The characteristic of young comrades is that they are not stable enough and are prone to lacking comprehensive consideration when thinking about problems. As soon as Chai Qingguo's view of obtaining victory at any cost came out, someone thought it was better to avoid meaningless casualties as much as possible. Everyone's war experience was not rich. Chai Qingguo had experience in bloody fighting; when fighting against the Beiyang Army and foreign troops in Hebei, Chai Qingguo escaped with his life by relying on death-defying charges. The People's Revolutionary Army had fought dozens of battles so far, with total casualties not exceeding 200 people. Hearing about the kind of big battle Chai Qingguo proposed involving hundreds or thousands of casualties at every turn, everyone generally felt that the battle did not need to pay such a big price.

Chai Qingguo argued strongly on just grounds, while other comrades also had their own reasons. Comrades with relatively high military ranks like Hua Xiongmao and Zhang Yu were unwilling to speak rashly, so although Chai Qingguo was weak alone, he did not completely fall into a disadvantage.

"Attacking Anqing is definitely not attacking a fort. Since we want a quick decision, there must be heavy casualties." Chai Qingguo knew what fighting a big battle was really about. After joining the People's Party, the intensity of battle was far less than fighting against the Beiyang Army in Hebei and Shandong back then. But in terms of scale, Chai Qingguo's horizon was more than a little bit higher than the comrades of the Military Commission.

"Then we have to prepare more thoroughly. What if we can't take Anqing for a while? Quick decision requires being able to win," He Zudao was not deliberately singing a different tune from Chai Qingguo, but according to what Chai Qingguo said, troops charging forward against the enemy's hail of bullets... He Zudao shuddered just thinking about those casualties.

"The Anqing New Army is not the landlords in the forts; their equipment and troop strength are definitely not like that." Chai Qingguo's face was already very gloomy. He couldn't help recalling the appearance of confronting thousands of Beiyang Army and foreign devils head-on in Hebei and Shandong back then. The Beiyang Army and foreign devils lined up neatly; no matter how the brothers provoked, the enemy could still maintain their discipline. It wasn't until the uprising army launched an attack on the enemy and entered the enemy's range that shells and bullets swept towards the brothers of the uprising army like splashing water.

Thinking of this, Chai Qingguo felt the hair on his body instinctively start to stand up. At that time, Chai Qingguo led the cavalry team to charge; he even rode a horse charging at the very front. Brothers on the left and right were shot and fell off their horses one by one; those short screams were instantly drowned out by the rumbling gunfire and hoofbeats. Before the battle, everyone prayed to gods and immortals, pasted the obtained charms on their chests, and drank charm water. But these things failed to protect the brothers. After one charge, the brothers of the cavalry unit suffered nearly half casualties. Chai Qingguo found that only a very few brothers were still charging with him, while the enemy opposite had formed a formation with bayonets. The bright bayonets dazzled the horses' eyes, and the horses instinctively reared up one after another. And the enemy infantry had already rushed up with bayonets, starting to stab at the very few cavalrymen. And the brothers tried hard to control the horses while struggling to fight the enemy with the weapons in their hands.

How exactly did he survive from there? For several years, Chai Qingguo had always wondered; regarding how he escaped from the endless enemy in front of him, Chai Qingguo actually had no impression at all. What he could remember was that he didn't know how long he fought, and he was retreating with other infantry brothers covered in blood. As for what exactly happened to the cavalry brothers who were with him that day in the end, he couldn't remember no matter what. That day, of the more than five hundred cavalry brothers, only Chai Qingguo was left in the end.

Every time he recalled these again, Chai Qingguo would always be subconsciously absent-minded for a short time, as if a powerful thing forcibly deprived Chai Qingguo of his consciousness. When he came to his senses, he saw He Zudao's mouth opening and closing, presumably saying something. But he couldn't hear any sound at all, just like watching a comical shadow play.

"Old Chai, what's wrong with you?" As his wrist was pulled, Chai Qingguo's hearing suddenly returned to normal. Turning his head, he saw Hua Xiongmao looking at him in surprise and holding his hand. Chai Qingguo swallowed with difficulty. "Nothing, I just remembered some things from the past." After speaking, he sat back on the bench almost collapsed.

"...I think it's better for us to use small troops to probe." He Zudao finally finished his speech. Quite a few comrades looked at He Zudao with approving eyes. Some stared at the greatly abnormal Chai Qingguo with doubtful eyes.

At this time, they heard Chen Ke say: "Comrade Hua Xiongmao, how many troops can we dispatch?"

Hua Xiongmao hesitated slightly before answering this question. "This... at most no more than five thousand people. If we want to send those with relatively guaranteed combat effectiveness, that's only three thousand people."

"Comrade Pu Guanshui, how many troops are there in Anqing now?"

"There is a Mixed Brigade [Huncheng Xie] in Anqing now, with actual troops not exceeding 3500. Attached are a cavalry regiment [biao] and an artillery regiment, an engineering battalion, a transport battalion, and a military band. Each Infantry Brigade [Xie] commands two Infantry Regiments; each Regiment commands three Battalions [Ying]; each Battalion commands three Companies [Dui]; each Company commands three Platoons [Pai]; each Platoon commands three Squads [Peng]. The most basic unit, a Squad, has about 14 soldiers. The attached Cavalry Regiment commands three Battalions; each Battalion commands Front, Rear, Left, and Right four Companies; each Company two Platoons; each Platoon two Squads. The attached Artillery Regiment commands three Battalions; each Battalion commands Left, Middle, and Right three Companies. The organization below Company is the same as Infantry. Engineering and Transport Battalions have the same organization as Cavalry below Battalion level. By the late Qing, the New Army also added Machine Cannon Troops (Heavy Machine Guns) within the Infantry Regiment..." Pu Guanshui introduced the data to everyone in detail.

The members of the Military Commission had actually seen these materials, but in the past, everyone was busy with immediate affairs; where was the time to consider so much? Military and official duties were so busy that everyone just wanted to fall asleep after finishing work. Attacking Anqing was too far away for the comrades. Now that the strengths of both sides were listed as numbers—5000 Worker-Peasant Revolutionary Army versus these 3500 Anhui New Army soldiers—everyone suddenly found that the troop strength was about the same. But the New Army's equipment was very excellent, occupying a great advantage. The comrades of the Military Commission couldn't help but fall silent; this gap in strength far exceeded everyone's imagination.

Suddenly, the discussion just now seemed meaningless. Attacking Anqing was to gnaw a hard bone. The enemy's strength was strong enough, while the People's Party's power was not as strong as everyone intuitively felt.

Chen Ke understood everyone's thoughts very well. He said to the temporarily silent crowd: "Comrades, if we consider the entire 11,000 troops of the People's Revolutionary Army and fight on interior lines in the base area, we can consider that we can still win. Now we are running to Anqing to fight, which is exterior line operations. The difficulty is much greater."

"Then can we wait for the enemy to divide their forces and come over, and we defeat them one by one?" Hua Xiongmao put forward his suggestion.

Chen Ke answered extremely crisply: "No. The base area is still very unstable now. The basis for ensuring stability is that we have an overwhelming advantage over the surrounding enemies. No one dares to jump out and make trouble. If we let the enemy fight in, the trust of the common people in us, which was formed with difficulty, will immediately be chaotic. Even if we win, and even counterattack to take Anqing, there will be many future troubles. So this battle is a political battle."

"Then we can fight towards the direction of Anqing first, take Luzhou Prefecture in the south, and then compete with the New Army in Luzhou Prefecture. The enemy can't enter our base area no matter what; what does everyone think?" Hua Xiongmao still hoped to be more prudent.

"Now is the time when the strength gap between us and the New Army is the smallest. Because the Manchu Qing has not mobilized yet. Don't just think about Anqing Prefecture; once a see-saw battle is formed, the Manchu Qing will mobilize military forces to exterminate us. With the base area so unstable, it can't stand the tossing. If another five thousand Hubei New Army come, our numerical advantage will also vanish in puff of smoke. Moreover, once the war starts and both sides have casualties, how do you think the morale of the troops will be? Will anyone enlist enthusiastically? And how is the combat effectiveness of the new troops compared to what we have now? Definitely incomparable. Now the troops have won consecutive victories, and morale is still high. They can fight a big battle. If morale drops and we encounter setbacks, I am not optimistic."

Chen Ke did not overestimate the troops at all.

Unknowingly, the discussion changed from how to attack Anqing to whether to attack Anqing.

Hua Xiongmao didn't want to dampen the morale of the Military Commission comrades, but he indeed couldn't make such a big decision. Although he had discussed the combat effectiveness of the New Army with Pu Guanshui privately many times, Hua Xiongmao still couldn't help asking: "Comrade Pu Guanshui, if the troops and the New Army fight openly now, what do you think?"

Hearing this question, everyone's eyes fell on Pu Guanshui. Pu Guanshui had considered this question long ago. He thought over and over and squeezed out a sentence with difficulty: "Under equal troop strength, I'm afraid it won't work."

Except for a few people with self-restraint like Yan Fu, everyone showed disappointment on their faces. Everyone then turned their eyes to Chen Ke.

Chen Ke knew he must persuade the comrades; the battle of Anqing must be fought. This was the last opportunity for the strategic initiative to be temporarily in the hands of the People's Party.

"If we fight openly, we are just letting the New Army fight on the battlefield they are good at. Strategic design is to make the enemy unable to exert combat effectiveness. The advantage of our troops now lies in high morale. Morale is built on the basis of a series of victories. If we let the New Army fight in the range they are good at, a series of failures can only lead to comprehensive low morale. At that time, we can't fight even more. The New Army is good at formations, while in urban combat, the pattern is intricate and complex. Troops often don't have time to line up and shoot. At this time, a spear might be more effective than a rifle. Moreover, we specially trained grenadiers. We have advantages targeting street fighting."

Although Chen Ke listed so many favorable points, it still didn't have an immediate effect. The comrades' mood was still not high. "If we fail, at least we can still fight the enemy in the base area. If we are killed by the enemy coming over here, then we won't even have the chance to start over. Moreover, although we are inferior to the enemy in weapons and equipment, we have political advantages. Of the New Army soldiers brought by Comrade Pu Guanshui this time, more than half joined our team. Everyone became soldiers to make a living, so that the family could live better. But after the flood, everyone has seen personally what the homes of these New Army soldiers look like. Equally horrible to look at. Do you think the morale of the New Army soldiers in Anqing City will be high? Will they sincerely sell their lives for those Manchu Qing official lords?"

"I agree with Chairman Chen Ke's view." Pu Guanshui said, "Although the Anqing New Army is better trained, their morale is far inferior to ours. If I send people to lobby the New Army, there should be good results."

Pu Guanshui finally agreed to play the role of an insider; the Military Commission comrades felt a burst of relief in their hearts.

Chen Ke looked at Pu Guanshui with satisfaction and continued: "The tactics of the Manchu Qing are still backward; because there is no core to condense morale. When foreigners defeated the Manchu Qing army, it was always a breakthrough at one point, and then the Manchu Qing troops collapsed completely. In our attack on Anqing this time, although the enemy has a solid city to rely on, this is their psychological weakness. As long as this psychological reliance is broken, the Manchu Qing army will immediately collapse in a chain reaction. Moreover, our side is the attacking side; first of all, we occupy an advantage in morale. As long as we can breach the city defense, our morale will definitely be greatly boosted. As this wanes and that waxes, Anqing is not that difficult to conquer."

Encouraged by Chen Ke like this, the young comrades' faces lit up. Yes, the battles these days were all about the enemy collapsing immediately after one point was breached. Although the core forces of the enemy were still resisting stubbornly, once the organized large-scale resistance ended, the troops were immediately liberated from heavy pressure. Those enemies fleeing everywhere posed no threat at all; the People's Party troops seemed to occupy a comprehensive advantage in troops and firepower instantly.

"Chairman Chen, do you think this battle must be fought strategically?" Yan Fu finally opened his mouth to ask.

"Yes," the discussion made Chen Ke's train of thought active. Many problems that he originally only focused on details, he now suddenly figured out from a higher level. "We now possess strategic initiative. That is to say, we can choose our own strategic direction, and the enemy poses no threat to us for the time being."

Mentioning strategic initiative, Chen Ke's thinking suddenly became clear. "Just like when we were in Fengtai County at the beginning, because the flood isolated news, the enemy didn't know what happened in Fengtai County at all. So no matter what we did, we could completely ignore the existence of the enemy. At this time, we built the Water Detachment, transported materials, and mobilized troops. Suppressing landlords, we could do whatever we wanted. All initiative and right of choice were in our own hands. This is strategic initiative. If the enemy in Shouzhou exerted a little pressure on us at that time, even if just making a gesture, we would have to consider the enemy in Shouzhou in every consideration. In that case, would we dare to mobilize troops arbitrarily? Moreover, in this mentality, we always have to prioritize the enemy in Shouzhou close at hand. How uncomfortable would that be?"

This metaphor made these old comrades understand completely. It was precisely because everyone didn't have to consider what the enemy would do at all and mastered complete freedom of action that revolutionary work could be so smooth. Hearing this, quite a few comrades who originally felt the situation was critical and thus had dry mouths suddenly felt saliva appearing in their mouths again. So much so that several people's Adam's apples moved, swallowing saliva back into their stomachs.

Chen Ke pretended not to see and continued: "The reason why we can consider that as long as we take Anqing, we will still have strategic initiative in northern Anhui for the next year is based on the fact that we still possess strategic initiative and freedom of action. We can actively choose the direction of attack. This is still built on the advantage of strategic initiative. If we don't attack Anqing now, when the enemy recovers and has freedom of action, then we will have to use a lot of strength to guard against the direction where the enemy might launch an attack. We can say now that the enemy is in Anqing. When the enemy in Anqing acts freely, will we be able to know where the enemy is then?"

Yan Fu nodded. "Then what exactly are our strategic advantages?"

"First, high morale. After we conquered the flood, the morale of the troops is far higher than the New Army officers and soldiers hiding in Anqing watching disaster victims all day. Second, political advantage. Many New Army soldiers joined our team; we can send these New Army soldiers to mix into the New Army team before the war and let them persuade the New Army soldiers. Don't be hostile to us. This can also effectively disintegrate the New Army's mood to fight us to the death. Third, the suddenness of the campaign. Although the enemy knows some of our situation, they don't know enough. Our side suddenly launched the campaign; from a strategic point of view, it has caught the enemy off guard, unable to make targeted deployments. The original equipment advantage is also greatly discounted. From these perspectives, strategically we still possess the initiative. This is when the gap between our power and the Anqing enemy's power is smallest."

Yan Fu was proficient in military affairs. Although he didn't agree so much with the political advantage, he still understood and accepted the purely military explanation. "Then what about tactics? Where is our advantage?"

"The New Army trains more in field battles. All our recent battles have been siege battles. The training and actual combat levels of both sides differ greatly. The reason why comrades are worried that it is difficult to conquer Anqing is precisely because everyone has experience and can truly understand the key points of siege warfare. This is our biggest advantage. We know how to attack a city, but the enemy is not familiar with how to defend a city. Moreover, I also said that the Manchu Qing troops are defending comprehensively, so it is very easy to break through at one point and collapse across the whole line. Our troops are divided into multiple routes, fighting on various battlefields, so we can form multiple siege teams. The enemy cannot attend to head and tail; problems will definitely arise. As for weapons, we have developed some special weapons for siege, explosive packs, hand grenades. And we have had practical experience. The New Army in Anqing focuses on traditional rifle shooting, which is not suitable for the characteristics of street fighting. This is another advantage of ours."

This time not only Yan Fu, but other comrades could also understand. regarding the advantages analyzed by Chen Ke, everyone still agreed very much.

"The only problem lies in that comrades haven't experienced such a big battle array, and are used to strategic initiative, feeling we always have various choices. In fact, there are few strategic choices to begin with. To maintain strategic initiative, there are even fewer choices. Attacking Anqing is the only choice to guarantee our strategic initiative for the next year. We must fight." Chen Ke said categorically.

Looking at the comrades with mixed joy and worry, Chen Ke said loudly: "Everyone came to revolutionize together, hoping to see the success of the revolution. The current situation is like this; if we don't break Anqing, the enemy's strength is far greater than ours. Pressing over step by step, we can't hold up. Only by conquering Anqing do we have the chance to continue the revolution. We People's Party members have all sworn in front of the party flag that for the liberation of the Chinese common people, we absolutely don't care about bloodshed and sacrifice. Now the time for bloodshed and sacrifice has come. I can't say I will be the first to lead the team to rush forward, but in battle, if the troops really encounter a hard bone they can't gnaw down, I will personally lead everyone up."

Hearing this, Hua Xiongmao stood up abruptly, his face full of excitement: "Chairman Chen, how can we let you go up? I will lead the troops up first; it will be your turn only after I die."

"Ha," Chai Qingguo couldn't help laughing out loud. He stood up proudly, glanced slightly contemptuously at those comrades who hoped to reduce troop casualties just now, and then said loudly: "After all is said and done, we still have to fight hard. In Hebei, I fought my way out against the Beiyang New Army with real swords and guns. I guaranteed Big Brother Wu Xingchen long ago, and I also told Chairman Chen Ke, fighting hard battles, I, Chai Qingguo, will absolutely not be a coward. Let me lead the team for this siege; I don't believe how tough these whelps of the New Army can be."

Just now He Zudao hoped to reduce casualties. Hearing Chai Qingguo's arrogant statement, he also couldn't help standing up. His young face was full of indignation after being looked down upon. "Fighting also needs to be scientific; when casualties can be reduced, no one is willing to have more people die. But since we can only fight, then fight. We political commissars are responsible for political work; at this time, we political commissars will absolutely not hide behind either."

Everyone in the Military Commission was young. They had heard the principles they should hear, and several main leaders had expressed their attitudes. Everyone knew that this battle must be fought. If they had other opinions, they could only be considered cowards. These people were soldiers who had fought on the front line. Under a series of victories, everyone was actually like newborn calves. Being provoked by the mockery in and out of words, everyone's temper also rose. The Military Commission members, including Zhang Yu, stood up one after another to express that they would absolutely not be cowards.

At this time, only Yan Fu and Shang Yuan were still sitting upright. But they saw Shang Yuan slowly stand up and take out a dagger from his waist. Then he grabbed his queue, and with not fast but very powerful movements, cut the queue off from the root. Under the stunned gazes of everyone, Shang Yuan threw the cut queue on the table. "I request to participate in this battle."

These simple words surpassed everyone's thousand words. Shang Yuan, this civil official, had expressed his attitude; saying anything more at this point would seem hollow. The comrades attending the Military Commission meeting looked at each other; everyone's face was full of impulse, and everyone's face was full of fortitude. Chen Ke asked everyone to sit down and then began to explain his tactical ideas.