After the beginning of spring, the water level of the Huaihe River rose and expanded a lot to both sides. Since the Dongqi Navy's fleet appeared on the Huaihe River, the traffic between the north and the south has been completely cut off.
The Dongqi Navy is known as the largest navy in the world today. If it was still a bit boastful in the past, but after defeating the Donghai Navy, the Qi Navy has become the strongest navy worthy of the name. Looking at the world, no navy can compare with it. After the defeat of the Donghai Navy, the Huaihe River became the back garden of the Dongqi Navy, where you can come and go as you please.
After the defeat of the Donghai Navy, the main force of the Chu army was trapped in the north of the Huaihe River. The imperial court immediately mobilized many troops and horses from the Huainan area. In fact, these troops and horses were mainly composed of local soldiers and city guards, plus temporary recruitment of civilians. Tens of thousands of troops were gathered together, and watchtowers were built at regular intervals along the south bank of the Huai River to guard against the Eastern Qi navy's landing and harassment.
Although the Dongqi Navy is invincible on the water, and every sailor is one to five on the water, its strength is not too large.
After all, the Qi State is a small country with few people, and its national power is far from being comparable to the other two countries. The annual taxes it receives are limited. However, the king of Qi State is a man who cares about face. Although he is only the king of a small country, his food, clothing, housing and transportation are extremely extravagant. The Imperial Palace of Qi State in Linzi City has spent a lot of money over the years. Every year, the state treasury has to bear the huge expenses of the monarch of Qi State. If Linghu Xu and other civil servants had not tried their best to dissuade them, Qi State would have started to increase taxes on the people. The monarch has spent a lot of money, and We cannot increase taxes too much to increase the burden on the people and arouse popular unrest, so Qi's treasury is always very empty.
Maintaining a navy requires a huge amount of money. Building an ordinary warship costs a lot of money. The Dongqi Navy has dozens of warships, large and small. Maintaining these warships every year is a huge expense.
If it weren't for Shen Tuluo, the Eastern Qi navy would have been reduced for a time. With Shen Tuluo's insistence, the Eastern Qi navy maintained a strong strength, and its strength has not increased for many years. This is of course because the king of Qi didn't want to do it because of Dong Qi. The navy increased the burden on the country because Shen Tuluo always used troops more expensively than more expensively.
The sailors under Shentu Luo are all good at water and are brave and good at fighting. Each sailor must undergo rigorous training to become a real Dong Qi sailor.
Although Shentu Luo trained his troops rigorously, he treated them like sons. Although he was the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Qi navy, he lived on the boat all year round, eating and living with his officers and soldiers. He was deeply respected by his subordinates, and it was precisely because of his role in the navy. Prestige, after Linzi city was destroyed, this navy army still followed him. Even if the country was destroyed, they still insisted on following the governor and striving to restore the country.
But the sailors knew that the situation they were in was very bad.
The food distributed every day has become less and less. These sailors are all strong and strong. It is difficult for everyone to fill their stomachs with the little food. Some people can only drink more water from the Huaihe River to fill their stomachs.
Everyone knows that although this navy still bears the name of the Dongqi Navy, it is no longer the original Dongqi Navy. It does not have the material supplies from the court, and there is no dock to dock. It is more like a group of people drifting on the water. Like water bandits.
No matter how brave or loyal a person is, he must have a full stomach.
But everyone knew very well that the fleet's supplies were getting less and less, and the only remaining food could not last long, otherwise the governor would not have sent several teams ashore to search for food.
However, the Chu people had withdrawn from the south bank of the Huaihe River to the north, and the remaining villages were empty. Not to mention food, it was hard to find even a chicken feather. In order to find food, more than a dozen sailors even went deep into the territory of Chu State, but were captured by Chu. When the Chinese found out, they were all killed.
It is rumored that the court of the Chu State issued a decree that whether it was the officers and soldiers of the Chu State or the people of the Chu State, if they killed or even arrested the Dong Qi sailors who landed ashore, not only would they be rewarded heavily, but they could even get an official position. Because of this , many brave civilians have begun to search for the sailors who have landed on the south bank, just like hunters waiting for their prey to fall into the trap.
These days, the Governor has not sent anyone to land again. Obviously he knows that it is impossible to find food if he goes ashore. If he is not careful, he will lose his manpower. The Dongqi sailors are all elite soldiers on the water, but if they really want to go ashore, they will be in trouble on land. Don't show your ability.
No one went ashore to look for food anymore. Food rations were decreasing day by day, and no one knew how long they could last.
The purpose of blocking the Huaihe River by the Dongqi Navy was to cut off the logistical supply of the Qinhuai Army. However, many people were worried that before the Qinhuai Army would starve to death by then, their own people would starve to death first.
As the commander-in-chief of the navy, Shentu Luo could naturally feel the low mood of his soldiers. He knew very well that if it weren't for his prestige among the navy, this navy would have been in such a situation long ago. No longer exists. He is a soldier. He knows that in order to make the soldiers truly loyal, the first thing to do is to fill their stomachs. If their stomachs are not full, what can they use to show their loyalty
Loyal soldiers will lose their loyalty little by little because of hunger. When one day hunger completely takes over, even if they have unparalleled prestige in the navy, they will never be able to prevent the mutiny from happening.
The subordinates saw that the Governor was calm and composed every day, but only Shen Tuluo knew how much pressure he was under.
It was already past midnight, and although he had not slept for several days, he was still not sleepy at all. He stood on the side of the ship without taking off his armor, looking at the dark south bank of the Huaihe River, in a daze.
"Grand Governor...!" I don't know how long it took, but suddenly I heard a voice coming from beside me. Shen Tuluo's heart trembled, thinking to himself that he was distracted and didn't even guard against someone approaching him. If the other person was an assassin, he might be afraid that he He was assassinated before he could react. Although the Shenhou Mansion came to assassinate him before and the entire army was wiped out, the Chu people would never let him go easily, and new assassins would appear at any time.
Fortunately, it was not the assassin who spoke. The man was wearing ordinary sailor clothes and a round sailor hat on his head. His eyes were looking at Shen Tuluo. Shen Tuluo turned around and saw the person coming, and hurriedly raised his hands and said: "Your Highness!"
This seemingly inconspicuous man turned out to be Duan Shao, the crown prince of the Eastern Qi Dynasty.
Duan Shao looked very bad, his eyes were slightly swollen, and he seemed to have not had a good rest for many days, but there was a smile on his lips: "What are you worried about? Are you worried that those ninjas will not be able to complete the mission?"
"This...!" Shen Tuluo hesitated for a moment before sighing: "Your Highness, since His Highness has made careful arrangements and Feichan Danfu personally led the people to take action, there must be no big problem."
Duan Shao put his hands behind his back and looked at the south bank, saying: "The Governor is worried about what will happen next?"
"Your Highness...!" Shentu Luo hesitated to speak, but finally said: "There is no difference between the Northern Han people and the Chu people. They are all capricious people who see profit and forget their loyalty. Beitang Feng has no talent, and His character is really not good, and I really don’t trust this person..."
"I know that the destruction of Linzi city has a lot to do with me." Duan Shao's eyes were filled with a stern look: "I didn't expect that the Chu people would be so cunning. I thought that they wanted to marry with the Chu country. They wanted to go to the Northern Expedition. Han State, but didn't want to... Although I didn't expect that they would be so capricious, I still made some preparations. I kept Su Zhen in Qi State just to make the people of Chu State have some scruples. Su Zhen is one of the four hereditaries of Chu State. Hou Zhi, with him in our hands, we thought that the Chu people would try their best to cooperate with our Qi country...!" The hands behind his back clenched his fists and sneered: "I just didn't expect them to be so cruel and ruthless, and they don't care about Su Zhen at all. Life or death."
"The Northern Expedition was in vain, and the real purpose was to attack our Qi State." Shen Tuluo said: "I and Prime Minister Linghu never expected that the Chu people would come up with such a move."
"Su Zhen is really stupid." There was anger in Duan Shao's eyes: "He was sent to Qi State as a pawn by Chu State. He was still very proud of himself and showed off his power in our Qi State. But he didn't know that from the beginning, he He became the abandoned son of the Chu people."
"The Chu State's attack on our Qi State must have been planned for a long time and made careful arrangements." Shentu Luo looked solemn: "And there must be very few people who know about it. Although Su Zhen is a hereditary prince in the Chu State, but in the Chu State Among the four hereditary princes, he is the weakest and most incompetent. He is not qualified to know about such a military and national event as attacking Qi. The people of Chu had planned it carefully. They had already arranged a marriage and asked Su Zhen to send it to Qi in person. It’s just to confuse us, it’s so shameful that we actually fell into their trap.”
"So Su Zhen deserves to die, and he even took advantage of his daughter." Duan Shao sneered: "The city of Linzi was destroyed, and that woman actually begged me to take her away. I thought of using her as a hostage at first, but the Chu State If you don't even care about Su Zhen, how can you care about a woman like that? Keeping her by your side will not only be of no benefit, but will be a burden. Stabbing her to death with a sword would be a clean thing."
Shen Tuluo's expression remained unchanged, apparently indifferent to Su Zixuan's life and death.
"Grand Governor, if the operation is successful, I will go to Luoyang in person." Duan Shao said: "Everything here will trouble you."
Shen Tuluo frowned and said, "Your Highness is really going to Luoyang? I'm just worried...!" He didn't continue, but his brows were full of worry.
"Worried that I will be put under house arrest by them, or killed with a knife?" Duan Shao said with a smile: "Although Beitangfeng is incompetent, he is not an idiot. He will never kill me while the Chu Kingdom is still alive." Looking up at the night sky, He said softly: "If we can block the food route and prevent the Qinhuai Army from providing logistics, we can let tens of thousands of Qinhuai Army's troops die on the soil of the Northern Han Dynasty. The Northern Han Dynasty promised that as long as we win this battle, it will do its best to help us restore the country. Hey, by burning down the Chu people’s granaries this time, the Qinhuai Army’s defeat is certain, and it’s time for me to find Beitangfeng to fulfill my promise!”