Naturally, it is difficult for the two armies to have a harmonious atmosphere in confrontation, and it is common for each other to attack and harass each other, and it is also common for words to frame and humiliate each other. Similar methods have been used by both sides before, not to mention humiliating the commander, and even the respective kings of both sides have been insulted by each other by name.

However, this time, the Huainan Army was ingenious, accompanied by props, and directly aimed at the food problems of the slave army, and the strength was greater than before. After being slightly stunned, the general of the slave army hurriedly ordered the nearby slave soldiers to beat drums and shout to cover up the shouting of the Huainan army, and sent boats and boats to rush out of the water fence and intercept the floating wooden barrels along the river.

Sharp arrows chisel through wooden barrels, and the rice soup with white flowers flows into the river, and there is no shortage of swimming fish on the river surface to peck at the rice grains. When the slaves near the shore saw this scene, many of them felt pity in their hearts, and they frequently swallowed.

It is a fact that there is a shortage of food in the army, not only the supply of auxiliary military forces has been strictly controlled, but even the daily food supply of these front-line soldiers has been reduced day by day. Up to now, cutting food and appreciating food have become the most important means of reward and punishment in the ranks.

Similar to the provocation of the Huainan army directly in front of the camp line this time, there is no need to think about it, and they have no place to eat at night. The defense line of the slave army shrank, and there was no arrangement to intercept the Huainan army's boat division on the Huaishui River, nor could it control the advance and retreat of its army, but the generals who were in charge of military law did not tell them this, and they would only arbitrarily punish them for their mistakes.

The clamor of the Huainan army was soon transmitted back to the big tent of Houzhen Tucheng, although the soldiers in charge of the report had paid great attention to the wording, but the general meaning still did not dare to distort, and the sound of his people was not more than half, and the king of Qi Shi Di had already drawn his sword and stood up, with an angry posture, to behead this soldier under the knife. The soldier was already frightened, and he was paralyzed on the ground like a puddle of mud.

"The thief takes advantage of his tongue and is not guilty of the warriors of his own department. That raccoon dog Shen Weizhou is greedy for my head and neck, and he must have the courage to wade into the water to get his wish. Those who have this delusion are not the only raccoon dogs, who will fight bravely in the future, and insist on pulling out their tongues to punish this crime. ”

Shi Hu's performance this time was different from the previous irritability, and he waved his hand to stop his angry son, and then sneered at the generals present. In fact, his temperament has been more restrained recently, and there are few cases of anger and uncontrol, and many people or things that used to irritate him have now turned to resentment and buried in his heart.

The reason for this change is that he feels the current unfavorable and uncertain future, and he is worried that his anger will affect his judgment of personnel and make wrong decisions. Today, he can't stand willfulness and frustration.

The generals were still a little at a loss for the changes in the King of Zhongshan, so they couldn't guess the people's intentions, so they just bowed down and accepted the order recently, rarely made a statement, and did not dare to be as irritable and ungraceful as the King of Qi.

Shi Hu took a generous posture, gave a little order to arrange means to respond to the provocative move of counterattacking the Huainan army, and then began to discuss with the generals some adjustments to be made against the army.

Recently, the slave army seems to have made no big moves outward, but it has been moving frequently internally.

Since the southward movement, the establishment and subordination of the army have been seriously destroyed as early as the defeat at Yingkou, and the banners and military orders are all in chaos, which has an extremely fatal and bad impact on the control and dispatch of the army and the exertion of combat effectiveness. Previously, the vortex mouth was successfully captured without strong resistance, but because of the lack of boats, the army was held back, and the southerners fell into a stalemate.

Shi Hu's main energy has been spent on the reorganization of the army recently, which is mainly reflected in the large-scale promotion of his cronies and generals. Zhang Jackal, who had previously fallen apart in Yingkou, finally got what he wanted, and once again took charge of the soldiers, who had been ordered to collect the defeated army of Xuzhou on Huai, and had already pulled up a team of more than 5,000 people.

And new generals such as Ma Qiu, Zhang Xiong, and Shi Min, although their previous combat performance in attacking Feikou from the top down was really poor, but now they have also been entrusted with important tasks. The number of trusted generals who have obtained the qualification of independent leadership alone is as many as seven, and they are in charge of more than 30,000 people.

The men and horses in the hands of these generals are no longer just Shi Hu's private soldiers. In fact, after several major battles, Shi Hu's righteous army suffered a lot of casualties, which was far less than that. Not too close

He came to reorganize in a big way, and the original people of Qianjun, including Zhu Hu Yicong, plus the original defeated private soldiers, as well as the defeated army received by Xuzhou, all selected elite soldiers to fill the Chinese army, and handed over the command of the generals in the army and trusted generals, and the scale of the entire Chinese army expanded to as many as 50,000 again.

Taking advantage of the moment when the armies were gathering defense, even the old Chinese army of the former main force of the Chinese army could not be spared, and all the veterans of the Chinese army who were over 35 years old or had obvious physical disabilities were all eliminated, and only the elite and strong soldiers were retained and reorganized into the army.

For those soldiers who were cut out of the Chinese army, Shi Hu was almost in a state of semi-abandonment, and all the ordnance issued was confiscated to be used by the Chinese army, and as for the food supply, there was very little, just hanging a breath so as not to panic and collapse. The army still seems to maintain the size of hundreds of thousands, but those soldiers who have been excluded no longer have much combat effectiveness.

For those miscellaneous followers, Shi Hu also encouraged those strong to merge with the weak, and even did it himself.

A total of nearly 4,000 people participated in this battle under the leadership of its leader, Zhai Bin, the king of Jumachi, who was originally a very powerful force in Zhuhuyi. As a result, when Yingkou was defeated, Zhai Bin died in the chaos of the army, and the troops were scattered, and there were only more than 2,000 people left. This time, Shi Hu reorganized the army, and took advantage of the situation to engulf more than 2,000 people of Ding Ling and then merge them into the Chinese army, and as for the rest, they were also coaxed by the surviving Tu Ge, Lin Hu and Xianbei departments.

It was precisely because Shi Hu and Zahu Qiangbu joined forces to divide the people that those weak forces in the army were eaten away, making the originally loose and chaotic establishment clear again. Now Shi Hu personally leads the eight guards of the Chinese army, with a total of 24,000 men and horses, and is an elite soldier selected by the army.

As for the rest of the Chinese army, including those who were recruited from Xuzhou, they were handed over to his son Shi Di and others. Now the eldest son Shi Xuan is helping him in the army, and the other son Shi Xuan has settled in Pengcheng. Shi Kan's return to the country was obviously aimed at him, so Shi Hu would not be polite to the forces left by Shi Kan, and all those who were not ordered in Xuzhou would be annihilated by a strong attack.

Counting the time he used troops in Huaibei during the period he was at the mouth of the vortex, the number of times and the number of people were obviously higher than those in Huainan. Seeing such a situation, there is no need to say it clearly, and all the generals also know that the king of Zhongshan has no intention of fighting south again, and the reason why he is still staying here at the moment is just that he did not wait for the right opportunity and excuse, and the southern army is really biting too tightly, so that the army cannot calmly evacuate.

On the water surface of the vortex front, the big boat of the Huainan Army's demonstration and provocation has not yet returned, and the slave army has a counterattack here. More than a dozen Jin prisoners were carried to the front line from the back camp, the corners of their mouths were stretched open by utensils, and the bamboo bucket was filled with grain, even if they couldn't swallow it, they were pestled into it by the wooden cane, and there were slave soldiers next to them shouting: "The raccoon dog slaves don't know China's rich things, and the army has accumulated grain for three years." In the coming day, Shen Weizhou will be captured, and the king of Zhongshan will have his own grain and rice! ”

A similar move to counter the Huainan Army's words is nothing more than a cover-up and stealing the bell. But when the slaves on the shore saw this scene, they still ignored their hunger, brandished their swords and shouted endlessly. As for the dozen or so captives who had been abused in this way, they were soon exhausted, and their corpses were thrown into the river, their bellies swollen, and they were shocking!

Shen Zhezi was now on the Chang'an ship, and seeing such a brutal scene of the slave army, he was already enraged, and even ordered the soldiers to drive the boat straight to the vortex.

Seeing the big ship rushing directly towards the vortex, he was already shocked in his heart, and he hurriedly got up to dissuade him: "The two armies are fighting and humiliating each other, and the means are despicable and extreme, Wei Zhou should not be angry and willful, and he will be harmed by being in danger!" ”

After Shen Zhezi heard this, he pointed to the slave army camp on the riverbank and sneered: "The slave has no heart to fight, and before he is about to Chen Bing's door, he is forced to look at himself and be timid!" ”

Seeing that the Chang'an ship rushed straight towards the mouth of the whirlpool, the slave troops on the shore were really panicked. It's not that they are worried that the Huainan army will really dare to attack, even if a large ship and a few fighting ships on the river are not fully loaded with a few thousand soldiers, they already have a few thousand people in the vortex barracks, plus the rear of the battalion to help, if the Huainan army attacks, it will not take advantage of anything.

What really worries them is that they may be sent out of the camp to intercept them, if they fight on the river, in the face of the huge Chang'an ship of the Huainan Army, they really dare not approach without thousands of people and dozens of boats to besiege them.

However, fortunately, the generals did not plan to go out of the camp to attack from afar, and seeing the Huainan army ships approaching, they hurriedly let people put down the water fence to strengthen the defense. All the soldiers were in the defense, ready for battle. Originally, the slave army was not good at this kind of defense of Linshui and Tianjin, but because of the addition of many defeated troops in Xuzhou, the shortcomings in this area have also been made up, so many defense works are still built.

Soon the Chang'an ship approached the mouth of the vortex, and Shen Zhezi personally went down to the deck to make people shout: "China is really grand, and there are hundreds of millions of Shishu, Wang Tuguang and Siyi." The ancestors were benevolent, accepted the dying people of Siyi and raised the country of the Central Plains and China, and took their lives. Although there are righteous people in Siyi, there are also many slaughterers, thieves and ugly people, greedy for my king's land, abusing my people, and the people are all victimized, and all the people die by the sword soldiers! The ugly people vainly try the destiny of heaven, take away people's food and clothing, abuse people's lives, the country of benevolence and righteousness in China is by no means a land where birds and beasts have been occupied for a long time, how can evil obstacles be allowed to exist forever! If you are greedy for the small, you will be killed, and the slaughter has already suffered, and the thief will not be far away! ”

"The lord is poor and vain, captives millions, thinks he is strong, he is invincible to the three thousand people of the king's division, and he has been repeatedly defeated by Huai, this is the enlightenment of the heavens, the benevolent and righteous people, with their own heavenly help, the thief of evil and rebellion, and the common dislike of heaven and man! Today, I tell the people of the Northern Army that within ten days, the thieves will be broken! All my Jinzuo folks, and all the righteous people, don't be confused and confused by the thief's vanity for a long time, the blood of the father and the mother, the body of seven feet, the righteousness is born, and the rebellion will die! Before the decisive battle, whoever slaughters the heads of the thieves and thieves, so as to choose benevolence and righteousness, abandon evil and rebellion, and wade into the water, there will be a king and a master to welcome him, serve food and feast, and meet to kill the thief! ”

Such a long speech may not be understood by the slaves on the shore. However, the big ships of the Huainan Army did not stay away, but anchored here and shouted again and again, and then there were warships carrying troops to join them, and the sound and waves gathered together, which was even louder.

After listening to it many times, the slave soldiers on the shore gradually grasped several key points, and the Huainan army regarded Tu Ge and the thief, two Hu people with a bad record of tyranny, as a great enemy of life and death, and they hated to get rid of them as soon as possible. As for the Jin people's enlistment, including the rest of the miscellaneous Hu Yi servants, as long as they cut off the heads of one Qianhu and Tu, they could wade through the water and surrender, be accepted by the Huainan army, and provide food.

To be honest, these slogans of the Huainan Army did not arouse much resonance in the hearts of these slave soldiers. After all, although the slave army is in trouble at the moment, it still occupies an absolute advantage in terms of strength, and although it has been repeatedly frustrated, in their minds, the southerners are still a weak brigade and are not very worthy of refuge. Therefore, not many people really have the idea to cut off the heads of the people in the ranks of the Xiahu and Tu to join the enemy.

However, these shouts of the Huainan army still stirred up some waves in the hearts of the slave army, and made some soldiers who did not belong to the Xionghu and Xiongnu Tu realize that they were different from these two tribes, and they were not the enemies and treacherous in the minds of the southerners. Therefore, at this time, there was no lack of discussion among the various armies along the coast, and a sense of separation was established in the hearts of many people, and even the sense of oppression and tension in the confrontation between the two armies and the life and death of the two armies was slightly alleviated. Anyway, it's not them who can't get rid of the southerners, so even if the army is defeated, they still have a way to live, and they won't be chased and killed by the southerners.

At this time, after hearing the shouts of the Huainan army, the defending generals along the river were also in mixed moods, and they were naturally able to realize the bad impact that these shouts of the southerners could have on the morale of the army, and even the commanders and generals themselves were inevitably affected, and their fighting spirit was shaken.

Even if they wanted to stop it, at this time, in addition to the original big ships, the southerners gathered seven or eight fighting ships at the mouth of the vortex, and the strength was not weak, and it was difficult to expel them with the strength of the water camp alone, and they had to apply to the rear to call the newly built boats moored in the weir before they dared to go out of the camp to fight.

This back and forth, coupled with the decision of the army, will take a long time. At this time, the southerners' boats were still assembling here, and in order to prevent the southerners from attacking, they could only transfer more troops to concentrate on the shore camp. As a result, more soldiers in the slave army heard these shouts of the southerners, and the commotion that arose from this spread even more.

On the Chang'an ship, Xi Jian heard Shen Zhezi's shouting, and there was a bright light in his eyes at first, but after a while, he realized that something was wrong, Shen Zhezi's shouting was admittedly able to disturb the hearts of the slave soldiers, but under the trial, the problem was still not small.

Although not cooperating with Liu and Shi Gou is a strategy that the center has been pursuing since the Nandu, in fact, the-for-tat confrontation that has risen to the military level, as well as the attitude towards those party henchmen, in fact, there are still disputes and differences in Taiwan, and no clear public opinion has been formed. Shen Zhezi made people shout like this, in fact, it was already considered a transgression, although Fang Bo now has great power, especially in wartime, but this decision to rise to the national policy and military strategy is definitely not something that a local uncle can make!

Even if the current stage is not investigated, when the war is over and the autumn queen settles the account, once it is mentioned by someone with a heart, this is Shen Zhezi's crime, which will bring him great trouble.

Therefore, after the Huainan army shouted again, Xi Jian hurriedly walked in front of Shen Zhezi and expressed this hidden worry, reminding Shen Zhezi not to focus too much on the war and ignore Taichung's attitude. Moreover, this is to force Shi Hu to fight a decisive battle in advance, and remove the room for him to continue to lead troops to confront.

Shen Zhezi was noncommittal about this, of course, he knew very well that this declaration would have a turbulent impact on the inside and outside, which could divide the hearts of the slave army in the short term, make Taichung more dissatisfied with him in the medium term, and directly affect the situation of the Huai Northern Expedition in the long term. But he still didn't stop letting the soldiers shout, first thanked Xi Jian for his reminder, and then pulled Xi Jian to discuss how the two towns should cooperate to meet the battle if the slave army really launched a decisive battle.

After listening to the trembling report of the soldiers, Shi Hu finally found it difficult to remain calm, he became angry, kicked over the case in front of him, and roared angrily: "Raccoon dog is treacherous, do you really think that I am afraid of him!" Gather the crowd to prepare for the southern attack, and the decisive battle in Japan will be necessary to capture the raccoon dog alive! I will personally cut the raccoon dog and share its flesh with the generals! ”

When the generals saw this, they were all awe-inspiring, and they didn't dare to be clever anymore to ask whether the king was acting or really wanted to start a decisive battle. After all, there is no shortage of foreign clans among their generals, and whether they have different intentions or secondary, the key is to worry that the King of Zhongshan will have any strange thoughts about them because of this. So all the people received orders one after another, and each of them returned to his own department to put the men and horses in order.

For several days in a row, the Huainan military furniture haunted the vortex and crossed Tianjin in boats, repeatedly shouting this declaration. Regardless of the morale of the soldiers in the slave army, the entire slave camp was in a state of fierce preparation for war.

Just when the slave army was dignified inside and outside, and the atmosphere was tense, a slave army ranger who seemed to come from afar and was dusty rushed into the Tucheng where the Chinese army camp was located.