The Military Aircraft Division needed an accurate answer. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

The moment he received the telegram, Li Bingheng immediately realized that his time was running out: relying only on the military strength he possessed, no matter what the Military Aircraft Department asked him to do, launching a counterattack against the coalition forces, or stubbornly resisting Tongzhou, was in fact just some fantasy with no basis in reality.

There was no doubt that he would never be able to do what the Military Aircraft Service asked him to do, and there was no chance that he would only bury himself and any soldier he threw into battle.

In the face of the harsh reality, Li Bingheng is left with some gloomy and hopeless views of his future.

Still, in spite of this, he mobilized every little force at his disposal—the regular army, the militias, the boxers, and every man who seemed fit to fight, whether he was fifteen or sixty. Eventually, by the time the mercenaries came into his sight, the desperate minister had nearly thirty thousand soldiers and armed men.

He felt he could fight.

But in the eyes of Qin Lang and the mercenary commanders, apart from the thousands of Qing soldiers, Li Bingheng's armed men were not even a threat: their equipment was terrible, and most of them had only a cold weapon, or an old musket called "carrying a gun" that required two or three people to use, and they had neither military training nor cooperation...... But most importantly, these people clearly lack the will to fight to the death.

"I personally think that it only takes an order from the artillery to fire a rapid fire, and these hillbillies will run back to their homes like rabbits and hide." Major Shepard was the first to give his opinion.

"Don't be overly optimistic, Major." Qin Lang glanced at the major out of the corner of his eye, suggesting that he should not forget the mistakes he had made, and then said, "I admit that this battle will end quickly, but we still need to be cautious with our enemy - order the artillery to enter the firing position. ”

One of the operational staff officers immediately turned around to convey his order, while the other operational staff officer, taking the place of the disgraced Major Shepard, stepped forward and asked with a little surprise: "Need to use a hundred and twenty mm mortar?" ”

"Of course, Captain." Qin Lang's voice was cold and indifferent, "Didn't you find out that our opponent has twelve seventy-five-millimeter field guns?" ”

"I'm sorry, boss." The staff officer's body shuddered slightly, then quickly stepped aside.

Qin Lang ignored him, instead focusing all his attention on the mercenaries operating the one hundred and twenty mm mortars—they were setting up their weapons as fast as they could—and then Qin Lang set his sights on the mortars. These "heavy" weapons, borrowed from SWAT detachments, could only fire ordinary shells, but were enough to suppress the Qing army's heavily equipped old frame guns and a very small number of new three- and six-pounder rapid-fire guns.

In fact, even though there is only one type of weapon used by Western armies, which is similar in weight to large-caliber mortars and has advantages in range and rate of fire, the M1897 75-mm field gun just completed by the French, the power of its shells is still too low.

Qin Lang believed that his army had the most powerful artillery firepower of all light infantry units, and at this moment, it was unmatched.

But some people don't think so.

"This coalition army has no artillery." One of Li Bingheng's aides suddenly shouted, like Columbus, who had just seen the New World a second ago, "This is wonderful good news." My lord, we will win this battle. ”

"Really? The coalition forces are not equipped with artillery? Li Bingheng's tone was calm, slightly curious, and he didn't seem to particularly care about these findings. However, his disguise was not the best: his gently shaking beard showed his excitement without reservation.

Of course, anyone who thinks they have reached a desperate situation a long time ago, but suddenly sees a little hope, they will not perform better than Li Bingheng.

Several officers of the Qing army were already dancing with excitement.

"Bastard thing! What are you guys doing here? Li Bingheng glared at these officers angrily, and his voice was stern, "Pull and pull, sing and dance, and become a system!" ”

As a military governor personally appointed by Cixi, Li Bingheng had supreme authority in Tongzhou, and no one had the audacity to disobey his orders. The officers immediately ceased their celebrations and put on solemn expressions - but the joy was still evident on their faces. Then, as a further expression of their joy, one suggested, "My lord, let's attack." ”

"What?" Li Bingheng hesitated, "Attack? ”

He thought it might be a bad idea, or an idea that seemed good but was actually hard to implement. Now the picture is clear, he has only 30,000 soldiers, but the coalition army has 10,000. Three to one, even if the coalition forces are not equipped with artillery, with this little power now, it is still a little crazy to take the initiative to attack it, which is terrifying.

Of course, a young general might make such a bold attempt, but Li Bingheng is too old, already sixty-eight years old, to clearly not be able to participate in a game of heartbeat with strong stimulation, and, like any bureaucrat with extreme political experience, Li Bingheng prefers to be steady.

"No, we don't attack." His final decision was, "We'll wait for the foreigners to rush up on their own." ”

He would rather wait, wait for the coalition forces to attack his position, and then run into a bloody battle like he did in front of Nie Shicheng's position—but he clearly overestimated himself, and at the same time underestimated Qin Lang and his mercenaries.

"It's funny," Qin Lang put down his binoculars and said to the staff officers beside him, "Our enemy seems to be even less aggressive than I expected, and he just waits quietly and does nothing." ”

"That means we have more tactical advantages, boss." Shepard immediately said, trying to salvage his image.

"Tactics?" Just like hearing a very ridiculous joke, Qin Lang laughed, "Major, for such an enemy, there is only one tactic we need to employ: artillery destruction and infantry occupation. After a pause, he turned to the staff officer in charge of delivering orders, "The troops are ready?" ”

"Yes, boss. Each of the three regimental combat teams will send a battalion to participate in the attack. The staff officer replied, "The commanders are waiting for your orders." ”

"Good." Qin Lang nodded, and changed to an understatement tone, "Start attacking." ”

This command is passed down layer by layer. The three battalions engaged in the battle quickly moved into action, and after a while, several lines of skirmishes appeared in the open area between the two armies, and began to advance slowly towards the Qing positions. Then the artillery also opened fire.

It was only at this time that Li Bingheng and his staff, as well as the officers of the Qing army, realized that their opponents were not unarmed, but on the contrary, the artillery fire of this coalition army was much more powerful than they had imagined, and the shells were as fierce and dense as hailstones, some methodically slaughtering their soldiers and demoralizing the army, while others were barrage in front of the enemy soldiers, making it impossible to see their movements.

Almost immediately, Li Bingheng returned to his despair and depression again, and he sank deeper than before; The same goes for the officers. Their emotions affected the soldiers who approached them, who in turn transmitted their despair and depression to officers and soldiers further afield...... The morale and fighting spirit of this army dissipated so quickly, like snow, which disappears without a trace when it encounters sunlight.

However, the battle continued. It was only in the spontaneous reaction of the soldiers that the artillerymen began to return shells to their opponents, and then the infantry began to fire aimlessly at the approaching mercenaries - but it was the boxers who really posed a little threat to the mercenaries compared to these people.

The battle was marked by a heroic, indeed, suicidal confrontation. Boxers chanting slogans kept rushing out of their positions, launching counter-charges against the mercenaries again and again. Although these men had little chance of getting close to their targets in the face of the accurate salvo fire of mortars, machine guns, and mercenaries, they were always quick to join the growing pile of corpses on the ground, the next moment someone else would launch a new counterattack.

Under the frenzied attacks of these boxers, the mercenaries sometimes had to shrink their battle lines in order to gain a little time to change their bullets. As a result, battles that should have been extremely smooth and could have ended soon became repetitive, giving the impression of a fierce tug-of-war.

"It's crazy." Major Shepard frowned and demanded, "We should increase the forces thrown into the battlefield and end this pointless battle as soon as possible." ”

"Are you scared, Major?" Qin Lang looked at his chief of staff mockingly.

"Of course not, boss." The major became annoyed. Yes, he made a very lowly mistake, but that was not a reason to laugh at him - especially, it was his courage that was ridiculed. There is no doubt that Qin Lang is his boss, but ......

"I'm sorry, Major." Qin Lang smiled, "Please forgive me for my jokes." It's just that you're really too nervous. ”

"I'm not nervous, boss." "It's just that I think those fanatical thugs are too dangerous for our soldiers." ”

"They're dangerous, but they're also draining themselves quickly." Qin Lang said in a perceptive tone, "You will see victory soon." (To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )