stubborn thief

Chapter 339
When the frontal formations finally collided, the panicked and panting native soldiers were not the opponents of Basang's subordinates who were waiting for work. The small formations waving chieftain flags were like mud bumping into rocks, smashing themselves to pieces.

The attack on the flanks further increased the uneasiness of the soldiers. When the sound of heavy guns sounded on the flanks and the sound of galloping horseshoes rushed straight to the side, the army formations collapsed one by one.

Carriages carrying guns crossed the battlefield from behind the enemy army, and sixty large lead bullets ran across the battlefield, knocking down rows of soldiers who had not yet dispersed, and the final word was finalized.

Fleeing is also a kind of potential energy accumulation. Everyone has a steelyard in their hearts. After a certain critical point, they may want to escape, but they may not necessarily escape. But when everyone wants to escape and one person escapes, everyone will start to flee in embarrassment.

Xie Erhu's Mongolian cavalry spread like black clouds on the battlefield, riding horses, shooting arrows and wielding scimitars.

The cavalry organization still adheres to the Mongolian tradition of three cavalry in a group, with one collar armor, two sabers, two bows, four pots of arrows, and a hooked sickle spear.

If one of his own fell, he would hook him up. If no one fell, he would look for high-value targets among the fleeing enemies to hook him.

Although the relationship between people is unpredictable, yesterday's mortal enemy may fight side by side today, but entrepreneurs on the grassland will never forget their original intentions.

They galloped across the battlefield, splitting the fleeing native soldiers into more fragments, forcing them to kneel down and surrender without any hope of escaping back to the east, and took the leaders away as spoils of war for their own participation in the battle.

However, there were also passionate Mongolian soldiers chasing and crossing the river and rushing into the enemy's east bank defense line.

Some people turned into a cloud of blood mist in the explosion of mines that did not distinguish between enemy and friend, and more people relied on their horses to coerce the rout soldiers and quickly rushed through the minefields, and rushed straight to the defense line guarded by only a few soldiers.

There was a dull sound of horns from the bottom of the earth mountain, and with the flag unfurled, Xie Erhu, who was chasing and killing the fleeing enemy in the middle of the battlefield, showed ecstasy.

The Generalissimo has allowed them to march in!

Liu Chengzong on the earth mountain was not as happy as Xie Erhu, and told him not to chase across the river. Many people chased the river bank, but it was not all fruitless. At least the Mongolian horse soldiers who rushed across the river bank waded out. road.

The landmines of the soldiers do not rely on steel wheels to ignite, but they are still ancient fuse mines. As long as they engulf the defeated soldiers and rush over to force the soldiers to fight, there is no threat if the fuse cannot be ignited.

At the same time, Liu Chengzu along the Huangshui River also crossed the Huanghe to the north, because a battalion of native soldiers on the other side of the river ordered to retreat after the friendly army was defeated. Dong continued to advance.

Liu Chengzong ordered Yang Yao to form a Chinese army with [-] cavalry, replace Basang's Chinese army across the river, support Xie Erhu, and advance the battle line to the camp city of the Ba Nuan Sanchuan camp.

At the same time, an order was sent to Basang to clean up the battlefield, pick up the equipment and firearms left by the soldiers, and the supply battalion came to set up tents on the spot, and the wounded soldiers were treated and bandaged.

The battle lasted less than an hour, but due to the late start of the battle, it was almost dusk, and it would be sunset soon.

Soon Basang came to Tushan with a Xining student who served as an interpreter and reported the casualties to Liu Chengzong. 45 people were killed on the spot and 67 were seriously injured. Basang who was slightly injured did not count. Only one person was shot blind By the eyes, other skin trauma does not affect the battle.

Of the 45 people killed on the spot, two were Huang Shengxiao's artillerymen, and six were commanders who used heavy guns in front of the battle.

The corpses of the enemy army have not been counted yet, and Basang's soldiers are busy sending the dying enemy to the sky on the battlefield. The corpses are spread from the front of the battle to the river beach, not counting the lives taken away by Xie Erhu. A conservative estimate is [-] up.

"Did the enemy take those captive guns away?"

The student interpreter shook his head and said, "No, four vehicles were broken down, and all 72 iron cannons are still there."

Liu Chengzong nodded, then turned to Basang and asked, "Do you like those cannons?"

Basang nodded heavily, and Liu Chengzong said, "It's all yours. There are also the armor and weapons of the fallen enemy soldiers. The hunting battalion will pick them first, and then send them to the supply battalion."

The Fanbing of the hunting battalion did not lack armor, and most of the equipment captured by Liu Shizi's southern expedition was allocated to Basang... They only used Mongolian equipment because the Mongols had light armor.

The per capita armor possession of the hunting battalion may be higher than that of Liu Chengzong's battalion, but the quality of the armor is uneven.

There are more than 6000 people in the entire camp, more than 4000 pieces of chain armor and leather armor, more than 800 collar armors, and more than 800 collars of various armors are still stored in the camp on the northern shore of Qinghai Lake.

Therefore, Basang doesn't have much desire for armor and weapons. Many of his soldiers can't walk in heavy armor. A leather helmet with iron bars.

But hearing that Liu Chengzong wanted to allocate all 72 captive-killing guns to him, the silent Basang nodded heavily and thanked him one after another.

But this poses a small problem.

Basang said that there were not enough Han troops in the hunting battalion, and those people could fire cannons, but they were also commanders and heavy gunners, and he could only fire the cannons once before the battle.

There is no way for people to finish reloading and reloading in a hurry when facing the enemy. It is not bad if they do not light the powder keg.

But Liu Chengzong didn't think this was a problem: "It's better to fire it once than not to let it go. Let them teach it slowly later, and let them learn slowly in the hunting camp. You will have your own artillery team. Let's use these artillery to learn in the war first. There will be better guns in the future.”

Liu Chengzong said that the better cannons 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, but the new cannon foundry was under construction, so they stayed in Xincheng to guard against the west. .

While speaking, Liu Chengzong ordered the Mongolian soldiers in the supply battalion to carry the corpses, and the camp staff counted the causes of death of the soldiers killed by both the enemy and us.

After giving the order to the army, Liu Chengzong gave another order to Basang: "Learn more languages ​​from the students. After we take Hehuang, go to the training camp to study with General Wang Shen for a while."

The Xining student next to him heard the words and said: "Commander, General Ba Can has been studying with Mr. Ngawangqian."

Liu Chengzong smiled when he heard the words, it is a good thing that Basang is eager to learn, but learning from Awang is a bit inefficient.

One can't speak and the other can't read. It's too difficult to learn. He can even guess the learning process. Basang's study may not be smooth, but the two students who are interpreters must have learned very well.

"I remember that your name is Du Mao, and you are a child."

Liu Chengzong remembered that when he was in Nangqian, there were two scholars from Xining who went to him. This boy Du Mao was one of them, and the other was a scholar named Mo Chengli. Both of them are now working as interpreters for Basang in the shooting camp.

The student nodded quickly: "Marshal Meng remembers that Du Mao, a young student, has entered Xining Prefecture School since he came back from Fandi."

Liu Chengzong nodded: "Teach Basang how to speak Chinese as soon as possible... Your good friend is not polite, and Mo and Jingdu are surnamed Mo, are they related?"

Du Mao nodded and replied: "Yes, Mo Yujing is Mo Chengli's distant uncle. Back then, he wanted to go to Lutang Camp to join Mo Yujing, but later he went to Nangqian to join him as 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, and he didn't make any mistakes."

Liu Chengzong reckoned that the blood relationship between the two should be far away, otherwise they wouldn't have defected to Mo Yujing instead of himself, but he really had to find someone to take good care of Mo Chengli.

He told Basang a few more words, and then let the two go back to settle in the hunting camp.

On the dirt hill, Liu Chengzong sorted out and analyzed the intelligence and battle reports sent back by Tang Qi.

Elder brother had already driven the enemy from the Northern Camp to the Datong River leading to Liancheng, occupying Daping on the north bank of Huangshui River and threatening the flanks of Ba Nuan Sanchuan Camp; There was no more battle to be fought on the great valley plain.

Generally speaking, the offensive on this day was very smooth. In the next few days, the three castles where the defenders were strongholds were successfully captured, and the front line could be pushed to the mouth of the river, facing Lanzhou across the Yellow River.

But at this time, Li Wanqing came back: "Commander, brother asked me to come back and ask how to fight tomorrow. Should we guard the Datong River Valley, or fight north?"

As he said that, Li Wanqing unfolded the sketch map and said: "Now the battalion and flag soldiers in Xining have strangled the Datong River Valley, and a little bit to the north and west is the territory of Liancheng Lu chieftain, and capturing the chieftain's office will relieve the worries of the future."

He pointed along the Datong River Valley: "From the Tusi Yamen of Lu to the northeast along the mountain, it can be pushed all the way to the west wall of the Zhuanglang River, cutting Lanzhou and Gansu in half."

Li Wanqing said it easily, but then he smiled and said: "But we don't have that kind of troops. The elder brother probably can eat the yamen of the chieftain of Lu, relying on the mountain village to guard the main road, and the Zhuanglang border army in the northeast direction is almost enough... But in this way The troops will be divided."

"Let's divide it up. Tomorrow, you attack West Datong Fort first. If the offensive is blocked, block the enemy's southward route at the Datong River; if the offensive goes well, take advantage of the opportunity to take Lu Tusi's territory... As for the new frontier of Songshan in Zhuanglang, don't force it, Gansu Frontier troops are not something we can eat at the moment."

Liu Chengzong shook his head. It would be tempting to completely occupy the new frontier of Songshan in Zhuanglang, but this is already beyond the financial resources of the Marshal's Mansion, which has been made poor by [-] people.

Gansu has always been the most difficult and troublesome problem in Liu Chengzong's mind.

Let's fight, but we can't fight. Once the Gansu frontier army is forced to ignore the border defense and go south to fight, even if the Marshal's Office puts all its strength together, it may not be able to defeat tens of thousands of Northwest Field Army; Sorry.

In the final analysis, it was food. Before he could not produce this food, Liu Chengzong did not dare to move Gansu's mind.

He smiled wryly at Li Wanqing: "Now the Gansu frontier army can still hate the imperial court. We cut off Zhuanglang, and tens of thousands of frontier troops turned to hate us. Tens of thousands of hungry frontier troops came back to help us. It is enough to fortify Lu Tusi's yamen."

After Liu Chengzong finished speaking, he told Li Wanqing: "The imperial court will not sit back and watch Hehuang fall. You and your elder brother must be careful of the Gansu frontier army going south."

After Li Wanqing left, Liu Chengzong went to meet the dead soldiers at the foot of the earth mountain, sent a cavalry team to transport the corpses to the rear for burial, and then went to the wounded barracks to comfort the wounded soldiers. When he returned to the command tent, he thought about how many troops under his command, what this battle brought to him The biggest surprise may be Basang.

Most of the troops under Liu Chengzong's command have a strong initiative in team-level organization.

Frontier troops can disperse and gather, especially good at small-scale battles; Mongolian cavalry are 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 battalion is another extreme. They can't disperse but can only gather. The team structure is rigid and rigid. They have strong resilience and the ability to carry out orders. They will not take a few steps forward to actively fight.

In today's battle, Liu Chengzong could clearly feel that with the increasing number of battles, the shortcomings of the Fanbing in the hunting battalion who were not soldiers were fading, while the advantages for soldiers were retained.

And Basang 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. Given time, this hunting camp may be able to take care of itself.

Thinking of this, Liu Chengzong, who returned to the handsome tent, had a lot of whimsical ideas in his mind, and randomly sketched them on the notes with charcoal pencils.

Just in time for Fan Sanlang, who was carrying a food box to enter the account, came over, glanced at him, and asked very unexpectedly: "Basang, Bai Yan, Lhazun, Wu Sizang, King of Tibet, the commander wants Basang to enter Tibet? "

Liu Chengzong came back to his senses, and shook his head with a smile: "I wrote it nonsense, and I have no intention of it for the time being."

Fan Sanlang gently put down the food box by the table, put down the horse broth and oil swirl, and thought that it came and came again, and even Wu Sizang was watching him, and he sat aside and said: "Let's eat first, Tu The soldiers are vulnerable, and the subsequent battles should be smooth."

Liu Chengzong ate late, and the soup was almost cold. He smelled the aroma and was already hungry. He picked up the sliced ​​meat and swirled it with oil, and gulped it into his mouth. After a few mouthfuls, his expression changed, and he spit out a piece of iron on the table. , and then finished the soup.

He fiddled with the iron ball with his chopsticks, and said with a smile to Fan Sanlang: "The heavy artillery powder should be the horse of Xiao Li's chieftain's family. It is quite fat and the stew is very fragrant."

After finishing speaking, Liu Chengzong shook his head and said: "My enemy is not a local soldier. This battle will definitely involve the imperial court's general army. The hard part is in the back. Now it depends on how determined the imperial court can be to deal with me." .”

"How many soldiers?"

It was hard for Fan Sanlang to imagine that they had never faced the encirclement and suppression of several town commanders at the same time, so they couldn't help feeling worried.

Liu Chengzong was not so worried, but comforted him: "It's okay, the army of the imperial court can never be mobilized with determination. If they dare to mobilize the generals of the five towns, as long as I can hold them, even if I retreat to Xining, I will look at the world." In terms of the overall situation, it will also bring us one step closer to winning Xi'an."

"The enemies of the imperial court are not just us. All the officers and soldiers come to me. The old brothers in northern Shaanxi dare to have fun everywhere in the Central Plains. The Hudun rabbits eating sand outside the border of Gansu may knock their foreheads on the side wall again. gone."

But Liu Chengzong was right. That night, Tang Qi retreated step by step in the valley, and quickly sent back a message. The Zhenhai battalion mixed with the refugees ran west desperately, and brought back a message to the garrison near the Banuan Sanchuan camp.

An army arriving from Gansu in the north of the river mouth camped on the north bank of the Lanzhou river mouth, only 120 miles away from Shangchuankou.

The time left for Liu Chengzong to sink three cities is... one day.

　good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)