Runan hangs the gourd, the land is as its name suggests, and the Rushui is diverted here, delineating the landform to become a dangerous place. There are many ditches and tidal flats here, hanging Rushui, if you defend it according to this, it is difficult for outsiders to enter lightly.

The place of the hanging gourd, reaching Heluo in the north and Jingxiang in the south, is a key point connecting the north and the south. After the Three Kingdoms, this is a place of trade and distribution, and many merchants sit here to linger, which can be described as prosperous.

Lonely for a long time, the hanging place has become noisy again in recent days, but the picture is no longer the prosperity of businessmen and merchants. A large number of refugees in southern Henan who were abused by slave soldiers and had to leave their hometowns were mostly appeased and led here by the Huainan army, stayed for a short time, received some food supplies here, and then went south along the waterway, crossed the Huaishui, or crossed the mountains and mountains to reach the west of Huainan, or continued to travel south until Yiyang and Jiangxia. Although the journey is tiring and tiring, it is always a place to live and make a living, which is better than staying in the countryside and being trampled by the rebels.

This did not last long, and soon the Karma army marched south, marching in boats and horses, and surrounded the area, forcing many of the people who had not yet had time to migrate to stay here and fight with the defenders against the invading Karma army.

There was no garrison in the hanging place, including the Huainan garrison, and simple barracks could only be temporarily built with bamboo and grass turf for defense and residence. As for the large number of other people, most of them are sleeping in the wilderness, and the conditions can be described as difficult.

Although the defense here is simple, but because of the topography, waterway circulation, and many shallow swamps, it is difficult for slave riders to gallop directly inside, and then set up fences everywhere according to the geographical advantages, and the army and civilians fight together, so for a time the slave army will be forcibly blocked outside, and it will not be lost.

At this time, it is located in the valley of the Jiahe River, where the Rushui River flows, and thousands of people are fighting fiercely here. Several simple water fence barracks set up on the water's edge have long been uprooted, many bamboo and wood fragments float on the water, and the attacking slave army's penny rafts carry troops to cross, while the Huainan defenders stick to the river bank and repel the attacks of the slave soldiers again and again.

The shallows here are muddy and difficult to run, and if the soldiers have a little heavy armor, they will be stuck in the mud and unable to move. Therefore, it is as if they are standing in place one by one, slashing with a knife and stabbing with a spear, and only by killing the enemy who is attacking head-on can they ensure their own safety.

In such a harsh battlefield, the battle was particularly fierce, and once you rushed to the front line, you had to fight hard, and even defeat and retreat were extremely difficult. The two sides are in the middle of the battle, and there are many corpses, broken heads and broken arms, and there are very few people who can get all the corpses. And the two sides that are fighting have no tactical strategy at all with each other, and they are just the simplest consumption of human lives.

In the back of the Huainan Army, there are still a large number of people who are cutting bamboo bundles to make bamboo rows, and the newly made bamboo rows are quickly carried by the soldiers, and then rush to the front to lay on the tidal flats, and then send lightly armed crossbowmen to rush forward, shoot the opposite slaves to increase their troops, and cover the retreat of their comrades.

In the rear of the military formation, Mao Bao's face was hot and red, and he frequently ordered the soldiers to reinforce as soon as possible. At this time, the thousands of Huainan troops trapped in the tidal flats were originally stationed in the upper camps. Today, it was suddenly attacked by thousands of slave soldiers, and the camp was broken immediately. These defenders were pursued too closely by the slave army to completely get out of the battle, and they were forced into the current desperate situation after fighting and retreating.

In addition to direct reinforcements, the reinforcements also sent a large number of spiked bamboo spears to the front, stabbing the slaves who waded in the water, and keeping as far distance as possible from each other. As the retreat of the tidal flats was gradually paved, and the Huainan reinforcements were also put into the battlefield more quickly, the slave army saw that it was useless, and their own casualties were also increasing, so they slowly retreated.

When the slave army retreated, the Huainan army in front was able to retreat, collect and behead, and treat the wounded.

Most of a general's legs were stuck in the mudflat, and his armor was filled with mud, and it took more than a dozen soldiers to pull him out of the mudflat. This person was covered in mud and blood, the armor on his chest had already been chiseled, the broken armor was even embedded in his chest, the hood was also cut deformed and rolled in, the blood between his ears was dripping, and his breath was already weak. After being rescued, he fainted, and the war knife he was holding was still not taken off, and he broke through the mud only to see that the handle of the knife was tied in the palm of his hand with tough kudzu vines. It can be seen that the fight is fierce, and if it weren't for this, he wouldn't even be able to hold the knife.

"What a young man, General Li's family raises tiger cubs!"

The general is the commander of the Huainan Army who was in a bitter battle, and Li Youzhi, who had previously offered advice in Shouchun to defend Runan. Mao Bao stepped forward to check the injury, and saw that he was just fainting and his life was worry-free, so he turned his head and said to Li Cang, the military master who came with him.

"It's really hard to accept Mao Hou's praise, this child was born with this kind of fate, if you don't fight hard, it will be difficult to live this year."

Li Cang personally bent down and carefully unloaded his armor for Li Youzhi, and then ordered his own soldiers to carry them to the rear for treatment, and then looked at Mao Bao with a sad face, and said: "The slaves have been attacking more fiercely recently, and since we are guarding here, we naturally do not shy away from fighting. Even if you are dead in battle, there is no need to hold grudges. But the tens of thousands of villagers gathered here, if they don't follow the rules, they will inevitably fall into the hands of thieves! ”

After Mao Bao heard this, his brows were also furrowed. I thought that the defeat of the enemy army in Shouchun Town at Yingkou would more or less cause some deterrence to other departments and suspend the pressure on Runan here, but I didn't expect that the attack of the slave army would become more violent.

Runan was built in a hurry, and there were many deficiencies. Although there was a city defense in the realm before, it was also broken and trampled by Shi Cong's army a few years ago, and it was difficult to hold on. Even if there are few divisions of troops, it is not enough to hinder the tens of thousands of slave troops of Taobao, so they can only retreat into this hanging place to defend it dangerously.

Moreover, the pressure here is not only the strong attack of the slave army, because it is suspended outside the town of Shouchun, and the resources must be supplied by the back road. The refugees who had been taken in had already evacuated in batches, which greatly reduced the urgency of material consumption. However, when the peach leopard came south, it did not attack this place directly, but sent rangers to roam and sweep in the countryside, driving a large number of displaced people here.

If these refugees were kept out and not included, they would be forced by the slave army to become the vanguard of the destruction of the region's defense. Moreover, these refugees inside and outside the defense line have a lot of collusion with their hometowns, and it is difficult to prohibit them from bringing in villagers without permission. If you really want to stubbornly reject it, it is self-defeating.

The peach leopard was originally the eighteen horsemen of the old Zhao lord Shile, and he was well versed in the tactics of driving away the crowd and attrition of the enemy, not only the people of Runan Township were driven here, but even the farther Nanyang was not spared. These villagers have been driven into the hanging place, and only then have this place been surrounded.

Because of the rapid increase in population, the original reserves of Runan Land were suddenly insufficient, and they were depleted rapidly. In addition, the people who came to defect were mixed, far away from the countryside and near the wilderness, and it was not even ruled out that there were slave soldiers and spies lurking in it, so it also brought great pressure to the management of this place.

Of course, the main reason is that the conditions of the hanging gourd are too poor, although the geographical location is important, but the landform is poor, there are many tidal flats and ravines, and the reed ponds and shrubs are continuous. If you want to build a city here and run it into a real fortress, it will not be a short-term success. The influx of a large number of refugees, coupled with the sweltering heat of midsummer, the miasma of water vapor and miasma transpiration, the ensuing epidemic, a large number of people are infected and die every day, not only lack of food, but also an urgent shortage of medicine.

Li Cang, who was originally sitting here, soon couldn't control the situation, and Mao Bao was responsible for defending Rukou, and he didn't dare to invest too much in the Rukou defenders, so he could only tell Shouchun in a hurry, hoping that Shouchun would come up with a solution as soon as possible, whether to stick to it or give up.

During this time, the attacks of the slave soldiers became more and more intense, and the death on the battlefield and the torture of the plague made the situation even more precarious. Mao Bao could not have a good strategy at this point, so he could only forcefully drive the epidemic people together in one place, although it was not clear, but it was also to avoid the epidemic from getting out of control and breaking out directly in the army.

In this way, he insisted on two more days, during which he repelled several small-scale attacks of the slave army, and only then did he wait for the order of Huainan Town, and decided to give up the hanging place, Han Huang increased his troops to Rukou, defended this retreat channel, and the army and civilians withdrew to Huainan in the first place. Of course, the first to withdraw was the soldier Ding Zhuang, followed by the villagers.

Making such a decision, Shen Zhezi was also quite helpless. Huainan is not an independent battlefield, and the ability of Jing and Xu towns to respond has been weakened due to various reasons. Under such circumstances, it would have been unwise to invest a large amount of money in a remote battlefield in Runan.

Yingkou was irrigated, and there was no longer the ability to resist the enemy, and the supply line was stretched and it was likely to be attacked by the Yingshang slave army's boats. In addition, Runan Yuan Town, the control is insufficient, and once too much is invested, it is difficult to ensure whether the people's will is available. If you are lured by the slave army, you will be in trouble.

Previously, it was because he was worried that the situation in Shouchun would be unstable, so he could only temporarily send Runan manpower outside. Now that Yingkou has won a big victory, the situation in Shouchun has stabilized, so it is also a suitable choice to bring back manpower for reorganization to supplement Shouchun Town.

Especially in July, it is getting closer and closer to the time when Shen Zhezi predicted the death of Zhao Zhushile, so it is even more necessary to force foreign wars now, but to accumulate enough strength to wait for the slave army to break out into great turmoil.