Battle of Urga (Via Latina)

A Russian Army Corps came within sight of Urga (OTL Ulaanbaatar) before encountering the Chinese forces that were in the area to guard the city under Li Yuan-hong.

In the first day about a fourth of the obsolete Chinese artillery was silenced by the more modern Russian artillery, and the Cossacks attacked the Chinese rear, where the artillery was positioned. The guns that still had crew were ordered to guard against a possible Russian attack on the Chinese rear, and so was realigned, with any guns that dared disobey the direct order silenced quickly by Russian counter-battery fire.

Mostly, the battle resembled an old field field battle, with battalions marching directly into enemy fire. The Chinese had trenches, but only a few machine guns, which ran out of ammunition after the first few charges.

While the Russians fought to keep the numerically-superior Chinese forces from over-running the artillery, the artillery fired shrapnel and high-explosive rounds prior to retreating. The battle lasted 3 days with combined casualties estimated in the ten thousands.