Although the town has decided to abandon the defense of Runan, how to evacuate is also a difficult problem.

If it is just a simple capacity, the Huainan Army can also be withdrawn. Although Xi Jian led part of the Xuzhou Army to leave Xuyi, he did not completely abandon the Huainan Army, but still left a considerable part of his strength. Among them, there are dozens of warships, and even two huge and friendless ships, which are probably also used to express their apologies to the Huainan Army.

Although the idea of attacking Huaiyin was a suggestion put forward by Shen Zhezi, the situation at that time was different from what it is now. If the two towns can send troops together and go up the Yingshui and Whirlpool, then it is very likely that the newly defeated and panicked army of the Karma will be surrounded and annihilated in the land of southern Henan, and it will not leave Shi Hu a chance to breathe at all.

However, in this way, there is no doubt that the Huainan Army is the leader of this battle, and the Xuzhou Army only slightly assists in the battle. Such a situation, whether it is Xi Jian or those unruly military leaders in Xuzhou, is somewhat unacceptable. Moreover, if the Xuzhou army goes far away, it will also make the internal air defense weak, and the enemy of Huaiyin may want to go south to attack the heart of Guangling. Take a lot of risk, but you don't get enough work.

Therefore, the Xuzhou Army still chose to open up a new battlefield, unwilling to become a vassal of the Huainan Army in Huaizhong.

For Xuzhou Jun's decision, Shen Zhezi can only accept it, and anything else is superfluous and useless.

Runan, especially the land of the hanging gourd, is naturally also geographically advantageous, but because it has been dilapidated for a long time and is not easy to repair, the strategic significance for the defense of the entire Huainan is not too great. The reason for the previous fortification was mainly to appease and protect the displaced people in Huaibei, but now it has gradually become a burden. Therefore, sticking to this is far from being as good as withdrawing manpower to Shouchun to strengthen the strength of the town.

A considerable number of these refugees gathered in Runan had already passed through Huainan to Yiyang. However, because of Jingzhou's defense dispatch, Jiangxia was unable to respond, so tens of thousands of people still stayed here. Later, the peach leopard came south and drove a large number of people who were hiding and staying in the countryside here. How many refugees have gathered in the current hanging place, even Mao Bao does not have a specific understanding.

Such a large-scale retreat and migration is a very difficult thing even on weekdays, not to mention the tens of thousands of peach leopards around them.

So although the town has made this decision, it has not been evacuated immediately. On the one hand, Mao Bao dispatched troops to repel the intrusion and attack of the Peach Leopard Slave Army again and again, and on the other hand, he was also counting the household registration of the population and communicating with the town how to gradually evacuate.

In the current hanging place, governance can be described as extremely chaotic, and there is no organization at all. Not to mention that the town has not prepared too many talents in this area for Mao Bao at all, even if there is, it is really difficult to build any order in this situation where there is a large influx of displaced people and frequent incursions by slave soldiers. It has not completely collapsed so far, but it is also because it is difficult to enter and exit the land around the hanging gourd, and the slave soldiers are surrounded by slaves, so they can stay here and survive temporarily, if they really escape, they are afraid that they will die immediately.

Regarding the decision to retreat from the town, Mao Bao only explained to Li Cang a little, but did not reveal much to others. If it is known that the Huainan army is about to withdraw, those people who have long been full of fear are afraid that they will collapse and chaos immediately, and the previous investment will be destroyed in one fell swoop, and if the news of the loss is learned by the slave army, they will definitely block sniping along the way.

After more than ten days, the attacks of the slave army became more and more frequent, not to mention, and the interior of the hanging gourd also began to appear due to the lack of resources, and other chaotic signs began to appear, and it was difficult to maintain it anymore. After Mao Bao and Li Cang discussed, they didn't even dare to divide their troops anymore, but began to gather their soldiers and guard them in a few fixed areas. I am worried that once the troops are too dispersed, they will be attacked by some treacherous strong beams and slave soldiers who are mixed in with the villagers.

There is also a rough count of the villagers gathered in the Hanging Gourd today, with nearly 70,000 men, women, and children, and less than 10,000 men and women in the prime of life. This is also a situation deliberately created by the slave army, they clean the countryside, some men and women are naturally directly collected for servitude, and those old, weak, sick and disabled are driven into the hanging gourd as consumables.

These 70,000 people are completely unorganized villagers. In addition, there are also Li Cang's troops, the original men and horses plus Ding Zhuang, who has been recruited and enlisted since the defense of Runan, although there is no lack of battle damage, but it is also supplemented with the battle, and there are still more than 6,000 people at present. If you add the Huainan Army guarding Rukou under Mao Bao's department, even if it is just to respond to Ding Li's retreat, the number of people who need to retreat is nearly 20,000.

But this is impossible, and once the retreat begins, it will be absolutely difficult to complete in a short time. At that time, a large number of people will inevitably rush up, so the Huainan army needs to prepare at least 50,000 people, and there must be enough troops that can break through the interception of the slave army, which is undoubtedly an extremely serious task.

While Mao Bao was still trying his best to maintain himself in Runan, Shouchun Town had already begun to prepare various arrangements to respond. Because a considerable part of the town's households have been relocated to Liangjun, Hefei and other places, there is still a surplus of capacity in Shouchun Town. However, considering that these people in Runan have not yet been organized and reorganized, and are not suitable for direct resettlement in this town, some temporary accommodation places are still opened up between the mountains and ditches in the western border of Shouchun, so that the people who have withdrawn from the south can stay in it temporarily, and then gradually absorb them into Shouchun Town.

At the same time, for the specific steps and routes of the retreat, there have been many discussions in the town recently, and many plans have been proposed, and even Shen Zhezi himself, accompanied by the generals, personally traced the Huai up and around Yingkou to inspect the specific situation of the retreat to make more appropriate preparations.

This time, Runan retreated, and the obstacles to be faced were not only the encirclement of the hanging slave army Taobao Division.

In the previous battle of Yingkou, although it successfully forced back the middle army of the slave Shihu, due to the flooding of Huaidao, Yingkou's original defense and interception function was greatly reduced. In the upper reaches of Yingshui, the water army of Qianhu still maintained a complete structure and combat effectiveness, and did not participate in the previous battle of Yingkou.

In terms of combat effectiveness on the waterway alone, the Qianhu water army was not the opponent of the Huainan army. Although there was no large-scale assembly of the south, but recently it has been frequently disturbed in the south, which has restrained a considerable part of the energy of the Huainan naval army, and this part of the slave army is not focused on winning a decisive victory on the water, but focusing on breaking through the waterway interception of the Huainan army, carrying a small group of slaves through the Huainan invasion place, burning, killing and plundering, and doing everything possible, which has caused a lot of trouble to the defense of the western border of Shouchun. This is also one of the reasons why Shen Zhezi wanted to transfer the army of Runan back to increase the defense of his headquarters.

As for the slave army Taobao's department, there were as many as 50,000 slave troops along the way, and they were independent divisions, and they did not participate in the Battle of Yingkou, and they were not affected much. Moreover, Tao Leopard does not have the same ambition as Shi Hu, and he will be anxious to fight a decisive battle with the Huainan army before he has a stable foothold in the south, but give full play to the advantages of troops, completely sweep the mountains and fields, and encircle the hanging land step by step, so that the Huainan army is in a dilemma, either to increase the troops in Runan, or to abandon the defense and retreat.

In the early years, the slave soldiers were in the four fields, and now although they have been widely occupied in the Central Plains, old generals like Taobao still maintain a strong rogue style in terms of tactical intentions, and they do not have much obsession with attacking cities and conquering lands, and they are good at fighting to nourish war, and human life is the existence of consumables. His troops have recently violently attacked the hanging place, but they have never penetrated too deeply, and they have advanced and retreated, naturally because of the Huainan Army's stubborn counterattack on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is also unfinished with all its strength.

Obviously, Taobao intends to besiege the Runan people here, so as to attract the Huainan army to devote more troops to it. There is no large-scale, organized naval army, and the only boats and ships are also baggage transport capacity, so it is difficult to directly engage in combat. There are too many ditches in Runan, in addition to the main stream of Huaishui, including Rushui, because of too much diversion and lack of water, so it is not good for the Huainan Navy to assemble and dispatch on a large scale here, which is beneficial to the peach leopard.

At present, Runan, if you stick to the rules, it will be a bottomless pit, and it will not be filled at all, and the collapse will not be far away. If you retreat, you will also face great difficulties, not only will you have to bear the resistance of the peach leopard, but once you invest too many troops and cause the defense of Shouchun to be empty, Shi Hu's Chinese army is very likely to come south again.

Of course, this is not to say that the previous fortification of Runan was a wrong decision, the defense of Runan has its own significance, and the most important thing is naturally to appease and protect the displaced people in southern Henan.

This time, the slave countries used troops to levy troops on a scale unprecedented since the founding of the country, and they were extremely destructive to the people's livelihood. Only in the land of southern Henan, although it is not deserted within thousands of miles, it is also fishing with all its might, and it is extremely fierce.

A large number of broken homes, if there is no vigorous resettlement, these people will undoubtedly die in large numbers in the subsequent war. Runan has not been fortified for a long time, and the people in southern Henan who have been appeased and transferred have reached tens of thousands. Although in the short term, these people will cause great pressure, they are also the vitality of the Jin people, and they are the basis for the future Northern Expedition to the Central Plains.

Moreover, the fortification of Runan greatly delayed the advance of the Peach Leopard Department of the slave army. If there is no blockade from Runan, it is very likely that during the Battle of Yingkou, the Huainan Army will not only have to face the pressure of Shihu's strong Chinese army, but also have to deal with the threat from the west, and it will be difficult to win the Battle of Yingkou in a very short time.

From a purely military point of view, since Zhenzhong does not intend to maintain the front in Runan for a long time, the best course of action is undoubtedly to withdraw its forces directly. But in this way, it is undoubtedly surrendering tens of thousands of people to the Qianghu, and what will be the fate of them, can be imagined.

Therefore, after more than ten days of discussion, Shen Zhezi still decided to lead as many people as possible through Huai. In addition to the moral system, there is no shortage of Ding Zhuang among these people, and he is an extremely high-quality source of soldiers, which can be directly supplemented into the Huainan Army with a little rectification.