Just after the winter of the eighth year of Wu'an, the Xia army, which was stationed in Xiningwei, after several months of repair, once again showed its sharp fangs to the nomadic Mongols in the Qinghai region.

The eastern part of Qinghai was under the control of the Xia army, and the vast land west of Qinghai Lake was occupied by the Tumut and Heshute tribes who had moved there.

Among them, the Tumut tribe was the first Mongols to come to this area, but they were forced to submit to the Heshut tribe under the conquest of the former Gushi Khan, and thus became vassals of the Heshut Khanate.

In March of the eighth year of Wu'an, the Xia army left Xiningwei and advanced westward bypassing the beautiful Qinghai Lake.

After the document was issued, the Mongol tribes who had settled in the area of Qinghai Lake did not resist, and they knew that even the powerful khans could not resist the Xia army, and they were even less of an opponent.

Therefore, under the threat of the Xia army's soldiers, these Mongolian tribes who settled in the area of Qinghai Lake took the lead in sending envoys to express their submission to the Xia army.

The first to fight against the Xia army was one of the "Eight Taijis", Ilduqi, the sixth son of Gushi Khan, who led the Qinghai right wing with his two younger brothers, Dorji and Dashbatur, but his two younger brothers were still young, and the Qinghai right wing was actually led by him alone.

After the Mongol tribes on the shores of Qinghai Lake surrendered to the Xia army, this Taiji hurriedly mobilized all the troops and horses on the right flank of Qinghai in an attempt to prevent the tribes from defecting, and his vanguard attacked one of the subjugated tribes, which resisted and asked for help from the Xia army.

When Liu Shixun heard about it, he immediately sent a brigade to the rescue, and he asked the supporting brigade not to show mercy to his subordinates, and to kill all the Mongols who dared to attack the Xia army.

On 18 March, the advance of the Xia army converged with the Mongol tribes seeking help on the southern side of Qinghai Lake, and the line infantry quickly formed a long queue under the orders of the commander, and they looked at the Mongolian cavalry galloping towards this side in the distance, and their faces were not afraid.

"Remove the artillery! Remove the artillery!"

At the urging of the officers, the artillerymen busily unloaded the 32 12-pounder infantry guns in the artillery battalion from the wagons, and they pushed the cannons with great difficulty, aiming their guns at the Mongol cavalry in the distance, and as they exerted, the bruises on their arms and the strong muscles bulged high.

Li Fang, the commander of the second brigade of the third town, carried his hands behind his back, and looked at the busy scene of the artillerymen with a blank face, this veteran who had followed Su Dingyuan, the king of Rongchang County, to fight against the Qing army in Zhejiang all the way to the south and the north, and finally relied on his military exploits to be promoted to the commander of the second brigade, which may be the highest position he can go to in the army, but he doesn't care.

What he cares about is whether he can serve His Majesty the Emperor and dedicate his all to the Emperor.

While the Xia army artillery was busy, the Mongolian cavalry galloping on the opposite side also discovered the Xia army formation intercepted in front of them, led by the Qianhu Nayan Le armistice horse, he raised his right hand, signaled the cavalry behind him to stop together, and then frowned and looked at the Xia army formation, and began to think about whether to continue to attack.

After some thought, this cautious Nayan still decided not to continue the attack, the Xia army that stopped him was at least 10,000 small in size, and he led only a vanguard composed of more than a thousand Mongolian cavalry, if he charged forward desperately, he would only bury the precious lives of his sons here.

Therefore, he ordered the whole army to repair in place, and he personally rode his horse back to the main force of the right wing of Qinghai a few miles later, and reported the situation here to Ildu Qitaiji.

After galloping for a long time, he crossed a small hillside and saw a huge army marching eastward, which included almost all the troops on the right flank of Qinghai, with more than 12,000 Mongolian cavalry and more than 21,000 infantry troops, and this infantry army was mainly slave cannon fodder, with only more than 6,000 armored infantry and archers.

Qianhu passed through the resistance of the Taiji guards and came to the front of Ilduqi Taiji, who was dressed in the traditional Mongolian armor, he did not wear a helmet, but a Mongolian felt hat inlaid with a pearl, and a thick braid hanging down his temples, and his body was slightly fat, but he looked fierce.

"Taiji, the way ahead is blocked by the Han army." The thousand households made a Mongol journey to Ildu Qitaiji

He stroked his chest and reported, "The Han army has nearly 10,000 people, including more than 30 artillery pieces."

"More than thirty cannons?"

Ilduqi cheered up, he subconsciously stroked the braid hanging down from his head, and began to think about the odds of stumbling against the nearly 10,000 Han army, the Han army was not the weak appearance in his impression, he had to think carefully.

After some thought, Ilduqi finally decided to fight with the Xia army, and the war with the Xia army was inevitable, even if he didn't start a war here, when the Xia army continued to move west, he would eventually enter his own pasture, and then in order to keep his position, wouldn't he still have to go to war with the Xia army?

At that time, he had to face not only the nearly 10,000 soldiers and horses in front of him, but also the main force of all the Xia army.

Therefore, Ilduqi finally ordered the army to continue to advance and go to war with the Xia army.

An hour later, the Mongol army and the forward converged, Ildu Qi Taiji really saw the Xia army's military appearance clearly, this look, can surprise him, the Xia army is prosperous, morale is like a rainbow, the bayonet on the top of the rifle they carry on their shoulders reflects a dazzling spot of light in the sunlight, gathered together, bringing a lot of spiritual impact to the Mongols.

At first glance, the Xia army is indeed terrifying, but if you look closely, the Xia army is all light infantry in light armor and short armor, and there is no heavy infantry and spearmen who are the most powerful against the cavalry.

And since it was a bird gun, there was no need to be so afraid, in his memory, the Ming army bird gunners he had fought against had enough time to reload after a volley of fire, so he was not worried.

After mistaking the Xia army's firearms for a bird gun that pulled his crotch, Ildu Qitaiji suddenly became more confident, and he led his guards to shout in front of the army, promising to reward the warriors who killed the enemy in the army, women, slaves, and land.

Ilduqitaiji's promise was old-fashioned, but it was still very tempting for the soldiers, and the morale of the Mongol army was greatly boosted, and they let out a loud battle cry and were confident in the reward after the battle.

Subsequently, accompanied by a low bull horn, the Mongol army took the initiative to attack the Xia army, and the Mongol army drove the huge number of slave cannon fodder to the front, and the armored infantry and archers hid behind the slaves, using the slaves as flesh and blood bunkers to consume the Xia army's ammunition, and took the opportunity to shoot at the Xia army's battle line.

As for the vast Mongolian cavalry, they did not rush out, they slowly followed behind the infantry to press the formation, although they only walked slowly, the sense of oppression brought to the Xia army was still great.

Although they knew that the Mongols were deliberately driving slaves to use as cannon fodder to consume their own ammunition, the Xia artillery still lit the fuse and launched an artillery attack on the front slaves after the Mongol army came into range.

Accompanied by the deafening roar of artillery fire, dozens of dark shells whizzed into the Mongol army, and when several slaves were smashed into a puddle of mud, the slave army was in a commotion after the shelling, but was quickly suppressed by the Mongol soldiers and continued to advance.

At the same time as their own artillery fired, the Xia infantry also took the initiative to meet the Mongol army in the dense drumbeat, with unarmored light infantry in front, grenadiers and line infantry in the rear, and the formation was orderly.

After several rounds of shelling, there was a small rout among the slave cannon fodder, and the frightened slaves screamed and fled in all directions, trying to escape from this terrible place.

But many of them ran head-on into the Mongol soldiers in the group as they ran around like headless flies, and were directly slashed by the latter with their swords, crushing the other slaves with their bloody heads.

Soon, the Mongol army finally came within the range of the Xia army's Type II rifles under the shelling of the Xia army, and many of the slave troops at this time had already taken advantage of the chaos to escape or were killed by the Mongol infantry.

And the artillery of the Xia army also shifted the target, they directly crossed the slaves, and shot at the Mongolian cavalry who pressed the formation behind, and the Mongolian cavalry naturally would not be beaten passively there, under the order of Taiji, the Mongolian cavalry was divided into two parts, and galloped towards the two wings of the Xia army, intending to cooperate with the infantry of the Chinese army to encircle the Xia army.

But summer

The army had already taken precautions against this, and the artillery close to the two flanks began to turn their muzzles and shell at the Mongol cavalry moving towards the two flanks, and the Mongol cavalry took the next round of artillery fire and rushed into the range of the Mongol bows in their hands.

Subsequently, the Mongol cavalry mounted their bows and arrows on horseback, and at the same time galloped and fired deadly arrows at the wings of the Xia army, which were thrown farther with the blessing of the horse's inertia, but the damage and accuracy were also much reduced.

Therefore, the rain of arrows fired by the Mongol cavalry fell into the Xia army's formation, and in addition to being able to shoot those unarmored light infantry, they could only take the lives of a few unlucky people who were unfortunately hit.

After being attacked, the Xia infantry stopped advancing, and the light infantry deployed in the front of the skirmish line raised their guns to shoot at the Mongols, and they knelt on one knee to minimize their surrounding area, but also reduced the probability of being shot, and gave up the shooting field of view for the robe behind them.

Behind them, the infantry on both flanks quickly formed a hollow phalanx of anti-cavalry in the face of the Mongol cavalry coming around the battle line, firing at the Mongol cavalry from multiple directions.

The line infantry of the Chinese army raised their rifles and fired at the approaching slave cannon fodder over the heads of the light infantry kneeling on one knee in front.

Through rounds of fierce volleys, they quickly broke down the slaves who had no intention of fighting, and the broken slaves scattered screaming and fleeing, and the Mongol infantry did not have the heart to suppress them at this time, but under the cover of their own archers, they took advantage of the chaos to charge the Xia army front!