After the beginning of spring, the water level of the Huai River rose and expanded a lot to both banks, and since the fleet of the Eastern Qi Naval Division appeared on the Huai River, the traffic between the north and the south was completely cut off.

The Eastern Qi Naval Division is known as the first largest naval division today, if there was still some suspicion of boasting in the past, but after defeating the Eastern Qi Naval Division, the Qi National Naval Division has become the strongest naval army worthy of the name, looking at the world, no naval army can be compared, and after the defeat of the Eastern Qi Naval Division, the Huai River has become the back garden of the Eastern Qi Naval Division.

After the defeat of the East China Sea Division, the main force of the Chu army was trapped in the north of the Huai River, and the imperial court immediately mobilized a lot of soldiers and horses from the Huainan area, in fact, these soldiers and horses were mainly composed of local errands and city guards, plus the temporary recruitment of people, and also gathered tens of thousands of horses, and watchtowers were built at intervals along the south bank of Huaishui to prevent the Eastern Qi Navy Division from landing and attacking.

Although the Eastern Qi Naval Division was invincible on the water, and each sailor was one to five on the water, the strength was not too much.

After all, the country of Qi is small and has few people, and the national strength is far from being comparable to the other two countries, and the taxes received every year are limited, but the monarch of Qi is a very face-saving person, although he is only the king of a small country, but food, clothing, housing and transportation are extremely extravagant, the palace of Qi in Linzi City, how many years have cost a lot, and the treasury has to bear the huge expenses of the monarch of Qi every year. And we can't increase taxes too much, increase the burden on the people, and thus provoke riots in the hearts of the people, so the treasury of Qi has always been very empty.

And to maintain the navy, it takes a huge amount of money, and it costs a lot to build an ordinary warship, and the Eastern Qi Navy Division has dozens of warships, large and small, and it is a huge expenditure to maintain these warships every year.

If it weren't for Shen Tu Luo, the Eastern Qi Navy Army even faced a reduction situation, under Shen Tuluo's insistence, the Eastern Qi Navy maintained a strong force, and the strength of the army has not increased for many years, this is of course because the monarch of Qi does not want to increase the burden of the country because of the Eastern Qi Water Division, but also because Shen Tuluo has never been expensive to use soldiers.

Shen Tuluo's sailors are all water-based, and brave and good at fighting, each sailor must go through rigorous training to become a real Dongqi sailor.

Although Shen Tuluo trained the troops strictly, but treated the soldiers like a son, although he was the governor of the Eastern Qi Naval Army, he lived on the ship all the year round, ate and lived with his officers and soldiers, and won the awe of his subordinates, and it was precisely because of his prestige in the naval army, after the city of Linzi was broken, this naval army still followed under his command, even if the country was broken, but still insisted on following the metropolitan governor to strive for the restoration of the country.

But the sailors knew that the situation they were in was very bad.

The food distributed every day has become less and less, these sailors are all strong and strong, and that little bit of food is difficult for everyone to eat enough, and some people can only drink more water from the Huai River to fill their stomachs.

Everyone knows that although this naval army still bears the name of the Eastern Qi Naval Division, it is no longer the original Eastern Qi Naval Division, there is no material supply from the imperial court, and there is no dock to dock, but it is like a group of water bandits drifting around on the water.

No matter how brave and loyal a person is, he must have a full stomach.

However, everyone knew very well that the supplies of the fleet were getting less and less, and the only food left could not last long, otherwise the Metropolitan Governor would not have sent a few teams of men ashore to look for food.

However, the people of Chu have withdrawn from the south bank of the Huai River to the north, and those villages that stayed behind are empty, not to mention food, and it is difficult to find even a chicken feather.

It is rumored that the imperial court of Chu issued a decree that if the officers and soldiers of Chu or the people of Chu killed or even arrested the Eastern Qi sailors who landed on the shore, they would not only be rewarded, but they could even get an official and a half position.

These days, the governor has not sent people to land again, obviously knowing that it is impossible to find food when he lands on the shore, and if he is not careful, he will lose manpower, and the sailors of the Eastern Qi Dynasty are all elite soldiers on the water, but if they really want to land on the shore, they will not be able to show their ability on land.

No one came ashore to look for food, the ration of food was decreasing day by day, and no one knew how long they could hold out.

The purpose of blocking the Huai River by the Eastern Qi Water Division was to cut off the logistics supply of the Qinhuai Legion, but many people were worried that the Qinhuai Legion would not starve to death by then, and the people on their side would starve to death first.

Shen Tuluo, as the governor of the navy, can naturally feel the low mood of his soldiers, he knows very well in his heart, if it weren't for his prestige in the navy, to the current situation, this sailor is afraid that it will no longer exist, he is a soldier, and he knows that the first thing to do to make the soldiers truly loyal is to let everyone have a full stomach, and they can't even eat their stomachs, and what do they use to be loyal?

Loyal soldiers will let their loyalty disappear little by little because of hunger, and when hunger completely prevails one day, even if they have unparalleled prestige in the navy, it is absolutely impossible to prevent the mutiny.

The Metropolitan Governor was seen by his subordinates to be calm and calm every day, but only Shentura knew how heavy his pressure was.

It had already passed midnight, although he had not closed his eyes for several days, he still did not have a trace of sleep, he did not take off his armor, stood on the side of the boat, looked at the dark south bank of the Huai River, and was stunned.

"The Metropolitan Governor .....!" I don't know how long it took, I suddenly heard a voice around me, Shen Tuluo's heart sank, secretly thinking that he was actually distracted, and he didn't even have any defense when someone approached him, if the other party was an assassin, I was afraid that he would be assassinated before he could react, although the Shenhou Mansion came to assassinate the whole army and wiped it out, but the people of Chu would never let go easily, and there would be new assassins at any time.

Fortunately, it was not the assassin who spoke, the man was wearing the clothes of an ordinary sailor, wearing a round sailor hat on his head, and a pair of eyes were looking at Shen Tuluo, who turned around and saw the person coming, and hurriedly said, "Your Highness! ”

This man who looks inconspicuous at all is actually Duan Shao, the prince of Eastern Qi.

Duan Shao looked very bad, his eyes were slightly swollen, and he didn't seem to have rested well for many days, but he had a smile on his lips: "What are you worried about?" Are you worried that those ninjas won't be able to complete their mission? ”

"This .....!" Shen Tu Luo hesitated slightly, and then sighed lightly: "Your Highness, since it is His Highness's careful deployment, and it is the Cicada Danfu who personally led people to act, there must not be too much of a problem." ”

Duan Shao put his hands behind his back, also looked at the south bank, and said, "Is the Metropolitan Governor worried about what will happen later?" ”

"Your Highness.....!" Shen Tuluo wanted to speak again and again, but finally said: "There is no difference between the Northern Han and the Chu people, they are all capricious people who forget their righteousness for profit. Beitangfeng has no talent, and his character is really not good, so he ..... The minister really didn't trust it. ”

"This palace knows that Linzi Chengpo has a lot to do with this palace." Duan Shao's eyes were with a hint of fierceness: "This palace didn't expect that the people of Chu would be so treacherous, I thought that they would marry with Chu State, they were bent on the northern expedition to the Han State, but they didn't want to ....., although this palace didn't expect them to be so capricious, but they still made some preparations, and left Su Zhen in Qi State, just to make the people of Chu have some scruples." Su Zhen is one of the four hereditary marquis of Chu State, and with him in our hands, I think that the people of Chu will try their best to cooperate with our Qi State.....! The hand behind his back clenched his fist and sneered: "I just didn't expect them to be so ruthless, and they didn't care about Su Zhen's life or death." ”

"The Northern Expedition is in vain, and attacking my Qi country is the real purpose." Shen Tu Luo said: "The minister and Linghu Xiang didn't expect that the people of Chu would come to such a hand. ”

"Su Zhen is really stupid." Duan Shao's eyes showed anger: "He was sent to the State of Qi by the State of Chu as a pawn, and he was still complacent, showing off his majesty in my State of Qi, but he didn't know that from the very beginning, he became an outcast of the people of the State of Chu." ”

"The Chu State must have planned for a long time to capture my Qi State, and it was carefully deployed." Shen Tuluo's expression was solemn: "And there must be very few people who know about this, although Su Zhen is a hereditary candidate in the Chu State, but among the four hereditary princes of the Chu State, the strength is the weakest, and the most incompetent, attacking such a military major event as the Qi State, this person is not qualified to know at all." The people of Chu are scheming, they have already married, and let Su Zhen personally send them to Qi State, this is to confuse us, we can only hate..... We fell for them. ”

"So Su Zhen deserves to die, and he also took his daughter." Duan Shao sneered: "Linzi City is broken, that woman actually begged me to take her away, I thought about using her as a hostage at first, but the people of Chu didn't even care about Su Zhen, how could they care about such a woman?" Taking her by your side not only does not have any benefit, but is a burden, and it is clean to stab her to death with a sword. ”

Shen Tuluo's face did not change, obviously indifferent to Su Zixuan's life and death.

"Governor, if the operation is successful, I will go to Luoyang in person." Duan Shao said: "Everything here is going to bother you. ”

Shen Tuluo frowned and said, "Your Highness really wants to go to Luoyang?" The minister is only worried about ......! He didn't continue, but his eyebrows were full of worry.

"Worried that Hongu will be put under house arrest by them, or killed with a knife?" Duan Shao said with a smile: "Although Beitang Feng is incompetent, he is not an idiot, the Chu State is not dead, he will never kill me." Looking up at the night sky, he said softly: "If we can block the grain route and make the logistics of the Qinhuai Legion unable to supply, we can let tens of thousands of troops of the Qinhuai Legion die on the land of the Northern Han, and the Northern Han promised that as long as we win this battle, we will do our best to help us restore the country, hehe, this time burn the granary of the Chu people, the defeat of the Qinhuai Legion is decided, and I should also find Beitangfeng to fulfill the promise!" ”