When the Song army began to attack Chu in the south and captured the important Huaisi town of Duliang, the actions of the Song State were immediately taken seriously by the surrounding countries.

Because before the Song State attacked the Chu State, it had already sent envoys to declare war. At this time, when the state of Chu was at war with Qin, Han, and Wei at the same time, there was suddenly another opponent, and it was not worrying if there were too many debts. However, Korea and Wei do not have such a "chic" attitude as Chu.

After all, whether it was the war of Yan or the previous battle of Danyang, the Song State acted with the Qi State. Now that the Song State suddenly attacked Chu and marched into Huaishui, could this be secretly instructed by the Qi State?

The two countries immediately remained vigilant against the Song State, and set aside some troops to guard against a possible attack by the Song State and the Qi State!

Dai Yan is also a little helpless about the behavior of Han and Wei who are so frightened now. After getting the action of the Han and Wei armies, he immediately sent an envoy to the Wei capital Daliang and clearly told the Wei State: The Song State has no interest in the land of Huaishui Chen Cai!

Even in order to dispel the hostility of Han and Wei towards the Song State, the Song State took the initiative to sign the "Great Liang Covenant" with Han and Wei, which stipulated that in order to ensure the peace between the Song State and the Han and Wei States, the Huaishui Valley of the Chu State, from Zhongli upwards and the west part of the vortex water, belonged to Han Wei; The area east of the vortex was owned by the Song State.

Such a blatant covenant to divide the territory of other countries was not recognized by the state of Chu, so it was naturally not a definitive treaty on territorial division. After the signing of this alliance, if the two sides want to obtain the territory they want, they also need to snatch it from the state of Chu with their own strength! However, this covenant, after all, determined the border between the Song state and Han Wei in principle, thus eliminating the possible conflict between the two sides.

After the signing of this alliance, except for a small number of troops stationed in Duliang, and some water divisions to continue to assist in the defense of Fuling Lake and Huaishui, all other armies began to continue to advance downstream of Huaishui with the army. Seeing the behavior of the Song army, Han and Wei were finally relieved, and began to attack the land of Huaishui Chen Cai with all their might, lest they fall behind the Song State!

From Duliang along the Huaishui to the east, until the Huaishui estuary, it is the most important city of the Song State in the land of Jiuyi - Yancheng. And from Yancheng upwards, on the south bank of Huaishui, there is also an important city - Huaiyin.

The reason why the city of Huaiyin is important is mainly caused by human reasons. At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, in order to go north to the Central Plains to compete for hegemony, King Lu of Wu dug the first canal ditch in Chinese history in the north of Wu State.

Hangou starts from Huaiyin in the north, passes Sheyang Lake on the way, and then reaches Guangling, a city on the north bank of the Yangtze River.

The emergence of the city of Guangling has only appeared in recent years. Since the Song State wantonly divided the nobles in the Jiuyi Land of the East China Sea and established Yancheng, it has made the Chu State, which has always coveted the vast land in the east, moved. And after the people of the Song State began to march towards the ocean and brought back amazing wealth from the ocean, the state of Chu could no longer sit still.

They took a fancy to Hancheng, the closest riverside city to the East China Sea, which was a city built together with Hangou, which was originally established as the base camp of the Wu State to dominate the Central Plains!

After the state of Wu was destroyed by the Yue country, Hancheng was a little depressed in the hands of the Yue country, and by the time Zhao slipped and destroyed the Yue, the city had completely become a small city. However, after all, this city has the big pattern left by Fucha, and when the Chu State reattaches importance to this place, it will immediately get a new life!

Seven years ago, the State of Chu renamed Hancheng Guangling in accordance with the naming custom of the State of Chu. And began to expand the size of Guangling City, and in just a few years, it has become one of the most important cities in the entire lower reaches of the Yangtze River!

Whether it is Huaiyin or Guangling, in the original plan of the Song army, they are all targets that must be captured! Because they are the most important fulcrum for the Song State to control Hangou and then control Yangzhou Jiangbei!

After the Song army captured Duliang, the commander of the Chu army, who controlled Huaiyin, quickly got the news. He knew that Huaiyin alone would never be able to defend against the Song army's frantic offensive, so he immediately turned to his allies in the rear for help.

Guangling and Huaiyin, as the two cities guarding the head and tail of the ditch, are naturally in a relationship between the two cities. After receiving Huaiyin's distress letter, Guangling immediately sent part of the army north, and at the same time, the sailors it had spent several years accumulating were also stuffed into the ditch to defend the entire canal!

Even so, the defenders of Guangling and Huaiyin still did not have much confidence in holding these two cities. After the two places coordinated defense, they sent envoys up the river to Jinling to ask for help from Zhaohua, who was now stationed in Jinling.

As Zhao Slip, who personally destroyed the Yue Kingdom and personally pacified the civil strife of the Yue nobles, he is now a famous general of the Chu State with the position of the Pillar State! Now when the army of Chu is transferred to the west and has a big war with Qin to gamble on the fortunes of the country, Zhao Hua still has not been transferred out of Jiangnan!

In the eyes of the king of Chu, Zhaohua, who personally destroyed the Yue Kingdom and personally pacified the civil strife in Yue, should be familiar with Jiangnan affairs. With such a Zhu State who is familiar with affairs guarding the south of the Yangtze River, then the entire Chu State Jiangnan, Jiangbei, and Yangzhou will be as stable as Mount Tai!

When the Song State's declaration of war was handed to the Chu State, what Zhao Hua felt was not as angry as ordinary Chu people, but extremely excited!

Yes, as a famous general who destroyed the Yue Kingdom, he later led an army of more than 100,000 to attack a Song State that experienced civil strife, but he didn't catch anything, and he even lost an arm! Later, when he wanted to trouble the Song State, the kid who had dealt with him in the era of King Wei in the Song State actually took refuge in the Qi State earlier, so that the Chu State had no chance to attack at all!

Now that the Song State has taken the initiative to declare war on the Chu State, what a good opportunity this is! Zhao Slip only felt the incomparably excited, he wanted to defeat Song Guo personally, only then could he regain his glory and comfort the arm he had lost!

The offensive of the Song army was very fast, and in just half a month, it captured the important town of Duliang, an important town in Huaisi. Now they want to directly capture Huaiyin, capture Guangling, and collect Hangou in one go, and they don't care about these Zhaohua! In his opinion, the land south of the Yangtze River is very different from the land of the north of the Yangtze River, and only dragging the Song army to this place is the most suitable!

However, Hangou could not be captured by the Song army so easily. After receiving the distress signal from Guangling, Zhaohua also attached great importance to the intelligence of the Song army, and he sent thousands of people from Jinling to Guangling to help defend Hangou.

Although Zhaohua knew that thousands of people could play little role in front of the Song army's more than 100,000 troops, it could give comfort to the defenders of Huaiyin and Guangling after all. You can also mobilize the defenders of the entire Wuyue land in the south of the Yangtze River, and even the Jiujiang land in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, for him to officially start a decisive battle with the Song State!

However, although Zhao Slip's sense of resistance is already relatively strong, he still underestimates the strength of the Song army!

Unlike when the Song army was in Duliang, it only relied on an expeditionary force to fight alone, and the Song army had an extremely large number of friendly troops at both ends of the ditch!

In Huaiyin, along the Huai River, it is the land of Jiuyi in the East China Sea. As a newly divided area of the Song Kingdom, all the lords here have a strong heart for pioneers! These nobles, after years of fighting against the Yi people, and even fighting with nature and whales on the ocean, are now the most martial group of people in the entire Song Kingdom!

Not to mention that the rangers from all over the world were absorbed into the trade of Taoqiu-Yancheng and became the most active people in overseas expansion! These people may not have much sense of belonging to Dai Yan and Song Guo, but after seeing Song Guo's rich reward, everyone was moved!

In order to impress the nobles and rangers in the East China Sea to participate in the war against the Chu State, Dai Yan not only gave an extremely high monetary reward, but also directly gave the reward of splitting the land and sealing the knighthood!

Anyone who made a contribution in the war against Chu was able to obtain a piece of land in Jiangbei near Huaiyin. And those who have made great contributions can even directly obtain the actual feudal land and become the actual feudal monarch of the Song Kingdom!

In the world at this time, the feudal monarch is a respected character in any country! Even the nobles of the East China Sea have the status of lords, but they all hope to make great achievements and expand their fiefdoms, so that they can leave an extra inheritance for their children and grandchildren!

Driven by this desire, the entire land of the East China Sea was stimulated, and the originally vigorous maritime industry fell into withering in an instant! Almost all of them began to help the Song army to capture the entire Hangou route.

The Song army's attack along the ditch began with Huaiyin. The main force of the Song army visited the siege weapons under Huaiyin City to carry out a frontal assault. And the nobles and rangers of the East China Sea are responsible for attacking the ditch to interrupt the other party's transportation lines in order to blockade it!

If you are not familiar with this place, after the Chu State occupies the first and last ends of the ditch, there is absolutely no way to break the mutual support between Huaiyin and Guangling. However, the scholars of the East China Sea soon found several waterways to enter Sheyang Lake with the help of the Yi people, so that the ships of the East China Sea could enter Sheyang Lake without passing through Huaiyin and Guangling, and cut the ditch into two sections!

In this way, the Song army's war to capture Hangou almost immediately turned into a local battle. The ditch was cut off, and Huaiyin, which was left at the northern end of the ditch, immediately became a lonely city. And when the Song army had already learned the specific city defense measures of the Chu army after the Battle of Duliang, the only price to pay for capturing the city was nothing more than the lives of the soldiers!

However, in just five days, after the Song army made careful preparations and paid the same casualties as the capture of Duliang, the city of Huaiyin was breached. In this way, the main force of the Song army's naval division can directly enter Hangou and Sheyang Lake, and point directly at Guangling!