"Charge!" With the command, the Guangfu Society assault team charged straight body at the Qing positions opposite them. The Qing troops were arranged in platoons, forming multiple dense fire points along a single line. Each combat unit was separated by a dozen meters. Ten meters behind the first line were machine gun positions, and ten meters behind those, Qing troops crouched together in groups of ten, rifles leveled forward. Black Island Ren, the Political Commissar of the medical team's combat unit, watched clearly through his binoculars. Although it was a defensive position, such a position looked uniform and orderly. It had a flavor of strict discipline.

Beside Black Island Ren, the commanders of the medical team's guard unit all raised their monoculars. Their expressions were grave; everyone knew that let alone the Guangfu Army, even if the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army suddenly launched a charge against such an array, the casualties would absolutely not be small. It was even highly possible that they would pay a huge price in casualties and still fail to break through these Qing troops frontally. Even so, the commanders of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army remained silent. It was absolutely useless to gesticulate at the Guangfu Society. At the general meeting, Black Island Ren had required all comrades of the medical team to absolutely not say anything unrelated to medicine, so as to avoid any unnecessary misunderstandings.

Moreover, the commanders of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army actually had some thoughts of their own; they wanted to see the combat effectiveness of this Qing army formation. Even if the guiding thoughts of combat were inconsistent, no one could guarantee they wouldn't encounter this situation in the future. If the People's Party had to forcefully charge such a position, how could they achieve the maximum effect? Without seeing the Qing army's performance with their own eyes, the commanders of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army had no certainty in their hearts.

"Why do the various Qing units keep such a distance between them?" a junior commander of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army couldn't help but ask. In the People's Party's squad and platoon tactics, the distance between unit positions wasn't this large. A company of over two hundred people could form a continuous front of over two hundred meters.

"It's hard to observe and command if they don't separate. Such an overly neat formation will definitely become chaotic once engaged in close quarters," an intermediate commander whispered in reply. "That's why our commanders are all on the front line. Look at the Qing commanders."

Through the binoculars, it was clear that the Qing commanders were all behind the soldiers. The commanders of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army coincided in thinking of snipers. In the recent major reorganization of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, every platoon had selected sharpshooters. Every company had snipers. In battle, they could opt out of volley fire on the front line and had the small flexibility of prioritizing fire on enemy commanders. Everyone couldn't help but look at Political Commissar Black Island Ren. Black Island Ren didn't make a sound. He didn't even put down his binoculars. Other comrades also raised their binoculars to continue watching this battle.

The 9th Division of the New Army was indeed well-trained. Before the enemy entered range, even though the Guangfu Army charged over, they didn't fire. The Guangfu Army didn't have many bullets and had even less formation training, so they couldn't play any marching fire. They had to kill their way close to the enemy before they could attack. Just as they rushed to the pre-designated firing area before departure, the roar of artillery came from behind the Qing positions. Shells streaked through the air with a characteristic sharp whistle, exploding into balls of dirt, stone, and smoke on the ground. Although the timing was accurate, the landing points of the shells really couldn't be complimented; of the dozen shells, not one hit the Guangfu Society's assault formation. The distribution of impact points was huge. Everyone had seen the ferocious shelling of the British warships yesterday; compared to that, the Qing army was too child's play.

The actual effect of the shelling wasn't great, but it caused a lot of psychological pressure on the Guangfu Society fighters. clearly, some accelerated their charge, while others went a bit weak in the knees. Before the Guangfu Army raised their rifles, the 9th Division's formation began to open fire on the opposing Guangfu Army.

Amidst the pervasive gunpowder smoke and the bean-popping sound of gunfire, Guangfu Army soldiers were hit one after another. Those not hit began to return fire without fear. The result of a dense Qing team exchanging fire with a scattered Guangfu Society didn't even need to be looked at. Junior commanders of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army had already put down their binoculars, straining to gaze at this tragic scene. When facing death, these fighters still pulled triggers at the enemy, then reloaded amidst flying bullets, attempting to shoot at the enemy again. Bullets crowded these fearless fighters, freezing their movements in the moment they were hit, or flipping them backwards due to the impact. Even so, not a single person fled. On the contrary, some fighters even stopped reloading, roaring as they rushed towards the Qing ranks, only to be knocked to the ground by the enemy's volley.

"Fight well!" The junior commanders felt almost as if they were experiencing it themselves, unable to stop themselves from shouting loudly. Even if the outcome of death in battle wouldn't be reversed, the fighting spirit shown by the Guangfu Society gave these commanders a huge stimulation. Even the soldiers of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, who had fought dozens of battles big and small, had never experienced such a disparity in strength between enemy and self.

No matter how intense the battle, the huge gap in strength had long determined the result of this charge. The wounds of these fighters were all on the front; not a single person died from a wound in the back.

"Commissar Black!" some commanders shouted. Unknowingly, their eyes had turned red.

Black Island Ren put down his binoculars. His lips were also trembling slightly. The troops sent here were all quite combat-experienced; to protect the doctors and nurses of the medical team, the troops had to have combat effectiveness. Such tragic solemnity made Black Island Ren inevitably think of the Japanese evaluation of the Chinese army after the First Sino-Japanese War: surrendering, fleeing, unable to withstand a single blow. Whether they couldn't withstand a single blow, Black Island Ren couldn't be sure, but everything before his eyes thoroughly pulverized those mockings. Even if it was only the fighters who had already sacrificed themselves before his eyes, Chinese soldiers or fighters engaged in war indeed possessed bravery, fearlessness, and a spirit and attitude of regarding death as returning home.

If he didn't help these true fighters, Black Island Ren felt he couldn't bear it in his heart.

Black Island Ren made up his mind. He walked towards Xu Xilin not far away. Xu Xilin's eyes flashed with sharp light as he commanded his subordinates for a second charge. The morale of the Guangfu Society hadn't been crushed by this blow; on the contrary, the Guangfu Society was seething with fighting will. "It seems the Manchu military strength is all here. Go around behind them and launch an attack."

"Mr. Xu, let us go one way too."

"Mr. Xu, we'll attack frontally."

People kept asking for orders to attack. They seemed completely unaware of what life-and-death tests such a battle would entail, just wanting to stand out and participate in the battle.

Black Island Ren pushed through the crowd to Xu Xilin. "Mr. Xu, we want to help operate the artillery. Do you think that's okay?"

In the Hangzhou campaign, the Guangfu Society had captured some cannons, but at the start of this campaign, there were no artillerymen who knew how to shoot. In several test firings, they even lost a cannon. Now only two cannons had been brought up, and after tinkering for a long time, they hadn't figured out a method.

"No need to help, the cannons are handed over to you. Relying on those people simply won't solve the problem." Xu Xilin didn't care at all right now if Black Island Ren was People's Party or not. He ordered the messenger officer to lead Black Island Ren to the artillery.

The Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army artillery unit divided into two teams. One team began looking for an artillery position, and the other began inspecting the cannons. The cannons turned out to be Gruson 57mm mountain guns. It could be seen that no one had maintained or repaired the cannons for a long time. The gun barrel was cleaner due to transport, but the dust and rust inside the muzzle, and the accumulated grime in every crevice, proved the cannons had many problems. The artillerymen of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army dismantled the cannons with tools. Fortunately, the parts were neither missing nor damaged. It was just that they hadn't been cleaned after multiple firings, and the grime caused many parts to malfunction.

Before coming this time, the various branches of the unit had prepared quite fully, with a complete set of repair and cleaning tools. According to the regulations trained many times, the unit began to clean the cannons. Big and small hog bristle brushes dipped in oil began to tidy up various parts of the cannons. Simple rust removal, grime removal, wiping, oiling—after a series of procedures, the parts of the cannons were reassembled.

During this process, the artillery position had long been chosen. Behind a small hillock was a flat piece of land. It wasn't exactly very flat, but it was relatively close to the Qing army. After hastily building gun emplacements with sandbags, the surveyors had roughly measured the distance. The 57mm mountain gun was the artillery piece the People's Party had captured the most of. The troops were extremely proficient in training with it on weekdays. After adjusting the firing data, test firing began.

The Qing army obviously hadn't expected the Guangfu Army to have artillery here too. When the first shell traced a long trajectory and landed in front of the Qing position, signs of fluctuation finally appeared on the orderly Qing position. Xu Xilin clearly felt this change. He hurriedly asked, "Is there news from the comrades attacking on the two flanks?"

This time the troops were divided into three routes, preparing to attack simultaneously. To catch the Qing army off guard as much as possible. Now that the artillery had deterred the enemy, there was now a possibility to prepare for an attack.

"No news yet," someone replied. Just regarding speaking, another muffled sound was heard, followed by the sound of a shell whistling through the air. The comrades of the Guangfu Society held their breath and focused, all looking towards the enemy's position. This time the shell landed directly into the Qing position.

"Holy crap!" The observing artillery team captain suddenly shouted. This shell was unbiased and landed exactly in the open space between the New Army units. Although it blew up a large cloud of dust and gray smoke, the artillery captain still discovered one thing: why the New Army formed formations in units of about ten meters.

Originally everyone thought such a layout was to solve problems of observation field and troop movement. Now the artillery captain discovered that, let alone heavy artillery shells, the shells of the 57mm gun couldn't cause any particularly effective killing to enemies outside a ten-meter diameter circle. And the spacing between the various dense Qing units was about ten meters. Unless directly hitting the enemy, or the shell was very close to the enemy, otherwise it couldn't effectively kill the enemy. Watching the shell explode on the position, practically the killing effect might not necessarily be much greater than a direct grenade attack.

If there were enough guns and enough shells, a coverage fire mode wouldn't be impossible. The problem was there were only two guns, and less than fifty shells. God knows how the Guangfu Society considered artillery. this bit of firepower simply wasn't enough to produce a fatal result.

clearly, the artillery captain of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army slightly misunderstood the Qing army's fighting will. When the shell accurately hit the Qing position, what the artillery captain saw was "unable to effectively constitute killing." What the Qing army saw was "unable to effectively avoid shells." This shell didn't hurt anyone; that was luck. What about the next shell? The one after that?

Just at this moment, a sharp whistle came from the air again. The Qing army felt a start in their hearts, but then discovered it was their own artillery starting to bombard. The target was naturally the opponent's artillery position. Firing was easy; the problem was that no one could see where the shots were coming from, so they had to bombard randomly. During the Qing bombardment, the Guangfu Society's shells also began to return fire.

Also at this moment, several fireworks suddenly rose from both sides of the Qing position. This was the signal. The Guangfu Society teams attacking on the two flanks had arrived at the agreed location.

Xu Xilin shouted, "Brothers of the Zhu family, charge! Avenge our brothers!"

The Guangfu Army's dare-to-die squads did not hesitate at all. Following the order, they charged towards the Qing position again without looking back.

The artillerymen of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army also had no way to discuss in detail. "Fire half the shells out," the artillery captain ordered.

Both sides' artillery began to fire vigorously. The Guangfu Society charged forward regardless of everything. Relying on a chest full of fearless momentum, the Guangfu Army got closer and closer to the Qing army. Although there were only two cannons on the Guangfu Society side, every shell hit the Qing position. The Qing army, which had originally been trying its best to maintain strict order, began to waver. Many people's gun muzzles were no longer pointed forward; after subconsciously shrinking into their bodies, the position of the rifle was no longer an issue of concern.

This round of attack quickly entered the stage of rifle exchange. when the dense sound of shooting rang out again, Xu Xilin stared wide-eyed at the front line.