Yang Baogui, as the Deputy Commander of the Henan Military District, volunteered to set off with the Northern Route Army. Chai Qingguo, a fierce general who had participated in the Qingdao Campaign, possessed a strong offensive spirit. If he insisted on keeping a capable officer like Yang Baogui cooped up in the headquarters, Yang Baogui certainly wouldn't be happy about it. However, if he let him go with the Northern Route Army, Yang Baogui would definitely be commanding above his level.

To be fair, Chai Qingguo hadn't given up on the idea of annihilating Wu Peifu's field army group. Since Yang Baogui had such an offensive spirit, Chai Qingguo made a decision that surprised his comrades. He ordered Yang Baogui to lead Gu Lu's 12th Army north to make military preparations between Handan and Xingtai. The 12th Army was an engineering corps, but engineering troops didn't just focus on construction. In a year, they never missed out on three months of basic military training. Their individual equipment was much better than that of the Beiyang Army. The entire army only lacked "75mm heavy artillery" compared to the field armies. And because the engineering troops had extensive construction experience, the field armies admitted they were inferior when it came to digging positions and using explosives. Combat engineers all had to go to the engineering corps for training.

"Comrade Yang Baogui, I will explain this to you one last time. I am not asking you to take the 12th Army to attack Beijing, but to prepare for the next phase of the campaign. So you cannot take it upon yourself to lead troops into battle. Furthermore, you will join the 12th Army's Military Party Committee immediately. Comrade Gu Lu is the Political Commissar and Acting Commander of the 12th Army. In the Party Committee meetings, Comrade Gu Lu is the Party Secretary." Chai Qingguo emphasized the relationship between them to Yang Baogui and Gu Lu.

Gu Lu was never a comrade who didn't know his place. He smiled and said, "Deputy Commander Yang has a lot of combat experience. If we encounter combat issues, we will definitely listen to Deputy Commander Yang's suggestions."

Yang Baogui had always heard that Gu Lu was deeply valued by Chen Ke and Chai Qingguo, and Gu Lu had also recently straightforwardly opposed Chai Qingguo's operational plan. But he didn't expect Gu Lu to have such a clear understanding of this temporary team arrangement. Yang Baogui couldn't help but be greatly surprised.

Since Gu Lu was so reliable, Yang Baogui's confrontational mindset weakened, and he had time to consider serious matters. He couldn't help but ask, "What if the Beiyang forces quickly mobilize troops south?"

Seeing that Yang Baogui finally understood his position, Chai Qingguo felt relieved. "Sending you there is for you to make military preparations. There will be plenty of battles to fight later. We have absolutely no mass base in Hebei. The only thing we can rely on is this railway line. After you go north, you must cut off this railway line for me. If the Beiyang Army wants to move south, I will have the Air Force do their best to contain their march. Sending you, Comrade Yang Baogui, is for you to coordinate the relationship between the two sides."

After Chai Qingguo finished speaking, seeing a look of joy on Yang Baogui's face, he quickly continued to hammer the point home. "I asked you to coordinate, not to command battles in the name of the Deputy Commander. You must remember this clearly."

Someone who could become a Military District Deputy Commander was naturally not a fool. Seeing Chai Qingguo's repeated exhortations, Yang Baogui didn't get angry. "Don't worry, I will definitely complete this task resolutely. However, our troop numbers are insufficient. If the Beiyang Army really jumps over the wall like a desperate dog and moves south in large numbers, I can't guarantee that combat won't occur."

Chai Qingguo was naturally very clear about this. If he wasn't worried about the Beiyang Army moving south, he wouldn't have needed to send Yang Baogui north. "In short, you are not allowed to attack on your own initiative. You must achieve this. Troops will never be enough. The Beiyang Army in Hebei has at most 1.2 million troops capable of fighting. The Shandong Military District might have to face 600,000. We still have two armies as follow-up forces. You just focus on completing the forward preparation work."

"Yes!" Yang Baogui saluted Chai Qingguo.

After seeing off Yang Baogui and Gu Lu, Chai Qingguo ordered the other troops to rest immediately. Given Wu Peifu's current performance, heaven knows what tricks he might come up with. As the saying goes, chaotic punches kill the old master. If it were a skilled enemy, it would be easier to predict the tactics they might use, after all, there are only so many reasonable tactics. But if Wu Peifu acted recklessly, although he would certainly fail, it would cause some trouble for the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. At this time, rather than making preparations blindly, it was better to hurry up and rest, and be ready to enter combat at any time.

After the order was passed down, Chai Qingguo looked at the map and suddenly remembered a military saying: "Strike later but arrive first." According to Chen Ke, this was a concept mentioned in Laozi's *Tao Te Ching*. Do not strive to be first, but by acting later one will arrive first. Translated into the language of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, that was: "We won't fire the first shot, but the enemy shouldn't think about firing the second shot." To achieve this, one must "know oneself." If one doesn't even know what level the troops can perform to, acting first would just mean waiting to face all sorts of chaos in one's own troops. But so far, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army hadn't had any problems; instead, the enemy had started to make a joke of themselves.

Since the decision had been made, Chai Qingguo simply stopped thinking about it. As a commander, the position was more about taking responsibility. Being anxious was just another reason for Chai Qingguo to command over his subordinates' heads. So Chai Qingguo simply lay down to sleep for a while. At this moment, ensuring abundant energy was the best thing Chai Qingguo could do. The war had only just begun.

While Chai Qingguo was sound asleep, Wu Peifu, marching some thirty li away from Chai Qingguo, had no way to sleep soundly. The harassment by the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army Air Force left Wu Peifu completely unable to cope. On the afternoon of the 22nd, Wu Peifu suffered a heavy blow.

In order to rectify the soldiers, Wu Peifu ordered the commanders of all units not to hide when planes came, but to stand on the main road to command. Logically speaking, this method wasn't entirely wrong. The Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army practiced equality between officers and soldiers; in the face of an air raid, there was no reason for officers to run for their lives first. However, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army talked about science and democracy. Facing an air raid, they absolutely wouldn't foolishly stand there and get bombed. But the Beiyang Army's tradition was "victory through courage." Wu Peifu had been able to repel the Japanese army in Rizhao by relying on this fierceness. So when the planes started the air raid, a division commander whom Wu Peifu favored implemented the military order, personally leading a team of his own guards to stand on the main road and curse the soldiers hiding by the roadside.

At the beginning of the bombing, it was fine. The bombs kicked up rubble and smoke on the road, and because the officers were standing sparsely, no one was injured. But they never expected that the Air Force of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army would suddenly dive down and unleash a barrage of machine-gun fire at that division commander and his guards. The division commander was caught off guard, hit by six bullets, and died instantly. Wu Peifu was shocked when he received the news. He never imagined that the planes of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army could accurately see targets on the ground. It wasn't just Wu Peifu; the other officers who heard the news were all badly frightened.

This was, of course, a misunderstanding the Beiyang Army had about the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. Wu Peifu and the others naturally didn't know the characteristics of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army Air Force. Because the current planes were extremely fragile, if they were hit by a few shots, they might crash. Therefore, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army Air Force units carried out air raids from outside the Beiyang Army's firing range. But when the Beiyang troops hid by the roadside to avoid bombs, that group of people on the road became excellent targets. The air force soldier who dive-strafed was a very young corporal pilot. The reason he did this was simply because he had joined the air force for a short time, and the earliest dive-strafing prohibited new comrades from participating. But after the Beiyang Army fled to the roadside and the road surface was safe, there was still a group of guys "who didn't know Ma Wangye had three eyes" gesticulating on the road, so he took it upon himself to dive and shoot. Choosing this division commander couldn't possibly be because of sharp eyes; it was simply because this division commander had many guards and was a large target.

After the young pilot returned to the airfield, he was pulled out by the flight squadron leader and criticized. The squadron leader ordered this pilot to make a public self-criticism in the attitude of being responsible for revolutionary work, and to guarantee that he would never do such unorganized and undisciplined things again in the future. Wu Peifu certainly didn't know these details. He didn't know right now that after this campaign, this incident would become a classic ideological work case for the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army Air Force. Disobeying orders and disobeying command was not acceptable, no matter how great the results achieved. Criticism should be given where due, and punishment should be given where due.

Since the Beiyang Army believed that the planes of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army could observe ground intelligence extremely accurately, their actions became even more restricted. The officers were all on tenterhooks, afraid that if they exposed themselves outside the soldiers again, they would be killed. Wu Peifu's action, originally intended to boost morale, instead dealt a huge blow to the troops' morale.

Now, only some thirty li from Linzhang County, Wu Peifu absolutely could not accept retreating to Handan in disgrace after setting out with such fanfare. Not to mention Wu Peifu's own self-esteem wouldn't allow it, Yuan Shikai in Beijing also couldn't accept such an action from Wu Peifu. The result of consulting with his subordinates was a suggestion: "Commander, why don't we march at night? If we don't light torches, we should be fine in the dark. So far, we haven't seen the People's Party planes come out at night."

This suggestion was approved by the majority of the officers. Now, as long as they moved during the day, whether advancing or retreating, they would be attacked from the air. Instead of that, it was better to march at night. Being so close to Linzhang County, they could get there in one night.

Wu Peifu immediately expressed his agreement. As a fierce general, Wu Peifu didn't think he would suffer any losses in a head-on battle with the People's Party. So after nightfall, the Beiyang Army only rested slightly before continuing to set out.

The reconnaissance units of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army had never given up their reconnaissance of the Beiyang Army, plus there were insiders from the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army within Wu Peifu's troops. The news that the Beiyang Army was preparing for a night march quickly reached the headquarters of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. Chai Qingguo had already slept for a while. After hearing this news, he didn't make any judgment immediately. He went out to take a cold shower first. Standing in the headquarters courtyard, dripping wet, Chai Qingguo suddenly laughed loudly, "This Wu Peifu really has guts!"

The "Sixteen Character Mantra" emphasized harassment warfare. One of the basic subjects of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army was night harassment combat. If it were a small Beiyang unit marching, it might be fine. But a hundred thousand troops marching at night, this was clearly asking for a beating. Seeing the sky starting to dim, Chai Qingguo immediately ordered all senior commanders to be summoned for a meeting. At the same time, Chai Qingguo directly found the army's direct-reporting Reconnaissance Battalion and ordered this elite unit to immediately enter night attack combat. "You don't need to consider too much, like what battle results, or how many enemies to annihilate. Don't think about any of that. If the Beiyang Army marches at night, don't let the Beiyang Army sleep tonight, and you will get the first merit!"

"Guaranteed to complete the mission!" The Reconnaissance Battalion Commander saluted excitedly and left.

When the commanders arrived, the Reconnaissance Battalion had already set off. After listening to the situation introduced by Chai Qingguo, the commanders looked at each other. None of them expected that the war would present such a huge opportunity at this point.