More than 100 large and small ships, stretching for several miles on the canal, the white sails cover the sky and the sun, magnificent, on both sides of the canal, more soldiers are rushing forward, from Hangzhou all the way to Suzhou.

In the face of a huge crisis, Zhexi under the rule of Qian Hongzong still burst out with huge energy, and in a very short time, these ships were conscripted and food was raised.

Hangzhou to Suzhou, nearly 400 miles of road, in such weather, if you go by land, bad traffic conditions and severe cold invasion, you can walk 30 or 40 miles a day, even if you go by water, not only can you save the strength of the soldiers, but also can greatly speed up the speed of the march, after all, all the baggage can be transported by boat. In this way, it is not impossible to march seventy or eighty miles in a day.

At this rate, in three days at most, they could reach Suzhou and join forces with the defenders of Suzhou to attack the Tang army.

However, there is always a gap between ideas and reality. And this gap is mainly reflected in the main force and auxiliary forces of the reinforcements this time. The main force of reinforcements was composed of the standing army of western Zhejiang and the private soldiers of various families, about 8,000 to 10,000 people, while the other 10,000 people were composed of conscripted government soldiers.

The equipment of the standing army and the private army far exceeded that of the government soldiers. Not only are the armor and weapons all available, but the food is also centrally supplied, but the government soldiers are still continuing the tradition of the old Tang Army in the past, bringing their own weapons and food, and quite a lot of people do not even have a decent pair of leather armor except for a horizontal knife.

The bitter cold wind and the flying cold rain soon made the soldiers marching on the shore feel the hostility of winter, the cotton clothes became wet and heavy, and the biting cold seemed to stick to their bodies, eroding their physical strength and will all the time. Just after the first day, thousands of people were left behind, and to Chen Qingzhi's shudder, many more were sick.

After receiving the advice of the military doctor, Chen Qingzhi immediately gave an order to expel these people from the army after seeing the patients for the first time, because it was typhoid fever.

This is a highly contagious disease, and once it spreads, the consequences are unimaginable. As for whether the soldiers who were driven out by him were dead or alive, Chen Qingzhi couldn't care.

The next day, the number of people left behind continued to increase, and the number of patients also increased, so Chen Qing finally made up his mind, put aside the government soldiers on the shore, planted all the main forces on the boat, and advanced at full speed, leaving the government soldiers and then slowly coming.

The speed of the advance of the government soldiers was only thirty miles a day, which greatly dragged down the main force, and the two sides gathered together in this way, maybe typhoid fever would be transmitted, so that there would be no need to fight, and they would collapse first.

Tens of thousands of people crowded into more than 100 ships, although crowded, but the speed of progress was greatly accelerated, on the third day, they had arrived in Jiaxing, only a hundred miles away from Suzhou.

It will take a day at most for them to reach their destination.

On the top of the mountain in the distance, Liu Yuan held a monocular and looked at the huge fleet on the canal. The thing had just been distributed to him, and it was a good thing indeed, and now he could clearly see the dense crowd of human heads on the ship in the distance.

"Fuck me!" With a snap, Liu Yuan closed the monoculars, turned his head to look at Qin Scar beside him and said, "There are no less than a hundred people on each boat, they are ready to dock to rest, many people have gotten off the boat, and they are preparing to start a fire to cook!" This general is so good that he didn't even send scouts out. ”

"Aren't we still in Suzhou? It's still far from here! Qin Scar grinned and said, "He naturally doesn't have to be so careful. ”

"Qin Scar, it seems that they will spend the night on the boat at night, and this group of people didn't even bring a marching tent." Liu Yuan said: "Cleaning them up, it looks like it will be easy!" ”

"A bunch of things that haven't fought in years or not, how strong can you expect them to be!" Qin Scar's mouth was flattened: "That guy in Changzhou has been with us for a day, and I think it's amazing." More of them are probably like the guy in Suzhou, who was frightened and immediately wilted. ”

"How good it would be for the enemy to be like this, how easy it would be for us to fight!" Liu Yuan sighed, took out a handful of hemp candy from his arms, and handed it to Qin Scar: "Eat a few pieces, grow your strength." ”

"Ge Cai prepared it for you!" Qin Scarzi took the hemp candy, stuffed it into his mouth and chewed it, "Married people are different, some people are in pain." ”

"That's nature, who told you not to be in a hurry?" Liu Yuan proudly threw a piece of sesame candy into his mouth: "This is a specialty of Changzhou, the most authentic." ”

Qin Scar chewed hemp candy, but he looked at Liu Yuan intently, and Liu Yuan felt a little hairy in his heart.

"What are you looking at?"

"I think you're thin!" Qin Scar's eyes flickered. "Ge Cai is not easy to deal with, look at your appearance, in two years, it is estimated that you will become a human being."

Liu Yuan was stunned at first, then reacted, and was furious, and slashed down with a knife. Qin Scar grunted, and rolled eighteen lazy donkeys on the spot, but he had already rolled away from the distance. Before Liu Yuan could chase after him, a carp was already stiff and bounced up from the ground: "Brothers, let's go." ”

In the dead grass, above the canopy, figures suddenly flashed.

"Qin Scar, you stop for me." Liu Yuan was in a hurry.

"If you want to prove that you are still fierce, we will have more enemies than anyone else tonight!" Qin Scar laughed and walked away, Liu Yuan gritted his teeth behind him, "You wait." ”

Chen Qingzhi naturally couldn't imagine that the Tang Army, who should be far away in Suzhou, had quietly moved to Jiaxing, and now he was staring at him with a pair of blood-red eyes!

The attack was distributed in the middle of the night.

Chen Qingzhi naturally sent sentry posts on the shore, and when these people sighed bad luck, they looked for a leeward place one by one, and lit a fire in the middle of the night, these fires were simply a guiding light for the enemy, and it didn't take much effort for the Tang army to wipe the necks of these sentries silently.

When the Tang army of the brigade poured onto the embankment, the boats in the canal still did not respond, but the snoring in the boats was clearly audible.

Li Mi raised his hand, and countless fires lit up on the riverbank, which were rockets.

"Put!" With a command, countless meteors suddenly appeared in the sky, streaked through the air in a fiery red curve, and fell towards the ships in the canal.

Although the ship is on the water, but there are too many flammable things on the ship, and the feather arrows shot at the ship are tied with strips of cloth soaked in grease, which caused a raging fire in an instant, hundreds of ships are connected end to end, and the canal is narrow, as if to turn, in this case it is simply impossible, the Zhejiang West Army that was violently attacked in its sleep was in a mess in an instant, and when the Tang Army on the river bank began to throw fierce fire bombs on the ship, the battle situation basically did not have any suspense.

At the first moment, the whole army lost control.

Some of them jumped into the water with a clatter, and some of them rushed straight to the shore with a cry, and under the light of the fire, there were crowds of human heads everywhere.

The boat at the front was a little lucky, and as soon as it came to its senses, it rowed desperately towards the front.

However, after a short walk, there was a great fire in front of the river, and in the middle of the river, two boats burning with raging fire collided fiercely, completely silting up the entire river.

I don't know how many people were drowned by the raging fire before they could break out of the cabin, and the sound of wailing and screaming was heard all over the canal.

In the first round of attacks, this western Zhejiang army lost about one-third of its strength after losing its structure and falling into chaos. The rest of the people rushed to the east bank in a panic, and the other part headed towards the dark west bank.

The first to attack on the east bank was Li Mi, at this moment, she was holding a sabre in her hand, facing those Western Zhejiang troops who fled ashore in a panic, roaring and slashing the past.

The West Bank is naturally not a paradise for survivors, and on which side, Ren Xiaonian's department lined up in a neat queue, quietly watching those people flee in embarrassment.

The sound of military trumpets suddenly sounded, and thousands of Tang troops pressed in the direction of the canal.

Ren Xiaonian was too lazy to use crossbow arrows, in his opinion, it was too wasteful to use crossbow arrows at this time. Ambushed for a little in the middle of the night, even though the equipment was very good and the clothes were warm, but at the moment his body was also a little numb from the cold, just so that Erlang moved his hands and feet, warm and warm.

Chen Qingzhi stood at the bow of the boat in a daze, his boat was already burning, but he had no intention of fleeing for his life. When the tongue of fire licked over, the soldiers finally couldn't care about him anymore, and jumped into the water one by one, regardless of whether they would freeze to death or not, whether they would be killed after going ashore, it was better than being burned to death now.

Chen Qingzhi was completely engulfed by the fire, and he still stood at the bow of the boat like a fool, his lips squirmed, and his eyes straightened, until he burned into a burning man, and finally fell into the water with a thud.

At dawn, the floating corpses on the canal almost blocked the river.

The government soldiers, who were half a day's journey behind the main force, did not escape this catastrophe. On the morning of the second day after Chen Qingzhi's attack, he was raided by the cavalry led by Liu Ruyan, and under the attack of the wolf-like right Qianniuwei, it was like ice and snow encountering a fire, and it disappeared after a little resistance. In addition to the dead and disabled in the battle, nearly 6,000 soldiers became Liu Ruyan's prisoners.

The reinforcement army, which Qian Hongzong had high hopes for, with as many as 20,000 people, failed completely without even a single wave.

On the third day, the two armies converged and advanced all the way in the direction of Hangzhou.