Xiang Chao galloped in the fields north of Qifeng City. He rode his spear up in his hand, but the spear was floating on the tip of the spear, but a woman's mattress, with the north wind rushing, and the bright red mattress was also rushing. As he galloped, he stood up and shouted at the Qin soldiers who were boarding the boat. However, the north wind blew back the saliva that he yelled, which made him look covered.

His voice was also blown back by the north wind, and no one on the Qin soldiers on the boat heard his shouts. Following the orders of the boat clerk, the boats docked on the trestle set sail one after another, and rowed towards Mu Ze's depths. The angry Xiang Chao continued to rush north, and finally ran along the long trestle to the northernmost end of the trestle. The mount saw that there was no road ahead of him, and he stood up while roaring.

The horse's roar was farther than the people's shouts. At this time, the Qin soldiers on the boat saw the Chu army knight chasing on the pier. After seeing it, they turned around without expression. They didn't care that the knight was riding a spear in his hand was a woman's mattress.

"Brother, the Qin people are afraid of me and dare not fight me." Xiang Chao was furious and finally threw the cavalry spear in his hand into the Daze. His younger brother Xiang Liang was not upset. He was very happy to see the entire Qin army retreating, and he had no idea what his brother was angry about.

"You..." Xiang Chao pulled out his sword and pointed it halfway through. He thought that it was his own brother. He felt hatred in his heart. The sword was thrown on the trestle. The sword was half a foot into the wood and trembled. Xiang Liang then looked at his brother in surprise, feeling that his anger was not just as simple as the Qin people retreating, nor was it just because of his father's grudge. There must be other reasons.

The people of Chu were irritable, not only because they were not offensive, but also often were anxious. Since the recapture of the old Ying, the war has lasted for four years, and this year it has entered its fifth year. Tens of thousands of soldiers were killed and injured in the four years of war, and the money of each clan and county were exhausted. There was also national debt before, but after the Second Battle of Daze last year, there was no national debt. Now there is nothing on the market that does not raise prices, everything is rising, and it is not rare to sell a stone of millet for four, and five hundred Chu money is not rare.

Xiang Chao inherited his father's title and naturally became the patriarch of the Xiang family and began to be the leader. In addition to his counselors and guards, there was also an extremely important person in his tent: Sihui. The Sihui will report to him in detail how much his monthly income and how much his monthly expenses are.

After the four years of war, the Xiang family, which had three divisions and three cavalry divisions, had gone bankrupt. But what was more serious than the Xiang family's bankruptcy was that many soldiers in the Xiang family also went bankrupt, and many soldiers requested to go home at least during the busy farming period. Whether it was victory or defeat, Xiang Chao hoped to fight the Qin army earlier, but Wang Jian withdrew his troops like this.

"Ah! Ah——!" Thinking of reality, Xiang Chao couldn't help but roar on the trestle. He was a step ahead of his pursuit of the Qin people. The news of Wang Jian's withdrawal reached the Chu army's shogunate who had just landed. Hearing the news of Wang Jian's withdrawal, the strategists were not surprised at all. Instead, Xiong Jing, Ele, Deng Sui, Gui Jing, Ruoao walked alone, Peng Qiu, the generals of Pi, and Peng Qiu, the Huainan Division, led the state of the state, and he knew that it would be the result, but he was still disappointed. The difference between them and Xiang Chao was that they did not chase Wang Jian like Xiang Chao.

"So..." Ele started talking, "Does our army enter?"

"There are big lakes north of Qifeng, how can our army advance?" Zhuang Wudidao, he knew the current situation very well.

"The Qin people attacked me with the power of the world." said Sima E Cao, the E-Shief. He also knew what the Qin people wanted to do.

"This is not an attack on me." Tang Shi Sima Dou Chang corrected. "This is exhausting me. Fortunately, my state of Chu has a valley of Dongzhou, which will harvest twice a year, otherwise..."

Dou Chang sighed that Chu had grain and was not panicked. It was fine if he didn't mention grain, but Xiong Jing was even more worried. Shu was lost, and 30 million stones of grain were lost every year. Hanzhong, Shangyu, Fangcheng, and these places were also lost. Now the remaining grain-producing land in Chu was the Dongdi and Jiuying. These two normal years had a total harvest of about 110 million and 120 million stones. Although the harvest could not be really doubled, the annual grain-producing output was close to 200 million stones.

Of course, this is a normal year. During the war, the labor force is limited, and only women and children cultivate the fields. It is a surprise that two-thirds of the yield in normal years is enough. In addition, the problem of storage resistance in Dongzhou Valley has not been solved. After three months of storage, Dongzhou Valley will sprout and rot, and the people can only be taught to steam and dry and preserve it later.

Even the Yi Yin can't tell how much grain can be collected in the whole country in a year; the number of Dongzhou valleys can be accumulated by drying each county and town, and the county's official Yin can't tell the difference. Anyway, the price of millet exceeded 400 last winter, and the valleys in Dongzhou exceeded 100. This thing has a lot of water, so it won't help hunger. Poor families exchange millet for grain, so they can save a lot of money left.

Harvest and storage are the same thing, but how to collect grain from the common people is another matter. It can be collected in kind by taxes, purchased through money (from the sale of government bonds), and collected in disguise through labor... These are all methods. However, these methods are increasingly ineffective.

It is said that the county and towns with taxes have been collected to 40%, but they still cannot meet the needs of military use. The world is about to lose money, and the rich people are building boats to avoid moving to the sea, and there are very few people buying national debts. And even if the county and towns have money, the price of millet soars, how much corn can the money buy? As for labor, the village has not much labor, so how can labor be collected?

The levy and heavy taxes, scraping bones and sucking marrow, is not something that nobles and honorary scholars can do. They have no such ability. The reason why King Xuan of Zhou could be recorded and passed down to later generations is precisely because King Xuan of Zhou did not cut all the world like a lawn mower. He only predicted the people in Taiyuan, not the whole world. Later, the Qin State, the national resources of the Three Jins were no longer regarded as tyranny. The common people were used to this, but unexpectedly they were thinking about it and took the initiative to wait for officials to report to the people.

Only money can mobilize the resources of Chu State, but what Chu State lacks now is money. This is Xiong Jing’s sorrow. The generals didn’t know what he was thinking, and Zhuang Wudi knew it. He deliberately coughed heavily and said, “Whether our army retreated, is it…”

"Our army naturally retreated." Ele said naturally. "Chen Ying arrived here for two hundred and sixty miles, and the boat would take two days to return. If you can wait for the enemy in Chen Ying, you will be fine."

"Since the army has come here, how can we retreat?" Huainan Shishi led the state Hou Ruo, who opposed the retreat. "I think our army should advance to break the siege of Daliang. Don't forget that there are still tens of thousands of generals in the city."

"How to advance?" Zhuang Wudi asked. "The north of Qifeng is the Great Lakes, and there are Qin army boat troops above the Great Lakes."

Daze and the Zhoushi are words that no one wants to hear. This is the scar of the Chu army. If the defeat in the First Daze War was because of haste, then the Second War was defeated by the Qin army. To this day, the Qin army has built more and more warships, and the concentrated warships of the entire Chu State are no longer its opponent. Wang Jian would choose here as a place of confrontation, and relying on the advantages of the Qin army's boat division, the Chu army dared not pursue it.

"Please give the order, I am willing to fight with the Qin people again!" Bu Liangju, the last gunboat, stood up quickly when he heard this. At this time, there were more than twelve large-wing gunboats under his command.

Xiong Jing did not look at him directly, but just glanced at him and said, "It's useless, sit down."

"Big..." Bu Liangju looked at Xiong Jing longingly, but Xiong Jing's attitude did not change at all. In the end, he could only sit down in disappointment.

A heavy boat cannon can not be built so easily, and the narrow waterway is not conducive to the large-wing gunboat detour. The large-wing gunboat is three oars, and the three oars cannot run through five oars. The waterway cannot be straight, which means that if several five-oar warships chase the large-wing gunboat, the large-wing gunboat will eventually be hit due to speed and bending the waterway (shock).

Once the combat steward Cao came to this conclusion in actual experiments, the Grand Sima Mansion ordered the stop of the modification of the large-wing gunboat. This is a weapon that looks useful, but is likely to be useless when encountering the Qin army's boatman that covers the big lake. Bu Liangju will play a "some" role here, not really against the Qin army's boatman.

"Since we cannot advance, our army should retreat." Ele once again requested to retreat.

"Where can you retreat?" No longer was the general leading the counselor speaking, but this time it was Xiong Jing who spoke directly.

"We should retreat to Chen Ying." E Ledao.

"How can you lose two hundred and sixty miles of water?" Xiong Jing asked back. This is probably the only benefit of retreating.

"What do you think our army should do?" Ele also asked back. In fact, he didn't know what he could do when he retreated, but it was always better to be closer to his mother country.

"There is nothing to do when retreating; there is nothing to do when it comes." Xiong Jing had a kind of contempt on his face. This was for Wang Jian, and he knew that Wang Jian would not fight to the decisive battle.

"Or can you cross the river, Sui River, and Dan River to enter the Liang?" Dou Chang said, this is a way to avoid the northward advance of the Daze.

"No. Who is stationed in the floating bridge?" Peng Zong shook his head quickly.

"It's okay to block it." Dou Chang replied. "This is only sixty miles away from the beam."

"No." Sima E Cao, the E Division, also felt it was not possible. "There must be someone to guard the blockage. How can our army defend it? This is not a floating bridge, but two or three floating bridges between thirty miles and three. The Qin people could land from the blockage."

"This place is sixty miles away from Daliang, but if you want to bypass Muze and cross the eastwards the Mushui, Sui River and Dan River, it is nearly a hundred miles." Deng Sui also spoke out against it. Once the Chu army deviates from Daliang eastwards, these three waterways will become the right way for the Chu army to be divided in the state of Qin army. The troops were pitiful, and they were divided into four sections by the Qin people. The division was basically equivalent to defeat.

"Shang Ruo's army can go from Danshui..." Dou Chang said an impossible idea, so he didn't continue to say it himself. The Chu army could not move from the Gang of the Gang to Danshui, which would be like letting the Qin army go deep into Chu.
Chapter completed!