When Shi Hu's envoy arrived in Runan from Yingshang, Peach Leopard was regrouping for battle near Shenshui, the flow of Rushui.

After listening to the envoy's intentions of Shi Hu, Taobao's attitude was also correct, and he solemnly said: "Please tell the king, if the southerners and naval forces enter this realm, I will lead my troops to fight fiercely and stay here." ”

Speaking of his own demands, Peach Leopard did not ask for a sky-high price, but only asked for some basic food and equipment.

The reason why Peach Leopard has this attitude is of course not because he is a humble gentleman who is loyal and righteous, but in fact, he has been measured many times.

Shi Hu's understanding of Hedong Wang Shisheng is very correct, in fact, as early as when Shi Hu's Chinese army was not defeated in Yingkou, Shi Sheng's envoy had already come to see the peach leopard, hoping that the peach leopard could move to the direction of Nanyang and help Yu Han to fight.

However, he was rejected by Peach Leopard at that time, even if he didn't consider what position, this time he used it in the south, he and Shi Shengqi were equal governors, and Shi Shengqi did not have enough prestige and ability to let Peach Leopard control him. What's more, the enemy on the Han side was already stronger than Huainan, and it would be foolish to give up Huainan's easy exploits and turn to meet the strong Jingzhou army of the southerners, and also risk offending the king of Zhongshan.

But Taobao didn't expect that the Huainan War, which was originally thought to be easy and winnable, would turn out to be like this, and hundreds of thousands of troops in the middle of the road were directly swept back by Huaishui. Even as Shi Hu's ally, in the face of such a situation, Peach Leopard had to feel that King Zhongshan was really too careless. Judging by this battle alone, it can be called stupid.

However, Peach Leopard was not completely disappointed with Shi Hu because of this battle, after all, Shi Hu's old record was firmly placed there, and similar thoughts of underestimating the enemy were not only available to Shi Hu. King Zhongshan was just too aggressive and unlucky, which led to a humiliating defeat.

Later, Shi Sheng was even more aggressive towards the peach leopard, and even sent a full car full of goods directly into the peach leopard army, and promised to recommend the peach leopard to serve as the assassin of Qinzhou, but the peach leopard still didn't have much interest in this.

One is that the king of Hedong does not interfere with the lord and the court situation at all, and he himself wants to fight for the position of Qinzhou Assassin, so this promise is just a lie. The second Han war was not going well, although there was no such a big rout as Yingkou, but the king of Zhongshan was defeated carelessly, and the king of Hedong was lost in his ability himself.

However, Peach Leopard also thought about it for a long time, after all, the defeat of King Zhongshan was too ugly, and even Peach Leopard, a long-time ally, could not accept it, let alone the rest of the generals who led their troops south. If the King of Zhongshan can't restrain his subordinates and prevent the collapse of the army, then even with the help of the peach leopard, it will be difficult to turn the tide. Moreover, the peach leopard can't help but consider that the defeat of the king of Zhongshan will cause the lord and the country to have any bad actions towards him, and whether it will affect him.

After some careful consideration, Peach Leopard decided to help King Zhongshan again. After all, the alliance between the two has been around for a long time, and even if the relationship is drawn immediately, the old involvement will be difficult to cut off for a while. What's more, even if the Lord has any bad thoughts about the King of Zhongshan, the primary concern is the war in the south. After all, the king of Zhongshan is still the nominal commander, if he does not obey the order here, there is any move to delay the war, resulting in the return of the southern expedition in vain, even if the lord wants to severely punish the king of Zhongshan, he will definitely not let him go.

Of course, there is also the most important point, that is, some of the small grievances that old generals like Peach Leopard have accumulated against Shi Le for a long time. With the higher the position of power, especially after breaking away from the Han and Zhao self-reliance, many of Shi Le's behaviors have made the old generals of Tao Leopard feel quite cold, as the dust of the Han and Zhao rivalry settled, after the independence of the Central Plains, Shi Le was more powerful for the Jin people, and it was inevitable that Tao Leopard and other old Hu ministers were snubbed.

There is another point that the prince Shi Daya, who was originally a Hulu root bone, prefers to fake a crown belt, so as to flatter the world, which is quite shameful. If it is just a superficial posture, but Shi Daya's words and deeds are contrary to the wishes of the people, it is conceivable that once this person inherits the national ancestry, like the peach leopard, most of the old people who are ignorant of etiquette and religion will be neglected, and the power and wealth obtained by following the lord in the early years will be unsustainable.

There is no doubt that the only person who can prevent this kind of thing from happening is Zhongshan King Shihu. Although this kind of thought is disrespectful and even disobedient to the Lord, it is related to the future of their power and even the lives of these generals, knowing that the future is already worrying, how can they be willing to wait. If it were really a group of cowards who were submissive and had no heart to resist, they would not have followed Shile in the past to what they are now!

Since it has been decided that he will not abandon the King of Zhongshan, then there is no need for the peach leopard to make any more gestures, and now that the army is outside, even if there are any demands or promises, it is difficult to fulfill them immediately, no matter how conclusive it is, there is a possibility of returning in the future, since this is the case, there is no need to say more.

After sending off the messenger of the King of Zhongshan, Peach Leopard turned his head and began to prepare for the war with all his might.

There are many ditches and tidal flats in the land of Runan, and many Jindu have to be rushed, but it is precisely because there are too many that it is impossible to highlight which place is the key point that must be defended or attacked. Such a geographical environment is somewhat unfavorable to the Peach Leopard Division.

Although his army numbered more than 50,000 people, a considerable part of them were just bluffs and rabble, no different from those scattered soldiers of the Chinese army who broke up at Yingkou. There are only more than 10,000 elite armorers who can really attack the camp, and he is also responsible for the task of galloping Nanyang and responding to Hancha, so there are nearly half of the cavalry among the more than 10,000 armor soldiers.

However, in such a geographical environment, cavalry has no use at all. The southerners didn't even need to build any fortified walls here, even if they only occupied a random tidal flat, forcing the cavalry to dismount and fight. The cavalry, which was originally able to exert great lethality in the Central Plains and the Frontier Fortress, was no different from foot soldiers in this land of Runan, except for consuming more grain and grass. As for the long-distance attack on the grain route and the like, there is no need to even mention it, as long as the southerners have the resources to dispatch, they are all waterways, and the cavalry will not be able to touch the edge at all.

Of course, the restrictions of the terrain are not only aimed at the slave army under the peach leopard, but also have an adverse impact on the Huainan army. The waterway environment is too complex, and there is no sufficiently open main waterway, the light sampan may be able to move freely, but if it is carried by a large-scale boat, it will face many dangers of interruption and obstruction. Therefore, the boats of the southerners are mainly concentrated in Rukou, and they have not departed from the Huaishui main road and penetrated too far into this realm.

This time, the southerners gathered boats and ships to march westward, probably inspired by Yingkou's victory, and wanted to rely on their strong ships and water conservancy to severely damage Taobao. However, the terrain of Runan is different from that of Yingkou, and Peach Leopard will definitely not seek a decisive battle when the conditions are not ripe. Although he promised the King of Zhongshan that he would try his best to delay the Nanren naval army here, he was not confined to this, and still had to choose a battle method that was beneficial to him.

When besieging the Hanging Gourd earlier, the peach leopard was already inspecting the terrain, either blocking the cobweb-dense water flow or opening it. The rudimentary hydraulic fortifications built by many of the Nanmen were completely destroyed, and in this way they created an environment suitable for their men and horses to fight.

Especially in this section of the Rushui waterway between the hanging gourd and Rukou, although the peach leopard can not control the waterway deeply, it also invests manpower to dig and drain the water, one is to avoid repeating the old defeat of the Yingkou army, and the other is also artificially caused by the depletion of this section of the water flow. At the same time, he also ordered the people to use baskets and trucks to transport soil and pile it up in some narrow places of waterways, build earthen embankments, and bulldoze the earth into the water at critical moments, creating a dilemma for the southerners' boats to run aground or cut off the flow.

At the same time, he also strengthened the attack on the hanging place, and at the same time spread rumors inward, saying that the Huainan army saw that the military situation was urgent and was about to not defend, so it planned to abandon the people and withdraw the army, so that this part of the Huainan army would be in chaos and it would be difficult to cooperate with the new army to flank the attack.

The state of the Hanging Gourd was already precarious, and when these rumors spread by the peach leopard spread into it, it quickly caused panic and chaos among the people.

When Mao Bao and others led the army to repel a new round of attacks by Qianhu, and before the battlefield was cleaned up, news of a civil uprising came from the back road. Mao Bao didn't dare to slack off after hearing the news, at this time the boat that the town was ready to respond to had already hit the road, if the hanging gourd collapsed at this moment, then the previous efforts and many recent dispatches will be wasted. Therefore, he handed over the front-line battle to Li Cang, and he himself led hundreds of elites and several leaders who were not popular among the displaced people to return to suppress the popular rebellion.

At this time, outside the Huainan military camp near Rushui, thousands of people had gathered, all of them looked frightened, or indignant and desperate, surrounding this barracks, and some people joined in one after another, shouting and howling to ask the Huainan army for an explanation.

In front of the gate of the camp, Li Youzhi, who stayed in the camp and was recuperating from his wounds, led a part of the guards to confront these refugees, and there were more than a dozen leaders standing at the forefront of the refugee ranks, all of whom looked flustered, and there was no lack of sharp questions about whether the Huainan army really had any intention of abandoning the people and withdrawing. Li Youzhi's injuries were not all good, his spirit was not good, and he did not know much about whether to withdraw the army, and he had rarely experienced such battles, so he did not know how to deal with them, so he could only persuade these people to restrain the people and not to mess with themselves.

"Why do a few villagers have to talk to this little boy again, these Huainan soldiers have spoken sweetly before, saying that they want to protect the villagers, it is nothing more than to make the villagers Ding Zhuang serve them to resist the enemy! Trapped here for a long time, the less the supply, the stronger the slaves, and it is inevitable that they will withdraw their troops and abandon the people. If we and other villagers want to survive, we still have to rely on our own strength, break this barracks, take swords, guns and floats, and break a way out! ”

There were a few brave people in the crowd, who couldn't bear the torment of this confrontation and shouted loudly, and there was no shortage of people on the left and near to respond to it. There are also more people, although they don't make a sound, but their bodies begin to move forward, and their expressions are eager to try, which shows that they also want to do this, but they lack a leading example.

Hearing these violent voices in the crowd, the heads of several township sects standing at the front looked a little flustered, and originally wanted to open their mouths to scold and stop it, but when they thought that the current future was worrying, it was really not appropriate to fight any more, and they also needed to use these tyrannical people to put more pressure on the Huainan army, or they could get the results they wanted, so they stopped speaking out, and just let the crowd feel more agitated.