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September 18 of the first year of Great Qin II. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ╔╗

The harsh winter has arrived, but Chen County, Dangjun and other places on the north bank of the Huai River are a hot scene.

Even on a cold winter night, the red fire still reflects the sky on the north bank of the Huai River as if it were day. The thick white mist rising from the sky shrouded the entire north bank of the Huai River into a dreamlike place.

Two years ago, under the order of Hu Hai, Shouchun's more than 100,000 Chu troops were under the surveillance of tens of thousands of White Tiger soldiers, left Shouchun to cross the Huai River and were transferred to two Qin army camps on the north bank of the Huai River in batches.

The White Tiger Army, which had only crossed the Huai River and reached Shouchun for less than three years, returned to the north bank of the Huai River again, together with the more than 100,000 Chu soldiers who had been captured by crossing the river with Xiang Liang before, and the White Tiger Army, which had nearly 90,000 troops, became the local troops guarding the surrender of the almost 300,000 Chu troops.

And the nearly 300,000 Chu soldiers gathered together will be reorganized into a huge construction corps, and they will rush to clean up the two counties and the few county towns on the ground of Chen County and Dang County, which have become a land of ruins, and build simple houses enough for hundreds of thousands of people to live in, and clean up the corpses that can be seen everywhere on the ground of the two counties, so that the hundreds of thousands of people in the two counties who are about to return to their hometowns can survive this winter in peace. ╔╗

The five legions, because of the use of a large number of new weapons such as armor, crossbow machines, etc., arranged at least hundreds of Shangfang craftsmen in each legion to accompany the army. Bi Jing, although these new types of weapons have been finalized, they are much more expensive and complex in structure than the crossbow machines and armor used by the Qin army before, and once damaged, they must be repaired by special entry.

Among the two major legions of the White Tiger Army and the Blue Dragon Army, there were nearly 800 Shangfang craftsmen who went out with the army. With the basic pacification of Chu, they also have a new role.

Whether it's building a house or clearing the ruins of a city in the two counties and repairing the city walls, you'll need a professional tool of iron that can be measured. Otherwise, these 300,000 Chu soldiers could only dig raw and dry on the frozen and stiff ground with their hands.

With Hu Hai's edict, these nearly 800 Shangfang craftsmen have been directly converted from military to civilian use. Fortunately, the tools inside the shovel and hoe are extremely simple. There were also simple drawings that Hu Hai had airlifted, and these craftsmen of Shangfang had no difficulty in casting these things.

For all the weapons and armor confiscated by the Chu army, Shangfang craftsmen built a simple smelting iron furnace on the north bank of the Huai River, and put the confiscated Chu army weapons into the furnace and then smelted them and then cast them into shovels, hoes and other various things for these Chu army soldiers to use. ╔╗

In addition to these iron-making furnaces, there are also a large number of more than 1,000 brick kilns on the north bank of the Huai River. These kilns fired a variety of bricks and tiles, which were used to build walls and houses.

And these brick kilns are also an experiment for Hu Hai. If the bricks fired were durable and wear-resistant, it would be clear that the difficulties faced by Hu Hai's idea of preparing to transform the entire Daqin road would be greatly reduced.

It is obviously impossible for simple cement to be used on thousands or even tens of thousands of miles of roads. Not to mention the viscosity of the cement that appears in Daqin and whether it can withstand long-term wind and sunburn, just transportation and firing are a problem.

However, if simple brick kilns are built everywhere, and the road is built directly with moderately sized bricks and stones, not only will the process be much simpler, but the speed will also be greatly accelerated. Once the road surface is damaged, it can be replaced with new masonry, which will be much easier to maintain or build.

At the same time, hundreds of thousands of people in Dangjun and Chen County, who were taken back to Jiujiang by Xiang Liang, also began to register in Shouchun, preparing to return to their homeland. Among them, more than 100,000 young people will be the first batch of people to return to the north bank of the Huai River. ╔╗

With these hundreds of thousands of people, plus nearly 300,000 Chu soldiers, basically the reconstruction of Chen County and Dang County will not lack of force.

Countless supplies and food and warm clothes from all over Guanzhong continued to go south along the old road of Wei and Han, along with thousands of selected officials at all levels. Not long after these officials left Xianyang, Zheng Guo, the ruler of the army, and more than 300 sailors also left Xianyang and began to go south.

With the advent of severe winter, many water systems in Daqin have entered a dry period, and the same is true for the Huai River.

It was Hu Hai's edict that hundreds of hydraulic engineers led by Zheng Guo, the ruler of the Ming family, and dozens of architects of the Mo family left Xianyang and went south. What these hundreds of water workers will accomplish in the next few months is to explore the selection of one or two suitable places for building bridges on the Huai River, and to build one or two bridges across the Huai River linking Chu and the hinterland of the Central Plains.

If one or two bridges connecting the two banks of the Huai River can really be built on the Huai River, it will be the most magnificent and great construction miracle in the history of China and even the world. At the same time, it can also greatly promote the exchanges between the Central Plains and the Chu region and even the Baiyue barbarians, and promote the rule of Great Qin. ╔╗

Of course, this is only Hu Hai's idea, and whether a bridge can be built on the Huai River under the current conditions still needs to be investigated and demonstrated by Zheng Guo and other hydraulic engineers.

However, Zheng Guo and other hundreds of hydraulic engineers and Mo architects went south, in addition to discussing the feasibility of building a bridge on the Huai River, another thing was to use the Huai River as an experimental object to study a series of things such as river improvement.

The remediation of the Huai River is only the beginning, just to let Zheng Guo and other Daqin hydraulic engineers accumulate experience. With sufficient technical reserves, Huhai will begin to renovate and repair the two major rivers that run through almost the entire land of China, the Yangtze River and the Yellow River.

Of course, the geography and governance of the two major rivers of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River are far greater than those of the Huai River. If Huaihe is not enough for Zheng Guo to accumulate experience and technology, then it doesn't matter. There are countless river networks such as the Huai River, which are not big or small, and Huhai still has time.

But there is always a beginning in everything, no.

After a brief panic at the beginning, the nearly 300,000 captured Chu soldiers have gradually relaxed and are no longer worried that the Qin army will kill them all as they did against the Zhao soldiers.

As for Xiong Xin, Xiang Liang, Zhaotong, Wu Rui and a large number of large and small officials of the Chu State, they were all confined in Shouchun, guarded by Weng Zhong, waiting for the arrival of Hu Hai, the second emperor of Great Qin. ╔╗

The strict military discipline of the Qin army, as well as the fact that the Chu state, including the king of Chu Xiong Xin and the general Xiang Liang, were still alive, so that the somewhat restless Chu land was gradually regaining calm, and everything was developing in the direction that Hu Hai wanted to see.

…… In the harsh winter, the water level in many sections of the lower reaches of the Huai River has dropped to the lowest, revealing patches of black-brown shallows. A cacophony of horses' hooves was heard in the distance, and finally stopped on a shoal.

This is the territory of Guangling County, Donghai County (near Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province in later generations).

Looking at the shallow Huai River, which was no more than a few tens of meters wide, Xiang Yu, whose armor was tattered, his hair was scattered, and he almost became a bloody person, turned over and dismounted, ran to the river bank in a few steps, buried his head in the river, and drank bitterly.

In the lower reaches of Xiang Yu, the same was true of the hundreds of Chu cavalry who entered and were wounded.

From the 100,000 troops before the third death and did not break up everywhere, to now, the 10,000 Jiangdong iron cavalry under Xiang Yu is only less than 100 entered. In the past three years, Xiang Yu's 10,000 iron horsemen have basically never eaten a mouthful of food or slept a night.

The East China Sea and other places that could have been free to relax now seem to be able to meet the Qin army everywhere, and it seems that the Qin army is everywhere.

On September 16, Xiang Yu led the Jiangdong Iron Cavalry, which was less than 10,000 miles left, to rush out of the seemingly airtight but extremely empty encirclement packed by Han Xin, and then went directly south to Guangling, preparing to cross the Huai River from Guangling back to Huiji County, Bi Jing Jiangdong's hometown is the nest of the Xiang clan, and when the future of Shouchun is uncertain, it seems that only Huiji is safe for the time being.

After easily breaking through the false encirclement created by Han Xinxin's 100,000 army, Xiang Yu already knew that he had been tricked, and the Qin army was actually only tens of thousands more than the army under his command, and the Chu army was not without the strength to fight.

It's just that the defeat is like a mountain, and on the chaotic battlefield, the morale of the soldiers of the Chu army, who mistakenly thought that they had been heavily surrounded by the Qin army, had declined to the extreme, and it was no longer possible for Xiang Yu to regroup and urge the army to fight again.

If Zhang Liang hadn't escaped first at that time, or if he hadn't been so pessimistic about Chu Xiang's outcome, maybe Xiang Yu and the 100,000 Chu army would still have a chance of life. Bi Jing, there is Zhang Liang in the rear to coordinate the army, and the scouts of the Chu army can be found four weeks before Han Xin's army appears.

As long as they respond in advance, find out the reality of the Qin army, and give up some of their soldiers to get rid of the entanglement with Feng Zheng's army, they can easily break through Han Xin's empty encirclement. It's just that Zhang Liang's escape made Xiang Yu's 90,000 army fall into the realm of dragons without a leader. And Xiang Yu Benjin led 10,000 Jiangdong iron cavalry to charge into battle in person, and there was no main general, even if the scouts found out that the Qin army appeared, they could not respond in time, because they had no rights and no prestige.

After breaking out of the encirclement, Xiang Yu has never hated a person as much as Jinyao. Zhang Liang's betrayal not only led to the rout of the Chu army on all fronts, but also tantamount to stabbing Xiang Yu in the heart of the already scarred one.

However, Xiang Yu's resentment only lasted for a moment, because Wang Qiao's 10,000 cavalry battalions were already tightly wrapped up like maggots on tarsal bones. After a chase, the cavalry of the Caishi Battalion, who was recuperating and relegating, fought against Xiang Yu's Jiangdong Iron Cavalry who was eager to get out of the battlefield, plus Xiang Yu, Long And, and Yingbu's three fierce generals, and finally Xiang Yu's 10,000 Jiang Iron Cavalry broke through the interception of the cavalry of the Caishi Battalion after losing nearly half of them, and fled in panic.

The cavalry of the 10,000 cavalry battalion under Wang Qiao lost nearly 3,000 yuan.

Compared with the losses, the arrogant cavalry of the Caishi Battalion fell behind. However, it also aroused the competitive spirit of the cavalry of the Caishi Battalion, and the Jiangdong Iron Cavalry, which had less than 5,000 yuan left, followed Xiang Yu all the way south, chasing after him.

The two sides stopped along the road from Xutai to Guangling, stopping at the corpses of soldiers entangled all the way. Among them, there are cavalry of the material battalion, and there are also Jiangdong iron cavalry. By the second day, that is, on September 17, Xu Chuang, who had come to the aid of Han Xin Feng Zheng, also led tens of thousands of light cavalry of the Qinglong Army to arrive, and followed the route of the two armies to catch up.

In the face of tens of thousands of dragon spirits and tiger fierce light cavalry of the Qinglong Army equipped with saddles, stirrups and horseshoes, if it were not for Xu Chuang's Qinglong Army Lian Xian Xian and needed to rest, and the defeat of the Chu army was decided, Xiang Yu would not have been able to go to Guangling at all.

However, listening to the roar of horses' hooves getting closer and denser in the distance, looking at the empty Huai River rolling eastward and the hundreds of Jiangdong cavalry around him who were barely in shape, Xiang Yu knew that it was impossible for him to go again.