Li Xuan and the others have been paying attention to the movements of the Ming army on the other side of the river. Whether the military strength has increased or decreased, how many rafts have been made, and other information are all they try to understand.
The more than ten spies sent by the New Army of the Tang Dynasty to lurk on the other side of the river have been staying on the other side of the river, lying in wait and watching the movements of the Ming army almost around the clock.
Judging from the current situation, the Ming army on the opposite side is determined to cross the river at the Lanjiang Ferry, because they have not seen them sending a large number of troops upstream and downstream at all.
Li Xuan guessed that it was because the Ming army itself knew that within a hundred miles of the upstream and downstream, only the Lanjiang Ferry was the most suitable place for crossing the river. Although some places suitable for crossing the river could be found in other places, the terrain was not the same.
It must be suitable for more than 3,000 people to cross the river at the same time.
As for finding a remote place and spending a day or two sneaking across the river, the New Army of the Tang Dynasty is not stupid. The main force of the Ming Army has moved upstream or downstream. They will definitely follow the traces of the Ming Army. By then, the New Army of the Tang Dynasty will be on the other side of the river.
Corresponding deployment will also be made.
Furthermore, to cross the river elsewhere, it would also take several days to make a raft. Otherwise, would it be possible for three thousand people to swim across?
After all, the Lanjiang River is not suitable for navigation. Except for a few ferries with some small boats, most of the river sections have no ships. If they do not have a large number of ready-made ships to cross the river, they can only rely on rafts to cross the river.
River.
The above are all Li Xuan's own conjectures, and the actions of the Ming army on the other side also confirmed that Li Xuan's conjecture was correct.
The Ming army on the other side of the river had no intention of crossing the river elsewhere, but focused on making rafts on the spot.
At the same time, there were no other troublemaking Ming troops in the rear of the Tang Dynasty's new army.
After they later asked Zeng Zisong and other Ming army prisoners, they found that although Zeng Zisong and the others came from the other side of the river, they were not in the same army as the Ming army in Fucheng. These more than 100 people were actually Zeng Zisong.
Song's private soldiers.
Zeng Zisong was Zeng Ziwen's younger brother. After Zeng Ziwen was martyred for his country, he succeeded Zeng Ziwen in the army according to the tradition of father and son, brother after death.
However, because Zeng Ziwen died in the battle because he underestimated the enemy and rushed in, the imperial court did not let Zeng Zisong take the post of Qianhu, but only gave it to Baihu.
Of the more than a hundred soldiers he led, only a few dozen were attached to the regular army, and the remaining dozens were "servants" he recruited privately. The price paid for recruiting these servants was also very cheap, that is,
They were just given food, which was similar to the conditions for recruiting soldiers to the new army of the Tang Dynasty.
Facts have proved that having enough food is more attractive to the poor than imagined. At least Zeng Zisong easily recruited dozens of people and finally pulled out an army of more than a hundred people.
He has been training troops in his hometown, waiting for the opportunity to attack the new army of the Tang Dynasty and 'avenge' his brother Zeng Ziwen.
Soon after the news of the large-scale attack by the Fucheng Ming Army reached Zeng Zisong's ears, he felt that the opportunity for revenge had finally come, so he led more than a hundred people all the way westward, but he did not go to fight with the main force of the Fucheng Ming Army.
Instead of meeting up, they chose a ferry and crossed the river secretly.
At that time, Li Xuan and others' attention was attracted by the three thousand Ming troops coming from Fucheng, and they did not even notice that a group of about a hundred Ming troops sneaked across the river from other ferries.
After crossing the river, Zeng Zisong began to look for opportunities to attack the logistics line of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty, intending to attack the logistics line of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty first to reduce the pressure on the Ming army in Fucheng when they crossed the river.
But the more important purpose is to wait for the main force of the Ming army in Fucheng to cross the river, and attack them from both front and back to completely defeat the puppet Tang rebel army.
Unfortunately, just a few days after he crossed the river, he was wiped out by Hao Bainian and his army.
A series of actions by Zeng Zisong also attracted the attention of Li Xuan and other core senior officials of the Tang Dynasty. Several days ago, spies had been dispatched to several other locations upstream or downstream suitable for crossing the river to conduct surveillance.
It's just a matter of monitoring whether there are large-scale Ming troops sneaking across the river. It doesn't take many people. Putting two or three people in one place is enough.
However, except for Zeng Zisong, no other Ming army was found to choose other small ferries to cross the river.
This also gave Li Xuan some peace of mind and he was able to focus all his thoughts on training troops and preparing for war. He not only trained troops, but also had people set up many obstacles along the river to hinder the Ming army's landing.
In addition, he also directed the soldiers to build a temporary earthen breastwork along the river. This breastwork faced the other side of the river and was fully two meters high, but facing the land, it was only a little over one meter high.
, this is because there is a half-meter-high space behind the parapet where people can stand.
To a certain extent, this breastwork is already similar to a city wall, but due to time constraints and the length of the river beach, it is impossible for him to let the soldiers build a thick city wall on this vast river beach.
, it can only be replaced with a temporary parapet of an earthen rampart.
However, even a simple earthen breastwork can play a great role in defensive operations.
In the middle of the parapet and slightly behind it, there is an obvious high platform built. This high platform is also blocked by a parapet with an earthen rampart, but what makes people feel strange is that this parapet actually has the same features as the battlements.
gap.
If someone with a little bit of modern military knowledge sees this high earth fort, they will immediately notice that it is a fort.
That's right, this fort is prepared for the artillery that has not yet arrived!
The Ming army on the other side brought two bowl-mouth cannons. If we didn't have artillery, we would suffer a lot in the fight. So after discovering that the Ming army had brought artillery, Li Xuan immediately sent people day and night.
Rush back to Huangzhu Mountain and bring over the artillery that is still under construction.
And the guards he sent back did not disappoint him. When the Ming army had enough Mufa to cross the river, and they could cross the river at any time in the next few days, his guards finally brought the artillery.
Already.
When he saw this artillery piece, Li Xuan couldn't help but go up and touch two of them himself. From the appearance of this artillery piece, it was no different from the modern front-loading artillery pieces in his impression. It had a
It is a thick tube, the gun body is very thick, and it comes with an iron gun frame and wheels.
The entire cannon weighed 900 kilograms. This figure far exceeded the 500 kilograms required by Li Xuan, and did not meet the requirements of the battalion-level infantry support artillery planned by Li Xuan.
If it is a march, even on plain terrain, if the artillery is to keep up with the marching speed, at least six horses are needed.
Of course, it can be pulled with as few as four or even two horses, but it is difficult to maintain a continuous march, so this does not make much sense.
Because this gun is an experimental gun, mainly to test the technology of gun-making, it is relatively thick and heavy, and the barrel is relatively long. This is actually a very typical front-mounted gun with the characteristics of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Smoothbore cannon.
Such a cannon is not very suitable for the current requirements of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty, but its power is naturally good. When the cannon was tested in Huangzhushan, when it fired round solid iron bullets, it reached the five requirements required by Li Xuan.
The effective range is 100 meters. This effective range refers to the effective range when shooting upwards at a small angle. Its hit rate is high while the lethality can still be maintained.
If it is shot upward at a large angle, its range can be increased to more than three kilometers, but at such a range, its hit rate is negligible, and such a range is not valuable in actual combat.
However, even with an effective range of 500 meters, this can be regarded as a powerful weapon in this era. It can even be said that such a powerful weapon cannot be used by the current Datang New Army. This is not only because it is too heavy.
, the new army of the Tang Dynasty did not have so many horses to pull cannons, and because copper materials were expensive, and it was more difficult to make long-barreled cannons, many craftsmen were busy for more than half a year to build such a cannon by hand. This shows how difficult it is to make, and
Such artillery, which is difficult to produce and cannot be mass-produced, is difficult to equip in large quantities.
Because it is difficult to manufacture long-barreled artillery, the craftsmen in Huangzhushan have changed their minds. They have begun to try to build some short-barreled artillery. They are not used to fire solid bullets, but to fire shotshells. The range may not be as high.
Far, but the weight and power can be guaranteed.
Li Xuan also supported this. As long as it was a cannon and it could play a corresponding tactical role, he didn't mind whether it was a mortar or a cannon.
After the artillery arrived, Li Xuan personally directed the people to move the artillery onto the fort, and its muzzle was pointed directly at the Ming army on the other side of the river!
After the artillery was carried up, Butcher Chen on the side also circled the artillery with a curious face, and then said to an artillery craftsman from Huangzhushan next to him: "Can this artillery hit the Ming army on the other side?"
The craftsman visually measured the width of the river, and then said: "Back to the general, our cannon can only reach the beach on the other side of the river at most. The camps of the Ming army are a bit far away. It can hit this far, but can it hit it?"
It’s just hard to say,”
The Lanjiang River is not a big river in the first place. The width of this section of the river is only two to three hundred meters. However, the Ming army on the other side is not stationed directly on the river beach. They are stationed on the bank several hundred meters away from the river beach.
Well, even the main camp is arranged behind a small hillside.
The new armies of the Tang Dynasty knew how to place their camp behind the dense forest on the hillside. The Ming army was not stupid and would not camp directly on the shore.
After hearing this, Butcher Chen said with some regret: "It's a pity, otherwise, if we hit it with one shot, those Ming troops would have lost a lot of casualties!"
At this time, Fang Dongquan on the side said: "The Ming army's camp is difficult to fight, but if they want to cross the river, they must go to the beach. Then the Italian artillery will have a lot to do, and now they are not on the river beach.
Are there a lot of rafts on it? You can hit those."
After hearing this, Butcher Chen also jumped in to give it a try, then turned to Li Xuan and said, "Your Majesty, why don't you practice your skills with those rafts first and try firing a cannon?"
When Li Xuan heard this, he looked around, then half asked himself, half asked: "Then let's have a shot?"
As soon as these words came out, Butcher Chen, Fang Dongquan and the others nodded in unison like chickens pecking at rice!
Li Xuan immediately said with expectation: "Okay, let's have a shot."