The flow of the Huai River is still far inferior to the Yellow River, so even if the Huai River embankment and the Pihu dam are dug at the same time, when the water level under Huaiyin City is the highest, it is only less than one zhang, and after the flood peak, the water level under Huaiyin City quickly drops to about six feet, and it can only flood the chest of a normal person. (Han Dynasty one foot is twenty-three centimeters) water and fire ruthless, even if the water level of the flood peak is not high, the land of Huaiyin after the flood peak is still full of devastation, the turbid water surface is floating everywhere with all kinds of debris, what branches, sawdust, grass blades, flags, animal corpses and shrubs and the like, more is the corpse of Yuan Shujun soldiers, there are drowned, choked, immersed, trampled to death, killed by the bow and arrow of the Huaiyin defenders, and even climbed trees to avoid the water, but were bitten to death by poisonous snakes that also went up the trees to avoid the water, Or after being bitten and falling back into the water and drowning, the corpses are all horrific deaths, and the corpses are swollen and white, slowly floating in the muddy waters, drifting with the current, and the misery is simply unbearable.

Of course, because the water level of the flood peak is not very high, there are quite a few surviving Yuan Shujun soldiers, at least nearly one-third of the Yuan Shujun soldiers have escaped the flood attack, a small half of them fled to the Huai River embankment, and most of them are scattered in the high places of the hills and mountains surrounded by floods, but the weapons and baggage of these armies have been lost, and they are frightened and demoralized, and their morale and military morale are close to collapse. They also fought for small ships that did not run aground, killed each other, and Ji Ling and Gao Vulgar, who were lucky enough to escape the embankment, were powerless to restrain them.

The matter is not over, as an excellent public servant Deputy Director Tao's confidant and favorite general, Chen Zhi of course learned Deputy Director Tao's proud stunt of beating the water dog, Hong Feng passed, the water momentum just slowed down, Chen Zhi immediately ordered people to put down countless boats and rafts from Huaiyin City, divided into ten hundred teams led by Tun General, and took a boat to support the raft to capture and kill the Yuan army surrounded by floods. Ji Ling on the embankment was also furious, and personally led more than 100 personal soldiers to come over to fight, vowing to avenge the flood for many years.

The top of the embankment surrounded by floods and river water was narrow, and neither side could fight on horseback, so Ji Ling and Chen Zhi both carried the ring head knife to fight on foot, and after meeting, Chen Zhi pointed at Ji Ling with a knife and shouted: "Ji Ling, why don't you quickly put down your arms and surrender?" When? ”

"Whew!" Ji Ling spat out a mouthful of thick phlegm, and scolded with red eyes: "Shameless thief, use this annihilation to destroy my army, I swear to kill you!" ”

After scolding, Ji Ling strode forward and slashed with a knife, Chen Zhi no longer spoke, and fought with Ji Ling with a knife. Later, the Xuzhou team saw it, and soon it was unceremoniously banged, relying on the more people to bully the less, and beating more than 100 personal soldiers behind Ji Ling, Ji Ling's personal soldiers couldn't resist, and they threw down Ji Ling to flee for their lives.

Ji Ling's commander was still a little bit of a military heart, and when he was about to be caught up by Chen Zhi, Gao Shi, the deputy of the oblique stab, led more than 200 people to come to stop him, shouting Ji Ling to go quickly, and at the same time wielding a knife to fight Chen Zhi, but it was a pity that Gao Ling's skills were too far from Chen Zhi, and he was hacked to death by Chen Zhi in just five rounds. The army of Xuzhou continued to chase Ji Ling endlessly, until Ji Ling was forced to the bank of the Huai River, Ji Ling was desperate and could not water, so he could only run along the river bank to flee for his life, and was anxious and helpless, but suddenly saw a small boat of the army coming down, and the three people on board were none other than Zhou Yu, Cheng Pu and Huang Gai - these three were experts in water warfare.

"Gong Jin, save me, save me!" Ji Ling shouted ecstatically, "Quick, hold the boat over!" ”

"Gong Jin, what should I do?" Huang Gai asked, "To save or not to save?" ”

"Don't save it!" Cheng Pu hurriedly said: "Let's not say that it is necessary to take risks to save him, it is useless to save him back, after such a big defeat, Yuan Shupifu will not reuse him anymore." ”

Zhou Yu's expression was gloomy, and after careful consideration, he said coldly: "We must be saved, we need a scapegoat as a shield in front of Yuan Shu's puppet, and Ji Ling is Yuan Shu's henchman, and there is the possibility of a comeback, which is also valuable to us." Two old generals, hold the boat through. ”

Cheng Pu and Huang Gai were convinced of Zhou Yu's judgment, and did not hesitate to immediately drive the boat to respond, Ji Ling was overjoyed, and hurriedly jumped on the boat, when the Xuzhou sergeant was in a hurry to shoot with arrows, the water war experts Cheng Pu and Huang Gai had already danced their shields to block the arrows, Zhou Yu also hurriedly took the helm and drove the boat downstream, and finally although the Xuzhou soldiers injured Zhou Yu and Ji Ling and other four people, they never shot the four to death, and could only watch Zhou Yu and the three of them protect Ji Ling down the river and fled to the lower reaches of the Huai River.

But fortunately, although Ji Ling and Zhou Yu escaped but failed to succeed, Yuan Shujun saw that Ji Ling abandoned the crowd and left, and almost all of them had no determination to resist, and they all laid down their weapons and knelt down to surrender, and a small number of recalcitrant people were also wiped out by Xuzhou soldiers' swords and arrows, and all the Yuan army on the embankment was annihilated, and more than 1,000 people were captured. Most of the soldiers of the Yuan army who were surrounded by floods under the embankment also surrendered, only a few people who knew how to swim and fled to the upper reaches to report to the rear army, Chen Zhi and Xie Yan sent people to salvage weapons and baggage, seized countless money and grain, and Yuan Shu built forty building ships and nearly 100 warships with heavy money, all of which fell into the hands of the Xuzhou army.

At this point, the Huaiyin War was basically over, the 15,000 elite troops under Yuan Shu's most capable of fighting were annihilated, and the soldiers who escaped back to Xutai alive to report the news were less than 500 people, and the 60,000 rabble of Chen Ji, Lei Bo and Chen Lan who went east by land were unscathed, but this group of rabble did not have the courage to fight a decisive battle with the morale of the Xuzhou army, and was blocked by the flood to the east, so they had no choice but to temporarily station next to the small city of Xutai with only a few thousand people, and sent a messenger to return to Shouchun to report the urgency and ask for instructions on the next move. At the same time, in order to make Tao Ying feel at ease, Chen Zhi sent a messenger to report the good news to Xuzhou as soon as possible.

………………………… Of course, the carrier pigeon delivered the news faster than the messenger on horseback, and it only took more than two days to send the news to Xuzhou, and when the good news was delivered to Tao Ying, it happened to catch up with a new happy event in Xuzhou - the new weapon Feng Yu Arrow, which was pinned on by Deputy Director Tao, finally began the first large-scale output, and Tao Ying had been brewing and preparing for a long time to fight the ace team Feng Yu Army, and finally equipped with this weapon with the same name as their army!

The name of the wind feather arrow pulls the wind, but the structure is actually very simple, the effect is the same as that of ordinary arrows, that is, an arrow does not stick to the feathers, the back end of the arrow that should be adhered to the feathers is dug out of two grooves, and the use of the hollow groove concave inward to generate vortex resistance, so that the arrow keeps the flight stable, so as to save the expensive bird feathers. However, don't underestimate this small improvement, the bird feathers used on the arrows are not only expensive, once damaged, they cannot be repaired, and the source is extremely unstable, and they have to be glued with fish bladder glue, bone glue or leather glue, which is time-consuming and expensive to manufacture and difficult to ensure production. The manufacturing cost of Wind Feather Arrow is not only much lower, but also saves manufacturing time and ensures continuous output, and it can also allow the Xuzhou army to squander and use a large number of arrows, and further improve the long-range attack power of the Xuzhou army.

Of course, the Wind Feather Arrow also has its fatal drawback, that is, it requires extremely high precision in manufacturing, and at the same time, the effect of maintaining balance is not as good as that of ordinary Feather Arrow. Therefore, in order to manufacture and equip the wind feather arrow, the Xuzhou army not only repeated thousands of experiments to find out the most ideal groove specifications, but also invested a huge amount of money in the training of craftsmen, and arranged a special person to supervise the production of the wind feather arrow, in order to ensure the production accuracy of the wind feather arrow, and reproduce the standardized production of weapons of the strong Qin army in those years.

At the same time, in view of the fact that the accurate surname of the wind feather arrow is not as good as the ordinary feather arrow, Tao Ying took great pains to make adjustments, and decided to let the gentleman army, which has been expanded to 1,500 people, continue to use ordinary feather arrows, and other teams mix and match ordinary feather arrows and wind feather arrows, and form a separate crossbow team named the Wind Feather Army, specializing in the use of wind feather arrows, so that the cheap and easy to produce wind feather arrows with the ultra-long range of strong crossbows, and then combined with the three-stage shooting of the crossbowmen of the Qin army, which has been gradually forgotten, to create a cheap and powerful rain of crossbow arrows on the battlefield, so as to promote their strengths and avoid their weaknesses, try to avoid the weakness of the Xuzhou army in close combat, and give full play to the human, material and financial advantages of the Xuzhou army.

Getting back to the point, when the standardized wind feather arrows began to be produced in large quantities, they received the news of the elite of the Quananji Ling sent by Chen Zhifei's pigeon biography, and the double happiness came to the door together, of course, our deputy director Tao was overjoyed, and immediately decided to reward Chen Zhi and Xie Yan and other meritorious soldiers, and said with a smile: "Okay, with this big victory at the bottom, I can sleep a little more steadily, and those uneasy and kind-hearted neighbors in our north should also be honest with me." ”

"Lord, forgive me, I'm afraid that my lord laughed too early." Chen Deng bowed his hand and warned Tao Ying: "The great victory in Huaiyin can certainly make our northern neighbors dare not peep at the five counties of Xuzhou at will, but it may not make them honest, and maybe it will backfire and make our neighbors more uneasy." ”

"What does Yuan Long mean by this?" Tao Ying asked in surprise: "Our army's Huaiyin victory has greatly reduced the pressure on the southern front, and the main force no longer has to worry about fighting on two fronts and being attacked on the back of the belly, why will our neighbors in the north not stop?" ”

"Lord, you are a wise man, you must have a mistake, and you missed Yuan Shu's reaction." Chen Deng replied with a smile: "Yuan Shu is a small-bellied chicken intestine, and he will repay him, he has suffered such a big loss in Huaiyin, can he just give up?" At that time, if Yuan Shu mentions the army of the nest to attack, even if the lord is not afraid, our northern neighbors will also feel that there is an opportunity to take advantage of it, and they will be even more unwilling to give up. ”

After listening to Chen Deng's analysis and thinking about it carefully, Tao Ying also felt that he was indeed a little too optimistic, his own army annihilated Ji Ling's elite, but only cut off one of Yuan Shu's arms, Yuan Shu's huge team is still there, although these enemies are mostly rabble, but if Yuan Shu pours out to attack, he must also mobilize the main force to have any hope of winning, and once his main force goes south, he is afraid that his old man will be the first to lose his breath.

Worried, Tao Ying hurriedly asked Chen Deng: "Yuanlong, since you have seen through the situation, do you have a way to help me resolve the crisis?" ”

"It's not that hard." Chen Deng replied with a smile: "Ji Ling's whole army was annihilated, Yuan Shu's rear army was blocked by the flood, and he could not continue to attack Huaiyin to cut off the north-south connection of Xuzhou, even if Yuan Shu was dispatched, there were only two targets to choose from, Guangling and Pengcheng, but no matter whether Yuan Shu came north to fight Pengcheng or went east to fight Guangling, Chen Ji's 60,000 army needs to be recalled to prepare again, so our army still has a little time to respond." If during this period, let the father-in-law of the lord be completely disappointed in Yuan Shu, concentrate on entangling with Cao Ying, and then kill the rabble of the disgusting lord of Xuande Gong, our north will be as stable as Mount Tai. ”

"Let my father-in-law be completely disappointed in Yuan Shu? Kill the newly formed rabble of Xuande Gong? How to do it? Tao Ying asked with a wink of triangular eyes.

"It's not hard." Chen Deng smiled more dangerously than Tao Ying, and said in a low voice: "You know, my lord, in order to spy on the news of our army, Xuande Gong arranged that one in Xuzhou City, and Lu Wenhou also used the excuse of convenience to contact him, so that his envoy Xu Yan was stationed in this Xuzhou City for a long time. In that case, why didn't the lord let them rejoice first......? ”

……………… That night, Mi Zizhong, the former Xuzhou Commander Mi Zizhong, who had been living in seclusion, suddenly received a special invitation -- the new Xuzhou Thorn Shi Tao Ying Tao envoy invited Mi Zhu to Xuzhou East Gate Primary School early the next morning to participate in the formation ceremony of the Xuzhou New Army Fengyu Army. Mi Zhu was reluctant to go, but he couldn't resist the repeated persuasion of the officials under Tao Yuanjun, so he finally nodded and agreed, and came to the small school field formed by the Junzi Army last year the next morning to participate in this grand event.

To Mi Zhu's surprise, Xu Yan, the envoy sent by Lu Wenhou to contact the Xuzhou army, also appeared at the ceremony, and the two had to be hypocritical and polite when they met, but they were really puzzled in their hearts, Tao Xiao, who has always regarded military secrets as more important than the root of his life, how could he be so generous today, and even risked leaking military information, so that he could also come to visit the Fengyu Army, which is known as the ace of infantry warfare? Is there some conspiracy in this?

The completion ceremony of the 1,200-strong Fengyu Army was similar to last year's Gentlemen's Army ceremony, and it was all about the Xuzhou Thorn Shi coming forward to say nonsense such as loyalty to the monarch and patriotism - the biggest difference was that the Xuzhou Thorn Shi was replaced. And when Tao Ying finished reading the stinky and long speech prepared by Xu Fang, a famous man in Xuzhou, something that surprised Xu Yan and Mi Zhu even more happened, Tao Ying actually ordered the Feng Yu Army to train the lineup and practice actual combat in front of them and the onlookers.

In fact, Tao Ying had nothing to hide in the tactics of the Wind Feather Army, according to Xu Sheng's command banner, the Wind Feather Army team in the simulated march first assembled urgently, and then pushed the long shield to the front to defend against arrows, and the three teams of the Wind Feather Army behind took turns to load the arrows and stepped forward, shot the Wind Feather Arrow with a strong crossbow, and shot the queue of straw men one hundred and fifty steps ahead, and shot the hundreds of straw men into hedgehogs and called it a day, ending this simulated actual battle.

After watching the actual combat drill of the Wind Feather Army, Xu Yan and Mi Zhu, who were very close to each other on the VIP stage, inevitably looked at each other, not knowing where this Wind Feather Army was special, and even suspected that Tao Ying was deliberately showing weakness, and wanted to use their own mouths to tell some people that the Wind Feather Army was not to be afraid, and then the Wind Feather Army would highlight strange moves on the battlefield like the Gentleman's Army, and kill the enemy by surprise.

In the middle of the fox's suspicion, Tao Xiaozhijun had already led Lu Su, Chen Deng, Xu Chu and several other Xuzhou upstarts to come over, and took the initiative to greet Xu Yan and Mi Zhu, and the two hurriedly returned the courtesy suite, Tao Ying asked with a smile: "Mr. Shaoxian, Mr. Zizhong, what do you think of my Fengyu Army?" Can you be brave? ”

"What a man of bears and tigers." Mi Zhu said that he was not right.

"This ......." Xu Yan is a strategist under the account of Tao Ying's father-in-law, Lu Wenhou, his status is relatively noble, and he dares to speak directly, so after a little hesitation, Xu Yan still said frankly: "Don't blame you, forgive me for being clumsy, so that the wonder of Jun's Fengyu army is really not seen in Xia, and I feel that it is no different from ordinary strong crossbowmen." ”

"Mr. Shaoxian is really a confessor." Tao Ying laughed and said, "Don't hide it from Mr. Shaoxian, the combat method of the Wind Feather Army is indeed the same as that of ordinary strong crossbowmen, but only now, in the future, the Wind Feather Army will add a special equipment." ”

Xu Yan and Mi Zhu nodded together, and said in their hearts, this is right, when did you kid ever make friends with outsiders? Tao Ying smiled again: "Mr. Shaoxian, Mr. Zizhong, in fact, there is another special feature of my Wind Feather Army, you have seen it with your own eyes, but I don't know if you have noticed?" ”

"What's so special about it?" Xu Yan and Mi Zhu were both very surprised, and after looking at it carefully for a long time, Xu Yan finally realized that the situation was wrong, and blurted out: "Envoy, why don't the crossbow arrows of the Fengyu army have arrow feathers?" ”

Tao Ying laughed again, Xu Yan and Mi Zhu were extremely nervous - they had all played with bows and crossbows, of course, they knew how crucial it was for crossbow arrows to save arrow feathers, and they also vaguely guessed Tao Ying's true intentions, which was to demonstrate to the people behind them, warning the people behind them that the Xuzhou army not only had the cavalry trump card of the Junzi Army, but also the infantry trump card of the Fengyu Army, so if it was okay, it was best not to trouble the Xuzhou army!

"Envoy, you and I have a friendship between ...... family."

In a hurry, Xu Yan simply spoke directly, tentatively wanting to see with his own eyes what kind of strange arrows the Wind Feather Army used, how could it shoot so far and accurately without arrow feathers? But before the words were finished, there was a fast horse galloping outside the school field, and the knight was covered in dust and mess, and after dismounting and accepting the identity check of the Xuzhou army, he hurriedly rushed to Tao Ying, knelt down on his knees, and shouted in a hoarse voice: "Lord......." ”

"Where are you the messenger? What is the emergency military situation? Tao Ying asked casually.

The messenger's mouth was open, but before the words came out, tears flowed first, choking so much that he couldn't cry, Tao Ying finally felt that the situation was not good, and quickly picked him up, and shouted: "Say, what happened?" Say it! ”

"The villain ......, the villain was sent by General Xie Yan of Huaiyin." The messenger wept and showed his identity card, and took out a piece of blood written in a silk book, crying loudly and said: "Lord Qi, Yuan Shu's army suddenly went down the Huai River, raided Xutai and Huaiyin, Xutai fell, General Xie led our army to fight bloodily to resist the enemy, Sima Chenzhi, who went south to Guangling, received the news and led the army back to Huaiyin, never thought that Yuan Shu's army dug the Huaihe River embankment, flooded our army, and Chen Zhi's 5,000 men and horses were annihilated!" General Xie Yan sent the villain back to Xuzhou to report the emergency, and when the villain crossed the Huai River at the risk of death, Huaiyin also fell to ....... ”

Tao Ying was completely stunned, Lu Su and Chen Deng next to him were also stunned, Xu Chu roared like thunder, Xu Yan lowered his head and smiled quietly, Mi Zhu also lowered his head, and the corners of his mouth also showed a little smile............

(To be continued)