Deep in the steppe, Tumut Khan's official village is a three-storey watchtower, and two earthen cannons are erected around the tower, which are guarded by Mongolian soldiers with loaded guns and a company of Beiyang Army. One of the men in the official village had already stood on the battlement, and the city was crowded, and there was a strong smell of mutton in the air. The watchtowers were riddled with bullets, some of the battlements had been flattened, and the open space of the official village was lined with wounded Tumut and Beiyang soldiers.

Tumut Khan's official fortress had been besieged for a day and a night, and the horse bandits launched four attacks, two of which even captured the battlements, and were forced back by the Tumut soldiers and the Beiyang army with sabers and bayonets.

No one knows when the next attack will be, and no one knows how long the official village will be able to support it.

Under the command of a butler-like man, the men in the official village moved the black powder and iron sand from the warehouse to the courtyard, loaded each earthen cannon with gunpowder, and several big men with pine oil torches in their hands, ready to light the fire rope at any time. The other men were lying on the battlements with guns in their hands, looking into the distance with solemn expressions. Countless cavalry below brandished sabers and roared and rushed over, followed by two horse-drawn lele carts, it can be seen in the firelight that a large number of old and young women and children are tied up on the car, and many women are hiding their faces and crying because they have obviously been insulted.

The Tumut warriors at the head of the city gritted their teeth, and their hands holding their guns trembled.

Outside the wall, dense horse bandits galloped back and forth outside the official village, and their sabers swirled overhead.

In charge of guarding the official village was a company commander of the 20th Division, whose name was Meng Liang. Zhang Shao had sent soldiers to the Mongol princes to guard the official villages, not only to defend Utai and Jebtsundamba, but also to control them to prevent rebellion.

"Boom", the earth is trembling, the smoke and dust sweep through the dry grassland, the dust rolls like waves, and the air is filled with a heavy earthy smell.

For the first time, Meng Liang knew what it was like to have thousands of troops, and the hooves of thousands of cavalry were rolling like thunder, which made people feel a little frightened.

The official village lit a beacon fire, which is a signal to call all the herdsmen to protect the official village, and when they see the beacon fire, the herdsmen must pick up their knives and guns to gather in the official village to participate in the battle. But even if all the men who could hold guns in Tumut were involved in the battle, it was only about a thousand, and the enemy had at least six thousand cavalry. The beacon fire has been lit for more than a day, but there are not many people to guard the official village, and it seems that these shepherds are also very lucky.

It was getting dark, the defenders on the official village lit the pine oil torches, and Tumut Khan Bayintl also stood at the battlement, and he asked with a solemn expression: "Brother Meng, when will the reinforcements arrive?" ”

Meng Liang didn't know the bottom at all, he couldn't even be sure if Wuyunzhu and the others would be able to escape safely and find the advance army of Zhengmeng, let alone whether the advance army would come to the rescue of Tumut Khan's official village. It is definitely not possible to count on the 20th Division, Zhang Shao once had less than one regiment of troops in the huge Mongolia, where is the spare strength to protect Tumut? And the advance army belongs to the establishment of the Southern Army, and it does not bite the strings with the Beiyang!

The 20th Division is neither a descendant of Yuan Shikai nor a member of the Southern Army, it belongs to a wild species that grandma does not love and uncle does not love! Zhang Shao was thrown to Mongolia by Yuan Shikai and left the 20th division to fend for himself.

"It's hard to say!" Meng Liang smiled bitterly and shook his head.

Bayintl sighed, patted Meng Liang on the shoulder and said no more.

Dozens of Mongol cavalrymen escorted a man in a gorgeous leather robe and rode slowly to the bottom of the official village, and from the firelight it was clear that this person was Batu, the butler of Utai.

A cruel sneer appeared on Batu's thin face, and he shouted at the top of the city: "Lord Bayintel, our Great Khan said that as long as you open the gate of the wall, declare your support for the Great Mongolia, and hand over the Han people of the country's political axe, you will be crowned prince!" Our two families are still in-laws! If you don't come to your senses, after breaking the official village, all the men who are taller than the wheels of Tumut will be executed! ”

Bayintl said expressionlessly: "You let Uthai come to see me, I have something to say to him!" ”

Batupi smiled and said: "Our prince is too busy, what you have to say to me is the same!" ”

Bayintel pressed his hand on the battlement, laughed and said: "Our two families were originally in-laws, fifteen years ago I married the little girl Wuyunzhu to the prince's son, why, now the son-in-law has come to beat his father-in-law?" We Mongolians don't have this rule! In the future, we Mongolians will have the final say in this great Mongolian state that you are talking about, or will we listen to the Russians? I met with the great master of Zhangjia Hutu Ketu last month, and the Buddha said, I am the life of a county king, if I don't want to be a prince by myself, then there is no place to die, and I want to live a few more years! The officers and soldiers of Beiyang are the guests of my Tumut, and according to the rules of the grassland, as long as anyone enters their own house, no one is allowed to seek revenge! ”

Butler Batu snorted and said: "Don't try to use the Living Buddha to suppress our prince, when our prince becomes the Khan of all Mongolia, the living Buddha must also be canonized by the prince!" Otherwise he is nothing! ”

Bayintl said angrily: "Bastard, even the Buddha dares to blaspheme? Aren't you afraid of dying and going to hell? The expression of our Mongolia, since ancient times, Eastern Mongolia has been decided by the great teacher of Zhangjia, and Western Mongolia is the living Buddha of Jebtsundamba! When will it be Utai's turn to take charge? Go back and tell Utai that it's still too late to rein in the precipice, and when the heavenly soldiers of the central political axe arrive, it will be too late for him to turn back at that time??? Sensei expects the Russians to help him out, things on the grassland are only counted if the Buddha says, and the foreigner is a fart! ”

Batu snorted and scolded angrily: "Okay, since we don't know the current affairs, then don't blame us for not thinking about the in-laws of the two generations!" ”

The butler of Batu fled, and the shouts of the horse bandits became louder, and the sabers glistened in the light of the torches, and a real battle was imminent!

The horse bandits roared and screamed, rode to the outside of the official village, reined in the war horses together, shot at the defenders on the wall, and insulted them in Mongolian, and for a time white smoke filled the air, and the "bang" gunshots sounded like bursting beans.

The Tumut warriors on the official village hid in the battlements, allowing the horse bandits to provoke but did not return fire. Bayintel knew very well that the horse bandits knew that there were not many people in the official village, and wanted to force him to open the city gate for a decisive battle.

The horse bandits released a few rounds of guns, and when they saw that there was no movement in the official village, the people behind jumped off their horses and ran over with ladders. Meng Liang saw that they were about to attack, and shouted, "Shoot!" ”

"Swallow and swallow", Meng Liang's only one imitation of the Jinling Manufacturing Bureau fired first, a tongue of fire divided the battlefield, the back fell like a mowing grass, the person who rushed to the front carried the ladder and was dazed, the old-fashioned musket of the "bang" Tumut warriors also fired, at a distance of more than ten zhang The power of the old-fashioned shotgun even exceeded that of the new-style rifle, and the iron sand and lead bombarded the siege horse bandits, and the chest exploded the bloody hole in the face.

The courage of the horse bandits was extinguished by the merciless rain of bullets, and they did not dare to charge despite the shouts and curses of the commander. Suddenly, the herdsmen who were tied to Lele's cart were driven down, and hundreds of men, women, and children were driven by bandits with their arms cut behind their backs, and they were driven to the official village by the bandits.

The gunfire on the official village stopped, and both the Beiyang Army and the Tumut soldiers raised their guns a little. The soldiers in the official village began to be restless, and the horse bandits were mixed in with these women and children.

"Shoot!" The old man Bayintel's eyes were wide open, like an angry lion.

"Great Khan, you can't! That's all us Tumuts! ”

"Official, you can't shoot!"

"Official, open the gate, let's rush out to save people! My mom and dad are in there, too! ”

The Tumut warriors fell to their knees, shouting the Great Khan and calling the officials, knocking their heads on the blood and begging Bayintel to open the city gates, and the Tumut shepherds below were also calling for their children, and they were all crying above and below.

???? Dividing line ????

Baotou, the pearl outside the plug, is known as Lucheng.

During the Qianlong period, it became a village with two streets, and in the fourteenth year of Jiaqing, Baotou Village expanded its scale and was renamed Baotou Town.

In the second year of Qianlong, Qiao's family sold some bean sprouts and forage in Baotou Village to make a living, and after earning a few small bucks, Qianlong 20 years, officially opened Guangsheng Gongke, selling grain and groceries, and in the 24th year of Jiaqing, Guangsheng Gong, who had been losing money, finally made money, so he changed his name to Fusheng Gong.

First there is Fusheng Gong, and then there is Baotou City, which is not bad at all, after Qiao Zhiyong became the head of the Qiao family, he implemented five prohibitions: one is not allowed to smoke opium, two is not allowed to take concubines, three is not allowed to gamble, four is not allowed to smelt and travel, and five is not allowed to drink.

Qiao's family has a good atmosphere and is thrifty, and the Fusheng public business is thriving, Qiao Zhiyong has a discerning eye, and promoted Ma Xun from a small grain store shopkeeper to a big shopkeeper of all compound numbers.

Ma Xun did not embarrass the Qiao family, twenty years of hard work, and finally made Fusheng Gong the leading business in Baotou City.

Although Baotou City is not big, but it is located in the Yellow River waterway, it is the only channel for the export of furs in the northwest, and the merchants of the five provinces in the northwest have to send the fur goods to Baotou, and then the major merchants organize exports.

It's autumn now, and the autumn in Baotou is already relatively cold, and the wind blows people's faces.

If it is changed to Ping, Ma Xun, the big shopkeeper of the compound number, should be wearing a black jacket, standing in front of the store to greet customers, but at this moment, he personally picked up a foreign gun and took the guys of the compound number to guard the Baotou city wall. For more than 100 years, the four major dart bureaus of "Guangsheng", "Shunyi", "Li Family" and "Niu Family", which have been bodyguards for the Western Gang, have all stood on Baotou City and the executioners, and the foreign guns sealed in the boxes have opened the oil paper packets, wiped the butter, and the bullets and gunpowder have also been distributed to the hands according to the heads.

Although Baotou City is small, there is a lot of silver deposits, and the major ticket numbers have prepared a large amount of cash silver, ready to exchange for those who do fur business.

Small Baotou, just these ticket numbers of the deposit of silver more than 10 million taels, this is not counting the value of the goods, if Baotou is lost, compared to the Gengzi year of the Boxer and the Boxer burned Dashilar, the major ticket numbers in the capital branch was burned, the loss is much greater, Baotou in Eastern Mongolia, Henan's credit store is the largest two in the Jin merchants, it can be said that it is the lifeblood of the West Gang, lose one, you want the life of the West Gang.

Baotou's garrison was the tightest in the whole of Mongolia, and Zhang Shaozeng, who was short of troops, had set up a battalion here, more than his garrison in Suiyuan.

However, with all the strength of Zhang Shaozeng, Baotou only had more than 400 troops in one battalion, while under Baotou City, there were more than 10,000 Mongolian horse bandits, more than 30 times the number of the defenders!

Looking at the team of horse bandits swarming ants below, everyone's hearts rose to their throats, can this Baotou still be defended?

The day before yesterday was a day of market in Baotou, where the bustling crowd was still doing business, and the leather merchants were still selling the skins of lynxes, foxes, cattle and sheep. There is nothing unusual about the noisy city. Ma Xun, the big shopkeeper of Fusheng Gong, discovered a strange thing, the telegram he sent to the general number did not respond, and in Pingyue, when the semicolon reported to the general number every day, the general number would call back.

Ma Xun is an old man, in line with the purpose of being careful and not making a big mistake, he asked the executioner of the "Guangsheng" dart bureau to notify the telegraph office to check the line, but found that it was not only Fusheng Gong, but all the telegrams could not be sent or received. Ma Xun immediately became vigilant, and he asked Wang Damao, the commander of the cavalry battalion of the Beiyang Army stationed in Baotou, to investigate secretly. As a result, I saw a lot of sneaky Mongols on the street, and I was shocked after arresting and searching, all of whom were carrying short guns and bombs. Wang Damao ordered the city gate to be sealed, and the whole city was searched, and there were hundreds of horse bandit spies who mixed into Baotou, and after interrogation, they learned that they were Wutai people, and they were ordered to create chaos in the city when the main force of the horse bandits attacked the head, and opened the city gate by the way.

Wang Damao and Ma Xun were frightened by the cold hands and feet, and they couldn't send the telegram, it must have been cut off the telegraph line. They had to send people out of the city to ask for help, but there has been no news so far, and it must have fallen into the hands of Utai.

Wang Damao urgently mobilized, deployed all the soldiers to defend the city, and repeatedly sent people out of the city to ask for help, but there was no news from Huang He. His battalion is all infantry, each of them has a Mauser 88 whose rifling is almost smoothed, and the machine gun only has two imitation Green guns from the Jinling Manufacturing Bureau, and the handle will explode if the handle is shaken a little. In order to strengthen the defense of Baotou, the two mighty general cannons cast in the Ming Dynasty used by the Chenghuang Temple to ward off evil spirits were also steamed and washed, and had to be moved to the city.

Anyway, it works and doesn't work, so it can only be improvised, and it's good to beat the war horses that can't kill people and scare the Mongols!

Looking at the Mongolian cavalry below who were as black as ants, Ma Xun's scalp was numb, with such a pitiful defensive force in Baotou, could he stop more than 10,000 horse bandits?

Emperor, bless the Western Gang, bless our Han people!

Ma Xun, who has never believed in gods and Buddhas, prayed extremely sincerely in his heart!

(To be continued)