Although in the past few years, there has been no large-scale war between the north and the south, but for the great enemy of the Jin State in the south, the Jin State has never slackened, especially in terms of armaments, and has always regarded the Jin State as the strongest opponent to prepare for war, or catch up.

At the height of the Jin Kingdom, once unified the north, dominated the world, the elite soldiers were innumerable, the Jin State originally lived in a corner of the Jiangbiao, in terms of combat effectiveness, it was by no means the opponent of the Qiang Army, and only the Jingzhou Army between Jiang and Han and the Huai Si between the Liumin militia could fight head-on with the Qiang State.

After that, the army collapsed several times, one of which was naturally Shi Hu's unsuccessful attack in the south, and he was defeated and lost, and the elite Chinese army in the early years lost more than half of its combat strength in this battle.

But what really made the Jin State surpass the Jin State in one fell swoop was the Central Plains War that occurred between Shikan and the Jin people, which made Hebei's vitality even more lacking, and more than a million people went south to cross the river, making a large area of southern Hebei into ruins.

In this process, the state of Qian was still fierce and ferocious, so that after Shi Hu became the country, he could not get enough money and food to replenish in the southern Hebei region, nor did he have enough soldiers to use, so he had to focus on the more northern Hebei region, in order to recover his strength in the shortest possible time and fight with the southerners.

The Jin army widely embraced the Central Plains, recruited a large number of refugees, and the military strength originally scattered in various towns was unified in Luoyang Xingtai, and its strength developed rapidly. In particular, the several elite armies that have been built with all their efforts to fight head-on in the face of all walks of life of the Qiang army are simply a majestic army that destroys the withering and decaying, and it also makes the whole country of the Qiang country afraid to restart the war.

Although there has always been no shortage of outlaws who are not afraid of death and have the courage to fight for their lives, whether it is combat effectiveness or equipment rationing, they are far inferior to the strong armies of the Jin army, and once they face each other, they are bound to lose. After a long time, you can imagine what kind of corruption it will cause to the morale of the Jin army, and in the end, I am afraid that I have not yet faced each other, and I will flee just by watching the banner of this kind of elite Jin army.

In the face of this situation, Shi Hu, the lord of the Qian, also had to make a vow, asking for the strength of the poor country and casting a hundred battles of sharp divisions, such as the Longxiang Army, the Longteng Army and other armies whose banners sounded majestic, which was born because of this.

These elites, are all popular election Hebei all sides of the strong and brave soldiers, set up, purely from the quality of soldiers, compared with the southerners Shengwu, Fenwu and other armies are not inferior, after the army, the small combat array sharpened, the record is also very beautiful.

Shi Hu was even more pleased with this, calling it the courage of the three armies, and he was not even willing to use it frequently in idle wars, so he wanted to raise it to be a strong army when he started a big war with the southerners in the future.

With such an elite army, it is natural that no one will be at ease when it is handed over to any general, so Shi Hu will organize several elite troops into the Taiwei Mansion as the Chinese army to stay in Xiangguo, and even appoint his son Shi Tao as the Tai Lieutenant to command these elite combat forces.

In the past few years, although Shi Hu's energy was in the north, he also knew in his heart that these wars on the border, whether fierce or not, were all petty fights, and they were really related to the rise and fall of the country's fortunes or the war with the Jin people in the south. This time, he wanted to plot against Henan, and the Long Xiang Army, which he regarded as an elite killing weapon, was naturally also among the recruits, and he drove out of Xiangguo early and went to southern Hebei to stand by.

The camp of the Long Xiang army was arranged in Beiqiu, Qinghe County, and it was still nearly three hundred miles away from the plain where the army really gathered. It's not just because Shi Xuan is tired of seeing Shi Tao and doesn't want to place him nearby.

It is also because the military resources of the Long Xiang army are different from those of the regular division, even if they do not fight, the daily cost is amazing. As the front line of the confrontation with the southerners all the year round, Pingyuan County has many ruins in the realm, and now it has to raise supplies for the rear army, even if there is no discord between Shi Xuan and Shi Tao and they can work together, it is difficult to fully meet the consumption of the Long Xiang army.

Due to the loss of Fangtou, Liyang and other important Jins along the Yellow River, or directly occupied by the Jin army, or often harassed by the Jin army's sailors, although the territory of the Qianguo Kingdom is close to the big river, the benefits of the river can be enjoyed are greatly damaged.

This is a very big disadvantage, which means that whether it is maintaining its rule or transferring manpower and goods under the realm, it will have to pay a much higher cost than the Jin state in the south, and the efficiency is not satisfactory.

In order to reverse this situation, the country has also made many efforts in the past few years. They did not have a naval army that could directly fight with the Jin army in Hejin, so they could only retreat to the next best thing and operate some tributaries of the Yellow River, and the Linqing City in Qinghe County was set up for this.

Linqing city is next to the clear water, so it is set up, there are Zhangshui, Weishui confluence in the realm, Shuijin important place, extending in all directions, although it is far less important than the Fangtou where it is known as the confluence of seven waters, but it can also communicate the territory of many counties and counties in southern Hebei according to this.

After hitting the nail on the head several times, the state of Qiang could only retreat to the next best thing and choose this place to build a large city as a place to defend the south. If there is any disadvantage of Linqing City, it is that there is no main water channel that directly reaches the Yellow River, although several waterways such as Qingshui also end up flowing into the Yellow River, but the trajectory is crooked and meandering, and it is too limited by the drought and flood season.

In order to obtain a strategic town directly connected to the Yellow River, when the Jin army began to conquer Guanzhong in the west and the pressure in southern Hebei was slightly eased, although Shi Hu did not directly send troops to Henan, he also collected troops in Linqing City, so as to connect the waterway of the Guhe River to the south, and dig a wide canal that leads directly to the Yellow River.

The state of Qian has always been unsympathetic to the people's strength, especially when Shi Hu was planning this matter, there was still no lack of shame in his heart, if he could run the old land of Yecheng and hook up the Liyang Fortress, why should he retreat in one more move. And choosing to do this is tantamount to admitting his weakness, and he does not dare to seek revenge on Hejin under the nose of the Fangtou Jin army.

Therefore, this canal, which is more than 200 miles long and is tentatively named Xingguo Canal, is also progressing rapidly, not avoiding winter and summer, and rushing to work day and night, and was completed at the beginning of this year. Although this also made the already dilapidated situation in southern Hebei even more deserted, and the people were almost empty, the state of Qian finally obtained another hub city with direct access to the river.

The creation of Linqing City and Xingguo Canal is also one of the confidence of Shi Hu to dare to attack the heart of Henan this time. Gathering troops from here can offset the military oppression formed by the Jin army in Fangtou to a minimum, which is equivalent to opening up a new battlefield.

In other words, Fangtou, Liyang and Yecheng originally formed a stable strategic triangle, but with the defeat of Shi Kan, a fool, Fangtou was occupied by the Jin army, and Liyang was directly exposed under its troops. If Shi Hu wanted to regain this strategic support, he could only expand the original structure and move hundreds of miles east to choose a new fulcrum, that is, Linqing.

The shell mound where the Longxiang army under the command of Shi Tao was stationed was located more than 20 miles south of the newly built Dayi of Linqing, and it was a vast mound more than ten zhang above the flat land. And the formation of this mound is the excavation of the Xingguo Canal of the soil piled up, the soil color is deep, hidden dark red, I don't know whether the flesh and blood of many people in southern Hebei who died in the excavation of the canal were condensed.

As one of the several strong forces newly formed in the Qianguo Kingdom, the Longxiang army had a full strength of 6,000, and Shi Tao led the south this time only a little more than 3,000.

It's not that Shi Hu is reluctant to use troops to plan big things, but after several years of reorganization, Long Xiang's army is still not full, as for the reason, it is the lack of enough sophisticated armor and equipment, so that the camp tent has been full of brave soldiers, but it has not been able to reorganize into an army.

However, although the real combat strength of the army was only in the early 3,000s, the scope of the camp was extremely large, even exceeding the size of the camp of tens of thousands, and more than half of the land on the vast shell mound was enclosed by the camp fence.

This is not a bluff, although the Longxiang army only has a strength of more than 3,000 troops, but there are more than 20,000 auxiliary soldiers and hard labor subordinates who are promoted and followed!

More than 20,000 auxiliary soldiers and hard laborers followed the Longxiang army to pull out, in addition to being responsible for basic affairs such as raising horses, camping, cooking, negative armor, and resisting lance, and so on, they were also responsible for spreading out on both wings as cannon fodder and rushing in front of the battle to create a more suitable battlefield for the army behind them.

Especially after the damage on the battlefield of the Long Xiang Army, these soldiers need to pay any price to snatch back the people's armor and weapons left on the battlefield. For the kingdom of Qian, human life is the least valuable, including these dragon soldiers. As long as there is enough armor to be used, they can replenish the brave soldiers at any time.

But once too much armor is lost on the battlefield, although the victory is futile, even the lieutenant generals of the Longxiang army will be punished, and those auxiliary soldiers will be tortured and punished by the whole team.

It can also be seen from this that Shi Hu really cherishes these elite troops built with all his family resources. After all, no matter what level of battle, damage such as armor and horses is inevitable, and once the Longxiang army is dispatched, it is enough for this battalion of people to eat horses and chew horses.

"If you want to invite me to send troops, what reward will your lord give?"

In the camp of the Longxiang Army on the shell mound, Shi Tao sat in his position, condescendingly looked at Zhao Sheng, the messenger of Shi Xuan, who was prostrate on the ground, and said with a smile.

Although he was born by a mother, Shi Tao's appearance is a little different from Shi Xuan's, at the age of twenty-seven or eighteen, he looks more heroic, except for the touch of yin between his eyebrows, which is quite similar to his brother, whether it is facial features or a well-trimmed short beard under the chin, he looks much more handsome than Shi Xuan, and he doesn't look like Hu Ren's appearance.

Shi Hu dotes on this son, which shows that although he admires the heroism of the Hu people and hates the Jin people on the surface, he still has basic aesthetics, and his nature will inevitably be revealed in the face of his son.

Zhao Sheng prostrate on the ground, and after hearing the words, he said in a trembling voice: "My Royal Highness has made a surprise attack on the fortification, and he has already captured this Henan important Jin, and the great achievement is already in hand." Therefore, he sent his slaves north to invite the king, just because of his deep brotherhood, cherishing the king, and willing to share his special merits with the king......"

"Eunuch treacherous!"

Although Shi Tao is handsome, his personality is the same as his brothers, the same tyrannical and domineering, hearing Zhao Sheng say this, the whole person jumped up from the seat, picked up the saber and slapped Zhao Sheng's body, when he saw Zhao Sheng hugging his head to avoid begging, he suddenly laughed strangely, and said: "I heard that eunuchs and the like are not yin or yang, fat and white, and even women, is it true or false?" ”

"Your Highness, why should you ask, there is not a eunuch to be hoped for right now!"

A general stood up from the seat, walked up laughing, stretched out his big hand and directly pulled off that Zhao Sheng's shirt, and when the eunuch Zhao Sheng was naked, the whole big tent resounded with a cheerful laugh full of evil fun.