When the frontal military formations finally collided, the panicked and panting native soldiers were no match for Basang's waiting troops. The small military formations waving chieftain flags were like mud hitting a stone, smashing themselves to pieces.
The attacks on the flanks further increased the uneasiness of the soldiers. When the sound of heavy gunshots sounded on the flanks, the sound of galloping horse hooves rushed straight to the flanks, and each military formation collapsed.
Carts carrying guns crossed the battlefield from behind the enemy. Sixty large lead bullets ran across the battlefield, knocking down rows of scattered soldiers, which was the final word.
Escape is also a kind of accumulation of potential energy. Everyone has a steelyard in their heart. After a certain critical point, they may want to escape but may not escape. But when everyone wants to escape and one person escapes, everyone will start to flee in confusion.
Xie Erhu's Mongolian cavalry spread like black clouds on the battlefield, galloping, shooting arrows and waving scimitars.
The cavalry team still adheres to the Mongolian tradition of three cavalry teams, with a collar of armor, two sabers, two sabers, four pots of arrows, and a hook and sickle spear.
If one of your own men is down, hook him up. If no one is down, look for high-value targets among the fleeing enemies to hook him.
Although the relationship between people is unpredictable and yesterday's mortal enemies may be fighting side by side today, entrepreneurs on the grassland will never forget their original intentions.
They galloped across the battlefield, splitting the retreating soldiers' line into even smaller pieces, forcing them to completely lose all hope of escaping back to the east and kneel down to surrender. They also hooked the leaders and took them away as trophies of their participation in the battle.
However, there were also hot-blooded Mongolian soldiers chasing them across the river and rushing into the enemy's east bank defense line.
Some people were turned into a cloud of blood mist in the explosion of mines that did not distinguish between ourselves and the enemy. More people relied on the momentum of their horses to quickly rush through the minefields and rush towards the defense line guarded by only a few soldiers.
A dull horn sound came from the bottom of the mountain, and with the flag fluttering, Xie Erhu, who was chasing the fleeing enemy troops in the middle of the battlefield, looked ecstatic. He immediately dispersed his guards and gathered his men to launch a massive attack on the other side of the river.
The generalissimo allowed them to march!
Liu Chengzong on Tushan Mountain was not as happy as Xie Erhu, and asked him not to chase across the river. Many people still chased him across the river bank, but it was not all without gain. At least the Mongolian horse soldiers who rushed across the river bank made a way. road. .
The landmines of the soldiers do not rely on steel wheels to ignite. They are still ancient fuse mines. As long as they rush over to force the soldiers to engage in battle, there is no threat if the fuse cannot be ignited.
At the same time, Liu Chengzu along the Huangshui River also crossed the Huanghe River to the north, because a battalion of native soldiers on the other side of the river ordered to retreat after the friendly forces were defeated. Soon the tidal flats on the river bank were seized by the banner troops of the Xining Guards, and then moved towards Dong continued to advance.
Liu Chengzong ordered Yang Yao to form a central army with 3,000 horsemen, replace Basang's army and march across the river to support Xie Erhu and advance the battle line to the camp of Banuan Sanchuan Camp.
At the same time, orders were sent to Basang to clean the battlefield, collect the equipment and firearms left by the soldiers, and bring the supplies camp to set up tents on the spot, and treat and bandage the wounded soldiers.
This battle lasted less than an hour, but because the battle started late, it was almost dusk, and the sun would set soon.
Soon Basang came to Tushan with a Xining soldier who served as an interpreter and reported the casualties to Liu Chengzong. Forty-five people were killed on the spot, and 67 others were seriously injured. There was no statistics on Basang's minor injuries, only one The man was shot blind, but other skin injuries did not affect the fight.
Among the forty-five people killed on the spot, two were Huang Shengxiao's artillerymen and six were the leading officers who used heavy guns in front of the battle.
The enemy's corpses have not yet been counted. Basang's soldiers are busy sending the last breath of the enemy to the sky on the battlefield. The corpses are spread from the front of the formation to the river beach. Not counting those who were taken away by Xie Erhu, it is conservatively estimated to be 900. up.
"Did the enemy take those prisoner-killing cannons away?"
The student who served as the interpreter shook his head and said: "No, four vehicles were damaged, and the seventy-two iron cannons are still there."
Liu Chengzong nodded and turned to Basang and asked, "Do you like those cannons?"
Basang nodded solemnly, and Liu Chengzong said: "It's all yours. There are also armors and weapons of the fallen enemy soldiers. The hunting camp will pick them first, and then send them to the supply camp."
There is no shortage of armor for the soldiers in the hunting camp. Most of the equipment captured by Liu Shizi in the southern expedition was allocated to Basang... They only use Mongolian equipment because the Mongolian armor is light.
The number of armors per capita in the shooting camp may be higher than that of Liu Chengzong's battalion, but the quality of the armor varies.
The entire camp of more than 6,000 people has more than 4,000 pieces of mail and leather armor, more than 800 collars of Xifanquanzha armor, and more than 1,800 collars of various armors are stored in the camp on the north bank of Qinghai Lake.
Therefore, Basang does not have much desire for armor weapons. Many of his soldiers cannot walk in heavy armor. The most suitable situation for them is to wear a Fan jacket or a Mongolian jacket, with a chain mail or iron armor on the top, and a A leather helmet with iron bars.
But when he heard that Liu Chengzong wanted to allocate all seventy-two prisoner-killing cannons to him, Basang, who was silent, nodded heavily and thanked him one after another.
But this creates a small problem.
Basang said that there were not enough Han troops in the hunting camp. Those people could fire cannons, but they also led soldiers and heavy gunners. He could only fire the cannons once in battle.
People can't rush to reload and fire repeatedly when facing the enemy. It's not bad if they don't light the powder keg.
But Liu Chengzong didn't think this was a problem: "Firing it once before the battle is better than not firing it at all. Later, let them teach it slowly, and the hunting camp will learn it slowly, and then you will have your own artillery team. Let's use these guns to learn in the war first. There will be better cannons to use in the future.”
The better cannons Liu Chengzong mentioned were the batch of lion cannons supervised by Gao Yingxiang in Shanxi. Because they had reached the end of their service life, they needed to be remade in Juerwan. However, a new cannon foundry was being built, so they were left to the west of the new city defense. .
While talking, Liu Chengzong ordered the Mongolian soldiers in the transport camp to carry the corpses, and the health workers in the camp made statistics on the causes of death of the soldiers killed in the battle on both sides.
After giving orders to the army, Liu Chengzong gave Basang another order: "Learn more language from the students. When we take Hehuang, go to the training camp to study with General Wang Shen for a while."
The student from Xining next to him heard this and said: "Commander, Bashen will always be studying with Mr. Ngawang Qian."
Liu Chengzong smiled when he heard this. It is a good thing for Basang to be eager to learn, but studying with Awang would be a bit inefficient.
One couldn't speak and the other couldn't read. It was so difficult to learn. He could even guess the learning process. Basang's learning may not have been smooth, but the two students who served as interpreters must have learned very well.
"I remember your name is Du Mao, and you are a child."
Liu Chengzong remembered that when he was in Nangqian, two scholars from Xining defected to him. The boy Du Mao was one of them, and the other was a scholar named Mo Fuli. Both of them are now working as interpreters for Basang in the shooting camp.
Gu Xi
The student staff nodded quickly: "Shuai Meng remembered that Du Mao, a junior student, entered Xining Prefecture School after returning from Fandi."
Liu Chengzong nodded: "Teach Basang how to speak Han language as soon as possible... That good friend of yours, Mo, is disrespectful. He and Mo have the same surname in Kyoto. Are they related to each other?"
Du Mao nodded and replied: "Yes, Mo Yujing is Mo Yujing's distant uncle. At that time, he wanted to go to Lutang Camp to defect to Mo Yujing, but later he went to Nangqian to join the commander-in-chief."
After Du Mao finished speaking, he asked, "The commander-in-chief wants to transfer him back?"
"No need, let him stay in the camp. He has not made any mistakes."
Liu Chengzong estimated that the blood relationship between the two of them should be quite far away, otherwise they would not defect to Mo Yujing even if they defected to him, but he did have to find someone to take good care of Mo Fuli.
He gave Basang a few more words before letting them go back and set up the hunting camp.
On the mountain, Liu Chengzong compiled and analyzed the intelligence battle reports sent back by Tangqi.
The elder brother had driven the enemy troops from the North Camp to the Datong River leading to Liancheng, occupied Daping on the north bank of the Huangshui River, and threatened the flanks of the Banuan Sanchuan Camp; Xie Erhu also chased and drove the enemy troops to the camp city, but as night fell, in the Hehuang Valley, There was no fighting left in the largest valley plain.
In general, the offensive on this day went very smoothly. In the next few days, the three castles used as strongholds by the defenders were successfully captured, and the battle line was pushed to the mouth of the river, facing Lanzhou across the Yellow River.
But at this time, Li Wanqing came back: "Commander, my eldest brother asked me to come back and ask how we will fight tomorrow. Should we guard the Datong River Valley, or fight north?"
As he spoke, Li Wanqing unfolded the draft map and said: "Now Xining's battalion flag soldiers have strangled the Datong Valley. A little to the north and west is the territory of Liancheng Lu Chieftain. By capturing the Chieftain's Yamen, we can relieve our worries."
He pointed along the Datong River Valley and said: "Pushing from Lu Tusi Yamen along the mountains to the northeast, we can push all the way to the west wall of the Zhuanglang River and cut Lanzhou and Gansu in half."
Li Wanqing said it easily, but then he smiled and said: "But we don't have that force. The eldest brother can probably take over the yamen of Tusi Lu, rely on the mountains to build strongholds to guard the main roads, and guard the Zhuanglang border army in the northeast... But that's about it... It’s time to divide our forces.”
"Let's divide. You will attack West Datong Fort tomorrow first. If the offensive is blocked, strangle the enemy's southward path at Datong River. If the offensive goes well, take advantage of the opportunity to capture Lu Tusi's territory... As for Zhuang Lang's new Songshan border, don't force it. Gansu The border troops are not something we can afford at the moment."
Liu Chengzong shook his head. It was very tempting to fully occupy the new side of Zhuanglang Songshan Mountain, but this was beyond the financial resources of the Marshal's Mansion, which had been reduced to nothing by 80,000 people.
Gansu has always been the most difficult and troublesome problem in Liu Chengzong's mind.
Fight, but you can't fight. Once the Gansu border army is forced to ignore the border defense and go south to fight, even if the Marshal's Office uses all its strength, it may not be able to defeat the tens of thousands of Northwest Field Army; Sorry.
After all, it is still food. Before he could get this food, Liu Chengzong did not dare to touch Gansu's thoughts.
He smiled bitterly at Li Wanqing and said: "Now the Gansu border troops still hate the imperial court. We cut off Zhuanglang, and tens of thousands of border troops hate us. Tens of thousands of hungry and anxious border troops come back to help us. We can't hold on, and the gains outweigh the losses... take it." Chieftain Lu’s yamen is fortified enough.”
After Liu Chengzong finished speaking, he warned Li Wanqing: "The imperial court will not sit back and watch Hehuang fall. You and your brother should be careful of the Gansu border troops going south."
After Li Wanqing left, Liu Chengzong went to the foot of Tushan Mountain to see the fallen soldiers. He sent a horse team to transport the bodies to the rear for burial. He also went to the wounded barracks to comfort the injured soldiers. When he returned to the commander's tent, he thought about the several troops under his command and what this battle had brought to him. Perhaps the biggest surprise here is Basang.
Most of the armies under Liu Chengzong have strong initiative in team-level organization.
The border troops can disperse and gather together, and are especially good at small-scale combat; the Mongolian cavalry is easy to disperse and difficult to gather, but they know when to cooperate with the main attack and when to flee to reduce casualties, and they can always gather together after fleeing.
Basang's hunting camp is another extreme. They can't disperse but gather together. Their team-level organization is rigid and rigid. They have extremely strong resilience and ability to carry out orders. If they are not allowed to advance, even if the enemy troops are approaching, they will not be able to move forward. They won't take a few steps forward and actively fight.
In today's battle, Liu Chengzong could clearly feel that with the increasing number of battles, the shortcomings of the soldiers in the hunting camp that were not soldiers were fading away, while the advantages for soldiers were retained.
Moreover, Basan actually sent cavalry to the flanks to attract the artillery's attention.
This made Liu Chengzong very excited. Now that Basang has artillery, he will go to the training camp to study for a period of time after the war is over. In time, this shooting and hunting camp may be able to stand on its own.
Thinking of these, Liu Chengzong, who returned to the handsome tent, had a lot of strange ideas in his mind, and he randomly sketched in his notes with charcoal.
Just in time to catch up with Fan Sanlang who was carrying the food box into the tent, he came over, took a glance, and asked very unexpectedly: "Basang, Baiyan, Lazun, Wu Zang, King of Tibet, the commander-in-chief wants Basang to go to Tibet? "
Liu Chengzong came back to his senses and shook his head with a smile: "I wrote it blindly, I have no plans for the time being."
Fan Sanlang gently put down the food box at the table, put down the horse meat soup and oil spin, saying in his heart that it has come, it has come again, even Uszang was watching, and he sat aside and said: "Let's eat first, Tu. The soldiers are vulnerable, and the subsequent battle should go smoothly."
Liu Chengzong had dinner late, and the soup was almost cold. He was so greedy when he smelled the aroma. He picked up the meat slices, swirled them with oil, and gulped them all into his mouth. After a few mouthfuls, his expression changed, and he spat out a piece of iron on the table. , and then finished the soup.
He fiddled with the iron pill with chopsticks and smiled at Fan Sanlang: "Chongpao Sanzi should be the horse of Chieftain Xiao Li's family. It is quite fat and the stew is very fragrant."
After saying that, Liu Chengzong shook his head and said: "My enemies are not local soldiers. This battle will definitely involve the imperial army. The difficult part is behind. Now it depends on how determined the imperial court can be to deal with me." .”
"How many general soldiers?"
It was a bit hard for Fan Sanlang to imagine that they had never faced encirclement and suppression by the general soldiers of several towns at the same time, so he couldn't help but feel worried.
Liu Chengzong was not so worried, but comforted: "It's okay, the imperial army can never be mobilized with determination. If they dare to mobilize the general troops of the five towns, as long as I can hold it, even if they retreat to Xining, I will look at the world." In terms of the overall situation, it will also bring us one step closer to taking control of Xi'an."
"The enemies of the imperial court are not just us. The officers and soldiers have come to me. The old brothers in northern Shaanxi dare to have fun everywhere in the Central Plains. The tigers and rabbits eating sand outside Gansu may knock their foreheads against the wall. ”
But Liu Chengzong was really sure. That night, Tang Qi retreated step by step in the valley and quickly sent back a message. The Zhenhai camp soldiers mixed in with the refugees fled westward and brought back a message to the garrison near Sanchuan camp in Banuan.
An army arriving from the north of the river mouth from the direction of Gansu camped on the north bank of the Lanzhou River mouth. It was only 120 miles away from Shangchuan mouth. If they marched, the two armies would meet in the valley as early as the day after tomorrow.
The time left for Liu Chengzong to capture three cities in a row was... one day.
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