Resettling tens of thousands of people was never an easy task; the issues of eating, drinking, and basic hygiene alone were enough to drive logistics personnel mad. This was true even for the People's Party's experienced logistics teams. Qiu Jin had suffered a head injury but had insisted on commanding from the front lines; she fell ill after entering Anhui. Xu Xilin no longer thought of seeking an audience with Chen Ke this time; he had to nominally take over command.

The People's Party temporarily settled these people from the Western Zhejiang Branch in Guangde County. Li Shouxian, the Party Secretary of the Southern Anhui Prefecture, personally came to Guangde to meet with Xu Xilin. Not only did Li Shouxian arrive, but the 412th Division of the Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army also stationed itself in Guangde. With the division's military hospital available, the wounded from the Western Zhejiang Branch finally received comprehensive treatment.

Li Shouxian had only met Xu Xilin four or five times, the last time being two years ago. Seeing this veteran revolutionary who had given Chen Ke his initial support, Li Shouxian was shocked by Xu Xilin's change. Xu Xilin was 42 this year, seven years older than Chen Ke; in this late Qing era, both were considered middle-aged. Li Shouxian had seen Chen Ke recently, and Chen Ke looked unchanged; judging by appearance alone, everyone would believe he was a vibrant young man of twenty-six or twenty-seven. Xu Xilin, however, with his graying hair, dull skin, and wrinkled face, looked no different from an old man of fifty.

"Mr. Xu, are there any issues with your unit's living conditions?" Li Shouxian asked about practical difficulties right away.

Xu Xilin was slightly stunned, then shook his head and replied, "Having reached this state, we are already extremely grateful for your Party's assistance."

Li Shouxian replied, "If there are any difficulties, please speak frankly. We will do our best to solve whatever we can. Moreover, Mr. Xu, if war breaks out, Guangde County will not be safe either. I'm afraid we will have to move everyone to a safer location then. We will notify everyone in advance when the time comes."

The war was just beginning, and Xu Xilin knew this. But even knowing it, he couldn't muster any spirit. The immense upheaval facing him had dealt Xu Xilin too heavy a blow; he never imagined that the internal slaughter within the Restoration Society would reach such a cruel level. The Western Zhejiang Branch had once controlled three counties plus Huzhou City, with a population of 580,000. The total personnel of the Western Zhejiang Branch's government, army, and grassroots organizations numbered over 14,000. Now, a total of over 20,000 people had managed to retreat to Anhui. Among them, members of the Western Zhejiang Branch organization numbered less than 4,000. Intelligence from various places indicated that among those who failed to withdraw, the Western Zhejiang Branch members and the civilians closely associated with them had all been massacred. The death toll was likely over 60,000. One in ten people in Western Zhejiang had been slaughtered; this was something previously unimaginable.

Xu Xilin felt like he was having a nightmare. Although Li Shouxian was sitting across from him, Xu Xilin couldn't help but do something he had done frequently of late—bite his own thumb. Pain radiated from his thumb, but he simply could not wake up from this nightmare.

"Mr. Xu, I wonder what plans the Western Zhejiang Branch has for the future?" Although Li Shouxian saw Xu Xilin biting his finger hard, he could only pretend not to notice. In reality, the People's Party's intelligence gathering was more efficient than Xu Xilin's. As far as the People's Party knew, the Beiyang Army and local forces in Zhejiang had killed nearly 100,000 people in Western Zhejiang. It wasn't just the grassroots personnel of the Western Zhejiang Branch who were slaughtered; the more than 30,000 factory workers in Western Zhejiang were almost wiped out, and nearly 50,000 peasant association members were also killed. The brutality of the Beiyang Army and the mountain landlords was far beyond Li Shouxian's imagination.

"What plans can there be? Everything is finished; the Western Zhejiang Branch has been uprooted. Tao Gong is gone, and there is no place left for us in all of Zhejiang." Xu Xilin's voice could only be described as ashen with despair.

Hearing this, a slight displeasure rose in Li Shouxian's heart. Xu Xilin had reached the point where the People's Party had to send troops to save him, yet he still refused to accept the reality that he was no longer a member of the Restoration Society. But on second thought, if Li Shouxian were to be so cruelly expelled by the People's Party, his performance might be even worse than Xu Xilin's. But then again, in the People's Party, it was impossible for a faction to exist that opposed the Party Central Committee's policies and used military force for its own weight. The situation of the Restoration Society's Western Zhejiang Branch would absolutely never occur within the People's Party.

Sighing slightly, Li Shouxian said, "Mr. Xu, the most urgent task is to convene a meeting of your branch to sort out what has happened. If you continue to be so depressed, how can you face those comrades who have already sacrificed themselves?"

If the People's Party encountered such difficulties—why did this situation arise? How should the immediate problems be solved?—Party organizations at all levels would have already met to discuss. According to the principles of the People's Party organization, as long as there are three Party members in one place, a Party cell must be established, and actions must be discussed. One of the key points emphasized in the People's Party's Rectification Movement was "Anti-Indolence." Chen Ke repeatedly emphasized within the Party, "To sail against the current is to move forward or fall behind; this is the era we face. This is the characteristic of the industrial age; only by constantly moving forward can we survive! Comrades, in the process of constant progress, encountering difficulties is the most normal thing. Our People's Party has grown up amidst difficulties."

Li Shouxian knew everything Chen Ke said well. He was also an "old cadre" who, since the Anhui floods, had followed Chen Ke along with other comrades to face various difficulties head-on. Every time they overcame a hardship with great effort, the People's Party's revolutionary cause would achieve an almost leapfrog development. Great waves sweep away the sand; the enemies and competitors of the People's Party were often not defeated by the People's Party, but fell before difficulties themselves. Looking at Xu Xilin's current state, the Western Zhejiang Branch had also entered the countdown to total elimination.

But Xu Xilin was obviously trapped in self-pity and could not extricate himself, so Li Shouxian offered a few words of advice and left. Inside the People's Party base areas, there were also Party cadres who never recovered after encountering setbacks; without exception, these people ended up being removed from their posts.

After bidding farewell to Xu Xilin, Li Shouxian did not leave Guangde County. He went to find Ji Ye and other mid-level cadres of the Restoration Society. These young people had all received training from the People's Party, so they knew about "Anti-Indolence" to some extent. The Western Zhejiang Branch also insisted that the armed forces should be a labor team, a propaganda team, and a work team. Ji Ye was mainly responsible for the reorganization of the troops, and the current work was nothing more than maintaining order.

When Li Shouxian's figure appeared in Ji Ye's field of vision, Ji Ye was discussing traffic command work with comrades. The premise of maintaining order is that there is an order to maintain. Making people understand traffic order itself required a considerable amount of travel training. From the perspective of actual efficiency, if a camp of 10,000 people did not have good travel order, supervision efficiency would be greatly reduced. The mid-level cadres of the Western Zhejiang Branch were basically all gathered in the camp participating in this work.

In the few days after arriving in Anhui, comrades would occasionally tear up while working, or simply choke back sobs silently, yet no one stopped working. For these young people, persisting in work was the only way to avoid being completely swallowed by grief. Every one of them had wailed aloud more than once during the retreat, and some had even contemplated suicide. In such a mood, even hearing a greeting like "Hello everyone" mattered to no one. Ji Ye and a few others raised their heads with indifferent expressions, while other comrades didn't even lift their heads.

"Brother Li?" Ji Ye asked in surprise, and then a strong sense of shame rose in her heart. In fact, Ji Ye was not Li Shouxian's subordinate; the two belonged to different political entities. But Ji Ye just couldn't help but feel ashamed; as classmates who had been educated in the same school, this shame was completely uncontrollable.

"Hello comrades! You've been working hard, comrades!" There was not the slightest blame or accusation in Li Shouxian's attitude; it was no different from his usual kind greeting. Not only did he speak, but Li Shouxian also stepped forward to shake hands with the young comrades one by one. Including Ji Ye, many comrades felt that their tears had almost run dry, but now they felt tears moistening their eyes again.

Seeing these young people who persisted in their work become emotional, Li Shouxian was also very moved. He patted the shoulders of the young comrades one by one, but still calmly put forward his own view. "Comrades, right now we shouldn't just be working. I suggest everyone convene a meeting immediately to decide the future direction."

"But Mr. Qiu has fallen ill, and Mr. Xu is in that state..." The young comrades of the Western Zhejiang Branch felt that Li Shouxian's proposal was somewhat difficult to implement.

Li Shouxian waved his hand seriously, "Comrades, the power of any political party comes from the grassroots. This basic understanding is repeatedly emphasized in our Party School and Cadre School. If the upper levels collapse, does that mean our grassroots must also collapse? How many people are in the upper levels? In an organization, the lower the level, the greater the number of people."

This was true, but the comrades of the Western Zhejiang Branch couldn't accept the method of holding a meeting on their own without Xu Xilin for the time being. Li Shouxian did not force it. He waited until the Western Zhejiang Branch comrades had arranged the traffic work before saying, "If you don't want to hold a general meeting right now, then I would like to ask comrades for a favor. Have you ever collected data on Restoration Society personnel? Especially the list of Restoration Society personnel in provinces other than Zhejiang?"

This request surprised many people. "Secretary Li, the immediate matter should be to prepare for war, right? What does this have to do with comrades in other provinces?"

Ji Ye was relatively calm. She asked in confusion, "Secretary Li, could it be that the Headquarters is going to move against comrades in other provinces as well?"

At this, the comrades of the Western Zhejiang Branch also felt quite surprised. "Comrades in other provinces have different positions from our Western Zhejiang Branch; how could the Headquarters possibly move against them?"

Li Shouxian originally didn't quite believe that the Restoration Society would be frenzied to this extent either, but Chen Ke had told him about this in a telegram, and Li Shouxian could never disbelieve Chen Ke's judgment. "This matter will not be resolved so simply. As far as we know, even if the comrades of the Restoration Society haven't followed the mass line, some of them still recognize that the land conflict is the greatest conflict in China today. And the Restoration Society Headquarters clearly regards these people as enemies."

Revolutionaries of yeoman farmer background were an important force within the Restoration Society, and the political view of hoping to curb land annexation was also one of the important ideas within the Society. Although the most radical of these people had joined the Western Zhejiang Branch, the political view of moderately opposing annexation still had considerable supporters within the Restoration Society.

Hearing Li Shouxian's words, the young comrades of the Western Zhejiang Branch looked at Li Shouxian with disbelief and exchanged glances. What Li Shouxian said was rather horrifying. If the Headquarters really used such a standard to define friends and enemies, then this reign of terror was only just beginning.

"Why?" Ji Ye asked, her face pale.

"Because these people want a world for the propertied class. When they have this opportunity, they will absolutely not let it slip. Wolves must eat meat; that is the rule of the wolf." Li Shouxian answered with extreme calm, his heavy voice sending a chill down people's spines.