There are so many problems with the new army, not to mention the old one.

Fortunately, this time, Xu Shiyang's enemies were not the modern powers, nor the most vicious Tartars—they themselves were just a bunch of local armed militias.

Even if the cavalry level is not high, two battalions of infantry is equivalent to no combat effectiveness, and the remaining 5 old battalions of the new army can easily defeat the enemy.

What's more, after a stalemate with the Qingzhou Army for more than a month, the local Wubao Army that was unwilling to obey Qingzhou's orders could not hold out for long.

Because the war has delayed too much labor, the lord of the dock fort who resisted in the north can already be sure that he will not harvest anything this year.

Moreover, the war will deplete the Dock Castle Lord's food stock - when he wants people to die, it is also a matter of course for the Dock Castle Master himself to give a dry meal to the people below.

Therefore, the Dock Fort Lords who opposed the Qingzhou Army could no longer hold on, and they had to choose between winning as soon as possible or losing completely.

After Xu Shiyang took over the command of the front, nine battalions of the New Army crossed the equally exhausted outer dock fort lord and stood on the front line.

And the main alliance of Wubao, which is looser than the Qingzhou army in the north, is also desperately gathering all the troops that can be assembled, intending to have a decisive battle with the Qingzhou army.

The Northern Alliance involved in the war consisted of seventeen families and an army of about 4,500 people.

The Qingzhou Army is the whole new army, with a total of 4,200 people, and can be supported by 5,000 old troops in the rear.

Xu Shiyang did not intend to let the old army enter the war, but he needed to let as many people as possible see the battlefield in order to inspire the confidence of the outside forces through victory.

Therefore, Xu Shiyang, through Xu Muhe, summoned all the representatives of Haoqiang families in Qingzhou to form a "battlefield observation group" and follow his headquarters.

After everything was ready, Xu Shiyang dismantled all the Zhiyuan cavalry into outposts and scattered them to form a cavalry reconnaissance curtain for the Northern Alliance army.

The Northern Alliance, which lacked cavalry, had no way to deal with as many as two hundred Zhiyuan cavalry, and at first they also sent some "cavalry" riding inferior horses and even mules and donkeys to drive them away, but these half-hanged men were beaten badly by Luan Tingyu's men, and they were killed by twenty people in one day, and the rest retreated in chaos, never daring to leave the infantry to cover half a step.

After winning the victory at the outpost, the Zhiyuan cavalry clung to the main force of the Northern Alliance like kraft candy, neither far nor close, but kept transmitting their deployment back to Xu Shiyang, and at the same time preventing any small team from leaving the main position, no matter whether they were collecting wood or water, they would be attacked by cavalry.

The power of the unilateral cavalry superiority was revealed, and before the battle began, Xu Shiyang had a clear understanding of the deployment of the Northern Alliance army.

They looked like they wanted to rely on the old Linzi county town to fight a defensive counterattack.

The results of cavalry reconnaissance showed that there may be several hundred enemy soldiers in Linzi County, with a lot of bows and arrows, and some people were equipped with some large slingshots.

The main force of the enemy army was deployed on the east side of Linzi County, close to the half-collapsed city wall, and there were no less than 3,000 people in the middle array, which was quite bustling and chaotic.

Further east, there was an abandoned small dock fort, which also had enemy troops, and there were quite a few, which seemed to want to cover the two flanks of the main formation together with Linzi County.

After getting the detailed deployment of the enemy, Xu Shiyang was speechless for a while.

The Northern Alliance seemed to have decided that they would crush them head-on here, and the whole deployment was like a big turtle - not here to attack at all, purely to defend, and there was no mobility to speak of.

This way of deployment made Xu Shiyang have a strong sense of sending them to attack the rear of the Northern Alliance.

He wanted to know what the other person's expression would be if he did do it.

In fact, some of the dock fort owners within the Qingzhou army also advised him to do this - at least send cavalry to bypass the enemy's heavily defended areas, burn the enemy's homeland, and force the enemy's main front line to waver.

There are indeed benefits to this, the losses may be less, and the blow to the Northern Alliance will be greater.

But after the war, the recovery of the northern part of Qingzhou will become a big problem, and those people are also Han Chinese, not the enemy Xu Shiyang hopes to face the most, and he does not want to be too cruel to these ordinary people who can become the core population.

In the end, Xu Shiyang decided to fight a battle that combined military and politics.

On the 10th day of the first month of June, the Zhiyuan cavalry fired a letter of surrender with bows and arrows into the position of the Northern Alliance army.

Without waiting for a reply, the main force of the Qingzhou Army launched an operation:

In front of the Northern Alliance troops, the mounted infantry of the Jingyuan battalion swaggered around Linzi County, moved towards the rear of the enemy, and made a gesture of plundering the rear of the enemy.

Five infantry battalions then attacked, and two battalions, Dingyuan and Zhenyuan, were responsible for attacking the half-abandoned dock fort on the enemy's flank, and they were reinforced by all regular artillery firepower.

The two battalions of Jingyuan and Laiyuan were in the center, responsible for pinning down the middle of the enemy's largest number of troops.

The Pingyuan battalion was responsible for pinning down the enemy in Linzi County.

The Zhiyuan cavalry shrank and formed a reserve with the newly formed two battalions of Jiyuan and Weiyuan.

Xu Shiyang hopes that the two new battalions can increase their confidence and knowledge by watching the battle, and their future growth will be of great benefit.

Like the members of the Observer Mission who were looking forward to it.

The total time was set at the time of Si, and in fact, the time of the start was slightly earlier, because it was found that the cavalry of the Qingzhou Army bypassed Linzi and rushed to their rear, and the main force of the Northern Alliance was obviously restless.

Each of them feared the looting of their homeland, which in the past meant that they would lose everything and their loved ones would be in a miserable situation.

It was at this time that the Forces nouvelles went on the offensive.

The first to speak was the regular artillery, Xu Shiyang waved the command flag, and all the general artillery and Shenji guns launched a fierce artillery bombardment on the half-abandoned dock fort on the flank of the Northern Alliance Army in order.

There was a thunderous explosion of lightning and lightning, and the concentrated artillery team was instantly shrouded in rising white smoke.

Twenty iron bullets weighing 2 to 4 catties roared over a short distance of 500 meters and smashed straight into the earthen wall of the dock fort.

After a while, the sound of the iron bullet hitting the earthen wall continued to sound, the dust on the dock fort was flying, and some militiamen who stood unsteadily screamed and fell under the wall, facing the entire earthen wall of the Qingzhou Army like a giant that had been hit, constantly trembling violently, and the panicked sound resounded through the sky, forming a grand symphony with the deafening cannon sound!

After a round of shelling, there was almost no pause, and the 14 magic cannons fired a second round, then a third round, and twenty-four two-pound iron bullets scrambled out of the barrels, transmitting deadly energy to the target.

On the other side of the dock fort, countless earth and stones flew into the air and fell down like raindrops, and dense smoke and dust were splashed inside and outside the wall.

After firing three rounds, the iron cannon began to stop dissipating heat, while the bronze cannon continued to fire unhurriedly.

Their rate of fire is nowhere near that of breech-loading guns, but their power and fire persistence are far superior.

When the 6 general cannons that fired 4 pounds of iron bullets were fired into the third round, the earthen wall of the dock fort that the Northern Alliance had high hopes for could no longer endure Ling Chi's torture, and collapsed with a bang!