The Beiyang Army, having marched all night without any sleep, ran back along their original route, gasping for breath. Officers at all levels urged their soldiers on relentlessly. Running six or seven *li* in an hour could be considered high speed for the Beiyang Army. Theoretically, retreating along the original route wasn't wrong; they were familiar with the road, and it was the shortest distance to the main Beiyang force. If their opponent wasn't the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, this choice would have been absolutely reasonable. But their opponent *was* the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. Aside from combat engineers, infantrymen carried an entrenching shovel unless they were conducting a light march. The North China Plain was soil-based, making it easy to build defensive positions. Coupled with the vertical and horizontal irrigation ditches dug by the vast number of people on the North China Plain, the difficulty for the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army to set up positions was greatly reduced.

The retreating Beiyang Army slammed headfirst into the defensive positions of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. Wearing camouflage uniforms and straw hats woven from wheat stalks, the soldiers of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army calmly waited until the Beiyang vanguard was less than thirty meters away before opening fire. The Beiyang soldiers running at the front fell one after another under the dense firepower, like wheat being harvested.

Meeting a head-on blow, the follow-up Beiyang troops immediately panicked. They either stopped in terror or scrambled towards the roadside in a panic. There were ditches by the roadside, and they jumped in one after another, or jumped over the ditches, trying to hide further away.

There was a huge difference between trenches dug specifically for war and ditches dug spontaneously by the common people. Trenches were convenient for combat, while the spontaneous ditches varied in depth and width. Some old ditches were more than a man's height deep; once jumped into, even a rifle wouldn't stick out above the ground, let alone fighting—it was hard even to climb out. The frontmost Beiyang troops, after suffering the blow, instantly turned into a sheet of loose sand, completely losing their combat effectiveness.

Seeing they couldn't rush through, the Beiyang troops behind gathered into a crowd, temporarily waiting for their officers to give orders. Before the officers' orders could arrive, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army's shells came whistling in. The shells exploded within the dense crowd of Beiyang soldiers, frantically spraying shrapnel, reaping Beiyang lives like the Grim Reaper waving his scythe. Under the artillery strike, the second wave of Beiyang troops left behind a ground full of corpses and fled in all directions, disintegrating in an instant.

The Beiyang Brigade Commander hadn't expected his troops to be so fragile. By the time he reached the front line, the road, winding for one or two *li*, was piled with the corpses and wounded of the Beiyang Army. The uninjured Beiyang soldiers were either lying on the ground or hiding in roadside ditches; only a very small number were shooting towards the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army's positions. The opposite positions of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army were deathly silent.

"Where exactly is the People's Party?" the Brigade Commander shouted angrily, dragging over a vanguard battalion commander who had escaped with his life.

The battalion commander was from the vanguard battalion after all; his trembling finger roughly pointed out the area of the firefight. The Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army occupied all the earth slopes on the nearby plain. Although these slopes weren't high, they were extremely superior terrain.

"You two attack towards the east and west," the Brigade Commander ordered two battalion commanders with a tight frown. If blocked in front, detour from the sides—this was the most basic tactic.

This attempt soon produced results. The two battalions of Beiyang troops crossed the harvested wheat fields and hadn't advanced far towards the east and west when the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, already deployed there, began to fire. Under the attack of rifles, machine guns, and mortars, the two battalions collapsed at the first touch. The Brigade Commander saw clearly through his binoculars; whether they were hiding or being killed, the Beiyang soldiers trying to maintain their formation for the attack fell in swathes onto the ground, disappearing into the wheat fields. The speed was like a magic trick.

Blessings never come in pairs, but misfortunes never come singly. Comedy often stops abruptly, but tragedy is always continuous. Just as the probing actions to the left and right failed, the Beiyang Brigade Commander felt a slight vibration from the earth beneath his feet. Following the dense gunfire from the rear, the Beiyang troops bringing up the rear began to run forward as if being chased. The Brigade Commander raised his binoculars; large groups of cavalry figures appeared on the horizon. The People's Party had used cavalry to launch a raid on the Beiyang Army's rear.

"Go hold them off for me! Go hold them off right now!" The Beiyang Brigade Commander shouted at the top of his lungs to two regimental commanders who had just run over to receive orders. If the cavalry charged them on the main road, the troops would only scatter in an uproar.

"Form up quickly!" The Brigade Commander had just chased the two regimental commanders away to command their subordinates when he roared at another battalion commander beside him.

"How do we form up?" The battalion commander had been stupefied by this series of changes and asked in confusion.

The Brigade Commander could endure no longer. Seeing the battalion commander's dumbfounded look, he couldn't hold back and went up to slap the battalion commander twice across the face. The battalion commander was already frightened enough by the rapid changes in the situation, and these two slaps instantly stunned him. The Brigade Commander was only venting his own panic. Seeing the battalion commander had no intention of resisting after being hit, he grabbed the battalion commander by the collar and pointed a finger at the main road ahead, roaring, "Line up over there by those graves! If the People's Party cavalry charges, hold them off with volleys!"

After shouting, the Brigade Commander shoved the battalion commander violently and let go. "Hold them off for me! If the People's Party cavalry charges over and we can't hold them, we're all finished!"

Having received clear instructions, and with the two slaps effectively clearing his head, the battalion commander ran to his troops. With shouts and kicks, he drove his soldiers to the vicinity of the graveyard nearly two hundred meters away to start setting up a volley formation.

Having issued a command that was finally somewhat rational, the Brigade Commander's head also cleared a bit. He turned his head and shouted, "Orderlies! Hurry and tell the two regimental commanders to bring their troops over and set up positions here to hold. Tell them we are less than twenty *li* from Commander Wu. Commander Wu will be here to rescue us immediately!"

This was indeed a good order, though it was really a bit late. And not long after the order was issued, a slight buzzing sound was heard in the sky. The Brigade Commander couldn't help but shiver; this was the unique sound of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army's aircraft. The orderlies also froze in terror. The Brigade Commander kicked the nearest orderly. "Go send the orders! If you run slow now, we all die together!"

The Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army Air Force carried out their routine bombing, and this time the number of bombs dropped was even far fewer than in previous days. After all, bombing accuracy was not to be counted on. With the field troops of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army surrounding the Beiyang Army, it would be terrible if a careless drop hit their own comrades.

From the air, it was clear that the small black dots of the Beiyang Army on the ground were gradually concentrating towards the center, while further out, yellow-brown lines were moving slowly, firmly surrounding these Beiyang troops. At this moment, except for the direction of the Beiyang retreat, one red and two green signal flares rose from all the yellow-brown lines. This was the signal that the troops had reached their designated positions. The Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army's encirclement of the Beiyang Army was complete; the rest was a battle of annihilation.

Reconnaissance plane pilots began to return one after another. Flying an airplane in the sky was indeed a happy thing, but the flight time of these planes was extremely limited, and safety was not guaranteed. It was very likely that a flight went well one trip, and an accident would happen on the next. When the Air Force was a flight group, the group commander was lost. After expanding into an Air Force Division, three division commanders were lost. As an independent branch, the Air Force had also lost a commander-in-chief due to a plane explosion. These bloody lessons and accumulated experience had reduced the aircraft mid-air failure rate to below 20%. So these pilots, daring and unafraid of death, would absolutely not violate air combat regulations.

Intelligence from the Air Force and the Army had reached the commander of the 18th Army, who was responsible for the annihilation battle. The army commander finally breathed a sigh of relief. Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated. The only clear evaluation the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army had of the Beiyang Army so far was that they were "not good at" mobile warfare.

In the timeline Chen Ke originally came from, the reason mobile warfare was the PLA's specialty for dominating the world was that "movement" itself was an important part of combat. Whether it was the movement to the front line to engage the enemy, or the choice of troop marching. Including various movements by the enemy side, these were all contents of mobile warfare considerations. The Americans were awesome in their powerful industrial strength, whether it was strategic bombing, tactical bombing, or saturation fire attacks. Heavy artillery shaving mountains, bombs washing the ground. The purpose was nothing more than to weaken the enemy's mobility to the maximum extent, dismantle the enemy's defense system, and prepare for the final blow of victory. Even so, in Korea, they were still driven from the Yalu River back to the 38th Parallel by the Volunteers implementing mobile warfare.

The 18th Army Commander naturally couldn't know who his true "master" was, but he knew that the military education system created single-handedly by Chen Ke currently specialized in the study of movement theory. As a military commander cultivated by this education system, he could only command under this war concept. Even so, the Beiyang Army, maneuvered into a field state, was completely no match for the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army.

The Army Commander ordered his staff officers: "All units implement centripetal attacks. Since we've wrapped the enemy in a dumpling wrapper, let's eat the dumpling."

Hitting the enemy before they gain a firm foothold is the most basic tactic. If the Beiyang Army, upon discovering they were surrounded, immediately built positions for dear life, attempted to resist on the spot, and desperately contacted the Wu Peifu Field Group, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army could still resolve this brigade, but the price paid would be much higher. But this Brigade Commander had foolishly crashed headfirst into the net laid by the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. Struggling desperately from within this net was futile; the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army would absolutely not give them the chance.

Mu Husan had recently been transferred from a battalion commander in the troops to work in the Army Staff Department based on a transfer order. This was the only system the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army learned from the German General Staff. While issuing the Army Commander's orders with other staff officers, he ruminated on the development of the battle situation in his mind. In the guiding military concepts of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, what could be mentioned in the same breath as the "Sixteen Character Mantra" and "concentrate forces to fight a battle of annihilation" was "you fight yours, I fight mine." Mu Husan had originally been quite worried that the Beiyang Army would utilize their own advantages and choose the method of defending on the spot and resisting stubbornly. But the Beiyang Army followed the track of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army's mobile warfare, and the difficulty of the battle was greatly reduced.

Chen Ke had repeatedly emphasized that when tactics and equipment were already determined, the highest requirement for a commander was spiritual firmness.

Mu Husan still remembered the scene when he heard Chen Ke say these words. Chen Ke's attitude was high-spirited, his eyes shining. His left hand swept diagonally through the air, his voice filled with an irresistible focus. "What am I doing now? What *can* I do now? Only the most determined and excellent commanders can use the conditions they already possess to complete combat missions. Because this choice first requires the commander to seek truth from facts. A commander who seeks truth from facts will neither expect some assistance that is fundamentally impossible to appear, nor will he muddle-headedly follow orders just to get the job done. Any seeking truth from facts can only be established on one's own preparations and judgment of the current facts. Comrades, the only road to victory is to rely on oneself. Relying on oneself means facing countless hardships and sacrifices. Without proactively recognizing this, there can be no true firmness. I believe that in everyone's future revolutionary military career, you will inevitably encounter such instances countless times. I hope comrades can see this point from those experiences."

Looking at it now, the Beiyang commander was obviously unqualified. He gave up the optimal choice of holding fast on the spot, which he could have achieved at the moment, and driven by fear, chose the "possibility of escaping with his life." The possibility that the "possibility of escaping with his life" brought a "possibility of falling into an even worse situation" was completely ignored by this Beiyang commander. Then, this Beiyang officer led his subordinates into an even worse situation. "Those who die first have it easy; those who die later have it hard!" This old saying that Chen Ke often mentioned suddenly popped up in Mu Husan's mind.

However, Mu Husan did not let his thoughts expand infinitely on this tactical rumination. The battle had only just begun. Thinking that the outcome was already set now was not only not seeking truth from facts but could also lead to the result of the cooked duck flying away due to distraction. Mu Husan excluded all thoughts unrelated to the battle from his mind and began to focus on his staff work.

The brief distraction of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army Staff Officer Mu Husan might have delayed work by a tiny bit, but this bit of time didn't bring any opportunities to the Beiyang Brigade Commander. Not long after the signal flares rose, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army troops cutting off the Beiyang Army from the Wu Peifu Field Group switched from defense to offense. First, the artillery fire, which had paused for a while, resumed. Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army soldiers, dressed in camouflage and wearing straw hats over their helmets, began to attack under the cover of artillery shells.

They didn't implement a tide-like charge. Small units first began to clear out the Beiyang troops hiding in various ditches. The Beiyang soldiers who had originally hidden in the ditches trying to avoid the war were the first to be attacked. Grenades flew into the ditches with a *whoosh*. In the smoke and dust after the explosions, the Beiyang soldiers who weren't killed screamed miserably, their clothes tattered and bodies bloody. Some lucky guys scrambled out of the field ditches in panic. They didn't even want their guns anymore, just running for their lives towards the direction of the Beiyang Army. Bullets caught up with these guys easily from behind at several times their speed, knocking them down one by one.

The surrounded First Brigade of the Beiyang Fourth Army indeed proved that their ability to repel the Japanese in Rizhao was no empty fame. During the pause in the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army's attack, the Brigade Commander had done his best to arrange the troops into a hollow square formation. At least in the blocked retreat direction, and on the Beiyang Army's rear route, the Brigade Commander had mobilized a battalion of troops each to form a defensive line of about a thousand men on the road. These two battalions lined up in a rather standard "line infantry" manner. Soldiers either stood or crouched, seeking to maintain the density and continuity of firepower with a three-rank firing mode. Heavy machine guns were also placed in position in the line, anchoring the formation.

Other Beiyang troops also entered the military formation one after another, trying to join the ranks of the hollow square to put up a final resistance.

Seeing the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army troops pouncing over while chasing the routed Beiyang soldiers, the Brigade Commander shouted loudly, "Fire!"

"Brigade Commander, our brothers are still in front!" The battalion commander saw those survivors running towards the Beiyang line and couldn't help but say.

"By the time they run over, the People's Party will be here too! Crashing the formation is a capital offense anyway, start firing now!" The Brigade Commander didn't care about those few Beiyang lives at all; he shouted sternly.

The battalion commander naturally saw the People's Party following close behind. Gritting his teeth, he drew his saber with a *swish*, rushed to the troops, and roared, "Ready! Fire!"

The Beiyang Army had strict discipline. The battalion commander's order quickly reached the company commanders. The company commanders naturally also saw their Beiyang comrades running like rabbits, but the battalion commander had given the order. According to Beiyang military discipline, disobeying military orders was a capital offense. Disregarding the Beiyang soldiers getting closer and closer, the company commanders shouted one after another, "Fire!"

Dense gunfire rang out in the Beiyang array. First rifles, then the roar of machine guns. The fleeing Beiyang soldiers never expected their own people to open fire. Some clever ones who hadn't run straight for the front of the Beiyang formation saved their lives amidst the fierce shooting. Those who had lost their heads and ran straight for the front of the formation were caught off guard, all hit in the chest and killed.

Having cleared out these people between the Beiyang Army and the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, the soldiers of both sides were completely exposed to each other's muzzles. The Beiyang volley formation was well-trained; once shooting started, it wouldn't stop. The Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army's training in going prone was also a most basic tactical movement. Only a few Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army soldiers were hit and fell. Other soldiers instinctively dropped to the ground. Warriors with better cover immediately mounted their guns to fire, while soldiers on completely flat ground rolled sideways one after another, entering relatively better positions.

The Beiyang firepower seemed to suppress the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army for a moment. The Beiyang commanders felt this from the sound of gunfire. Some shallow-minded officers even showed smiles on their faces. But a moment later, the fierce gunfire that rang out wiped their smiles away completely, and they continued to shout orders to the Beiyang soldiers with even louder voices.

After both sides entered the close-range shootout phase, the battle stepped into an even more intense and cruel stage.