With the entry of the slave army into the vortex, the defense situation around the vortex has also undergone great changes.

Probably learned the lesson of the Yingkou rout, the slave army did not directly deploy too many troops at the vortex mouth Jindu, but sent a large number of military forces, cofferdams and embankments, and in just ten days, more than a dozen weirs of all sizes were built on both sides of the vortex near the Huaishui. Moreover, the army was not scattered in the suburbs, but built several small cities on the northeast bank of the whirlpool, and all the soldiers were stationed in the cities.

As for some of the fortifications originally built by the Nanren army here, a considerable part of them were destroyed, and the remaining ones only maintained a basic alert force to maintain the occupation of the vortex.

Such a cautious defensive posture is similar to the previous Huainan Army.

Of course, this does not mean that the slave army has completely given up its plan against Huainan, and in those weirs and tidal flats far away from the main river roads, the slave army has been cutting down bamboo and wood, building boats and other water attack weapons, and has made small achievements.

However, the vortex is also the key point of the war between the north and the south, and the armies of the north and the south are mostly stationed here, although the surrounding area is not without grass, but the materials such as bamboo and wood are definitely not sufficient, and they have to go to the far mountains to find them, which gives the Huainan army and the Xuzhou army on both wings the opportunity to invade their actions.

It is located between the west bank of the whirlpool and the angle of the Huaishui River, and the Jingshan Gorge in the Three Gorges of the Huaishui River to the south, the terrain of the north bank of the Huaishui River is low and the mountains are continuous, and there is no lack of bamboo and trees are lush. Between these mountains, there were also some logging fields for slave soldiers.

Naturally, it was impossible for a large army to be dispatched by the slave army to cut wood, and it was often more than 100 soldiers supervising the number of civilian servants who roamed in the mountains and fields in search of suitable good timber and materials. As soon as suitable materials are found, they are immediately cut down, either dragged by manpower or with the help of mountain streams and tidal flats, and hauled back to the base camp on the east bank of the whirlpool.

At this time, among the mountains and fields, in the dense thorn bushes, there were nearly 100 slave soldiers sitting on the ground. Farther away was a lumberyard, a small forest that had been cut down more than halfway, and a clearing was piled up with sections of wood, some of which were no thicker than an adult's thigh, and the thickest of which was only slightly wider than a waist, but it was already one of the best timber in the wilderness.

At this time, there were nearly 200 laborers, both men and women, all ragged and unkempt, and because they had not eaten for a long time, these laborers were also weak and slow. The tools in his hands are also very simple, stone axes, wooden thorns, hemp ropes, etc., and even iron tools are very few. Therefore, the efficiency of felling is naturally not high, and it may not be possible to bring down a tree in an hour.

There are slave soldiers outside the lumber yard, but those slave soldiers are not as good as the laborers, and they also have yellow faces and thin muscles, and their clothes that can no longer distinguish the style and color are covered with mud and grass juice. The blades he carried were not held uprightly in his hands, and he was dragged backwards behind him, leaning on the rocks with his back, his expression was tired, his eyes were listless, and he even had no energy and interest in acting fiercely in front of those servants, and his eyes, which were slightly protruding because of his thin detachment, were straight and unrelenting most of the time, and occasionally looked at the lumberyard, the servants were still slow, but as long as they were not obviously lazy, the soldiers were too lazy to scold.

The commander of this logging team was a veteran soldier in his forties, and the only thing that could still show his identity was the large ring-headed knife that still looked sharp at his waist and wrapped in a piece of linen. At this time, the soldiers sat here, listening to the veteran commander tell the majestic deeds of the year: "...... In that battle, hundreds of us were in large numbers, throwing stones to smash the fence, and rushed into the enemy formation first, when we were really young, I didn't know how to rush to the barn first, just noisily chasing and killing the enemy general, chasing through the camp for more than ten miles, but the enemy general failed to catch up, but picked up the enemy general and abandoned the female dependents. That lady is really soft and smooth, but it's a pity that Lao Tzu was a new pawn back then, and he only touched a few handfuls, but he couldn't taste the taste after all......"

When the soldiers heard this, they couldn't help but laugh again and again.

The old pawn was also self-deprecating, and then patted the hilt of the knife on his waist and sighed: "Lao Tzu is also an old Chinese army who has been fighting for a long time, and in previous years, he even filled into the army of His Majesty our lord. It seems that this battle at the moment, such a frustrating battle has no prestige at all, it is really never before! That Zhongshan King is very famous, and he is not as good as the pawn in the battle, and he was beaten to today's field by the southerners, and he is really not worthy of being in a high position......

was so directly criticized by the commander, but the soldiers around him did not feel frightened because of this, but joined in one by one, echoing the feelings of the veteran commander, and poured out the sullenness in their hearts.

Of course, they have enough reason to complain, and it is only secondary that the war is not going well, after all, even if they go all the way through Jiangdong, it will not be their turn to get ahead and worship the king, but everyone can really feel the steep drop in their own situation.

First of all, the most important thing is the lack of food supply, and they are also officially in the army, so the treatment is not much different from those of the army. They are all driven out to hunt and harvest, and if they don't get anything, they can't get food. If they do not return after the military period, they will also be punished, and some people will even be beaten to death by military law.

Flee and dare not escape, not to mention that there will be southerners and enemies in the field at any time, there are also a large number of cavalry patrolling in the field, once they find out of the battalion system, wandering outside, they will be directly deprived of the armor soldiers, beaten as hard labor, and killed on the spot, and the head of the army will be transmitted.

When it came to the encounter with the Nanren in the wilderness, these people couldn't help but be even more angry and indignant. The two armies fought, not to mention anything else, at least they had to provide bows and knives to kill the enemy, and their soldiers did not expect any strong armor and sharp weapons, but even the basic knives and guns could not be matched, let alone bows and arrows.

On the other hand, the southerners, where there is a sortie, there is no shortage of armor, even if there is no iron armor, there are rattan armor, bamboo armor and the like, everyone is equipped with a bow, once they meet in the wild, the first thing is to draw the bow and shoot.

In such a situation, not to mention killing the enemy, it is already a great luck that they can escape. Even the most fierce slave soldiers did not dare to charge at those flying arrows unarmed.

Such bad armament is not because these soldiers themselves are not combative. All of them are the army of the Chinese army, and they are also the elite choice of the country's armor soldiers, and their initial armament in the south is not inferior to that of the southerners, and even hidden exceedance. However, with the development of the war to the present, the treatment has become worse and worse, at first the food has been reduced, and recently even the allotted bows and knives have been confiscated, and they have been driven out of the original camp, and they have been reduced to servitude in the mountains and fields, with insufficient food and clothing, and their lives are even more worried.

And it is true that they have fallen to this point where they are now, and there are some reasons for the defeat in the battle, but the bigger reason is actually in other places. These slaves may not know the in-depth military affairs, but in between the entry and exit, there is no lack of new troops coming from the rear to supplement the army. And the reduced ordnance of these old soldiers, including the deprived battalion defense, were taken over by these new soldiers.

In response to this phenomenon, there have been rumors in the army recently, saying that their southern expedition was defeated, which made the lord of the country angry, so he sent reinforcements to this point, and he must defeat the southern thieves! As for these defeated and humiliated divisions, whether the original state planned to punish them severely, or to exempt them from the original punishment under the protection of the king of Zhongshan, and give them another chance to make meritorious contributions. If the army is defeated due to the defeat of the army, then the Lord will come south to conquer in person, and even if they do not die, these soldiers will be sent to hard labor and will never be used again!

Since then, the people in the army have been panicked, and although they have grievances in their hearts, when they think of the majesty of the Lord and the new and strong army that are constantly reinforcing them, it is difficult to have any resistance to them, so they can only endure it and bear the burden of humiliation.

Before a group of people could pour out their bitterness, suddenly the soldier in charge of the lookout on the high slope not far away issued a low warning warning: "The southerners, the southerners are coming......"

These people had already become frightened birds, and when they heard this warning, they didn't even have time to ask the southerners how many enemies there were, and they all jumped up from the ground in a hurry, grabbed the sticks in their hands, and ran for their lives. Finally, the old soldier commander still had no lack of prestige, and he drew out his ring head knife to shout and scold, so that the soldiers would not disperse in a hurry, and gathered together and left quickly. As for those laborers who were originally slow-moving, after seeing the slave soldiers move, they were all terrified, and immediately threw away the tools in their hands and fled in all directions to the mountains.

After another quarter of an hour, a team of more than 50 Huainan troops climbed the high slope and discovered this slave logging site. The commander of the team sent a few men down the hill to check the direction of the slave army's escape, and made sure that there were no ambushes near the left, and then the group descended, divided into two parts, one surrounded the bow and guarded, and the other collected dry branches and leaves and threw them on the piled wood, and set fire to them.

The slaves were physically exhausted, and the other was still worried about cutting wood for several days and about to complete their tasks, so they did not escape too far and were still hiding and snooping. Seeing the smoke and fire, burning the wood they had worked so hard to collect, they were all so angry that their eyes were split, but seeing the strong bows held by the Huainan army, as well as the full quiver on their shoulders and waists, they could only grit their teeth in the dark, and did not dare to rush out to find death.

The dozens of people in the Huainan Army not only burned the timber that had been cut down, but even the remaining half of the trees that had not had time to be cut down were also chopped down and thrown into the fire, which was completely harmful to people and not to the detriment. What is even more hateful is that these people did not leave after setting the fire, but gathered on the other side of the mountain stream, and waited until the fire gradually exhausted, and the wood had been completely burned to ashes, and then returned leisurely.

Seeing this scene, the slave soldiers were devastated and devastated as you can imagine, but they still waited until this Huainan army completely disappeared from sight before they dared to come out of their hiding place, beating their chests and frowning one by one. You must know that they have to rely on the burned wood to return to the camp in exchange for food, otherwise they will continue to go hungry and wander through the mountains and wilderness for more than ten days.

"Let's go back to camp......"

The soldier commander saw that everyone was looking at him pitifully, so he could only say helplessly. Not only were the timber burned down, but even the allotted labor furniture was gone, and there was no point in continuing to stay outside, so they had to return to the camp to see if there was any chance of success.

Along the way, these slave troops encountered other people from all walks of life, and most of them were in a similar state, and the Huainan army burned the hard-cut wood, and some of them escaped slowly, and they all suffered heavy casualties. The contrast between their respective situations made the gloom enveloping the hearts of the slaves even deeper. On this day, as many as seven or eight logging sites were cleared, and the losses increased sharply compared with before, which shows that the Huainan Army has increased its efforts in this direction and has increased its troops.

Returning to the camp on the west bank of the whirlpool, the soldiers received accurate information that the 3,000 members of the Huainan army had crossed the Huaishui a few hours earlier and climbed Jingshan to fortify here. After learning this news, there was a lot of mourning all over the field, before the Huainan army had occasionally crossed the river to intrude, which had already troubled them, and now they actually had to fortify here, then the danger of this area would increase by several points.

After the news was confirmed, not only the soldiers could not rest assured, but even the generals guarding here did not calm down, and immediately sent someone to notify the camp of the King of Zhongshan located on the east bank, hoping to obtain some equipment supplements.

Similar news is not only happening in one place, but also reported in other places. Even in the eastern area, hundreds of cavalry who were responsible for hunting and foraging were blocked in the river bay by the Xuzhou army rangers, and even if they were completely annihilated by the combined attack of land and water, not even a single horse could escape back!

In the large camp of Shi Huzhong's army, he didn't even need to listen to the details of the generals' reports, just the number of slips on the case that had doubled, and the envoys who came to ask for instructions outside the tent, could feel that the southern army on both wings had suddenly become active.

At this time, the cronies who remained in the tent all hung their heads, and did not dare to make a noise to attract the resentment of the king of Zhongshan. Only Shi Di, the son of Shi Hu, who came down from Qingzhou and came from Qingzhou, looked angry at this time, and said that he wanted to teach the southerners who didn't know whether to live or die, but even though he was stared at by Shi Hu's cold gaze, his heart was suddenly awe-inspiring, and he didn't dare to speak out again.

The appearance of Shi Hu at the moment is completely different from the high-spirited appearance when he left Xiangguo before, his hair is messy, his eye circles are puffy, and his eyes are even more bloodshot. In fact, what really bothered him the most was not the unfavorable war situation at the moment, but what kind of changes Shi Kan would bring to the country after he returned to China, and how the Lord would target him.

In fact, Huaiyin was lost and Shi Kan left the town, purely for the current battle situation, it was not completely unfavorable to Shi Hu. At least at this time, the land of southern Henan and Xuzhou no longer has the strength to restrain him.

And Shi Kan's departure from the town was a secret operation, only took away some of his cronies, originally Xuzhou headquarters after the loss of Huaiyin, a large number of retreats to Huaibei, a considerable part of them were taken over by Shihu stronghold. Originally, he recruited several brave sons in Qingzhou, but they were not stopped by him at this time, and the army gradually grew, and there was already the basis for a large-scale Huai battle. Although the food is gradually scarce, as long as it can rush through the Huaishui to reach the heart of Huainan, it can also get a considerable part of the replenishment.

However, such an unfavorable situation in the rear made Shi Hu dare not act rashly, fearing that once he crossed the Huai, he could not easily leave the war, and it was very likely that he would abandon the army. Moreover, whether it is the Huainan Army or the Xuzhou Army, they are not vulnerable, and the prospects are not clear.

When the tent was dull, suddenly there was a message from outside, and there was another strange move in the direction of Huainan on the river, and several large ships were approaching the vortex.

On the river, several fighting ships guarded the Huainan army Chang'an ship, paused on the water several miles away from the whirlpool, and several sampans were lowered on the ship, and several steaming wooden barrels were placed on the sampans, floating down the river.

There were more than 1,000 Huainan soldiers on the big ship, and when they saw the slave army making a noisy defensive formation near the shore, they all laughed and laughed, and then shouted in a neat tone under the restraint of the commander: "The general of the king, Shen Hou, told the general Shi Jilong." Although the two armies are fighting hard, there is no need to blindly fight. Because he knew that the northern army was running out of food, he gave a few soups. Although Ji Long is a slave mongrel, there is no shortage of martial arts to boast of, and he is a strong man among slaves. Don't be trapped in the army, but also take good care of your body. Otherwise, if you describe a big loss, it is really difficult to distinguish what you have done! ”