Soon, a month passed.

The orders of the imperial court to send troops were sent to Danyang City one by one. Urge the hussar general Chu Tianxiu and the guard general Li Yu to hurry up and cross the river to the north and defeat the princes of the Ten Roads.

The emperor and the ministers did not want to see Jiangbei still in the hands of the princes and kings, and the longer this situation continued, the more unfavorable it would naturally be to the imperial court.

But the general is outside, and the king's order is not granted.

If you cross the river without a chance of winning, wouldn't you go to send people to their heads?!

Chu Tianxiu delayed the dispatch of troops on the grounds that the time was not ripe. Rushing to the north will only lead to the failure of crossing the river, and the troops will still stand still and work hard in Danyang County.

In addition to complaining, no one in the imperial court dared to replace him and go to war with the 500,000 army of the princes of the Ten Roads in Jiangbei.

Chu Tianxiu did not move.

The 500,000 troops of the Ten Route Princes on the other side did not dare to act rashly, and they were desperately training soldiers, dispatching troops, digging trenches, reinforcing camps, and transporting a large number of grain and grass materials to the Wujiang camp, preparing for a decisive battle with the Marquis of Xiaodu.

Of course, Chu Tianxiu was not idle.

Danyang County is in full swing.

Tens of thousands of new miners worked hard to dig iron ore in the mine, transported it to the county seat, and smelted into steel by tens of thousands of blacksmiths in Danyang to make small steel cannons and gunpowder guns.

It only takes an average of ten days for a blacksmith to make a barrel, and with Chu Tianxiu's assembly line production method, the efficiency is of course extremely high.

The production of agricultural implements has been discontinued.

All the steel was used to create these two "magic weapons", and 500 small steel cannons, 10 bronze main cannons, 50 bronze secondary cannons, and 20,000 powder guns were produced in one go.

Chu Tianxiu moved 500 small steel cannons and 10 kilogram bronze cannons onto 50 large warships, transforming them into a new generation of gunboats.

Fifty large warships, such a fleet is enough to go sideways on a large surface.

20,000 gunpowder guns were also equipped with two large battalions of light cavalry at the imperial court, which were transformed into musket light cavalry and trained in shooting for a month.

Cavalry training is calculated in years, and an elite cavalryman needs at least two or three years of hard training. Otherwise, there is simply no way to conduct a military battle on horseback.

Practice shooting is much simpler, one month is enough to get an initial mastery, and shooting can be done in a good way.

Cavalry dismounted can be used as infantry.

But the infantry can never be used as cavalry.

The original 6,000 Danyang musketeers could only be powder gun infantry and could not be trained into cavalry.

Musket hussars had a great advantage.

That is, they quickly approached the enemy for a hundred paces, pulled out their horses and ran after firing, and when they ran a kilometer away, they stopped, and after they had loaded their ammunition, they could kill again.

If you encounter enemy light cavalry, it's even simpler, shoot directly. Under heavy fire, the bows and arrows of the enemy light cavalry could only be beaten.

It may seem like a bit slow, but it's definitely an extremely effective killing tactic.

A battalion of 10,000 gunpowder guns and light cavalry only needs one round of scatter attacks to defeat an elite battalion of enemy swordsmen and armor.

With the huge power of the powder gun, it can directly penetrate all weak light armor, and ordinary armor soldiers can't resist it at all.

Unless it is a heavy iron armor soldier with a large wooden shield, he can barely resist it.

However, the heavy armor moved very slowly, and could not catch up with the gunpowder gun light cavalry, and obviously could not compete with the gunpowder gun light cavalry.

It took Chu Tianxiu a month to make the navy transform fifty large warships and train a battalion of 20,000 gunpowder guns and light cavalry.

...

Dawn.

Fog shrouded the surface of the river, and almost nothing could be seen on the surface of the ten-mile river.

The princes and soldiers of the Wujiang battalion usually patrolled the banks of the river all the way.

Under the fog, it is easy to collide without knowing the direction, and few ships dare to cross the river at this time. The soldiers of the alliance of princes were quite relaxed.

Suddenly, a soldier faintly saw the shadow of a big ship on the river.

"Boat!"

"It's not good, it's a big ship of the imperial court! Quick, report to the king, the little dusk marquis has sent a warship over! ”

The soldiers screamed in terror.

Immediately, a soldier rushed to the main tent of the Wujiang camp, shouting in terror.

The camp of Wujiang is stationed five miles away from the river bank.

Inside the main ledger.

The princes and kings were suddenly awakened, rushed out of the main tent, and were a little stunned when they saw that the thick fog of the river was shrouded.

There are only a few very vague shadows on the surface of the river.

The rest is not visible at all.

"King, do you want to release arrows to prevent enemy ships from approaching?!"

"No, the little dusk marquis must not have enough arrows, and he wants to borrow arrows from the grass boat and consume our army's arrows! Our troops will stand still on the shore and wait for the fog to clear! ”

Xiang Wu, the king of Chu, shook his head.

After an hour, the fog of the river gradually dissipated, and finally the shadow of the ship on the river was revealed.

There were only fifty large warships, flying the battle flags of the imperial court's naval army, hussar generals, and Wei generals, and they were about a mile away from the river bank on their side.

On the top of the attic of the imperial warship, there were some imperial generals standing, holding some sticks in their hands, pointing towards the Wujiang camp.

...

Flagship.

4th Floor Observation Deck.

Chu Tianxiu held a telescope in his hand and carefully looked at the Wujiang camp on the other side.

But I saw that these camps, with 10,000 people as a large camp, formed a continuous line of defense by the river... It's at least fifty or sixty miles long, and there's no edge in sight.

These camps are all made of large logs one zhang high as wooden stakes, making a very simple wooden walled city. The wooden wall cannot be rushed into, and must be entered through the gate of the wooden village.

Therefore, although these camps are simple, they also have excellent defense. It can be seen that the princes have also made great efforts to build this Wujiang camp.

Zhou Lu and more than a dozen generals, next to him, all held binoculars and looked at the camp opposite curiously.

"It's... Is this the clairvoyance invented by Hou Ye? ”

"It's amazing!"

"Miles away, I can see clearly that the soldier is walking around with a sword."

A mile from the shore, the ships were so close to see the camp of the princes' coalition in such a grand way, which was absolutely impossible before.

The ships of the princes and kings were several times larger than the ships of the imperial court, and once they were dispatched, they were easily surrounded by the princes.

But now, all fifty warships have been converted into gunboats, and they certainly don't care about that.

I am not afraid that the coalition fleet will not move, but I am afraid that the coalition forces will not dare to send warships to fight.

"My lord, what do we do now? Shelling of the battalion? ”

Zhou Lu said.

Chu Tianxiu shook his head and said, "The Wujiang camp is five miles away from the shore, and the bronze main cannon can only hit three miles, and it can't hit their camp."

They have the Yangtze River natural hazards, and they have the high walls of the camp to defend. Our troops landed directly on the shore, and they will definitely be knocked into the water!

Find their ships first and destroy them all! When the princes had no warships, they pulled out their teeth and could only defend, and had no strength to attack. ”

...

The princes and kings of the Wujiang camp couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when they saw that only fifty large warships had arrived.

Even if all the ships were full of soldiers, it was estimated that there would be about 10,000 or 20,000 soldiers, which was not enough to fill the gaps.

"What do you want to do when you send such a small number of troops to die?"

"Hmph, maybe you want to test our reaction and spy on the military!"

"Come on, immediately let more than 300 large warships and 500 small and medium-sized warships of my navy go into battle, destroy these 50 imperial warships, and don't let them escape back to the water camp on the other side!"