Accompanied by Su Tingzhan, Tian Chang, Yu Wenshan and other generals, he climbed the incense burner peak, raised his eyes and looked to the east, and could see the warships of the Huaidong Army cruising on the Cao'e River, and the sail mast was shining in the sun, reflecting the river waves.

"The Huaidong Army has been gathering troops and horses in Shangyu for ten days," Tian Chang said, "The movement of the Huaidong Army at this moment must be guarded against!" ”

Extravagant Feihu's face was expressionless, tense as iron; In the past ten days, the situation of Huiji has been critical, and Xu Feihu personally rushed to Huiji from Dongyang County. Obviously, to change the situation of Huiji, it is not something that can be done by rushing over.

Su Tingzhan stood behind the side and said nothing-Huaidong gathered forces on the east bank of the Cao'e River, and if he wanted to avoid a repeat of the defeat in southern Zhejiang in Huiji, he could only transfer troops and horses from western Zhejiang to fill the lack of defenders.

Guarding Huiji is far from being as simple as guarding a few cities.

After the fall of Mingzhou Prefecture and the coastal counties of Taizhou and Yongjia Prefectures, the grain-producing areas controlled by the Zhejiang-Fujian army in Zhejiang County were only left in the Central Zhejiang Valley Plain, which started with Dongyang County and centered on Quzhou Prefecture, and the Huiji Plain, which was dominated by Huiji, Shanyang, Zhuji, and Xiaoshan counties.

In particular, the counties located on the Huiji Plain have nearly 2 million acres of paddy fields alone.

Before the fall of Mingzhou Mansion, the grain drawn by the luxury family from Huiji County was as high as 300,000 stones.

After the fall of Mingzhou, in order to support the increasingly heavy military expenditures on the eastern and western fronts, the grain ration drawn from Huiji counties in the past year doubled to 600,000 stones.

If it is only to defend a few cities, and the rural areas are unscrupulously infiltrated and controlled by Huaidong, the luxury family will naturally not be able to levy another grain of rice from Huiji; And once the annual income of 600,000 stone rice grain is lost, the 130,000 soldiers and horses of the Zhejiang-Fujian army on the east and west fronts of Zhejiang, I am afraid that it will be a problem to even have a full stomach, let alone regain the initiative.

In the past, the soldiers and horses of the Huaidong Army in Mingzhou and Shengzhou, which were mainly concentrated, forced the Zhejiang-Fujian Army to establish a defensive line in Dongyang County to the west of Shengzhou and Tiantai County to the south. The Shangyu garrison on the east bank of the lower reaches of the Cao'e River was dominated by the soldiers and horses belonging to the eastern Zhejiang camp and the Jinghai Third Water Battalion, but there were more than 10,000 people, so the pressure on the garrison was not great.

However, after the end of the war in southern Zhejiang, the number of soldiers and horses assembled in Shangyu in Huaidong continued to increase, and the pressure on Huiji became heavier day by day. Although in advance in order to prevent an emergency, troops and horses were transferred from the surrounding Fuyang, Linshui, Dongyang and other places to supplement the Huiji, so that the Huiji garrison increased by more than 24,000 people in 40 battalions, but there were still shortcomings.

Because when the Huaidong Army attacked eastern Zhejiang last year, it almost immediately seized the mouth of the Cao'e River, and the warships of the Zhedong Water Battalion that hid in the Cao'e River were all destroyed. The Cao'e River, as the boundary river between the Mingzhou Mansion and the Huiji Mansion, has been completely controlled by the Huaidong Water Camp warships since then.

Such a defensive situation was extremely unfavorable to the Zhejiang-Fujian army, and the Huaidong army controlled the Cao'e River waterway, and could cross the Cao'e River from any place to enter the west bank and invade Huiji.

The Zhejiang-Fujian army could only clumsily build fortifications and fortifications on the west bank of the Cao'e River to prevent the Huaidong Army from infiltrating the west bank.

The incense burner peak of Huiji Mountain, where Hao Feihu and others are located, is the most important defense village of the Huiji garrison in the southeast of Shanyang County.

Huiji Mountain is located between Huiji, Zhuji, Shengzhou and Dongyang counties, and is the watershed of Puyang River and Cao'e River. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the Yue Kingdom built fortifications in Huiji to form a fortress group located in the hinterland.

By building a large-scale fortification in Huiji Mountain and stationing elite troops, you can suppress the Cao'e River with a condescending posture and regain some topography advantages a little.

"The direction of Laotangpu doesn't look right......" Su Tingzhan has good eyesight, climbs high and looks far away, and his line of sight can overlook the corner of the lower reaches of the Cao'e River.

Cao'e River to the lower reaches into a zigzag, after passing the county seat of Shangyu, it turns to the west, to the direction of Shanyang County, and then turns to the north more than ten miles in the northeast of Shanyang County, and joins the Qianjiang River from the northeast corner of Huiji County.

Laotangpu is the corner of the Cao'e River on the northeast corner of Shanyang County. Su Tingzhan said that Lao Yongpu was in the wrong direction, and Hao Feihu, Tian Chang and others all tried their best to see that there were black spots gathering on the surface of the river-anyone with a discerning eye could think that it was the warships of the Huaidong Water Camp that were assembled on that river......

Hao Feihu subconsciously thought that the Huaidong Army might force the Cao'e River at Laotangpu.

In Laotangpu, the Zhejiang-Fujian army requisitioned a village to build a fortification, and a battalion of elite soldiers was stationed. However, judging by the degree of assembly of the Huaidong Water Battalion on that river, it is possible to send five or six thousand soldiers across the Cao'e River at a time, and the garrison in the Laotangpu defense village is far from enough to resist Huaidong's arrival on the west bank from Laotangpu.

There are two main military significances of building a fortified defense line: first, to prevent small groups of enemy troops from infiltrating and crossing the border; Second, when the enemy's large-scale troops and horses attack, the main thing is to block obstacles and delay, so as to buy time for their own large-scale assembly of troops and horses.

On the one hand, Hao Feihu, Su Tingzhan, Tian Chang and others dispatched troops, and on the other hand, surrounded by Hu Servants, they personally rushed to Laotangpu to supervise the battle.

When the Flying Tiger and Su Tingzhan arrived at Laotangpu, the Huaidong Army had already landed on the west bank, thousands of soldiers lined up next to the river embankment, nearly 100 flying vehicles lined up in front of the formation, and the strong bows and giant crossbows flashed with cold light between the shield vehicles.

After the Huaidong beach array, dozens of warships were lined up in echelons, and it seemed that a pontoon bridge was directly erected on the Cao'e River, which was three miles wide, and on the other side of the river, a large number of soldiers and horses of the Huaidong Army were gathering.

The defenders of Laotangpu Fangzhai initially sent hundreds of soldiers, hoping to take advantage of the Huaidong Army's unstable foothold on the west bank to raid it.

However, the Huaidong Army invested two battalions of soldiers at the beginning of the beach grabbing on the west bank, and the strength of the troops far exceeded that of the Laotangpu garrison, and the hundreds of soldiers who attacked Laotangpu were defeated.

When Hao Feihu and others rushed to Laotangpu, reinforcements from the left and right were also gathered, so that the strength of Laotangpu increased to more than 3,000 people, but the Huaidong Army's beach-grabbing troops had gained a firm foothold on the west bank.

More than 1,000 soldiers were waiting for the river embankment, and more than a dozen warships were assembled on each wing, which could be put ashore at any time to support the flanks; The pontoon bridge is being erected after the array, and more soldiers and horses are waiting to cross the pontoon bridge directly to the west bank.

"The Huaidong Army is going to war again?" Fei Fei asked suddenly.

I can't complain about the extravagant flying tiger - the war in southern Zhejiang has only passed for less than a month.

Even if the Zhejiang-Fujian army suffered more than 15,000 casualties in the battle in southern Zhejiang, the casualties of the Huaidong army would not be less than 10,000. In addition to the brutal and bloody casualties, the continuous siege of the city also means that the materials are consumed on a large scale.

Often, the material consumption of the besieging side is much greater than that of the defending city; In the letters left by Qin Zitan, it was written that the Huaidong army attacked Yongjia, the arrow feathers covered the sky and closed the day, there was no day or rest, and no less than a million arrows were shot in the moon, and there was almost no foothold in the city.

During the attack on Yongjia, the Huaidong army destroyed hundreds of large equipment such as stone-throwing crossbows and bed crossbows......

According to the general situation, in such a short period of time, the Huaidong Army should not have a large-scale use of troops.

Like the original extravagant flying bear forced Dong Yuan to withdraw from the army and won the victory of Fuyang; However, after the Battle of Fuyang, the soldiers and horses of the Extravagant Flying Bear Division who entered Fuyang and Linshui suffered heavy casualties, and the materials and grain were exhausted, and they had to wait for mobilization from the rear. As a result, it lost the possibility of attacking Anji from Linshui, Ningguo from Dusong Pass, and Huizhou from Qianqiu Pass.

Su Tingzhan said: "The Huaidong Army had planned to conduct a long-term confrontation with our army in southern Zhejiang, and should reserve sufficient supplies; The war in southern Zhejiang has ended, and it has only lasted for more than two months, and the time should be shorter than expected before the Huaidong military, so the Huaidong army should have some materials left over in southern Zhejiang......"

"......" Yu Feihu frowned and was silent.

He, the governor of southern Zhejiang, was still ordered in danger the year before last, and he went to work almost alone, and the soldiers and horses of southern and eastern Zhejiang, including Yu Wenshan, Su Tingzhan, Tian Tang, Wen Tingrui, and An Xiajiang, were almost all subordinates of his eldest brother Fei Xiong. But no matter what, the fiasco of the battle of southern Zhejiang still has to be counted on his head. Not to mention that the face was gloomy and the situation was even more difficult, Qin Zitan, as the only trusted and reliable henchman of Luxury Feihu in southern Zhejiang, was unfortunately captured in the battle of Nanxiyuan River Valley and finally hanged himself unyieldingly, which made Luxury Feihu really feel the pain to the bone.

After a while, Xuan Feihu gritted his teeth and said, "No matter how much it costs, we must drive the Huaidong Army down the Cao'e River!" ”

Su Tingzhan and Tian Chang glanced at each other, Tian Chang bowed slightly, and motioned for Su Tingzhan to act according to what Luxury Feihu said.

Su Tingzhan sighed bitterly in his heart, the Huaidong Army has a very strong ability to seize the beach, and the first to send out the combat force to grab the beach is definitely the elite of the Huaidong Army, once the Huaidong Army has a firm foothold on the beachhead, there are shields, vehicles, bows and crossbows in front of the dense array to guard against the impact, and there are warships on both wings to cover the shore, it is extremely difficult to drive the Huaidong Army down the Cao'e River.

A better tactic is to lure the Huaidong Army to penetrate in depth, and this side can rely on the riverbank fortifications and fortifications to attack.

Su Tingzhan knew that it would be extremely disadvantageous to directly attack the Huaidong Army's beach-guarding array, but at the same time, he also knew that Xu Feihu's temper became more and more irritable and impatient after the defeat in southern Zhejiang-he could only send troops to fight the Huaidong Army's beach-guarding array, and drive the more than 1,000 Huaidong Army soldiers who landed on the west bank down the Cao'e River.

******************

Lin Jian stood at the head of the Lihai defense village on the east bank of the Cao'e River, looking at the battlefield to the west.

In order to fulfill the promise made with Chen Xiyan, although the preparations were not sufficient, Lin Jian also resolutely decided to send a large force of troops and horses to cross the Cao'e River and use troops against Huiji.

At this time, Huaidong will also feel struggling, after all, the materials are consumed a lot in the battlefield in southern Zhejiang, and they cannot be replenished for a while, but there are obvious benefits.

The Zhejiang-Fujian army is very dependent on the Huiji grain endowment, and at this time it is the season of harvesting wheat and planting rice in southern Zhejiang, and at this time sending troops to cross the Cao'e River and the war is great, which can naturally seriously interfere with the summer grain collection of the Zhejiang-Fujian army in Huiji.

In order to use troops on a large scale against Huiji, Lin Jian made a large-scale adjustment of the deployment of troops and horses on the southern front after the war in southern Zhejiang, not only formally incorporated most of the new southern Zhejiang army into the eastern Zhejiang marching battalion, but also transferred from the industrial battalion to the eastern Zhejiang marching camp and the Jinghai Third Water Battalion on a large scale, so that the size of the eastern Zhejiang marching battalion increased by 60 battalions, and the scale of the Jinghai Third Water Battalion also increased by more than 12,000 people from 12 battalions.

As of early June, the total number of soldiers and horses stationed on the front line of Shangyu has suddenly increased from more than 10,000 to more than 50,000, not to mention the more than 10,000 elites of Changshan Island located in the upper reaches of the Cao'e River and Shengzhou, who can go down the river and enter the battlefield of Huiji at any time.