Strike while the iron is hot, take advantage of the good opportunity of the collapse of the main force on the north bank of the Qiaorui army, and also take advantage of the God-given opportunity that the Qiaorui army fleet cannot intercept, the Xuzhou fleet that came from the downstream has just crossed the Zhongli wharf and seized the upper reaches of the Huai River, and the Xuzhou army immediately began to cross the river under the personal command of Tao Ying, and the Huaiyin fleet, which could have loaded tens of thousands of soldiers at a time, sailed away from the dock with only more than 5,000 Xuzhou elite soldiers, and swayed and rowed to the south bank, and the rookie general Xie Yan personally led more than 50 light boat warships to protect the ferry, Resist the fireship that the bridge has fought for.

Shen Shizheng, the rush began, more than 100 large and small ships set out one after another, rushing to an open shoal on the opposite bank, the vanguard was of course the trap camp that had already killed the Qiaorui army, and the one who rushed to the front was Xu Chu, who was brave and invincible compared to the Huainan army. And on this shallow beach suitable for landing, it has long been covered with temporary fortifications and antlers to resist horses repaired by the Qiaorui army, and the red-eyed Qiaorui also disregarded the low morale, desperately dispatched 10,000 fresh troops on the south bank of the Huai River, relying on the temporary fortifications to fortify layer by layer, gambling on the last old capital on the battlefield of Zhongli to prevent the Xuzhou army from crossing the river, and dispatched all the fireboats that could be dispatched, fighting desperately in the case of unfavorable wind direction and water flow, in a vain attempt to delay the crossing speed of the Xuzhou army.

When Xu Chu's boat was the first to land on the south bank against the overwhelming rain of arrows, the battle across the river started on the north bank and the river at the same time, Xu Chu jumped off the beach with a long shield in his hand, and took the lead in killing the defenders after the fortifications, and the soldiers in the camp behind them also jumped down the shallow water of the beach like dumplings under the leadership of Gao Shun, shouting to kill the defenders, bows and arrows in the sky came and went like locusts, and from time to time there were arrows in the camp soldiers who were not in the middle of the range, but whether they had been hit by arrows or not in the camp soldiers, They are all dancing shields and steel knives and charging non-stop.

On the river, one after another the fireboats rushed to the Xuzhou fleet under the daredevils of the Qiaorui Army, and they were greeted by the dense bows and crossbows of the Xuzhou rookie sailors, and a large number of expensive rockets were used at any cost. Choked by the smoke, the fireboat lost control and was swept downstream by the current, the flames on the river soared into the sky, and the shouts of killing shook the earth.

The location of the downstream and the changeable wind direction in midsummer are unfavorable to the fireships of the Qiaorui army, and it is destined to be impossible to cause fatal damage to the ferry of the Xuzhou army, but if the Xuzhou army wants to really break through the Huaihe River defense line of the Qiaorui army, the most critical point is to gain a firm foothold on the south bank, so the main battlefield of the river crossing battle is always on the landing shoal of the Xuzhou army, and the dying and struggling Qiaorui army is so tightly guarded by the shallows, brave as Xu Chu, Gao Shun and the soldiers of the trapped camp are very difficult to attack. So much so that even when Xu Chu, who had a long shield to protect himself, was the first to rush to the front of the Qiaorui army, he had already been hit by two arrows in his body.

The antlers of the Qiao Rui army are very densely repaired, the antlers are also protected by a fence, the spearmen are hiding behind the fence and just stabbing indiscriminately, Xu Chu can't cut them with a short knife, several charges were frantically stabbed by more than a dozen spears to retreat, and finally Xu Chu also came to the fire, simply shrunk behind the long shield, roared with a shield to hit the antlers in front of him, the wooden antlers collided with the long shield covered with iron sheets and broke off in response, several stabbing spears were also blocked by the shield, Xu Chu continued to push forward, roared all over the body, and the antlers flew up by the roots, Slammed into the fence, the sharp horns stabbed several of the Bridge soldiers behind the fence.

"Zhongkang, come back!"

Gao Shun finally led the trapping camp brigade to rush up, while yelling at Xu Chu to retreat, while letting the soldiers light the flying muskets they brought with them, dozens of flying muskets spewed out flames more than a foot long, waving to burn the bridge soldiers behind the fence, the soldiers of the bridge army who saw this kind of fire-breathing weapon for the first time screamed and retreated, and the rest of the trapping camp soldiers stepped forward one after another, using hemp rope to cover the fence or antlers to resist the horse, and between the hard pulling, row after row of antlers were uprooted, Xu Chu grabbed a hemp rope tied to the fence alone, shouted loudly, and the green tendons on his forehead burst out, and his hands used the divine power of lifting the two bulls back then, uprooting a fence that was more than three feet long and flying into the sky.

"Kill!" Finally opened a way forward, of course, the soldiers of the trapped camp were thunderous with joy, and they killed the soldiers of the Bridge Rui Army behind the fence like crazy, and they only had the courage to fight against the soldiers of the trapped camp by relying on the protection of the fortifications, and the soldiers of the Qiao Rui Army were all scattered, scrambling to run for their lives, and the supervision team sent by Qiao Rui and Wang Yuan couldn't even stop them. The soldiers of the trapped camp drove forward for a long time, rushed to the rear of the fence and cut melons and vegetables, and the soldiers of the Xuzhou army who landed in the rear also took advantage of the momentum to rush up, smashed the fortifications and killed the soldiers of the bridge army, and quickly seized a large piece of beachhead.

At the same time, the first batch of Xuzhou sailors who had unloaded their soldiers had gone down the river and vacated the landing site, and the second batch of ships quickly docked, and the Xuzhou soldiers on the ships jumped on the shallows one after another, racing against time to assemble into a team, and the number of Xuzhou soldiers on the south bank quickly reached more than 3,000 people. Seeing this scene, the main force of Xuzhou on the other side of the river, which was nervously watching the battle on the south bank, was of course full of cheers, and the Qiaorui army, which had already been killed by the Xuzhou army on the north bank, was all like earth, and even Wang Yuan, the defender of Zhongli City, was shocked, and couldn't help but run to Qiao Rui and tremble and asked: "General, the Xuzhou thief army has successfully landed, what should I do?" What to do? ”

"What to do? Cold! Qiao Rui yelled angrily, and pointed to the shoal position and shouted: "There are still two fences, we still have a chance!" You will personally lead the troops to supervise the battle, and those who retreat will be beheaded immediately! After the roar, Qiao Rui hurriedly asked his own soldiers to give an order, asking the archers to speed up the release of arrows, even if they broke their fingers, they should release as many feather arrows as possible.

When Wang Yuan led the team to the front line in fear, the defeated soldiers guarding the first fence had been trapped in the camp and pushed to the front of the second line of defense, and the general Yuan Shujun in charge of the second line of defense was afraid of repeating the mistakes of the past and being overwhelmed by the defeated soldiers, not only did not open the movable fence to let the defeated soldiers retreat to the second line of defense, but also simply nailed the fence door to the ground, and ordered the defenders of the second line of defense to stab and release arrows, forcing the defeated soldiers to turn back and fight to the death.

In this way, it was completely bitter and unfortunately was defeated by the Yuan Shu army at the front, the front was the dense feather arrows and spears and halberds of his own team, and the rear was the trap camp that killed the red eyes and did not even accept the prisoners, caught in the middle and could not advance or retreat, no matter how to cry and beg in vain, it was in vain, and he was killed by his own companions and the trap camp is a river of blood, and the corpse was also spread a thick layer in front of the antlers of the second line of defense, which was shocking.

In fact, for the army crossing the river, as long as the ferry can ensure that the army is sent to the opposite shore in an endless stream, then the most difficult to fight is actually only the enemy's first line of defense, Xu Chu and the trap camp joined forces to break through the first line of defense of Yuan Shu's army, the Xuzhou army behind it gained landing space, and the new army can also go ashore in an endless stream, which can not only rescue the wounded and rotate the charge, but also can suppress the enemy's archers with bows and arrows, reducing the pressure on the first-line army. Therefore, even if Yuan Shujun increased the strength of his bow and arrows, with the cover of the Xuzhou archers, he also pulled the bow and released arrows and specially released arrows at Yuan Shujun's bow and arrow team, and the density of Yuan Shujun's bows and arrows was still sparse again.

After getting the cover of bows and arrows, Xu Chu and Gao Shun's breakthrough speed also accelerated a lot, concentrating their forces to clear the defeated troops of Yuan Shu's army on a section of the defensive line, and the trapped camp quickly repeated the old tricks, first suppressing the defenders behind the fence with flying muskets, and then quickly took the rope and stepped forward to trap the antlers to resist the horse, and then pulled hard to pull out these annoying antlers, and then went to pull the fence again. Seeing this situation, the king, who was ordered to defend to the death, was in a hurry, and hurriedly led the overseer team to come up, wielding a knife to slash his own soldiers who were screaming and fleeing by the flying muskets, forcing the soldiers to come forward to stop him, and in a hurry, he personally stepped forward and swung his knife to cut the rope that had been put on the fence.

"Whoa!" At this time, a feather arrow suddenly broke through the air, impartially in the left eye of Wang Yuan, poor General Wang Yuan screamed and fell to the ground, grabbing the arrow shaft to pull out the arrow but did not dare to pull it out, just screamed in despair. At the same time, in the trapped camp team, the second group of people surnamed Cao, who led the army to land, put down the bow and arrow in his hand and muttered, "Strange? Why is it the left eye again? I put three arrows today, why did I shoot them all in the left eye? ”

Poor General Wang Yuan was seriously injured by an arrow and fell to the ground, the supervising team hurriedly stepped forward to rescue, and the surrounding Yuan Shujun soldiers were suddenly amnesty, running clean three times and two times, Xu Chu and dozens of trapped camp soldiers took the opportunity to rise up to the divine power, and pulled up a section of the fence to fly up to the roots, and the trapped camp soldiers cheered and shouted, swarming into the second line of defense, and not only cut down the Yuan Shujun supervision team that had no time to retreat, but also trampled the poor General Wang Yuan into meat sauce.

The second line of defense was broken through again, even Qiao Rui knew that the general trend had gone, and then held the last line of hope to see the battlefield in the center of the river, but saw that the Xuzhou rookie sailors relied on the advantages of the upstream, and had already forced to the south bank wharf, arson everywhere with rockets and torches, igniting many fireboats next to the wharf that could not find so many death squads to drive, the flames next to the wharf were soaring, the smoke was billowing, and the soldiers guarding the wharf ran to escape the fire, not to mention driving the fireboat to block the Xuzhou army from crossing the river, it was difficult to board the fireboat.

"There is no hope, we can only prioritize keeping the army." Sighing secretly in his heart again, Qiao Rui turned around and ordered a few henchmen to let them lead the rest of the reserves to withdraw to Zhongli City first, and immediately start arranging the battle to defend the city, and hurriedly sent messengers to let the messengers rush back to Dangtu to report the news, so that the defenders in that area immediately abandoned the riverbank position and withdrew to Dangtu City to defend behind closed doors - the section of the Zhongli River has been broken through by the Xuzhou army, and the partial division stationed in Dangtu is not only meaningless to stay in the field, but also to die in vain.

The battle of crossing the river was fought from Shen Shizheng until it was slightly dark, until the Xuzhou army broke through the third line of defense, and the dejected Qiao Rui hurriedly led the remnants of the defeated army to retreat to Zhongli City to defend the city, and the Xuzhou army that broke through the Huai River defense line did not have time to transport siege weapons such as thunderbolts across the river, and did not launch a pursuit, but quickly transported more fresh troops across the river to consolidate the position on the south bank, and at the same time seized the time to repair the pontoon bridge, so that the grain and grass and baggage could cross the river smoothly.

It took only one day to kill the main force on the north bank of Yuan Shu's army and break through the Huai River defense line, the battle went smoothly to this point, the Xuzhou army up and down of course are smiling, Tao Ying also complied with the requirements of the masses, ordered to reward the three armies, to the soldiers and people, and rewarded today's hard work Xu Chu and the trapped camp team, so that the Xuzhou team once again erupted in the earth-shattering cheers.

While the Xuzhou army cheered up and down, Deputy Director Tao, the commander of the Xuzhou army, did not have much smile on his face, just the opposite, when he looked at the brightly lit Zhongli city wall on the other side of the riverbank, Tao Ying's handsome little face still had a trace of worry. Lu Su next to him saw Tao Ying's expression by the light of the torch, and couldn't help but ask curiously, "Why is the lord so worried?" Is it worried about the next siege? ”

"I'm not worried about siege battles, our army has thunderbolts, as long as there is enough time, it will be easy to break through Zhongli Town." Tao Ying shook his head, and said lightly: "What I'm worried about is that our opponent is Qiao Rui. ”

"Yes, Qiao Rui is a respectable opponent." Lu Su nodded and said: "Today's battle, although Qiao Rui is a defeated general of our army, but after the fiasco on the north bank, Qiao Rui can quickly organize the defeated troops to resist our army to cross the river, causing many troubles and casualties to our army. ”

"In addition to his tenacity, what worries me more is his calm and calm in defeat." Tao Ying said: "Zijing, have you paid attention? What was the first move of the bridge when our troops broke through the enemy's camp on the north bank today? It was to immediately organize the withdrawal of the army from the river, and also to let the best-equipped team cross the river first. What does it mean that after our troops broke through his two lines of defences, his first move was to immediately let the reserves retreat back to the city, and then immediately began to strengthen the city defenses? ”

"What does that mean?" Lu Su asked rhetorically.

"This shows that Qiao Rui is always calm and always fighting around a tactical center." Tao replied: "His tactical center is to delay our advance as much as possible, drag us into the quagmire of long-term hard fighting and hard fighting, and also mobilize the troops of the western and southern fronts for Yuan Shu to reinforce the northern front. So he can be defeated, or he can be defeated again and again, but he will never take out all the capital at one time, but will only eat the defeat, while leaving as much spare strength as possible, leaving the capital for the next battle, haunting us with a ghost, forcing our army to defeat him again and again, and also tempting our army to waste precious time in one victory after another. ”

"The lord's concern is justified." Lu Su echoed: "If we don't hurry up and quickly take a few Huainan cities to gain a foothold and get food, and wait until Yuan Shupifu gathers the main forces of the western and southern fronts to go north, then we will be dragged into the quagmire of a war of attrition." Although the combat power of our army is stronger than that of the Huainan army, but Yuan Shupifu is exhausted, there are too many troops in the territory, and there are more ants to bite the elephant to death. ”

"Yes, the best way is to break Yuan Shu's rescuers from all walks of life before Yuan Shu gathers troops from all over the country." Tao Ying gritted his teeth and said: "So, we must hurry up, first take down one or two Huainan cities to gain a foothold and food, and then try to beat the time difference between Yuan Shupifu and eat his rescuers one by one!" ”

"The lord is clever, the number of cavalry in our army is better than that of Yuan Shupifu, and the speed of the gentleman's army is the first in the world, and the tactics of each breakthrough are suitable for our army's specialty!" Lu Su applauded and patted his ass, and then Lu Su suggested again: "My lord, Su suggests that after our army crosses the Huai River on all fronts, immediately encircle Zhongli City, concentrate thunderbolts to bombard Zhongli City Wall, take Zhongli to gain a foothold, and annihilate the remnants of Qiaorui by the way!" ”

"No, you can't fight like that!" Tao Ying shook his head decisively, and said with a cruel smile: "Qiao Rui is too tenacious, and too rational, if we attack Zhongli, he will definitely defend and even fight in the street at any cost, even if we have a thunderbolt in hand, it will be difficult to take Zhongli City without seven or eight days!" Moreover, Zhongli City is too small, there is definitely not much food in the city, and the location is relatively remote, which is not suitable for us to be a foothold and a place to find food! So Zhongli didn't fight, and he didn't force it! ”

"So where to hit?" Lu Su asked, then quickly came to his senses and blurted out: "Could it be that the lord wants to fight as a tu?" ”

"That's right, Dangtu!" Tao Ying nodded vigorously and said with a smile: "Our army has made a careful investigation very clearly, Qiao Rui is to concentrate the main force on the Zhongli battlefield, although there are 10,000 partial divisions on the battlefield of Dangtu, but there are not many elites, and the combat effectiveness is far inferior to the Zhongli defenders, and the strength is definitely not as good as Qiao Rui." And once our army takes Dangtu, it can not only shorten the grain road by fifty or sixty miles, but also threaten the two important towns of Xiquyang and Yinling at the same time. ”

At the same time on the Zhongli city wall, General Qiao Rui, who was admired by Tao Yingdu, ignored the fatigue of the war just ended, while personally supervising the soldiers and people on the Zhongli city wall to strengthen the city defense, while pinching his fingers to calculate the time, feeling that as long as he held on for about seven days, Xiao Yuan Sangong could divide his forces to strengthen the defense of Jiujiang towns such as Dangtu, Yinling and Xiquyang; As long as he persists in Zhongli City for half a month, the Liyang Zhang Xun army, who is always ready for war, can calmly go north to reinforce, and if Zhang Xun's actions can be accelerated, then in about ten days, Zhang Xun's rescue troops will be able to arrive at the Zhongli battlefield.

"There is hope." After finishing the careful calculation, the indomitable General Qiao Rui cheered himself up again in his heart and said: "No matter whether Tao Ying's thief is surrounded by three and missing one, or Zhongli is surrounded by water, I have to persevere, as long as I hold on, the Huainan army will have a turnaround!" ”

At noon the next day, when the Xuzhou army crossed the Huai River, not only did not attack or surround Zhongli City, but also simply pulled out the camp to the west, and the whole army killed in the direction of Dangtu to the west of Zhongli, and the Xuzhou fleet also set off together, sailing upstream to the upper reaches of the Huai River, ignoring the remnants of Qiaorui who were desperately strengthening the city defense!

Discovered this situation, the frightened General Qiao Rui was forced to be helpless, so he had to lead five thousand troops out of the city and rush to the rescue of Dangtu forty miles away, the result was of course, General Qiao Rui had not gone out of the city for ten miles, so that all the unfortunate and unfortunate enemies of Deputy Director Tao had already appeared in the south of his team, and after a struggle, General Qiao Rui, who could not catch up with the Gentlemen's Army, had to ignore the disturbance of the Gentlemen's Army, and led the demoralized team entangled by the Gentlemen's Army to the west. However, Tao Ying, who had already received the news, calmly sent Zang Ba to lead the army to intercept, and the Junzi Army also killed from the flanks like a leper dog, and then Zang Ba attacked head-on, the Junzi Army was harassed on the flanks and behind, and the demoralized Qiao Rui was defeated, so he had to give up the rescue of Dang Tu, and led the troops to flee to the south of the Yin Ling garrison, and the endurance of the Junzi Army chased all the way to the Yin Ling City, not only so that the poor Qiao Rui suffered more than half of the casualties, but also made the Qiao Rui General unable to send even a messenger who ordered Tu to defend to death.

Without the indomitable bridge to command, entangled and troublesome, the Xuzhou army attacked Dangtu The battle went very smoothly, twenty thunderbolts bombarded the city wall of Dangtu only for most of the day, and the army collapsed when the Tu defenders had already opened the city and surrendered, and at the same time, more than 3,000 people from the Song Xian team to the north of the waterway also surrendered the small city of Yicheng on the north bank of the Dangtu River, and opened up the shortest grain road from Peiguo to Huainan for the Xuzhou army.

Immediately afterwards, Tao Ying left Zang Ba to sit in the town of Tu, and led the army south non-stop, directly attacking Xiquyang, which was also only forty miles away, and at the same time let the surrendered Yuan Shujun step forward to open the way, pretending to be defeated and fleeing to Xiquyang, Xiquyang guard Liang Gang did not know what was the plan to accept these defeated soldiers, but when the Xuzhou army came to the city, these defeated soldiers set fire to the city overnight, and the well-prepared Xuzhou army took the opportunity to attack the city, and took Xiquyang with all the might. As soon as Qiao Rui, who received the news and rushed to the rescue, left Yinling City, he immediately encountered the gentleman's army that was more ghostly than him, and when the poor General Qiao Rui finally got rid of the entanglement and rushed to the city of Xiquyang, the banner of the evil pottery character was already floating on the city of Xiquyang, and Liang Gang, who was forced to abandon the city and flee for his life............ The Xuzhou army broke through the Huai River defense line in just over five days, and successively took the three cities of Xiquyang, Dangtu and Yicheng, the news was transmitted back to Shouchun, and the little Yuan Sangong, who was still waiting for reinforcements from the west and south lines, finally panicked, in addition to desperately reinforcing the Shouchun city defense and the Feishui defense line on the periphery, and then there was ignoring the resolute opposition of the lord Bo Yanxiang, and he was in a hurry to listen to the advice of his cousin Yuan Yin and Changshi Shushao, and sent a messenger to Runan, and went south to rescue Liu Huangshu, the rival of Deputy Director Tao............

(To be continued)