When Shi Hu arrived at the front line of the vortex, more than 5,000 slave soldiers had boarded the ship and left the camp and set up a battle formation on the river. At this time, the Huainan Navy had already crossed the Jingshan Gorge, and the lights hanging on the bow of the ship were already clearly visible.

The front-line supervisor of the slave army was Fubo General Liu Zheng, who led seven or eight front-line generals to meet him, and at the same time quickly reported the current situation of the front-line arrangement.

"Only more than 5,000 people in battle?"

When Shi Hu heard this number, even his brows furrowed, and then he waved his hand and said: "Continue to increase the troops, all the boats and boats in the camp will be filled with troops and put on the boats, and leave the camp to fight!" ”

When these generals on the front line heard this, they all gasped. If this is really done, then these camps on the left and right sides of the vortex will be empty, and at least 30,000 soldiers will have to fight on the waves. Although the slave army had suffered a lot of damage to the boats in the first battle of Feikou, but during the confrontation at the vortex mouth, it was also built in Daxing, and the warships owned by the original Xuzhou slave army were mostly accepted by Shihu after the defeat and retreat in Huaiyin, so the boats and boats were enough at the moment.

But the problem is that nearly half of these warships were built in a hurry, and even a considerable number of them have not yet been tested by troop sailing. Moreover, there are too few large and medium-sized warships, most of them are small ships, and there are hardly any ordnance on board. There are even fewer of them equipped with weapons such as slapping rods, strong crossbows, striking wood, and trebuchets like the warships of the Huainan Army. Even if more boats and soldiers are sent into the water to meet the battle, it is difficult to make up for the lack of weapons by virtue of the superiority in numbers.

Liu Zheng is not a slave general who followed Shi Hu to the south from Xiangguo, but has been in Xuzhou, originally a general of Shi Kan, and was recruited by Shi Hu after Huaiyin withdrew his army, which can be regarded as a reuse. His people have rich experience in fighting with the southern army, and there is even no lack of organizing naval troops to attack and plunder the coastal counties and counties east of the river from the sea, so after hearing Shi Hu's order, he subconsciously felt that it was inappropriate, and only after a little organizational wording did he speak: "King, although our army is powerful, it is shorter than material use after all. In addition, most of the soldiers are northerners, and they are less familiar with water affairs, and they are inevitably panicked on the river, and the drums and trumpets are difficult to order. The southerners control the two links, and the weapons are good. If it's a battle on the river, there are too many variables......"

"Shut up! Since the king has this order, he has his own considerations, if he is afraid of the battle again, he will be killed in front of the army immediately! ”

Before Liu Zheng finished speaking, two generals had already rushed out behind Shi Hu, and the halberd pointed at him and shouted angrily. All the generals present, including Liu Zheng, several Xuzhou generals were all dignified, and a few of them stepped forward to stand behind Liu Zheng to show their position.

Shi Hu just looked at this scene indifferently, and the flames in his eyes didn't know whether they were anger or the light of the torches around him.

"The last general is brave, and if he is a little foolish, how dare he block the king's military orders."

Liu Zheng was silent for a while, and then he took off his pocket and bowed his head, not lacking panic.

"This war is unusual, and it cannot be overcome. The southern thief is self-assured of his geographical advantage and has high ambitions. How could the army be insulted by the thieves and immediately order the soldiers to get on the ship and leave the camp to fight! ”

Shi Hu's iron-armored arm hooked the hilt of the sword around his waist several times, but finally opened it slowly, and said in a deep voice: "As for the camp defense, don't worry, later the Chinese army of 30,000 will fill the camp with more than 30,000 people, and they will be backed by the sailors, and they will break the southern thieves tonight!" ”

Liu Zheng heard that Shi Hu was still stubborn, but after all, he still didn't dare to insist, and hurriedly kowtowed again, and then stood up with the support of his own soldiers and hurriedly organized the soldiers to continue to board the ship to fight.

When the Huainan Army warships arrived at the whirlpool, the water was already covered with layers of warships of slave troops, and there were nearly 100 of them as far as the eye could see under the cover of the firelight alone! With such a high-density collection and distribution of warships, you can also imagine what kind of specifications the slave warships are.

Most of the ships were no more than a long breadth, and there were many slaves standing upright on the decks, not even basic shelter such as cabins, except for a few wooden shields on the bow and sides of the ship for cover. Such a ship is not even the most basic sampan in the Huainan Army, and it cannot be called a warship at all, it only has the ability to carry and transport, and it is already its limit to be able to transport soldiers to the front line. Unless human life, boats and boats are not sympathetic, and they run and collide directly, or they have a certain lethality, but the price is to die with the enemy and die together!

However, the boat, which is almost a joke, has now become the main combat unit arranged by the slave army at the forefront, densely arranged on the river. The boats are connected by thick cables and iron cables, and the ships can even climb and jump with each other, and in this way they can be pushed horizontally to meet the enemy.

The Huainan Army's front-line scout Qingzhou had already arrived at the battlefield one step ahead, and it was really an eye-opener for a while when he saw the slave army arranged in such a formation, and he didn't know how to evaluate it. If this formation is dull and ignorant, it is also quite imposing when you look at it, especially when the boat is spread out and almost covers all the waterways in front of you, and there are not many dead ends exposed.

But if the words are subtle and really too contrary to the will, such a stupid formation, the only thing that is praised is the quantity, and there is no technical content at all. Even ordinary rogues would not use such a formation method to fight, of course, because ordinary water bandits really couldn't put on such a huge formation as a slave army.

When the scouts in front passed the news to the forward commander Lu Yong's ship, Lu Yong understood Shi Hu's intentions after a little thought, and said with a smile to Cao Na on the other side: "Ji Long is already poor in skills, and if he wants to be able to stop our army on the river with pure delusion, it can be seen that he has no heart to fight." ”

When Cao Na heard this, he also hated and said: "With the flesh and blood of soldiers as a fence and the lives of the people as armor, this slave is really extremely poor. It is a great misfortune that the world gave birth to such a wicked man! The slave army seems to be powerful, but in fact, the morale of the army collapses, and it is difficult to fight. Our army is full of morale and surging in, and the slave heart has become afraid, and he is afraid that his people will collapse and be difficult to restrain him, so he drives them into the water, cuts off their way of retreat, and traps people in a certain death, forcing them to sacrifice their lives to fight! ”

These two people are both from homeless marshals, and they are not good in themselves, but when they talk about the formation set up by the slave army, they also feel furious from the bottom of their hearts about the nature of the stone tiger and jackal. Tens of thousands of lives will be lost in the waves under the arrangement of this slave general, and there will be no bones left! What a cruel disposition can be so reckless for human life!

Although the two sighed like this, when they saw Shi Hu put on such a posture to respond to the enemy, they no longer had any doubts about the news reported by Xin Bin. Shi Hu did not care about the lives of his soldiers, and would rather force the Huainan army on the river at the cost of tens of thousands of lives, which shows that he has made up his mind. Moreover, his people gave up the lives of their soldiers so unscrupulously, which shows that they have completely no hope for the war of the Huainan army, and what can be urged to do so can only be explained by Shi Le's death and his eagerness to return.

If Shi Le is still there, and it is learned that Shi Hu got rid of the entanglement of the Huainan Army in this way and withdrew from the war, if he does not impose heavy punishment, the hearts of the people inside and outside will collapse!

"Before the payroll ship is transferred, the fire breaks through the formation!"

After a little thought, Lu Yong immediately ordered. Although he had no lack of emotion about the fate of those soldiers in the front of the slave army, these feelings were not enough to affect his decision. Especially now that he knows that Shi Hu has made up his mind, only by breaking through the blockade on the river as soon as possible and fighting in direct contact with the main force of the slave army on the shore can he have a chance to stop Shi Hu's withdrawal and inflict heavy losses on him.

With Lu Yong's order, the three fighting ships with narrow bows in the fleet quickly sailed out of the original team, crossed the many boats nearby, and soon rushed to the front of the fleet. These three ships are built for water warfare and fire attack, and they look no different from ordinary warships, but in fact, only the keel and the basic skeleton are made of the same material, similar to the walls and decks of the ship, which are made of lighter and more brittle bamboo. Therefore, the whole ship is more maneuverable, but it does not have the sturdiness of ordinary fighting ships at all, although it cannot be said to be shattered at the first touch, but it can definitely not withstand too violent collision.

When the ship accelerated to a certain extent, the soldiers on the ship quickly left their original positions under the command of the commander, moved to the back of the ship, and swung down the cable to the water, and the rear had their own light boats to quickly gallop to meet the ship.

When these three ships were still two arrows away from the slave army's ship formation, the officers and men of the Huainan Army who were escorting the flanks immediately ignited their rockets and shot their bows one after another. The three ships were laden with oil-soaked firewood, and as soon as a spark fell, the fire spread rapidly, and by the time the ships rushed into the slave formation, the ships were nearly half covered in flames.

Although the slave boats were light, they were densely arranged, and they were connected by hooks and cables, and there was little mobility at all, and it was not unarranged to see the fireships on the surface of the water coming straight by, and the slave ships that bore the brunt of the attack even if there were hundreds of soldiers holding long rods to resist the stab. However, this ship was long and narrow, and there were too few frontal force points, and it was still unprevented from directly penetrating the first line of the slave army.

As for the soldiers on the other slave ships, most of them were forced by the fire to flee directly to the side ships by cables. The smaller the ships, the less stable they were on the river, and once disturbed, nearly half of the more than 10 warships in the first line of the slave army were tilted into the water, and the entire defense line collapsed immediately. However, due to the dense number of ships, there were not many slaves who actually drowned, and most of them were rescued by the rear camp.

The inner compartment of the fireship is a tightly sealed space, and when the fire burns to a certain extent, the heat inside expands and bursts open abruptly at the critical point. The whole ship was in flames, like fireworks, and the shattered fragments of the hull and the burning firewood flew all over the sky, covering the distance of nearly ten feet around it.

The slave army that had been affected was already crying bitterly, and at this time there were very few who dared to stay on the boat, and most of them threw themselves directly into the river with cables in hand to avoid the fire attack. The originally mighty slave army ship array, because of the chaos, suddenly appeared several huge hollows!

"Attack!"

A loud drum and trumpet sounded on the big ship of the Huainan Military Supervision Array, and the warships scattered in the front and rear wings immediately adjusted the angle of the bow and rushed straight towards the slave formation! The taut noose on the warship was like a string, constantly humming and trembling with a fatal hum, and before the warship arrived, the giant crossbow and trebuchet had been launched frequently. The night wind is difficult to stop the life-threatening flying stones, and the flying stones smash into the slave array, and the crackling sound comes and goes! The powerful crossbow and giant arrows roared, not only penetrating the night, but also penetrating the flesh and blood of the slave soldiers, and digging deep into the hull of the slave warship!

Although there are many slave warships, they have suffered heavy blows one after another, and there are almost no orders that can be formally implemented on the front line, and a large number of slave soldiers and soldiers do not know how to respond to the enemy, even if they want to counterattack, they do not know what to do, and even they have not seen a specific southerner soldier in their field of vision, and the fatal blows will follow one after another, and there is no shortage of soldiers who have curled up in the warship with their heads in their hands, wailing and crying.

Any battle between the north and the south will always be an insurmountable difficulty for the north. Not only is the northerners not accustomed to water, water and fire are the most ruthless, once the soldiers are on the ship, it can be said that there is no way to retreat, no matter whether they advance or retreat, they are no longer calm, and there is a kind of panic in itself. In the early years, the Chinese and Korean dynasties attacked Wu and prepared for nearly two generations, not because the Wu people were strong. With a good geographical environment, whenever there is a great chaos in the world, Jiangdong often becomes a natural place of recuperation and recuperation, because it is difficult to break through the obstacles of many waterways if the non-strong army is in general situation. Whoever uses troops in the south must be mentally prepared for heavy casualties.

When the Huainan warships rushed to the front, nearly half of the huge ship formation of the slave army had been destroyed and chaotic to the extreme. The wreckage of the boat in front of them was still connected by hooks and cables, and many slaves who had fallen into the water were now struggling on the surface of the river with logs, wailing and begging for their lives. But their wails did not get any positive response, and the Huainan army warships ran over directly, without even stopping to clean up the battlefield.

But this does not mean that those slave soldiers can survive, because there are many cables connecting rollers behind the warships of the Huainan Army. These rollers are connected in series with horizontal axes, rolling on the water surface like wheels under the impact of the current, and the wooden wheels are inlaid with iron thorns inside and outside.

When the battleship that rushed to the front was about to reach the remaining formation of the slave army, it turned its rudder and flanked it, forcing the slave ship closer together. The frontal direction that these ships had given way was immediately filled by the ships that followed, and then there was a new round of catults and crossbow bombardment!

Not long after the start of the war, the battlefield, which was originally a few miles away from the Whirlpool Camp, was soon forced back by the strong attack of the Huainan Army by nearly half of the distance. Although the details of the battle were not clear in the water camp, the incessant roaring and wailing of the slaves in the night all told the story of the war at the front.

Shi Hu stood under the banner in addition to the hundreds of soldiers guarding the guard, and there were still more than 100 heralds running through the area, informing the assembly of various departments and the latest situation in various defense areas.

"King Qiyu, there are heavy casualties in the water battle, General Liu asks the king, do you still want to fight with the Huainan army on the water?"

Liu Zheng's personal soldiers on the front line reported that the battle situation was unfavorable, but before he finished speaking, Shi Hu, who had been suppressed to the extreme, suddenly shouted, drew his sword and slashed it down, and the soldier was beheaded when he landed!

"Tell Ma Qiu and other generals that the soldiers of the old battalion are all driven into the water, and if there is no work, behead its commander!"

Shi Hu shouted violently, and the blood-drenched long sword was not withdrawn, just holding it in his hand, and the bloodshot eyes were even more hideous. By now, he had completely given up the tens of thousands of soldiers on the front line, and only hoped that the investment in these lives would wear down the sharpness of the Huainan Army and be more conducive to the defense of his elite battalion of the Chinese army.

This is already the only value left of these tens of thousands of soldiers, if they are left in the camp, once they escape, it will disperse his elite of the Chinese army. At that time, the southerners will land in great force and pursue the victory, and the situation will collapse even more. This is something he absolutely can't bear, because his tens of thousands of elite Chinese soldiers are already his biggest reliance on returning to China in the future.

Only by exhausting the sharp spirit of the southerners and not daring to attack the shore easily can his tens of thousands of Chinese troops have enough time to calmly rectify and leave the battlefield.