In early June, Shen Zhezi rushed east from Xuchang to Chenliu City, and went to the front line to check the specific details of the war and the modifications to be made later.

The city of Wucheng is the newly recaptured area of ​​the Huainan Army. Shen Zhezi walked along the way and could see traces of war in the wilderness. Now the chaos in this area has long been cleared out, and as the front-line base camp where the Huainan Army continues to maintain its offensive, Han Huang led nearly 10,000 troops to garrison here.

When Shen Zhezi arrived here, more than a dozen generals of Han Huang came out to greet him. Before Shen Zhezi spoke, everyone was already full of shame and bowed to apologize. A group gradually became cohesive from nothing to something, and even being proud of being a member of this group will naturally lead to unique traits. Huainan's traits are pragmatism and arrogance.

In the early stage of this Chenliu war, there were indeed consecutive victories. The Huainan army was defeated with destruction and decay. But it is not worth being proud of. The Huainan army has the best military supplies and the most impressive achievements. It is natural to destroy the broken and ruined army. It is unforgivable to defeat. Previously, they ridiculed the Xuzhou army for being incompetent in the chaos and had to rely on the help of the Huainan army to solve the Liu Zheng army. However, now the difficulties are on their own, and they really cannot let go.

Shen Zhezi was originally a little dissatisfied with the generals on the front line. Even when he designated a strategic plan, he looked down on the Chen Guang's chaos army in tactical terms, but the foundation and strength of the Huainan Army should not have suffered such heavy losses. Such combat performance is simply worse than before, which makes Shen Zhezi feel that raising the army in the past few years is almost a joke.

However, seeing that Han Huang and other generals were covered with blood in their eyes, it was obvious that they were deeply ashamed and anxious about this, and they did not act deliberately. He couldn't directly scold the generals in public, so he entered the military camp first, accompanied by the generals.

The city of Wucheng is also a place with a strong cultural atmosphere in Chenliu County, with many wise ministers and famous scholars. For example, Cai Yong, a famous scholar at the end of the Han Dynasty, Gao Rou, a famous minister who served the kings of the Five Dynasties of Cao Wei, and Jiang Tong, who criticized the current ills and wrote "Theory of Mirong", were all from Wucheng. Even Cao Zhi, the king of Chen Si, who was praised as a talent in later generations, lived here for a long time.

But the so-called humanistic atmosphere is just a luxury in this chaotic time. It has long disappeared after repeated destruction by war. It is no different from the desolation of other counties when Shen Zhezi first arrived in Yuzhou.

The Huainan Army camp was built near the Caishui River. It was built on the Gaogang made of soil. The camp was not inferior to the city. This was actually Shen Zhezi's instructions. After the chaos was completed, this camp will serve as the basis for building a new city, so as to quickly establish a military farming base on the regaining ground.

Therefore, the construction of this camp is much stronger than that of ordinary military use. The cavalry rushed to stomp the soil foundation, stacked it up layer by layer, and even the Caishui outside the camp was further digging deep and wide to build water conservancy. Such a systematic fortification could naturally not be completed within ten days, so when Shen Zhezi arrived, there was still a lot of labor and hard work here.

Most of these laborers were captured by Dingkou in Chenliu. They were all dressed in vegetables, ragged clothes, and looked sad and numb, as if they were walking corpses. Their appearance was not the same as those of Yingchuan, Chenjun and other villagers in the south. Therefore, the construction scene was not a booming and exciting thing. There were even some corpses left between the trenches that were hungry and exhausted and could not be collected. The Huainan Army's stewards were not a gentle man to these prisoners, and beatings and scoldings were ordinary.

Although Ci is not in charge of the army, although only four words, after crossing the northern expedition, Shen Zhezi also gained a deeper understanding of the cruelty under the literal form year by year. It is not a boast. In this world, few people can compare to him when it comes to sympathy for the common people. But when he reaches the level of military strategy, his compassion for the common people is more similar to a hypocritical self-paralleledness, because he can't do it at all.

By the heart, even if these people follow the thief, they have no serious sins themselves. Most of them are involuntarily struggling to survive. They have become stepping stones for ambitious people. Even if they are punished, they should not be punished.

Shen Zhezi occasionally thought about the so-called righteous king's army, saying that he abused the people, and he was only a difference between the barbarians and laughing at them for fifty steps and hundreds of steps. His essence was the same. Even if the Northern Expedition was finally successful, it was extremely difficult to see the real peace and prosperity of the people in his lifetime, and the old and the young were content with their families. So what standard should be used to measure the meaning of his struggle for the rest of his life? The success, the king and the defeat of the bandit are nothing more than the stack of corpses and bones.

However, although Huainan is growing stronger and Shen Zhezi rarely thinks about such problems. He is becoming harder and he is becoming more mature. No one can escape from the general trend. Even though Shen Zhezi himself, although his power is getting heavier, he feels more and more heavier and more and more that he is not strong enough.

He was not self-deprecating, and he knew that if these living people lived under the Huainan Governor's Office, they would be much better than following Chen Guang's situation. However, others may not agree that these villagers were forced or took the initiative to surrender to the Chen Guang's chaos army, and flocked to a dull and narrower dead end. In the end, they had no chance to moisten the dividends of Huainan's growth, but instead became feed, and the nutrients were digested and absorbed in a cruel way.

Who is the sin of such a world?

Shen Zhezi also understood that he was not clean himself. He pulled out the radish and brought out the mud. When he chose to use a tough attitude to collide with the village sects, it was actually equivalent to giving up the villagers who were sheltered by the village sects and unable to escape. Perhaps in time, he could choose a gentle way to solve these accumulated problems, but the barbarians who were guarding the four barbarians would not give him this time.

The bones are used as a pen, and the flesh is crushed into ink, and I can't bear to see it carefully under history. One year, I may look back in shock and realize that I am also unrecognizable.

Shen Zhezi stayed on the Caishui River for a while and ordered his accompanying officials to plan to expand and repair the Caishui River as soon as possible. In the short term, there was no sign of improvement in the war in Chenliu. In addition to maintaining the current military strength, the more troops they need to continue to increase, and the requirements for baggage transport capacity will inevitably be greater. Moreover, once Shi Kan brings troops to fight south in the future, if the army confronts for a long time, sneak attacks on the food route is a compulsory subject, so the more convenient water routes, the greater the tactical flexibility.

In this war, he wanted to be Cao Cao, but not Yuan Shao.

When Han Huang and others heard Shen Zhezi's instructions, their heads could not help but hang lowered. They knew that they and others were not in a good way to fight, so they forced the governor to make some adjustments to their plans and increase their investment in Chenliu.

After entering the military camp, Shen Zhezi's mood improved a little. The atmosphere in the military camp was pretty good. The soldiers and soldiers performed their duties, either manipulating newly sent weapons or quiet resting skills. After realizing that Liang Gong was in the camp for inspection, although he did not dare to leave the camp without hesitation, the atmosphere became obviously active. Many people saluted this attention, muttered words, and used some subtle expressions to express their respect for the commander.

After a little patrol, Shen Zhezi entered the tent surrounded by the generals. After sitting down, he said directly: "There is no need to say much about the crime. The war is negligent and ever-changing. The Governor's Office is definitely not tolerant of faults. The war has been victorious and setbacks. Even if the war is exhausted and unsuccessful, the enemy cannot be expected to be ignorant. How to attack and conquer the chaos in the future? I want to hear what you have to make plans."

After hearing this, everyone stopped stating, but no one dared to express their opinions first, so Han Huang could only say, "Although it was a few years before the war, I knew that the enemy situation was still changing..."

Shen Zhezi's eyelids drooped slightly, listening to Han Huang's statement. The most important thing about Han Huang's enemy's strife was two points. One is that Dingkou was expected to make a mistake in the subordinates supported by Chen Guang. Originally, the Governor's Office estimated that Ding He should have a total of between 50,000 and 60,000 soldiers supported by Chen Guang's siege, but the cleaning of the periphery alone captured more than 30,000 people. Yongqiu, Waihuang, Cangyuan and other places in the core of Chen Guang's power must be more than 50,000.

Speaking of this, Shen Zhezi was also a little embarrassed. The reason why Chen Guang's power has increased so much in recent years is that it has a lot to do with the tough government orders of the Huainan Governor's Office. Many rural sects who had originally intended to defect to Huainan were too tough and refused to give in to decentralization of power, so they fled north with the population.

Previously, Huainan estimated Chen Guang's support for the people, one was to estimate the fugitive population by examining the township, the other was to inform the internally-accessed trade, and the other was to frequently invade small scouts. The conclusions drawn by these methods were actually very rough, and it is no wonder that the data collection of Huainan Governor's Office was not good. Even Chen Guang himself could not tell how many people were hiding him to live. You should know that even with such an efficient administrative structure of the Huainan Governor's Office, the six counties under their rule were inevitably hidden, let alone the chaotic army with order that was already chaotic.

The second point of the enemy's change is the changes in the terrain. Chen Guang has been guarding against the clearance of the Huainan Army in recent years, so he often uses fortifications within the control area, intercepting or breaking the dike, and artificially creating obstacles through arbitrary changes to the water conditions.

For example, the Gaoshi Pond, which the Huainan Army mainly attacked this time, was originally just an independent pond. As a result, Chen Guang used civilian power to dig several ditches dozens of miles in recent years, connecting Baiyang Pond to the east with Gaoshi Pond, and digging dozens of water storage ponds at the same time, expanding the scope of Gaoshi Pond by nearly half, surrounding the entire southwest direction of Yongqiu.

These changes in the landform made the information that the Huainan Army had previously mastered was useless. In addition, the previous combat goal was to make a quick decision, so they made the mistake of underestimating the enemy and advancing a few ambushed by the rioters based on the terrain. Fortunately, the Huainan Army was not as numerous as the Xuzhou Army, and they fought on their own. Although the losses were great, they had achieved some gains after all. They even successfully gained a foothold in the ancient city of Chenliu. At the same time, they mastered a very important wall in Yezawa, which was considered to have a rough idea of ​​the situation in the Gaoshi Pond.

With Han Huang's speech, the other generals also spoke out. Some said that the logistics and transportation were not timely, some said that the complete equipment of the Huainan Army had no advantage in complex terrain, some said that the soldiers of the chaotic army were hidden among the villagers and started a sudden attack, which was difficult to identify. There were a lot of dozens of problems, which were a comprehensive analysis of the current dilemma. As for these problems, some could be compensated by perseverance or technology, while others were helpless.

Although Shen Zhezi felt a little irritated when he heard the generals carefully analyzing the problem, he was still relieved overall. On the one hand, the generals carefully reviewed it, not perfunctorily shirked the blame, and on the other hand, Chen Liu's current status is not an isolated case, and it is quite similar to Xingyang, the next target of the Huainan Army, later. With the accumulation of these experiences, it is also a benefit for subsequent wars.

After listening to the general's statements and summary, Shen Zhezi also realized that it was not easy to solve Chen Guang in the short term. Of course, it was not impossible to do it without considering the cost. However, the Huainan Army also had to face the two unstable factors of Shi Kan and Tao Bao, which was far from being strong enough to be at all costs. These three combat directions are too close, and each is independent individual, with high flexibility in choices, which makes the situation more complicated.
Chapter completed!