Chen Ke looked at a pile of mechanical equipment in the workshop of the Anqing Inner Arsenal and rarely fell into a nostalgic feeling. It must be said that these steam-powered devices were quite different from electric machine tools. There was a weird feeling in both volume and power system. But this was a relatively complete factory system after all. Chen Ke himself grew up in the family compound of a machinery factory, and his father was on the railway. Since childhood, he had a very familiar feeling with these steel guys.

But this emotion didn't last too long. How exactly to transport these mechanical devices back to the base area was a very difficult thing for Chen Ke. With a glance, he knew that at least one-third of the large pieces could not be transported at all, and another one-third of the equipment was difficult to transport. The large fleet had almost gone; even if local ships were requisitioned, how much could be transported was a big problem.

Chen Ke wandered around the factory without saying a word. The accompanying guards and Tao Chengzhang didn't know what Chen Ke was thinking. They dared not interrupt Chen Ke's train of thought, so they had to wander around with Chen Ke. Just then, a messenger ran in. "Report."

"What is it?" Chen Ke's train of thought switched back to the route of the troop commander-in-chief instantly.

"Chairman Chen, Brigade Commander Chai requests to drag cannons into the city and use cannons to bombard the New Army camp." The messenger had a strange look on his face when reporting.

"What happened on the front line?" Chen Ke asked straightforwardly. This siege battle had proceeded to the end now. Once the battle ended, a city-wide search and arrest would follow. If it weren't a special problem, Chai Qingguo would absolutely not request to fire cannons.

The look on the messenger's face became more embarrassed, but facing Chen Ke, the messenger really didn't have the courage to tell lies. He straightened his back and said: "The troops attacked the Anhui New Army's military camp but didn't take it down for a while." After speaking, the messenger couldn't help adding a sentence: "The troops have done their best; the assault team suffered heavy casualties."

Chen Ke was not angry. "Everyone didn't attack hard regardless of life or death, right?"

"No!" The messenger answered immediately.

"Very good, take me to the frontline headquarters now."

The frontline headquarters was less than two li away from the general headquarters set up in the Anqing Inner Arsenal. Commanders of the three detachments were all here. It was a temporarily requisitioned restaurant; the military hospital was set up in two inns across the street. Marching cauldrons had been set up on the street; white cloth was boiled in boiling hot water. Military doctors and medics were helping the wounded upstairs. Gunshots had also temporarily stopped; if Chen Ke didn't know the situation, he would even suspect the battle had ended.

In the lobby of the restaurant, Hua Xiongmao, Chai Qingguo, Zhang Yu, Yan Fu, Pu Guanshui, He Zudao, Li Zhao, and other senior cadres were all there. Everyone was arguing about whether to climb the roof or use cannons to bombard.

"Those sons of bitches set up gunners on the roof too. More than a dozen soldiers have died, and more than a dozen wounded. It won't do without using cannons." Chai Qingguo's voice was extremely loud; it could be heard that he was in a state of extreme anger.

"Your cannon shot will finish the machine guns." Hua Xiongmao's voice was not that loud.

"Are machine guns more important than lives?" Chai Qingguo simply disagreed with Hua Xiongmao's opinion.

regarding Chai Qingguo's accusation, Hua Xiongmao was also arguing strongly on just grounds: "You can't just look at the present; with machine guns, how many fewer people will die in the future?"

Chen Ke could hear that Hua Xiongmao didn't have much confidence when saying this. Indeed, exchanging human lives for equipment was inhumane no matter how you said it.

What surprised Chen Ke very much was that Chai Qingguo actually didn't continue to oppose this opinion. He just shouted chaotically: "But we can't wait forever. Wait until when? Wait until they finish firing the machine gun bullets?"

Just at this time, everyone saw Chen Ke had arrived at the door. Everyone immediately went up to welcome him. Hua Xiongmao walked at the very front; he had some embarrassment on his face. "Chairman Chen, you came."

Chen Ke smiled and said: "What is the enemy's situation exactly? Who will take me to the front line to see?"

Hearing this, the expression on Hua Xiongmao's face was as if he had been whipped. He hurriedly stopped him: "Don't. The New Army is crazy now; as long as they see our people, they fire machine guns desperately. Chairman Chen, you must not go; it won't do if you get injured."

"Then at least let me see the map." Chen Ke said.

Everyone immediately led Chen Ke to a simple map. Pu Guanshui pointed to the map and said: "Around the New Army military camp, here, and here, machine gun positions are set up. Now they are resisting stubbornly."

After reading it, a sneer appeared on Chen Ke's face. "Turtle formation. It's thanks to them having so many bullets."

Everyone didn't understand what Chen Ke meant and was a bit surprised. Chai Qingguo said urgently immediately: "Chairman Chen, you won't let everyone attract the enemy to fire, right? Up to now, almost a hundred brothers have died, including four political commissars. Almost two hundred people were injured. In this half year, we attacked so many forts, and fewer than a hundred people died."

"Brigade Commander Chai, when did I say to attract the enemy to fire?" Chen Ke was a bit puzzled. But now was not the time to entangle in such things. He pointed to the map. "Since the enemy relies on the streets for defense, we will break through the walls to pass. As long as we can cut out from here, their turtle formation will immediately have an opening. In close combat, I don't believe they can be more powerful than our hand grenades." Chen Ke said while sliding his finger along a row of buildings.

"Break walls?" Everyone didn't figure out what this meant for a moment.

"We don't take the street; just punch holes in the walls of this row of residents. We pass directly through the houses. Blow open the wall here and implement a breakthrough." Chen Ke's finger tapped on a residential house on the edge of the New Army position. "If worried that one direction is not enough, then we can break walls from here and here simultaneously, and finally blast from three sides together."

Everyone thought carefully, and only then did they suddenly realize. Chai Qingguo didn't know what to say anymore. He looked at the composed Chen Ke with his mouth agape, and held back for a long time before squeezing out a sentence: "Chairman Chen, I admire you."

Chen Ke seemed not to hear Chai Qingguo's words. He still said calmly: "Everyone take out your pocket watches now and synchronize watches." After speaking, Chen Ke raised his wrist, revealing his wristwatch. "It is 7:30 a.m. now. I require you to leave only the last wall before 8:10. The middle walls can be smashed with iron picks, but the last wall must be blasted with explosives. Various units prepare assault teams well, and blast together at 8:10."

The three commanders all took out the pocket watches distributed by the troops, synchronized their watches, and then saluted Chen Ke together. After Chen Ke returned the salute, the three looked at each other anxiously [Note: probably looked at each other with relief or determination, text says "looked at each other anxiously/worriedly" (互相愁了一眼)? Maybe typo for 瞅 (glanced)? Let's assume glanced/looked], and then strode away with the officers of their own troops.

In an instant, few people were left in the frontline headquarters. Yan Fu was not a subordinate of the three detachment commanders originally. He was originally responsible for commanding the fleet to transport Chai Qingguo's detachment to the west of the city. Now the fleet had been arranged, and he also followed Chai Qingguo into the city. Since he met Chen Ke, Yan Fu didn't want to follow Chai Qingguo anymore. Chen Ke, Yan Fu, and Tao Chengzhang simply sat down in the room.

"Brother Wen Qing, this move of yours is really high." Tao Chengzhang couldn't help praising. This was already his unknown-th praise. Chen Ke's performance in military command could only make Tao Chengzhang marvel endlessly. Facing the enemy blocking the street, just break through the walls to pass—Tao Chengzhang really couldn't imagine how Chen Ke came up with such a method in such a short time. The enemy blocked the street, but their bullets couldn't penetrate the courtyard walls, and their vision absolutely couldn't see through what happened inside the courtyard walls. Considering Chen Ke's whims, Tao Chengzhang couldn't help praising again: "Really wonderful."

Naturally, Chen Ke couldn't tell Tao Chengzhang that this was the combat method adopted by the German and Soviet armies in the fierce street fighting of the Battle of Stalingrad "35 years later" in his own time and space. He didn't want to be polite blindly either. Next, as long as the troops could implement this attack method, they could successfully defeat the enemy's last fortress. The battle would be basically over. This also meant that the opportunity for Chen Ke to teach Tao Chengzhang by personal example was only this last time. Once leaving Anqing, it was absolutely impossible for the People's Party to give the Yuewang Society and Guangfuhui any substantive support facing the counterattack of the New Army soon after. The more combat knowledge Tao Chengzhang possessed, the greater the role it would play.

"Brother Huanqing," Chen Ke said, "You think I have whimsical ideas. On the surface, it is so, but in reality, it is completely not like this. The enemy blocked the street and only left me one passage. If I had artillery or machine guns, I could compete with them in firepower. But I don't have them now, so I only have two paths. The first path is to walk the path they left for us. The second path is to fight according to what we have on hand."

Tao Chengzhang felt Chen Ke's words made a lot of sense after hearing them, but it was like saying nothing. Instead, Yan Fu had a thoughtful look on his face. Yan Fu's military cultivation was much deeper than Tao Chengzhang's; he already vaguely felt he touched the meaning Chen Ke wanted to express.

"Brother Huanqing, there is a saying in my hometown: one must hold the handle of the knife. That means you have to master the initiative. I have a teacher named Mao who talked about fighting; summarized, it is eight words: You fight yours, I fight mine. The New Army has machine guns and volleys. They can naturally fight on the street. If we can win, we also fight them on the street. Now we can't win on the street, then we can freely choose to fight the New Army on the street or choose to punch holes in the walls. Since punching holes can win, we naturally choose the way that can win."

Hearing this, Yan Fu's face was full of approval, and he couldn't help nodding slightly. Tao Chengzhang suddenly realized at first, and a look of joy couldn't help appearing on his face. But the more he thought about Chen Ke's words, the more he felt something was wrong. In the battle to attack Anqing, Tao Chengzhang had been following Chen Ke. Chen Ke's calm and composed command performance made Tao Chengzhang admire him extremely. When Chen Ke explained the true meaning behind the tactics to him, he felt he learned a lot of things. For Tao Chengzhang, the military knowledge learned in this half day was much more than the military knowledge he learned in his whole life. But reflecting on what Chen Ke said during the breaks in the battle, Tao Chengzhang felt a great incongruity. And this feeling of incongruity became stronger and stronger in Tao Chengzhang's heart as the battle progressed step by step. Until he heard the eight words "You fight yours, I fight mine," Tao Chengzhang suddenly felt he finally grasped the reason for this feeling of incongruity.

"Brother Wen Qing, I want to ask, how do you know the method you adopt is correct? Since yesterday, I have been thinking, if another way of fighting was changed, it might not necessarily be unsuccessful. Why does Brother Wen Qing want to use your way of fighting?" Tao Chengzhang asked.

Chen Ke didn't expect Tao Chengzhang to ask such a profound question. He pondered for a while before saying: "Most people look at problems by looking directly at the result. Then they try to figure out a method that seems to be able to get the result. As to whether this method works, they actually don't care. But everything has the law of the matter itself; once deviating from this law, nothing will work."

Tao Chengzhang was even more confused after hearing this. Everything Chen Ke said had to have laws, but what Tao Chengzhang saw was how Chen Ke specifically commanded the war. Just listening to the notifications coming and going made Tao Chengzhang feel a bit confused; presumably, formulating the operational plan was an even more complicated matter. Tao Chengzhang once thought of revolution extremely simply, just occupying a small piece of place, and then comrades across the country would naturally respond. Not until he personally participated in the war commanded by the People's Party did he really feel that war was completely different from what he once imagined.

Just as he was about to continue asking, the guard outside the door suddenly shouted: "What do you do?"

The three people in the room turned their heads and looked; it was a group of people wearing New Army uniforms but with white cloth strips tied on their left arms. The leader was in plain clothes. Seeing the three people in the room, the leader shouted excitedly: "Mr. Yan Fu, Brother Huanqing, the revolution has succeeded; we finally see this day."

Tao Chengzhang hurriedly introduced that the leader was Bai Wenwei of the Yuewang Society. Chen Ke heard Yan Fu mention this person, but hadn't seen this name in history books; presumably, he wasn't a famous figure in history. But out of politeness, he got up to welcome him.

"Mr. Chen is indeed a striking figure, and so young; really heroes come from youths since ancient times." Bai Wenwei spoke polite words.

Chen Ke didn't want to associate with people like Bai Wenwei, so he simply exchanged false pleasantries. Everyone said a few boring nonsense words. Bai Wenwei finally couldn't hold back and asked first: "Mr. Chen, I wonder what is the meaning of you collecting all the weapons? Mr. Yan Fu is also here; at that time we agreed to split weapons and equipment in half."

Hearing such honest words, Chen Ke knew what these people came for. If anything, Chen Ke didn't dislike this statement. Instead, Tao Chengzhang beside Chen Ke had a not-so-good expression on his face. Hearing Bai Wenwei finish speaking, most of the people behind Bai Wenwei showed a look of "firmly supporting" Bai Wenwei.

Chen Ke's curiosity arose greatly. Maybe these people are those whom the "United Front" needs to unite with in the future? Of course, the premise is that these people must live until Chen Ke has the power to "unite" them. Anyway, everyone has the nose and eyes they should have. If there must be a difference, compared with the members of the Yuewang Society, the members of the People's Party appeared much more "honest and simple." The comrades of the Yuewang Society had a determined look of "must achieve the goal" on their faces. This kind of expression existed in the early days when People's Party comrades braved heavy rain and drove small boats to save disaster victims. After everyone experienced life and death tests, this kind of expression gradually disappeared from the faces of People's Party members.

Since the other party had determination, Chen Ke had to point out his bottom line. He smiled and said: "First, Mr. Yan Fu talked about dividing the things in the warehouse after the war. And the seizures of our army on the battlefield are not included. Second, our army is fighting; if you want things, you might as well fight into the New Army camp. As long as you gentlemen can fight into the New Army camp, we won't want any of the things inside."

From Chen Ke's perspective, there was no problem with what he said. Why should the things captured by the Worker-Peasant Revolutionary Army risking death be given to others? The Worker-Peasant Revolutionary Army had suffered 300 casualties so far, accounting for one-tenth of the participants. The Yuewang Society agreed to be insiders at that time; after the People's Party attacked, the insiders of the Yuewang Society disappeared without a trace. Chen Ke not sending an expedition to punish them was already giving a lot of face. But the people of the Yuewang Society obviously didn't see it this way. Someone shouted indignantly loudly: "Eh?! You say this, the things you grabbed during the battle are yours, then now you occupy the whole Anqing city, this Anqing is yours? It's not reasonable just because you have guns and soldiers. Since you want revolution, you have to have some credit!"

Chen Ke was too lazy to say more. He looked at that person and said coldly: "Without guns, you can at least watch us fight quietly. After we leave, you can toss this Anqing however you love to toss it."

Unexpectedly, after hearing this, although the people of the Yuewang Society still wanted to maintain an indifferent expression on their faces, the corners of many people's mouths couldn't help curling up. Chen Ke looked at the rapidly changing faces of these people, thinking that compared to hypocrisy, he, a person from 100 years later, might indeed be more hypocritical. Judging from the expressions of everyone in the Yuewang Society, it seemed this promise was what they really wanted to hear. The goal of the Yuewang Society was to get Anqing.

Bai Wenwei was afraid Chen Ke was perfunctory with him, so he hurriedly pressed a question: "Then when does Mr. Chen's troops plan to withdraw from Anqing? Our Yuewang Society is the host after all; we have to hold a farewell party."

"We will withdraw tomorrow at the latest." Chen Ke was too lazy to entangle with Bai Wenwei anymore. "Mr. Bai, we are still fighting now. If you have nothing else, go back to rest first. We are really too busy."

Seeing Chen Ke issue an eviction order, Bai Wenwei said urgently: "Mr. Chen, I have one last thing to ask. How do you plan to deal with the captives of this New Army?"

Hearing this, Chen Ke was actually quite happy in his heart. Quite a few New Army officers and soldiers were injured, and the People's Party didn't have so many doctors to treat these people's injuries now. He answered immediately: "Give them all to you. Mr. Bai, you can take your people to receive the New Army captives now."

Watching Bai Wenwei leave excitedly with the people of the Yuewang Society to receive captives, Chen Ke breathed a sigh of relief gently. The tricky matter was finally handled. What remained was the enemy holding fast in the New Army military camp.

While speaking, three messengers arrived at the frontline headquarters one after another. "Chairman Chen, ready." Chen Ke looked at the watch on his wrist; it was almost 8:10. "Gentlemen of the Yuewang Society, we are about to attack the New Army military camp. You go receive the New Army captives first now. We will talk at the station outside the city tomorrow."

Yu Dahong faced Anhui Governor Lord En Ming with a calm face. Although polite on his face, Yu Dahong was anxious in his heart. While organizing the New Army to fight a defensive battle, he could still concentrate. After stabilizing the situation, he began to look forward to reinforcements again. After losing the ammunition depot, the bullets of the New Army were already very limited. If the thief soldiers attacked regardless of life or death like at night, Yu Dahong didn't know how long they could hold on. What annoyed him even more was that Anhui Governor Lord En Ming seemed to have recovered and began to constantly send people to invite Yu Dahong over. Yu Dahong couldn't decline, so he had to come to see this immediate superior.

En Ming chattered nonsense for a long time like a frightened old lady, a mixture of fear, anxiety, accusation, and expectation. If summarized in one sentence, it was "I am a good person; I am innocent."

Yu Dahong was already annoyed to death by such pages of nonsense, but the rules of officialdom were rules. Commander Yu Dahong could fling his sleeves and leave now, but if he did so, when he held on until the reinforcements arrived, En Ming would absolutely not be grateful for Yu Dahong's life-saving grace, but instead would bear a grudge against Yu Dahong's evil deed of "disrespecting a superior."

The problem was that patience had a limit. When En Ming asked hesitantly if Yu Dahong could think of a way to send En Ming out of danger first, Yu Dahong was already cursing loudly in his heart. "If I could leave, would I still be holding on hard here?" But in this indignation, Yu Dahong suddenly had a thought. He said hurriedly: "My Lord, this humble officer will go arrange this matter now. What do you think?"

Hearing this, a look of pleasant surprise immediately appeared on En Ming's face. "Ah? That couldn't be better. Commander Yu, go quickly, go quickly!"

Then Yu Dahong walked out of the temporary headquarters of the Anhui Governor under the urging of Lord En Ming. As soon as he went out, a Battalion Officer came up urgently. "Lord Yu, those thief troops are doing something strange. The noise inside the nearby residential houses is very strange."

"What's going on? Speak clearly!" Yu Dahong asked in confusion.

The Battalion Officer explained hurriedly: "The thief soldiers don't attack either, just firing randomly. Listening to the sound, they are banging and smashing things inside the residential houses."

"Where? Take me to see." Yu Dahong knew the thief soldiers opposite were by no means a mob. If they played this trick [moth], there was definitely a problem.

Just as Yu Dahong was about to arrive at the street barricade front line, suddenly explosions sounded from all directions. Rolling smoke and dust mixed with flying bricks and stones rushed fiercely into the New Army's street barricade. The explosion was caught off guard; Yu Dahong only felt his heart seemed to be tightly grasped by a big hand, shrunk into a ball, unable to expand no matter what.

What he could see was that quite a few things like bamboo tubes flew out of the smoke and dust. Then, Commander Yu Dahong's eyes went black, and he fainted.