On the north bank of the Huai River, a large camp in the wilderness has become a large scale. The camps are tents, like flags in the forest. At first glance, it seems like a solid city, which complements Zhongli City on the south bank.

At the top of Zhongli City, the soldiers of the Chen State defenders looked at the camp on the north bank with a serious expression.

Huaibei is the territory of Zhou State, and the army now camping on the north bank is of course the Zhou army.

The other party was not hunting or pursuing bandits, but clearly issued a manifesto to attack Huainan and Chen State.

It was like a fierce tiger, and finally showed its fangs to its prey.

Despicable and shameless!

Many people think that what happened in Jiankang has now reached Zhongli. In fact, Zhou State had already taken action, but he did not declare his war. He not only attacked Jingkou, but also attacked Jiankang.

Zhou State's despicable method of stealing is to take advantage of the fact that Chen State was too late to be wary and attack Taicheng in one fell swoop and capture the emperor, prince, royal family, and court officials in one fell swoop.

As a result, seeing that the sneak attack failed to achieve the expected results, he pretended to issue a manifesto and declared war, and put on a righteous face, shamelessly denounced the so-called "crime" of Chen State, and wanted to "demolite the people and attack the crime", which was simply shameless.

The Chen army soldiers were indignant, but in the face of the cruel reality, they had to worry. It is said that the Zhou army launched a large-scale invasion of the south as a whole attack at the same time, so the Chen State's Huai River defense line was in danger.

The Huai River Defense Line includes important places such as Shanyang/Xuyi (Eastern Section), Zhongli (middle Section), Shouchun (west Section) and other important places from east to west. Now the Zhou army is attacking the entire line, and the troops are divided to attack the important Huainan town of Chen State at the same time. It is very powerful.

As long as one of these important places is broken through, it means that the Huai River defense line is in danger. Unless there are a large number of reinforcements, it is only a matter of time before the defense line collapses.

However, it is winter now, and the defenders from all over the country have to survive the rainy season for nearly half a year. The Zhongli defenders do not know whether they can survive the arrival of the rainy season under the fierce attack of the Zhou army.

Or, it is unknown whether there are reinforcements or not.

The governor of Xuzhou, the northern state of Chen State and the Duke of Xiaoyao County, Fan Yi used the Qianli Mirror to observe the enemy camp on the north bank. After a long time, he put away the Qianli Mirror and ordered the generals of each unit to strengthen their preparations for war.

Zhongli is an important place in Huainan. Since Fan Yi took office as the governor of Northern Xuzhou, he has mobilized manpower and material resources to strengthen the city defense, rebuilt the originally shaky city wall, and created a large number of combat tools, stockpiling rolling wood and stones, which has changed Zhongli's appearance.

Not only that, Fan Yi also stocked up a lot of grain and grass in the granary in the city. The granary was newly built, which not only considered fire prevention but also waterlogging prevention. It is the strongest guarantee of the morale of the defenders.

Fan Yi believed that the Zhou State would always invade the south, so Zhongli, as a key area in the middle section of the Huai River Defense Line, would definitely be the first to bear the brunt. In order to fight against foreign enemies, Zhongli had to rely on his garrison to resist the siege of the Zhou army without foreign aid, and persist for at least half a year.

The enemy army had powerful thunder, so it was not easy to do this. Therefore, Fan Yi also recruited the green and strong dredged and widened the moat, attracting more rivers to surround Zhongli.

By widening and deepening the moat, the enemy will use tunnel excavation to bury the sky and thunder to blow down the city walls.

Zhongli City is now equipped with all kinds of defense facilities, so when Zhou State broke up and started to invade the south, Fan Yi, who was ready, was not afraid of the other party's besieging the city.

He even hopes that the enemy will siege the city with all his might. Only in this way can he consume the opponent's agility to the greatest extent and gain more time for his effective response.

Thinking about it this way, the premise is that the enemy commander is stubborn and can only attack and not think of other ways. However, the commander of the Zhou army is accustomed to using troops this time, and Fan Yi does not think that the other party will do what he wants.

Fan Yi read the Zhou State's manifesto, but he received the letter of persuasion from the other commander's commander but did not read it, and burned it out in a fire. However, Fan Yi was deeply impressed by the name of the Zhou army commander.

Wang Yuwen Wen of the Zhou royal family, brave and good at fighting. It is said that he has never lost his battles everywhere for more than ten years. If he became the head coach, it is conceivable that the Zhou army would almost never be able to make a fool of themselves.

Therefore, the situation in Zhongli will not be too bad, because the enemy in front of him may be divided into part of the troops to siege the city, and then the main force will pass around the city and take Guangling directly.

Why is this so? The reason is very simple. For example, today, the prince, and the queen mother are all in Guangling, not Jiankang.

Without the Yangtze River chasm, the Zhou army, which had the advantage of cavalry, could ignore the city and go straight to Guangling. The Chen army, who was scattered in various places to defend the city, could only watch the enemy concentrate their forces to attack Guangling and be powerless.

It is the middle of winter, and the water levels of many rivers have dropped sharply or even dried up. It is the best time for cavalry to gallop in Huainan. If the defenders of each city attack rashly and return to Jiankang, they will definitely be in line with the Zhou army's wishes, because there are many cavalrymen on the other side, and they are eager to fight in the wild.

Therefore, Guangling is actually not very safe. If the emperor was in Jiankang, there would not be such a problem. However, now that this is the case, Guangling is likely to be besieged by large-scale enemy cavalry at any time.

Not to mention the Shanyang and Xuyi, which are closest to Guangling on the southern bank of the Huai River, and even Zhongli, it is less than 400 miles away from Guangling.

Fan Yi had been fighting for decades and knew that for the cavalry, the attack distance within a day was about 100 miles, which refers to the distance between round and back, that is, the distance between attacking from the garrison, arriving at the destination, and then returning.

If the cavalry attacks one-way, there is no need to retreat along the way. The daily attack distance is more than 150 miles, or even close to 200 miles.

Therefore, Guangling is not very safe, and the defenders must not be careless.

Fan Yi had sent people to Guangling to convey his concerns to the Empress Dowager, hoping that the Guangling defenders would be prepared and not take it lightly if they thought that the Zhou army was still on the Huai River.

What he should have done has been done. Fan Yi, who guarded northern Xuzhou, could only do his best to defend against the enemy. As for how the situation of the war would develop, he could no longer control it.

Facing the city wall, Fan Meng suddenly looked southwest outside the city, outside the wilderness, there was Yinling Daze.

The western end of the Yinling Daze is the boundary of Shouchun in Huainan, and the southwest end is the boundary of Ruyin. The eastern end of the Daze is quite far from Guangling. However, if the enemy wants to bypass Shouchun and Zhongli, they can choose to go to the Yinling Daze and suddenly appear in the west of Guangling.

......

Yuwen Wen raised his head and looked northeast. After a while, he withdrew his gaze and continued to chew cakes, and then slapped himself hard.

When I spread my palms, I saw a pool of blood in the palm and the remains of a mosquito.

There is no effective mosquito coil or spray insecticide, it is so miserable to pass through the swamp.

Yuwen Wen thought so, clapped his hands with the pancake in his mouth, then continued to nibble with the pancake, looking at the endless reed marsh around him, and looking at the soldiers resting in the reed marsh, feeling a lot of emotion.

There are so many horses, and he finally has no shortage of horses, so his army's movement speed doubled, and the combat distance has changed from forty miles per day to one hundred miles.

Of course, this refers to the round-trip distance of cavalry during combat. If it is a straight line attack, it does not require a return on the same day, as long as the terrain is not too bad, an attack distance of 150 miles or even 200 miles per day is enough to achieve many tactical effects.

Not to mention anything else, just passing through the swamp, you won’t be so tired, and you won’t be so hard to walk deep and shallow in the swamp, suffering for more than ten days.

If it is rainy season, it is a swamp where the water is shallow and the water is deep and the boat cannot be sailed. Maybe it will fall into people and horses. Fortunately, it is the middle of winter, so Yuwen Wen's cavalry can pass through safely.

The problem is that there are mosquitoes in the middle of winter, which is unscientific!

Thinking of this, Yuwen Wen's ears sounded:

Two feet in a second, cold-resistant, attack, blood sucking, escape, and complete instantly. It is the hero among mosquitoes...

Touching the mustache under the jaw, he put away his thoughts, finished the remaining dry food in one bite, took out a compass, and studied it carefully.

Although there was a guide, Yuwen Wen did not dare to take it lightly, because it is said that the King of Chu, who was defeated at Gaixia, was miserable here, and went in the wrong direction in the swamp, missing the last chance to escape.

Yuwen looked at the compass for a while, then looked up to the east.

Guangling, in that direction?
Chapter completed!