The drum beats come and go, as if beating on people's hearts, knocking their souls out.

On June 20, after many days of stockpiling supplies, the Jin army marched westward from Neihuang.

Countless boats sailed out of Huangchi, entered Baigou, turned north and turned west, sailed upstream from the county seat more than 200 steps north, and entered Huan River.

In the end, Hao Chang, the captain of the field camp, did not get the opportunity to join the army. He led 5,000 troops from Yingyang and Luyang to stay in Neihuang to prevent the enemy from easily taking away this important strategic node.

Shao Xun led all the two battalions on the left and right of Yinqiang, one Yi Congjun, all the Mule Army, and one Fu Bing, totaling more than 18,000 soldiers, plus 5,000 Xuchang soldiers, 3,000 Fu Bingbu, Kaocheng, Ning

There were 5,000 troops stationed in Pingcheng and other places, 3,000 Quzhuangke from the wealthy tribes in Henan, and 3,000 soldiers from Wubao, Hebei. The total force was more than 37,000, known as 150,000, and they headed straight for Anyang.

When Zhi Quliu and more than 2,000 cavalry arrived in Neihuang, they saw such a scene.

The trackers wore short rough clothes and stood barefoot on the river beach. When the trumpet sounded, their muscled thighs suddenly exerted force, and the fiber ropes stretched straight, dragging the heavy ships forward.

When encountering a shoal, they even took extra care and sent men to the north shore to tow the ship from both sides to ensure that the ship could pass safely.

Between Huangchi, Baigou and Huanshui, there are forests of rafts and oars, and there is a bustle of people, as if all the ships in Henan have gathered here.

Seeing the Xiongnu Qingqi approaching, the bell immediately rang on the ship.

The boatmen and troop carriers worked together to push the ballista to the side of the ship, and worked hard to load the arrows and wind the bow.

Our own cavalry was dispatched on the shore and rushed straight towards the Huns.

The infantry also quickened their pace to cover the trackers and prevent them from being affected. As a result, the ships had no time to anchor and lost control and collided with each other.

The arrows were as dense as locusts.

As soon as the Hun cavalry approached, they turned their horses' heads again and ran back with their heads in their arms.

If it doesn't work during the day, it's just a waste of time. Try again at night.

Zhiquliu seemed to have anticipated this scene, and just sighed softly before leading the others away.

He is like a gambler. He has lost once in the same card game, but he doesn't believe in evil. He always thinks that if he plays again, he might be able to turn defeat into victory.

But this is the material world, war is materialistic, and the enemy is not someone who can be defeated at the first touch, so why would you bother to provoke him? Apart from the dozen or so corpses left behind, what else can you get?

After the enemy cavalry withdrew, the Yi Congjun pursued them for several miles and stopped pursuing them. They returned to the river bank and continued to guard the fleet while the infantry advanced.

There are many ways to teach your enemies a lesson.

The Huns cavalry are light and agile, and it is difficult to catch up. But as long as they get closer to Anyang and Yecheng, one day, these Huns cavalry, who are running around and harassing them repeatedly, will run back obediently and not go anywhere.

Okay, give up their maneuverability advantage and fight you head-on.

You didn't take the initiative to catch them, but they were forced to run in front of you and fight you in a way they were not good at. This is the wonder of war.

"Wow!" The bow of the ship split the water waves and struggled forward.

The sound of trackers' horns resounded on both sides of the Huan River.

The convoy squirmed forward without any noise, like a silent beast stalking on the eve of a hunt.

The armor shines with a dazzling silver light, as if it is eager for flesh and blood sacrifice.

This huge team headed straight for Anyang, unstoppable.

****

A group of cavalry dismounted.

Some people led the horses to graze, while others took off various tools from the backs of the pack horses and started working hard.

The sky is cloudless and dazzlingly blue.

On the ground scorched by the scorching sun, three thousand Huns cavalry wielded spades and picks and carried dung baskets, carrying away the excavated soil and dumping it into the Huan River.

Not long after, Marshal Youwubao led more than two thousand men and drove a cart to the river bank.

He hesitated and asked whether to push these carriages into the river.

Kui'an whipped him directly and said: "Do it quickly, don't hesitate."

Wubao Shuai was unhappy and ordered the guards to push the carriages one by one into the river and fill them with sandbags.

Kui An learned this move from Shao Xun.

When he first besieged Luoyang, Shao Xun filled the river with heavy carts and sandbags, and temporarily built a wading channel, allowing his soldiers to successfully cross the river and gain a firm foothold on the other side.

This trick is still useful now.

Even if the river cannot be blocked, it is always better to let some sections of the river silt up.

Shao Xun could certainly send people to dredge and clean up, but this would take a lot of time and slow down his advance.

The order given by Tao Bao was to delay, Kui'an, and Zhi Quliu to act separately, and they really did everything they could.

After working like this for an hour, the surface of the river became turbid.

Kui'an patrolled along the river and was quite satisfied.

It is easy to block a river, but difficult to dredge it. Just this one move can disgust Shao Xun for a long time and buy Dahu more time.

The guards had stopped working and retreated to the trees not far away.

Firstly, after working under the scorching sun for so long, I really couldn’t work anymore; secondly, because the river was overflowing and both sides were muddy, I couldn’t work anymore.

The sound of horse hooves sounded in the distance.

After a while, the scout ran back wildly.

After hearing the report, Kui'an immediately ordered everyone to mount their horses.

He personally led 2,500 men, strung their horned bows, and marched forward to meet them. The other hundreds of people drove them to change horses and retreated.

Marshal Wubao panicked, led the draft horse, called to Baoding, and dispersed in a rush.

The place was quiet for a while, except for the rushing water, which overflowed the river bank, submerged the post road and meadow, and created a large yellow mud pond.

The cavalry from both sides started a fierce battle in the wilderness.

Arrows flying, swords clashing, killing and being killed have become the main theme of Hebei.

After fighting for less than half an hour, both sides gathered their troops and looked at each other from a distance.

The Jin army had few cavalry, only 500 vanguards, but they were well-equipped and good at fighting.

The Huns were outnumbered, five times as many as they were, so they could outflank them and use more to attack the smaller ones, giving full play to their strength advantage.

The two sides fought for a while, with quite a lot of casualties, and both sides did not want to fight.

So, after looking at each other for a moment, they retreated tacitly and disappeared into the wilderness.

Half an hour later, the sound of horse hooves sounded again in the east.

A thousand mule troops came to the river bank.

Warlord Jiang Ke looked at the destroyed river and sighed.

A thousand people dismounted their mules, and half were assigned to guard the river while the other half tried to clear the river.

That's all the enemy is capable of.

If the nearby Wubao commander is willing to provide food and grass on the spot, the matter is actually not that complicated. However, there are only a few people in Changle County who are secretly working together and are not willing to come over openly. It is really a wise way to die.

The river channel is being cleaned here, while Kui'an over there is leading people back to Changle County.

There was some commotion in the county. But after they withdrew, it gradually calmed down.

Kui'an climbed to the top of the city and looked east.

The Huan River flows quietly, winding and disappearing at the end of the east.

Nothing could be seen there, but Kui'an seemed to hear the constant sound of marching drums, the roar of ships splitting the river, the rustle of infantry advancing, and the huge buzz of crossbows being fired.

He felt that something was wrong with his brain, and it looked like he would have to arrest some women to vent his anger tonight.

But he actually knew it very well in his heart, but he had always been unwilling to face it: all kinds of small means could only stop the enemy soldiers for a while, but they would still come in the end, and they were unstoppable.

"Send the order and report the Shao thieves' movements every hour. Anyone who dares to slack off will be killed without mercy." Kui An slapped the city wall and ordered.

The soldiers took the order and went down to deliver the order.

Kui'an still refused to go downstairs and continued to stand there, looking at the eastern sky like a stone.

****

On June 23, Yecheng was particularly fresh and clean after the drizzle.

Shi Le, surrounded by the generals, returned to this long-lost city.

He patiently chatted with the officials and scholars, and then returned to the mansion. It was already the time when the lanterns were first lit.

"Comfortable." Shi Le leaned on the couch without any image, with a look of dust on his face.

The soldiers brought the food, and each of the staff took a futon, sat on the floor, and began to eat.

Shi Le ate quickly, threw away the bowl after a while, drank tea and rinsed his mouth.

"There are still a lot of things I haven't had time to do." After rinsing his mouth, he sighed and said.

The first thing is to set up a school, train people from the Jin Dynasty as teachers, select generals and disciples to go to the school, and train talents to manage the place, so that we will not be like now, relying on the nobles for everything and constantly bargaining with them.
To be continued...