"Are the Beiyang Army all turtles? The moment we arrive, they hide inside the city!" The commander of the vanguard regiment of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army had a quick temper. As soon as the Revolutionary Army approached Linzhang County, the Beiyang Army troops that were once outside the city withdrew into the county seat for defense. The county seat wasn't large; stuffing nearly ten thousand men and horses inside made the defense as solid as an iron bucket.

The commissar wasn't anxious at all. Facing such Beiyang Army troops, the rural work was much simpler than imagined. "Crops don't grow inside the county seat, so what are we afraid of? Can this bunch of Beiyang troops go without eating? We should hurry up and send troops to assist the fellow villagers in harvesting the summer grain. The 'Sixteen-Character Mantra' puts it clearly: 'When the enemy camps, we harass.' Since they are in the county seat, we'll send artillery to constantly harass them and feign an attack on the city."

"You sure can keep your cool. What if the Beiyang Army comes out of the city?" The commander wasn't as optimistic as the commissar.

"If they come out, we fight them. The fields in Hebei are crisscrossed with ditches and canals; we can fight a defensive battle at any time. Small groups of Beiyang troops can't withstand a fight, and if a large group comes out, we'll hold them first and then surround and annihilate them." The commissar described the battle as if it were as simple as eating a meal.

Seeing the commissar so composed, the commander couldn't help but mock himself, "I'm being lazy again."

"Everyone is lazy!" The commissar laughed. "I don't want to expend so much effort either, but how can we defeat the enemy without doing it? After the grain harvest is complete, the Beiyang Army will have no source of grain here in Linzhang. The follow-up troops will be coming up soon, and this grain will be enough for everyone to eat for some time. According to the intelligence we've gathered, the grain inside Linzhang City is only enough for half a month. I don't believe the Beiyang Army's silver dollars can magically turn into grain."

In the summer campaign of 1915, the People's Party choked the Beiyang Army at its critical point: grain shortage. As long as they competed tit-for-tat with the Beiyang Army for the countryside, they could crush the Beiyang Army by starving them alone. The harvest in the north was later than in the south, and the People's Party's battle line advanced step by step along the harvest line. The opposing Beiyang Army seemed to have completely failed to understand this point and still foolishly defended the cities. The cadres and soldiers of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army couldn't understand how the brains of the Beiyang Army worked.

Although there was only one regiment of vanguard troops, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army still rapidly sent more than half of its troops to the countryside. And this boldness was quickly rewarded. On June 20, just as Hebei generally began to enter the initial summer harvest, two divisions of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army had completely surrounded Linzhang County. The number of soldiers participating in the harvest increased greatly.

In Handan, less than a hundred *li* from Linzhang County, Wu Peifu completely failed to understand what the People's Party wanted to do. According to the Beiyang operational concept, one either attacked important cities or defended important cities to the death; all battles revolved around key points. The opposing People's Party seemed to be everywhere, yet large-scale battles never commenced. Telegrams urging battle from Beijing came one after another. Holding to the war concept of "know the enemy and know yourself, and you can fight a hundred battles with no danger," Wu Peifu wanted to first determine where the People's Party's main force was.

It wasn't until June 19 that Wu Peifu determined that the main force of the People's Party was gathering in Linzhang County. Linzhang was a major grain-producing county, which fit Wu Peifu's judgment. Since that was the case, Wu Peifu dispatched his troops.

But things were not that simple. The Beiyang Army spent three whole days to travel just over 40 *li* of the 100 *li* journey. After the main force of the Beiyang Army moved out, they were first bombed by the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army Air Force. To be honest, a four-kilogram bomb or a strafing of two or three hundred machine-gun bullets simply couldn't cause many casualties. For a force of ten thousand men, four or five hundred casualties could be almost ignored.

But this statistical method was for Wu Peifu. Four or five hundred men was only 0.5% of a Beiyang Army corps' strength, but for every Beiyang officer and soldier, there were only two states: injured or not injured. This was a 100% probability. The number of people a plane could kill or wound each time was very limited, but the Beiyang Army troops who witnessed these gods of death descending from the sky and slaughtering wantonly numbered in the tens or hundreds of times that amount. The Beiyang Army had absolutely no method to cope and could only be one-sidedly slaughtered by the buzzing machines in the sky. The sharp whistling sound of bombs tearing through the air raised every Beiyang soldier's heart to their throat. The sound of explosions rang out, followed by the sound of crying for fathers and mothers. This was no longer a march but an execution.

At first, the Beiyang Army stood there and took the bombing. Later, hearing the whistle of planes or bombs, regardless of whether the bombs were coming in their direction, the main body of the Beiyang Army would scramble and crawl to hide by the roadside. Once the troops dispersed, it took a long time to gather them again. What annoyed the Beiyang officers even more was that the more they hid, the more the soldiers understood that the closer they were to the main road, the higher the chance of being hit by bombs, so they ran further and further away from the roadside. This brought even greater trouble to regrouping the troops. After learning to evade, the number of casualties in the Beiyang Army dropped rapidly, but the marching speed could not be described as "declining" but rather "plummeting." The march that was originally planned to be completed in two days had now taken three days to cover just half the distance.

The sluggishness of the Beiyang Army greatly exceeded the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army's expectations. It was impossible to scrap the original military plan and start over. The first step adjusted was the encirclement and annihilation of the enemy in Linzhang County. In the original plan, Linzhang County was to be the site of a decisive battle between the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army and the Beiyang rescue troops. Since Wu Peifu was ineffective, Chai Qingguo had to use a butcher's knife to kill a chicken and committed a corps originally intended for battle to the siege of annihilation.

Of course, the real battle didn't require filling it with human lives; the main force of the war was the artillery brigade directly under the corps. The weather was clear during the summer harvest, and the visibility range was huge. Under the guidance of the air force, the artillery accurately positioned its firepower on the enemy-packed city walls and several assembly points after a few rounds of test firing.

After firing only a little over two hundred shells, Chai Qingguo felt the pinch. Although nearly ten thousand shells were prepared for the battle, the number of 75mm guns wasn't large. "Why hasn't the air force dropped surrender leaflets yet?" Chai Qingguo asked.

"Don't rush, isn't it starting now?" said Xiong Mingyang, the political commissar of the Henan Military Region, whom he trusted. Sure enough, snow-like specks began to appear under the planes, drifting and falling into Linzhang County seat.

After another while, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army sent someone to shout and persuade them to surrender. The defenders inside the city certainly refused to surrender; they bluntly requested the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army to let them go.

"Let them go? What are they thinking? Continue shelling!" Chai Qingguo couldn't be bothered to say more. After firing another two hundred or so shells, a white flag was raised on the city wall. After all, stuffing ten thousand people inside the city resulted in too high a density. The dense positions outside the city blocked the enemy's escape route tight; they had no other way but to surrender.

Having solved the enemy in Linzhang County, the next object of consideration was Wu Peifu, who was on the road. The enemy in Handan numbered over two hundred thousand, and Wu Peifu brought out one hundred thousand this time. In the original plan, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army would fight a decisive battle with this reinforcement force in Linzhang County. In the distance of less than a hundred *li* between them, besieging a point to strike the reinforcements was very convenient. Now Wu Peifu had only walked 40 *li*. If the weather conditions were good and one had sharp eyes, one could see 40 *li* away at a glance. At such an awkward distance, a battle of encirclement and annihilation became extremely tricky.

"Dividing the enemy and annihilating them one by one is correct. If there is a glimmer of possibility, we must fight a battle of annihilation. If we let all two hundred thousand enemy troops retreat into Handan, attacking it would be too troublesome." Like other commissars of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, Xiong Mingyang was a soldier with outstanding battle achievements.

Chai Qingguo didn't mind the debate. Although he was the commander, in the Military Region Party Committee, he was only a standing committee member and deputy secretary of the Party Committee. The senior commanders were all Party members, so the Party Committee meeting was practically equivalent to an operational meeting. He drew a line on the map with his finger. "Which unit can hold this line and cut off the Beiyang Army? Can we do it? There are one hundred thousand troops on both sides of this line."

Chai Qingguo was commanding three field corps this time, totaling three hundred thousand troops. The three corps commanders and twelve division commanders were all graduates of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army Academy. "Fighting battles of annihilation" and "dividing and encircling" were everyone's common line of thought. As long as it was possible, these senior commanders would make such a choice without hesitation. Therefore, they could completely understand what the line Chai Qingguo drew meant. The Beiyang Army wouldn't wait to die with their hands tied; once they found themselves surrounded, both those breaking out and those rescuing would fight with their lives. This defensive line would bear terrible pressure from the enemy. These comrades weren't afraid of death, but failure meant a major setback for the entire campaign. No one dared to easily step forward to state their position. The expectation of three hundred thousand people felt heavy just thinking about it.

"How about I take troops up there?" Deputy Commander of the Military Region Yang Baogui broke the silence. "Which unit is willing to go up with me?"

Everyone's eyes fell on Yang Baogui. Given the combat effectiveness displayed by the Beiyang Army at present, they weren't afraid of fighting. However, the fact that no one had proposed changing the idea of the battle of encirclement and annihilation until now made the comrades feel the headquarters' firm determination.

"Why must we fight such a tough battle? Can't we just besiege them?" Gu Lu, the acting corps commander of the 12th Corps, finally couldn't help speaking. The 12th Corps was an engineering corps, not a field corps, but the liberation of Hebei couldn't do without engineers. Needless to say, land surveying alone required a large number of engineering personnel, and river course rectification required engineering troops even more. In the past few days, the engineering troops had shouldered the vast majority of the labor for the harvest work in Linzhang County.

Since it was a discussion meeting, everyone could say whatever they wanted, not to mention that Gu Lu's question was not unreasonable at all.

Yang Baogui answered this question, "The Beiyang reinforcements will likely come to rescue Handan. Before they come to the rescue, after we destroy this force that came out, we can storm Handan. Once the two hundred thousand enemy troops in Handan are annihilated, the Beiyang clique will be tantamount to having an arm broken."

Gu Lu was not a pure military commander, so he hadn't spoken much on previous campaign planning. After listening to Yang Baogui, Gu Lu fell silent for a moment before replying, "Handan is just a corner of Hebei. If we capture Handan, it's impossible for the Beiyang Army to risk their lives to retake Handan no matter what. They will only consider rescue when there are still enemy troops in Handan. Since we insist on fighting the Beiyang Army on the plains, why not drag the Beiyang Army out to fight? Everyone says Wu Peifu is a very capable fighter in the Beiyang Army. If such a capable unit moves like a snail under air raids, why would other Beiyang troops be more capable than Wu Peifu? Moreover, if the Beiyang Army forcibly comes to the rescue, wouldn't it be fine for us to focus on fighting the Beiyang reinforcements? I firmly support fighting battles of annihilation and destroying the enemy's effective strength. But Beiyang isn't just Wu Peifu's army. If we can annihilate 100,000 or 200,000 reinforcements, the Beiyang Army will either order Wu Peifu to break out or let Wu Peifu defend stubbornly on his own. In either case, we can annihilate Wu Peifu more easily. I don't support fighting such a tough battle right now."

Yang Baogui's eyes went wide. In the original operational plan, the hope was to thoroughly annihilate Wu Peifu's aid troops when Wu Peifu rescued Linzhang County, and then cut off Wu Peifu's connection with the Beiyang clique to deal with him at leisure. His operational thinking was entirely a variation of this plan, while Gu Lu's suggestion was a total change to the current plan. Although he couldn't point out what was wrong with Gu Lu's view in such a short time, Yang Baogui absolutely couldn't accept it. He stood there tongue-tied, unable to speak.

Gu Lu's suggestion was not without supporters among other senior commanders. The commander of the 18th Corps thought for a while and spoke, "I think Comrade Gu Lu's suggestion makes sense. Although we haven't formally fought Wu Peifu, their marching ability is far worse than we thought. Even if they gradually get used to our air force's harassment later, I don't think Wu Peifu is likely to perform too specifically in field battles. Moreover, the Beiyang Army is still short of grain, and a protracted war is very unfavorable to the Beiyang Army. The current situation is that we are rushing to harvest grain, and the troops are somewhat exhausted. If we can get a few days of rest, it should be very good for the next step of operations."

Yang Baogui couldn't help rebutting, "We must exert our capability for continuous combat..."

"Continuous combat is forced when there's no other way. We can fight continuously now because we rely on railway transport. If we marched entirely on two legs, the troops' combat effectiveness would also be greatly discounted. And our combat goal hasn't failed; the initial goal was to give the enemy in Handan a fierce blow and then cut off the connection between the enemy in Handan and the enemy in Beijing. Implementing mobile warfare in the Handan area to seek the annihilation of more enemies."

"But the difference between having one hundred thousand or two hundred thousand men in Handan is still very big." Yang Baogui also grasped a certain key point in the argument.

Amidst the endless debate, more and more comrades began to participate. However, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army had no experience in large-scale combat with Beiyang, and even the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army itself lacked experience in large-scale operations with hundreds of thousands of troops. In the end, they couldn't argue out a result, and everyone looked to Commander Chai Qingguo, hoping to see his intention.

Chai Qingguo lived up to expectations. He said, "My intention is for the 18th Corps to dispatch two divisions to assume a pincer posture against the Beiyang Army from the north and south. The original operational plan planned it this way; we might as well execute it this way."

"Commander Chai, if you want to make everything perfect, it's very likely you'll get nothing in the end," Yang Baogui put forward his own view.

"Commander Chai, isn't doing this a bit like 'marking the boat to find the sword'?" The 18th Corps commander found it a bit unacceptable.

Chai Qingguo found these two statements quite interesting. Yang Baogui felt Chai Qingguo wasn't decisive enough, while the 18th Corps commander felt Chai Qingguo was stuck in a rut. Chai Qingguo laughed, "Comrades, it's unlikely for me to commit both 'Left' and 'Right' errors at the same time. I actually quite agree with Comrade Gu Lu's idea. Since the war situation has changed, our deployment must also change. The reason for doing this is to see what the Beiyang Army plans to do next. Moreover, Wu Peifu's performance makes me feel that he is probably even worse than we thought. Even if he hasn't had contact with the air force, he shouldn't have made such a big joke during the march."

In the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, the military chief was responsible for military actions, and even the political commissar could not interfere with military actions. If the political commissar felt that the military chief was directing improperly or lacked ability, they could convene a Party Committee meeting to relieve the military commander of their command and elect a new military commander. But before the political commissar formally passed the Party Committee resolution to take over command, military actions must obey the military chief's orders.

So no matter how many doubts they had in their hearts, since Chai Qingguo had given the order, the comrades no longer stubbornly objected. On the afternoon of October 22, two divisions of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army's 18th Corps began to set out towards the north and south of the Beiyang Wu Peifu Field Group.