In Xuzhou, the Chu army was divided and in the melee, the Western Route Army of Zhao State was under the personal pressure of Li Huaiyuan, and Li Zhe and Li Fangzong of Pengcheng surrendered to the Chu army.

After the round with Li Zhe and Li Fangzong, Li Zhe already had 30,000 troops in his hands at this moment, and most of them were elite veterans of the Chu army. Because of these 30,000 elite soldiers, Li Zhe also wanted to gain a higher status in the Zhao Kingdom.

However, after waiting for Li Huaiyuan's army, looking at the forbidden military formation and military appearance of the Zhao army, as well as the leading generals of the more than 10,000 troops around Pengcheng who obeyed his orders, bowed to Li Huaiyuan, Li Zhe suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, and no longer dared to express his thoughts.

"Li Zhe, how is my Da Zhao soldier?" Among the handsome tents, Li Huaiyuan sat in the main seat, several Zhao generals were on the left, and Li Zhe, Li Fangzong and other Chu army generals were on the right.

Hearing Li Huaiyuan call him by his name, he was plain, but none of Li Zhe and the generals of the Chu army had a dissatisfied look, and they all had a grim face, and they didn't dare to show any expression.

"The soldiers of the Zhao army are well-trained, the morale is high, the army is mighty, and the army under the command of the princes of the world cannot be compared." Li Zhe said respectfully.

Li Huaiyuan said with a light smile: "The prestige of the army is just that the soldiers killed it with the sharp blades in their hands. Since your Chu army has surrendered to Zhao, from now on, you and other sergeants under your command will be re-selected, trained, and then incorporated into the armies of various parts of Zhao State, do you have any opinions? ”

Although Li Huaiyuan had a faint smile on his face, Li Zhe and the others did not dare to get carried away at all. They all said in unison: "We are willing to obey Li Shuai's military orders." Although they knew that Li Huaiyuan's move was to reduce their military power, although they were reluctant to do so, they did not dare to have any dissatisfaction. Otherwise, I'm afraid they won't even be able to get out of the handsome account.

Listening to the answers of Li Zhe and the others, Li Huaiyuan nodded with satisfaction and said, "Very good, you can cooperate with this general, and you will definitely be valued by my king in the future." The 10,000 troops you brought over will now be under the command of my Zhao Army's new battalion. You, with General Ben, went straight to Pengcheng. ”

"By the way, my king also has an edict issued, Li Zhe, you and other generals, after the war, will be rewarded. Although we have now joined the division, half of Xuzhou is still not under our control. If you can cooperate with my Zhao army's actions, it is certain to be knighted after the war. As for the title, it depends on your merits. ”

When Li Huaiyuan said this, Li Zhe and the others were immediately overjoyed. Although the real power in his hands is temporarily gone, it is also a great joy to be able to obtain a knighthood. So, Li Zhe and the others said in unison: "Li Shuai, rest assured, we will definitely cooperate with Li Shuai, take the entire land of Xuzhou, and contribute our own strength to Zhao State." ”

Li Huaiyuan naturally knew that as high-level officials of the Chu army, they naturally had a lot of influence in the Chu army, and they also had a great influence in various parts of Xuzhou. With their assistance, Zhao Jun will be much faster to take Xuzhou. In addition, some things that are inconvenient for Zhao's sergeants and officials to do are also good for them to take action.

"Li Fangzong, according to the investigation of my Zhao State Shadow Division, you are the Zuo Cheng of the Chu Army, and you have a good ability to handle government affairs. In addition, your two younger brothers also returned to the command of Ben Shuai half a month ago. Li Huaiyuan looked at Li Fangzong, who had been silent on the right, and said with a smile. Li Fangzong is a civilian official, so he naturally does not care about military affairs. He is a civil official who surrendered to the Chu army, so he naturally knows what he can take care of and what he can't interfere with.

Li Fangzong said in a deep voice: "Li Shuai praised it falsely, Fangzong can only be, but he is just a tall man among the short men in the Chu army, and he can only be a little end, and he does not dare to show ugliness in front of Li Shuai." As for Fangzong's two younger brothers, it is their blessing to be able to serve under the rule of Zhao and Li Shuai. ”

Li Huaiyuan whispered: "Your ability, my big Zhao will naturally find out." It's a pity that Li Chi doesn't pay attention to literature, otherwise, you can play a greater role in the Chu army. Now, I, Zhao Jun, have taken over Xuzhou, and there are many local affairs, and I also need your cooperation. In addition, the civil officials of the Chu army in various parts of Xuzhou, those who are capable and those who are not of good character, also need you to mention something. After all, no one knows better than you about the civilian officials of the Chu Army. ”

Although Zhao Guo's Shadow Division and Eagle Eye Division have many spies in Xuzhou, they cannot investigate all the civil and military officials in Xuzhou. With Li Fangzong's assistance, these things are naturally much more convenient.

"Since Li Shuai asked, how dare Fangzong disobey, it is also Fangzong's honor to be able to serve Da Zhao." Li Fangzong said in a deep voice, and he did not lose his temper because he was reused by Li Huaiyuan.

"Excellent! King Zhao decreed that Li Fangzong of Xuzhou was appointed as the governor of Xuzhou and was responsible for the civil affairs of Xuzhou. Li Huaiyuan took out an edict and said in a loud voice. Then, the edict of appointment was given to Li Fangzong, and some civil affairs matters were entrusted to Li Fangzong. In addition, he was also asked to go to the civilian officials who came with the army to meet with the officials and his adjutants who came to Xuzhou to take up their posts.

Subsequently, Li Huaiyuan annexed the 10,000 Chu troops brought by Li Zhe, of course, this is what the Zhao army has been doing since entering Xuzhou. This time, Li Huaiyuan led an army of 20,000 to this point, that is, in order to use military power to deter Li Zhe and take down him and his 10,000 soldiers. Although Li Huaiyuan was not afraid of Li Zhe and the 30,000 Chu troops under his command, he would not let Li Zhe wander away with 30,000 soldiers.

Although among the 30,000 soldiers, only 17,800 soldiers were Li Zhe, Li Ying, Li Zhan and other subordinates of Li Zhe's lineage, and the remaining 10,000 people were the garrison guards arranged by Li Chi to guard Pengcheng, and they were not Li Zhe's descendants when the Shadow Division came forward. However, if Li Zhe is allowed to lead for a long time, these more than 10,000 soldiers of the garrison may also be tamed by Li Zhe. Therefore, this time, when the two armies met, more than 10,000 people from Li Zhe's family were taken down, and Li Zhe was beaten hard, so as not to have thoughts that he shouldn't have.

Under the response of Li Zhe and others, Zhao Jun rushed straight to Pengcheng, and soon cut the entire land of Xuzhou into two halves. And the armies of the north and south also attacked from the north and south, towards the middle. The Chu army in Xuzhou was defeated or surrendered one by one, and the cities in various places were successively taken by the Zhao army.

Especially after King Zhao's edict arrived in Xuzhou, the Zhao army's action to conquer Xuzhou was much faster. When the edict of King Zhao exempted Xuzhou from paying taxes for three years, allocating fields, and supplying cultivated livestock arrived in Xuzhou, the people of Xuzhou immediately cheered. Because of this, among the Chu army's soldiers, many of them were unwilling to continue to serve in the army. And Li Huaiyuan also took advantage of the trend and let these soldiers return home. After all, it is not possible to leave only the old and weak women and children in the land of Xuzhou, and the Zhao army is not short of tens of thousands of soldiers.

Of course, it is not only these soldiers who have been affected, but also the small forces that have not yet surrendered to Zhao in various places have also received a huge impact. The soldiers under their command began to flee, and even more, the people in the places under their control began to dissupport them, and the call for surrender to Zhao became louder and louder.

These small forces with some strength in their hands will certainly not be put in the eyes of Li Huaiyuan and others, let alone Zhao Xun's attention. Some of these small forces were the civil and military officials of the Chu army who were unwilling to surrender to the Zhao army in the past, as well as the local civil and military officials who fought with each other in various places because Li Zhe rebelled and killed Li Chi, as for whether they were loyal to Li Chi or others, it is not known; Some are short-sighted and do not want to lose their former status and power; There are also some ambitious people who want to take advantage of the chaos to be a local overlord, they want to rely on the force in their hands to reap some benefits above the locality, and make decisions in the future to see the situation in Xuzhou.

But no matter what, no matter what these people want to do, the Zhao army that entered Xuzhou will directly overwhelm the border, and for these people, those who are notorious will be killed, and those with a good reputation will be allowed to surrender.

But in any case, with the edict of King Zhao reaching Xuzhou, in these areas, whether under the rule of the Zhao army or the place where the Zhao army has not yet arrived, the people of Xuzhou and the soldiers of the Chu army no longer have the intention of opposing the Zhao army and fighting against the Zhao army. These small forces will either start to surrender to Zhao, or they will have to wait until their soldiers kill them and surrender to the Zhao army. Since then, the edict of King Zhao has been transmitted to Xuzhou, and many local small forces and civil and military officials who have not surrendered to Zhao because of Li Chi's death have been killed under the actions of the generals and colonels of the Chu army under their command. These soldiers were reluctant to continue fighting, and wanted to enjoy the new policy of acquiring land and livestock to make their lives better after the Zhao army ruled here.

In short, in the land of Xuzhou, without the intervention of foreign forces, it was not a problem for the Zhao army to unify Xuzhou at all, and the Chu army above Xuzhou had no principal, and the temporary central manager had also descended to the Zhao State. For the takeover of Xuzhou, it is only a matter of time.

Although the other princes were very unhappy to see the Zhao army smoothly annex the land of Xuzhou, they were helpless. Except for the Qi army, the other princes did not border the land of Xuzhou. And a single Qi army cannot be compared with Zhao Jun. Especially now there are 70,000 or 80,000 Zhao troops in Xuzhou, and in Yuzhou, north of Yangzhou, the core of the Qi army, there are also 780,000 Zhao troops eyeing each other. In addition, in the eastern sea of the Qi army and the southern Jiaozhou, there are also the activities of the Zhao army.

Murong Cheng, the king of Qi, wanted to wave his army into Xuzhou at this moment, but a single Qi country could not withstand the siege of the Zhao army from all sides. In particular, the other princes probably hoped that they would fight the Zhao army and their strength would be compromised. Therefore, the only Qi country bordering Xuzhou has no intention of sending troops. This makes the entire land of Xuzhou already in Zhao Jun's bag, and there is no strong external force at all, only Zhao Jun needs to swallow it slowly one bite at a time.

In the south of Xuzhou, it is Yangzhou, the place where the Qi army governs, and in the southwest of Xuzhou, where the Qi army is handed over, it is the eastern section of Huaishui as the dividing line. In the eastern part of Huaishui, there is a large area of water, here, is located between Xuzhou and Yangzhou Hongze Lake and Baima Lake, Hongze Lake covers an area of hundreds of miles, is the natural dividing line between Xuzhou and Yangzhou. There are tens of thousands of people living on both sides of the lake, and they all rely on fishing for a living, so in the Hongze Lake area, there are many boats, and there are also a lot of people who know how to water.

In this Hongze Lake, just the fishermen who survived because of the great war between the Xuzhou army and the Qi army, some desperate people who were forced by heavy taxes, and some people who did not deal with the Xuzhou army and the Qi army came to this lake within a radius of hundreds of miles, and organized countless water bandits to wander in this Hongze Lake. And the Xuzhou army and the Qi army confronted each other, and neither side had the energy to clean up these water bandits.

In the past, the Qi army occupied the southeastern states, and Murong Cheng, the king of Qi, became the strongest and richest prince of the three major princes in the world. In the east of Yangzhou, the navy, in the north of Yangzhou, in addition to tens of thousands of soldiers, also on the Huai River line, laid down a river division.

It's a pity that when Murong Cheng, the king of Qi, failed to defeat Situ Lei, the king of Yong, and was preparing to raid Li Chi in Xuzhou, he was calculated by Zhao Xun's Yanzhou army, but made Murong Cheng, the king of Qi, the target of the princes. As a result, Murong Cheng's army of more than 100,000 was trapped and died at the junction of Xuzhou and Yanzhou, and Li Chi of Xuzhou personally led the army into Yangzhou. Yangzhou, which was caught off guard and under-defended, was immediately taken by Li Chi, who had already prepared and taken a surprise attack, to take the land of the four northern prefectures.

During this period, because the Xuzhou army captured the four northern prefectures of Yangzhou, the Huaihe Water Division was surrounded by the Xuzhou army. After Li Chi's victory, he promised to take advantage of the Hongze Lake bandits, and the Hongze Lake bandits also knew that the Xuzhou army now occupied the four northern prefectures of Yangzhou, and Hongze Lake was surrounded by the Xuzhou army, and they did not dare to fight against the Xuzhou army. Therefore, these water bandits became the sailors of the Xuzhou Army. With the assistance of these water divisions, the Xuzhou army took the Huai River water division. Let the Huai River and Hongze Lake become the jurisdiction of the Xuzhou Army, and those who travel from south to north transport materials for the Xuzhou Army and provide help for the attack on Yangzhou.

However, after the various princes reaped the benefits, they all stopped the onslaught of the Qi army. Murong Cheng, the king of Qi, was also unwilling to abandon his lair. Therefore, Murong Cheng gathered a large army to fight with Li Chi and the north of Yangzhou. With the passage of time, the deep-rooted Qi army finally defeated Li Chi and took back the four northern prefectures of Yangzhou occupied by Li Chi. However, the first line of Hongze Lake is still under the control of the Chu army after the name change.

However, because the Chu army was far inferior to the Qi army, which quickly recovered in strength, even the Chu army, which occupied the first line of Hongze Lake and had nearly 10,000 water divisions, did not dare to approach the southwest shore easily, for fear of provoking the Qi army and adding new trouble to the Chu army.

The sailor did not dare to cross the river easily, the sailor could not go ashore, and in the case that the Chu army did not dare to make a move against the Qi army, this was not a sailor of the Li family, so naturally he would not get Li Chi's attention. At the very least, before the Chu army did not have the strength to go south to Yangzhou, it would not care too much about the water division. After all, judging from the current situation of the Chu army, the only role of the sailor division is to the south. However, with the current strength of the Chu army, how can they dare to compete with the Qi army in Yangzhou?

Therefore, the sailor under the name of Chu Jun has become an existence that his grandmother does not hurt and his uncle does not love. Not only is it not valued by Li Chi, but even the internal Chu army generals and colonels also look down on this nearly 10,000 sailor team. Speaking of which, it is understandable that Li Chi does not value this water master, after all, this is related to the geographical location of Xuzhou, not that Li Chi does not understand the meaning of the existence of the water master. However, it does not have the strength to go south, even if it has a sailor, what can it do?

There were more than 8,000 sailors in the division, five or six thousand in real soldiers, and some auxiliaries. Some of these sailors were water bandits accepted by Li Chi, and some were soldiers of the Huai River Sailor of the Qi Army.

After this sailor was not taken seriously, after the generals and colonels within the Chu army despised and suppressed them, these sailor soldiers who were not from the Chu army were already dissatisfied, and many soldiers even suggested to the commander that they should either continue to be water bandits and enjoy the waters of Hongze Lake, or change to the princes.

In the eyes of many sailor generals, the Qi army in the south is more suitable for their allegiance, at least, Murong Cheng, the king of Qi, attaches more importance to the sailor than Li Chi, the king of Chu. And now in Yangzhou, there is no new water division.

However, a large part of the sailors also clearly expressed their opposition. After all, in the past, they assisted the Chu army to take the land of Yangzhou, and made great contributions to the Chu army's attack on the Qi army in Yangzhou, and resolved their grudges with the Qi army. What's more, among the Hongze Lake Water Division, many soldiers are still the soldiers of the former Yangzhou Water Division, they have rebelled once, and now if they go back, there will be no good results. Especially among the generals of this water division, more than half of the main generals and captains were surrendered by the former Yangzhou water division, and after the Qi army recovered the four northern provinces of Yangzhou, they also punished these surrendered water divisions, and their families were mostly executed by the king of Qi. It can be said that they have a life-and-death enmity with the King of Qi, so they are unwilling to continue to belong to the Qi army.

And since the first time the Zhao army was preparing to fight the Chu army, these sailors also began to have a new idea, that is, to surrender to Zhao. The Zhao army was far stronger than the Chu army, and the Zhao army's occupation of Xuzhou should also be the trend of the times, but the result made these excited sailors and soldiers suddenly fall to a low point. The Zhao army did not attack the Chu army, but raided the land of Dongyongzhou.

On the contrary, it was the behavior of this sailor who secretly wanted to surrender Zhao that made Li Chi aware of it, but at that time, Li Chi already had the intention to surrender Zhao, so he did not punish them severely, but he also reprimanded them.

It is precisely because of this that this time the Zhao army once again approached the land of Xuzhou, and the sailors and soldiers of Hongze Lake did not easily shout any slogans. However, some of the sailors also began to make contact with Yangzhou in the south. Zhang Tu of the Qi army wants to win over the soldiers of this water division, so naturally he will not temporarily hold on to his feet, and among the water divisions of this Chu army, there are also people who are connected with him, or people who are bought by him. In the midst of this turmoil, these people also began to think about themselves.