If these hundreds of thousands of Mongol troops were to encircle and annihilate the Hetao, the Mongol tribes would no longer have much combat power, and the Ming Dynasty would be able to capture Mongolia and advance to the Western Regions.

If Mongolia is peaceful, the north of the Ming Dynasty can be stable for a hundred years.

However, if the Ming Dynasty does not want to forge ahead, there will be external troubles in a hundred years, and Tsarist Russia in Western Europe has begun to advance to Asia, and it will not even take another hundred years, maybe it will not be long before the two sides will have border conflicts.

When Zhao Yan received the report from the combat headquarters, he only replied with one word - hit!

What a day Khan, just a false name.

Even if it is well deserved, Zhao Yan cannot tolerate the existence of Mongolia.

National blood feuds cannot be erased by time. Tens of millions of Han people in the Southern Song Dynasty were slaughtered by the Mongols, how can this be calculated? If the future generations do not liquidate the alien race, it can only be said that those in power have lost the bottom line of the nation.

Has the nation really stood up?

No!

Never got up.

It just created an atmosphere of boastful public opinion.

For Mongolia, Zhao Yan must resolutely exterminate it, and there is no room to choose.

Surrounding more than 100,000 Mongolian people in the Hetao made Zhao Yan feel very happy, as long as these hundreds of thousands of people were annihilated, Mongolia would no longer be able to turn up the big waves.

And the Manchu Qing Dynasty can no longer turn over the big waves, and after the siege of the city and the land are clear, it is the stage of pursuit and killing, even if they are chased to the ends of the earth, they must be completely wiped out.

The continuous victories of the Shandong army in Mongolia also made the radicals of the Ming Dynasty very excited, resulting in more scholars in Shandong in recent months.

Many of these scholars have radical ideas, and it is very easy to reform, and this is the right person who will do the right thing.

They have received great attention in Shandong, and many of them are not worthy of studying at the Denglai Military Academy after training.

In addition to the air force, it also belongs to the stage of utopia, and there are many cadets of the navy and army, and a large number of officers are studying in the academy.

Entering the Denglai Military Academy to study has become the dream of the soldiers of the Shandong Army. Once you enter the Denglai Military Academy, you will be an officer when you come out.

And if you want to enter the Denglai Military Academy to study and further study, you must perform well in the army, in addition to performing well, you must also have a certain amount of military merit.

Every month, many soldiers are selected to study at the Tenley Military Academy, and many officers are sent back for further training.

Zhao Yan himself served as the principal of the Denglai Military Academy, and every week he would give a lesson to the students, and Zhao Yan's lecture was not how to fight, but to tell the students what kind of model the future war would evolve into.

However, Zhao Yan taught these officers only one core idea, that is, with the continuous development of science and technology and the economy, the future war will be a material war.

A military power, not only to have a large corps, but also to have a large factory, a large laboratory, the war will no longer be a collision between the first, but the collision of the machine and the machine, the potential of the first is limited, and the potential of the machine is unlimited.

At the same time, Zhao Yan also put forward the concept of 'comprehensive national strength', and the strength of comprehensive national strength determines a country's potential in war.

Population, industry, economy, finance, industrial mobilization, troop mobilization, and the quality of military personnel are all factors that affect the victory or defeat of a war.

The meaning of a country's existence is to defend the nation and safeguard its interests, and the most effective way is to bring down all countries that may pose a threat.

To put it another way, the meaning of the existence of a state is to constantly develop, to constantly wage war, otherwise it will have to endure war.

Zhao Yan's thinking made the academies and officers in the military academy turn radicals one by one.

In terms of the way of future war, Zhao Yan usually erects a certain weapon, what will become of the war, for example, after the appearance of the machine gun, what will the war become?

The machine gun is not an imaginary thing, because smokeless gunpowder is already being developed, and air-guided reloading is theoretically possible.

What will become of war when the power and range of artillery are greatly increased?

After the advent of tanks and planes, what will become of the war?

Tanks and airplanes, just imaginary things. However, the success of the steam engine means that these things are not empty talk, but also very likely.

The answer is that when the artillery is greatly increased, the soldiers will take refuge in the trenches to protect themselves, and will be armed with a large number of machine guns and barbed wire. If both sides are like this, they will fall into a kind of encirclement and counter-encirclement, in which both sides will encircle and be surrounded by the enemy on top of each other. Lacking the ability to break through the encirclement, both sides will fall into a long-term stalemate, and any side that tries to break through the encirclement by means of a dense charge will be dealt a heavy blow.

Only constant shelling!

Both sides will be dragged into the quagmire.

After the appearance of tanks and aircraft, the two sides have the ability to quickly tear through the enemy's defense line, and thus will enter the era of movement warfare...... The main purpose of Zhao Yan's lecture on such a course to these officers is to guide the way of army building in the future and to avoid the crooked path of military development in the future.

At the same time, it can also be regarded as broadening their horizons, so as not to think that they are invincible in the world when they develop to a certain extent, so as not to think about it.

The continuous victories of the Shandong army in Mongolia also exacerbated the panic of many people.

Those landlords watched Zhao Yan grow day by day, and they also began to be worried, one day Zhao Yan expanded to their province, and there was also a "Shandong Agricultural Tax Collection Act", then their land production would be over.

Chongzhen also has a feeling of restlessness whenever he sees the good news.

This time Zhao Yan conquered Mongolia, what made him very unhappy was that Lu Xiangsheng actually went with him, which made Chongzhen very angry, and sent a few holy decrees to Lu Xiangsheng, but it turned out to be like a mud cow entering the sea, and there was no movement at all.

However, what makes Chongzhen more pleased is that Zhao Yan has been sending soldiers and horses to the provinces of Daming for months, and the soldiers and horses in Shandong have become extremely scattered.

And according to Jinyiwei's informant spying, Shandong began to expand its army again.

Although it is not clear how many troops will be expanded, it must be because of the lack of troops, and it is almost impossible to concentrate troops in Shandong with Shandong's current expansion posture.

As Yang Sichang said, sooner or later, Shandong will be like a violent Qin, killing itself!

If Zhao Yan knew about this remark, he would inevitably laugh. It is good that the Qin Dynasty brought about its own destruction, but it definitely did not perish because of belligerence.

The Qin Dynasty had a strong war ability, and many of their things were very advanced, but after the destruction of the Six Kingdoms, those weapons and other things were destroyed, and as a result, by the time of Qin II, the Qin State was killed by Xiang Yu and defeated. It can be said that the state of Qin before the destruction of the Six Kingdoms was very different from the state after the destruction of the Six Kingdoms, and the reason for the rapid degradation of combat effectiveness was because of the self-destruction of the Great Wall and the self-destruction of many things.

With the Shandong Army, which regards fighting a war as a money-making business, it is really not easy to fight until it perishes.

…… The Loop!

Five infantry brigades broke through into the loop, and the two sides entered a stalemate under the call of the emissary. However, the Shandong army could afford to be deadlocked, and since it entered the Hetao area to fight, the logistics were changed to be transported by the Yellow River.

The supplies were first shipped to Shaanxi and then out of northern Shaanxi.

The logistical supply has never been interrupted since the beginning of the war, and although a large number of cattle and sheep have been captured, food is still supplied as usual, except that no meat is delivered, but a lot of fruit is delivered.

In addition to a lot of grains that have been made into semi-finished products, as well as meat seasonings and dried fish, this time many apples and some peaches were also delivered.

The apples were put in the cellar last year, and the peaches were freshly ripe and a little green. Being able to eat fruit in the battle made the Shandong army jubilant, and at this time, in addition to loyalty, loyalty was still allegiance!

Every day, cattle and sheep are eaten casually, and the logistics troops will often send fruits and cakes, and every day in the barracks, when it is time to eat, the smell of meat is permeated, but there is no wine.

On the Mongol side, it was miserable, the time dragged on day by day, their rations were dragging on less and less, and the capital for negotiations was slowly draining.

Lu Xiangsheng's Xuanda soldiers and horses also have the same treatment, which makes him sigh, Zhao Zhijian, a guy who is not even willing to build a palace, treats soldiers very generously, it turns out that the money is spent in this place, no wonder the bodies of all veterans are so strong.

An army smashed out of silver.

However, Zhao Yan's silver is smashed smartly, he does not use silver to win over officers, but to use silver to win over soldiers, as long as the soldier's heart is always grasped, then this army will always be his.

The officers of the Shandong Army are not the higher the rank, the higher the status, but the higher the rank, the higher the responsibility, there is no traditional bureaucratic system here, there is no distinction between high and low status, and it is not that the rank is high, and it is natural that the soldiers are noble. There is only a difference in the level of responsibility, and at the time of reward, the officer will not exceed five times as much as the ordinary soldier.

These officers, once out of the army, are nothing, and they have no room for bargaining.

…… The stalemate ended in late April, and as Zhao Yan's order arrived, the operational command immediately ordered the Mongol army to be wiped out in the Hetao area.

The current Mongolian army of 130,000 is only worthy of the word 'clearing' in the eyes of the staff officers of the operational command, not annihilation.

The Mongols, who dragged on until late April, had already eaten half of their horses, and although most of them fought with one horse and two horses, how much combat strength did they have after losing one horse?

Compared with the infantry brigade of the Shandong Army, which is also a horse, the speed is already about the same.

Five infantry brigades marched in unison and began to approach the Mongol army in the Hetao area. The Mongols saw that the negotiations had failed, and the Ming army did not accept the conditions they proposed, and it was not even clear which points they did not accept, but the negotiations were undoubtedly unsuccessful, and the Mongol tribes at this time planned to fight to the death.

The Ming army has smashed all their luck and illusions nakedly, just as most of the besiegers only surround three sides, but the Ming army is besieging all four sides to death, is there any other way than desperate?

130,000 Mongol cavalry began to attack the Shandong army.

However, every time they came close to the Shandong army six miles away, they would be bombarded, it was a dozen horses dragging heavy artillery, and when they got close to two miles away, it was the real journey to hell, and the dense artillery bombardment made them realize that death was so close to them.

Each battalion has an artillery company, a company of 90 artillerymen, and 30 light artillery pieces, including 10 cannons, 20 howitzers.

An infantry brigade has 450 light artillery pieces, that is, 150 cannons, 300 howitzers.

The cannon is used in front of the formation, and the firing range is longer than that of the cannon, and the effective range of the 75 mm caliber also reaches 1200 meters, and the maximum firing range can reach 1700 meters.

The cannon is much more powerful than the howitzer, because the cannon shoots out in parallel, and when the enemy charges, each shell is bound to kill someone, and the shell will also break out of a bloody path. It also has the characteristics of simple aiming, and there is almost no need to calculate any ballistics when firing the gun.

The advantage of howitzers in the confrontation is that they can adapt to complex terrain and constantly hit the enemy behind the formation, the disadvantage is that the lethality is not as large as the cannon, the range is not as far as the cannon, and the trajectory must be calculated.

At the same time, each brigade also has an artillery regiment, also called a heavy artillery regiment, and they are equipped with all heavy artillery, the kind of 125 mm siege guns have been eliminated, replaced by real materials, 200 mm cannons with an effective range of 3000 meters.

The heavy artillery regiment was equipped with a total of 4,300 heavy guns, and an average of eight soldiers were responsible for the operation of one artillery, of which 100 were cannons and 300 howitzers, all of which were 200 mm caliber.

On April 26, when approaching the lair of the Ordos Department, the 130,000 Mongol army marched towards the Shandong army with the rumbling horses' hooves.

Their speed was not fast, and it was estimated that they wanted to set up a formation in front of the Shandong army.

As a result, they were six miles away from the Shandong Army, and they were heavily bombarded by the heavy artillery regiment, and the 400 heavy guns of the artillery regiment opened fire with all their might.

The huge howitzer fell from the sky, and the Mongols within a radius of 10 meters were all shocked to death by the shock wave generated by the explosion of gunpowder.

Ten meters away, if the shell is exploded in mid-air, the shrunnel will be sprinkled like raindrops, and it is simply not alive, and the heavy artillery regiment is bombing such a fixed point 3,000 meters away, the shell fuses are constantly tested, and at the same time, there are more strict production checks, 50% of the grenades can explode in mid-air at a distance of 3,000 meters.

The cannon was even more violent, rushing all the way to a distance of three thousand meters, but it still had undiminished momentum, directly rushing out of a blood-drenched passage among the Mongols, and then exploded.

The five infantry brigades of the 1st Division were equipped with a total of 2,000 heavy guns, and a large amount of military expenditure was invested in artillery, while the artillery regiments of the 2nd Division did not have so much heavy artillery at all.

A large amount of investment has also turned the infantry brigade of the first division into a terrifying steel monster, and the cavalry brigade can only be defeated if it is defeated in terms of mobility, except that it is better than the infantry brigade in mobility.

Cavalry brigades are only used to bully those enemies with a low level of civilization, but it is very cost-effective to use cavalry brigades to clean them up, after all, they are highly mobile and much more efficient than infantry brigades.

But the infantry brigade is the trump card in Zhao Yan's hands.

The Mongol army, which had just approached, was hit by the artillery of two brigades, and the combat command, based on the reports of the scouts, drew an area on the map for blind spot shooting.

After two rounds of shelling, the Mongols left their corpses on the ground and retreated!

The infantry brigade continued to advance, and in the area of the shelling, they found more than eight thousand corpses, and for the first time, the terrifying steel behemoth showed its hideous fangs.

…… That night, the Mongols attacked the barracks of the Shandong army.

As a result, the mines planted by the engineer battalion blew up their noses and faces, and the mines planted by the infantry brigade were the 'bombers' that had already appeared in the Ming Dynasty, burying the mines one by one in the ground with fuses + iron pipes, and then connecting these fuses with steel wheel firers, as long as the enemy stepped on the steel wheel firers, dozens of bombers would all be ignited, and then an explosion would be formed in a certain area.

The mines used by the Shandong military are of the type of reinforced version, and a lot of gunpowder is released, and the mines are very large. Generally, a certain mine group has two or three steel wheel ignitors.

The burial was very haphazard, because it was used to prevent the enemy from attacking at night, and there was no need to do any camouflage at all, and there was only a thin layer of soil on it.

However, the location of the burial is very particular, from what direction the enemy will approach, then in this direction, directly bury the group of mines connected to the steel wheel ignition into a line, and after the enemy in front stepped on it, the mines exploded one after another, so that all the enemies on this line could not be spared.

This time, hundreds of mines were connected to one drum lighter, and at the same time, there were three or four steel wheel lighters in this mine group, and no matter which one of them was stepped on, all of these hundreds of mines would explode. And these hundreds of mines are lined up in a straight line and stretch for hundreds of meters.

The Mongols stepped on a mine five miles from the barracks, and this was an early warning mine, not a dense anti-personnel mine.

As soon as the mine sounded, the sentry personnel outside immediately fired a warning shot.

In just five minutes, the five infantry brigades were assembled, and the Mongols were still rushing forward, after all, the Mongols' command system was too chaotic to stop the advance of the troops in the dark light.

Soon the Mongols rushed to the dense mine group within a mile of the Shandong army, and the Shandong army camped in only three directions to attack, and the Mongols rushed from the west, and the steel wheel torches were stepped on one by one.

As soon as the steel wheel ignition was stepped on, the mines in the straight line were detonated one after another, and the Mongols in the night attack lined up in a relatively dense formation, and there were more than 100,000 people, and the formation was stretched to two or three miles.

A straight line exploded, one explosion after another, a huge mine erupted with an earth-shattering sound, and the Mongols within a few hundred meters were killed and injured, but the most dead were horses, and many of the Mongols above were only injured, but this was basically no different from being killed.

The Mongols who did not have the mobile surname would eventually die under the muskets.

The lethality of landmines can only be said to be so-so, but the composition of gunpowder used is different, and the momentum is extremely huge, and people who are close can even be deaf to their ears.

This sudden explosion completely blew up the Mongols.

The horses behind were frightened by the light of the fire and the loud noise in front of them, and did not listen to the call.

The Mongols consumed one-third of the division's mines with a single mine, and although they carried a lot of mines, they were usually planted at night when they were prone to night attacks because they were easy to recover.

At this moment, bursts of fire burst out from the barracks, and with a loud bang, fireballs shot out in an arc or in a straight line...... Its prestige is huge, as if there is a sky full of stars and moons...... The artillery is in full swing again!

(To be continued)