On July 24, 1907, Li Yuanhong sat on a warship of the Hubei Navy. He was commanding the troops of the Hubei New Army, preparing to seize Hefei city occupied by the "Yan-Chen Bandit Army." It had already entered the *Sanfu* days (dog days of summer). It was already hot inside the warship, and now it was like a furnace. Li Yuanhong was dressed in strict military attire, sweating like rain. A large patch behind his thin summer military uniform was already wet. Not knowing how many times he had wiped his face, Li Yuanhong felt his head was a bit muddled. He couldn't help thinking of his concubine. If he were in Wuhan, his concubine would be fanning Li Yuanhong at this time, trying every means to please him. Thinking was one thing, but Li Yuanhong still didn't have the guts to openly bring his concubine onto the warship to serve him during wartime. Wiping his face with a sweat towel, while pretending to look at the map, Li Yuanhong sighed slightly.

The staff officer standing next to him completely misunderstood Brigade Commander Li Yuanhong's thoughts. The staff officer immediately said, "Brigade Commander, although the rebels are resisting stubbornly, our army will definitely be able to capture Hefei this time."

Looking at the subordinates below who were trying to "make contributions and establish careers" one by one, Li Yuanhong felt very helpless. He knew what the "rebels resisting stubbornly" referred to by the staff officers meant. Not long after taking Anqing, Li Yuanhong began to send a large number of scouts north. The Hubei New Army scouts could approach or even enter Hefei city, where the People's Party's military strength was weak; it was very easy to inquire about news in Hefei. But once the scouts continued north, news was lost very quickly. Up to now, the Hubei New Army had lost contact with more than forty scouts. These were more than forty horses and more than forty elites. Logically speaking, it should be difficult to enter Hefei, and easy to enter the villages to the north. The current situation was exactly the opposite. This abnormal situation made the Hubei New Army completely unable to understand what was going on.

As a guest army, the Hubei New Army didn't want to rely on locals, and the Anhui locals didn't welcome Hubei people either. Being a soldier wasn't a glorious job these years, and locals welcomed the Hubei New Army even less. The New Army's looting in Anqing aroused dissatisfaction from top to bottom. Although no one dared to resist, no one was willing to cooperate with the Hubei New Army either. This non-cooperation led to passivity in the Hubei New Army's intelligence work. The news collected from locals was varied; all kinds of strange theories made the Hubei New Army dare not believe them themselves.

Just regarding the number of People's Party troops, there were different figures such as hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, and even hundreds of thousands. Everyone who provided intelligence swore solemnly. But the gap in these orders of magnitude was a bit too large. As for the characteristics of the People's Party, from all blue clothes to blue hair and blue eyes, except for teeth not being blue, there were even rumors that the skin color of the People's Party members was blue.

Although Li Yuanhong was not a knowledgeable person, he graduated from the Beiyang Naval Academy after all and had seen many foreigners. There were foreigners with blue eyes, but he had never heard of blue hair. Li Yuanhong didn't believe this fallacy at all.

After losing trust in Anhui's local news, Li Yuanhong simply stopped caring so much. At that time, he thought he would be able to return to Hubei soon. But he didn't expect the changes in things to be far beyond his grasp. Li Yuanhong was not a tender baby who didn't know the depth of officialdom. When he first conquered Anqing, there were rumors that Division Commander Zhang Biao was preparing to come to Anqing to replace Li Yuanhong. But as soon as the Dingwei Political Tide rose, the news of Division Commander Zhang Biao setting off disappeared immediately. Li Yuanhong also requested several times to lead troops back to Wuhan, but the reply he got every time was "Strictly guard Anqing." These people were all old slickers. The Hubei New Army stationed in Anqing was a position that would cause countless troubles. As soon as there was a change in the political situation, everyone adopted the attitude of "better to avoid trouble," and didn't get involved in such troublesome things at all.

The Dingwei Political Tide began to settle. The news that Lord Zhang Zhidong took office as a Grand Councilor soon reached Hubei, and the entire Hubei officialdom was boiling. This appointment meant that Lord Zhang Zhidong would hold the authority of "constitutionalism" in the court. Now "constitutionalism" was what everyone expected, especially in the southeast region. Since the "Mutual Protection of Southeast China," officials and gentry in these regions hoped to obtain greater political independence, especially to seize power originally belonging to the court through constitutionalism. Now that Lord Zhang Zhidong presided over constitutionalism, they naturally felt that Hubei could rightfully get great benefits. To have a greater say, political achievements were needed. Although Lord Zhang had outstanding achievements in local administration, he didn't have many achievements in the court. Recently, only by exterminating the "Yan-Chen Bandit Gang" could he gain a say.

When Lord Zhang ordered Li Yuanhong to go north to exterminate the "Yan-Chen Bandit Gang," Li Yuanhong felt an even more uneasy feeling. He regretted very much why he didn't run back to Wuhan early to feign illness. If he ran back to Wuhan to feign illness at that time, as a hero who retook Anqing and Chizhou, Li Yuanhong could get benefits no matter how things developed in the future. The situation now was completely different. Whether Beijing or Wuhan, how many people's eyes were watching him. At this time when success seemed to bring fame and status, there were always more people tearing down the stage than helping in officialdom.

People up and down were urging Li Yuanhong to advance quickly, but the supply of weapons and ammunition was basically non-existent. Such a small matter was enough to show that someone had already started to trip up Li Yuanhong. And the excuse used by these people was also very justifiable: Li Yuanhong didn't consume too much ammunition in fighting Anqing, and the ammunition brought out now was enough to support him. Li Yuanhong was not a three-year-old baby; he knew very well that it was not the case at all. Li Yuanhong indeed didn't lack ammunition, but even if the rear transported a boat of ammunition symbolically, it could explain the attitude of those people in the rear. Their practice of paying more attention to the quantity of supplies than Li Yuanhong showed that someone started to play dirty tricks.

But Li Yuanhong didn't even have the chance to feign illness before battle now. There was Lord Zhang in the court, and a pile of civil and military officials "eagerly expecting victory" behind. The small trick of feigning illness couldn't deceive them at all. So after Lord Zhang personally sent a telegram urging Li Yuanhong to advance, Li Yuanhong had to send troops.

With extreme helplessness, Li Yuanhong continued to wipe his sweat while asking the staff officers who were also sweating profusely on the boat, "What's the news from the scouts?"

"Except for the remnants of the Yue Wang Society stationed outside Hefei city, there are still not many People's Party people inside Hefei city." The staff officers answered excitedly immediately.

The People's Party seemed not to care about the gain or loss of Hefei at all. Except for the remnants of the Yue Wang Society stationed near Hefei, there were not many bandits in the city. The current strength of the Hubei New Army could definitely take Hefei city easily. This time the troops traveled by water. A fleet composed of a large number of official and civilian ships carried nearly five thousand Hubei New Army soldiers. The fleet entered Chaohu Lake from the Yangtze River, and would then attack Hefei along the Fei River.

Although they couldn't find out exact news about the People's Party base area, the Staff Department of the Hubei New Army believed they should take advantage of the emptiness of military strength in Hefei city to take Hefei in one fell swoop. At that time, no matter what tricks the bandits had, as long as we occupied Hefei city, the bandits would be helpless. This combat plan was already a common conventional combat method of this era, and Li Yuanhong didn't think there was anything wrong with it. No matter what unease was in his heart, he also thought these troubles would only be encountered after taking Hefei. With the strength and equipment of the Hubei New Army's navy and army, it was absolutely impossible for the People's Party to stop the Hubei New Army.

Different from what the staff officers thought, Li Yuanhong had already decided in his heart to hold still after taking Hefei. Wait until the reality of the People's Party's territory was figured out. With the military merit of retaking Hefei, no matter how Li Yuanhong paused, others would have nothing to say.

The long fleet of the Hubei New Army sailed on the water surface, and the leading ships had already entered Chaohu Lake. Chaohu Lake is located in the central part of Anhui Province, bordering the Yangtze River, also known as Jiao Lake. It is the largest lake in Anhui Province. The Chaohu water system is developed, known as "three hundred and sixty branches" since ancient times. The Nanfei River was anciently called Shi Water, originating from the southern foot of Changgang (ground elevation 72 meters), a remnant of the Dashu Mountain in the Jiang-Huai watershed. Flowing southeast, it enters Dongpu Reservoir at Xiadaying, exits the reservoir south of Dayangdian, passes Bozhou Road Bridge, receives water from Sili River and Banqiao River on the left through Hefei urban area, passes Tunxi Road Bridge to Heshangkou, receives water from Ershibu River on the left, reaches Sanchahe and receives water from Dianbu River on the left, turns southwest, and injects into Chaohu Lake at Shikou, with a total length of 70 kilometers.

And the ultimate goal of the Hubei New Army, Hefei, anciently called Luzhou, is located in central Anhui, between the Yangtze River and Huai River, on the shore of Chaohu Lake. It has always been known as "the head of Jiangnan, the throat of the Central Plains," "the lapel and throat of the Right Huai, the lips and teeth of Jiangnan." Accessing the river and reaching the sea through the Nanfei River, it has important location advantages of connecting east and west, connecting the Central Plains, and running through north and south. Hefei is named after the confluence of the East Fei River and South Fei River here (another theory says it was named because the ancient Luzhou was renamed Hezhou). It has always been famous in the world as "the lapel and throat of the Right Huai, the lips and teeth of Jiangnan," "the old land of the Three Kingdoms, the hometown of Bao Zheng." The name of Hefei first appeared in "Records of the Grand Historian: Biographies of Money-makers" by the great writer and historian Sima Qian: "Hefei receives the north and south tides; it is a gathering place for leather, abalone, and wood."

The site of Hefei city has changed repeatedly. "Taiping Huanyu Ji" records: The Hefei county seat in the Han Dynasty "is north of the current county (city)," located near the present Sili River, with a very small area. In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, wars were incessant, and the old city was abandoned. In the fifth year of Jian'an of the Eastern Han Dynasty (200 AD), Liu Fu, the Inspector of Yangzhou, went to take office alone and rebuilt Hefei city. During the Three Kingdoms period, Hefei was a military town favored by Cao Cao. Eastern Wu launched more than ten battles to fight for Hefei, giving birth to the famous Battle of Xiaoyaojin. In the first year of Qinglong of Wei (233 AD), Wei general Man Chong built another "Hefei New City" at the foot of Jiming Mountain west of the old city to form a pincer movement with the old city. After the Western Jin Dynasty unified the country, the new city built during the Three Kingdoms was abandoned, and it moved back to the old site. The old city of Hefei was low-lying. In the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Liang general Wei Rui broke Hefei by damming water.

The historically famous Battle of Feishui broke out near here. Li Yuanhong didn't think of this war of "wind-sound crane-cry, grass-wood all soldiers" (panic and paranoia). He was only concerned about whether the Nanfei River could allow the Hubei Navy's warships to pass freely now. As the leading small boat began to measure the water depth, the speed of the entire fleet also slowed down. No one noticed that every two hours, a pigeon flew up from a hidden place along the coast, flying alone towards the northern sky.