In the Yuhu Palace, the emergency military report that was not received at night had been placed on Zhu Cixi's desk, and Zhu Cixi looked up at Yan Yingyuan, Daniel Zhang, Qin Liangyu, and Du Yinxi, who had just arrived from the Hudu Port camp, and said calmly: "Li Zicheng may have burned the boat that sent him across the river, this is a broken cauldron and a sinking boat, and he will fight with us."

Zhang Zongrong, can your cavalry grasp the movements of the thief brigade? ”

This military newspaper on Zhu Cixun's desk was brought back by Daniel Zhang who sent out the night to collect it. Don't look at his status in the Zuojia army, he was just a deputy general before Zuo Liangyu was named Marquis of Wuchang, and then he was promoted to be the chief soldier, and he was not the chief soldier of the town guard with the territory, but just a "small chief soldier". However, his army is first-class in the Zuojia army, and the account of 8,000 is very substantial, and there is almost no vacancy.

Among them, there are a whole thousand family members, all of whom are skilled in archery and horses, and they also maintain the configuration of one person and two horses, which are the light cavalry that makes Zhu Cihong look at it - don't think that the light cavalry is a dispensable type of troops, in the decisive battle between the two armies, they really have little effect. After all, now is the era when artillery and firearms dominate the battlefield, and how much room can light cavalry play with mounted archery as the main mode of combat? However, in addition to the decisive battle between the two armies, the combat operations of searching, guarding, shielding, outflanking the enemy's rear routes, and cutting off the enemy's supply lines all require a light cavalry with reliable combat effectiveness.

The lack of light cavalry is precisely the biggest and irreparable weakness of the new army - whether it is Dashun or Daqing, they both have a large number of cavalry, all of which can act as light cavalry.

On Zhu Cihong's side, because of the lack of pasture where horses can be raised, and there is no channel to purchase war horses in large quantities, there is no way to expand the number of cavalry.

In addition to the fact that the number cannot be guaranteed, the quality of the light cavalry of the new army is also very problematic - heavy cavalry assault tactics such as wall charges, which have been blown into the sky by later generations, are actually not difficult to practice.

After Zhu Cihong put forward relevant requirements to the two cavalry commanders, Wang Fu and Sun Fugui, the two cavalry regiments of the New Army have been training hard for several months, and now they are now able to launch a group attack at the company level (about 100 cavalry). The "wall style" can't do it yet, but it's still able to maintain a relatively dense formation when charging.

However, the skills of cavalry archery and small cavalry in the wilderness, such as survival, mobility, combat, and concealment, are not the ones that can achieve good results in a short period of high-intensity training.

In addition, the outpost contact battles that took place between the hussars of both sides were usually also wars of attrition between knights and horses.

It was difficult for the new army, which was not superior in numbers (the number of horses and the number of knights) and technology, to bear the attrition of a truly fierce light cavalry outpost.

In the last Battle of Bloody Creek, if Hauge had not been frightened by the large-scale dispatch of the ironclad cavalry of the new army and their wheels, but insisted on dispatching a large number of cavalry to fight Zhu Cihong for attrition, then the Battle of Bloody Creek might have been a different result......

And after Li Zicheng burned the wooden boats on the Yangtze River to cut off the back road, he really let it go, and sent thousands of old cavalry battalions, divided into more than 100 units, and took turns to go out and start sweeping the battlefield south of the county seat of Gong'an.

Daniel Zhang shook his head and said, "Your Royal Highness, since yesterday noon, the thieves have dispatched a large number of cavalry, with dozens of horses as a unit, to fight in the northwest of Shishou Mountain to Hutou Mountain. The minister's cavalry was only 1,000 people, and he couldn't resist it, so the minister had to let them shrink and retreat to Tangjiashan and the county seat of Gong'an to maintain their vigilance. ”

"Tangjiashan?" Zhu Cihong is not very familiar with the terrain of public security, "Where is it?" ”

Plug Yinxi said: "On the edge of the Hudu River, about thirty or forty zhang high, it is a small mound, more than 30 miles away from the county seat of Gong'an. There is also a lotus temple at the foot of Tangjia Mountain, because the Hudu River often floods, so the temple is very strong, and there are waterproof embankments on all sides. ”

Daniel Zhang said: "If we hold Tangjiashan and Lotus Temple, we can control the Hudu River, and the Hudu River leads to the Hudu Port, and our army under Jiangling and Huya Mountain can drive along the waterway." Therefore, the gains and losses of Tangjiashan and Lotus Temple are a matter of life and death! ”

Of course, Zhu Cixun would not pin his hopes of defeating Li Zicheng on Qiu Lei, Daniel Zhang, Jin Shenghuan and others.

After discovering that Li Zicheng might attack the police, Zhu Cihong immediately ordered Wu Guoyong, who was preparing to attack Huya Mountain, to return to his division.

However, Wu Guoyong's unit had a lot of artillery and baggage, and it was very difficult to transport it by land. In these years, because the casting process is not very clever, even a three-pound bronze cannon is not light, and the guys weighing hundreds of pounds have more than a thousand pounds after forming a gun carriage. And in order to support the artillery for a long time, it was also necessary to equip each cannon with an ammunition vehicle.

In addition, each artillery company was equipped with a mobile blacksmith shop (also a carpenter's shop) to repair damaged guns, gun carriages, and sometimes road sappers.

Therefore, the four artillery batteries of the right division of the new army needed a large number of horses to maneuver, and the lack of horses always troubled Zhu Cihong's new army.

Therefore, whenever possible, the artillery officers of the Forces nouvelles preferred to use ships to transport their cannons and vehicles by water in order to save on the consumption of horses. Due to the lack of high-quality horses, the new army had to use inferior horses purchased from the southeast to fill the number, which caused the horses to be consumed relatively quickly - small horses and large carts naturally did not have enough strength, and they were easy to die of exhaustion. And because there is no good supply, when buying a horse, you can only lower the requirements, many horses are already sick and crooked, and they are more likely to die when they are tired......

In the process of the right division of the New Army moving from Jiangxi to Jingzhou Mansion, he died of exhaustion and illness, and many horses were killed! He died of illness and exhaustion during the rapid march from Hukou to Huya Mountain, so Wu Guoyong could no longer let his artillery move by land.

Otherwise, we'll wear out the last of the stronger horses - that's reserved for battle! Without them, the three-pounder gun would not have been able to maneuver on the battlefield.

"That's Tangjia Mountain and Lotus Temple!" Zhu Cihong patted the map spread out on the desk, "Since we can't figure out where Li Zicheng is, let's wait in Tangjiashan and Lotus Temple!" As long as Li Zicheng comes, this is his place of death! ”

"Your Highness, where is your Chinese army?" Qiu Lei asked in a low voice.

Of course, Zhu Cihong will not stay in the Yuhu Palace all the time, and the palace is not a fortress, in case the location is exposed and Li Zicheng is attacked by a wave, it will be over.

"Enter the county seat of public security!" Zhu Cihong said, "Put the 'Taizu Gao Emperor Reincarnation' flag in this palace on the head of the city of Gong'an County."

The Chinese army of the King of Chu (the future King of Pingxi) was placed at the foot of Tangjia Mountain! Zhang Zongrong, this palace orders you to assist the King of Chu and face the thieves in Tangjiashan! ”

The meaning of this is to let Daniel Zhang replace Zhu Cizhao, the king of Chu, to command the whole army.

In the next twelve hours, the Ming army assembled in the area of Gong'an County began to arrange for a decisive battle.

Zhu Cihong led a regiment of cavalry, a guard battalion and three newly built infantry regiments to escort him, and marched into the county seat of Gong'an.

Daniel Zhang commanded the rest of the troops, including his own 8,000 men, Jin Shenghuan's more than 30,000 men, and the 12,000 men of the Chu King's Mansion, to the vicinity of Tangjiashan one after another.

They laid out the western and southern lines of defense along the meandering Hudu River (a tributary of the Yangtze River, which runs roughly north-south, but turns east about 30 miles south of the county seat of Gong'an, flows for about 20 miles, and then continues south). Then relying on the Lotus Temple and Tangjia Mountain, the eastern line was arranged. A trench five or six miles long was dug on the northern line, from the east bank of the Hudu River to the foot of Tangjia Mountain. As a result, a roughly square defensive position was formed, quietly waiting for Li Zicheng's army.