke was willing to accept it or not, the vast majority of practice in revolutionary work had begun to transfer into the hands of local comrades.

Without sleeping all night, Chen Ke read through the intelligence from the localities once. Originally, Chen Ke always held a strong view of "commanding like an arm using fingers." This time he combed through the local personnel arrangements completely from the perspective of supervision rather than command. Only then did he discover that quite a few of his previous arrangements were quite unreasonable. Calling out various meeting discussion contents to flip through again, dawn broke before he finished reading.

At the daytime meeting, Chen Ke rarely didn't set the tone first, and the comrades also felt a bit unsure of what to say. The Party Chairman going out was originally a very unusual thing, let alone Chen Ke going to the locality to carry out work personally. Chen Ke waited for half a day and didn't hear comrades say any very reasonable suggestions either.

Helplessly, Chen Ke proposed two requirements for work: "First, the principle of Party Committee leadership must be implemented. Second, no rash advance is allowed; according to the formulated plan, carry out land reform first in areas with land reform conditions." Generally speaking, except for Chen Ke not presiding over work in the Central Committee, proceed according to the pre-decided work plan.

The only thing that could be called a big change was that regarding the cadre team Chen Ke originally wanted to select carefully, now he just wanted to gather the comrades from Lu'an local origin in the troops. Locals are good for talking about local matters. He also transferred a company of troops to go with him. Lu'an was a poor place; if thousands of people were sent there, not to mention anything else, just the rations of these troops could eat the local finance to collapse.

The departure time was scheduled after He Qian left. Although Chen Ke didn't care much about life and death, if He Qian knew Chen Ke went to Lu'an, and accidentally leaked this news, it would be a joke. Regarding this, comrades knew clearly in their hearts, but no one pointed it out.

Just as Chen Ke was preparing to go to Lu'an for work, something in the documents routinely sent back from the Shandong base area where the Northern Bureau was located shook the Party Central Committee. The Northern Bureau responsible by Shang Yuan, Chen Tianhua, Wu Xingchen, and Chai Qingguo was newly built, and Beiyang hadn't been hit at that time, so the Central Committee absolutely didn't think the Shandong base area could effectively attract Beiyang troops. So the focus at that time was asking them to form a team first and establish a stable base area. The eight hundred *li* of Mengshan and Yishui was once a place of "four blocked strongholds, boats and carts impassable, foreign goods not entering, local goods not exiting," and also an old red revolutionary area. Chen Ke suggested building the base area here, and Shang Yuan executed it tangibly.

Anhui and Shandong were far apart. Actually, the Shandong base area basically acted on its own. The work was fine in the previous period; the base area was established in the Wangzhuang area of Yimeng Mountain. As a result, suddenly the Northern Bureau sent a batch of "Anti-Qing National Salvation Bonds." A report written personally by Northern Bureau Secretary Shang Yuan. Because the Northern Bureau really lacked funds, they had to raise a part of funds through the method of "issuing bonds." The issuing method was very traditional, which was inviting important figures from some rich families to "discuss state affairs," and finally the rich families "consciously and voluntarily" subscribed to a certain amount of "Anti-Qing National Salvation Bonds."

Shang Yuan asked the Party Central Committee very implicitly how much the Central Committee wanted to draw from this fund.

"After a scholar has been away for three days, one should look at him with new eyes." Chen Ke never expected that the Northern Bureau led by Comrade Shang Yuan would have the style of Shandong bandits (*Xiang Ma*) so quickly. Although the team Wu Xingchen gathered in Shandong was frankly a group of bandits, the Party Central Committee sent Shang Yuan and the others to Shandong to transform these bandit teams, not to let the bandits transform the revolutionary team in reverse.

Chen Ke was never a moralist. In the history of the Party, kidnapping and extortion were also done quite a lot. The famous Marshal He Long (*He Huzi*), and Comrade Liu Zhidan, were experts in this regard. Regarding the comrade who came to report, Chen Ke wanted to complain actively very much, for example, "Is the Shandong base area so short of money?" "Are the meat tickets (hostages) easy to invite recently?"

Thinking was thinking; Chen Ke still listened to the report honestly. The comrade who came to report seemed to feel embarrassed about this matter too; he didn't mention this matter directly. He started talking from launching "resisting rent and tax, cracking down on cults" in the Yimeng Mountain area.

As Zhili (province directly under central government), Shandong was controlled quite strongly by the Manchu Qing. That is to say, the tax collection intensity of the Manchu Qing regime was quite large. The Northern Bureau launched the revolution with "resisting rent and tax" according to local conditions. The connection between peasants and the government office was actually "taxation"; once "resisting rent and tax," it was rebelling.

In Chinese traditional rebellion, "no paying grain, no paying tax" had been an inherent slogan for thousands of years. Greenwood armed forces (bandits) also always adopted this slogan. Since they wanted to transform the greenwood armed forces in Shandong and launch revolutionary work, the comrades of the Northern Bureau thought propagandizing the superiority of some "socialist system" had no practical effect at all. "Whoever bullies the common people, beat him down." This attitude of distinguishing kindness and hatred clearly was the most appropriate method.

People's revolution ultimately had to fall on the result of the people masses "turning over (standing up) and being liberated." The development in the early stage was quite rapid. After getting rid of the Manchu Qing forces in the Yimeng Mountain area, distributing fields and land, the base area was also prosperous. But recently, cultists in various places suddenly had strong hostility towards the base area, and the conflict between the two sides intensified quickly.