Luojian and the whirlpool, sandwiched between Huai, is the mouth of the tributaries on the north and south banks of the Huaishui, the distance between each other is only dozens of miles, and it is now the forefront of the confrontation between the Huainan army and the slave army of Shihu.

In the battle of Runan and Feikou, the Huainan army not only responded to the tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians trapped in the hanging place of Runan, but also thwarted the intention of the slave army to cross the Huai in a fierce battle.

Although the land of Runan was lost, the western defense line was withdrawn to the Feikou area near Shouchun, and the strength became more condensed, crippling the ability of the slave army to cross Tianjin, while the Huainan army could rely on the power of boats and ships to directly radiate its influence to Chenjun, Yingchuan and other core places in southern Henan.

In this battle, the slave army Taobao was caught off guard, although it lost more than 3,000 soldiers, but in terms of overall military strength, it was not a big loss, and it still maintained the strength to continue fighting. However, because the Peach Leopard's army was already trapped in the uselessness of boats, coupled with the shift of Shihu's strategy, the center of gravity was shifted from Yingshui to Vortex, and the distance between the two divisions was widened, and Yingshui was immediately mastered by the Huainan army, cutting off the connection between the two divisions, and no longer had the ability to echo.

Therefore, although the Peach Leopard Department occupied Runan, it was weak in succession, and it gradually became a lonely army trapped there. Even if the Huainan army did not defend itself, it would be difficult for its troops to pass through the rolling Huaishui between Rukou and Yingkou, and it would no longer be able to pose a substantial threat to Huainan.

In the first battle of Runan, more than 40,000 people of Runan soldiers and civilians who successfully returned to Huainan could have been picked up, but when the Huainan Navy finally broke through the barrier of the slave army and arrived at the Hanging Gourd, the people who had been worried for a long time lost control and rushed to the water. However, at that time, the fighting power of the slave army had not yet been completely defeated, and it was the grim moment of confrontation between the two armies, so a considerable number of these people fell on the eve of salvation. This is also something that Mao Bao deeply regrets, and he blames himself for failing to restrain the people at the last moment.

However, Shen Zhezi also understood that in such a harsh combat environment as the Hanging Place, it was extremely difficult for Mao Bao to maintain the situation until the reinforcements arrived, and he really shouldn't be harsh for it. Moreover, from another cruel point of view, there should be no shortage of fierce people who choose to break out of control at such a moment, and the loss of this part is more conducive to the inclusion of this part of the Runan people into the Huainan unified order and settle down as soon as possible.

Previously, the slave army was surging, and the situation was still unclear, so many Huainan locals around Shouchun retreated between Hefei and Liangjun. The participation of these people in Runan has largely supplemented Shouchun's reality.

In the cruel war, warmth is really hard to exist. Although the town also understands that this part of the people is the rest of their lives after the catastrophe and is exhausted and sick, there is really not much time left for them to recuperate calmly when such a large amount of manpower and material resources have not been relieved of the external trouble.

Therefore, after the war, the situation along the Huai River stabilized a little, and the reorganization of these people was immediately launched. At this time, Du He and others, who were in charge of political affairs in the town, had to raise military funds and materials for the army and maintain the stability of the people's livelihood in the territory, which was already overloaded, so it was difficult to be considerate and meticulous in the reorganization, and no longer strictly checked the categories of township registration, and all the people who entered the country were all incorporated into the county register.

Ding Nan and the old and weak, with one with three, immediately filled into the surrounding areas of Shouchun. As for some old and sick people who could no longer bear the pain of traveling, they were temporarily adopted in various resettlement sites in the western border of Shouchun and temporarily used as foster care.

For the rectification and resettlement of these people, Shen Zhezi really didn't have time to be distracted too much, and everything was left to Du He and others. As for the only requirement, the rations must be adequately rationed. In troubled times, people's lives are as cheap as grass mustard and it is not a pity, but even grass mustard has tenacity, even if the fire burns the plains, as long as the spring breeze and drizzle are applied, it is a thriving and prosperous.

The strong enemy is on the side, and his ability is limited, Shen Zhezi tries his best to fight for it, but he can only fight for them to survive, but it is difficult to support and shelter them all the way.

But even this one requirement is quite difficult to meet.

Although there is no lack of potential in the land of Huainan, Shen Zhezi has only been in the town for too short a time, and he has just finished rectifying the strength of the villagers, and he will immediately start intense preparations, so this huge potential has not yet reached the time to be realized. Even the entire Huaixia and Jiangbei recovery areas, except for Liyang and Tuzhong, which Du He operated before, including Liangjun, where Shen Zhezi was seated, have no ability to replenish themselves.

Now, by the end of August, if we count from the time when the state issued a document on the southern expedition and prepared to start sending troops to the south, this war has lasted for more than half a year. Although the slave army had not officially arrived in the first few months, and no large-scale war had directly broken out, the Huainan army had to maintain the invasion of the northern Huaibei land, and the town also had to build various preparations for war, and the consumption of food and materials was also huge.

Although Shen Zhezi has the support of the Wu people behind him, if he does not count the tyrannical and unscrupulous plundering of the slave army in the northern country, it can be said that he is the group with the most resources and goods reserves at the moment. But it is also difficult to achieve unrestrained and unlimited investment, and Huainan is originally a distant hometown for the Wu people, if it is not for the foundation of the Shen family's previous operation, coupled with Shen Zhezi's excellent performance in the previous battle, even if there is a heart to help the war enthusiastically, after such a long period of investment, it must be cooled down.

However, even if the township manpower is not reduced, the material use of Jiangdong is by no means to be demanded and taken, and it is inexhaustible. In fact, being able to survive to this point has even exceeded Shen Zhezi's original expectations.

Since ancient times, it is not unreasonable to emphasize the north and ignore the south, and when it comes to the vitality, Jiangdong is difficult to reach the Central Plains. This is not only a limitation of technology, but also a fundamental defect of the population and the cultivated land. Although as the Shen family grows stronger year by year, the impact on the population and land is also increasing, it is really difficult to catch up with the weakness of hundreds of thousands of years in a few years.

What's more, the situation in Jiangdong has not always been stable, if it weren't for the fact that the goal of being outside the enemy was achieved through many efforts in the Su Jun Rebellion, and the stable and smooth development of the essence of Wuzhong was preserved, then Shen Zhezi would not have used Jiangbei's people and materials in a big way at all.

Even so, to maintain this war, it is obvious that the pressure will be felt on the whole of Jiangdong. In order to maintain the overall situation in Huainan and at the same time meet the consumption of tens of thousands of Huainan troops in high-intensity operations, the demand for grain alone is similar to a bottomless pit. What's more, the land of Huainan has no ability to replenish itself at all, and everything depends on foreign transportation. Although it occupies the advantage of convenient water transportation, it is impossible to be completely consumed.

Deng Ai of the Three Kingdoms once said that 30 million Hu can be accumulated in Huaishang, and this is 100,000 people who will eat in five years. Although the war lasted far less than five years, Huainan needed to support more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians!

Previously, a large number of households moved in, in addition to defense and people's hearts, thrift consumption is also a very important reason, in the front line of the land as much as possible to reduce the food consumption units outside the battle.

Therefore, the war has been maintained to this point, which can be said to be a super long play for Jiangdong, which has a weak foundation. In addition to the relatively stable development in recent years and the strengthening of the alliance and mutual aid of the township sects, this step has also benefited from the gradual progress and change of folk customs and reclamation technology in the past few years.

For example, the cultivation of millet and wheat has been promoted in Jiangdong, which is also a very important reason. Jiangdong has long come to rice, rice soup, fish, millet and the like are not used as staple foods, so few people grow them.

At the beginning of Shen Zhezi's arrival in this world, even if he occasionally saw planting, it was not cooked as a food product at all, and he often ploughed and minced it as green manure to fertilize the field before heading. But now, at least on the cultivated land directly or indirectly controlled by the Shen family, wheat has been cultivated and harvested as a formal crop. Especially in the mountainous farms of Huiji, wheat is already a very important output.

This is not a technological innovation, only a slight change in concept. There is also no need to concentrate on one piece of land for frequent cultivation and frequent planting, because Jiangdong has suffered from insufficient development and has a large area of barren land that has not been cultivated. Just by taking advantage of the habit of staggering the seasons of wheat and rice, the annual yield of the unit labor force can be greatly improved, so as to achieve the annual yield of rice and wheat. Compared with the two-crop rice, which has no low requirements for climate and land environment, this farming method is undoubtedly more widely implemented. Whether in Huiji, Jiangzhou or Huainan today, a large amount of soil suitable for this type of cultivation can be found.

Although the stomach of the southerners is not accustomed to pasta, the wheat produced in Jiangdong today is also an important part of the Huainan military rations.

Even so, the lack of food has become an increasingly obvious problem in front of the Huainan army, and the aid from Jiangdong can no longer be equal to the daily consumption. Although it is now the autumn harvest in Jiangdong, even if new grain is in the warehouse, the flood season is about to be missed, and it is difficult to maintain such a huge transportation volume as at the turn of spring and summer. Therefore, the entry of tens of thousands of Runan people has caused a lot of pressure on Huainan.

Under such circumstances, Shen Zhezi also asked to meet the food needs of these tens of thousands of people, which made Du He feel great pressure. However, fortunately, there was no lack of reclamation foundation around Shouchun before, and the slave army had also gone through a period of rushing to cultivate before the official soldiers came to Huai, all of which were short-harvest crops such as grain and mushroom, and now it has reached the harvest season. Therefore, these tens of thousands of people should be put into the reclamation as soon as possible, so as to make up for themselves a little to solve the urgent need.

However, Du He did not breathe a sigh of relief because of this, and the manpower saved by these tens of thousands of people for farming was not put into the expansion of production, and was immediately transferred by Shen Zhezi to the vicinity of Luojian, and continued to build more fortifications along Luojian to prevent the hidden danger of the vortex slave army going south to invade the hinterland of Huainan.

And soon Shen Zhezi made another decision that made Du He even more distressed, that is, while maintaining the military strength of Huainan, he would expand and reorganize the cavalry army.

Previously, the Huainan army captured tens of thousands of horses in the battle of the city father, but it did not immediately invest in expanding the cavalry team. One is that the battle environment at that time did not require large-scale cavalry to be put into battle, so there was no need to waste more energy on this one, and the other was that the Huainan Army at that time did not have enough qualified cavalry soldiers.

The composition of the tens of thousands of Huainan troops that Shen Zhezi has in his hands today is also quite complex, and it can be roughly divided into six sources.

The first part is the remnants of the rebel army that were surrendered and captured in Su Jun's rebellion, which includes both Shen Zhezi's counterattack on Jiankang and the defeated people accepted when he later sat in Gyeonggi, as well as the entire army such as Lu Yongzhi; There is also the remnants of the rebellious army recruited and suppressed and the refugees who were coerced by the rebellious army, which was the foundation of the original Yuzhou army. This is also the main body of the Huainan Army, which now accounts for more than 10,000 troops in the Huainan Army.

The second part is the Shen family's original family soldiers, which were originally only private soldiers, and they have all been whitewashed by Shen Zhezi and reorganized into the regular army. This part also includes many Wu people who came to join the army to help the war, and even more than 2,000 Dongyang troops directly changed their banners and merged into the Huainan Army.

The third part is the direct incorporation of Jiangbei's original armed forces, such as Mao Bao, who was originally seated in Lujiang, and took refuge after Shen Zhezi went north to settle in Liang County, although some of the troops he originally commanded were left in Hefei. However, the Huainan Army suffered too much loss in the first battle of Yingkou, and was sent by Yu Yi to reinforce it.

The fourth part is to dig the corner of the Xuzhou army, similar to Cao Na and other original Xuzhou army leaders directly surrendered to Shen Zhezi, others may not be as powerful as Cao Na, but there are hundreds of fewers, and hundreds of them are also a force that should not be underestimated.

The fifth part is the rout soldiers intercepted by Daddy Shen Chong when Jiangzhou exterminated Wang Shu before. These people include not only those military families in Jiangzhou, but also the new army recruited by Wang Shu on the eve of his defeat, the essence of which was reorganized by Shen Zhezi into the Shengwu Army, which is extremely valued. And these victorious armies did not live up to Shen Zhezi's favor, Yingkou fought a fierce battle, and suffered heavy losses but still persevered to the end. Shen Zhezi also planned to continue to maintain the military name of the Shengwu Army after the war, and increase the army to rebuild.

As for the sixth part, it is the army reorganized by the local villagers in Huainan, similar to Li Cang's division that previously held on to Runan, which also played a great role. The rest of the people in the town did not directly participate in the two battles of Yingkou and Feikou, but they also played a big role in defending the town and stabilizing the situation in the town.

Of course, in addition to these, the Huainan Army also has supplements from other aspects, such as the wandering refugees who fled from Huaishang and Henan before, many of whom are quite organized and combat effective themselves, and they have also been selectively incorporated into the Huainan Army by Shen Zhezi. There were also many sons of northern and southern families who wanted to join the army and make contributions to Liangjun before, and after the initial reorganization, they also reinforced into the town after the Battle of Yingkou.

Since the start of the war, from Chengfu to Yingkou, until the last two Runan and Feikou, in these major battles, although the Huainan army has achieved good results, but there are also many injuries, especially Yingkou in the first battle in the face of several times its own slave army attack, the first battle almost lost more than 10,000 combat effectiveness. In other standoff battles, there were also small casualties, but they were replenished in a timely manner.

At present, although the composition of the Huainan Army is slightly different from that at the beginning of the war, especially the heavy casualties of the original Yuzhou Army under the command of Guo Yu, and the Shengwu Army is almost not one in ten, but the supplements of all parties and the return of Runan troops to the town, the overall strength is still maintained at more than 50,000.

At present, the war situation has changed, the overall pressure of the original hundreds of thousands of slave troops no longer exists, and the more than 50,000 slave troops under the Taobao Department are trapped in Runan, which is no longer a threat. The slave army on the road has almost been crippled, and the rest have been reorganized and included in the vortex by Shi Hu. The original situation of a strong enemy crushing the city no longer exists, and the only pressure only comes from the hundreds of thousands of slave troops at the vortex.

The number of enemies still seems to be huge, but after Yingkou's great victory, coupled with Feikou's successful sniping of the slave army's southward battle, the Huainan army is far from being the army that was full of panic and apprehension. In addition, although the main force of the Xuzhou Army no longer directly fought side by side with the Huainan Army and helped each other, it successfully conquered Huaiyin, thus mastering the end of the Huaishui River, and forming a flanking attack with the Huainan Army against the slave army on the Huaishui, and the battle situation was not the same as at the beginning of the war.

Therefore, judging from the current battle situation, the Huainan Army is enough to intercept the slave army in Luojian with the strength of its headquarters alone. Regarding Shen Zhezi's need to expand the army, Du He was a little incomprehensible. Although there have been many advantages accumulated before, it is not possible to turn passive defense into complete initiative, after all, almost all the advantages of the Huainan Army have been based on the advantages of waterways. Truly fighting in the open terrain and on land is still a risky move for the Huainan army.

However, in terms of military affairs, Du He did not dare to interfere too much, and Shen Zhezi did not show any greed for merit and arrogance since the start of the war, so although he had doubts in his heart, Du He still tried his best to raise funds in the town to meet the expansion of the cavalry.

Shen Zhezi's plan was to expand the cavalry of the Huainan Army to 5,000 to 6,000 on the original basis. In the case of maintaining one person and two horses, and at the same time having a certain amount of horsepower, this is already the limit that the Huainan army can achieve with the war horses it has. However, in terms of soldiers, there is still a shortfall of nearly 3,000 men.

However, with the return of those trapped people in Runan to the town, plus the people in southern Henan who have been recruited into the town one after another, many of them are the township martial arts who stick to the township in Huaibei, plus there are some scattered soldiers and bravers, it is not difficult to meet this part of the shortage. Of course, it is impossible for these soldiers to become a strong army once they are formed, but if they are not even formed, then everything will not be mentioned.

When the army was expanding in full swing in the Huainan border, Shen Zhezi personally sat in Luojian, where the main force of the Huainan army gathered and confronted the slave army across dozens of miles of Huaishui waterways. In addition to the construction of various fortifications, the defensive posture of the Huainan Army was also active, although there was no large-scale assembly operation, but small-scale spy attacks were continuous.

Although Shi Hu took advantage of the lack of military strength of the Huainan Army and the difficulty of taking care of both the beginning and the end to capture the vortex, it only stopped there, and did not make a greater breakthrough in the war. One is because the loss of Huaiyin made him suffer from the enemy on his back and made it difficult to drive straight into Huaishang, and the other is because the slave army from the south of Yingshang fought too unrestrainedly, and as a result, almost all the transportation capacity such as boats was lost in the first battle of Feikou, which made him fall into the dilemma of having no ships available.

As the stalemate lasted longer, Shen Zhezi gradually stopped trying to guess the life or death of the slave master, Shi Le, and focused on maintaining a high-intensity incursion and temptation of the slave army. Huainan Town has already appeared in the dilemma of not being able to continue the replacement, the slave army is far away, and the hundreds of thousands of soldiers eat horses and chew, so it is conceivable that the pressure will be even greater. Moreover, the loss of Huainan directly exposed the contradictions of the power struggle of the slave country, Shi Hu must have been deeply touched by this, and he would not be happy because of it.

Therefore, Shi Hu, the old boy, is very likely to be ready to slap his ass and leave at any time, and Shen Zhezi is naturally ready to stab him in the back at any time. If the slave army returns to the division this time, it is inevitable that he will not take away a cloud, but he must cut off a piece of fat and keep it!