"Comrades, I feel that in this kind of collective action, commanders should not participate in merit assessment at all. This would solve all problems regarding merit assessment..."

"The merit of a commander is achieved by the comrades working together. If they participate in merit assessment, should they also participate in demerit assessment? Should they take a share of all responsibilities first..."

"Results determine a commander's evaluation; producing results is inherently the duty of a commander. If there are results, credit goes to the commander; if there are problems, the subordinates bear the burden together—is that fair? One person acts, one person takes responsibility; whoever's responsibility it is should be the one held accountable. That is fairness..."

The comrades stared at Gu Lu, watching this newly appointed Regimental Political Commissar loudly stating his thoughts. The impact was quite significant. What Gu Lu said wasn't particularly novel; Chen Ke had said similar things. But when Chen Ke said these things, everyone listened but didn't really take them to heart. This wasn't because the comrades slighted Chen Ke, but because these words really didn't sit well with everyone's mindset.

Chai Qingguo was also listening quietly. Gu Lu's words suited his taste very well. Military organizations traditionally operate on rewards based on merit, but the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army is not a traditional army. The significance of this army is not that it belongs to the cadres of various levels, nor is it Chen Ke's army. This army is the People's Army, because every member of this army is a part of the vast laboring people. The purpose of this army's existence is to protect the interests of the vast laboring people, including the army itself.

Viewed from this angle, the merit assessment for cadres at various levels seems quite ridiculous. Being a cadre is in itself an acknowledgment of one's ability and merit; it seems there is no need for a separate merit assessment for commanders. So Chai Qingguo observed quietly; it seemed some people were already completely unsuitable to remain in leadership positions. Various revolutionary ideological education sessions had been conducted, and their current performance was entirely a reflection of their own views on the revolution.

Many comrades were also observing Chai Qingguo's expression. This silence seemed to other comrades like a silent objection. At least many comrades took this silence to mean opposition.

To sit in these positions, the hardship involved was far beyond what ordinary soldiers could compare to. These cadres genuinely believed that the new system was indeed much better than the old one, and everyone also felt that the common people's support and contribution to the troops were very important. However, if all the credit was given to the grassroots officers and soldiers, and to the common people, then how would the hard work of these middle and high-ranking cadres be accounted for? Did they climb to these positions just to have their own merits written off? If one were to talk about equality, these comrades felt that such a practice could hardly be called equality. In the past, the situation was difficult, and everyone could endure it. Now that the hard days were finally over—Beiyang had been beaten into submission, the Manchu Qing had perished, the German devils had been thrashed, and the other foreign devils were now very cooperative—at this time, shouldn't everyone's contributions be mentioned?

"Political Commissar Gu, why do I feel like your words sound like you want to rebel?" The first opponent jumped out. Everyone's eyes fell on Zhou Zhentao, the commander of the 4406th Division. Zhou Zhentao's attitude was clear: he wanted to thoroughly oppose Gu Lu's proposition.

Gu Lu hadn't expected to be labeled with the hat of rebellion. His heart couldn't help but beat more violently. "I... rebel against whom?" Gu Lu asked in astonishment.

"With what you're saying, who exactly is leading whom?" Zhou Zhentao asked coldly. "Is it the cadres leading the comrades below, or the comrades leading the cadres above? Is there any order left?"

Zhou Zhentao's words clearly gained considerable support; some comrades' faces showed expressions of agreement. But Chai Qingguo also noticed that many comrades, especially the political commissars, looked quite uneasy. A few commissars' expressions had already become very dissatisfied.

Gu Lu frowned. "Order? What grassroots comrades learn is how to arrange their own work. Cadres are promoted from those comrades who have learned to arrange their own work. They not only have to arrange their own work well but also be able to arrange the work of other comrades well. Our goal is to complete the work set by the organization. Broadly speaking, this is to liberate the laboring people and let the laboring people be the masters of their own house. Leading cadres are also part of the laboring people. You are setting leading cadres in opposition to the laboring people."

These words were sharp enough. Zhou Zhentao's face instantly became very ugly. He questioned loudly, "Political Commissar Gu, what do you mean by that?"

Gu Lu was even more puzzled. He asked, "What do I mean? The Party has always educated us this way. I do whatever the Party teaches. I say whatever the Party teaches."

Watching Gu Lu go tit-for-tat against Zhou Zhentao, Chai Qingguo wanted to laugh very much, but he couldn't laugh at all. Based on Chai Qingguo's understanding, Gu Lu wasn't wrong. In the theory of the People's Revolution that the People's Party had always propagated, there was indeed only the dichotomy of the vast laboring people as the ruling class and others. The People's Party occupied the position of leadership and vanguard within the ruling class.

In the People's Party, or rather in the new system led by Chen Ke, the only standard determining individual social status was labor. If viewed from this angle, Gu Lu was not only not wrong, but he had firmly grasped the core points of the People's Party's political program. The existence of a comrade like Gu Lu was truly an eye-opener for Chai Qingguo.

Zhou Zhentao's thinking was obviously different from Chai Qingguo's. He said coldly, "Comrade Gu Lu, you are distorting the Party's theories. We must have iron discipline; the Party emphasizes this repeatedly. According to what you say, what kind of discipline is this?"

"The Party emphasizes discipline to better complete the work, not to set a discipline and make the work submit to the discipline. Division Commander Zhou, what you're talking about isn't discipline; what you're talking about is just the rules you want." Gu Lu continued to stand his ground.

Pang Zi watched these two comrades arguing fiercely. He found himself in a complete dilemma. In his heart, Pang Zi supported Zhou Zhentao. However, what Gu Lu said was very similar to what Wu Xingchen loved to say. As if it were a habit, Pang Zi felt he should support a stance similar to Wu Xingchen's. Usually, Pang Zi argued with Wu Xingchen quite a bit, the reason being that Wu Xingchen failed to follow Pang Zi's ideas in many places. But in fairness, Pang Zi believed he was willing to listen to Wu Xingchen.

Carefully observing Chai Qingguo's expression, he saw that although it was still that expressionless face, based on Pang Zi's understanding of Chai Qingguo, Chai Qingguo wanted this debate to continue. Who should he support? Pang Zi felt very distressed.

The argument wasn't allowed to run its full course before being interrupted by Yang Deshui, the Political Commissar of the 4406th Division. "This time we are talking about the issue of merit assessment; how did we go off-topic to talk about discipline?"

This was clearly a statement meant to calm the situation, but Chai Qingguo happened to have no intention of letting the situation calm down. "I think this discussion makes a lot of sense. Who leads whom? What exactly are we assessing in merit assessment? If we can't even explain these things clearly, will this kind of argument still happen in the future? If we can discuss this matter clearly, we can solve many things from the root. Everyone, continue speaking."

Yang Deshui was a division political commissar; he was more sensitive regarding theory than Zhou Zhentao. When Gu Lu mentioned who was the master of the house, he knew Zhou Zhentao had lost the upper hand. In the political philosophy of the People's Party, the People's Party was certainly the vanguard of the ruling class in the base areas, but it was not the ruler of the base areas. Regardless of what problems existed on the practical level, theoretically, the power of the base areas belonged to the vast laboring people. In the army, cadres did not have special powers. Chen Ke flagrantly opposed the idea of constructing a power system based on the rank of cadres. Even though this idea was a tradition of thousands of years.

At this point, Yang Deshui couldn't let the argument continue. After all, he was in the same division as Zhou Zhentao. With the precedent of Lu Kaiwen—where the regimental commissar was also dismissed and investigated for agreeing with Lu Kaiwen's arrangements—if Zhou Zhentao made a major mistake in political ideology, Yang Deshui's end wouldn't be much better. "Commander-in-Chief Chai, this isn't on our meeting agenda. I think we should first solve the specific problem at hand. Chairman Chen also said, analyze specific problems specifically. Comrade Gu Lu has a point; we assess merit centered on labor. Since the 44072nd Regiment has performed well, we have no reason to exclude them from the collective merit assessment. Collective merit is collective merit, and the majority in the collective are still these grassroots comrades. However, regarding Party organization building, the 44072nd Regiment can also participate in the evaluation. Merit is merit, fault is fault; this cannot be confused."

Zhou Zhentao didn't become a division commander for nothing. Although he wasn't sure exactly what his problem was, since Political Commissar Yang Deshui had said so, he forced down his anger and sat back in his seat. Even if it wasn't to give Gu Lu face, he had to give Political Commissar Yang Deshui face.

"What does everyone think?" Although Chai Qingguo felt extremely regretful, his job was to preside over the Party meeting, not to meaninglessly provoke arguments. Although he was extremely dissatisfied with Zhou Zhentao in his heart, Chai Qingguo absolutely could not tempt Zhou Zhentao into saying "counter-revolutionary" words. That would be a problem of a different nature.

Gu Lu's goal wasn't to label Zhou Zhentao as a counter-revolutionary either. He just wanted to clarify the reasoning. Since Yang Deshui had already offered an opinion, Gu Lu hadn't thought about pursuing it to the end. "So that means, in the future, the merit of the troops and Party organization building will be evaluated separately? Doing well in troop work doesn't equal doing well in troop organization building?"

Zhou Zhentao had originally silenced himself by forcibly suppressing his dissatisfaction. The annoyance in his heart need not be mentioned. Being forced to shut up by a regimental commissar, and even having the division commissar forced to adopt a compromising stance—this was a situation Zhou Zhentao had never imagined. In Zhou Zhentao's view, many of the gazes around him were mocking. Seeing that Gu Lu not only didn't quit while he was ahead but instead "competed" with Division Commissar Yang Deshui, Zhou Zhentao sprang to his feet. "The organization building in the troops wasn't done well, yet the troops' merit went up. what does this prove? Does it prove that organization is useless? That discipline is useless?"

As soon as this question was raised, Yang Deshui's face also became unpleasant. He was quite unhappy with Zhou Zhentao. The matter discussed just now was merely glossed over; it was far from over. Moreover, even being in the same division as Zhou Zhentao, Yang Deshui didn't support Zhou Zhentao's views; he just couldn't argue with Zhou Zhentao publicly in the meeting due to face. Now Zhou Zhentao was meddling in a new argument, and clearly doing so with resentment. This wasn't a good thing. If this discussion proved Zhou Zhentao's idea wrong again, this would be a real ideological error.

Chai Qingguo couldn't help but reveal a slight smile. He had asked Chen Ke about this matter: what would the arguments turn into? Chen Ke's answer surprised Chai Qingguo very much. "If an argument is a high-level one, it will eventually boil down to two points: science and democracy. Science concerns the material nature of the world. Democracy concerns the class interests one belongs to. There are individuals who betray their class, but there is never a class that betrays its interests."

The question Zhou Zhentao raised seemed like angry words, but it was actually a real question. When several senior cadres in the regiment had problems, what could the excellent performance of the entire regiment prove? At the moment Zhou Zhentao raised this question, Chai Qingguo had already found the answer. This made Chai Qingguo feel a burst of clarity in his mind, and his mood improved.

Pang Zi was very surprised to see Chai Qingguo smiling. The atmosphere in the conference room was heavy, and the argument was tit-for-tat. Although Pang Zi didn't actually fully understand the focus of the argument, he just knew that he believed that since he was the division commander, the comrades below had to obey Pang Zi's orders. However, Pang Zi could also feel that things were far less simple than he thought. Seeing Chai Qingguo actually smiling, he felt a great puzzlement. Pang Zi couldn't help asking, "Commander-in-Chief Chai, what are you laughing at?"

Reminded by Pang Zi, everyone looked at Chai Qingguo. Sure enough, the smile on Chai Qingguo's face hadn't faded yet. Chai Qingguo didn't hide it either. "Comrades, during this discussion, I suddenly understood a problem. Chairman Chen spoke of science and democracy. Science, well, is work method. Commander Lu and the others definitely did a great job in popularizing work methods, so their regiment's work results were significant. Similarly, in terms of democracy, Commander Lu definitely didn't do well. If he had held a democratic meeting of the whole regiment and told the comrades about his plan to claim credit and rewards, do you think the comrades of the whole regiment would have supported him?"

When Chai Qingguo said this, Pang Zi understood. He hadn't expected Lu Kaiwen to receive a fairly high evaluation after being dismissed. Pang Zi felt a surge of jealousy and couldn't help saying, "That's not necessarily true. If the comrades of the whole regiment thought they could show their faces in front of Chairman Chen, and that showing their faces would get them more good evaluations, I'm afraid they wouldn't oppose it."

A burst of laughter erupted among the comrades. Pang Zi's honest words described it very vividly. If Lu Kaiwen could prove to the comrades of the whole regiment that this kind of performance could succeed, he really might have received the support of the whole regiment.

"So we had to dismiss and investigate Comrade Lu Kaiwen and the others. The Party organization let him lead like this, openly engaging in fraud to claim credit and rewards—what was he trying to do?" Chai Qingguo laughed.

Pang Zi was slightly stunned upon hearing this. He still felt that the severe handling of Lu Kaiwen and the others was a bit too rigid, and even suspected whether this was done to pave the way for Gu Lu. After Chai Qingguo said this, Pang Zi suddenly genuinely felt that Lu Kaiwen and the others got what they deserved. If this precedent were set, other troops working hard would not be worth as much as a bit of fraud. That would truly be unfair. Pang Zi's cavalry division had fewer people than other infantry divisions, and he had a headache regarding merit assessment. With this thought, the hostility in his gaze towards Gu Lu diminished greatly.

"If you say that, I have another question. Our Cavalry Division has fewer people; how should we be assessed for merit? Since it must be fair, it has to be fair to the comrades of the Cavalry Division as well," Pang Zi said loudly.