It wasn't until a few of his own soldiers sent the bullets that looked decent from the head of the city and even inside the city to the commander's tent, but the commanders of the First Army in charge of the command seemed to realize something. In the Central Plains and even in many other places, even the Mongols. One or two or two heavy arrows are very normal specifications. It is just right to launch this arrow with a five- to seven-bucket Nakahara bow or a compound hunting bow similar to the Nakahara bow. However, these arrows, which were apparently fired in a projectile with a longbow, were somewhat unusual. This means that the people who use these bows and arrows are generally only at the level of about three to six buckets. And in the Jianzhou Army, even the arrows shot by those who are not specialized professional archers will not be of such specifications and level.

The arrows used in the regular army of Jianzhou are often relatively uniform in size, but these arrows are generally inconsistent in materials and specifications. It is clear that they do not belong to the regular armed forces, but are merely bows and arrows used by ordinary militia members who have been mobilized temporarily.

Soon after, the first group of enemy troops captured in the fierce battle at the head of Ili were also brought up. Among them were women in their twenties and thirties, as well as elderly people over fifty years old, and even teenagers in their twelves and thirteens. Obviously, there were not many regular Jianzhou troops left who resisted in the city.

Of course, there is also a possibility that the regular forces of Jianzhou who remained behind intend to prepare for a decisive battle with the besieging team in the street battles in the city or somewhere. However, before the First Army, the Second Army and the Second Division of the Volunteer Right Army could be sure that a large number of elite main forces of the Jianzhou Department had been wiped out in the Hexi Corridor.

When the sky had just been brightened, the sound of cannons and shouts of killing in Ili City gradually ended after a climax of returning to the light. When the commander of the First Army followed the followers into the city as the main force of the reserve, the city was full of corpses that had just fallen, including old people, teenagers and women, but there were not many young adults. There were as many as 300,000 people left behind in the modest city of Ili, and less than 100,000 survived after a bloody night.

However, fortunately, the military at this time was quite well manned and prepared, and although it seemed to be a heavy burden to clean up the corpses in the city, there was still no big plague and chaos in the end.

"According to the preliminary information obtained from some of our forcible interrogations, about 10,000 regular remnants of Jianzhou have fled north, and I wonder if the army knows whether to divide troops to chase after them?" After cleaning up the battlefield, a staff officer asked.

If in the past, the elite of Jianzhou at the level of more than 10,000 armor-clad main forces must not be underestimated by anyone, but at this moment, the commander of the First Army remembered some of Xiao Xuan's previous arrangements, and even the experience of the Battle of the Hexi Corridor, but said: "The team will continue to move westward after a short rest, and prepare to create a greater cause with the army led by the king... By the way, what have been the losses of the army since the Battle of the Hexi Corridor? ”

"In the battle of the western suburbs of Lanzhou, the First Army lost more than 500 people and lost about 2,000 casualties, and the net attrition should be about 13,400 people. In the Battle of Wuwei, more than 1,400 people were killed and about 5,000 were killed or wounded, and the whole army suffered less than 1,000 casualties in the Battle of Turpan. Coupled with the battle of Ili City, which only lost five or six hundred people, the cumulative casualties and losses were about 8,000 people, and the net losses were about 5,000 people... ”

The combat casualties along the way were not too small, but they were not too large, and they were obviously within the acceptable range of the revolutionary army's units, and the morale of the troops was not greatly affected on the basis of their already strong strength. In particular, the capture of more than 20,000 sets of decent armor in the battle obviously solved the basic armament and even horse needs in the westward expansion to a large extent. In terms of gunpowder, at least a few hundred thousand catties of gunpowder also made up for a lot of shortfalls in the main force of the revolutionary army since it went south to fight, and the family foundation has become solid again.

At this time, the main force system of the Ming Dynasty after the whole reform was of course not only the more than 200,000 people who participated in the Western Expedition, but also the main force of at least one volunteer division left behind in the Gyeonggi area and even the main force of the newly formed revolutionary army of about ten armies after the expansion, and it was obvious that there was no pressure on the more than 10,000 Manchurian armor, so the army also continued to advance westward after conquering Ili.

When the instructors of the First and Second Armies of the Revolutionary Army and the Right Army and Xiao Xuan's forces stationed in Samarkand City re-completed their return to the division, it was already the early autumn of the fifth year of Chongzhen. After about a year of preparation and conquest.

The main force of the volunteer troops staying in Central Asia has also been further improved, especially in terms of armor rate, equestrianism, gunpowder, and firearms. On average, each officer and soldier did not have only one precious light horse, as in the past, but at least two to three horses per capita. Moreover, the horses that belong to them are not Mongolian horses that have obvious load problems as in the past. This allowed the entire contingent to effectively motorize the cavalry march from now on, rather than making the officers and men feel as if they were servants of the horses most of the time, as they had done before.

At this moment, when the troops led by Xiao Xuan personally reached the scale of about seventy or eighty thousand, there was no doubt that they had the basis for launching a strategic offensive against a country with weight. Another choice and problem is also in front of us: outside the Central Plains, there are undoubtedly two strategic blocs in the Western Regions and Taixi, one is Iran and Ottomans in the sphere of influence of the Celestial Sect, but the European continent countries in the direction of Eastern Europe, such as Russia, Poland, and even many countries in the depths of Russia. In this case, where should the main direction of attack be placed?

If it were determined to be in the direction of Safipos and Ottoman, the enemy might have been slightly weaker, but the terrain along the way was more complex, the inhabitants were difficult to renovate, and they had to face a longer distance. The biggest risk of attacking Eastern Europe is undoubtedly the greater risk of facing coalition pressure in the face of more rules-conscious continental powers.

After weighing it repeatedly, Xiao Xuan decided to slow down the attack on the Heavenly Sect groups that were vast in depth and had to waste a lot of time, and the main direction of attack was on the Polish and Russian groups. At this time, Europe, which was mired in a thirty years of civil war and religious strife, was clearly the decisive target of this strategy. Therefore, the main group of more than 80,000 men did not set out immediately after the division of the large army, but waited until the Third Army and even a large number of medium and heavy artillery and vehicle baggage teams accompanying the Third Army also gathered in the area of Samarkand, and then began to divide the road to the north, and prepared to complete the military build-up and preparations for attacking Russia in the steppes of Eastern Europe near the Cossacks.

(End of chapter)