Han Zuo Gaomen

Chapter 769
Luojian and Wokou, looking across the Huai River, are the inlets of the tributaries on the north and south banks of the Huai River, and the distance between them is only a few tens of miles. Right now, it is the front line of the confrontation between the Huainan Army and the slave army under Shihu .

In the battle between Runan and Feikou, the Huainan army not only rescued the tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians who were trapped in the hanging area of ​​Runan, but also defeated the intention of the Yingshang slave army to fight fiercely across the Huai River. , almost all of which were destroyed and captured.

Although the land of Runan was lost, the western defense line was withdrawn to the Feikou area near Shouchun, and its strength became more solidified, which disabled the ability of the slave army to cross Tianjin in one fell swoop, while the Huainan army could rely on boats. The power directly radiates to Chenjun, Yingchuan and other core places in southern Henan.

In this battle, the Taobao troops of the slave army were at a loss before the battle. Although they lost more than [-] soldiers, in terms of overall military strength, it was not a big loss, and they still maintained the strength to continue fighting.However, because Taobao's army was already limited by boats and ships, and Shihu's strategy shifted, shifting the focus from Yingshui to Woshui, the distance between the two was widened, and Yingshui immediately became the Huainan army. Mastering it cuts off the connection between the two parts, and no longer has the ability to echo.

Therefore, although Taobao's troops occupied Runan, they were weak in succession, trapped there and gradually became a lone army.Even if the Huainan army did not place troops to defend, it would be difficult for its troops to pass through the rolling Huai River between Rukou and Yingkou, and it could no longer pose a substantial threat to Huainan.

In the Battle of Runan, more than [-] soldiers and civilians from Runan successfully returned to Huainan. In fact, they could have brought back more. They lost control and scrambled to jump across the water.But at that time, the fighting power of the slave army had not been completely defeated, and it was the critical moment of confrontation between the two armies, so a considerable part of these people fell on the eve of being saved.This is also something that makes Mao Bao deeply regretful. Every time he blames himself, he failed to restrain the people at the last moment.

However, Shen Zhezi also understands that it is extremely difficult for Mao Bao to maintain the situation until the reinforcements arrive in such a harsh combat environment in the Xuanhu Land, and he should not be harshly criticized for it.And from another cruel point of view, there should be many violent people who chose to violently get out of control at such a moment. Losing this part will be more conducive to including this part of Runan people into the order of Huainan , to be settled as soon as possible.

Previously, the slave army came surging, and the situation was still unclear, so many locals in Huainan around Shouchun retreated between Hefei and Liangjun.The participation of these people in Runan greatly supplemented Shouchun's work.

In a cruel war, warmth is really hard to survive.Although the town also understands that this part of the people is the rest of their lives after the catastrophe, and they are exhausted and sick, but investing so much manpower and material resources to rescue them when the foreign aggression has not been lifted, there is really not much left for them to recuperate time.

Therefore, after the war, the situation along the Huaihe River stabilized slightly, and the reorganization of these people began immediately.At this time, Du He and others in charge of political affairs in the town have to raise military supplies for the army and maintain the stability of the people's livelihood in the territory. Check the category of rural registration, and all the people who enter the country are incorporated into the county registration.

Ding men and the old and the weak, one for three, immediately filled the villages around Shouchun.As for some old and sick people who can no longer bear the pain of running around, they are temporarily adopted in various resettlement sites in the west of Shouchun as foster care.

For the rectification and resettlement of these people, Shen Zhezi really didn't have time to be distracted too much, and left everything to Du He and others.As for the only requirement, there must be sufficient rations.In troubled times, human life is as cheap as worthless and worthless, but even worthless has its tenacity. Even if the fire starts a prairie fire, as long as there is a little spring breeze and light rain, it will be prosperous again.

With a strong enemy at hand and limited ability, Shen Zhezi tried his best to fight for them, but he could only fight for a way out for them, but it was difficult to support and protect them all the way. Life.

But even if there is only this one requirement, it is quite difficult to meet it.

Although the land of Huainan has great potential, after all, Shen Zhezi's time in the town is too short. He has just finished rectifying the strength of the villagers, and immediately begins to prepare for the battle, so this huge potential has not yet reached the time to be realized.Even the entire recovery area of ​​Huaixia and Jiangbei, except for Liyang and Tuzhong run by Du He before, including Liang County where Shen Zhezi was located before, has no self-replenishing ability. , you must look to the outside world!

Now it is the end of August, if counting from the time when the Jie Kingdom issued the Southern Expedition and prepared to send troops to the south, this war has lasted for more than half a year.Although the slave army had not officially arrived in the first few months, and no large-scale war broke out directly, the Huainan army had to keep intruding on the Huaibei land, and the town had to build various defenses for war preparations, supplies, materials and supplies. The consumption is also great.

Although Shen Zhezi has the support of the Wu people group behind him, if the enslaved army expropriated and unscrupulously plundered in the North, it can be said that Shen Zhezi is the group with the most reserves and uses at present.But it is also difficult to achieve unrestrained and unlimited investment, and Huainan is originally a distant hometown for Wu people. If it were not for the foundation established by the Shen family before, coupled with Shen Zhezi's outstanding performance in previous battles, No matter how enthusiastic you are to help the battle, after such a long time of investment, you have to cool down.

But even if the help from the local people is not reduced, the use of Jiangdong's materials is by no means inexhaustible.In fact, being able to survive to this point has even exceeded Shen Zhezi's original expectations.

Since ancient times, it is not unreasonable to emphasize the north and despise the south. When it comes to the vitality of the foundation, Jiangdong is not as good as the Central Plains.This is not only limited by technology, but also the most fundamental defects of population and reclaimed land.Although as the Shen family grows stronger year by year, the impact on the population and land is getting bigger and bigger, but it is really difficult for a few years of work to equalize hundreds of thousands of years of weakness.

What's more, the situation in Jiangdong has not always been stable. If it hadn't been for the Sujun Rebellion, through many efforts to achieve the goal of keeping the enemy from outside, and to preserve the stable and smooth development of the essence of Wuzhong, then Shen Zhezi would not have used Jiangbei at all. People and things storage.

Even so, to maintain this war, the entire Jiangdong will feel obvious pressure.In order to maintain the overall situation in Huainan and at the same time meet the consumption of tens of thousands of Huainan troops in high-intensity operations, the demand for pure food is similar to a bottomless pit.What's more, Huainan has no self-replenishing ability at all, and everything depends on foreign transportation.Although it takes advantage of the convenience of water transportation, it is absolutely impossible to have no consumption.

Deng Ai of the Three Kingdoms once said that 3000 million dendrobium can be accumulated on the Huai River, which is enough for a hundred thousand people to eat for five years.Although this war lasted far less than five years, Huainan needs to support more than [-] soldiers and civilians!
Previously, a large number of households moved back to the interior. In addition to the considerations of defense and people's hearts, thrift and consumption are also a very important reason. In the frontline, food-consuming units other than fighting were reduced as much as possible.

Therefore, it can be said that the war has lasted to this point, and it can be said that it has played a very long time for Jiangdong, who has a weak foundation.In addition to the relatively stable development in the past few years and the strengthening of alliances and joint efforts of various township and clan sects, this step has also benefited from the gradual changes and changes in folk customs and reclamation techniques in the past few years.

More importantly, the promotion of millet and wheat planting in Jiangdong is also a very important reason.For a long time in Jiangdong, rice, rice soup, fish, millet and wheat are not staple foods, so few people grow them.

When Shen Zhezi came to this world, even if he saw planting occasionally, it was not used as a food product at all. He often plowed and grinded it as green manure to fertilize the fields before the ears were ready.But now, at least on the arable land directly or indirectly controlled by the Shen family, wheat has been cultivated and harvested as an official crop.Especially in those farms in Kuaiji where there are many mountainous areas, wheat is already a very important output.

This is not a technical innovation, it only needs a slight change in concept.There is also no need to concentrate on one piece of land and cultivate it frequently, because Jiangdong has suffered from underdevelopment so far, and there are large areas of barren land that have not been reclaimed.Just by using the habit of wrong seasons of wheat and rice, the annual output of a unit of labor force can be greatly improved, so as to achieve two annual harvests of rice and wheat.Compared with two-crop rice, which has high requirements on climate and land environment, this farming method can undoubtedly be more widely implemented.No matter in Kuaiji, Jiangzhou or today's Huainan, a large amount of soil suitable for this kind of cultivation can be found.

Although the stomachs of southerners are not used to pasta, the wheat produced in Jiangdong is also an important part of Huainan's military rations.

Even so, the shortage of supplies has become an increasingly obvious problem facing the Huainan Army, and the aid from Jiangdong can no longer keep up with daily consumption.Although Jiangdong is currently harvesting in autumn, even if there is new grain entering the warehouse, the water season will soon be missed, and it will be difficult to maintain the huge transportation volume at the turn of spring and summer.Therefore, the entry of these tens of thousands of Runan people has put a lot of pressure on Huainan.

Under such circumstances, Shen Zhezi also asked to meet the ration needs of these tens of thousands of people, and Du He felt great pressure.Fortunately, there was no shortage of reclamation foundations around Shouchun before, and before the slave army formally marched to the Huaihe River, it took a period of rushing to cultivate, all of which were short-harvest crops such as grains and bean, and it was now the harvest season.So put these tens of thousands of people into reclamation as soon as possible, and make a little self-sufficiency to relieve the urgent need.

However, Du He was not relieved because of this. The manpower saved by these tens of thousands of people for farming was not invested in the expansion of production. Shen Zhezi was immediately transferred to the surrounding area of ​​Luojian, and continued to build along Luojian. More fortifications were put in place to prevent the hidden danger of the Huaikou slave army going south to invade the hinterland of Huainan.

And soon Shen Zhezi made another decision that made Du He even more distressed, that is, to expand the reorganized cavalry army while maintaining Huainan's current military strength.

Previously, the Huainan Army captured tens of thousands of war horses in the First Battle of Chengfu, but they did not immediately invest in expanding the cavalry.One is that the combat environment at the time did not require large-scale cavalry to be put into battle, so there was no point in wasting more energy on this one; the other was that the Huainan Army at that time did not have enough qualified cavalry.

The composition of the tens of thousands of Huainan troops in Shen Zhezi's hands today is also quite complicated, and can be roughly divided into six sources.

The first part is the remnants of the rebel army surrendered and captured during the Sujun Rebellion, which includes not only the routs that Shen Zhezi took in when he counterattacked Jiankang and took over Gyeonggi afterwards, but also the entire army such as Lu Yong took refuge; It was the remnants of the rebel army recruited and suppressed by Yu Yi when he left the capital to sit in Liyang, as well as the refugees who were coerced by the rebel army, which was the foundation of the original Yuzhou army.This is also the main body of the Huainan Army, which now accounts for more than [-] troops of the Huainan Army.

The second part is the original trilogy of the Shen family's family soldiers, which were originally only private soldiers, but have since been washed by Shen Zhezi and reorganized into the regular army.This part also includes many Wu people who came to join the army to help the war, and even more than 2000 Dongyang Army directly changed their banners and merged into the Huainan Army.

The third part is the direct incorporation of the original armed forces in Jiangbei. For example, Mao Bao was originally based in Lujiang, and he joined Shen Zhezi after he went north to settle in Liangjun, although some of the troops he originally commanded were left in Hefei.However, the Huainan Army suffered too much losses in the previous battle of Yingkou, and Yu Yi sent reinforcements.

The fourth part is to poach the corners of the Xuzhou army. Similar to Cao Na and others, the original Xuzhou army leaders directly took refuge in Shen Zhezi. A force to be reckoned with.

The fifth part is about the defeated soldiers intercepted by his father Shen Chong when Jiangzhou exterminated Wang Shu.These people included not only those military families in Jiangzhou, but also the new wandering army recruited by Wang Shu before his defeat.And these victorious troops lived up to Shen Zhezi's kindness and reuse. Yingkou fought fiercely in the first battle, suffered heavy losses, but still persisted to the end.Shen Zhezi also planned to continue to maintain the title of Shengwu Army after the war, and increase troops to rebuild.

As for the sixth part, it is the army reorganized by the local villagers in Huainan. Similar to Li Cang's troops, they also played a great role in holding on to Runan before.The rest were in the town, or did not directly participate in the two most intense battles between Yingkou and Feikou, but they also played a significant role in defending the town and stabilizing the situation in the town.

Of course, in addition to these, the Huainan Army also has supplements from other sources. For example, the wandering refugees who fled from Huaihang to the south of Henan, many of whom have considerable organizational and combat effectiveness, were also selectively incorporated into Huainan by Shen Zhezi. in the army.In addition, Liang County had gathered many northern and southern aristocratic families who wanted to join the army to make contributions. After the initial reorganization, they also entered the town as reinforcements after the Battle of Yingkou.

Since the start of the war, from Chengfu to Yingkou, until the last two battles between Runan and Feikou, although the Huainan army has achieved good results, they have also suffered a lot of damage, especially in the battle against Yingkou. The slave army, which was several times larger than itself, attacked and almost lost more than tens of thousands of combat power in the first battle.In other stalemate battles, there are also small-scale injuries, but the replenishment is also timely.

Although the composition of the current Huainan Army is slightly different from that at the beginning of the war, especially the original Yuzhou Army led by Guo Song suffered heavy casualties, and almost none of the Shengwu Army survived. Town, the overall strength is still maintained at more than [-].

The current situation of the war has changed. The overall pressure of the hundreds of thousands of slaves no longer exists, and the more than 10,000 slaves under Taobao's troops are trapped in Runan, which is no longer a threat.The slave army in Yingshang was almost disabled, and Shi Hu reorganized and collected the rest in Wokou.The original situation where a strong enemy was overwhelming the city no longer existed, and the only pressure came from the [-]+ slave army in Wokou.

The number of enemies still seems to be huge, but after Yingkou's victory and Feikou's successful attack on the slave army's south crossing operation, the Huainan army is far from the fearful and apprehensive army waiting for the battle.In addition, although the main force of the Xuzhou Army no longer directly fought side by side with the Huainan Army and helped each other, they successfully conquered Huaiyin, thereby controlling the end of the Huai River, and forming a pincer attack with the Huainan Army on the Huai River. The beginning is no longer the same.

Therefore, judging from the current battle situation, the Huainan Army's strength alone is enough to stop the slave army at Luojian.Du He couldn't understand that Shen Zhezi wanted to expand his army.Although there were many advantages accumulated before, it was not possible to turn passive defense into complete initiative. After all, almost all the advantages of the Huainan Army before were obtained based on the favorable waterway and location.It is still a risky move for the Huainan Army to fight on open terrain and on land.

However, Du He did not dare to interfere too much in the military, and since the war started, Shen Zhezi has not shown any greed for merit and arrogance, so despite his doubts, Du He still tried his best to raise funds for the town to meet the expansion of the cavalry. .

Shen Zhezi's plan is to expand the cavalry of the Huainan Army to 6000 to 3000 on the original basis.This is the limit that the Huainan Army's current horses can achieve under the condition of maintaining one person and two riders, while still having a certain amount of horsepower stored.However, in terms of soldiers, there is still a gap of nearly [-] people.

However, as the trapped people in Runan returned to the town, and the people in southern Henan who were successively recruited into the town before, many of them were Wuhao of the township clan who stuck to the township in Huaibei, and there were also some scattered soldiers who were brave enough to satisfy this situation. Part of the shortfall is not difficult.Of course, it is impossible for these soldiers to become a strong army once they are formed, but if they are not even established, then nothing will be mentioned.

When the Anmin army in Huainan was in full swing, Shen Zhezi personally sat in Luojian, where the main force of the Huainan army gathered and confronted the slave army dozens of miles away by the Huai River.In addition to the construction of various fortifications, the Huainan Army's defensive posture is also active. Although there is no large-scale assembly operation, there are constant small-scale spying attacks.

Although Shi Hu took advantage of the Huainan Army's lack of strength and difficulty in taking care of both ends, it only stopped there and did not make a greater breakthrough in the war.One is because the fall of Huaiyin made him suffer from the enemy, and it was difficult for him to drive straight on the Huaihe River. He was stuck with no boat available.

As the stalemate lasted longer, Shen Zhezi gradually stopped trying to guess the life and death of the slave master Shi Le, and instead focused on maintaining high-intensity harassment and temptation of the slave army.In Huainan Town, there has been a dilemma that the replacement will not continue. The slave army has come from afar, and 10,000+ soldiers are eating horses. It is conceivable that the pressure will be even greater.Moreover, the fall of Huainan directly exposed the contradictions in the slave nation's power struggle. Shi Hu must have been deeply touched by this, and would not feel happy about it.

So Shi Hu, an old boy, is likely to be ready to slap his ass and leave at any time, and Shen Zhezi is naturally ready to stab him in the back at any time.If the slave army returns to the division this time, it is inevitable that they will not take a piece of cloud with them, but they must cut off a piece of fat from him and keep it!

(End of this chapter)