In order to gain the trust of the monarchs and ministers of Liang State, Wen Bo and Zhao Mingting could not easily withdraw to Chuzhou City, even in order to hand over the petition, they could only attack the camp of Tangyi Xingying on the south bank of the Chu River, but this also doomed them to gnaw a hard bone.

The thousands of soldiers and horses originally gathered by the Tangyi marching camp army, in addition to the Xuzhou soldiers, were the elite veterans of the old department of the Zuoguang German Army, and the combat will, training and combat experience can be said to be the elite of the elite.

In the past few years in Xuzhou, Han Qian's number of soldiers and horses has been maintained at less than 3,000 people, but the internal armor, the popularization of war weapons, and the reserves have not stopped.

The camp on the north bank was narrow, and a large open area had to be freed up for the whirlwind cannons.

Therefore, no matter how fierce the battle was, Han Qian only arranged 1,500 elite infantry soldiers to guard it, and the rest of the soldiers and horses were all withdrawn to the south bank first, as reserve soldiers and horses to rest, and then alternately went into battle according to the combat situation on the north bank.

The whirlwind cannon is clumsy, easy to be set on fire after the enemy breaks through, and at the same time occupies a wide area, only six bodies are placed in the camp, mainly to prevent the enemy from placing whirlwind artillery on the periphery to smash the camp.

In addition to the Whirlwind Cannon, the camp was most equipped with bed crossbows, small and medium-sized scorpion cannons that fired loose stone projectiles and fire oil canisters, and a variety of light and heavy chariots that were easy to assemble and dismantle.

In addition, Han Qian also twisted six to eight small and medium-sized shuttle boats with iron chains in a group of six to eight small and medium-sized shuttle boats, and then laid wooden stakes around them to form eight surface platforms for placing cyclone cannons, so as to threaten the enemy troops attacking the camp from the east and west flanks.

On this basis, Han Qian began to build a camp on the south bank, and continued to transport more people and soldiers from Tangyi by warship.

The Chaozhou defenders led by Wen Bo had just repelled the Huaixi Forbidden Army, and after resting for more than ten days, their morale was restored to their peak, and a large number of defensive weapons were dismantled and transported to the battlefield, which can also be said to be at the top of the combat effectiveness.

In the last few days of the second year of Yanyou, the battlefield on the north bank of the Chuhe River, which was only a few miles deep, was like a meat grinder, devouring the lives of the births on both sides.

Of course, the casualties of the Shouzhou cavalry and the Chaozhou defenders were three times that of the Tangyi marching army, which was even more shocking.

In the end, Xu Mingzhen and Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang came to Chuzhou to supervise the battle, and Wen Bo suspended the useless offensive against the Chuhe camp, and this tentative and cruel fight came to an end temporarily.

At this time, the Shouzhou cavalry and the Chaozhou defenders had already dropped 3,000 corpses on this cold and frozen wilderness.

…………

…………

The overwhelming enemy army withdrew into the city of Chuzhou, which was more than 40 miles away in the northwest, and it was already the third day of the first month of the third year of Yanyou.

Han Daoming then took a boat from the camp on the south bank and entered the camp on the north bank, and saw that the simple wall on the north bank had not become broken in the fierce battle for nearly ten days, but had become stronger and taller.

Hundreds of brave men were brave and strong, and even when the enemy's offensive weakened two days earlier, they began to cover the inner side with a layer of three-foot-thick city bricks.

Now that the enemy has retreated like a whirlwind, it is time to start building barracks on the outer flanks.

These bricks were originally fired for repairing the outer walls of Jinling City, and it was convenient to transport them by boat.

In addition, the outer city wall of Jinling City is more than 50 miles long, and the part that needs to be repaired and covered with city bricks is as long as 189 miles.

Compared with the camp city on the north bank, which is only more than 300 steps square, the camp on the south bank is several times larger, 1,000 steps square, but the parapet wall is still only a half-person high rammed earth low wall.

In the future, the parapet wall of the camp on the south bank will be widened and heightened, but there is no plan to cover the city bricks - if a large number of enemy troops cannot be blocked on the north bank of Chuzhou, it will already mean that Han Qian's combat intentions are completely bankrupt, and what he needs to do at that time is to withdraw all the soldiers and civilians on the south bank of the Chuhe River, rather than resisting stubbornly.

In addition, during this period, Han Qian also built a trestle bridge on the riverside of the north and south camps to extend into the river, so that medium-sized ships could directly berth and unload people.

These things were all completed in an orderly manner by Han Qian and thousands of soldiers and civilians during the ten days of fierce fighting on the north shore. Han Qian never seemed to have considered the possibility of not being able to hold the camp on the north bank, and he himself had always stayed on the north bank to supervise the battle.

Han Qian was not satisfied with repelling an offensive of the Shouzhou army, after all, if he wanted to control the Chuhe River, it was not enough to control one point.

After confirming that the Shouzhou army had withdrawn into the city of Chuzhou for rest, Han Qian ordered Feng Xuan and Lin Haizheng to march west along the south bank of Chuzhou, and set up a village on the east and west sides of Tingzi Mountain, first on the south bank, and then overcome all difficulties and then build a camp on the north bank to form a company camp to control Tingzi Mountain, the middle reaches of the Chuhe River and the Great Thorn Mountain south of the Chuhe River.

Of course, the Shouzhou army has a large number of cavalry on the north bank of Chuzhou, and at this time it also preemptively set up a camp on both sides of the Tingzi Mountain on the north bank.

However, how could it be possible to be suppressed in Tangyi City by the Shouzhou Army, which did not want to be suppressed by the Shouzhou Army, which had an advantage in troops, and wanted to gain a certain strategic depth on the north bank of the Yangtze River, without bloodshed and without tragic sacrifices?

"Liyang City in the west was taken by Wen Bo first, and in the next step, no matter how heavy the price is, I will take Liyang City, and control Qingcang Mountain in the upper reaches of the Chuhe River and Fucha Mountain in the north, so that I can control the Chuhe River in my hands. After that, we can follow the tributaries on the north bank of the Chuzhou River, advance the troops to the north, and advance step by step, theoretically we can build the camp city to Yuping Mountain in the southwest of Chuzhou City and the south wing of Mopan Valley on the northeast side of Chuzhou, and Kong Xirong led his troops to persist in fighting in the Wujian Mountains, and then we can completely cut off Chuzhou City from the outside world and trap it as an isolated city."

In the simple tent, the dim tent was illuminated brighter by the help of an oil lamp, Han Qian pointed to the fine map hanging on the wall, and introduced the follow-up battle plan to Han Daoming, who had entered the camp on the north bank again, and said,

"However, even if Li Zhihe is not slacking off on the Western Front, Xu Mingzhen will still be able to gather 40,000 soldiers and horses in front of us; And with the eyesight of Xu Mingzhen, Wen Bo and others, no matter how dull they are, they will understand all my intentions after our troops take Liyang City, and then the competition along the north shore will become extremely fierce. Even if the imperial court allowed me to recruit 20,000 generals from the old headquarters of the Zuoguang German army and the Jiangbei refugees, it would be far from enough, because to realize this intention, it would take 20,000 sons to throw their heads on this land! ”

The main force of the Navy Division and the Right Shenwu Army were wiped out, and more than 40,000 generals were almost dissipated in the day and night, Han Daoming didn't have any deep feelings, but he was worried about the safety of Jinling City and the Great Chu Sheji, which was closely related to the fate of the Han family, at this time, he heard Han Qian say that he had to take Chuzhou City from the Shouzhou army, not to mention the sacrifice of 20,000 soldiers, but he felt frightened.

Han Jun's problem is already a trivial matter, and he has Feng Yi to supervise them to carry it out, what Han Qian is talking about at this time is to ask Han Daoming to fight for the interests of Tangyi in the future above the court, and even how the Han family should completely integrate into this strategy.

"If the ministers of the court ask why the Tangyi camp didn't send troops to join Wei Zhen in advance to defend Chuzhou City, how would we respond?" Han Daochang asked.

"If anyone asks so, then tell him that I can give up the position of the head of the Tangyi camp to save them from hiding in Jiangnan and talking lightly!" Han Qian said with a smile.

Han Daochang was speechless by Han Qian, he has mainly been engaged in family property over the years, and he has only stepped into the official career in recent years, and he also serves in the salt and iron transshipment envoy department, where do you know how much military and political affairs?

"I'm not afraid of being questioned, but if you get more support on the North Shore, you still need to be specific before you can talk about it." Han Daoming said.

He knew that Han Qian was able to hold the camp on the north bank this time, mainly with the help of shipping and the Chuhe River, a waterway connected to the Yangtze River, which could quickly transport a large number of military supplies and war weapons.

At that time, even if Han Qian can barely hold Chuzhou, he can only wait bitterly for others to lead troops to rescue, where is the slightest initiative?

"Specifically, in addition to Tangyi and Liyang, where we are now, we can place a new county in Puyang, a county in Tingshan in Tingzishan, and a county in Wushou at the southwest foot of Dashu Mountain," Han Qian said, "The five counties are only in the riverside area on the south bank of the Chuhe River, and the construction of a remote embankment to restrain the river can still reclaim 6.7 million acres of new land, and at this time, Tangyi can accommodate more than 16,000 displaced households, and it can also resettle 14,000 households." The slaves and maids of all families are willing to be Tangyi soldiers, in addition to the salary of the recruited soldiers, the family can be granted 30 acres of ration land when they move north. However, from Tangyi to Liyang, it will cost at least millions of dollars to build a hundred miles of remote embankments to reclaim new fields, and the overstretched treasury must not be able to come up with this money and grain, and Xuzhou's current best efforts can only make up for the lack of armor and weapons, and this gap needs to be filled by the Han family......"

Han Daochang gasped.

The Han family is not as good as the Feng family, and in addition, the vitality of the toss over the years has been greatly damaged, and at this time, if all the remaining Grange family property is disposed of, it will probably be able to barely scrape together a million yuan of money and grain.

Han Qian wants the Han family to go bankrupt and abolish Han Jun to help him gain a foothold in Tangyi!

"Is the second uncle worried that in the end, he will be empty of water and will not be able to earn back?" Han Qian saw Han Daochang's hesitant look and asked with a smile.