"Thirty *li* of mountain road; how long does this Thirty-first Regiment intend to walk?" While the troops rested at night, Zhang Yu and others couldn't rest. Everyone was studying the map carefully. The People's Party marched close to 50 *li* a day. Now they were just over 30 *li* from Yingshan County. Originally according to calculation, the troops were only 40 *li* away from the enemy. According to intelligence sent back by the reconnaissance troops, the actual distance was farther than this. The Hubei New Army actually walked no more than twelve *li* on the mountain road yesterday.

Zhang Yu didn't care exactly how far the Hubei New Army walked; it was useless for him to care about this. He wanted to know how the Hubei New Army could possibly walk only a dozen *li* a day. No matter how hard the mountain road was, it shouldn't be slow to this degree.

"I think there might be several factors. First, the Hubei New Army's clothing is wrong," Political Commissar Lu Zhengping said. The distance between the two troops didn't exceed 50 *li*. The reconnaissance troops of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army had almost turned out in full force. Plus the news collected before, it was much more convenient to grasp the specific situation of the Thirty-first Regiment. "It's cold in the mountains, and the Hubei New Army was still wearing summer clothes when they set off. If they don't camp early, they can't stand it."

This reason was very easy for the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army to understand. When the comrades set off, they brought marching quilts, and the camp didn't prepare temporary tents. They just found places as sheltered from the wind as possible. In the chilly mountain wind, everyone wrapped themselves tightly in quilts; some soldiers simply wrapped themselves completely in quilts. If the soldiers of the People's Party who had undergone targeted training were like this, and the troops had trained in various field camping methods, it was impossible for the Hubei New Army to pay more attention to these practical technologies than the People's Party.

The Hubei New Army very traditionally used New Army tents. The result was that they had to set up tents every day when camping and pack up tents before marching. Just the consumption of this time was huge. Besides setting up and dismantling tents, transporting these heavy logistics materials during the march, it would be strange if the marching speed could be raised.

"Second, they also don't have too many places suitable for camping," Lu Zhengping said.

Mountains are not like plains; on plains, places to camp are everywhere. Mountain roads cannot provide wide places for thousands of people to rest at the same time. Even if there were such open places, the mountain wind could freeze you to death. The troops of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army were now divided into many small camping areas along the mountain road. Soldiers wrapped in quilts resting on the mountain road was already the best way for military efficiency and physical health. At least the area "suitable for rest" was much larger. Under trees, behind rocks, or simply wrapped in quilts leaning against mountain rocks to rest; the methods fully utilized imagination. But if these troops lived in tents, there was absolutely no need to consider military efficiency issues.

Lu Zhengping analyzed very well, and the other participating cadres agreed very much. After Zhang Yu understood the reason why the Thirty-first Regiment was so slow, he didn't relax. He said with a cold face: "The biggest problem now is when to fight the Thirty-first Regiment. We don't want to fight a hard battle with them. Fighting a hard battle, we suffer losses."

The Thirty-first Regiment had more than two thousand people, while the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army had only one thousand one hundred people. In terms of troop strength and equipment, the Thirty-first Regiment had a huge advantage. Zhang Yu thought he had made up his mind to fight, but when really only one day's journey away from the enemy, with the battle imminent, Zhang Yu felt his preparation for the war was far from enough. At least compared to the standard of absolute victory, Zhang Yu was still far off.

Ignoring Zhang Yu's nervousness, Political Commissar Lu Zhengping asked: "Are we adopting the daytime combat mode or the night combat mode?"

There was a combat plan before the battle, but the situation was unclear at that time, and the comrades couldn't make a final decision then. Now being so close to the enemy, they could finally determine which combat method to use to solve the enemy.

Every commander was under great psychological pressure. This choice determined the future fate of one thousand one hundred Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army soldiers. It even determined the development of the war situation on the entire southern line of the base area. Everyone hoped to obtain a decisive victory. However, before the war began, no one could guarantee the inevitability of victory.

Seeing no one spoke, Lu Zhengping said: "I suggest fighting during the day. Our troops can march and intersperse better. When fighting for various commanding heights with the enemy, it's also easier to fight. Besides, the troops' night combat training is still very insufficient. Adopting night combat hastily might not be a good thing."

The participating officers nodded after hearing this. Zhang Yu felt a burst of regret in his heart. Actually, the analysis Lu Zhengping just mentioned was the result summarized when Zhang Yu discussed with Lu Zhengping privately, but Zhang Yu himself failed to propose it first because of worrying about gains and losses. Now hearing Lu Zhengping analyze the war situation clearly and logically, including Zhang Yu himself, had to admit that this choice was almost the only reasonable choice. Precisely because this choice was reasonable, there was a place that couldn't be bypassed at all: even if the Thirty-first Regiment of the Hubei New Army fell into an encirclement, as long as they gritted their teeth and resisted desperately, it would take several days to completely annihilate the Thirty-first Regiment.

"Exactly how strong can the enemy's resistance spirit be? What do comrades think?" Zhang Yu asked.

"Who cares how they resist? Just suppress them completely and finish them off." As long as it didn't involve things at the campaign design level, the lower-level cadres became active. Up to now, every battle of the People's Party was blade against blade, gun against gun, adopting the way of seeing red with bayonets to finally resolve the battle. From attacking fortified villages to many subsequent campaigns. Every time there was close-quarters combat at the end. Especially in the Battle of Hefei, annihilating Li Yuanhong's troops was like this. To limit the actions of Li Yuanhong's troops, the army consumed huge manpower and material resources and prepared for a long time. Finally resolving Li Yuanhong completely was just that last big charge.

Seeing he had no other choice, Zhang Yu said loudly: "Then let's do it this way."

The troops went to sleep around 8 PM. By around 3:30 in the morning, all troops were woken up. The cadres and soldiers ate breakfast, and then received the news: the troops put down all luggage and advanced with light packs. Everyone was very clear about the meaning of this order. The final battle was finally about to start. The troops from top to bottom became excited and uneasy.

The sky was still dark. Under the illumination of a few torches, political commissars and instructors began to carry out the final mobilization. Why fight this battle? Everyone analyzed very clearly. If the troops stuck to Anqing city, under the attack of the Hubei New Army's naval guns and infantry, the losses suffered by the troops would definitely be very large. As long as the Thirty-first Regiment of the Hubei New Army was annihilated, then due to lack of manpower and the psychological shock, the Hubei New Army would never dare to attack again. This was the most basic explanation. The troops had fought quite a few battles and held even more meetings. Everyone could understand these explanations.

After explaining the campaign ideological design, what remained was the mobilization of combat determination. "We attack actively, and losses will be smaller instead. If we say we are not adapted to fighting in the mountains, those people of the Hubei New Army are even less adapted. Bring into play the troop's style of daring to fight; the enemy is definitely not our opponent."

The People's Party didn't talk about empty things. After telling the honest truth to the soldiers of the troops, the morale of the troops quickly rose. When the sky was slightly bright, the troops left behind all other equipment except military equipment and began to advance towards the enemy.

The landform of Yingshan County was called "three mountains sandwiching two rivers." The entire territory of Yingshan was dominated by medium and low mountains, known as "eight mountains, one water, and one field." The main peak of the Dabie Mountains in the north, Tiantangzhai, extended to the northeast, forming a series of peaks such as Yunfengding, Shiguzhai, Wufengshan, and Huangmeijian. Then branching westward into three major mountain ridges, sandwiching two rivers in the east and west, running through the entire territory, forming a terrain gradually tilting from northeast to southwest. The highest point, Tiantangzhai, is 1729 meters above sea level, and the lowest point, Chuanxingyuan, is 90 meters above sea level, with a height difference of 1639 meters and an average slope of 17°.

This terrain and landform were very suitable for guerrilla warfare, which the comrades of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army were naturally very clear about. Because they were well-trained, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army felt it was a bit too clear. There were many mountain paths in the entire Yingshan area. Even though the reconnaissance troops spent great effort, without the cooperation of local common people, they couldn't figure out many road compositions besides the official roads.

Chen Ke had never revealed the issue of "future history" to the comrades, so the comrades naturally didn't know that Yingshan County was also an "old revolutionary base area." The only thing they could know was that this place, Yingshan, was too poor. This was also something that couldn't be helped; due to the lack of land, although Yingshan was a strategic pass, the entire area was poor to death.

Yingshan is a piece of red land, which has nurtured a large number of fruitful people with lofty ideals. Jin Guangti, the Minister of Justice who presided over the corruption case of Heshen in the Qing Dynasty; Fu Huichu, a veteran of the Xinhai Revolution; Wang Shuwen, the Siberian investigation commissioner who provided exact basis for Sun Yat-sen to determine the three major policies of "Allying with Russia, Allying with the Communist Party, Assisting Peasants and Workers"; Li Cishan, the president of the Shanghai Bar Association who organized the rescue of the "Seven Gentlemen" during the Republic of China period; Fu Weiyu, who succeeded Zhou Enlai as the Secretary of the Central Military Commission of the CPC; Peng Ganchen, who succeeded Zhu De as the Garrison Commander and Public Security Bureau Chief of Nanchang, etc., occupied a place on the stage of Chinese history. Among the students of the first, second, and third terms of the Whampoa Military Academy, the number of people from Yingshan ranked first in the country. Yingshan is an old revolutionary Soviet area. The CPC party organization was established as early as 1927, and the Soviet regime was established in 1931. The Fourth Front Army of the Red Army marched west from here, the Twenty-seventh Army of the Red Army was formed here, this was the guerrilla base of the Twenty-eighth Army of the Red Army, and also the starting point of the Long March of the Twenty-fifth Army of the Red Army. The Liu-Deng Army leaping thousands of *li* into the Dabie Mountains used Yingshan as a main military passage, fighting fierce battles here in a roundabout way. During the Red Army period, 22 leaders above the division level were created. Among the population of only 180,000 at that time, more than 30,000 children were sent to the main forces, and more than 7,000 sacrificed their lives. It was known as the red Soviet area where "blood dyed the red earth three feet deep."