Zhou Zhentao finally decided to go to the grassroots units to audit meetings. Before he went, he formally received a notice from the Military Commission: all troops were to formalize and regularize grassroots organizational meetings. Grassroots meetings were to be held twice a week, with content linked to life and work, resolutely opposing formalistic styles.

What the Party Central Committee's propaganda ultimately wanted to support or oppose, Zhou Zhentao no longer cared. After being fiercely criticized by Chen Ke, Zhou Zhentao felt quite disheartened about his own "future." The problems he would encounter in the future would at most be dismissal and investigation, what else was there to be afraid of? Holding the mindset of "being a monk for a day and striking the bell for a day" (doing the bare minimum), Zhou Zhentao decided to execute whatever the organization arranged. For this grassroots audit, the Military Commission required all troop commanders to go to the grassroots to "listen," not to "speak." With tight lips, Zhou Zhentao began his grassroots audit work.

"Commander X, you never usually talk about how to work."

"Commander X, you just talk about practicing, but how to practice, to what extent, you have to speak more clearly."

"Commander X, usually some comrades do less labor, why do they get distributed as many things as us?"

The "X" mainly referred to grassroots commanders; squad, platoon, and company leaders were the main targets of the soldiers' questioning. Of course, there were also grassroots commanders questioning battalion and regiment level commanders at the democratic meetings. Since the commanders had to listen and could not speak, in this one-sided situation, the grassroots comrades were "arrogant," and matters from three or five years ago were brought up one after another. Zhou Zhentao was quite unhappy about this, but unhappy or not, he also deeply felt the saying "the eyes of the masses are snow-bright."

The basic allowance for the troops was not very high, but the recent rewards after labor were very generous. Since merit was evaluated based on work performance, naturally some troops got more and some got less. Some comrades did not care much about this part of the reward, but more comrades cared extremely about it. Enamel mugs, soap, military rubber-soled shoes—every item could be bought locally. But the price of each item was not low. The special permission promulgated in the latest rewards allowed troop comrades to use the awarded bonus money to directly purchase these daily necessities after each merit evaluation, and the purchase price was even cheaper than buying in the cooperatives. For their own labor interests, the grassroots soldiers were quite dissatisfied with commanders who could not lead the troop comrades to work better.

"We work for a day, they also work for a day, there's no reason we do less than them!" This sentence was the most common one in the criticisms.

After auditing for two days, Zhou Zhentao no longer cared about his "awaiting punishment status" and couldn't help but ask Political Commissar Yang Deshui, "I feel like the comrades are now like long-term hired hands, only thinking about merit evaluation and getting rewards. Do we still want revolution?"

Yang Deshui knew what Zhou Zhentao had encountered recently. Yang Deshui was also somewhat surprised that Zhou Zhentao intervened in this issue. However, as far as Yang Deshui knew, Chairman Chen Ke did not intend to punish Zhou Zhentao. Although Political Department Director Chen Tianhua harbored strong dissatisfaction towards Zhou Zhentao, he never said anything about what to do with him. Zhou Zhentao was still a member of the division party standing committee, so Yang Deshui could not refuse to answer Zhou Zhentao's question: "Commander Zhou, participating in labor naturally requires giving labor remuneration. This has nothing to do with being long-term hired hands."

"But the comrades' eyes are now full of remuneration, will it affect the next step of military training?" Zhou Zhentao did not abandon his sense of responsibility as a division commander.

Yang Deshui patiently explained: "To cultivate the troops' concept of learning, commanders and political commissars at all levels, besides doing their own work well, also have the responsibility to let comrades learn more knowledge and skills. The new regulations for commander selection stipulate that commanders and political commissars at all levels must teach the soldiers of the troops well. Those who fail to get the comrades' approval in this regard will likely lose the election. If performance in this area is not outstanding, it is basically impossible to get the opportunity for continued promotion."

Zhou Zhentao had not studied the new regulations too carefully. After hearing Yang Deshui's introduction, Zhou Zhentao was speechless for a long time. The Rectification was no longer just an adjustment of some unqualified cadres; the entire system of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army had also undergone profound changes. It was no longer the commanders deciding everything; the grassroots possessed an unprecedented right to speak.

According to the latest grassroots selection process promulgated by the Military Commission before this, grassroots commanders used a method of self-recommendation and recommendation. The superiors announced the evaluation standards and publicized the list of candidates and evaluation standards. The final decision on the candidates was still made by open election at the grassroots level. That is to say, unless the superiors exerted strong pressure on the grassroots, otherwise the superiors would not know who would eventually be selected.

If a division commander wanted to effectively control the troops, the best method was to possess absolute personnel power over commanders above the platoon level. A division could have nearly 20,000 troops. The number of commanders including platoon leaders was only over 400. If it was company-level commanders, there were only over 100. Managing these 100-plus or 400-plus people, ensuring that these 100-plus or 400-plus people were his own people, would enable firm control over the command of the entire division's 20,000 people.

The new selection system reduced the division commander's authority in the troops to the lowest level. If a division commander wanted to establish absolute authority in the troops, he first had to overwhelm the division party committee, and also make the company and platoon leaders obey him absolutely. Zhou Zhentao knew this was a task that could absolutely not succeed. The guards of commanders at all levels had to go to the Political Security Department for "one day of training" every month. If Zhou Zhentao really wanted to do this, his guards would likely be the first to "sell out" Zhou Zhentao.

Zhou Zhentao couldn't help but admire Chen Ke's "strict control of subordinates." This system cut off the possibility of anyone possessing absolute authority over the troops from the root. Even if there was, it could only be Chen Ke alone. As long as one of the commanders or political cadres remained loyal to Chen Ke and the People's Party, the individual's strong influence on the troops would be very limited.

"Does Chairman Chen Ke merely want all commanders and soldiers to be just a member of the troops? Is this the revolutionary army that Chairman Chen Ke yearns for?" After thinking this through, Zhou Zhentao couldn't help but continue thinking along this line of thought. Iron-forged barracks, flowing soldiers; what flowed were soldiers, not commanders. If the value of commanders was only reflected in work, and without the command position, the commanders' own value equaled zero? The value of revolutionary meritorious officials only lay in the period of serving the revolution; once they were no longer in active service, were they nothing? Zhou Zhentao finally arrived at such a conclusion.

While thinking intensely, Zhou Zhentao heard Yang Deshui ask: "Commander Zhou, this grassroots commander selection work is not quite the same as before. The troops are about to resume military training. I think the evaluation should not only consider the labor performance that has already ended, but also consider the military training that is about to take place. We are troops after all, not only do we have to labor, but more importantly, we have to fight battles. I think the division party committee also needs to start discussing this aspect."

Zhou Zhentao did not care much about Yang Deshui's words. He answered somewhat absent-mindedly: "I know."

In the following days, the discussions in the troops of the Huaihai Military Region began to shift from soldiers speaking to the stage of commanders explaining work to the comrades. Addressing the issues raised by comrades in the previous few days, troop commanders and political work cadres gave targeted explanations and discussed solutions together with the comrades.

With the precedent of Gu Lu's regiment, all troops formulated ideas that were close to the grassroots, and also proposed the idea of "officers teaching soldiers, soldiers teaching officers."

Chen Ke also wrote an article titled "No Feudal Power Enfeoffment System is Allowed in the Revolutionary Army" at the opportune moment. The article used a large amount of the speech from the previous "We Are Comrades, We Must Be in Step." Chen Ke pointed out that the reason the feudal system lagged behind the times was because the feudal system itself possessed a strong "class solidification" ideology. Dragons beget dragons, phoenixes beget phoenixes, and a mouse's son can burrow holes. In the People's Revolutionary Army, this ideology of solidified classes is absolutely not allowed to exist. There is only one standard for measuring the revolutionary army, and that is "work." All promotions or dismissals are only related to work. The Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army must continuously progress, not stand still and refuse to make progress, and definitely not allowed to regress. Because this kind of standing still harms the interests of all members of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. Even if some people temporarily get benefits from it, these benefits are built on the foundation of the common loss of interests of the vast number of comrades.

Once this article came out, Zhou Zhentao knew that Chen Ke had made up his mind to rectify. Sure enough, at the same time the grassroots commander selection work began, all middle and high-ranking cadres not participating in the selection work were concentrated for study. Zhou Zhentao was a division commander after all, and also an old comrade. Some old comrades-in-arms, disregarding that Zhou Zhentao had "made mistakes," privately told Zhou Zhentao: Political Department Director Chen Tianhua was going to establish Chen Ke's People's Revolution ideology as the Party's ideology at this study meeting. All Party members must establish the People's Revolution ideology as their own ideology.

The old comrade advised Zhou Zhentao anxiously, "Old Zhou, we all followed Chairman Chen to make revolution together. Everyone admires Chairman Chen very much. Even if Chairman Chen's discipline requirements are strict, Chairman Chen has never been unfair to everyone. Up to now, there are many people who want to bring you down, but Chairman Chen has shouldered so many things for you. Just lower your head and admit a mistake. We'll do whatever Chairman Chen asks us to do. We'll consider problems however Chairman Chen asks us to consider them. As long as you state your position, Chairman Chen will definitely not do anything to you. You haven't said a word until now; even if we want to speak for you, we can't."

Zhou Zhentao looked at his old comrade and suddenly laughed out loud, "Yes. Now we bunch of people take Chairman Chen's People's Revolution ideology as our ideology. For the cadre selection below, according to Chairman Chen's instructions, the grassroots comrades select the people they approve of. And then? We just shout 'Long live Chairman Chen, long live, long long live'? Then what are we? When I rebelled against the Qing back then, it was to oppose this kind of thing. I can't watch as we overthrow one emperor, only for another emperor to rise up."

The old comrade really hadn't expected Zhou Zhentao to say this. He was stunned, and the anxious look on his face gradually turned into anger, "You make me shout 'Long live Chairman Chen, long live, long long live,' I feel at ease. What, are you preparing to let people shout 'Long live Commander Zhou, thousand years, thousand thousand years'?"

"I don't want to hear people shout 'thousand years' either. Chairman Chen told me last time, who ruined the futures of so many sacrificed comrades? I now feel that those many sacrificed comrades wouldn't approve of this current way of doing things either. We conquered the world, we have to sit in this world. Even if it's for those sacrificed comrades, we have to sit in this world. Dismissing people for trivial matters, I can't accept it even now. This is unfair to us comrades who followed the revolution early on."

Hearing these words, the old comrade's expression also softened. The comrades dismissed this time were mostly old comrades. Zhou Zhentao's "rescue work" was not without people agreeing with it in their hearts. The reason no one stood up to speak for Zhou Zhentao was simply because Chen Ke did not intend to do anything to Zhou Zhentao.

After thinking for a while, the old comrade asked, "Old Zhou, what do you plan to do?"

"Since Chairman Chen gave me this face, I can't let this face fall to the ground. If this matter isn't brought up in this study session, I won't say anything. If this matter is brought up, I have to speak."

The old comrade knew Zhou Zhentao's temper. He thought for a good while before saying helplessly, "It would be best if you could not speak. If you do speak, I won't say I'll help you, but I definitely won't let anyone bully you. Whoever dares to bring out Chairman Chen to suppress you, I definitely won't agree."

Since the old comrade said this, Zhou Zhentao simply thanked him. The feelings of comrades-in-arms for many years moved Zhou Zhentao greatly. With someone supporting him so firmly at a critical moment, Zhou Zhentao also felt that he'd better not speak. After all, this wasn't just for himself; he had to consider his comrades-in-arms.

Identical to the situation revealed by the old comrade, the troops' study session this time didn't discuss military affairs at all, but went straight for politics. Chen Ke gave a speech titled "Revolution Knows No Order of Priority." As soon as the report ended, Zhou Zhentao stood up, "Chairman Chen, according to what you said, does it mean that revolution knows no order of priority, and revolution has no meritorious officials?"

The venue was silent. Everyone's eyes were focused on Zhou Zhentao—some surprised, some anxious, some approving, some disgusted, some admiring. None of the participating comrades spoke; under the same silence lay different moods.

Chen Ke knew someone would definitely stand up like this. Not to mention the People's Party which had been established for less than six years, even the parties in history couldn't completely get rid of the "meritorious official" ideology after the victory of the revolution. Even without talking about that time, even in the 21st century, wasn't the character Li Yunlong created in "Drawing Sword" (Liang Jian) praised by many people? Although in reality, just for the single act of appointing a guard privately, a person like Li Yunlong would have long been purged by Party discipline, let alone organizing combat privately for his own wife.

With Zhou Zhentao standing up, Chen Ke felt both gratified and regretful. With an emotion that was hard to describe, Chen Ke answered: "Everything has a beginning and an end. Merit evaluation is never about evaluating future credit, but evaluating past credit. The past is already over. But we don't live in the past every day; we live in the present, live before our eyes, live in the moment. So in this moment, who do you say is a meritorious official? We can't always live in the past."

"Comrades have accumulated so much credit, you have to give them one more chance, right?" Zhou Zhentao said.

"Even for comrades who have been dismissed, as long as they can recognize their mistakes, they certainly have a chance. Everything has a beginning and an end; no one forbids them from continuing to participate in revolutionary work."

"Participate in revolutionary work from scratch? After so many years of effort, just because of this one thing, they become the most grassroots soldiers? They didn't have problems in military posts, but violated discipline because of other things. I think we can't ignore these comrades' performance in military posts. We can't strip them to the bottom regardless of the mistake. This is unfair."

Zhou Zhentao's words voiced the aspirations of many comrades. Some comrades were already nodding slightly in approval. The practice of stripping someone to the bottom was indeed relatively excessive, coupled with the intensity of the fierce grassroots personnel adjustments afterwards which exceeded the comrades' imagination. Quite a few comrades felt very unaccustomed to the new selection system, and even had considerable resistance.

"So far, no stripping to the bottom has occurred. The dismissed comrades are now being reorganized for study. Your view is inevitably too one-sided," Chen Ke replied.

Hearing Chen Ke's words, Zhou Zhentao was certain that Chen Ke absolutely did not support restoring those comrades to their original positions. Having reached this point, Zhou Zhentao had nothing to fear. He said loudly, "Then what about after they finish their studies? Now the grassroots are conducting selections, and middle and high-ranking cadres are all here studying. When the study is finished, all positions will have candidates. Even if we want to arrange work for these comrades again, where can we arrange them? If those comrades don't start from scratch, are we to let them eat idle meals?"

Sitting on the rostrum with Chen Ke, Chen Tianhua couldn't bear it anymore. He stood up, "Comrade Zhou Zhentao, after all this talk, you still don't accept the dismissal of these comrades who made mistakes. If we just criticize a few sentences after a mistake is made, then where is the organizational discipline? We talk about learning from past mistakes to avoid future ones, and curing the sickness to save the patient. This is no different from saying nothing."

Zhou Zhentao sneered, "I'm afraid it's not these comrades who are being rectified this time. I think the ones being rectified this time are us old guys. Chairman Chen, I think your methods are much more formidable than I thought. First, stabilize us, then replace the people below with people you fancy, making us figureheads. Then gather us together for this study; if we don't pass the study, it'll be time to rectify us. How many of us are there? You don't need to rectify us; our own guards will take care of us. Zhao Kuangyin released military power with a cup of wine; he at least knew to invite everyone for a drink. We don't even need to drink wine; just pour a glass of water for each person and we have to obediently hand over power."

While fiercely attacking Chen Ke, Zhou Zhentao pointed at the tea mug in front of him. In this meeting, every cadre had a tea mug in front of them. Zhou Zhentao didn't like tea; there was only plain water in his mug. Hearing this metaphor, some comrades "pfft" and laughed out loud. A touch of absurdity was added to the solemn atmosphere in the venue.

Chen Tianhua was furious at Zhou Zhentao's words. Hearing this laugh, his hands trembled with anger. Chen Ke held Chen Tianhua's hand down and said, "Comrade Chen Tianhua, sit down." If Chen Tianhua couldn't hold back his anger and said something, Chen Ke would find it troublesome instead. According to the ordinary political struggle mode, Chen Ke should have let some comrades come out to preside, while he manipulated from behind. This way, Chen Ke could ensure his detached status and wouldn't make enemies. But Chen Ke knew that was the method of true personnel struggle, and he opposed this method. This kind of struggle would definitely exist in the future; it didn't shift according to Chen Ke's personal will at all. But Chen Ke didn't hope that the Rectification Movement he presided over would also use such inferior means.

More importantly, Zhou Zhentao was not talking nonsense. Chen Ke had considered everything he said. The most important purpose of the Rectification Movement in history was to establish "Mao Zedong Thought" and establish the Party's organizational discipline in an extremely clear way. The purpose of rectification was not to punish people, but to completely eliminate internal strife within the Party organization by establishing a leader and an ideology. Therefore, there were many people who failed to graduate from the Yan'an Party School. Many comrades waited for a long, long time for work assignment after finishing all courses. If viewed from the angle of personnel struggle, if viewed as the "methods" Zhou Zhentao spoke of, this method of depriving power could be said to be extremely brilliant. Comrades who did not support Mao Zedong Thought were indeed cleverly stripped from the organization. The Yan'an Party School was not a place where one could easily graduate just by shouting "Long live Chairman Mao" a few times.

Zhou Zhentao accurately grasped the core of this rectification. The establishment of the grassroots democracy model relieved the worries of fierce chaos occurring in the Party, government, and army. Chen Ke could finally rectify the middle and high levels with a free hand. Just like the Yan'an Rectification, no matter how the middle and high levels of the People's Party shouted "Long live Chairman Chen," they couldn't graduate easily.

The situation Chen Ke was in now was quite different from the situation Chairman Mao was in back then. Chen Ke had been the leader of the People's Party from beginning to end, the founder of the base area, and the creator of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. There was simply no figure in the Party who could contend with Chen Ke. However, just as there were people like Zhang Guotao back then, Zhou Zhentao also stood up to express firm opposition.

After Chen Tianhua forced down his anger and sat down, Chen Ke cheered up and asked seriously, "Then Comrade Zhou Zhentao, are you purely opposing the handling method of some comrades this time, or are you opposing the entire Rectification Movement?"

Seeing that Chen Ke did not get angry in the face of unprecedented questioning, but instead controlled the situation first and then conducted a one-on-one discussion, the comrades felt much more at ease, and their eyes immediately turned to Zhou Zhentao.

Zhou Zhentao originally thought that since he "exposed" Chen Ke's methods, even if Chen Ke didn't fly into a rage, he would at least hesitate. He didn't expect that facing this attack, Chen Ke not only controlled the situation well but also kicked the ball back to his feet. Zhou Zhentao felt it difficult to cope instead. His outburst was indeed based on a relatively long period of consideration, but this consideration was only directed at Chen Ke's practices, not a systematic and comprehensive negation of Chen Ke's ideology. Even if there was negation, it was far from rising to the level of constructing an ideological system belonging to Zhou Zhentao himself. As the right to speak was cleverly thrown back to Zhou Zhentao by Chen Ke, Zhou Zhentao felt he had a lot to say in his heart, but not a single sentence could get the universal approval of the participating comrades.

Having provoked such a big topic, he then realized that he was far from having the ability to master this topic. Zhou Zhentao saw the eyes of the surrounding comrades change from expectation to doubt as he remained silent. He was anxious in his heart, but the more anxious he was, the less he could find a sentence that could fully express his true aspirations.

Chen Ke opposite Zhou Zhentao said nothing, just steadily watching Zhou Zhentao slowly turn red in the face and neck, but remaining silent all the while. The venue thus fell into a kind of silence.

PS: Originally I didn't want to explain. This time I had to use Pinyin to replace a few banned words, so I couldn't help but say a few words. It's not that I'm being mushy and must use the word "Grandpa Mao," and compared to many Pinyin replacements, the author would rather use the word "Grandpa Mao" as a tribute to the great man. The author believes that in terms of age, using this address for a revolutionary predecessor born in the century before last is also consistent with the facts.