It was very late in the winter day, and Lao Zhang, who was guarding the gate of Lanzhou, stretched his waist. The sky outside was still dark, and the sky was faintly lit up with the white of the fish's belly. Looking at the old grandfather clock that was distributed, it was already six o'clock in the morning.

It's better to still have a grandfather clock, you don't need to listen to the nonsense of beating outside, just look at the grandfather clock, and you can see at a glance what time it is.

Lanzhou is an important town in the northwest, and the garrison force of the Ming army is also good. In addition to the two garrison divisions of the Liao Army, there are more than 2,000 people from the remaining Ming Border Army. However, these people are not as good as the garrison in their hands, and many of them still have bows and crossbows. Anyway, there are a few cannons on the city wall that have long been eliminated to support the façade of the town!

It's no wonder that the Ming Dynasty didn't attach importance to Lanzhou, but it was the Tibetans who mainly defended Lanzhou. But the Tibetans are so poor that they don't even have the tools to rob them. Many places are still in the stage of slash-and-burn cultivation, and there are not many iron weapons in their hands, let alone attacking such an important town as Lanzhou.

With the strength of the defenders of Lanzhou, it was more than enough to defend against the Tibetans. Even the border troops sometimes took the initiative to provoke the Tibetans, and ran as far as Xining. The Tibetans really had nothing to rob, and apart from robbing a few yaks, they didn't have much else to gain. I heard that there is a Potala Palace in Lhasa, which has a lot of gold and silver, but unfortunately, as long as the Han people go to the plateau, they will have qi diseases.

Yan Yueli, the defender of Lanzhou, thought about it, but he didn't dare to rush to the plateau with his troops.

According to the regulations of the imperial court, the city gate of Lanzhou must be opened at seven o'clock after winter.

"Get up!" Lao Zhang shouted loudly and turned on the kerosene lamp.

"It's still dark outside."

"Company commander, what time is it?"

"It's fucking dead, it's six o'clock. Get up! Lao Zhang shouted, carried a cloth towel dipped in cold water, and wiped it on his face one by one. Immediately there was a squeaky and screaming sound in the barracks!

The GIs got up slowly, and then the soldiers of the cooking squad began to cook on the fire. The rest of the soldiers walked around the walls they were guarding, even if they were on patrol.

Lao Zhang's company is the former Ming border army, and most of them are from Guanzhong.

There was a military disaster and a plague in Guanzhong, and most of these people had no one in their homes, so they gave up the idea of returning to Shaanxi. Since the Liao army came to be co-opted, they were obediently co-opted, anyway, as long as anyone pays food and silver, he is the boss.

Lao Zhang glanced at the whitening of the fish's belly in the distance, and the frozen Yellow River was like a silver jade belt, winding eastward on the earth. He pondered, I heard that the imperial court's policy is good now, is it time to go back to his hometown to see. If it's okay, just talk to the battalion commander about demobilization and return to your hometown. Staying in this Lanzhou City, I can't even marry an aunt.

I heard that when the company commander returned to his hometown, the imperial court also assigned errands. They are all working in the yamen, and I heard from the people who came over there in Guanzhong that the most popular place now is the Public Security Bureau. Lao Zhang didn't know what the Public Security Bureau was, he thought that it should be similar to the previous servant.

Looking at the hundred or so people behind him, it seems that it is a bit of a loss to be a servant. Go back for the Chinese New Year and talk about it, it's really not good to say an aunt in Guanzhong and bring it back to Lanzhou to take root.

With things in mind, time flies. He took the people around the city, left the two of them to change the guard, and led the people down the road to the city wall. The big guy folded the quilt and washed it, waited for breakfast, and then opened the city gate at seven o'clock punctually.

Lao Zhang didn't notice that there were many figures in the distance, slowly approaching Lanzhou City.

Breakfast is white flour steamed bun millet porridge, and the knife work of the cooking squad leader is good. The shredded radish is finely chopped and poured with hot red oil, and the aroma is immediately overflowing. Dry mixed potato shredded bean skin, a few pieces of red tofu look festive.

The soldiers snorted and ate, and Lao Zhang was very satisfied with the meal. Much stronger than the previous Ming border army!

At that time, in the middle of winter, it was a bowl of gruel in the morning, and it would be nourished by urinating. The next meal needs to wait until the evening, and the peak is always a sentence, and the supply is difficult and the military is insufficient.

God knows, when supplies are difficult, why do generals still eat three meals a day in their yamen. As for the silver, sometimes half a year, sometimes a year, after it is issued, it will be deducted by Shangfeng in half.

It's different with the Liao army, breakfast is white flour bun millet porridge, all kinds of small pickles. Lunch is full of four stir-fried dishes, and you can eat all-you-can-eat rice. Dinner with two stir-fries, plus four small pickles. The food is still white flour steamed millet porridge, and you can eat as much as you want.

Not to mention the three meals a day, the military salary was paid to everyone on time. The quartermaster needs to press the handprint there! The last guy who deducted military salaries had his head hung on the flagpole and been blown by the wind for more than a year, and he still hasn't taken it down.

With military salaries, soldiers can take a sip of wine if they have nothing to do. As long as you don't fight, gambling is a blind eye.

The brothers in the border army are actually very satisfied, and it is actually much better to follow Li Dashuai than to follow the imperial court. When a soldier eats food and gets a salary, who does he give his life to? Of course, whoever eats, drinks, and spends will be given to whomever he wants.

After breakfast, the sky still didn't shine. The sun had only poked its head in the east, and many people had gathered under the city gates. All of them were carrying burdens, and some were driving cars, which were filled with firewood and charcoal.

In the winter, firewood and charcoal are a hard demand. A lot of it comes in from outside the city every day! It's just that the sentinels found that there were a lot of people today, and it seemed to be unusually quiet. No one stomped their feet and chatted loudly, as usual.

"Open the gates!" Seeing that the table clock rang seven times, Lao Zhang shouted loudly.

Eight strong soldiers shouted trumpets and carried the heavy deadbolts. The four soldiers worked hard in unison, and the gate of Lanzhou City "squeaked" open.

"It's all battled, lined up. Check and release one by one! Before the city gate opened, Lao Zhang walked out of the city gate with a few people, and habitually shouted in a thick Guanzhong accent.

Suddenly, Lao Zhang felt that something was wrong. Although these people were dressed in Han clothes, many of them had curly hair. He has dark skin and a plateau red on his cheeks.

This is not a fucking Han people, it is a fucking Tibetan pretending. When the cold wind blew a fishy smell, Lao Zhang reacted.

Pity! His reaction was still too slow, and he didn't open his mouth to shout. A sharp long knife swept through his throat, and Lao Zhang's head flew up with a whirlpool. In the air, Lao Zhang even saw his cavity spurting blood.

The Tibetans waiting outside the city gate shouted frantically and rushed into the city. Almost at the same time, countless cavalry rushed out of the woods outside the city. At first glance, these cavalry were not Tibetan cavalry, but they rode fat and strong Mongolian horses, and carried rifles with bayonets in their hands.

As these men approached the city walls, they fired at the Ming troops on the walls on their horses.

The Ming army on the city wall did not even have a firearm in his hand. The bow and crossbow shot down sparsely, but only a few Tibetans were wounded, and there was nothing they could do about the Mongols in the distance.

In the entire Lanzhou City, no one thought of it. The Tibetans joined forces with the Mongols and attacked Lanzhou, an important town in the northwest, on this cold winter morning.

Before the Ming army sabers defending the city gate were drawn, a large group of Tibetans who were screaming "whooping" rushed in. The harsh plateau has cultivated their fierce character. The sharp long knife carried the cold wind and slashed at the unprepared Ming army.

There was almost no decent resistance, and more than a dozen Ming troops in the cave of the city gate became ghosts under the sword. The Tibetans went crazy, wiped the blood from their knives on their faces, and rushed into the city with machetes. It is said that in this way, you can get the enemy's strength.

The Ming army on the city wall finally reacted, and the two soldiers ran frantically to the big bell inside the city tower, shaking the rope and hitting the huge bronze bell wildly.

"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!" The rapid sound of the bell woke up many sleeping people, and Yan Yueli, the garrison commander who was eating, put down his rice bowl in surprise and listened to the sound of a tight bell outside.

"Urgent gathering!" Yan Yueli's shouting voice was disconnected, and a rapid whistle immediately sounded in the headquarters.

There were also explosions in the various military camps, especially the two garrison divisions of the Liao army stationed in the city. Without waiting for Yan Yueli's order, the two division commanders ordered to open the weapons depot, distribute weapons to the soldiers, and occupy favorable terrain according to the determined plan.

Several Tibetans rushed into the tower, brandishing machetes and slashing at two Ming soldiers who were ringing bells to warn them. With a knife down, the fierce Tibetans brutally cut the two Ming soldiers into many pieces. They stood in front of the city gate tower with their heads on their shoulders, shouting frantically, as if they had taken Lanzhou City.

The Mongolian cavalry rushed into the city of Lanzhou in the cold wind, and a small number of Ming troops had just entered the streets. was hit by rows of bullets and turned people on their backs, and some of the citizens of Lanzhou who came out in ignorance were directly stabbed through by bayonets. Until they died, they didn't understand what was going on.

The Mongol cavalry rushed to kill as if there was no one, and whenever there were Han Chinese in the streets, they were either shot to death or poked to death with bayonets. Following in the footsteps of the Mongols, the Tibetans began to rush into the homes of the people.

These savages are like crazy, and they look for women. It doesn't matter if it's eight or eighty years old, as long as it's a woman, she strips off her clothes, and then her dirty body is pressed on it. As long as they see men, whether they resist or not, they will be stabbed in the head. Then, go ahead and find the woman.

After venting, the Tibetans will let go of the woman under the crotch. Their eyes lit up and they began to search for everything they thought was valuable in the Han people's homes, and they had not eaten enough for a long time, and even the potatoes in the kitchen were considered good.

Smoke and fires began to appear near the city gates, which were set by the Tibetans. Although the Ming army was still resisting, they believed that they had captured the city of Lanzhou. They're celebrating, they're burning. The women who had just been let go were thrown into the fire by their legs. Then listen to the creepy screams and start dancing incessantly.

Geldan personally led the people to the front, and this battle was carefully prepared. Because of the lack of troops, he even used his connections among the Tibetans to borrow Tibetan soldiers from the Grand Lama.

The initial success of the battle was even greater than Gerdan's imagination. In the most optimistic forecasts, this scenario does not arise in front of you. The Mongol cavalry galloped down the streets, shooting every Han Chinese they saw. In the cave of the city gate behind him, dense Tibetans poured in. Like locusts entering a wheat field, they start the crazy harvesting mode.

"Smack!" "Smack!" "Smack!" "Smack!" "Smack!" ……！

A series of gunshots sounded, and the dozen or so Mongol soldiers who rushed to the front immediately fell under their horses. Geldan hurriedly grabbed the reins, knowing that he had encountered the main force of the Ming army. According to your pre-war intelligence, there were more than 10,000 Ming troops in the city.

This is definitely an unusual deployment in Lanzhou, which has a population of just over 80,000 people.

Fortunately, Geldan had already prepared, and the Mongol soldiers who rushed in front did not use Geldan's orders, and dismounted one after another, climbed the commanding heights and began to shoot at the opposite side.

In the hands of the garrison division, only the breech-loading flintlock pistols eliminated by the Liao army were eliminated. This gun was seriously behind the times, and after one shot, the shooter had to stand up and reload.

It is precisely because of this characteristic that countless Ming army shooters have never been able to reload the second round when they have fired the first bullet.

The Mongols held repeating rifles in their hands, and they could not only shoot in a standing position, a crouching position, but even a lying position. The exposed area of the soldiers lying on the roofs and walls is significantly reduced, and the chance of being shot is also greatly reduced.

After only ten minutes of shooting, the corpse of the Ming army lay on the ground.

Geldan trembled with excitement, this was the first time he had the upper hand in the battle with the Ming army. Relying on the superiority of their weapons, the Mongol soldiers quickly advanced along the streets. They shot and killed all Han Chinese who moved, whether they were Ming soldiers or not.

While Geldan was inexplicably excited, the Mongols suffered casualties. When the Mongols stepped on the corpses of the Ming soldiers, there were always one or two people who were not dead and pulled grenades.

After an explosion, at least two or three Mongol soldiers fell to the ground. The more wounded Mongol soldiers were constantly wailing. Especially those who have been blown up in the eye, and the sound of wailing is like a gelding-headed donkey.

Soon, mortar shells fell down.

This is the largest caliber artillery in the hands of a garrison division, and usually a garrison division will be equipped with twenty-four mortars for fire support.

Mortars are much more powerful than grenades. An explosion quickly harvested the lives of the Mongol soldiers.

Gerdan's head was bruised, this time to travel lightly. He didn't carry any heavy weapons, not even a mortar.

When he set out from Xining through Tibet, he once caught several spies of the Ming army. This used to make Geldan very worried, but now it seems that the Ming army in Lanzhou City has not been prepared at all.

"Let the Tibetans outflank from both wings!" Geldan saw that the Ming army was under the cover of mortars, and the resistance gradually became stronger. Immediately change tactics and let the more fierce Tibetans flank and rear.

He knows, as a garrison. They have a limited number of mortars in their hands, and if they go against the Tibetans, they naturally have no spare strength to deal with themselves.