Li Xuan and the others have always been paying attention to the movements of the Ming army on the other side of the river, whether the number of troops has increased, whether there has been a decrease, how many rafts have been made, and other information that they have tried their best to understand.

And 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, and they are almost twenty-four staring at the movements of the Ming army.

Judging from the current situation, the Ming army on the opposite side was determined to cross the Lanjiang crossing, because they did not see them sending a large number of men and horses to the upstream and downstream.

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 to cross the river, and although some suitable places for crossing the river could be found in other places, the terrain was not necessarily suitable for more than 3,000 people to cross the river at the same time.

As for finding a remote place to spend a day or two secretly crossing the river, the Datang New Army is not stupid, the main force of the Ming Army is going upstream or downstream, they will definitely track the traces of the Ming Army, and the Datang New Army on the other side of the river will also make corresponding deployments.

Moreover, it would take several days to make a raft to cross the river in other places, otherwise it would be difficult for 3,000 people to swim through.

After all, the Lanjiang River is not suitable for navigation, except for a limited number of ferries with some small boats, most of the river sections are without boats, and they have no ready-made large number of boats to cross the river, so they can only rely on rafts to cross the river.

And the above, these are Li Xuan's own conjectures, and the actions of the Ming army on the other side also confirm that Li Xuan's conjecture is correct.

The Ming army on the other side of the river had no intention of crossing the river in other places, but concentrated on making rafts on the spot.

At the same time, there were no other trouble-making Ming troops in the rear of the Datang New Army.

After they later questioned Zeng Zisong and other Ming army prisoners, they found that although Zeng Zisong and them also came from the other side of the river, they did not belong to the same army as the Ming army in Fucheng, and these more than 100 people were actually Zeng Zisong's private soldiers.

Zeng Zisong, as Zeng Ziwen's younger brother, succeeded Zeng Ziwen in the army after Zeng Ziwen's 'martyrdom', according to the tradition of father and son, brother and brother.

However, because Zeng Ziwen died in battle because of the enemy's rash advance, the imperial court did not let Zeng Zisong attack the position of a thousand households, but only gave it to a hundred households.

Of the more than 100 soldiers he led, only a few dozen were regular army soldiers, and the remaining dozens of people were 'family members' recruited by him privately, and the price paid for recruiting these family members was also very cheap, just to give food, which was similar to the conditions for recruiting soldiers in the Datang New Army.

And it turned out that a full meal was more attractive to those poor people than expected, at least Zeng Zisong easily recruited dozens of people, and finally pulled out an army of more than 100 people.

He has been training 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 of the Ming army in Fucheng reached Zeng Zisong's ears, he felt that the opportunity for revenge had finally come, and took more than 100 people all the way to the west, but he did not go to meet the main force of the Ming army in Fucheng, but chose a ferry to cross the river secretly.

At that time, Li Xuan's attention was attracted by the 3,000 Ming troops coming from Fucheng, and they didn't notice that a Ming army of more than 100 people had secretly crossed the river from other ferries.

After crossing the river, Zeng Zisong began to look for an opportunity to attack the logistics line of the Datang New Army, intending to attack the logistics line of the Datang New Army first to reduce the pressure on the Ming army in Fucheng when crossing the river.

However, the more important purpose is to wait for the main force of the Ming army in Fucheng to cross the river, and then come to a front and back attack, and completely defeat the puppet Tang thief army.

It's a pity that he didn't jump for a few days after crossing the river, and he was wiped out by Hao Bonian's army.

Zeng Zisong's series of actions also attracted the attention of Li Xuan and other core high-level leaders of the Tang Dynasty, and spies had already been dispatched to several other locations upstream or downstream that were suitable for crossing the river for monitoring.

It is only necessary to monitor whether there are large-scale Ming troops smuggling across the river, and it does not take many people, and it is enough to put two or three people in one place.

However, except for Zeng Zisong, no other Ming troops were found to have chosen other small ferries to cross the river.

This also made Li Xuan's heart feel a little more at ease, and he was able to put all his thoughts on training and preparing for war, he was not only training, but also set up many obstacles on the riverside to hinder the landing of the Ming army.

In addition, he also instructed the soldiers to build a temporary earthen rampage along the river, which faced the other side of the river, and was two meters high, but facing the land, it was only a little more than one meter, because there was a half-meter-high place behind the breastwork where people could stand.

To some extent, this breastwork was already similar to a city wall, but because of the time constraints and the length of the riverbank, it was impossible for him to let the soldiers build a thick wall on this vast riverbank, so he could only replace it with a temporary breastwork wall of earthen ramparts.

However, even if it is a simple earthen rambut wall, it can also play a great role in defensive operations.

Slightly behind the middle of the breastwork, there was also an obvious pedestal, which was also blocked by a rambut wall, but it was strange that there was a gap in the breastwall like the battlements.

If a person with a little modern military knowledge sees this earthen rampart, then the first thing you will see is that this is a fort.

That's right, this battery is for the artillery that hasn't arrived yet!

The Ming army on the other side brought two bowl-mouth cannons, and if they didn't have artillery, wouldn't they suffer a lot in the fight, so after discovering that the Ming army had brought artillery, Li Xuan also sent people back to Huangzhushan day and night as soon as possible, and then brought the artillery that was still in the trial construction.

And the guards he sent back did not disappoint him, and when the Ming army had enough wooden methods to cross the river, and could cross the river at any time in the next few days, his guards finally brought artillery.

When he saw this artillery, Li Xuan couldn't help but go up and touch the two in person, this cannon was no different from the modern front-loading guns in his impression from the appearance, with a thick tube, the gun body was very thick, and it was attached with an iron gun carriage and wheels.

The weight of the entire cannon reached 900 catties, which was far more than the 500 catties required by Li Xuan, and did not meet the requirements of the battalion-level infantry support artillery in Li Xuan's planning.

If it was a march, even on the plains, it would take at least six horses for the cannon to keep up with the march.

Of course, four or even two horses can be pulled, but it is difficult to maintain a continuous march, so it doesn't make much sense.

Because the gun is a test cannon, it is mainly to test the technology of making cannons, so it is made relatively thick and heavy, and the barrel is relatively long, which is actually a very typical, with the characteristics of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries front-loading smoothbore cannon.

Such a cannon is not very suitable for the requirements of the new army of the Tang Dynasty at this stage, its power is naturally not bad, the cannon in Huangzhushan test firing, when firing a round solid iron bullet, reached the effective range of 500 meters required by Li Xuan, this effective range refers to the effective range when firing at a small angle upward, its hit rate is high, and the lethality can still be maintained.

If it is fired from the top at a large angle, its range can be increased to more than three kilometers, but at such a range, its hit rate is already negligible, and such a range is not valuable in actual combat.

However, even if it is an effective range of 500 meters, this can be regarded as a big killer weapon in this era, and it can even be said that such a big killer weapon is not affordable by the current Datang New Army, not only because the weight is too heavy, the Datang New Army does not have so many horses to pull the cannon, but also because the copper is expensive, and it is more difficult to manufacture long-barreled artillery, many craftsmen have been busy for more than half a year to create such a door by hand, which shows the difficulty of manufacturing, and such a difficult to produce, and can not be mass-produced artillery, it is difficult to equip in large quantities.

Because of the difficulty of manufacturing long-barreled artillery, the craftsmen in Huangzhushan have changed their minds, and they began to try to make some short-barreled artillery, which are not used to fire solid shells, but to fire scattered bullets, and the range may not be so far, but the weight and power can be guaranteed.

And Li Xuan also supports this, as long as it is a cannon and can play a corresponding tactical role, then he doesn't mind whether it is a mortar or a cannon.

After the artillery arrived, Li Xuan personally commanded the people to carry the artillery onto the fort, and its muzzle was pointed directly at the Ming army on the other side of the river!

When the artillery was moved, the butcher Chen on the side also circled around the artillery with a curious face, and then said to an artillery craftsman from Huangzhushan next to him: "Can this cannon hit the Ming army on the other side?" ”

The craftsman visually measured the width of the river, and then said: "General Hui, our artillery can only reach the river beach on the other side of the river at most, and the camps of those Ming troops are a little far away, and it is difficult to say whether they can hit it, but it is difficult to say whether it can be hit."

The Lanjiang River is not a big river, and the width of this section of the river is only two or three hundred meters, but the Ming army on the other side is not directly stationed on the river beach, people are stationed on the bank a few hundred meters away from the river beach, and even the main camp is arranged behind a small hillside.

The new army of the Tang Dynasty knew that the camp was arranged behind the dense forest on the hillside, and the Ming army was not stupid, but they would not be stupid to camp directly on the shore.

Butcher Chen said with some regret when he heard this: "It's a pity, otherwise, if you hit it with one shot, those Ming troops will not have to be killed or injured!" ”

At this time, Fang Dongquan on the side said: "The camp of the Ming army is not easy to fight, but if they want to cross the river, they must go up to the beachhead, and then this Italian artillery will be promising, and now they don't put a lot of rafts on the river beach, those can be hit." ”

After hearing this, Butcher Chen also jumped to try, and then turned to Li Xuan and said, "Your Majesty, why don't you take those rafts to practice your hands first, and try to shoot them?" ”

When Li Xuan heard this, he looked left and right, and then half asked himself, half asked, "Then make a shot?" ”

As soon as these words came out, Butcher Chen and Fang Dongquan nodded in unison like chickens pecking rice!

Li Xuan immediately said with anticipation: "Okay, then let's shoot"