The news that the People's Revolutionary Army was going to attack Anqing City was first known by the Anqing New Army in the city. More than half of this credit should go to the lobbying and linking of the Yuewang Society in the New Army. Another small half should go to the hard activities of the party members sent by the People's Party. Before En Ming confirmed that an unknown armed force was attacking Anqing, at least one-sixth of the ordinary New Army officers and soldiers had learned that "it is possible that a revolutionary party called the People's Party wants to attack Anqing."

What was laughable was that although so many New Army officers and soldiers knew this news, the supreme commander of the Anqing New Army, Yu Dahong, the Commander of the 31st Mixed Brigade of the Qing Army Ministry, knew nothing about it. When the bewildered Yu Dahong arrived at the Anhui Governor's Yamen, he saw the Governor's Yamen was already heavily guarded. Entering the living room, he immediately saw Governor En Ming pacing back and forth in the room like an ant on a hot pan.

As soon as he saw Yu Dahong enter, En Ming immediately approached Yu Dahong and asked menacingly: "Commander Yu, who exactly are the rebels outside? How many troops and horses did they bring?"

Yu Dahong had also just learned the news; he knew nothing about the situation outside the city. However, saying "I don't know" straightforwardly to the Governor at this time carried considerable risk. Yu Dahong gave a common answer in officialdom: "My Lord, we are investigating the news now; someone will come to report in a while."

En Ming was really panicked at this time; he actually took Yu Dahong's evasive words as true. "Commander Yu, how long will it take to get a report?"

Hearing this, New Army Commander Yu Dahong cursed secretly in his heart: "How the hell should I know such things. If you have this leisure time, let me go see what's going on quickly!" Although cursing in his heart, Yu Dahong still had to speak pleasantly to the Anhui Governor: "My Lord, I will return to the barracks now and send someone to protect the Governor's Yamen immediately."

Hearing Yu Dahong say this, En Ming immediately added: "The Provincial Administration Commissioner's Yamen and the Gunpowder Depot must all be guarded tightly to strictly prevent thieves from making trouble."

What En Ming said was all told to him by Yu Dahong before. At that time, En Ming had not been in office for long and was still willing to ask for advice. When he discussed with Yu Dahong how to suppress various disturbances, Yu Dahong told En Ming these basic points. Yu Dahong was very self-restrained; listening to En Ming's words, he answered with a very approving look on his face: "Yes, sir." As if this were En Ming's own original idea.

Seeing Yu Dahong express his attitude like this, En Ming also felt it was inappropriate to keep Yu Dahong here. He hurriedly said: "Then Commander Yu, go quickly."

As soon as he left the Anhui Governor's Yamen, he saw several officers and soldiers waiting at the gate, who turned out to be Yu Dahong's adjutant. Yu Dahong had just ordered him to inquire about the news; he didn't expect him to return so quickly.

The adjutant immediately stepped forward to report: "My Lord, the thieves have blocked the Zongyang Gate in the east of the city; they probably captured Yingjiang Temple. There are movements of thief soldiers at Jinbao Gate, Yuhong Gate, and Tong'an Gate in the west of the city. There is no movement at Jixian Gate in the north of the city."

"Where are these thieves from?" Yu Dahong cared more about this.

"This subordinate has not found out clearly yet. However, this subordinate heard the thieves making noise under the city wall; it sounded like Northern Anhui accent."

"Northern Anhui?" Yu Dahong was somewhat confused. Anhui could actually be divided into three parts: Northern Anhui, Western Anhui, and Southern Anhui. The folk customs and accents of these three places could be said to be completely different, and there was not much communication between them. Learning that the thieves under the city were from Northern Anhui, Yu Dahong was even more puzzled; how did thieves from Northern Anhui fight their way to Anqing?

But the most important thing now was not to figure out where the thieves came from. Yu Dahong said: "Go back immediately now, assign the New Army."

The troops of the Worker-Peasant Revolutionary Army were fighting on the front line, while the headquarters located one kilometer behind the East Gate troops seemed quite idle. Now there was neither telephone nor telegraph. Information transmission relied entirely on signal troops. Even though the People's Party used lamp signals, the communication speed was far from that fast. Those non-combatant party members, such as Chen Tianhua and Shang Yuan, had all been enriched to the front line. Besides Chen Ke and Tao Chengzhang, only a dozen combat staff officers and communication staff officers remained in the headquarters. Although they were called staff officers, they were actually doing practical work.

Tao Chengzhang asked: "Brother Wen Qing, what do you plan to do next? Just wait until dawn like this?"

Chen Ke said with a solemn face: "I actually hope that New Army Commander Yu Dahong in the city thinks so."

With a *pfft* sound, Tao Chengzhang was amused. The guard glared at Tao Chengzhang with dissatisfied eyes; the atmosphere in the entire headquarters was solemn, and Tao Chengzhang's laugh was a bit too abrupt.

If according to the plan, from now until 3 a.m., the Revolutionary Army must bury explosives at the breach point. Detonate at 4 o'clock, then the troops swarm in from the breach. Part of the troops will force back the enemies on the city wall, and the main force will attack several most important departments in the city. It was now 9:30 p.m., which meant that within the remaining five and a half hours, the demolition team must finish installing the explosives. To cooperate with the demolition team's work, the troops on the east and west sides also had to constantly harass the enemy and attract the enemy's forces. In this time period, if the enemy could shrink inside the city and not come out, that would be best. But fighting a war is never a matter of wishful thinking; Chen Ke dared not make such naive plans.

Tao Chengzhang originally came to learn military affairs too. He asked: "Brother Wen Qing, according to what you said, the number of troops is insufficient, and so many city gates have to be defended; how to allocate forces?"

Chen Ke also wanted to let Tao Chengzhang increase some military knowledge. After all, Anqing would rely on the Yuewang Society and Guangfuhui to maintain it in the future. If they collapsed at the first blow under the siege of the Manchu Qing, it wouldn't be a good thing for the People's Party either. So Chen Ke simply explained: "At night, we use the method of burying landmines and equipping small groups of troops for blocking. Make the enemy unable to distinguish how many troops are outside, and dare not rush out from the main gate."

While speaking, a muffled explosion sound came from the distance, followed by a series of gunshots. It came from the north. Chen Ke knew that was the sound of the base area's landmines exploding. In order for the plan to attack Anqing to succeed, the troops specially carried bounding mines [jumping mines] which could be described as "frenzied" in this era.

The troops ambushing at the North Gate had only four platoons, less than 60 people in total. Shang Yuan volunteered to join this unit. Shang Yuan still remembered Chen Ke saying earnestly: "Comrade Shang Yuan, weapons are not the only condition determining the victory or defeat of war. Since you are going to work in Hebei in the future, you will inevitably face the superior Beiyang Army. If you have the wrong idea of weapon determinism [theory of weapons alone], it is absolutely harmful."

Shang Yuan didn't quite understand what exactly Chen Ke meant by this cliché at first. He followed the troops in the dark to set up a minefield outside the North Gate of Anqing, and then withdrew to prepare a sniper position. Not long after, as the city gate opened wide, a team of seventy or eighty Qing soldiers ran out of the North Gate holding torches. Not long after, they entered the minefield and triggered the tripwire. Then a small flame spurted from the ground first. Shang Yuan's eyesight wasn't too good; he didn't see something being pushed into mid-air by gunpowder. That was the explosive body of the mine. What Shang Yuan could see was a sudden flash appearing in the Qing army team, followed by a loud noise. The sphere that jumped three or four feet above the ground exploded violently. When the hard ceramic sphere was fired, positions for inserting iron pieces were specially left on the outside. Accompanied by the blast wave, metal and non-metal fragments flew everywhere in the air. Either piercing deep into the human body, or slicing off a large piece of flesh, or simply penetrating the human body.

How could the Qing army expect to encounter such an attack? One bounding mine blew over a dozen people. The killed ones were quiet, and the living ones were scared silly. Some lucky Qing soldiers were temporarily uninjured; they were first scared out of their wits, and then ran around like headless flies. As a result, they triggered another bounding mine. After the loud noise, the troops immediately began to shoot. Knocking down the Qing soldiers who could still stand one by one.

Under such a sudden fierce blow, this team of seventy or eighty Qing soldiers suffered heavy casualties. Shang Yuan saw that at most twenty or so Qing soldiers could run back. The Worker-Peasant Revolutionary Army unit of less than 60 people, combined with two bounding mines and a burst of shooting, solved fifty enemies. Such a combat achievement made Shang Yuan feel very shocked. Shang Yuan's first thought was: if the battle continues like this, the Qing army is nothing at all. But Shang Yuan was not an ordinary soldier after all; Chen Ke's words before the battle, which could be described as "inexplicable," were immediately recalled by Shang Yuan. Chen Ke's attitude of opposing "weapon determinism" was by no means pretending to be profound; Shang Yuan understood Chen Ke's good intentions very well. After arriving in Hebei, it would be impossible to have an arsenal of the current scale of the base area, nor would it be possible to get a large amount of weapon support. Chen Ke was afraid Shang Yuan would be confused by the huge power of weapons.

The soldiers of the troops didn't think as much as Shang Yuan. Seeing so many enemies solved in one go, everyone cheered. The commander of the unit was a political commissar named Xu Licheng. He quickly ordered the soldiers of the unit to quickly clean up the battlefield. The weapons carried by the Qing troops coming out of Anqing City definitely had bullets. The North Gate unit was considered to have few people and heavy tasks, so those dispatched were all elites. Chen Ke specially chose soldiers who had used the Anhui New Army's new-style rifles. Only half of the people in the unit had guns. As long as everyone quickly collected weapons from the eliminated Qing troops, the small unit could achieve having a gun for everyone, and the combat effectiveness would double immediately. The commissar's order to clean up the battlefield quickly was implemented immediately. Through the safe passage in the minefield, the soldiers quickly collected a batch of weapons back. For the seriously injured Qing troops, the commissar's order was "let them wait for death themselves." A few lightly injured Qing troops were picked out and brought back for interrogation.

Just such a small battle, and the troops immediately had a gun for everyone. And they were high-quality weapons used by the New Army. Everyone was overjoyed. While checking weapons and distributing ammunition, everyone shouted and made noise, creating a false impression of having many people and great power. After simple bandaging, the captives were interrogated. The captives were just some ordinary soldiers and didn't know any news. They had no value to be sent to the headquarters. After tying them up and gagging them, the unit, now with a gun for everyone, immediately adjusted the position deployment, ready to welcome more intense battles.

"Ambush outside the North Gate?" Yu Dahong was stunned by this news. Facing the "thieves" of completely unknown origin, Yu Dahong originally thought the other party was just a mob. In his view, dealing with this mob, just one charge could solve the problem. The thieves at the East Gate looked numerous and powerful; he was afraid they couldn't be broken through temporarily in the dark night. So Yu Dahong let the officers and soldiers at the West Gate rush out to try. Seeing no thieves at the North Gate temporarily, he specially chose an elite force, letting them go out from the North Gate and circle to the west of the city to strike the flank of the thief soldiers. Unexpectedly, a team of 80 people rushed out, and in a moment, more than half were killed. There were also seven or eight wounded among the New Army soldiers who fled back for their lives. Equivalent to a "Peng" [Squad/Platoon-sized unit? Context implies bigger, ~14 men per Peng, so 80 is ~6 Pengs. Text says "One 'Peng' unit basically completely accounted for"? No, 80 men is much more than a Peng. Maybe he means a larger unit or the text uses Peng loosely. Actually "One 'Pai' (Platoon)" is ~3 Pengs (~42 men). 80 men is almost a Dui (Company). Let's assume he means a significant chunk]. Just started fighting, and he lost soldiers and generals; how to fight this battle further?

Just at this time, news also came from the West Gate. Thieves hid in the shadows and fired guns continuously. The New Army went out with torches and suffered heavy casualties. "We can only wait for daylight," Yu Dahong thought helplessly. He immediately ordered not to go out again temporarily; the New Army began to step up patrols on the city wall.

"The Anqing city of 1907 was built by Zeng Guofan. The area inside the city is about 3.65 square kilometers. This kilometer is a foreign unit of length. The Anqing New Army inside the city can send at most no more than 2000 people up the city wall. On average, one person has to guard a width of 2.5 meters. About one *zhang* in length. If defended like this, it's just a military joke. City defense is always key point defense and dense patrolling. If we launch a column attack, such defense is like paper, broken with one poke." Chen Ke explained to Tao Chengzhang in detail.

"Column attack?" Tao Chengzhang asked. He was not ignorant of kilometers and meters; Tao Chengzhang once bought an official title to seek to study in a Japanese military academy and had crammed some knowledge. But he had never heard of the term "column attack."

Chen Ke really wanted Tao Chengzhang to understand the key points of attacking and defending cities. Although Chen Ke was not an expert in this field, the Worker-Peasant Revolutionary Army had rich experience in attacking cities, and military summary meetings were the focus in the troops. From officers to soldiers, everyone had to participate in summarizing, inducing and refining various methods. As a transmigrator, Chen Ke's biggest advantage lay in knowing quite a few superficial theories. The combination of the large amount of actual combat experience accumulated by the troops in besieging forts and the superficial theories provided by Chen Ke produced explosive effective results. The Worker-Peasant Revolutionary Army had actually established its own complete set of theoretical and practical systems for attacking cities.

"Column attack is not one following another. But a column with a small team as a unit." Chen Ke said while arranging a pattern on the map with a few pencils and paperweights. "The characteristic of column attack is breaking through at one point, and then rapidly penetrating deep into the interior of the enemy's position deployment. Cut off the enemy's liaison, divide and eliminate them. Its core point is about control. We don't seek to overwhelm the enemy comprehensively, but all enemies on our attack route must be completely overwhelmed and eliminated..."

Tao Chengzhang listened with rapt attention like a primary school student. What Chen Ke explained was very useful knowledge, using simple language to explain profound things, easy to understand. Tao Chengzhang had traveled north and south and seen the world. He was also very interested in military affairs. Hearing Chen Ke's explanation, he immediately felt enlightened.

At the same time, in the northeast of Anqing City, a team had secretly crossed the moat. A rope was secretly lowered from the city wall, and a black shadow fell along the rope. After the people from both sides met, the comrade who came down from the city briefly introduced the situation. The New Army guarding here were insiders of the People's Party. The Yuewang Society recruiting comrades in the New Army with great fanfare had long been seen clearly by the comrades ambushed inside by the People's Party. The New Army defending this section of the city wall happened to be the section jointly responsible by the insiders of the People's Party and the Yuewang Society.

The demolition team confirmed the news and immediately began to work cautiously. The comrade responsible for being the insider returned to the city wall with the comrade arranged by the demolition team to keep watch. Fan Chuanjia of the Yuewang Society sized up the Worker-Peasant Revolutionary Army soldier with suspicious eyes. He saw this soldier had short hair but wore a New Army uniform, looking clean and agile in behavior. Fan Chuanjia asked: "Exactly how many people did you bring?"

The Worker-Peasant Revolutionary Army soldier was a backbone of the reconnaissance troops. He laughed in a low voice: "Didn't Mr. Bai Wenwei explain clearly to you?"

Hearing the name Bai Wenwei, Fan Chuanjia felt relieved for no reason. Bai Wenwei was the actual controller of the Yuewang Society and reached the agreement with the People's Party personally. Since the other party said so, he should be a trustworthy person. Fan Chuanjia wanted to continue asking, but the scout skillfully hinted to Fan Chuanjia that it was better not to attract too much attention now and prepare for the demolition quickly.

Although unhappy in his heart, Fan Chuanjia could only cooperate with the People's Party now. The demolition point was determined like this.

The night grew deeper, and the time soon passed 12 o'clock. Except for the harassing fire of the People's Party ringing out everywhere, substantive combat had temporarily ceased.