Han Zuo Gaomen

Chapter 772 Ji Long Will Escape

The slave soldiers were preparing their horses and horses on the north bank, posing as if they were about to fight a decisive battle, and the Huainan army was also actively responding here.

The war has been going on until now, even if it is counted from the battle of Yingkou in late June and early July, it has lasted for more than two months.Although high-intensity combat was not always maintained in the middle, the Huainan Army, as a passive defensive side, was bound to put in more effort than the slave army to deal with it. If the slave army made a slight move, the Huainan army would have to make a lot of adjustments. It is also a great test for manpower.

Although the morale of the Huainan Army has been maintained well, it is actually showing signs of exhaustion even now.Especially for the combat troops who are always deployed on the front line, the strain is much greater.

The decisive battle that will begin this time can be said to be actively pursued by the Huainan Army.At the end of the war, Shen Zhezi finally decided to take the initiative in the war and squeeze out all the war potential of the Huainan Army in order to seek the final victory.

From the day when Shen Zhezi arrived in Luojian, all the transportation capacity of boats and vehicles in the town was quickly mobilized, and even the farm cattle were put to use, and all the materials related to the war in the town were gathered and transported to Luojian .The freshly harvested grains, which are still fresh and green, are all used as military rations.All the ironware that can be collected by the folks are directly melted and cast into arrow clusters near the front line.A large number of civilian laborers gathered here to provide ordnance for the continuous production of the army.

Not only Huainan is like this, Hefei and Liangjun and other back town bases have also reached a limit in mobilization of people's resources, doing everything they can to inject the Huainan Army with the ability to continue fighting.

People and horses from all walks of life in the town, everyone who still has the strength to fight, all gathered in Luojian and stood by.Although the Huainan army is called [-] people, in fact, quite a few of them do not belong to the first rank of soldiers. Before that, no matter whether it was fighting in Yingkou or Runan and Feikou, the most invested in a single battle was no more than [-]. There are more than half of them, and nearly half of them are still only responsible for moving equipment and are on standby in rotation.

In the previous fierce battles, the soldiers of the first order were seriously injured.Therefore, many armies serving as reserve forces have also been incorporated into the direct battle sequence. For example, the armies composed of local villagers in Huainan who were mainly defending places before are now also used as the main force to equip for battle.

In the coming battle, Shen Zhezi plans to invest more than 3 combat forces.These 3 people do not include auxiliary soldiers and service forces, but are purely combat units.This is almost all the forces of the Huainan Army that can be used in frontal combat, and it can be said that they are all out.

And to maintain such a large-scale combat army to operate normally and enter the battlefield smoothly, even if it is not a one-time deployment, at least the same amount of servants are needed to cooperate.If you consider that there will be cross-border operations across the Huaihe River in the future, then the required manpower needs to be calculated in multiples.Especially for the [-] cavalry who have been reorganized under the instruction of Shen Zhezi Xinjin, if they want to exert their due combat effectiveness on the battlefield, the logistical coordination required is almost the sum of all other combat troops.

So today's Huainan really has a militaristic flavor.Almost all personnel affairs revolve around the next battle.The manpower directly or indirectly invested in the preparations for this war has exceeded hundreds of thousands of people!People's livelihood outside of the military is just barely maintained and has fallen into a state of shutdown.

It can be said that if this battle cannot be won or the expected results cannot be achieved, even if Huainan can hold on, it will be in a weak and weak state in the next few years, and it will no longer have the potential to launch a major war.And Jiangdong is no longer likely to continue to donate large-scale subsidies to Huainan as it has done since the beginning of the year.

Xi Jian stayed in Luojian for a few days, and was fortunate to see such a strong mobilization force of the Huainan Army, and his mood was complicated.

Perhaps in terms of overall strength, Huainan's fledgling town is far inferior to Xuzhou.Before the South Crossing, the Xuzhou defense area was one of the key areas operated by the Yue Mansion. After the South Crossing, it became the main gathering point for Qingxu villagers and the front line against the slave army.

With such a solid accumulation, it can even be evenly divided with Jingzhou, which is an important town in Shaanxi. It is by no means that Huainan can catch up in a short time.As for the soldiers who were simply under armor, Xuzhou was nearly twice that of the Huainan Army, and it was by no means a hastily assembled army. Almost every soldier participated in at least one or two battles with the slave army.

However, after witnessing such a powerful mobilization force of the Huainan Army, Xi Jian had to admit that even if there is a direct conflict with the Huainan Army now, the Xuzhou Army may not be able to gain the upper hand, and may even be defeated.This has nothing to do with the overall strength and potential of the two parties, but that it is impossible for the Xuzhou Army to dispatch and deploy such concentrated forces.

Although Xi Jian is the governor of Xuzhou, this position does not give him the power to strictly control the local area.He is more similar to the leader of the army in the area. If no consensus can be reached, only his own direct descendants can be directly commanded. Twenty thousand people.If we take into account the deeper limitations of people's strength and logistical supplies, this number will be even smaller.

Therefore, since the start of the war, the performance of the Xuzhou Army has hardly been outstanding, and it pales in comparison with the nearby Huainan Army.In many cases, it has shown the problem of slow response and inability to seize fighter opportunities.For example, on the eve of the Battle of Yingkou, Shen Zhezi judged that Shi Kan, the slave army in Huaiyin, had probably left the town, and suggested that Xi Jian might as well attack Huaiyin.

At that time, Xi Jian was a little hesitant, one was prudence and stability, and the other was resistance from his followers.As a result, an excellent opportunity was missed, failing to capture Huaiyin before most of the slave army arrived in Huaibei.Although there was another mobilization afterwards, in addition to military considerations, it was more due to the pressure brought by the Huainan Army's Yingkou victory on the leaders of the Xuzhou Army.

Although Huaiyin was successfully won in this battle, it put the Huainan army in the dilemma of fighting on three fronts, and also caused the loss of the vortex.Although Weikou was jointly defended by the Huainan and Xuzhou armies, it was still the defense area of ​​the Xuzhou army for the record in Taichung, and it was a common battlefield with Xuyi.

If the Huainan army hadn't stopped the slave army's Yingshang boat division in Feikou, making the slave army's boats useless, it is very likely that the Shihu army has broken through the Huai River and galloped wildly in Huainan.Once that happens, after taking Huaiyin, the Xuzhou army must retreat back to the heart of the defense. Attacking Huaiyin before has become a stupid move to take care of one thing and lose another, and the gain outweighs the gain.

A situation similar to Huainan's where the commander gave an order and there was no objection in the town, and the soldiers, civilians, and soldiers all worked together to prepare for the war, was absolutely impossible in the current Xu Town.Even if Xi Jian forced the order, the generals would argue endlessly over the formation of troops, who should attack the fortifications, and who should suppress them, and they would not be quickly executed.

Therefore, Xi Jian was really envious of Shen Zhezi's undeniable authority and prestige in Huainan.But even if he is envious, he also understands that if another person is in the position, he may not be able to achieve Shen Zhezi's step, even Huainan's current nominal Shangguan Yu Yi can't.Prestige is still second to none. From the recovery of Huainan to the establishment of the town, including subsequent rectification, maintenance and preparation for war, everything depends on Shen Zhezi alone.This is a situation that other military towns, including Jingzhou, do not have.

What's more, Huainan's military and civilians now rely on foreign aid, and the most critical core of this external aid is Shen Zhezi.If Shen Zhezi was not in his position, even if those Wu people were crazy, they would not be able to throw a grain of rice into a distant place thousands of miles away.

Of course, in addition to these factors, it also lies in the impressive achievements of the Huainan Army since the start of the war.The Huainan army was put together into a division, and it must not be called a powerful force, especially those rural troops. At the beginning of the war, Shen Zhezi didn't even dare to put it into the first battle.The slave army attacked repeatedly, like a sledgehammer, beating the entire Huainan army into a more solid and integrated one.If the potential is squeezed like this at the beginning of the war, the resistance from the villagers will become an uncontrollable hidden danger in the war.

When Xi Jian came to Luojian this time, he privately apologized to Shen Zhezi for his previous behavior.Originally, with his identity and qualifications, there was no need for such a low profile, and the Xuzhou Army itself did not have the obligation to cooperate with the Huainan Army.But now, not to mention the excellent performance of the Huainan army in this battle, Shen Chongyi's Jingjing Mansion alone, the father and son of the Shen family have already formed a half-encirclement posture for Xuzhou, and the other half is the sea.Therefore, Xi Jian is really worried that the Shen family will continue to investigate because of this, and it is better to clear up the misunderstanding as soon as possible.

As for the other point, I just want to ask Shen Zhezi's attitude towards the upcoming battle.The current posture of the slave army clearly shows that they have no intention of continuing to fight.Of course, it cannot be ruled out that Shihu is deliberately acting to paralyze his opponents, but when the army scale is expanded to 10,000+, morale is easy to collapse and difficult to boost, and there is no possibility of falsehood.Unless Shihu can control every part of the army like his fingers, but if he really has this kind of control, why should he act to paralyze his opponents.

So in the future, the southern army only needs to stick to the current results, and then they can wait until the slave army withdraws naturally.If you invite the battle rashly, there will be a possibility of repeated wars.Therefore, in the Xuzhou army, the voice of standing firm and waiting to regain lost ground is not weak.

But looking at the posture of the Huainan army now, it saves Xi Jian from bothering.However, he still couldn't help persuading him a little bit: "Although the slave army is showing signs of exhaustion, they are gradually retreating. But Shi Jilong has been fighting for a long time, so he may not be without dangers. Wei Zhou still has to be cautious. Don't hold back when returning to the teacher. Don't chase the poor, you must guard against them."

Although Shen Zhezi is not a genius commander who uses soldiers like a god, he is not ignorant of the truth of this kind of military art.For example, he was able to maintain calm and restraint when the Yingkou slave army was routed before, and he did not make long-range strikes because he was worried that after the battlefield expanded, the Huainan army's grasp of the battle situation would become weak.As for whether to invite the battle this time, there are different opinions within the Huainan Army. Xi Jian is not the first person to persuade Shen Zhezi in this way.

Those who held this view, including Han Huang and even Guo Song who was recuperating in Liang County, these veteran generals have been undertaking the most dangerous battles since the beginning of the war, so of course they should not be shy.But based on the current reality of Huainan, being able to hold Huainan firmly and keep the slave army outside has actually exceeded the previous strategic goal.Forcing a decisive battle when the slave army is about to retreat may expand the results of the battle, but the result will definitely be worth the candle.

However, the reason why Shen Zhezi made this decision is also due to his own considerations: "Since Yongjia, the king's way has become weaker and weaker, and the land of the Central Plains has not been taught by the king for a long time. Although it is inherited from the legal system of China and North Korea, it is far away from Jiangbiao, and education is difficult. Most of the Chinese scholars regard foreign countries as their eyes. Although the king's masters now force their slaves in the Huaihe River, they rely more on the dangers of the land and the advantages of the time. They are good at defending and inferior to attacking. Majestic and majestic. Although the intruders have no progress, they can still retreat completely, which will renew the arrogance and arrogance of the Central Plains thieves, and the internal and external barbarians will all have the heart of rebellion!"

"Ji Long is vicious, he is the best among slaves, and his cruelty is even worse than Shi Long. Now that this thief is in trouble on the Huai River, this is a good opportunity to severely injure the evil thief. If this thief is lightly indulged in one day, the damage will not only be ten years, The disaster is not limited to one place, and the loss is not limited to the present."

There is still no definite news about the current situation in the slave country.But even if Shi Le is still alive, with Shi Hu's violent temperament, he is in extreme embarrassment at home and abroad on Huai River, if he is really saved by his people and returns to Jie Kingdom, Shi Le will no longer be able to contain him.If Shi Hu really launched an attack brazenly, Shen Zhezi didn't underestimate the civil and military officials of the Jie Kingdom today, there really aren't many people who are Shi Hu's opponents.

If the inside and outside are quickly pacified by his people, the situation in the Central Plains will return to the old track again.Regardless of whether the Northern Expedition will be difficult or not in the future, the Jin people in the Central Plains must be the first to suffer.And in order to make up for the setbacks and losses suffered in Huaishui, his people will become more cruel and unrestrained.

Therefore, some things really cannot be measured by the actual gains and losses. Even if a huge price is to be paid, this battle must have the prestige that a king should have, so as to peep at the people in the occupied areas of the Central Plains and the four barbarians. Everyone declares that the southerners are by no means only capable of self-protection but no ability to deter them from a distance!

Of all the generals in Huainan, Shen Zhezi was the only one who looked forward. Even though they had different opinions, when Shen Zhezi made a decision, they all worked hard to prepare for the battle in silence.

However, it is still a little bit reluctant to rely on the power of Huainan alone to obtain enough results.In Huainan today, the potential for war has been seriously overdrawn. Even if it can defeat the vortex slave army, it does not have much power to pursue it.In other words, if Shi Hu really made up his mind not to fight with the Huainan Army, the Huainan Army would not have much power to prevent his army from retreating.

Therefore, this battle still requires the cooperation of the Xuzhou Army. The cohesion of the Xuzhou Army may not be as strong as that of the Huainan Army, but if the war potential is fully erupted, it will still be stronger than the Huainan Army in the pursuit of the tailwind.

Shen Zhezi also knew the situation of the Xuzhou Army well.Even if there is any unresponsiveness and unfavorable cooperation, Shen Zhezi also understands that Xi Jian cannot be blamed alone.In exchange for the great help of the Xuzhou army, Shen Zhezi also made a heavy promise: If the Xuzhou army can join the battle in time and cooperate with the Huainan army to annihilate the slave army in Wukou, then after the recovery of Wukou, it will still be returned to Xuzhou, and the previous cooperation will be resumed. situation.And with the Xuzhou Army taking the vortex as the boundary, they respectively recovered the territory of Huaishang County.

If the Xuzhou Army still refuses to participate in the battle with all its strength, but only holds the idea of ​​waiting for the slave army to retreat by itself and then recover the lost land, then of course Shen Zhezi will not go all out for this battle, and will adopt the same strategy as the Xuzhou Army Attitude, wait for the slave army to retreat.At that time, the Huainan army will not only take advantage of the trend to recover the vortex, but also directly block the Huai River main road with the navy. As for Pengcheng, Peiguo and other places in the north of Xuzhou, they will never be left to the Xuzhou army.

Hearing Shen Zhezi's statement, Xi Jian only responded with a wry smile.He doesn't have to doubt whether Shen Zhezi has the courage.If the Huainan Army really dared to do this, it is conceivable that the leaders of the Xuzhou Army would never be reconciled to being bullied by this, and the two towns might turn against each other.If that happens, then the future of Xuzhou is really worrisome.It's not that the strength is weak, but that the hearts of the people are not in harmony.

Now that I think about it again, at the beginning of the war, Shen Chong moved to the Zhenjing Mansion, which was partly for the purpose of coercing the Xuzhou Army in the future.

Of course, Shen Zhezi's request could not be called outrageous.After all, since the start of the war, the Huainan Army has been mainly under the pressure of the Shihu Army. Xuzhou Army was able to regain Huaiyin because it took advantage of the retreat of the general of the slave country.Even if the lawsuit reaches Taichung, the Xuzhou Army has no confidence to fight for it.

Therefore, after pondering for a while, Xi Jian also quickly stated that the Xuzhou army will definitely participate in the next battle, at least the main force of his direct line will cooperate with the Huainan army to attack the slave army in Huaishui.

With Xi Jian's promise, Shen Zhezi breathed a sigh of relief, and after sending Xi Jian away, he focused on preparing for the battle again.

In the next few days, the Huainan Army kept shouting along the river, and continued to increase its troops in Jingshan Gorge on the north bank of the Huai River to establish a stable stronghold.In this process, the slave army exerted very little obstruction, and the troops were further shrunk inside, which made it more difficult for the Huainan army to spy on its army's movements.Only the newly built ships at several weirs near the vortex were moved to the Huaikou Linhuai main road, showing that the slave army was also planning a decisive battle.

But the judgments drawn from this single phenomenon are too weak to be reliable.The gathering of boats and boats at the mouth of the vortex can be seen as the slave army preparing for a decisive battle, or as its army planning to retreat along the vortex.Although the retreat of an army of 10,000+ cannot be completed overnight, Shi Huda can lead the core force to break away from the army and retreat quickly, and then defend the key points of Houzhen to collect the defeated people, and still be able to recover a considerable part of the army.

After all, the Southerners had few strongholds in Huaibei, and even their pursuit depended heavily on waterways, and their attack methods were traceable, so it was much easier to deal with them.

Moreover, the posture of the slave army made the Huainan army dare not launch a decisive battle easily. Although the first batch of soldiers who were preparing to go to the battlefield had been rectified, and tens of thousands of soldiers could board the ship in an instant, but in order to wait for Xuzhou With the cooperation of the army, Shen Zhezi can only lure him for the time being.

September is cold in autumn, and the wind on the river is even colder and damper. The atmosphere in the core area where the two armies of Uzumaki compete with each other is even more dignified than the autumn wind.The scout ships of the Huainan Army had even approached the Wokou Shuiying camp, which was within range of the slave army, and many of the slave troops sent out light boats to the south bank of the Huai River for peeping.The scouts of the two parties frequently come and go in this water area, and the activity time seems to be interspersed tacitly, and neither side takes the initiative to fight the first battle.

It was late at night in the evening of this day, and it was customary for the Huainan Army to scout and patrol. Dozens of light boats shuttled back and forth on the river.The slave army has towering water fences and deep camps, with a posture of strict defense.

Suddenly, there was a lot of commotion in a slave camp on the east bank of the vortex. Among the slave soldiers who were all guarding the camp, a group of nearly a hundred people in the forefront suddenly rose up and slashed their blades at Nearby robes.At that time, both armies were heavily deployed on the front line, and the soldiers were tense for a long time, and their spirits were almost numb. The sudden change happened, and the slave soldiers nearby failed to react in the first time, and they immediately went to the front line. A dozen or so people were knocked to the ground by the violent slave soldiers.

As for those who stood a little further away, they subconsciously scattered in all directions after being panicked and stunned. After a while, the commander shouted violently in the camp, and then those scattered soldiers surrounded them again.However, nearly a hundred violent slave soldiers had already rushed out of the camp and rushed straight to the water camp ahead.When encountering some slave soldiers along the way, most of them did not react at all. Even if there were occasional slave soldiers who sensed something was wrong and raised their knives, they were all scattered by this group of violent slave soldiers and failed to intercept them.

In a very short period of time, these violent slave soldiers rushed to an empty ship moored in the dock.There were still more than a dozen sailors on the boat who were too late to disperse, and suddenly they had sharp knives on their necks, and they were ordered to set off immediately.

When the rear slave soldiers organized and rushed here, the boat was nearly ten feet away from the shore and hit the first water fence.While the slave soldiers on the boat were slashing at the water fence with their swords, some people turned around and shouted: "The lord Shilongye is dead, and the prince is about to punish the king of Zhongshan! The king of Zhongshan has given up his army and fled north. Don't wait here to serve the country of Jie, if you want to save yourself, let's run for our lives!"

At this time, the captain on the shore was still shouting to mobilize the bows and crossbows to shoot forward, and let the nearby soldiers board the boat to pursue them. Hearing such shouts, everyone was stunned for a moment, and even their movements became flustered.It took a while for the soldier commander to react, he brandished his knife and shouted angrily: "The evil words of the rebels are unbelievable, kill these villains quickly!"

However, at this time, the light boat had already smashed through the water barrier and sped straight towards the river.But before leaving, the slave army still shot and killed more than half of the random soldiers on board.Afterwards, another slave soldier came in, and when he heard the roaring words of those rebellious soldiers from the mouth of the soldiers, the general's face changed in panic. At the same time, he quickly left the camp and went straight to a higher command post to report the news.

The scale of this slave camp is not too large, it is no more than a speck of dust in the entire vortex line of defense.However, due to the large number of scout boats of the Huainan Army, some scouts soon discovered the commotion here. Even if several light boats turned to come here, they quickly intercepted this bloody slave ship carrying many corpses.

After rushing out of the slave army fence, most of the survivors on the boat jumped into the water and escaped. After the inertia of the forward rush disappeared, the whole boat drifted across the river.When the scouts of the Huainan army were close to throwing the hook rope to pull the ship, several slave corpses on the deck were suddenly lifted from below, revealing a bloody face, and shouted at the scouts of the Huainan army: "I am Xin Shili, a disciple of Consort Shen. Tell your son-in-law, the slave master is dead, and Ji Long will flee!"

　Write a big chapter first, and then write, there is no guarantee how late it will be published. . .Can't wait to see it tomorrow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)