The reconnaissance balloon hanging high in the sky made the People's Party comrades feel extremely unaccustomed. It wasn't that everyone was unaccustomed to the existence of reconnaissance balloons, but unaccustomed to the fact that reconnaissance balloons had risen on the enemy's side.

"Can we shoot the balloon down?" Several commanders couldn't help complaining to Hei Dao Ren.

Looking at the balloon in the air far away, Hei Dao Ren felt like he had eaten a fly. Even so, what Hei Dao Ren said was something else: "Comrades, I have been on a balloon. The New Army's binoculars don't have high magnification; they actually can't see clearly at this distance. Everyone look with binoculars; can you see the people on the balloon clearly? Let's hide well; they can't see us. Everyone explain clearly to other comrades, let everyone hide well and fight with ease."

Among the comrades, quite a few had already raised binoculars to look at the balloon. The New Army soldiers in the balloon basket were shadowy and couldn't be seen clearly at all. Hearing Hei Dao Ren say this, everyone relaxed. The soldiers just felt awkward in their hearts. Commanders at all levels explained this reason clearly, plus letting comrades look at the balloon one by one with binoculars, finally solving this problem.

Hei Dao Ren rejoiced secretly in his heart. Although his words were true, Hei Dao Ren didn't explain clearly that the magnification of the People's Party's binoculars was limited. If the enemy held binoculars with larger magnification, they might not necessarily be unable to see clearly.

"Absolutely never fight this kind of meaningless positional warfare again in the future." Hei Dao Ren made up his mind secretly. If it were in the vast countryside, Hei Dao Ren was absolutely confident in using five hundred people to drag tens of thousands of enemies around. If the enemy dared to chase relentlessly, Hei Dao Ren was confident in spending a few days leading these tens of thousands of enemies by the nose until they fell apart. Finally, the exhausted enemy army would be led into an ambush circle, and other ambush troops waiting at ease would annihilate the enemy in one blow.

Previously mentioning the countryside, everyone felt the countryside was bitter and tiring. After the People's Party devoted itself to building the countryside, there was great potential in the vast countryside of the base area. As long as they were closely united with the broad masses of people, any enemy could be easily defeated. Don't look at the tens of thousands of enemies in Nanjing gathering together like hedgehogs now, seemingly difficult to deal with. As long as these tens of thousands of people entered a county in the base area, this bit of military strength counted for nothing at all.

Thinking of this, a sense of annoyance arose in Hei Dao Ren's heart. If he had this realization before sending troops this time, he definitely wouldn't have been confused by things like a decisive battle of tens of thousands of people. Arranging retreat routes, urgently settling and transporting the wounded. Although the effect might not necessarily be great, it would always be better than now. As long as they could break away from such a close distance with the enemy, even if fighting a blocking action, there were many other methods that could be adopted. But at this time, thinking so much was useless. Hei Dao Ren expelled thoughts unrelated to the battle, and his attention began to return to the battlefield.

The Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army never gave up building fortifications. Even if there were enemy balloons in the air, the communication trenches connecting various positions could also cover the figures of troop movements. Cat-waisted, crawling and running, Hei Dao Ren walked through the defensive positions of the two companies completely. Boosting the morale of comrades, checking the characteristics of the defense system. Even if the Qing army brigade began to advance towards the position of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, the final preparatory work before the war still couldn't be sloppy.

The morale of the soldiers was high; they didn't have the slightest fear because the disparity in military strength was too great. Everyone greeted Hei Dao Ren who passed by in low voices. The supreme commander came to their side personally, meaning they were not ignored by the command post. The command post knew what kind of situation they were facing; this was a great encouragement to the soldiers' psychology.

The soldiers didn't observe the enemy situation nervously but began to check their rifles for the last time. Whether the front sight was loose, whether the front sight position was fixed on the mark engraved after calibrating the gun. Some agile soldiers even disassembled and reassembled the gun roughly again, ensuring there were no problems with the operation of internal parts.

While the soldiers were making final preparations before the battle, Hei Dao Ren had finished inspecting the position and returned to the command position. The command position was in a part with the best field of vision in the middle of the battle line. Not too many troops were deployed here. Inside the bunker, Hei Dao Ren looked down from above as the enemy gradually approached. The Qing army rushing up in front and back groups totaled about more than six hundred people, presenting a standard line attack mode. It could be said to be exactly the same as the New Army's performance yesterday.

"Do these people not learn a lesson at all? Haven't sent enough people to die?" The Second Company Commander beside Hei Dao Ren couldn't help saying. The troops didn't all go to the front line. Deployed on the first line were the troops of the First Company; the Second Company only sent one platoon. The other three platoons remained as reserve forces in a position further back. The Second Company Commander was naturally observing the enemy situation at the front line.

"Can't help it; they only learned to fight like this." There was a feeling of relief in Hei Dao Ren's tone.

"Hope so. If they attack like this, we can definitely hold." The Second Company Commander also felt somewhat relieved.

Wang Youhong really didn't expect that the Qing army's advance wasn't attacked by the People's Party at all. The two vanguard battalions not only crossed the position in the middle of the valley but even crossed the "line of death" composed of corpses used by the New Army under the fierce blow of the People's Party yesterday. The noise of the Qing army attacking troops gradually faded away, and the hilltop guarded by the People's Party was still a lifeless silence.

"Ask the people on the balloon where the People's Party is exactly!" Wang Youhong urged for the unknownth time.

After a while, the news came back. "There are people in the People's Party hospital. There are some People's Party troops hiding behind rocks on the hilltop. Can't see clearly."

"Let them look carefully! Say clearly where exactly they are hiding!" Wang Youhong raged. Several times asking, the people on the balloon all said the People's Party was hiding on the hilltop. Isn't this nonsense! Wang Youhong knew the People's Party was hiding behind rocks on the hilltop without looking. Where is the specific location? The observers on the balloon were vague. If he didn't feel like keeping his status, Wang Youhong wished he could go up on the balloon to see personally.

Picking up the binoculars, Wang Youhong looked at the position. The Qing army leading the charge had reached below the opposite hillside; the ant-like crowd climbed towards the hilltop. The People's Party didn't open fire. The Qing army climbed up the hillside, crossed the mountainside, and got closer and closer to the hilltop.

"Could it be the chaotic party ran away?" Wang Youhong couldn't help asking the people around him.

"This..." The officers around Wang Youhong couldn't answer either. When more than five hundred people faced tens of thousands of people, they couldn't imagine how much courage was needed to hold fast.

Wang Youhong himself also began to suspect that the People's Party had actually run away long ago. He looked at the hilltop with binoculars again; the flag of the People's Party was still stuck lonely on the mountain ridge. It gave people a weird feeling no matter how you looked at it. Just at this moment, gunshots suddenly came from afar. The field of view of the binoculars wasn't wide enough; Wang Youhong put down the binoculars, searching for the place where the battle broke out.

The ones firing were the Qing army. The Qing army about to rush up the mountain ridge stopped. The front row tried hard to form a line to fire at the mountain ridge, and the Qing army behind constantly tried hard to keep up, trying to maintain a battle line and suppress the enemy with firepower. This was one of the most standard tactics of line infantry ("queue shooting").

Hurriedly raising the binoculars to aim the lens at that battle line, Wang Youhong tried hard to see more clearly. Then Wang Youhong saw clearly that gaps were punched out in the Qing army's battle line one after another at an incredible speed. The terrain near the mountain ridge was steeper; the knocked-down Qing army rolled down the hillside like gunnysacks. Although heavy rewards greatly stimulated the morale of the Qing army, and the Qing army behind rushed up constantly to fill into the queue regardless of the enemy's fierce firepower, no matter how they filled people, the entire queue became sparser and sparser. It couldn't be seen very clearly in the lens; Wang Youhong couldn't help putting down the binoculars and shouting, "What's going on!"

Hei Dao Ren was close at hand to the battle line; he saw extremely clearly. In the original plan, it was intended to let the Qing army get closer before shooting. During deployment, the troops had formulated a shooting zone. But not long after the Qing army entered the shooting zone, they began to scream and stop to shoot. Presumably, some soldiers didn't hide well enough and were discovered. The troops naturally couldn't be beaten passively, so the exchange of fire began.

The Qing army was trained well. Some firing soldiers stood, some squatted; looking at the appearance alone, it was quite decent. But flashy moves were useless; the firing rate of single-shot rifles was too slow. Although the firing speed of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army's five-round Hanyang-made rifles was deliberately suppressed, that was to pursue accuracy. The distance between the two sides was only more than twenty meters. Every two shots, several Qing soldiers were hit. The seemingly sparse gunshots had amazingly high lethality. The Qing army originally tried to maintain a battle line of fifty people for volley fire. In less than a minute, with Qing troops constantly replenishing the battle line, the fifty-person battle line shrank to less than thirty people.

Another minute passed, and the thirty-person battle line shrank to ten people. In Hei Dao Ren's observation, at least fifty Qing troops were knocked to the ground in this minute. The Qing army trying to maintain the battle line fired one shot at most; standing there for less than ten seconds, they were overturned to the ground by bullets. The leading Qing troops could no longer continue fighting; they began to flee.

The "shooting zone" designated by the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army was an area that could guarantee the best shooting effect. Bullets flew ruthlessly from behind. Because the fleeing Qing army had movement, the situation where originally two bullets could knock down one Qing soldier turned into four bullets hitting one Qing soldier. The shooting density of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army increased slightly, and the escaping Qing troops died one after another. Since they ran down the mountain, the momentum after the corpses fell was greater. Hei Dao Ren saw some Qing troops even rolling down from the hillside, crossing the mountainside, and stopping only when they almost reached the foot of the mountain.

When the originally not dense gunshots stopped, the Qing army suffered more than two hundred casualties, and the first wave of charge was completely defeated. The Qing army soldiers who escaped with their lives retreated all the way into the valley before stopping.

Without Hei Dao Ren urging, the troops had already begun to count casualties. After hearing the report, Hei Dao Ren couldn't help widening his eyes and asking: "Are you sure there is no mistake?"

"Yes, only one comrade was injured, hit by a bullet in the shoulder. The injured comrade has been sent to the hospital; there are no other casualties." The courier ran through the entire battle line himself; the intelligence obtained was absolutely unmistakable.

"Hehehe!" The laughter of the Second Company Commander couldn't be distinguished whether it was a sneer or a big laugh; anyway, it blended the two emotions of happiness and mockery.

Hei Dao Ren looked at the Second Company Commander a few times and found he actually had nothing to say.

"The 11th Battalion completely wiped out?!" Wang Youhong's eyes widened round. One must know, fighting with tens of thousands of Guangfu Society troops for a day yesterday, the New Army casualties didn't exceed a thousand. Even less did it say that an event of a battalion of three hundred people being completely wiped out occurred. Now fighting with the People's Party for less than ten minutes, the 11th Battalion of the River Defense Army rushing at the very front was actually completely wiped out. Soon, more accurate intelligence came back. Of the 11th Battalion with three hundred people, officers were either dead or injured; there were less than forty people in the whole battalion who were not injured.

Wang Youhong went up and kicked over the courier who came to report. "Falsely reporting military intelligence is a capital crime!" Wang Youhong shouted.

Seeing Wang Youhong furious, the courier hurriedly climbed up and knelt down. "Commander Wang, the result of checking ahead is indeed so; this small person absolutely dares not deceive Milord."

The faces of the officers around Wang Youhong were also ugly to the extreme. When just engaging in battle, the troops rushing at the very front definitely had larger casualties; everyone could think of this. But for a troop's casualties to reach ninety percent in a moment, this was a bit too shocking.

Just when the officers didn't know how to speak, they heard Wang Youhong say fiercely: "Pass the order, let the 35th Regiment attack. No matter what, attack up the hilltop for me."

Wang Youhong's voice was full of anger and resentment; the intensity of his tone was terrifying.

The New Army's attack was more methodical; at least shelling began. The only problem was that the observer on the balloon couldn't point out the specific location of the People's Party position at all. The artillery only received the instruction "fire at the hilltop." This made the artillerymen feel extremely difficult. However, it must be explained that even if the observers on the balloon pointed out the specific location, with the level of the New Army artillery, their probability of accurate hitting depended entirely on luck.

Fortunately, the People's Party gave up the valley completely. The New Army artillerymen set up their position in the area forward of the middle of the valley. Amidst the rumbling sound of cannons, many smoke clouds rose randomly on the hilltop. When shells occasionally landed near the hilltop, a burst of cheers erupted in the Qing army queue.

Even low-level shelling, with sufficient shells, really caused casualties to the People's Party. The position of a squad of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army was hit by a shell, causing a situation of one dead and two injured.

"Does the New Army think shells don't cost money?" The Second Company Commander became a bit nervous. Within an hour, the New Army fired at least more than a hundred shells. If the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army had so many shells, at least they would have knocked out several important enemy firepower points, or scattered several enemy heavy troop charge groups.

"Don't worry, they can't last long." Hei Dao Ren persuaded.

Sure enough, the artillery soon received Wang Youhong's order, "Don't fire anymore!"

Shells cost a lot. Wang Youhong's reason in rage could still understand the principle of not wasting money. The battle changed from an artillery battle to an infantry charge mode again.

The New Army fought back and forth with only one characteristic: line attack, volley fire. The skirmish line of the People's Party didn't distribute troops evenly to the entire battle line. In some places, there were only a few people on the broad battle line. While on firepower key points, a squad of troops might be placed. On the entire battle line, containment and elimination coexisted. As the Qing army troop attack route changed, the configuration on the defense line also changed accordingly.

After beating back the fourth attack of the Qing army, although not participating in the battle, Hei Dao Ren, who was equally exhausted because of observing and commanding, suddenly quoted an old Chinese saying: "Books are hated to be few when needed!"

The Second Company Commander could fully understand what Hei Dao Ren wanted to say. In the command post, one had to observe and command during the battle. During the battle cessation period, one had to study troop deployment and have predictions and assessments of the enemy's actions. Just a battle commanding more than five hundred people, with a battle line of at most one thousand meters. But it exhausted the comrades' energy.

The fourth battle was actually fought very dangerously. Recalling it, the Second Company Commander felt a chill on his back. When the Qing army tried to exert its superiority in military strength and attack from three directions, it really made all comrades in the command post feel bursts of chill in their hearts.