As the "liaison officer" of the Yue Wang Society with the People's Party, Shi Dekuan participated in the battle to eliminate the Hubei New Army scouts. Shi Dekuan originally hoped to participate in the frontal elimination action of the plainclothes team. As a young man, Shi Dekuan liked frontal combat with swords against swords and guns against guns. But this application was rejected without hesitation by Reconnaissance Company Political Commissar Lu Zhengping. The reason for rejection was simple: Shi Dekuan's temperament belonged to that of a "rich scholar"; he would be recognized by scouts at a glance walking on the road.

Since there was no large mirror, Shi Dekuan couldn't be sure what was wrong with him. What he could see was that after the plainclothes soldiers of the Reconnaissance Company put on ordinary people's clothes, they looked like the most common people on the roadside. Except for being in better spirits, they wouldn't give people any abnormal feeling at all. This perfect identity change compelled Shi Dekuan's sincere admiration. So he had to participate in the ambush operation.

Shooting from a dug hiding spot was an easy job. Shi Dekuan aimed at the Hubei New Army scout stopped by the tripwire. It was not a burly figure. The scout was trying hard to control his horse, which almost wanted to rear up, and his back was exposed defenselessly under Shi Dekuan's muzzle. Shi Dekuan didn't have time to think so much and pulled the trigger hard. With the gunshot and the violent vibration in his hand, a black hole first appeared on the scout's back, and the scout himself stiffened as if immobilized by magic. The horse was even more panicked by the gunshot. After a few jumps, the scout on the horse was thrown off like a flour sack.

This was the first person Shi Dekuan had killed in his life. He always thought he dared to fight the Manchu Qing army. Seeing that he hit the enemy, Shi Dekuan felt a sense of joy in his chest. But this self-created feeling of joy was too weak. A moment later, he felt a discomfort, a strong questioning of himself. "I killed someone?" This thought popped up instinctively, and Shi Dekuan immediately felt cold sweat breaking out on his back. Just then, the ambushing scouts ran up, stopping the horse on one hand and checking the New Army scout who fell on the ground on the other.

The New Army scout was seriously injured. Ignoring the enemies in front who wanted his life, he grabbed the arm of a Revolutionary Army soldier and begged with all his might, "Save me! Save me."

"Still breathing." The scouts shouted.

"Ask him if he surrenders?" The scout commander shouted.

Hearing this, the New Army scout said repeatedly, "I surrender, I surrender. Save me quickly."

Hearing this, the commander shouted, "Then take him to the roadside. See if he can be saved."

Learning that the New Army scout wasn't dead, Shi Dekuan immediately felt much better in his heart. He suddenly didn't understand his reaction. Isn't this war? Isn't war life and death? Why did he actually have two completely opposite thoughts?

But the soldiers of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army didn't have Shi Dekuan's mentality at all. When ambushing enemies, everyone was naturally merciless, but there was a rule in the People's Party's military education: treat domestic personnel as much as possible without endangering oneself. The scout said to the New Army scout, "Don't shout, don't make noise. We will save you."

"Really?" The New Army scout said in surprise.

"If you shout again, we won't save you." The scouts had received training on how to effectively capture enemies. They tried their best to make the New Army scout lose consciousness of resistance. The injured New Army scout shut his mouth wisely. The scouts put him on the horse and led the horse away. Arriving at the assembly point, many injured New Army scouts had already been transported here. Doctors undid the scouts' clothes and checked their injuries.

"We'll arrange surgery for him," the military doctor said. After speaking, several medics took off the clothes of the New Army scout, then tied a rope loop with a tag on the scout's ankle. Another rope loop with a tag was tied to the handle of a wicker basket. After comparing that the numbers on the two tags were the same, the medics put the property on the New Army soldier into the wicker basket.

"What is this for?" Shi Dekuan couldn't help asking the scout beside him.

The scout said, "This is to preserve this person's personal belongings. If he can survive, we will return the things to him after he regains consciousness. If this person can't hold on, we will try our best to return these things to his family through channels."

"Everyone is fighting; no need for such trouble, right?" Shi Dekuan asked puzzledly.

"This is our discipline; stripping captives of personal property is not allowed."

"What about those killed?"

"Those killed are another matter. But once he surrenders and becomes a captive, he is under our protection. This is the revolutionary humanitarian spirit." The scout signed the hospital document as he spoke.

Shi Dekuan was stunned on the spot by these words, but heard the medic ask, "What is your name? Where do you live? If you unfortunately can't hold on, we will bury you and notify your family."

"You, didn't you say you would save me?" The New Army scout obviously couldn't quite accept the possibility that he might die.

"Brother, we are just doctors, not gods. We will try our best to save you, but if doctors were always effective, there would be no dead people in this world. Confess quickly so we can anesthetize you."

"What is anesthesia?"

"It means getting the bullet out of your body. Digging out the bullet alive, I'm afraid it will hurt you to death. After anesthesia, you won't feel pain..."

Shi Dekuan watched the People's Party soldiers handle various problems in an orderly manner. Perhaps because he had just tried to kill someone with his own hands, or perhaps because he had considered the difference between the Yue Wang Society and the People's Party for a long time. After seeing all this in front of him, he suddenly had a strong feeling: People's Party people can kill and save people. Whether killing or saving, it is so orderly. So what exactly does the People's Party want to do? The Yue Wang Society always says to overthrow the Manchu Qing and save China. But this slogan has thousands of interpretations; everyone has their own views on the revolution and the future brought by the revolution. While these people of the People's Party seem not to have so many thoughts at all; they all act according to a set of rules from top to bottom. This is the fundamental difference between the People's Party and the Yue Wang Society.

Having figured these out, Shi Dekuan asked the scout beside him, "Comrade, what exactly do your People's Party troops want to do? Why do you want revolution?"

The scout had finished signing. He said casually, "Our revolutionary army is the army of the common people's sons and brothers. Revolution is to let the common people live a good life. By the way, hurry back to the unit; there are many things to be busy with next."

The captured personnel of the Hubei New Army could at least get maximum treatment, while the wounded Hubei New Army soldiers cared for by their own people were far less lucky. Although the Hubei New Army also had a medical battalion, the medical battalion only did simple bandaging. They had neither the ability to perform surgery nor the courage to perform surgery by lamp light. And after dark, the People's Party's night raid also began.

The New Army's camp at this time was roughly a shape seven hundred meters long and more than four hundred meters wide. The People's Party invested harassment troops of two battalions and eight companies. The reason for investing so many troops was to prevent the New Army from jumping over the wall in desperation and engaging in field warfare.

The harassment troops first used the most traditional method: putting firecrackers in iron buckets. Snipers also hid and shot. The flames spewing from the muzzle were very conspicuous in the night. The Hubei New Army immediately regrouped and began to "return fire." This time they also learned to be smart and lay down to shoot. This gave the New Army artillery a chance; they could finally see the enemy's "muzzle flash." So they opened fire on the "enemy."

The Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army cooperated very well. Once the New Army fired cannons, the harassment paused. As soon as the cannons stopped, the harassment continued. In every round of "Bandit Army" attacks, New Army soldiers were injured, and screams were particularly loud in the night. having experienced a fierce exchange of fire during the day, thinking of the enemy's ceaseless shooting, the Hubei New Army felt their hearts tighten. If the situation became like that again, people fighting on the periphery were dying in vain.

In this mood, the Hubei New Army in the dark subconsciously shrank back; no one was willing to die in the front. Officers soon found themselves unknowingly at the forefront of the line. They had to go back and scold those timid soldiers. After Li Yuanhong learned of this situation, he had no choice either. With the New Army in this situation, there was no need to consider marching at all. If attacked from the side during the march, the whole team would probably collapse immediately. With no way out, Li Yuanhong had to order the artillery to fire as much as possible. Firstly, to inflict great casualties on the "Bandit Army," and secondly, to boost the morale of his own troops.

This choice could not be said to be wrong from Li Yuanhong's perspective. If they were ordinary rebels, under such fierce artillery bombardment, these ordinary rebels would probably not be able to hold on and scatter. But Li Yuanhong faced the troops of the People's Party. The degree of importance attached by the People's Party to civil engineering was simply unimaginable to Li Yuanhong. Chen Ke's military tutorial copied the tactics of Grandpa Mao and the PLA. At any time, if tactical operations could be completed by sweating, the engineers of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army would work tirelessly to complete them. No one cried out suffering or fatigue; everyone knew that digging pits could save comrades' lives to the greatest extent. The harassment troops relied on trenches and anti-artillery holes to protect the lives of soldiers extremely effectively during close harassment. Moreover, when the New Army artillery bombarded fiercely, the engineers would dig fiercely taking advantage of the sound of cannons. Extending the tunnels and bunkers forward as much as possible.

Throughout the night, the Hubei New Army didn't even have time to sleep for a while. They had traveled on the water by boat for a few days in this *Sanfu* weather (dog days), and their physical consumption was huge. During the day, they started marching after getting off the boat in the morning, and fought for a while after being attacked in the afternoon. Tossing about non-stop all night, especially the roar of cannons, made it impossible for anyone to really relax and rest. After the sun rose in the morning, the eyes of the Hubei New Army soldiers were swollen huge. illuminated by the sun, everyone felt sore eyes, and tears couldn't help flowing out.

Just then, a dull sound rang out. The troops of the People's Party had transported the projection cannons used in the attack on Anqing into the tunnels. In the morning sunlight, those silk explosive packs emitting white smoke flew into the New Army formation in heavy arcs. This was a merciless attack. Chen Ke liked to copy these weapons that were powerful and simple to make. The "Heartless Cannon" on the Huaihai battlefield had amazing killing power against enemy bunker groups. Chen Ke's reduced version of this throwing weapon might not be able to destroy cement bunkers, but it was fatal for unprotected soldiers. Every violent explosion would set off a bloody storm. The New Army officers and soldiers at the center of the explosion turned into fragments and blood mist that used to be human bodies. People on the periphery were pushed directly to the ground by air waves and shock. Those who fell either bled from seven orifices or only had a small amount of bleeding from the corners of their mouths and nostrils, but their internal organs had been shattered. Those further out were injured and knocked down by various human fragments and other things flying at high speed.

Chen Ke watched the battle he commanded personally with his travel binoculars on a highland in the distance. The tragic scene was clearly visible in the twenty-power binoculars. Chen Ke only felt his stomach contracting in spasms. "Do we really have to go this far?" he couldn't help thinking. Although the distance was far enough that Chen Ke couldn't hear the screams, and couldn't see the expressions on the faces of the Hubei New Army clearly in the smoke, seeing their miserable state of running like wolves, and the miserable state of being knocked down in rows by the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army approaching through tunnels, Chen Ke could fully imagine the panic of the Hubei New Army at this time.

"Should I order to persuade surrender first?" Chen Ke thought. According to the plan, next was a comprehensive charge to solve the New Army in one fell swoop. Facing such a chaotic New Army, the killing in this charge could be imagined. After full rest, the soldiers with high morale at this time would absolutely not be soft-hearted. Any New Army soldier who did not surrender in time would inevitably be completely destroyed. If persuaded to surrender, it was very likely that more people could survive.

But nothing in the world can be done without paying a price. Chen Ke also knew that if he persuaded surrender at this time, the New Army might have a breathing spell. Surely some would surrender, and some would not. If those who didn't surrender seized this opportunity to regroup, it would cause unexpected damage to the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. Chen Ke didn't think he had the right to use the lives of soldiers to practice his "humanitarian spirit." He ultimately said nothing.

In just this moment of thought, with the sharp sound of the charge bugle, the attack troops who had replaced the harassment troops' positions before dawn began to charge.