On the ninth day of the ninth day of the fifth year of Jingtai, Zhang Ting, deputy envoy of the Huai Right and Right Army, led the Ninth Army of the Huai Right and Right Army, the First Army of the Huai Right and Right Army, and the Second Army of the Huai Right and Right Army landed on the banks of the Huai River in the northern part of Zhaoyi. After making simple supplies in Zhaoyi County, he quickly followed the post road south and went straight to Yongyang.

On September 11th, enter Yongyang.

On September 13, under the leadership of Chuzhou Governor He Guozhen, the Ninth Army of the Huai You Left Army and the Second Army of the Huai You Right Army entered Qingliu City, the prefecture of Chuzhou.

On September 16, the rear battalion of the Second Army of the Huai Right Army entered Quanjiao and announced that the entire Chuzhou was under the jurisdiction of Huai Right.

When Qin Heng carried the Dragon Slaying Sword into the big tent, he felt that the atmosphere was a little different.

Lin Ru and Sun Dao were both here. Both of these guys looked a little strange, and the atmosphere in the big tent was a bit stagnant.

"Brother?" Qin Heng was a little nervous.

There was no progress in today's battle, so Xu Wenzhen was really powerful. The troops were arranged in a virtual and real way, which made him suffer. He finally climbed the city tower and never thought that the other party would sneak out of the water gate and cut his assault team into two sections. If he hadn't reacted quickly and dealt properly, he would probably not have been able to come back today.

"Sit down, have you missed again?" Qin Quan's expressionless face, his bald cheeks and indifferent voices were more like a mummy sitting there.

"Uh, brother, then Xu Wenzhen is really powerful. He is worthy of being the number one general under Li. He really feels like he is using troops like a god. He has already rushed into the city, and some people have also arranged to intercept him here. Unexpectedly, this guy actually hid a group of people from the water gate, which caught us off guard..."

Not much thought of listening to his brother's explanation, Qin Quan certainly knew that Xu Wenzhen was not that easy to deal with. If it weren't for this, how could Li let Xu Wenzhen take charge of Shanyang City?

It has been more than half a year, and the war to siege Shanyang City has been the third round, but it is still difficult to win in Shanyang City.

Xuyi City has been taken down, and there is no barrier to the west, while Yancheng fell into his own hands three months ago. The entire salt field in Haizhou is already surnamed Qin, and the entire Chuyang land, Li could no longer resist his offensive, but this could not satisfy Qin Quan.

Shanyang City cannot take it, it is like a needle stabbing its heart, but Gaoyou City is under the full protection of the Yangzhou navy. In addition, Gaoyou City is easy to defend but difficult to attack, so it is still unable to succeed. This is like another needle stabbing it on his waist, making it extremely uncomfortable.

Baishuitang, Fanliang Lake, and the idiots in Baima Lake kept saying that cutting the canal was easy to turn against each other, but what happened? The Yangzhou navy was already on the same path. He fought more than ten times in big and big water battles, but he still couldn't gain the upper hand.

All of his men have reached the line of Tianchang and Lingting (now south of Xinghua) in Yangzhou, but Shanyang and Gaoyou are like two nails that are always nailed to the deadly waterway of Cao Canal. When these two nails are connected through Cao Canal, they become an extremely sharp light, which can be cut horizontally to the left and right at any time, making people dare not move forward again.

"Yan Shun, what do you think?"

"Supervisor Quan, even if General Heng breaks into the city today, it will be useless. Maybe the losses may be greater. The difficulty of Shanyang is not because of its high walls, nor because of its large number of soldiers and generals, and its use of troops is like a god. But because we cannot cut off the supply of food, grass and people. There are constant canals and high escorts, so we will never conquer Shanyang!"

Everyone looked at the thin old man standing next to the desk like a torch, angry, ashamed and angry eyes were about to cook the old man, but the old man was not afraid.

"I have said that we can't hit Shanyang, and we don't need to hit Shanyang unless we have the absolute ability to cut off the canal, but if Li and Jiang Feng collude, they can still supply Shanyang through Huai River!" The thin old man's voice increased several times.

"But Jiang Feng couldn't supply Li!" Sun Dao couldn't help but retort.

"Yes, Jiang Feng could not replenish Shanyang, but the people in Baishuitang, Fanliang Lake, and Baima Lake have no ability to cut off the canals at all. The Yangzhou navy is not as weak as we imagined. The people in Baishuitang, Fanliang Lake and Baima Lake are not as strong as we predicted or they boasted themselves!" The old man retorted without hesitation.

Even if there is a word, Sun Dao has nothing to say.

At the beginning, everyone thought that the bandits in Baishuitang, including Fanliang Lake and Baima Lake, counted thousands of people and many ships, and these bandits were not weak in strength. Because Fanliang Lake and Baima Lake have waterways connected to the canal, and they are also familiar with the situation of the canal, so everyone is very confident.

They even personally "inspected" that several water bandit leaders were masters of the Heaven Realm, and their water quality was even more outstanding. Even some middle-level leaders also had the strength to approach the Heaven Realm and had strong mobilization ability. It should be no problem to intercept a not-so-wide canal, but when they really got into the battle, they found that the situation was not that true.

Whether in terms of organizational discipline, tactics on the waterway, or command capabilities, the water bandits that have joined forces are obviously unable to compare with regular naval forces like the Yangzhou naval army.

Especially in tactical attacks, the Yangzhou naval army showed a level of advancement, formation transformation, and weapon use, which showed much higher than that of the water bandits in the canal. Therefore, in several wars, although the water bandits could gain the upper hand based on the advantages of ships and personnel, as the war progressed, they would gradually turn into a disadvantage and eventually be defeated.

Fortunately, the Yangzhou navy seemed to know that it would be too expensive to kill all these water bandits. Every time, it was based on the principle of defeating and repulsion to ensure its own safety, so the water bandits were able to preserve their strength. However, many such wars also caused Qin Quan, Sun Dao and others to gradually lose confidence.

From the beginning, the old man clearly expressed his opposition to seizing Shanyang, and also proposed the idea of ​​Qin Quan to adopt Chuzhou as the base for the rebel army. He believed that the rebel army took advantage of the great war between Li and Yang Pu and went south, breaking through the weakest Haozhou, from Haozhou to Chuzhou and then to Hezhou, so that the Han Baling tribe, who was still in the south of the Yangtze River, echoed the Han Baling tribe of Xuanzhou, who was still staying in the south of the Yangtze River, and directly seized Yangzhou and Runzhou. Even if they could not seize Yangzhou, they could seize Runzhou and gain a foothold in Jiangnan.

The old man's view is that in Jiangbei, whether it is Li or Jiangfeng, there are strong military forces. The rebel army will not be worth the loss to confront Li or Huaiyou. However, if it can be looted in Haozhou, Chuzhou and Hezhou, which have not been war-torn, robbed enough military supplies, and then go south along the Yangtze River to plunder in Yangzhou. If the situation is good, you can take advantage of the situation to seize Yangzhou City. If it is not good, you can cross the river and gain a foothold in Runzhou. No matter how unfavorable it is, you can also rely on Xuanzhou to rest and plan for Jiangnan.

However, this opinion was naturally rejected. Qin Quan had long determined the idea of ​​using Chuzhou as the base, so he naturally would not choose Haozhou, Chuzhou, and Hezhou, a line that is easily attacked by Huaiyou and Li. If you seize Chuzhou, you can gain a foothold between Jianghuai. This is Qin Quan's dream, but this dream seems to be quite far away now.

"Shanyang City is actually quite difficult now,..."

"Yangzhou can continuously transport all kinds of supplies and equipment into Shanyang, and soldiers can also transport them into the city through water. Last time, the idiots from Baishuitang and Fanlianghu intercepted the Yangzhou navy and made a mistake. Sixty ships, at least five thousand soldiers and a large number of equipment to Shanyang City, were transported to Shanyang City by 5,000 soldiers! We may have to pay tens of thousands of brothers' lives to consume these five thousand soldiers, which is not even enough! But next time, Yangzhou broke the blockade and sent 10,000 soldiers to Shanyang? Are we planning to consume 30,000 brothers' lives? Do we still have so many brothers and so many supplies?"

The old man's hoarse voice jumped in the tent, stimulating everyone's patience.

That’s right, Baishuitang, Fanliang Lake, Baima Lake and other bandits cannot cut off the canal. Every time they break through, the Yangzhou navy can transport so many soldiers and supplies to Shanyang City. They can’t even understand how many soldiers there are in Shanyang City.

This war of attrition made the rebels, who were originally strong and powerful, unable to bear it.

There were indeed more than 100,000 rebels when they crossed the Huai River, but the war in the past six months after crossing the Huai River suffered a considerable loss, and the old brothers who lost money could not be compensated immediately by recruiting their husbands.

What made these leaders feel particularly uneasy is that the situation in Chu and Yang Prefectures is completely different from that in Huaibei. The gentry here is more powerful, and the lives of ordinary people are still acceptable. The recruitment of ant thieves is basically in a state of resistance, which frightens Qin Quan, Sun Dao, Lin Ru and others.

If it is difficult to obtain enough military supplies in the two states of Chu and Yang, the battle is consumed and only rely on capturing the husband to make up for it. If such a war continues, something will really happen.

"Yan Shun, what do you mean?" Qin Quan took a deep breath, his face still said calmly.

He has always been a little disliked by this Confucian scholar, so he once neglected him for a while, but he had to admit that some of this guy's views were correct, even if it was inconsistent with his own opinions and made him feel very unhappy, but he was the commander and he needed to be responsible for the entire rebel army and could not let his preferences decide major matters.

"Either give your all your strength to take down Shanyang in one fell swoop, or abandon Chuzhou, go straight to ** to cross the river, and order Han Baling and others to advance east from Xuanzhou, and we will meet in Jiangning!" the old man said in a deep voice.

Qin Quan and Lin Ru both lit up their eyes. They avoided the real and attacked the virtual with one move. They avoided the East Hai Army on the Caoku line, and also threw away Yangzhou, a city heavily guarded by the Yangzhou navy, and changed to crossing the river from the ** line. This line was the sphere of influence of the Jiang bandits. Even the Yangzhou navy did not dare to come to this line easily.
Chapter completed!