"The Beiyang Army is really silly enough; once lured, they really followed. Haha!"

"Isn't this known as the Manchu Qing's number one strong army? I don't think they are that great. Fighting like this, the Beiyang Army will be finished after a few times."

"Our Second Regiment is capable of fighting. Fighting Beiyang relies on us."

"Chairman Chen arranged for us to fight like this before the war. When has Chairman Chen ever been wrong? Following Chairman Chen properly is absolutely right."

Laughter and joyous chatter filled the station of the Second Regiment. The first battle was a great victory, annihilating close to five hundred enemies. Nearly four hundred intact or broken guns were brought back. The soldiers of the Second Regiment had reason to be so happy.

"Dinner today is stewed meat! It's still the old recipe from when Chairman Chen comforted the troops." After this news spread, it triggered the joy of the troops even more. A pig was worth half a political commissar; being able to taste delicious food after the war was immeasurable for boosting morale. Many soldiers of the Second Regiment came from Fengtai County. A year ago, Chen Ke brought pork to comfort the troops, which even caused a stampede in the labor camp, leading to accidental casualties. It was the first time the soldiers ate pork stewed with so many spices. Eating this kind of stewed meat every time over the past year or so could make everyone extremely excited.

As the greatest contributors to this battle, the 28 soldiers responsible for the ambush were arranged together and personally commended by Second Regiment Political Commissar Xiong Mingyang.

"Comrades did very well. The regiment will record a First Class Merit for every comrade. I hope comrades will carry forward the spirit shown in this battle and make persistent efforts." Xiong Mingyang's words had no personality, but now he could only use such simple words to praise these soldiers who had walked a circle before the gates of hell.

There were no overly excited expressions, no ecstatic actions after meritorious service. The emotions of these 28 soldiers hadn't completely recovered from the battle. Facing tens of thousands of Beiyang troops like a long dragon, daring to pull the trigger to shoot, and then running for their lives along the pre-arranged route, was not an easy task.

Entering the ambush position, shooting, and running away—such a simple military action took nearly a month just for training. These 28 people were the most excellent soldiers in the Second Regiment, elites selected from the 4,000 people of the whole regiment. The reason they were selected was that they could make themselves implement military orders. With tens of thousands of enemies behind them and hundreds of enemies shooting at them, their legs didn't go soft, and they ran for their lives along a diagonal line instead of a straight line without looking back.

Everyone in the troops knew that running for one's life along a straight line could open the distance from the enemy fastest. The selected soldiers were told that running along a diagonal line could effectively avoid bullets. There were not many people in the 4,000-man Second Regiment who overcame the instinct to escape in a straight line and strictly executed military orders.

The soldiers of the commando team could all remember that even after practicing so many times, they still needed great willpower to keep themselves from turning their heads to look at the situation behind. When the gunshots sounded like popping beans, they still couldn't adopt the method of escaping in a straight line. Although they ran very fast, and the wind in their ears almost covered the gunshots, and because of the wild running, their rapid breathing almost made their lungs explode, the soldiers were still very clear in their hearts that the distance between themselves and the enemy hadn't been opened with maximum efficiency. The commando team members were not escaping death; for the victory of the subsequent ambush, the soldiers were dancing with death. The soldiers had to use their lives as the price to defeat death. And all this was told clearly before the war. Before entering the ambush position, every soldier of the commando team was asked clearly again if they knew what they were doing. These 28 soldiers also answered clearly: "I know, I volunteer to join the commando team."

So everyone knew long ago that they would earn merit, and everyone knew long ago that in the subsequent battles, they would still face dangers like this ambush countless times. Compared with the death experienced not long ago, all the honors obtained now were not worth making a fuss about.

Looking at the comrades who were neither arrogant nor impetuous, Xiong Mingyang was also very happy in his heart. He subconsciously adjusted his standing posture before saying: "Comrades, I want to tell everyone another thing. For the comrades among you who applied to join the Party, the application has been approved. Now these comrades are already probationary Party members. And for the comrades who applied to become full members, the application has also been approved. Now these comrades are already full members. Once our battle ends in a few days, an initiation ceremony will be held. Now, as the Political Commissar of the Second Regiment of the People's Party, I welcome everyone to join the ranks of our People's Party."

Hearing this news, smiles appeared on the faces of the 28 commando soldiers for the first time. Quite a few soldiers breathed a long sigh of relief, and tears were already flashing in some soldiers' eyes. Becoming a member of the People's Party was becoming a person like Chairman Chen Ke, or at least becoming a person with the identity of a People's Party member like Chairman Chen Ke. For these soldiers, this was a truly proud identity. This was an honor truly recognized in the base area and in the troops. To obtain this honor, it was worth using life as the price.

Among the 28-man commando team, Party members and probationary Party members accounted for half, and the rest were also activists for joining the Party. The Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army was the army of the People's Party; there was no reason to hand over such arduous work to ordinary soldiers.

"Welcome new comrades to join!" Xiong Mingyang took the lead in applauding. All cadres and soldiers participating in this meeting followed closely and applauded together. This simple action contained full emotions. Some soldiers clapped their hands red with excitement.

Compared with the full emotions of the People's Party troops, the Beiyang Army was shrouded in a gloomy and miserable atmosphere. The main force stopped advancing temporarily in a defensive posture. Duan Qirui issued an order prohibiting whispering and spreading rumors in the troops. However, this ban wasn't very useful. The arrogant soldiers of Beiyang soon knew the truth. Those Beiyang troops who once rushed at the very front, chasing straight after the fleeing bandit troops, those hundreds of Beiyang troops who were once envied for getting high rewards, fell into an ambush and had been completely wiped out. This terrible fact made the Beiyang Army silent as cicadas in winter.

The Beiyang Army had fought countless chaotic bandits in Hebei and Shandong; when had they ever had such a disastrous defeat? Knowing one's own family affairs, Beiyang's equipment and training were second to none among the New Armies. Even if the People's Party chaotic bandits could destroy the Hubei New Army, in the eyes of the Beiyang Army, the People's Party was still a group of bandits. Where was the reason for bandits to defeat the Beiyang Army so cleanly? Even knowing the truth, the Beiyang Army from top to bottom still couldn't accept this fact.

Duan Qirui personally inspected several ambush positions. Quite a few individual cover works and trenches were hastily dug on the positions. Even if the shell casings on the ground were minimal, these works had obviously been used by someone. Duan Qirui pursued his lips tightly, carefully examining everything on the battlefield. Duan Qirui was proficient in military affairs. This soldier who graduated from the Artillery Department of the Tianjin Military Academy with "optimal" grades and was sent to Lushun to supervise the construction of forts, this soldier who carried shells for the position together with military academy students to resist the Japanese army during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, had already seen the clues. The distance between these individual cover works and the ambush battlefield was too close, not even exceeding 30 meters. That is to say, within such a close distance, the pursuing troops of the Beiyang Army were suddenly attacked by a storm. The People's Party bandit troops not only planted landmines but also used hand grenades. The battle simply didn't last too long from beginning to end.

Several battles didn't start at the same time. That is to say, when other ambushes had already started and the Beiyang Army pursuing troops further back were already alerted, these People's Party bandit troops still lay in ambush here calmly, waiting for the Beiyang Army to enter the ambush circle before delivering a fatal blow. Such cunning and endurance, such discipline and training. Duan Qirui felt a chill on his back; he was actually going to fight with true desperadoes.

Some of the officers who came to inspect the battlefield had already seen the method; they were silent like Duan Qirui. Some obviously didn't see the facts implied in the battle. "Dammit, this bunch of chaotic bandits really has big guts," someone cursed.

"If only the cavalry were here; we absolutely wouldn't have let these chaotic bandits escape," someone also said hatefully.

Hearing this, Duan Qirui felt a shock in his heart. The main cavalry force had already gone to Huaiyuan county town. In the Beiyang Army's operational plan, the cavalry troops would first cut off the routes around Huaiyuan county town defended by the People's Party bandit troops with their mobility. But the People's Party didn't place troops in Huaiyuan county town at all, but left an empty city to the cavalry. So when the battle started, the cavalry with the greatest mobility was actually sitting idly in Huaiyuan county town. And the very small number of scout cavalry couldn't play any big role due to road problems. The People's Party retreated immediately after succeeding in one blow. If there were cavalry, Duan Qirui at least wouldn't have let the enemy retreat so smoothly. No matter what, he had to make the People's Party bandit troops leave a group behind. But the fact was that the cavalry had lost contact with the main infantry far away. Was this situation planned by the People's Party long ago?

Thinking of this, Duan Qirui immediately ordered: "Send someone, order Sun Yongsheng's cavalry to return."

"Commander Duan, it's already late; let the cavalry return now?" The officer asking this question was a sensible person. Marching in this wilderness was very hard. Since the cavalry had seized the county town, not to mention anything else, being able to live under a roof was always more comfortable than this wind and sun exposure. Asking the cavalry to give up the county town and return to the wilderness, Sun Yongsheng and the others would definitely be unconvinced in their hearts.

"Does Sun Yongsheng dare to disobey military orders?" Duan Qirui asked back.

"This..." The officer who spoke just now didn't dare say anything more.

Raising his head to look at the sky, Duan Qirui supplemented the order just now. "Sun Yongsheng must rush back before dark."

"We must inflict heavy damage on Sun Yongsheng's troops," Pu Guanshui said firmly at the pre-war meeting of the Fourth Regiment of the 104th Division.

Originally, Chen Ke hoped Pu Guanshui would become the Chief of Staff, but Pu Guanshui solemnly requested Chen Ke to consider other candidates. Pu Guanshui thought his reason was sufficient: the Staff Department didn't lack people suitable to be Chief of Staff now; whether it was Deputy Chief of Staff Gao Yujie or Chen Ke himself, they could absolutely operate the Staff Department effectively. Moreover, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army adopted the mode of two-level pre-war operational meetings of the Party Committee and within the troops. Although it looked very rustic, the actual effect was quite good. Plus Chen Ke promoted the rotation system of the German General Staff; troop commanders entering the Staff Department to work was only part of their military career. Troops, Staff Department, military academies at all levels—if there were no accidents, officers would go back and forth between these three, rotating over and over from low level to high level. Pu Guanshui believed he should work in the troops at the current stage, not take office in the Staff Department.

If it were someone else, Chen Ke would probably have made a note against Pu Guanshui in the black book long ago. Even Pu Guanshui himself heard that within the Military Commission, especially among the political commissar faction, there was considerable dissatisfaction with Pu Guanshui disobeying organizational arrangements. If not for Chen Ke coordinating in between, Pu Guanshui's days would probably not be easy now. But Pu Guanshui didn't care about this matter; he believed he was a soldier, and at the current stage, the Staff Department actually didn't lack a Chief of Staff. Pu Guanshui knew that the responsibility of the German Chief of Staff was to formulate campaigns, while the responsibility of formulating plans in the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army was actually borne by the Military Commission. The Chief of Staff had a high position nominally, but was actually just a position of a big staff officer. If one must say, the status in the Military Commission was outside the top ten.

When Chen Ke ordered Pu Guanshui to be responsible for the work of the Fourth Regiment as Deputy Division Commander, Pu Guanshui didn't even have the slightest objection. Being able to command the combat of a whole regiment was the job he dreamed of.

In the operations against the Beiyang Army, the most elite First Regiment was responsible for attacking Xuzhou, the Second Regiment was responsible for the first mobile warfare, the position of the Third Regiment was slightly to the north and west of Duan Qirui's troops, and corresponding to the Third Regiment's position was the Second Regiment. This was the arrangement to close the door and beat the dog when Wang Shizhen's troops went south. Only the Fourth Regiment was truly located between Duan Qirui's troops and the Fengtai County base area.

Even so, the Fourth Regiment still undertook the task of doing their best to strike Duan Qirui's cavalry troops in the first operation. This was one of the many plans in the first operation. If Duan Qirui's troops indeed let the cavalry occupy Huaiyuan County as Chen Ke expected, and the Second Regiment also gave Duan Qirui a fierce blow in the first engagement, then Duan Qirui was extremely likely to call the Beiyang cavalry troops back into the main Beiyang group. At this time, the Fourth Regiment would have the opportunity to fight.

The operational plan to strike the Beiyang cavalry troops was very simple: conduct a frontal strike on the main road when the cavalry troops led by Sun Yongsheng retreated. The troops used by the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army were not many, only three companies, six hundred people. Compared with the more than eight hundred people of Sun Yongsheng's troops, they were greatly at a disadvantage in numbers.

After the signal soldier sent the notice to prepare for combat to Pu Guanshui, Pu Guanshui immediately led the troops into the preset position. There were many intelligence networks of the People's Party on the vast wilderness. Through flag signals, those scattered communication points could transmit intelligence very effectively. The speed was only higher than paths with no secrecy methods like wolf smoke and signal flares.

After waiting for a while in the concealed location, more accurate intelligence came out: Sun Yongsheng's troops left the county town.

"Set up the position," Pu Guanshui said coldly. This attitude wasn't feigned by Pu Guanshui; there was a person in this troop combat sequence who made Pu Guanshui very unhappy. That was a squad leader named Jia Yongsheng. In the military training of the Fourth Regiment, Jia Yongsheng, who was then still an ordinary soldier, accidentally damaged important machine gun equipment. Pu Guanshui was furious at the time. The People's Party still couldn't manufacture machine guns themselves, and the significance of machine guns for combat was too great. Jia Yongsheng damaged it during training. Although scolding soldiers loudly wasn't allowed in the troops, Pu Guanshui still flew into a rage at Jia Yongsheng. The reprimanded Jia Yongsheng admitted his improper operation, but regarding Pu Guanshui's attitude, Jia Yongsheng demanded Pu Guanshui make a self-criticism in the Soldier Committee. The reason was simple: the People's Party's attitude towards work was "target the matter, not the person." Pu Guanshui losing his temper indiscriminately was obviously targeting the person, not the matter. More importantly, Jia Yongsheng believed the accidental damage to the machine gun happened accidentally during the attempt on combat equipment; Pu Guanshui obviously didn't figure out the ins and outs of the matter.

This matter caused quite a stir. From the Soldier Committee to the Political Commissar, the final ruling was for Pu Guanshui to apologize publicly. A mere soldier actually made the Deputy Division Commander bow his head; this matter caused quite a stir in the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. Pu Guanshui felt his dignity suffered great damage. However, the development of the matter made Pu Guanshui even more depressed. Not only did Jia Yongsheng not suffer any other difficulties, but he was even promoted to the squad leader of the machine gun squad because of "contributions to machine gun shooting." Now this Squad Leader Jia was actually arranged on the position where Pu Guanshui was. Although Pu Guanshui considered himself of noble character, seeing Jia Yongsheng concentrating on organizing the machine gun, he was still very unhappy in his heart.

The movement speed of the Beiyang cavalry was very fast. Just as the troops built a simple temporary defense line on the main road, they saw a large group of cavalry appearing in the field of vision like a black cloud from afar.

Sun Yongsheng's mood today could be described as great ups and downs. Occupying Huaiyuan County was really exciting. As the vanguard, Sun Yongsheng's task was blockade; now he achieved "occupation." Attacking cities and seizing land, this credit and reward money would definitely not be small. However, in the afternoon, the messenger brought Duan Qirui's order, asking the cavalry to rush back to the main Beiyang Army immediately. The implication in the messenger's words was actually that Duan Qirui wasn't happy, and even felt occupying Huaiyuan county town was a mistake. This couldn't help but make Sun Yongsheng feel aggrieved.

Withdrawing from the county town with the cavalry troops, Sun Yongsheng hadn't liberated himself from the negative emotions in his heart. What did Beiyang being ambushed have to do with Sun Yongsheng? Duan Qirui ordered Sun Yongsheng to attack; could this be Sun Yongsheng's fault?

"Bad luck, bad luck!" Sun Yongsheng thought. Thinking of bad luck, Sun Yongsheng suddenly thought of his wife He Qian. Drinking flower wine before setting out was originally a good thing, but because of the disturbance of Zheng Wenjie, this Beiyang traitor, everyone broke up in discord. Sun Yongsheng thought of what Zheng Wenjie said, that Chen Ke originally had a good relationship with He Qian but ended up marrying He Ying; he couldn't help having a knot in his heart.

As soon as he returned home, Sun Yongsheng, smelling of alcohol, didn't give He Qian a good face. He Qian happened to anxiously try to persuade Sun Yongsheng again to pretend illness and not participate in the troop dispatch. Sun Yongsheng's original suspicion erupted immediately. Taking advantage of the alcohol, he shouted: "Are you afraid I'll kill that kid Chen Ke?"

How could a smart person like He Qian not hear the flavor in the words? Her face changed instantly. He Qian had heard a little that Chen Ke seemed to have had the intention of proposing to her, but changed his mind temporarily. When Sun Yongsheng said this, He Qian felt her heart was as cold as being frozen.

Sun Yongsheng actually didn't suspect his wife had an affair with Chen Ke; he brought this up only because of anger. He Qian was educated and sensible, which might be good. But Sun Yongsheng always felt as if He Qian always had something on her mind she didn't say. When the couple talked about things, they could never talk together. Even if they occasionally could talk together, He Qian often looked somewhat absent-minded. Plus having been married for so long, He Qian hadn't become pregnant yet, so Sun Yongsheng was naturally very unhappy. This incident was just a pretext; Sun Yongsheng's accumulated dissatisfaction erupted together.

Finally, it was the old man of the Sun family who came forward to calm this family quarrel. Watching He Qian, who was usually calm and unhurried, looking greatly wronged, although Sun Yongsheng also had some regret in his heart, a kind of happiness after venting occupied the main emotion.

However, after sending troops, Sun Yongsheng felt he might have overdone it. To calm this self-questioning, he found a new excuse for "self-consolation." He Qian might be somewhat "unlucky." Anyway, people related to He Qian were quite unlucky. He Qian had broken off an engagement once; Sun Yongsheng knew this. The man caught a venereal disease. And since then, the He family first became "bandit relatives," and the Sun family was also implicated. This might be bad luck. "After killing Chen Ke and going back, I'll find monks and Taoists to perform rituals to get rid of the bad luck," Sun Yongsheng thought.

Just thinking of this, gunshots like popping beans suddenly sounded in the distance. Sun Yongsheng's spirit shook. Did they encounter the People's Party chaotic bandits?

"Commander Sun, we encountered chaotic parties on the main road ahead." The scout reported quickly.

Sun Yongsheng frowned. These People's Party chaotic bandits were too bold, actually daring to fight openly on the main road. He asked: "How many chaotic parties?"

The scout answered hurriedly: "More than three hundred people, all using rifles, firepower is very fierce. We had quite a few brothers injured at once."

Sun Yongsheng made up his mind instantly; he must defeat this group of chaotic parties. Commander Duan had already been ambushed. If he couldn't defeat the chaotic parties after being attacked, he couldn't explain it.

When he spurred his horse to the front, he saw a group of chaotic parties wearing dark blue military uniforms retreating as a whole in the distance. On the open ground between the two armies, thirty or forty people lay scattered. Not far away, the warhorses of the Beiyang cavalry dead and wounded were startled and fleeing. Raising his binoculars, he saw these chaotic parties were dividing into three routes, covering each other in retreat, retreating towards a place with uneven ground by the roadside. Further away was a forest. Once the chaotic parties retreated into that area, the cavalry would really have a hard time chasing.

"Divide into three teams, two teams outflank and go around. We absolutely cannot let these chaotic parties run away." Sun Yongsheng gave the order.

The Beiyang cavalry was also elite in the Beiyang Army. After being suddenly attacked, they quickly stabilized their position. Under Sun Yongsheng's command, two teams of two hundred cavalry each separated from the more than eight hundred cavalry, outflanking from the left and right in two routes.

The black mass of cavalry maintained a neat formation sweeping across the wilderness, outflanking the bandit army's rear flank. As long as the bandit army's way was blocked, with Sun Yongsheng's experience, the earth-shaking sound of horses' hooves could scare the wits out of these bandit troops. As long as their formation loosened slightly, he could use charging tactics to defeat the enemy in one fell swoop.

"They finally started to take the bait." Pu Guanshui watched the Beiyang cavalry's action nervously. He combed through the combat plan over and over in his heart. And the combat plan that originally seemed to have no problems seemed to have countless problems when facing actual combat.

The "cavalry expert" once claimed in the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army was Chai Qingguo, but Chai Qingguo went to Shandong before showing his cavalry ability. Although Chen Ke was recognized as knowing how to fight best within the People's Party, Chen Ke himself admitted long ago that he had no cavalry combat experience. Under Chen Ke's guidance, Pu Guanshui formulated this combat plan with those officers of the cavalry troops. There was no problem with this combat plan in theory, but the guiding ideology adopted was never seen before, so Pu Guanshui didn't know the real effect either.

Under the squeeze of the Beiyang cavalry, the retreat speed of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army was also accelerating. The troops of three hundred people felt the vibration of thousands of horses' hooves striking the ground coming from the ground. This feeling was hard to describe. The biggest impact was not physical but psychological. The originally orderly retreat column began to become chaotic in response to the terrain as the retreat speed accelerated. The formation could no longer be maintained. Pu Guanshui shouted: "Don't panic, don't panic." As if in response, the team accelerated into chaos instead. Everyone began to run faster, as if this way they could be farther away from the enemy.

Seeing the expected situation happen, Sun Yongsheng gave a cold laugh and immediately issued an order. If these bandit troops could maintain formation, the Beiyang cavalry would really find it hard to act against a hedgehog-like formation. But the bandit troops collapsed psychologically first. Seeing them running one by one like rabbits, they really meant to escape for their lives effectively. But how could two legs compare to four legs? As long as the cavalry spurred their horses up to chase and kill, after killing a batch of bandit troops, the entire bandit army would collapse immediately. That would be the time for unrestrained harvesting.

The Beiyang Army cavalry originally controlled their riding speed and distance, trying to maintain distance from the enemy, with outflanking as the goal. Now with the change of the central army's flag signal, the cavalry outflanking on two wings urged their horses, chasing straight towards the enemy.

The speed of the bandit army's retreat became faster and faster. At this time, no formation could be seen at all; only a stream of more than three hundred people rushing straight towards the forest could be seen. Because the cavalry cautiously opened the distance with the bandit army earlier, plus the ground wasn't very good, Sun Yongsheng felt this distance was really hard to say. If the bandit army was allowed to push into the forest and resist desperately, the casualties of more than four hundred people would inevitably be relatively large. The effect of cavalry charge was actually that the larger the number, the better the effect. The enemy seemed to have more suspicious targets to shoot at, but actually, it might not be so. Watching the overwhelming cavalry killing their way over, the infantry were more easily overwhelmed. Moreover, when cavalry with numerical advantage attacked, once engaging the enemy, the number of enemy counterattacks would be fewer instead. Cavalry casualties would also be much fewer.

Sun Yongsheng's central army also began to move. Soon the three routes of cavalry converged into a black torrent, seeing that they were about to catch up with those routed enemy troops. Shooting accuracy on bumpy horses was too low. The Beiyang cavalry held their sabers high one by one, the bright blades dancing out rounds of bright full moons in the air. They let out earth-shaking roars and rushed towards the enemies with their backs to them.

"Da da da..." Many covers made of grass were suddenly lifted on the ground, revealing machine gun positions one by one. The black machine gun muzzles sprayed tongues of fire, shooting frantically at the Beiyang cavalry charging thirty or forty meters away.

This was the core of the combat plan provided by Chen Ke. The People's Party captured a total of twenty-four machine guns. Chen Ke let these twenty-four machine guns form a deep position. For Chen Ke, this was just copying several famous battles of machine gun positions against cavalry in history. And the one who truly adopted this tactic with purpose in history was "the Eastern Front campaign of WWI that broke out a few years later." Russian cavalry charged the German-Austrian army positions. The German army basically didn't set up a large number of troops on the position, but just set up a large number of machine gun positions. Thus, the cavalry of several divisions lay dead all over the field in the machine gun positions.

Hearing the roar of machine guns, Pu Guanshui shouted loudly: "Line up!"

Immediately, various unit commanders also began to shout one after another. The three hundred Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army soldiers who were running for their lives just now stopped immediately, and then ignoring the Beiyang cavalry rushing towards them violently, quickly began to reorganize the formation. Although the formation wasn't completely deployed, Pu Guanshui saw at least seventy percent of the soldiers had completed the queue, and the remaining thirty percent who ran too far ahead were also rushing back desperately. He shouted loudly: "Fire!"

More than two hundred rifles began to volley at the rushing Beiyang cavalry. Volley fire didn't talk about accuracy, but about angle and discipline. Volley fire was like the arrow rain of ancient times, relying on dense and continuous shooting. The Fourth Regiment was a relatively new unit; what Pu Guanshui focused on training was discipline. This was exactly the time to verify.

These troops used Hanyang "five-rounders," which could fire five bullets in one breath. Pu Guanshui's only worry was that the soldiers didn't have enough discipline and couldn't help firing all five bullets in one breath. To train this, the cavalry troops of the base area simulated Beiyang Army charges, and tactical exercises had been conducted many times. However, a few soldiers still couldn't help firing continuously. Chen Ke talked about the "mass effect" on the battlefield in the military academy. In excited and agitated emotions, once someone did this, the soldiers would imitate completely subconsciously. And what was needed to stand out at this time were the low-level officers. Sure enough, the squad leaders immediately stopped these random shots. Even so, thirty or forty people in the entire troop had already started to follow suit and shoot.

This was still after training! Pu Guanshui was very unhappy in his heart. If they hadn't trained, he was afraid the soldiers of the troops would have started shooting frantically long ago.

Pu Guanshui's position couldn't overlook the whole situation; he could only control these three hundred-plus soldiers. There were also more than two hundred soldiers distributed on various machine gun positions. The fighting of these comrades depended entirely on whether the platoon leaders could effectively realize their training.

The ammunition supply in the base area was a big problem. Even after winning several battles and capturing quite a few guns and ammunition, satisfying the supply of the 104th Division pushed logistics to the limit. Machine gun arrays were big consumers of bullets. Even so, Chen Ke still proposed the tactic of machine gun arrays against cavalry. To train these machine gunners, a large amount of ammunition was consumed. Three hundred riflemen facing these eight hundred-plus Beiyang cavalry were simply not enough to look at. The real protagonist in this battle was those twenty-four machine gun positions. Speaking extremely, these three hundred soldiers including Pu Guanshui were actually just bait.

That round of shooting just now only knocked down a batch of Beiyang cavalry at the front. After the cavalry main force began to charge, the changes on the battlefield were truly instantaneous. Although also dazed by the machine gun array, the Beiyang cavalry were still carried by horses rushing towards the neatly arranged formation of three hundred people.

"Fire." Pu Guanshui had to shout again. With the order, another row of bullets whistled towards the swarming Beiyang cavalry. Bullets hit cavalry or hit warhorses, but the posture in running wasn't so easy to change. People kept being hit and falling off horses, but the overall charging posture didn't change.

Pu Guanshui hardened his heart and issued the order to burn the boats: "Continuous fire!"

Gunshots like popping beans immediately rang out in the infantry formation, but only lasted for a moment before stopping. Pu Guanshui could even hear the sound of infantrymen pulling empty triggers.

"Infantry reload, machine guns fire!" Pu Guanshui continued to shout. In front of the infantry formation, four machine gun positions were set up; this was the last line of defense.

Machine guns began to roar. The dense bullets fired by four machine guns instantly exceeded the sum of bullets fired by the three hundred infantrymen just now in quantity. Dense bullets swept across the cavalry formation with powerful kinetic energy. The Beiyang cavalry finally showed a scene of men and horses turning over.

Sun Yongsheng didn't know what happened at first. Even if a dozen machine gun positions suddenly appeared, these small machine gun positions were too insignificant compared to the torrent composed of more than eight hundred cavalry of the Beiyang Army. Even when brothers were swept down in patches like cutting wheat, Sun Yongsheng didn't understand what was going on. The only thing he knew was that he was ambushed.

The cavalry at the rear of the formation hadn't fully accelerated yet. They almost subconsciously began to rein in their warhorses. Quite a few warhorses reared up under the double effect of dense gunshots and their masters forcibly reining them in. The entire team was immediately in chaos. The cavalry in the front row had already accelerated. The panicked Beiyang Army team soon turned into two sections.

It was hard to say which part was luckier. The charging team crashed into the muzzles of infantry and machine guns. While the cavalry who stopped in the back row sat high on horses, becoming excellent targets for machine guns. Machine gunners didn't need to shake the muzzle effortlessly at all; just using the recoil of the machine gun to turn the muzzle slightly, the fan surface formed by the rain of death bullets was enough to cover the Beiyang cavalry.

"Commander Sun..." An officer just shouted a sentence to Sun Yongsheng, then his entire neck was cut off flush by bullets, and hot blood sprayed on Sun Yongsheng's face. Sun Yongsheng shuddered and shouted subconsciously: "Retreat! Retreat!" While shouting, Sun Yongsheng turned his horse's head in the chaotic army and began to retreat. Before him, some Beiyang cavalry had already started to flee. Amidst the roar of machine guns, the Beiyang Army's cavalry unit was like a big snake twisting in pain; the entire formation collapsed completely.

If counting from when the machine guns started shooting, the real battle lasted no more than ten minutes. More than half of the Beiyang cavalry were annihilated. Solving and eliminating the last remnants took less than half an hour. Pu Guanshui felt this whole time seemed like an instant, yet also seemed like an extremely distant thing.

The ground was full of wounded and dead. Looking out, except for those Beiyang cavalry who had already fled far away and could still be seen a little bit of shadow, far and near were startled horses. The battle was over.

At this time, the troops responsible for finishing up also appeared, with cavalry and infantry. Everyone was chasing those horses. Military horses were too important for the base area. In the operational arrangement, the number of troops responsible for catching horses far exceeded the number of troops engaged in combat.

Looking at the ground full of dead people and dead horses close at hand, as well as the struggling wounded and injured warhorses again, Pu Guanshui couldn't help biting his finger. Victory, and this victory came so unrealistically. During the battle, when pretending to flee in defeat, the panic in his heart wasn't feigned; Pu Guanshui's heart was really full of fear. He once thought he was a brave soldier who didn't fear death, but even knowing clearly that he was feigning retreat, knowing clearly that the faster he ran and the closer he was to the machine gun position, the safer he was. But the earth-shaking horse hooves behind still filled Pu Guanshui's heart with fear of death.

When he really saw victory, the original fear surged up uncontrollably, completely overwhelming the joy of victory. Pu Guanshui felt his legs go soft, and he just sat limply on the ground.

However, Pu Guanshui was a soldier after all. At this time, a small part of his brain cells were still engaged in thinking related to military affairs. This wasn't the war Pu Guanshui was familiar with. Everything Pu Guanshui learned in the German military academy and in the Beiyang Army was shaken. Pu Guanshui suddenly suspected that military strategists like Zhuge Kongming seen in *Romance of the Three Kingdoms* who calculated without error really existed. Chen Ke hadn't been on the battlefield for a long time; at least Pu Guanshui had never seen Chen Ke personally go to the first line. Even in the first Battle of Anqing, Chen Ke was just in the command post very close to the front line. The only time he could be a commander was when facing the last stubborn resistance of the Anhui New Army inside Anqing city, Chen Ke ordered everyone to break through the wall and attack.

The hardest thing for officers was to come up with effective solutions immediately when facing rapidly changing situations. But these difficulties seemed not to exist for Chen Ke at all. Chen Ke could always come up with the best method with a clear goal to solve problems in front of him, or tens or hundreds of *li* away.

If Pu Guanshui were to formulate the plan, relying on the military education he had received, Pu Guanshui absolutely couldn't figure out how five hundred infantry could deal with more than eight hundred cavalry. Even less possible to be like Chen Ke, letting the Staff Department use the "Chen Ke Equation" to calculate the firepower distribution problem. Pu Guanshui closed his eyes tightly. Chen Ke's appearance emerged in his mind. That was a conversation between Chen Ke and Pu Guanshui after formulating this operation. With a little regret on his face, Chen Ke said: "If our plan can luckily succeed this time, future battles can only follow the absolute orthodox path. The Beiyang Army are not fools; having suffered such a big loss, they will definitely not act rashly again."

Pu Guanshui believed Chen Ke's prediction now. The first stage of the campaign had ended; next, it depended on how Duan Qirui performed.

Duan Qirui didn't know that Pu Guanshui, this Beiyang "rebel general," was thinking of him at this time. Because there was no telepathy, Duan Qirui neither sneezed nor shuddered. This Commander of the Beiyang Third Town didn't know that the remaining two hundred or so people of the cavalry unit were fleeing for their lives towards the Beiyang central army. On the first day of engagement with the enemy, the Beiyang Third Town lost nearly one-tenth of its own strength.