Considering the importance of Lanzhou, the old man specially sent five howitzers, but he did not provide artillery. As a result, the Ma Jiajun had heavy artillery but could not use it.
But Ma Jiajun didn't care about this matter. After all, they were fighting on the plains, and the cavalry was their main fighting force. Carrying this heavy artillery was also a burden.
The other anti-aircraft guns were simply used by the old man to deceive the Ma Jiajun. After the Japanese surrendered, the anti-aircraft guns had no effect.
After all, the People's Liberation Army didn't have planes here, so they couldn't practice with their own planes, so they used anti-aircraft guns to make up the numbers and gave them to Ma Jiajun.
For the Ma Jiajun who didn't even care about the 105mm howitzer, they didn't even care about the 37mm anti-aircraft gun.
As a result, these cannons arrived in Li Qiufan's hands intact, and the shells they were equipped with were not consumed at all.
"With ten anti-aircraft guns, I can form two anti-aircraft artillery batteries if I make do with it. What a damn timely rain!"
Compared to the five howitzers, Li Qiufan was more pleased with the ten captured anti-aircraft guns, which made up for their lack of anti-aircraft weapons.
"Commander, this anti-aircraft artillery company must be established in our heavy artillery division, otherwise I will be in trouble with you!"
Hearing Li Qiufan say that he wanted to form two anti-aircraft artillery batteries, Lao Ma immediately said to Li Qiufan.
"Who the hell is the commander between us? Are you my rival?"
Hearing that Lao Ma dared to threaten him, Li Qiufan went up and kicked him repeatedly, causing Lao Ma to beg for mercy.
"Okay, hurry up and drag away the howitzers and anti-aircraft guns, and load the artillery shells into the truck. I'm in a hurry to attack Xining!"
After kicking the old horse for a while, Li Qiufan waved his hand and said to the old horse, and then led the guards to find Zhao Gang.
"Old Zhao, I'm going to take the troops to attack Xining. You can stay and take charge of the work in Lanzhou. What do you think?"
After a while, Li Qiufan came to Zhao Gang. After seeing Zhao Gang, Li Qiufan immediately said to him.
"Okay! But are you going to fight in Xining now?"
Zhao Gang had no objection to staying in Lanzhou, but he was a little surprised that Li Qiufan was going to fight in Xining.
"Yes, not long ago I sent the second column north to support Wang Huzi. It won't be a problem for these two columns to capture Ningma!"
"Both horses have been taken care of, and I can't keep him waiting too long for the third horse!"
"Old rules, I'll leave the security brigade to you, and I'll take away the first and third columns!"
Li Qiufan nodded towards Zhao Gang, and then explained his arrangements.
"Okay, you must pay attention to safety! You must know that you are the commander of the corps now, not a big soldier! It's not your turn to charge into the battle!"
After hearing Li Qiufan's arrangements, Zhao Gang nodded towards him, and then gave Li Qiufan instructions.
"Okay, my great political commissar! I'll just stay at the back of the main office!"
Listening to Zhao Gang's constant chatter, Li Qiufan immediately raised his hands and surrendered.
"Go away! I still have a lot of things to do!"
Seeing that Li Qiufan was impatient, Zhao Gang glanced at him angrily, and then issued an eviction order.
After Li Qiufan left Zhao Gang, he called Er Hu and Li Yunlong and asked them if the battlefield had been cleaned.
"The battlefield has been cleaned. All the captured weapons, equipment and supplies have been gathered together, and people have been sent to guard them!"
"Another point is that we have captured a lot of war horses. How to arrange this?"
After hearing what Li Qiufan said, Erhu, who was responsible for cleaning the battlefield, immediately made a report, and then asked Li Qiufan what to do with the captured horses.
"Let's hand them all over to the security brigade first, and let the political commissar arrange for someone to watch them first!"
"We have to rendezvous with the Fourth Column immediately and then launch an attack on Xining. There is no time to waste time!"
Li Qiufan had no time to think about the arrangements for these seizures at the moment, so he directly handed over all the two tigers to the security brigade, and then set off with the first and third columns.
At this time, the Fourth Column was blocking Qingma's troops in Honggu, which was not very far from Lanzhou, probably more than a hundred kilometers away.
The total strength of the combat troops of the Northwest Three Horses is only about 100,000. After more than 50,000 main troops were annihilated in Lanzhou City, there is not much left.
The strength of the Qingma troops responsible for blocking the Fourth Column was about 30,000, which was almost the same as theirs.
But Li Xiping didn't dare to be careless, because not all of Qingma's 30,000 troops were infantry, more than half of them were cavalry!
If there are 30,000 infantry, the four columns can completely spread out their formations to fight with them, and it is even possible to achieve the purpose of regaining Qinghai by relying on strong firepower.
At the beginning, Li Qiufan concentrated all the submachine guns in the army into the fourth column. Before the formation of columns, the soldiers in the four columns had either submachine guns or light and heavy machine guns.
It is for this reason that Li Qiufan sent four columns to stop Qingma.
Among the three horses in the northwest, the green horse is the most powerful and the most ferocious!
The Ma Jiajun who defeated the West Route Army in the first place, but it was Qing Ma's troops who brutally killed the prisoners.
Taking into account the large number of the opponent's cavalry, Li Qiufan decided to send four columns.
Because if you want to suppress the charging cavalry, rifles are useless. You can only rely on light and heavy machine guns and submachine guns that have fast fire rates and do not require single-shot reloading.
Most of the soldiers in the other columns were mainly equipped with rifles, while in the fourth column, light and heavy machine guns and submachine guns accounted for more than one-third.
Under such strong firepower, Qingma's troops were repulsed over and over again, never breaking through the interception line of the fourth column in Honggu.
Li Qiufan immediately called Li Yunlong to his side after leaving Lanzhou.
"Brother, what do you want from me?"
Li Yunlong asked Li Qiufan in confusion, wondering what he wanted from him.
"Old Li, I have a task for your troops to complete!"
Li Qiufan didn't hesitate and said to Li Yunlong.
"What mission?"
Li Yunlong was a little surprised by Li Qiufan's words. Now the only goal left was Xining. He didn't know what other tasks there could be.
"I need your third column to send a division, break away from the main force and rush directly to Xining as quickly as possible!"
"After arriving in Xining, attack it directly. There are not many defenders in Xining anymore. It should be easy to capture it. We have to cut off Qingma's retreat!"
Li Qiufan immediately told him his thoughts, and Li Yunlong suddenly realized that it was to prevent the Qingma troops from escaping.
After all, most of the opponents are cavalry. If they are really focused on escaping, there is really nothing they can do.
If Qingma's troops escape by then, it will be time to let the tiger go home!
Although tens of thousands of people can't make any waves, it would still be uncomfortable if they came out to feel sick from time to time.
