Han Zuo Gaomen

Chapter 722
Although the Huainan army has shrunk into the town, but because of the foundation laid by the previous activities in Huaibei, it has not completely cut off the source of news in Huaibei.As time went by, more and more news about the exact movements of the Jiehu army spread across the Huaishui River, and the situation became more and more clear. The Jiehu army was indeed coming straight to Shouchun.

If they had heard the news before, even if the Huainan people would not have collapsed immediately, their hearts would be in turmoil and they would have no will to fight.On the one hand, there is indeed a huge disparity in strength between each other, on the other hand, Jie Hu has been raging for a long time and has accumulated a lot of power, which makes it difficult to generate a confrontational heart.

But because of Shen Zhezi's early warning, coupled with the encouragement of consecutive victories.So even if it was confirmed that Jiehu's army was indeed planning to attack Shouchun, it did not cause much disturbance.The inside and outside of the military town is still orderly, civil and military bureaucrats are also performing their duties, and even there is not much commotion in the countryside.

And Shen Zhezi no longer wanted to be the first to win. Except for the necessary ranger scouts, all the people and horses in Huaibei withdrew to the town, posing as if they were sticking to the Huai line.Before sending Xi Jian a batch of war horses, Xi Jian not only sent envoys to thank him, but also sent several war ships that can gallop on the river. Although they are not the kind of high-rise ships with several floors, they are also beneficial to the current defense of Huainan.

The Huainan Army may not be able to pick out too many qualified knights, but there are quite a few qualified sailors.After all, even if these soldiers had not been in the army for a long time, since they were born in a land of fish and rice, they were all used to pedaling.

The contest on the waterway is the top priority of Huainan's defense.Shouchun is directly facing the Huai River. Just defending on the Huai River, there are hundreds of miles of waterways from Rukou upstream to Luojian downstream.

The Huainan army is called [-] people, but if it is completely dispersed on such a long front, the force will be diluted to the extreme, and it will not be enough to fight against the slave army coming from the south.The land of Huainan is not very dangerous. Once it is robbed by the slave army, Shouchun will become an isolated city.The entire land of Huaixi will become a horse farm for slave soldiers to gallop their horses, and it will also deal a serious blow to Shen Zhezi's business operations in Huainan, Liangjun and other places.

Therefore, regarding the defense of Huainan, Shen Zhezi only wanted to block the slave soldiers to the north of the Huai River, and did not think of second ways at all.It is difficult to defend perfectly on a long front, so you can only make trade-offs.Rukou, which is far away from Shouchun, has been designated as a secondary battlefield by him. If he really can't defend it, he can only give up shrinking.

In these hundreds of miles of water, the most important thing is the mouth.Yingshui directly connects the hinterland of the Central Plains and connects to the chasm. It is the most important tributary of Huaizhong.Thousands of boats raced down from Yingchuan to prevent the slave army from rushing directly into the Huai River, it was an extremely difficult task.

Therefore, in Yingkou, Shen Zhezi not only stationed Guo Song, who had the most experience in fighting slave soldiers, but also Han Huang as his successor. Surrounding Yingkou, there were more than [-] Chen heavy soldiers, and more than [-] land and water rangers.

When arranging the line of defense, Shen Zhezi was especially thankful that it was the wisdom of the ancients.With the Queyue Formation formed by chariots, he can obtain maximum mobility for his navy and army, without having to stay in one place, breaking away from a fixed station, and being able to deploy anywhere on the Huai River at any time due to the needs of the war. battlefield.

But the moon formation is not a weapon that can win every battle, and its power is not limited to the battle formation itself. It has extremely strict requirements on the terrain, arms, equipment, and even the cooperation of fighters.If the focus is only on the battle formation itself, then not only is it not a victory tool, but a gift bag packed and delivered to the door.

In history, the shocking battle of Liu Yu's Northern Expedition was not the first battle of the Queyue Formation, but a manifestation of a great achievement.The real start of the Queyue Formation was when the Beifu army entered Wuzhong Qing to suppress the Tianshidao rebellion.

Wuzhong's water network is densely covered, and most of the Tianshidao rebels are joined by Wuzhong Haozong who is familiar with the geographical situation. Although the Beifu army is brave and good at fighting, in such a war environment, there is almost no advantage to speak of.If a small team advances, it is likely to be defeated by the rebels' flexible deployment of local superior points. If the brigade gathers and advances, then the rebels can break up into parts and wander around the countryside to avoid battles.

Under such circumstances, the Yueyue Formation came into play.First of all, there must be an absolutely superior navy to control the waterway, so as to resolve the lack of mobility of the moon formation, and quickly put the vehicle formation into the battlefield through the navy, and at the same time guard against the flanks and back roads to respond.And if you want to maximize the results of the battle, you also need the cooperation of light cavalry. After breaking the enemy's charge, the cavalry will rush out of the shock formation, thereby maximizing the victory.

In short, the Queyue Formation is a mobile fortress, which can be deployed to various battlefields at any time through the cooperation of the navy to strengthen the formation.But at the same time, the effect of forming a chariot formation is actually much weaker than that of a regular camp base, and because of insufficient mobility, if it is too far away from the waterway and there is no flexible waterway to cooperate, it is very likely to be smothered to death on land.

In order to make up for the far inferior protection of chariots compared to camps, the weapons used by soldiers in the formation must be sufficient and diverse, so as to have flexible defense methods and combat rhythms, and increase the lethality as much as possible.

Without the cooperation of these conditions, Que Yuezhen would not be practical.After all, chariot formation is essentially a tactic that has been eliminated by history.But the biggest function of the moon array is not to take the initiative to attack, but to defend.Especially in the defense of land and water vital points, where the enemy must attack, because it saves the time of building a fixed camp, it is convenient to form an formation, it is all sudden, and it is deceptive to a certain extent, so it can often achieve miraculous results.

In other words, if Shen Zhezi had enough time, energy, and a large amount of money to invest in setting up camps and strongholds everywhere along the Huai River, then he didn't need to rely on the expedient strategy of Queyue Formation at all.But the huge amount of manpower and material resources invested in that way is really unimaginable.Moreover, the camps are all fixed, and once they are breached by siege, they will lose their military role.

So after entering the town, Shen Zhezi also focused on building chariots and training this kind of warfare that uses both water and land.In this Shouchun defensive battle, although the Huainan army was at a great disadvantage, it had great control over the control of the waterway.At the same time, every crossable section of the Huai River is a must for Jiehu.

So this battle was simply tailor-made for Queyue Formation, or Queyue Formation itself was invented for this battlefield environment.The slave soldiers thought they were rushing towards an army formation, but it was actually a fortified city, and it also had counterattack methods and mobility that cities did not have.

Of course, Shen Zhezi doesn't think that this method alone can guarantee victory. The huge gap in strength cannot be made up by just one or two tactics.In the defense of the waterway, there are not many techniques that can be used. In essence, it is nothing more than setting up obstacles and destroying ships.

Empress Wu Sun Hao, in order to resist the southern expedition of the Jin army of China and North Korea, crossed the river with iron chains. Although it sounds a bit stupid, it is actually the basic tactic of water warfare.Although Shen Zhezi has a deep friendship and close relationship with the Jiangdong Minjia, he still can't achieve the powerful conquisition and bold handwriting of a king of a country, and the cost is too high, but the practicability is not great.The smelting workshop he owns is already overwhelmed with simply making ordnance, and it is even more impossible to make flashy things like iron chains.

Therefore, in the defense of the waterways, except for the narrow and dangerous places such as Xiashi City where there are more water fences and giant trees to block the river at critical moments, as for other directions, the focus is still on destroying ships.In the town, many people who are good at swimming and dare to fight are selected to form an army. When the thief ships arrive, they will swim and build ships.At the same time, oil and other igniting and combustion-supporting materials were also added to the armaments to prepare for fire attacks.

Similar preparations are still going on.Many affairs that had been temporarily put on hold due to the busy battle in Huaibei were also stepped up and busy at this time, trying to make the best use of the little time on the eve of the war and make more comprehensive preparations.

What wars are fought is nothing more than human life and money.At this moment, Shen Zhezi felt particularly deeply. He has lived in the town recently, and he also understands why Du Heyin is so anxious.Now in Shouchun Town, there are tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians. Although some of the households have started to cultivate, they have not yet produced any production. Therefore, the supply of funds and food needs to be supplemented.

With such a large population and the necessary animal power, even if they stay still, the daily food consumption will reach thousands of hu.But now, soldiers have to practice and prepare for war, and Dingkou has to work to produce materials, and the consumption is doubled.Moreover, these manpower are not concentrated in one place, especially Yingkou and other important frontline areas where heavy troops are stationed must be reserved to prevent the danger of the slave army cutting off the food road after the war begins.

Calculated in this way, to maintain the operation of the entire Huainan, the daily food consumption alone would amount to tens of thousands of dendrobium.Such a number, just hearing it makes people feel awe-inspiring. As a specific handler, one can imagine the great pressure on Du He.

In fact, a considerable part of the current situation is Shen Zhezi's own fault.It is not unreasonable for the princes in Taiwan to complain about him. From the recovery of compound fertilizer, the construction of Liangjun, and then the rush to recover Huainan Shouchun, the pace is too fast.This will inevitably double the consumption, and the power of internal supplementation is far from enough.

To be honest, if it weren't for Shen Zhezi's other channels to raise money, relying solely on Taichung's support and not waiting for Jienu to attack, when he advances to Shouchun, Jiangbei's achievements may have collapsed without a fight.

But Shen Zhezi also had his own reasons. He didn't have the strength and opportunity to intervene in Jiangbei affairs before, and he didn't get such an opportunity until after Wang Shu was removed.But Beidi is about to usher in a big change, and the time left for him is really too little.Moreover, although such a fast-paced advancement requires the face of various problems, even if the pace is slowed down and steady progress is made, other problems will emerge one after another, which may not be better than it is now.

What can be called good news recently is that his father Shen Chong went north and entered the Zhenjing Mansion as the governor of Yangzhou.In this way, Shen Zhezi's rear security is more stable.And in his opinion, even if the battle was defeated and Shouchun was lost, it would be much more convenient and smooth for his family to overcome the catastrophe and separate Jiangdong from the capital to Jiankang instead of occupying Kuaiji.

But the news did not make Shen Zhezi happy for too long, and soon his mood became bad.The forward of Jiehu's army has appeared in Huaibei, and as soon as it appeared, it was accompanied by a bloody battle report!

(End of this chapter)