Since their Battalion Commander Hu Chuankui had already started extorting money, the Beiyang soldiers had nothing to worry about. Although the government's intention for this troop deployment was to "suppress unruly people," the Beiyang Army didn't care about that at all. With a major war imminent, who cared whether people were unruly or not? The Beiyang troops who came to Cao Family Shop were incorporated bandits. Battalion Commander Hu Chuankui was originally a bandit from Shandong, with over a hundred brothers under his command. When the Beiyang Army expanded significantly, Hu Chuankui swallowed up a few small bandit groups and then defected to the Beiyang Army *en masse*.

The Beiyang Army was in desperate need of manpower. Even bandits were organized and disciplined, and they knew how to handle guns and horses, so Hu Chuankui's group was accepted without refusal. Hu Chuankui was good at managing relationships; even though he came from a bandit background, he was no novice in official circles. So, the brothers under his command were not dispersed. Instead, he sat firmly in the position of battalion commander. However, since they ate the Beiyang Army's food, the military law officers were ruthless when executing people. These former bandits had at least learned some rules under the brutal military discipline of the Beiyang Army. Before entering Cao Cuishan's house, Hu Chuankui ordered them not to loot things privately in the Cao family. These fellows managed to hold back for the time being. Anyway, getting a share of the money was only a matter of time. After getting the money, there would be plenty of opportunities to take things from the Cao family.

Since the goal was clear and realizing it was imminent, the discipline of these Beiyang soldiers naturally relaxed greatly. Even the Beiyang soldiers on sentry duty in the village kept glancing towards the Cao family, afraid of being a step late when the money was distributed.

There is a characteristic of rural Hebei, which is that roads are simply not maintained by anyone. Lu Xun said that there was originally no road in the world, but as more people walked, a road was formed. The reality in the countryside is that roads are not only trampled out by human feet but also become sunken because people constantly walk on them. At this time, in order to walk on a flat road, people would walk on others' farmland. Everyone wants to walk on others' flat fields but doesn't want others to walk on their own fields, so many people started digging ditches outside their own fields to stop others from entering. As a result, every household was digging ditches to defend their farmland. The more ditches there were, the more inconvenient it was for everyone to walk. The more inconvenient it was, the more people concentrated on walking on the land that was still relatively flat. And the more people walked, the faster the road became potholed. This vicious cycle made the Hebei land, which should have been flat, present a terrible scene of crisscrossing deep ditches.

This situation also existed in Henan, but after the People's Party liberated Henan, they implemented land reform. At the same time, under the orders of the Party Central Committee led by Chen Ke, great importance was attached to the road issue. After more than two years of rectification, the land in Henan became flatter and flatter, but Hebei, close at hand, was still the same as before.

Although the crisscrossing ditches made travel extremely inconvenient for ordinary people, for the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, these ditches provided excellent routes for concealed marching. Columns formed by small units at the squad level were moving rapidly in the ditches. When the leading dagger squad moved to a place less than thirty meters from the entrance of Cao Family Shop village, the Beiyang sentries at the village entrance actually didn't discover them at all.

The squad leader took out a small mirror, first checked the angle of the sun, then clipped the mirror onto a small portable stand and slowly extended the mirror out of the ditch. From the mirror, it was clear that four Beiyang soldiers were chatting under the shade of a tree, and there was no one else from the village entrance to the inside of the village. As a dagger squad, they were naturally different from the rest. The squad leader made a hand signal and handed the mirror to other soldiers. After the soldiers observed the positions, they silently watched the squad leader draw a sketch on the ground with a military dagger.

After designating their respective targets, the soldiers took out steel hand crossbows one after another, then smeared medicine on the crossbow tips. This was a powerful anesthetic. Of course, if the hit location wasn't good, the dosage could also cause death. However, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army didn't intend to let the other side suffer no casualties. After preparations were complete, some soldiers continued to hold small mirrors to observe the enemy situation, while other soldiers started to continue moving forward.

When they reached a straight-line distance of no more than 20 meters, the soldiers waited for the squad leader's order. The squad leader took a few deep breaths, slowly stood up leaning against the ditch, and after waving his hand forcefully, he leaned completely out of the ditch. Every two men dealt with one Beiyang soldier; the hand crossbows fired three shots in succession. Twenty-four crossbow bolts were shot out in an instant. The four Beiyang sentries didn't even have time to scream before falling to the ground. The soldiers of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army were long prepared. Seeing the Beiyang sentries knocked down, someone immediately rushed over to drag them into the ditch. Several soldiers who had already put on Beiyang military uniforms took off the Beiyang sentries' caps and put them on their own heads, then picked up the Beiyang rifles and stood at the sentry positions.

Having eliminated the Beiyang sentries, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army's actions became even faster. The sentries monitored the movement inside the village, using seemingly nonchalant but actually pre-agreed body movements to send signals. Groups of soldiers wearing camouflage uniforms quickly encircled the village. This was a force totaling over 600 men. Mortar positions were set up on three sides of the village, and a machine gun position was set up on the side with the main road. The entire movement took no more than 20 minutes. Even if the Beiyang Army rushed out from inside at this moment, it would be impossible for them to escape.

The Beiyang Army had not discovered the fact that they were surrounded at all, and the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army didn't foolishly wait for Beiyang to discover it. Since they had controlled the positions, the troops immediately began to further tighten the encirclement net. The initial dagger squad groped their way into the village.

As the big landlord of Cao Family Shop, the Cao family's courtyard was not small. After the five hundred or so people of the Beiyang Army filled the inside and outside of the courtyard, it wasn't actually too crowded. The negotiation had been going on for almost an hour, and Hu Chuankui hadn't called anyone in to "help enlighten" Cao Cuishan, so looking at the time, the negotiation was about done. At any moment, there might be an order for everyone to start digging for money or distributing money. So the Beiyang Army's attention was basically concentrated inside the courtyard, paying very little attention to matters on the periphery.

Although the dagger squad of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army wasn't completely clear about this matter, this trend of the Beiyang Army made the dagger platoon feel it was very advantageous. Since soldiers were passing through, the villagers had either fled or were hiding in their homes without making a sound. Even the dogs of each household had been brought inside by the people to prevent barking from attracting the Beiyang Army's attention. The possibility of being disturbed by sudden occurrences was reduced to the minimum.

"Squad leader, what do we do?" A soldier asked in a low voice.

"Move over there. Clear out what you can." The squad leader also answered in a low voice. Afraid the soldier didn't fully understand his meaning, the squad leader urged again, "No need to show mercy."

The soldiers took out their daggers one after another. The daggers had all undergone surface treatment, or at least been smeared with black ink. A few peripheral Beiyang soldiers were happily discussing going to the brothel in the county town after getting the money. Suddenly, their mouths were covered by figures flashing out from behind, and they breathed their last after daggers stabbed fiercely into their vitals. The soldiers of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army dagger squad didn't stop. They dragged the corpses to a secluded place nearby and continued to grope forward.

This was a good opportunity for annihilation. The Beiyang Army was completely gathered in one place. In order to utilize the firepower advantage of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, occupying favorable terrain was very important. Moreover, these soldiers also noticed that the Beiyang Army could rely on the large courtyard for defense. In such a situation, getting a little closer to the enemy could reduce the difficulty of the annihilation battle by a fraction. The Beiyang Army had also set up two heavy machine guns. If they could destroy those two heavy machine guns before the attack, and then completely seal the enemy inside the large courtyard, the battle would be completely a situation of catching a turtle in a jar. Without even risking death to attack, just the mortars of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army could make the Beiyang Army lose its combat effectiveness.

However, this kind of special attack by a small squad also had its limits. Everyone killed efficiently, raising the knife and letting it fall. But that could only be done against stragglers. The soldiers of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army were also ordinary people. Trying to rely on one person to kill silently in broad daylight in front of dozens or hundreds of people was an impossible task.

Fortunately, the Beiyang Army's heavy machine guns were placed pompously in front of the Cao family compound. Their intimidation factor was surplus, but their practicality was greatly reduced. The small squad was still fifty meters away from the machine gun position, and there was really no way to get closer. The squad leader ordered the soldiers to prepare to throw grenades. He said to three comrades: "You deal specifically with the enemy's machine guns." These three were top-notch throwers in the dagger squad, with extremely high accuracy in throwing grenades within thirty-some meters.

After the comrades were ready, the squad leader took the lead and rushed out from behind a residential house. He was the first to throw a hand grenade at the nearby Beiyang soldiers. The comrades behind him also followed rushing out to throw grenades. Just as the throwing ended, the squad leader and the comrades who rushed out first flashed back to the concealed place.

Boom, boom. Explosion sounds rang out in succession. The deputy squad leader counted the explosion sounds. After confirming the explosion sounds matched the number of thrown grenades, he rushed out with the three top-notch throwers. They rushed out more than ten meters like a wisp of smoke. Led by the deputy squad leader, the four men each threw two hand grenades towards the direction of the Beiyang machine guns. Then they pulled back.

The squad leader also came out from the concealed place at this time. He saw with his own eyes the grenades exploding accurately near the two heavy machine guns. The dark heavy machine guns flew up in the shockwave of the explosion, twisting and deforming in mid-air. This attack was carried out quite smoothly.

"Fire the signal flare!" The squad leader shouted to the soldier. As soon as his voice fell, two red and one green signal flares were shot into mid-air. The red smoke and green smoke were particularly striking against the blue sky. Not long after, the sound of the charge bugle was heard. The troops of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army who had already entered attack positions attacked fiercely towards the direction of the Cao family compound.

Under the surprise attack, the Beiyang Army didn't figure out what had happened at all. The series of explosions caused quite a few casualties, but it only threw the Beiyang Army into chaos. People outside the courtyard subconsciously wanted to flee into the courtyard, while people inside the courtyard wanted to come out to see what happened. As a result, a group of people clustered together at the courtyard gate. It wasn't until the bullets of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army came whistling over, creating patches of blood splashes in the chaotic crowd, that this gang finally understood that something was really wrong—someone was attacking.

There was no resistance. Everyone shouted and ran towards the inside of the courtyard. Some who couldn't run away tried to climb the wall into the courtyard in desperation. As a result, the fellows with better jumping ability who grabbed the top of the wall became excellent targets. Quite a few soldiers of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, as well as a machine gunner with a light machine gun, took a fancy to these few people. A burst of bullets went over, and these few people left large bloodstains on the wall, then fell from the wall like flour sacks. However, these few people didn't hit the ground directly either; quite a few corpses and wounded had already piled up on the ground. Their corpses merely added another layer in front of the Cao family compound, where corpses lay everywhere.