Since defeating the main force of the Ming army led by Su Jiakang half a month ago, Li Xuan has sent many spies to Zhengtai County, Longhua Town, and even Fucheng to pay attention to the Ming army's every move.

For example, after learning that Zhengtai County had been lost once and that Su Jiakang was in pursuit, the Ming army had been severely damaged, and that the Ming army had been severely damaged during the pursuit, he had already begun to raise soldiers and horses to prepare for Zhengtai County.

Because at that time, everyone could see that it was impossible to extinguish the pseudo-Tang thief army with a scale of five or six hundred people with the strength of Zhengtai County alone.

However, it is not something that the prefect Song Zhiwen wants to gather soldiers and horses in a day or two, even if it is fast, it will take ten days and half a month, in addition, although the puppet Tang thief army has become a climate, but it has not taken Zhengtai County after all, which makes Song Zhiwen have more buffer time to slowly raise soldiers and horses.

If Li Xuan quickly took Zhengtai County, then Su Jiakang would certainly be dead, and Song Zhiwen would also feel the huge pressure, at that time, he would not care too much about the impression, and might directly report to the governor of the provincial capital, relying on the army sent by Shangfeng to exterminate the puppet Tang thief army.

However, Li Xuan did not immediately conquer Zhengtai County, which gave Song Zhiwen a chance to save everything!

As long as Zhengtai County is not lost, even if there are hundreds of people in the puppet Tang thief army, the impact is controllable, and Su Jiakang himself can't suppress it, but Song Zhiwen, who is the honor of the government, has a way to suppress it.

Of course, the news that should be reported still has to be reported, but it can be reduced to small things and small things through clever writing level.

Next, Song Zhiwen began to raise soldiers and horses!

The movements of these upper-level figures in the Ming court government are naturally unknown to the spies of the Tang New Army, but Song Zhiwen's movements in mobilizing troops and horses will not be small, and they will naturally be known by the spies of the Tang New Army lurking in the city.

The spies reported that in the past ten days, Ming troops have entered Fucheng one after another, and Song Zhiwen has also recruited a large number of young people.

According to preliminary estimates, Song Zhiwen has already gathered at least 3,000 Ming troops, and some of the recruits recruited by himself are guards, and half of them are young men who were temporarily recruited.

"Judging from the existing news, the Ming army on the other side of Fucheng will leave for our Zhengtai in the next few days, with more than 3,000 troops, of which more than half are regular troops, and if you add the remnants of the Ming army led by Su Jiakang in Zhengtai County and Longhua Town, the total strength will add up to more than 4,000 people." Fang Dongquan continued:

"Even after the expansion of our army, the Ming army is four times the size of our army, and more than half of the soldiers of our army have been recruited in recent days, and they have not undergone the most basic training, and their combat effectiveness is worrying!"

Fang Dongquan explained the current situation, and after everyone heard it, their faces were not very good-looking, and immediately Butcher Chen said loudly: "I'm afraid that he will be hairy, and when the time comes, Lao Tzu will lead people to rush at him, even if they have three or four thousand people, they can wash them away!" ”

When Butcher Chen said this, although his voice was very loud, everyone was very familiar with him, and they knew that his loud voice at this time was just to hide the worry in their hearts.

At this time, Wang Danxu said: "There is a lot of difference between the strength of the enemy and us, and it is definitely not possible to fight head-on, we can take advantage of the time when they cross the river, and come to a half-crossing to attack!" ”

Speaking of this, he walked to the large hand-drawn military map next to him and said: "Between my Zhengtai and Fucheng, there is the Lanjiang River to block, although the Lanjiang River is long, but there are not many places that can be used to cross the river, if the Ming army in Fucheng wants to cross the river, the most suitable place is at the Lanjiang ferry, as long as we are ambushed at the Lanjiang ferry, and wait for the Ming army to cross the river to the halfway point to kill it, a great victory can be expected!" ”

Zeng Ziwen also said: "Yes, now our best way is to stop the Ming army in Fucheng outside the Lanjiang River, and we can't let them make peace with Su Jiakang's soldiers and horses, otherwise, their strength will exceed 4,000 after one round, and it will be even more difficult to fight!" ”

"Half-crossing and attacking, I'm afraid it's not easy, the Ming army will definitely send a forward to cross the river to explore the road first, we can't hide more than a thousand people, if they find us ambushed on the other side of the river, they will definitely choose other places to cross the river, and we will be passive at that time!" Huang Xueren also spoke: "In my opinion, just let them cross the river, and after they cross the river, we will send people to lure them to divide their troops, and after they divide their troops, we will ambush them with the main force and break them one by one!" ”

As soon as his voice fell, Fang Dongquan spoke again: "What if the Ming army doesn't divide its troops and goes directly to Zhengtai County to find Su Jiakang?" ”

Listening to the arguments of the many generals under him, Li Xuan himself was also pondering, and he listened to what everyone said in his heart.

Among the many plans, Li Xuan is still more inclined to the method advocated by Wang Danxu and Zeng Ziwen, that is, to block the Ming army outside the Lanjiang River as much as possible, as for how many Ming troops can be killed or injured, it is still secondary, the key is to block the Ming army outside the Lanjiang River, and buy enough time for himself to develop.

What the Tang Dynasty needs most today is time, recruits need time to train, and muskets also need time to build, and this time is at least three months.

Three months later, the Tang Dynasty will be able to have a main force of more than 1,500 troops, and it will be more confident to fight the Ming army at that time.

It's just obvious that the Ming army doesn't want to give them this time!

After everyone debated for more than half an hour, they reluctantly discussed several plans.

The first choice was to attack the Ming army in Fucheng when the main force of the Ming army was in a half-crossing, and strive to defeat the Ming army when they crossed the river, so that not only would the Ming army be stopped outside the Lanjiang River, but also the Ming army would not be able to launch a large-scale river crossing again in at least the next month or two.

To carry out this plan, it is necessary to leave immediately and go to the Lanjiang ferry, otherwise it will be too late.

If the plan to attack halfway failed, then a heavy army was stationed at the Lanjiang ferry to keep the Ming army out of the Lanjiang River.

The above two plans are what Li Xuan and everyone want, and they are also the most beneficial to the Tang Dynasty.

But in case the Ming army successfully crosses the river, then the follow-up is to prevent the Ming army of Fucheng and Su Jiakang's soldiers and horses from converging as much as possible, but to adopt various strategies to let the Ming army of Fucheng divide their troops and strive for each breakthrough.

If the strategy of luring the Ming army to divide troops failed, then the follow-up will be in great trouble, and then the new army of the Tang Dynasty will have to rely on the mountains to fight a defensive battle in which the enemy advances and we retreat, and the enemy retreats and we advance.

After the main strategic plan was set, the Datang New Army also moved quickly, the first infantry battalion, sword and shield team, archery team, cavalry team, and baggage battalion were quickly prepared, these troops are the current core and main force of the Datang New Army.

Although the Second Infantry Battalion led by Fang Dongquan and Wang Danxu's Third Infantry Battalion were almost full, most of them were recruits, and they were not equipped with muskets, and they were still in the era of cold weapons such as spears and shields, so although their numbers accounted for more than half of the total strength, they could only serve as second-line troops.

The new army of the Tang Dynasty, with a total of more than 1,400 people, was quickly mobilized, and it only took one day to complete the preparations before the expedition.

The next morning, Li Xuan first went to the room of the Empress Dowager Bai, and he did not kneel and salute in military uniform, but bent down slightly and bowed his head: "Queen Mother, the son is here to resign!" ”

Empress Dowager Bai sat on it and looked at Li Xuan for a long time without speaking, and only after a long time did she say softly: "Go, the sword and gun have no eyes, remember not to be reckless!" ”

Li Xuan bowed slightly before leaving the door, and after Li Xuan went out, the Empress Dowager Bai sighed heavily, then closed her eyes, and said softly: "Dead old man, can you see it, because you are stupid to be the emperor, how many times have our sons fought with the Ming army, if Xuan'er has anything to do, the old lady will not spare you when she goes underground!" ”

After Li Xuan resigned to the Empress Dowager Bai, he also went to see Dong Yunyun, Zhu'er, and Ye Shi successively, but the more these three girls experienced this kind of thing for the first time, Li Xuan had led the army to fight many times, so they didn't lose their temper too much, just said a few words to let Li Xuan pay attention to safety and something like that.

After speaking, Li Xuan left the Land Temple, and then directly turned over and rode his horse, and rushed to the school with Liu Bagou, Qian Mengjiu, Wang Wenhua, Ma Wei and other civil officials who were waiting outside the temporary palace, where more than a thousand Tang New Army were already waiting together!

When he arrived at the school ground, Li Xuan did not dismount, but continued to ride on the horse!

With the arrival of the emperor, Fang Dongquan, Wang Danxu, Huang Xueren, Chen Butcher, Zeng Ziwen and other major generals of the Tang Dynasty, who had been waiting here, also stepped forward to greet them.

"Greetings to Your Majesty!"

Li Xuan looked at everyone, then nodded slightly, stretched out his hand with white leather gloves and raised it slightly, and said, "Flat!" ”

When everyone walked to the front and back, Li Xuan turned his gaze to Zeng Ziwen: "Are all the departments ready?" ”

On this expedition, Li Xuan did not set up any positions such as forward generals and generals of the Chinese army, but according to the direct command of each unit, and the one responsible for specific daily defense and various miscellaneous affairs was the Operations Department under the Privy Council.

Zeng Ziwen, the combat commander, is responsible for the daily defense of the follow-up operation, which is Li Xuan's debut opportunity for the operations division, as long as the performance is excellent, then the follow-up operations division will slowly assume its real responsibility: responsible for the daily training of the troops and the combat command.

Now that the Operations Division is participating in actual operations for the first time, it is also an attempt by Li Xuan to establish a real staff system, and if the results are good enough, he will gradually strengthen the power of the Operations Division, and finally command the operations of the whole army.

In this way, he will not have to lead a large army every time in person.

Anyway, he's also an emperor, what's the matter with his own levy every time he fights!

But now, there is no combat organization like the General Staff, and in order to control the army, he does not personally lead the troops to fight, Li Xuan is not at ease, he is worried that Fang Dongquan and these bandit leaders are messing around, and he is even more worried that Fang Dongquan and them will come to rebel.

After making preparations, Li Xuan didn't talk too much nonsense, and soon ordered to pull out!

With the issuance of the order, more than 1,000 new troops of the Tang Dynasty embarked on the eastward march towards the rising sun! 8)