If he could, in fact, Lin Ziran still wanted to see Jian Minggang take the initiative to give up the county town, so that for Jian Minggang, he might be able to flee south and join his troops over there, but for Lin Ziran, he didn't have to conquer a stubborn county town.

More importantly, Lin Ziran had absolute confidence to intercept Jian Minggang's southern escape, and then gathered troops to directly eliminate Jian Minggang and his remnants in the field.

It's a pity, but soon the scouts of the 1st Cavalry Brigade came with the news that Jian Minggang had no intention of abandoning the county town at all, and this was already the beginning of building fortifications and emergency conscription in the city.

Looking at this look is to know that the other party is planning to rely on the county town to defend it!

Jian Minggang didn't even have to resist Lin Ziran's army for a long time, as long as he resisted for ten days and half a month, it was estimated that Li Dingjun and Zhao Song's troops would be killed.

But even so, Lin Ziran has absolute confidence to win the county seat!

There are only a few thousand troops in the county, and Lin Ziran personally led the troops to the south has exceeded 50,000!

That's almost ten times the number of troops!

Even if the county town is a pure military fortress like Chongguang Fortress and Dingjiang Fortress, it can be gnawed down.

What's more, the county town is not a purely military fortress yet!

It's just a city!

Of course, this premise is that the forward troops can block the reinforcements drawn back by the enemy from the periphery, and do not let them return to the county town.

If Jian Minggang's troops on the east bank of Lingchang and the southern defense line were to be successfully reinforced, it would be a big trouble to storm a city garrisoned by 20,000 or 30,000 troops.

If you want to take the county, you have to intercept the enemy's reinforcements!

And for this task, the 1st Cavalry Brigade alone is not enough!

On the same day, after learning that Jian Minggang planned to defend the county seat, Lin Ziran, who was still on the road, directly ordered to send the newly formed Second Cavalry Brigade to reinforce the south, and the First Infantry Brigade also went south with him.

These troops will be deployed on the periphery of the county town to intercept enemy reinforcements!

As for the capture of the county town, that is the task of the main force of the 6th Division headquarters!

The two cavalry brigades and the 1st Infantry Brigade plus the matching auxiliary units have a total strength of more than 10,000 troops.

These troops quickly moved south to blockade the outlying areas with light equipment, which was barely enough.

As for Lin Ziran himself, he did not delay time, and quickly went south with about 40,000 main troops.

Although the main force led by him could not go south lightly, but had to carry a large number of heavy artillery and baggage, but a large number of civilians were recruited, especially at the expense of horsepower, this army still maintained an average daily march speed of 25 kilometers.

This speed is very fast for a unit carrying a lot of heavy artillery and baggage in this season.

Even for this, the 6th Division paid the price of a large number of service horses.

However, at this critical juncture, Lin Ziran and the others can't care about the loss of the horses, and the most important thing is to reach the county seat quickly.

Over time, things will change!

Just when Lin Ziran was leading the main force to advance rapidly at all costs, the forward 1st Cavalry Brigade led by Song You finally arrived in the area of the county town after a rapid march for many days.

This situation was also known for the first time by Jian Minggang in the city!

"It's finally here!"

"Let the garrison speed up their preparations and make all preparations!"

"Although the enemy is only cavalry, there are a lot of cavalry, and it is estimated that they will launch a tentative attack and be armed to detect our defensive weaknesses!"

After Jian Minggang gave the order, he waited for the opponent's cavalry to dismount and launch a tentative attack for the whole day.

After all, after the arrival of the forward troops, it is already a standard combat method to launch a tentative attack, conduct armed reconnaissance, and obtain a large amount of situational data for the follow-up main force to launch a general attack.

However, after waiting for a day, Jian Minggang still did not see the opponent's cavalry dismount and launch a tentative attack the next day!

The other party doesn't fight?

Is it waiting for more main forces?

However, Jian Minggang was too lazy to pay attention to them, and in the morning, he had already received a report that the more than 4,000 troops who had urgently returned from the east bank of Lingchang had successfully thrown off the enemy troops on the east bank of Lingchang, who were chasing closely, and were preparing to cross the river, and after crossing the river, they would land directly at the wharf in the eastern suburbs of the county town.

At the same time, the Luoan fleet was also in full force, preparing to cover the successful crossing of the east bank troops.

If the Luoan fleet is to be protected, there will be no accidents for the troops crossing the river!

But in the afternoon, the scouts made an urgent report that another enemy force had appeared in the direction of the northern suburbs of the city, and in addition to thousands of cavalry, there were also thousands of infantry and even artillery units.

At the same time, the upper reaches of the Luo River finally appeared traces of the ironclad ships of the Sixth Artillery Fleet.

This made Jian Minggang worry a lot, he was worried that the opponent's Sixth Artillery Fleet rushed down regardless of casualties, and it was a question whether his own Luo'an fleet could effectively cover the troops crossing the river at that time.

As for the other side's cavalry and infantry troops, he was not worried!

The troops they found in Jian Minggang were naturally the second wave of southbound troops led by Xu Zhongshu.

The second wave of southbound troops led by him included several thousand men from the Second Cavalry Brigade, the First Infantry Brigade, a field artillery battalion, an experimental artillery company, and other ground combat units.

At the same time, the Sixth Artillery Fleet will also support them in the battle, covering logistics and supplies, and will also look for opportunities to blockade the Luo River and prevent the opponent's troops on the east bank of Lingchang from crossing the river.

Since its establishment, the Sixth Artillery Fleet has successively accepted the fleets of Feng Haozhong and Li Kunyuan, and some time ago, it also accepted a small number of combat ships from the side of the county guard.

So far, it has two ironclad ships of 500 tons, four ironclad ships of 2 or 300 tons, three ironclad ships of more than 100 tons, and a large number of converted armed ships.

This kind of strength is not great, at least it is not as good as the Luo An fleet that the county guard still controls.

At the very least, it is unlikely that the Luo River outside the county will be directly blocked.

At the same time, the county town is located on the bank of the Luo River, if there is no fleet to help, it can only attack from the land, and at the same time, the opponent can also resist the battle under the cover of naval guns, and it will be a great loss to fight.

But!

Lin Ziran asked Xu Zhongshu to bring these two experimental artillery companies, but he didn't let Xu Zhongshu take them for siege.

Although these two guns have a long range and high accuracy, the caliber is the king in siege warfare, and the caliber of the 75-mm gun is too small to play a big role, and can only be used as a precision strike weapon.

The two steel rear loads in this experimental artillery company ran away, and Lin Ziran let Xu Zhongshu use them to shell the enemy's fleet!

With an effective firing range of three or four kilometers, it is completely possible to swagger on land and find a random hill to open fire, completely blocking the Luo River!

Not only can it threaten the enemy's ordinary ships, but even the enemy's ironclad ships can pose a certain threat.

Except for a few iron turtles, most of the combat ships owned by these feudal towns are actually unprotected ships, and even those iron turtles cannot be compared with those ironclad ships fighting at sea.

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