142 Blood Red, Snow White (3)

"Labor supply insufficient?" Chai Qingguo questioned the telegraph operator in his office.

"There is absolutely no error in the telegram draft we translated! Please believe us, Chief!" The telegraph operator directly pointed out Chai Qingguo's doubt.

After letting the telegraph operator go back to work, Chai Qingguo couldn't help but shout at the Chief of Staff: "The base area has a population of two hundred million now, and now there's actually a labor supply shortage!"

The Chief of Staff naturally couldn't curse along with Chai Qingguo. He said matter-of-factly: "Commander Chai, no need to say too long ago, if someone said five years ago that the war could be fought to this scale, would you believe it?"

Chai Qingguo wasn't really shouting abuse due to anxiety attacking his heart. He knew very clearly how large the scale of the current war was. Although the People's Party looked down on old scholars the most, the People's Party also grasped cultural education very tightly. For example, poetry education in culture was one of them. Chai Qingguo had also read Xin Qiji's "Yongyule," and he felt deeply about the line "swallowing ten thousand li like a tiger."

Theoretically, the People's Party could even organize the march from the southernmost Guangxi to the Northeast. In fact, in the latest batch of troops, there were even soldiers from Guangxi. A part of them had already been incorporated into Pu Guanshui's troops. Before long, these soldiers who had truly walked a distance of ten thousand li would participate in the battle to march into the Northeast, and even into Korea.

Chai Qingguo felt uneasy about the consequences brought by the "insufficient labor supply" proposed by the Central Committee. This consequence was that every region and every unit had to find ways to solve problems themselves. If the Central Committee expressed inability to solve problems immediately, one shouldn't expect the local areas to solve problems on a certain battle line by their own efforts.

The Chief of Staff naturally knew where the problem lay. He said in a deep voice: "I have already invited Comrade Li Runshi over to discuss this matter. I hope he can stop insisting on disbanding the Beiyang captives and utilize labor in this aspect as much as possible."

Just as they were speaking, the guard came in to report that Comrade Li Runshi had arrived.

The matter was so urgent that all polite formulas were dispensed with. The Chief of Staff immediately began to introduce the situation. "The Beijing-Hankou line is already saturated; all locomotives and carriages have been incorporated. Canal transport is also saturated; all sections of the canal have been dredged, and transport capacity has reached the upper limit. All factories are running at full load. All troops in various military regions across the country, as long as they are not fighting, are engaged in various infrastructure constructions. Especially our Hebei Military Region, maybe only the guard troops haven't been dispatched. All war affairs in Hebei are the responsibility of the Northeast Military Region troops. Labor supply is insufficient. So we hope Comrade Li Runshi can provide help on the issue of Beiyang captives."

Li Runshi looked at the data. After a long time, he said: "I have also studied Party history materials and discovered a problem. In the early days of our People's Party, we never had a comprehensive conflict with the old system head-on."

"Hmm?" Chai Qingguo and the Chief of Staff felt quite surprised by such an evaluation from Li Runshi. This was a bit too far off topic.

But Li Runshi didn't care at all. He continued: "Before we rose up to make revolution, natural disasters had already destroyed the local old order. So from the initial stage, we actually already controlled the local labor force. In terms of labor use, we were never deficient. Moreover, from the very beginning, we vigorously cultivated our own technical teams and technical reserves. It can be said that we prepared for a rainy day. The result of my research is that we achieved the highest efficiency at that time, and it was simply impossible to do better."

Chai Qingguo and the Chief of Staff looked at Li Runshi with a look of slight disgust and even contempt. Among the middle and high-ranking cadres in the Party, actually no one would suck up to Chen Ke. Everyone had long been used to two states: either able to understand and execute Chen Ke's plan, or unable to understand Chen Ke's plan. Those comrades who couldn't understand Chen Ke's plan, the only thing they had to do was learn to understand and deepen their understanding during execution. Sucking up was useless. Li Runshi's words had the suspicion of sucking up.

But Li Runshi didn't care about such a look from Chai Qingguo at all. He continued: "And the expansion process of the base areas completely relied on the resources provided by the system established initially. In these new base areas, we haven't been able to truly proactively incorporate the local masses into the revolutionary system; we haven't been able to bring the initiative of the masses into play. This led to high dependence on the Central Base Area. Facing only domestic enemies like Beiyang, this model can still operate well. Facing the pressure brought by imperialist attacks, we are stretched to the limit..."

"Hehe hehe!" Chai Qingguo laughed. This very malicious laughter made Li Runshi somewhat stunned, while the Chief of Staff was somewhat afraid. Chai Qingguo stared closely at Li Runshi, various thoughts rolling in his mind. This was not the first time Chai Qingguo heard such words. Chen Ke had said it, and a few other high-ranking cadres in the Party had also said the same or similar words. Someone even quoted words from "On Contradiction" to criticize the mechanical copying of old base area policies in new base areas.

...The so-called metaphysical or vulgar evolutionist worldview is to see the world from an isolated, static, and one-sided viewpoint. This worldview regards all things in the world, the forms and types of all things, as forever isolated from each other and forever unchanging. If there is change, it is only an increase or decrease in quantity and a change in place. And the cause of such increase, decrease, and change lies not inside the things but outside the things, that is, due to the propulsion of external forces...

...Metaphysicians believe that various different things and the characteristics of things in the world have been so since the beginning of their existence. Later changes are merely expansion or contraction in quantity. They believe that a thing can only be repeatedly produced as the same thing forever and cannot change into another different thing...

...Contrary to the metaphysical worldview, the worldview of materialist dialectics advocates studying the development of things from inside the things, from the relationship of one thing to other things, that is, regarding the development of things as the necessary self-movement inside the things, and the movement of every thing is interrelated with and interacts with other things around it. The fundamental cause of the development of things lies not outside the things but inside the things, in the contradictoriness inside the things. Any thing has this contradictoriness inside it, thus causing the movement and development of things. This contradictoriness inside things is the fundamental cause of the development of things, while the interrelation and interaction of one thing with other things are the secondary causes of the development of things. Thus, materialist dialectics powerfully opposes the theory of external causality or the theory of passivity of metaphysical mechanical materialism and vulgar evolutionism. This is clear; simple external causes can only cause the mechanical movement of things, that is, the size of the scope, the increase or decrease of quantity, but cannot explain why things have qualitative diversity and change into each other. In fact, even mechanical movement driven by external force must pass through the contradictoriness inside things. The simple growth of plants and animals, the development of quantity, is mainly also caused by internal contradictions. Similarly, the development of society is mainly not due to external causes but due to internal causes. Many countries under almost the same geographical and climatic conditions have very large differences and imbalances in their development. Take the same country; under the condition that geography and climate have not changed, the changes in society are very large...

These theories sounded very reasonable, but comrades in various new base areas almost used the same words to push back these different opinions: "In actual execution, the old method has high efficiency, while the new method completely needs groping and making mistakes. We firstly don't have this time and secondly don't have this energy."

This was not comrades in various new areas shirking responsibility. Promoting revolution rapidly in new areas and having certainty of victory was by no means an easy thing. Although comrades in new base areas didn't not know that they encountered countless new problems and needed to make adjustments for these problems, time and tasks simply didn't allow large-scale targeted adjustments.

The reason Chai Qingguo laughed "maliciously" was that Zhang Yu supported "deep adjustment" of existing base area policies. And Chai Qingguo also heard that Li Runshi was strongly recommended by Zhang Yu himself, and also obtained Pu Guanshui's approval. Otherwise, even facing the situation of extreme lack of excellent cadres in new base areas, it wouldn't be the turn of a young lad in his early twenties to occupy such a high position. When following Chen Ke to create the Anhui Base Area back then, young people promoted extremely fast could only become county magistrates and county party secretaries in their twenties.

"Then Comrade Li Runshi, how long do you think this adjustment will take?" Chai Qingguo asked.

Li Runshi replied: "It needs a large amount of research now."

Chai Qingguo laughed: "You can certainly conduct research, but I need to fight the Japanese right now. Maybe I even need to fight other foreign devils. By the time you finish your research, this war will probably be over! The old method definitely has problems. The point right now is that the old method can operate well at least, can support the war, and can solve problems. The new method will bring a large number of problems. In case it affects the war, no one can afford this responsibility then."

Li Runshi fell silent temporarily. Chai Qingguo was by no means pestering unreasonably; this reasoning was very easy to understand.

Seeing this situation, the Chief of Staff hurriedly began to smooth things over. "This topic is too big. We might as well talk about the POW camp issue first."

"No," Chai Qingguo waved his hand to express his opposition. "Since the Central Committee has already said labor is insufficient, now all old methods have exerted their strength to the limit. We precisely don't lack this bit of time to talk about this thing now."

Now the Chief of Staff was somewhat surprised. Looking at Chai Qingguo's appearance now, he really didn't look like he wanted to make things difficult for Li Runshi. Could it be that Chai Qingguo really wanted to make adjustments in Hebei?

"Comrade Li Runshi, do you have any method now?" Chai Qingguo continued to ask.

Li Runshi was silent for a while and finally said: "Solve the Beiyang remnants in Shandong first, liberate the entire Shandong. After determining the strategic situation of the entire Hebei and Shandong, fully mobilize the initiative of the masses."

"How to mobilize?" Chai Qingguo continued to ask.

...

...

After Chai Qingguo discussed with Li Runshi for a whole afternoon, he braved the snow to go to the front line personally to find Pu Guanshui. Seeing Pu Guanshui's exhausted appearance, Chai Qingguo joked: "Commander Pu, do you want me to take over your command?"

Pu Guanshui didn't even have the mood to joke. "No need to take over my command; just take over the logistics for me."

Chai Qingguo laughed: "A telegram from the Central Committee told us that other base areas have entered the stage of labor shortage, and the logistics upper limit is completely impossible to increase. As long as you don't make excessive requests, it's not impossible for me to take over logistics."

"What? The logistics upper limit can't increase?" Pu Guanshui was stunned. What he needed now was unlimited logistics. If the logistics aspect could only maintain the status quo, Pu Guanshui would be in a difficult position here. But on second thought, the current situation was that northern Hebei was actually under the control of the Northeast Military Region. If the entire Hebei could be handed over to Chai Qingguo to be responsible for, and he just fought the war, the pressure could decrease constantly instead.

"Commander Chai, tell me clearly, will you play tricks on me in logistics? I trust you, so I really don't want to wrangle later." Pu Guanshui asked.

Chai Qingguo smiled helplessly: "We all came out from fighting wars; what's the point of me making things difficult for you? What should be given won't be less at all; what cuts ours can't cut yours either."

Pu Guanshui thought for a while and finally nodded in agreement.

After reaching an agreement, Chai Qingguo asked about the war situation in the last two days.

"The Japanese are now crazy about destroying our transportation lines. We are holding on desperately. Engineering troops are rushing to repair with their lives. Now it has turned into a war of attrition; this string has to be tight at all times. On the contrary, the fighting is not that intense. Lacking a navy is just this bad. If we had a navy, we could completely throttle the Japanese. Now it's snowing, and the air force can't sortie; no one knows when the Japanese will appear."

"Eh?" Chai Qingguo was somewhat surprised. He originally thought the battle would be in full swing, but he didn't expect the battle to have the flavor of a stalemate war of attrition. "Then what do you plan to do?"

"I am firstly hoping for clear weather so the air force can sortie for reconnaissance in all directions. Secondly, considering how to find a balance point and seek the best configuration in defense and maneuver efficiency. Thirdly, finding a way to let the troops rest. Now not only is the headquarters alarmed three times a day, but the troops also can't rest well," Pu Guanshui replied.

"Listening to your meaning, the Japanese have no intention of comprehensive invasion right now?" Chai Qingguo asked.

"They come from the sea. From the Northeast to Shandong, even to Lianyungang, such a long battle line, we have to defend every place, and every place must be guaranteed not to have problems. They can implement a breakthrough at any point. Whether they intend a comprehensive invasion, we can't judge now either." Pu Guanshui stood in front of the map as he spoke, tapping the Northeast region forcefully. "The current key point is to seize the Northeast. After seizing the Northeast and Korea, we won't be afraid of whatever the Japanese do instead. As a strategic wing, Korea makes Japan unable to ignore it. Because across such a narrow strait, we can attack the Japanese homeland at any time. At that time, we will have thousands of ways to make the Japanese restless. At that time, even if they can still launch attacks on China, it can only be harassment warfare; we really won't be afraid."

Chai Qingguo agreed very much with this. This was also the real reason why the People's Party Military Commission could pass the huge costly strategy of liberating Korea. At the beginning, being so far from Korea, the conflict with Japan wasn't sharp enough. The closer the People's Party got to the Northeast, the more intense Japan's performance became. In the view of the People's Party, this intensity was precisely because the People's Party executed the correct strategy, making Japan completely feel the huge pressure. The more at this time, what was needed was precisely to do it to the end and achieve the goal. Not weak compromise and concession.

"Don't worry, I will definitely do my best to support you!" Chai Qingguo replied.

Although Pu Guanshui knew logistics was the most difficult thing, really being able to be completely liberated from the terrible logistics work made him feel much more relaxed. "Old Chai, how come you have the confidence to take over the entire Hebei?"

"I have to do it even without confidence; this is just a matter of sooner or later. Early death means early reincarnation; dying first is easy, dying later is hard. So I simply take it over to do. In addition, since the Central Committee said it's impossible to give more support, I'm afraid they will also gradually cut support."

"Cut support?" Pu Guanshui was very puzzled.

"Not saying reducing the total amount, but whatever we can solve ourselves, the Central Committee will cut the corresponding support. The total amount won't change. Since this is the case, I also want to make an adjustment in Hebei to see if I can raise the local production capacity of Hebei. If it can be done, the Central Committee can also take a breath. When we really make applications, the Central Committee will also be more generous." Chai Qingguo explained his plan.

"What problem did the Central Committee encounter?" Pu Guanshui was very puzzled. He had no time to consider these problems during this period. Hearing Chai Qingguo speak as if it was very dangerous, Pu Guanshui also felt very surprised.

"What problem can the Central Committee have? Except for lacking everything, the Central Committee probably has no other problems." Chai Qingguo laughed.

"It's good if nothing is wrong," Pu Guanshui said. "Old Chai, since you want to take over logistics, I'll send someone to hand over with you immediately. As for me, I'll sleep for a while first; I haven't slept well these days. With you taking over logistics, I can sleep a peaceful sleep. Thanks!"

Coming out from Pu Guanshui's place, Chai Qingguo looked up at the sky. Pu Guanshui hoped the weather would clear up, but snowflakes still drifted down from the gray sky. It seemed Pu Guanshui's idea fell through. But under this weather, the impact on landing warfare was also huge. The marching of various troops of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army was so difficult, let alone the Japanese wanting to transport a large amount of materials from the sea to the beach. Pu Guanshui said the Japanese army's progress was slow recently. This snow couldn't be said to only cause difficulties for the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army; the Japanese wouldn't feel much better either.

On the road back to Beijing from the front line, basically no masses could be seen along the way; it was all troops of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. This could be understood from the fact that everyone was wearing military cotton coats. Thinking that he was about to take over the affairs of the entire Hebei, Chai Qingguo not only didn't have a feeling of joy but instead had heavy pressure.

As a senior commander of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, Chai Qingguo had long passed the stage of only thinking about having greater authority. Authority meant obligation, meant more responsibility, meant carrying more black pots. This was by no means a simple good thing.

"Can only adjust!" Chai Qingguo thought.