"Li Yuanhong's vanguard has reached Point 34."

"Enemy scouts have begun attempting to cross our alert zone."

"Li Yuanhong's troops have begun to slow down their march."

"Li Yuanhong's navy is still parked in the Nanfei River."

"There is no guard force at the junction of Chaohu Lake and the Nanfei River."

News from the intelligence department came in one by one, and the air in the Military Commission's frontline command post seemed to tense up. On the large map, the marker representing Li Yuanhong's troops was constantly moved to new positions on the blackboard. Everyone could see the latest changes in the situation just by looking up.

"Chairman Chen, can we start?" Pu Guanshui asked.

The pre-war plan differed greatly from the current specific situation. Chen Ke once thought he had to blockade the channel between Chaohu Lake and the Yangtze River to blockade the Hubei Navy. He never expected the Hubei New Army Navy to dare anchor in the Nanfei River. The ambush location of the People's Party Water Detachment was relatively far from here. Moving from the ambush location to the mouth of the Nanfei River would take at least half a day. Seeing such a good opportunity, Chen Ke ordered part of the Water Detachment to blockade the Chaohu exit as originally planned, and urgently mobilized part of the reserve troops to the mouth of the Nanfei River to implement an emergency blockade.

Li Yuanhong was about to arrive at the designated location, but Chen Ke still hadn't issued the order to attack.

"Chief of Staff Pu, if I want Li Yuanhong to stop where he is first, do you have any suggestions?" Chen Ke asked.

Pu Guanshui was somewhat surprised. The Staff Department had long formulated many contingency plans, and there were several plans to make Li Yuanhong stop temporarily. Chen Ke's current question lacked some necessary conditions, and Pu Guanshui couldn't quite guess Chen Ke's true intention. He simply asked straightforwardly, "Chairman Chen, are you worried about Li Yuanhong's navy retreating?"

"Yes." Chen Ke replied somewhat helplessly. "We lack ships now. Nor do we have the ability to repair large ships. So I still really want to capture these ships without any damage."

Before Pu Guanshui could answer, Chen Ke continued somewhat anxiously, "Start the operation according to the original plan."

"Chairman Chen, we really lack ships now." Pu Guanshui couldn't help advising Chen Ke instead. He could fully understand Chen Ke's thoughts. The base area couldn't build warships itself. The opportunity to capture them this time was so good; even changing the combat plan slightly wasn't impossible.

Chen Ke suddenly regretted a bit; as a commander-in-chief, he still made some mistakes. If the supreme commander of a campaign cannot stick to the original campaign plan when there is no major error in campaign judgment, but demands perfection and chases small details relentlessly, the specific executors below will be at a loss. Whether the operation could be completed better should have been the responsibility of the battlefield execution officers; Chen Ke really thought too much. Worst of all, Chen Ke actually spoke out this thought. He had to correct the problem he created himself. Chen Ke said loudly to Pu Guanshui, "Chief of Staff Pu, don't consider the issue of the enemy navy. Execute according to the initial plan. Issue the attack order now."

Pu Guanshui wasn't clear about the thoughts in Chen Ke's heart. He was just somewhat puzzled by Chen Ke's "fickle" practice. But now was not the time to discuss with Chen Ke. Since Chen Ke no longer focused on the plan to annihilate the enemy navy completely, Pu Guanshui immediately began to convey combat orders to the troops.

Facing the power displayed by the People's Party, Li Yuanhong attached great importance to his scouts. He ordered the scouts to reconnaissance everywhere non-stop. Exactly like other Qing troops of this era, Li Yuanhong's scouts took exactly the same route, which was the marching route of Li Yuanhong's troops. The People's Party first had to solve Li Yuanhong's scouts, turning Li Yuanhong's large troops into "blind men."

The reconnaissance force of any army selects the most elite soldiers. In this regard, there is no difference between the People's Party and the Hubei New Army. But Li Yuanhong made a serious mistake: he used his reconnaissance force excessively. Lü Dashun, Commander of the Reconnaissance Battalion of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, only said one sentence to his subordinates: "Those Hubei guys are almost exhausted to death; everyone go kill them all now." After saying this, Lü Dashun was afraid that the soldiers would execute his order incorrectly. "Kill the people, but don't kill the horses."

Lü Dashun dared not underestimate the Hubei New Army scouts at all. To get maximum intelligence in an unfamiliar environment, Li Yuanhong really sent out scouts in all directions. The People's Party had long built its own reconnaissance system. Various fixed intelligence points and mobile intelligence points were arranged very reasonably, plus the transmission of carrier pigeons. Moreover, the Reconnaissance Battalion of the People's Party was a whole battalion, a force of nearly a thousand people. The Hubei New Army only had more than two hundred scouts. But the workload of these two hundred people was really not small. The soldiers in the People's Party observation points even memorized the appearance of most scouts. Since they dared not underestimate the New Army scouts, the scouts of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army had to adopt the most ruthless means. Not long after this order was issued, the outpost battle between scouts unfolded rapidly.

After galloping back and forth these days, the Hubei New Army scouts were already very familiar with the road surface and the scenery on both sides of the road. A small squad of New Army scouts saw a slight difference in the scenery ahead. Originally, there was a pit on one side of the road in front of them, and two broken wooden sticks were scattered by the pit. These wooden sticks looked like they had been soaked in water and then thrown casually by the roadside. The wooden poles presented a pale color, which was quite conspicuous in a patch of grass. Now these two wooden sticks had been moved and placed by the pit. This slight change didn't make the scouts feel any unease. But just as they urged their exhausted horses forward, the two wooden sticks suddenly stood up simultaneously in the pit. A puff of dust also rose from the ground. It turned out that the two wooden sticks were connected by a rope. Standing up like this instantly became a tripwire (*banmasuo*).

The New Army scouts hurriedly tightened the reins. The horses were also exhausted these days; they didn't run fast originally, and stopped just before the rope. Before the scouts could see clearly what was going on, gunshots rang out behind them immediately. Several soldiers of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army had stood up from the hiding spots dug long ago and shot at the backs of the scouts close at hand. Several scouts were killed on the spot. Hearing the gunshots, the horses started running subconsciously. The tripwire also played a role at this time, stopping the horses. The scouts hurried up and caught the horses. The base area was in short supply of warhorses now, and these horses were extremely precious.

In some places, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army used tripwires, while in other places it was more straightforward. New Army scouts saw walking farmers unexpectedly appear on the road. If they didn't stop their horses to inquire, they would be shot by the farmers from behind. If they stopped to inquire, the farmers immediately pulled out handguns (*shouchong*) and shot the scouts head-on.

Gunshots near and far made the scouts on the road raise their vigilance. The Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army had also discussed this. The first round of close-range attacks ended subsequently. The sharpshooters (*snipers*) of various units began to appear. This was a more cruel slaughter. Generally, three people ambushed and sniped one scout simultaneously. Long-range sniping always aimed at vital parts. After a round of gunshots, every scout would be hit by at least two bullets, completely losing the chance to survive.

The slaughter lasted less than an hour. More than one hundred and seventy New Army scouts on the road were all eliminated. In the half hour after that, the twenty-odd scouts sent by Li Yuanhong also all died. The Hubei New Army completely lost its organized reconnaissance capability.

Since the gunshots rang out, Li Yuanhong almost instinctively chose a relatively conservative strategy: strengthening vigilance. This reaction was what the People's Party hoped for most. As the saying goes, "Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles." Li Yuanhong might know himself, but he didn't understand the People's Party. Since the power of the People's Party was fundamentally at the grassroots level, his early reconnaissance work had no effect at all. On the contrary, Li Yuanhong occupied Anqing himself, and all actions were exposed in the city, so it was easy to figure out clearly.

Since Li Yuanhong didn't want to be thrown into confusion by the People's Party, the People's Party could have ample time and space to complete its tactics. After losing the scouts, Li Yuanhong let the New Army troops scout for news on foot in units of ten. These walking scouts proceeded cautiously along the main road and soon encountered the snipers of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. In a blink of an eye, the ten people at the very front were killed or wounded. The people behind tried to shoot back at the invisible ambushers, but unexpectedly another burst of bullets came from the nearby reeds. The remaining New Army soldiers dared not resist anymore and ran back in a puff of smoke.

Li Yuanhong was confused by such a round of peripheral harassment. Attacks didn't just come from the front; he also tried to send people to contact the fleet left behind, and the soldiers sent out were also attacked. The New Army going to Hefei to suppress bandits was suddenly "attacked from front and back." If he hadn't encountered such a situation personally, Li Yuanhong wouldn't have believed it no matter what.

"Brigade Commander, the chaotic bandits are just ahead."

"Commander, the chaotic bandits should be ambushing behind."

"I think they have gathered troops on our flanks."

The staff officers put forward various views. Every view was very reasonable, but what surprised Li Yuanhong most at this time was not these. In any civil rebellion, as long as the rebelling common people encountered government troops, even if they encountered dozens of government troops, even if there were thousands of rebelling common people, they would be easily defeated. Most importantly, the government troops could see the "rebels" gathered on a large scale. Now Li Yuanhong encountered rebels, but in the intelligence sent back from various places, the number of rebels was not mentioned. All estimated figures were simply deduced based on the number of casualties of the New Army itself.

The New Army was in marching state now. After the sudden attack, various units spent a lot of effort to turn the marching state into combat state. Especially the artillery unit, placing cannons and preparing to shell the bandit army, had not been fully prepared until now. But these preparations didn't see the enemy at all. This weird performance made Li Yuanhong feel very uneasy.

What exactly did the rebels of the People's Party plan to do?