When the team led by Xiao Xuan collected more than 30 witnesses and even carried the confessions of hundreds of witnesses and began to lead the team straight to the Lanzhou area, Wang Zhaolin and Chen Yong, who were sitting in Lanzhou, finally felt that the moment of decision had come.

"But what room for mitigation?" Wang Zhaolin still has some fantasies. After all, as a person who once came from Xiao Xuan's team, he knew very well the ability of this Son of Heaven in the construction of elite combat power.

"No, the road in front of us now is nothing but one and two endless. Fortunately, because of the interests of the northwest access road, the officers and soldiers stationed in Lanzhou should be reliable, and they should know very well that with the current Jiangdong style of law, if the matter is revealed, will it be only us who are unlucky, and Yingtian is also very cautious in this regard, and it seems that he has no intention of entering the city at all, but let us and the person in charge of the battalion and above who are registered and drawn around us go directly out of the city to be investigated... ”

"How many horses did they take and what was the quality of the horses?" Wang Zhaolin asked again, although he also got the news, but there are some things to confirm together, there will always be greater certainty. Whether the opponent is a good cavalry or a high-powered team is obviously the key to many questions. Even if you have an advantage in strength, if you are at a disadvantage in mobility, it will still bring too many variables.

Since ancient times, it is not surprising that a thousand or hundreds of elite cavalry have outperformed the main force of twenty or thirty thousand infantry, as long as the difference in the level of the two sides is large enough. However, a force of 1,000 or a hundred infantry is better than another 20,000 or 30,000 people, which is not common even when the people are encircled and suppressed.

"You should have some news about this, right? They didn't have many horses with them, and most of the horses that numbered about one-quarter were also very common Mongolian horses, and they were obviously not the standard for war horses, but only horses for folk baggage... ”

After confirming the news, Wang Zhaolin finally made up his mind and mobilized when the team led by Xiao Xuan had not yet assembled under Lanzhou City.

"You probably all know what you have done over the years, and what is the attitude of the imperial court now! Are you willing to live like ordinary people like ordinary local armies in the country, or do you plan to forge a new way out in the northwest and even outside the region? ”

If it was an ancient army in the traditional sense, perhaps a rebellion would involve a variety of interests, and it would not be so easy to instigate easily. However, since the popularization of the modern art of military training, many armies in the northwest have been trained to fear officers and commanders to a large extent, and the characteristics of private soldiers are more serious than those of many troops in the Republic of China. If it is said that in the Jiangdong area, the Datong Society and even various internal and external intelligence organizations were still able to supervise and influence the armed forces to a great extent, then in the northwest at this time, the few internal and external intelligence organizations had already been assimilated to a large extent in the face of huge interests.

The new political mechanics that had just been created and were flawed, and the unique powers that came with the relocation mission made many of the powers from the middle of the river to the northwest seem like independent kingdoms.

"We are willing to obey the commander's orders... At first, the sound was not loud, but under the special instructions of some people, the voice seemed to be getting louder and louder.

At this time, Wang Zhaolin and Chen Yong mobilized at least 30,000 regular forces to concentrate in the Lanzhou area, and this time they almost planned to rush out of the nest in a desperate way, leaving only some "reserve arms" in the city of Lanzhou

After several years of operation, the "reserve armament" numbering about 10,000 people is not very well trained, but its firearms and equipment are not inferior to those of the regular troops. With a strength advantage of about 30 times, Wang Zhaolin had some confidence in a possible head-to-head showdown. Of course, some other preparations were not without it, such as the blasting ambush deployed near the four gates.

However, to the disappointment of these people, the team led by Xiao Xuan did not intend to camp within a mile of the city, but stopped about two miles near the south gate of Lanzhou City and let the teams start to build their temporary breastwork and trenches.

At this time, the army that was already in battle in Lanzhou City did not hesitate, and first began to launch fierce fire with more than 100 medium and heavy artillery pieces deployed in the south of the city, and almost in just a few minutes, more than 100,000 heavy shotguns were fired, but at a distance of about two miles, even the power of six or seven taels of heavy shotguns was finally reduced to the range that the steel shields of the young officers and soldiers of the new guard battalion could effectively protect, plus the dispersion of troops and the error within two miles was already very large. Therefore, only more than 10 casualties were caused.

To a large extent, the artillery fire meant that there was no way out, but perhaps because the artillery bombardment was not effective, the light field artillery deployed between the arrays under the city also began to approach in a closer direction under the order, ready to bombard at a distance of about a mile. Since the other side does not have much cavalry and not much artillery, it is obvious that it is time for itself to give full play to its unilateral advantage.

However, just when at least twenty-five companies of about 300 two-hundred-pound field artillery vehicles with shields approached a distance of about one mile, Xiao Xuan ordered that only some teams with very rudimentary guns in their hands should fire first. The continuous bits of white smoke accompanied by the sound of not very loud cannons continued to rise, and did not bring great deterrence to the gunners on the opposite side when the cannon was fired at the beginning.

After all, according to common sense, a range of about 200 paces is the threat limit of this kind of single or double heavy firearms, and at a distance of about one mile, it only has some theoretical threat capability to attack low-protection targets.

However, no one could have imagined that the projectiles fired by the sporadic and loose formations of the opponent's individual or double guns, which did not seem to be very dense, had an unexpected accuracy and power, and almost a quarter of the shells hit the light artillery cart and the car shield at a distance of about a mile. The cannonball, which seemed to be faster than the sound, easily pierced the cannon shield and the car shield before the sound arrived, sending a splash of blood through the not-so-thick crowd.

The 400 rifled guns launched an attack with earthen black powder shell-piercing shells, and the five rounds of fire in just two minutes brought about 7 or 800 casualties, and although the casualties were not large, it made it almost difficult for more than 300 light field guns to fire effectively.

(End of chapter)