If the Ming army can't resist the medium and long-range interception firepower of the Datang New Army, then it can basically declare the failure of crossing the river, if the Datang New Army fails to intercept the Ming army and let the Ming army rush ashore, then the next battle will be difficult to fight.

As the gunshots rang out, the Ming soldiers who were crossing the river immediately felt the threat of death.

Even if the hit rate of the musket is not high at this distance, there is still some considerable probability of hitting with so many muskets firing at the same time.

When the guns rang out, many Ming soldiers were already hit, many of them were directly overturned and fell into the water by the impact of the bullets, and some of the dead and wounded were knocked down and lay on the raft, letting the river wash their bodies.

At this time, many generals of the Ming army shouted loudly: "Quick, put up the shields!" ”

In order to cross the river, the Ming army naturally took relevant precautions when it knew that the puppet Tang thieves were sharp.

And this shield is one of them!

This shield was not a small round shield that ordinary sword and shield soldiers used to carry in one hand, but a large shield that was half a man tall.

Moreover, although the main body of this shield is a thick wooden plank, some of the wooden shields are nailed with iron sheets on the front, and some of the planks are nailed with a layer of wet quilt or cotton clothing in front of them.

In order to guard against the guns of the new army of the Tang Dynasty, these Ming troops obviously put their minds into it.

Wet and compacted cotton can protect against lead bullets, which is something that the Ming army itself has known for a long time, and many cotton armors of the Ming army are to protect against firearms.

Standing these large shields in front of the raft was enough to provide the Ming soldiers on the raft with a defensive effect that was not sufficient, but somewhat effective.

Seeing that the bow of the Ming army erected a big shield in unison, Zeng Ziwen on the side immediately said to Li Xuan: "Your Majesty, the puppet Tang thief army has erected a shield on the bow of the ship, I'm afraid that the lead at this distance will not be effective, why don't you put it at eighty meters and then fight?" ”

Zeng Ziwen could see it and say it, Li Xuan himself was not blind, so he naturally saw it, and saw that the Ming army had erected a big shield on the bow of the ship, and the shield knew at a glance that it was extremely thick, and it would definitely greatly reduce the threat of lead bullets at a distance of 100 meters.

Immediately, he nodded and said, "Yes!" ”

As the herald delivered the order in time, the musketeers of each team stopped firing, but although they stopped shooting, they continued to reload, and the arquebuses were still lit in preparation for the next round of shooting.

The Ming army continued to approach, and if the distance of twenty meters was just walking or running, it would not take long at all, but the Ming army crossed the river on a raft, and it took a lot of time to reach a distance of dozens of meters.

When the Ming army crossed the twenty-meter distance and was only eighty meters away from the new Tang army on the shore, Li Xuan once again ordered the musket team to re-enter and set up.

And this time, it was not only the musketeers who shot, but also the archers.

At a distance of eighty meters, it is also an effective range for bows and arrows, even if the penetration power of bows and arrows at this distance is not enough, and the hit rate is not high, but the Ming army is not everyone wearing armor, and the problem of insufficient penetration is not a problem at all.

As for the hit rate, this bow is shot in a semi-projectile way within 80 meters, and the arrow under this curve pursues coverage.

And the Ming army has nowhere to hide on the river, and it is so dense, under the cover of arrow rain, there will always be Ming army with arrows.

As the archers began to shoot arrows, the casualties of the Ming army rose sharply!

Seeing that the archers had achieved good results, Li Xuan did not let the archers speed up their arrows, but continued to let the archers maintain the current slow rate of fire.

Because archers have limited explosive power in a short period of time, in other words, their physical strength that can be used for archery in a short period of time is limited.

In order to preserve the physical strength of the archers and use them to shoot intensively and quickly when the Ming army first came ashore, Li Xuan was reluctant to let the archers run out of physical strength now.

This interval is a long time before an arrow is fired, and although there are some effects on physical strength, it is still within the scope of control.

There are so many things to consider as a general in a battle, because every detail on the battlefield can make or break the difference.

So before this battle began, Li Xuan was thinking about what would happen when the Ming army crossed the river almost every day and how to deal with it.

How far to start long-range harassing and sexual blocking, what distance to start going all out, to the physical exertion of the soldiers, these are all things that Li Xuan needs to consider, and he has made corresponding preparations.

And now is the time to prove that he is not fully prepared and that he is not prepared correctly.

The archers continued to shoot at a slow, if not slow, pace, and musketeers had no such physical limitations.

Loading the musket and then pulling the trigger to fire is not a lot of physical strength, at most it is a shoulder pain from continuous firing, but it is only painful, and it will not affect the continuation of the battle too much.

So the musketeers continued to shoot at normal rapid-fire!

And this kind of shooting did not maintain a salvo, a round of fire, but a free fire, anyway, the Ming army would not be able to come over for a while, and they musketeers still had enough time to adjust.

Therefore, it is better to shoot free-fire, which allows soldiers who reload faster to fire more bullets.

The battle continued, and the casualties of the Ming army continued to increase, but to be honest, since the new army of the Tang Dynasty opened fire, the casualties of the Ming army have been extremely effective until now.

From beginning to end, the number of casualties will not exceed 100, and you must know that this is already the case of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty for almost half an hour, and the musketeers and archers have also fought several rounds.

And the number of 100 casualties is quite small for a Ming army of 3,000 people, and more importantly, the casualties of these more than 100 people are relatively evenly distributed among the Ming armies, and most of them are ordinary cannon fodder.

Instead of ordinary battles, the casualties are the core main forces that rush to the front and fight the bravest!

If it is an ordinary Ming army of 10,000 people, well, it is talking about the ordinary local Ming army in the interior, not the border army or the recruitment of coastal anti-Japanese soldiers, only the ordinary guard army, there may be two or three thousand people in it who have undergone relatively perfect training, and most of the rest are temporarily pulled over to make up the number.

As for the real main force, that is, the core that dares to rush into battle, it is estimated that there are only five or six hundred people, and they are basically the family members and personal soldiers of various generals.

So you can see that when an army has only a few hundred casualties and the casualty ratio is only four or five percent, an army collapses, but sometimes the same army, you can also see that after more than half of them are killed or wounded, they can still maintain their formation or even turn defeat into victory.

There is only one difference between the two, that is, the former died as the core backbone, while the latter died as cannon fodder.

And now, most of the 100 dead and wounded of the Ming army who crossed the river were cannon fodder, so this did not affect the Ming army's continuous crossing of the river in the slightest!

On the contrary, they are getting closer and closer to the shore!

Just as they were about to approach the shore, a thick smoke mixed with flames suddenly rose from the bow of one of the ships, and at the same time, the Datang New Army, which had not suffered casualties before, fell several people in an instant.

This scene made Li Xuan and the others on the hillside change color slightly!

That's the artillery of the Ming army!

"Is this the artillery of the puppet thief army? It doesn't look good! Although Li Xuan's face changed slightly just now, he quickly regained his composure, and still maintained his previous breezy appearance.

From his demeanor, from his tone, it seemed that Li Xuan's contempt for the Ming army's artillery, and this contempt was also felt by the generals of the other Tang New Army.

Especially Zeng Ziwen, who was beside him, heard Li Xuan's words, and the shock caused by the Ming army's artillery firing just now was also instantly recovered.

Yes, the artillery of the puppet Ming thief army can only shoot at a range of a few tens of meters, and the power is far less than that of your own artillery.

In such a situation, it is indeed possible to say that the artillery of the puppet Ming thief army is nothing more than that!

Immediately, Zeng Ziwen also said: "What Your Majesty said is very true, whether it is the range or power of the bowl mouth cannon of the puppet Ming thief army, it is far from the Italian cannon of my Tang Heavenly Soldiers, so there is nothing to be afraid of!" ”

Li Xuan nodded slightly, revealing an approving look and said: "Well, even though the artillery of the Pseudo-Ming is not as good as the artillery of my Datang, it is more or less a threat, pass the order down, focus on attacking the artillery of the Pseudo-Ming!" ”

Li Xuan's words are not wrong, even if the artillery of the Ming army is rubbish, but if the scattered bombs are fired within a distance of dozens of meters, the damage caused will not be small, and if there is a chance, it is natural to knock out the artillery of the Ming army as soon as possible.

After the herald passed the order in the flag, the new officer of the 1st Musket Corps behind the breastwork, a young and somewhat excessive young captain, raised his command knife: "All of them, target, enemy artillery in front!" ”

Under his order, the soldiers who were still firing freely stopped firing freely, and after completing their preparations, they aimed their guns at a ferry boat about 60 meters ahead, and there happened to be a cannon on the bow of the boat, and several soldiers of the Ming army were loading it.

"Ready!"

"Shoot!"

Nearly 100 muskets fired at a ship, and at a distance of about 60 meters, the power of which can be imagined.

Almost instantly, hundreds of lead bullets were hit on the ferry, and in an instant, the sawdust flew sideways in the small ferry, and at the same time as the screams rang out, blood also flowed all over the ferry.