A Clash of Gods - Chapter 1318

[Chapter 1308 Private Transactions]

After the beginning of spring, the water level of the Huaihe River rose and expanded a lot on both sides. Since the fleet of the Eastern Qi Navy appeared on the Huaihe River, the traffic between the north and the south was completely cut off.

The Dongqi Navy is known as the largest navy in the world today. If it was suspected of boasting in the past, but after defeating the Donghai Navy, the Qi State navy has become the most powerful navy. Looking at the world, there is no navy that can match. Comparable, and after the defeat of the Donghai Division, the Huaihe River has become the back garden of the Dongqi Navy.

After the defeat of the East Sea Division, the main force of the Chu army was trapped in the north of the Huaihe River, and the court immediately mobilized a lot of troops and horses from the Huainan area. In fact, these troops and horses were mainly composed of local officers and city guards. They also gathered tens of thousands of people, and built watch towers at intervals along the south bank of the Huai River to guard against the harassment of the Dongqi Navy.

Although the Dongqi navy was invincible on the water, each sailor on the water was equal to one to five, but the force was not too many.

After all, Qi has few villains, and its national strength is far from that of the other two countries. The taxes it receives every year are limited, but the monarch of Qi is a person who saves a lot of face. Although he is only the monarch 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 treasury has to bear the huge expenses of the monarch of Qi State. If it hadn’t been for Linghu Xu and other civil servants to try their best to dissuade them, Qi State would have already started to increase the taxation of the people. It is not possible to increase too many taxes to increase the burden on the people and cause riots in the hearts of the people, so Qi’s treasury is always very empty.

The maintenance of the navy requires huge amounts of money. It takes a lot of money to build an ordinary warship. There are dozens of warships in the Eastern Qi Navy, large and small, and maintaining these warships every year is a huge expenditure.

If it weren’t for Shentuluo, the Dongqi Navy would have even faced a reduction. With Shentuluo’s insistence, the Dongqi Navy had maintained a strong force, but the force had not increased over the years. This is of course because the monarch of the Qi Kingdom did not want to because of Dongqi. The navy has increased the burden on the country, also because Shentuluo’s use of troops has always been more expensive and less expensive.

The sailors under Shen Tuluo are all good in water, and they are brave and good at fighting. Every sailor has to undergo rigorous training to become a real Dongqi sailor.

Although Shentuluo was strict in military training, he treated the soldiers like a son. Although he was the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Qi Navy, he lived on a ship all the year round and lived with his officers and soldiers. He was deeply respected by his subordinates. Prestige, after the city of Linzi was broken, this navy army still followed him, even if the country was broken, it still insisted on following the commander-in-chief to restore the country.

It’s just that the sailors know that

the situation they are in now is 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 eat a little food. Some people can only drink more water from the Huai 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. There is no material supply from the court, and there is no dock to dock. It looks like a group of people drifting around on the water. Water bandits in general.

No matter how brave and loyal people are, they will have to eat full.

But everyone knew very well that the fleet’s supplies were getting less and less, and the remaining food would not be able to last for long, otherwise the Grand Governor would not have sent a few teams ashore to find food.

However, the Chu people have already withdrawn from the south bank of the Huaihe River to the north, and the remaining villages are empty, not to mention food, even a chicken feather is hard to find. A dozen sailors even went deep into the territory of Chu State in order to find food, but they were caught by Chu. The people found out that they were all killed.

Rumor has it that the court of Chu State issued a decree, whether it is the officers and soldiers of the State of Chu or the common people of the State of Chu, if they kill or even arrest the sailors of the Eastern Qi who landed on the shore, they will not only be rewarded heavily, but even get a half-official position, because of this , Many daring people have begun to search for the sailors who have landed on the south bank, just like hunters waiting for their prey to throw themselves into the net.

These days, the Great Governor has not sent anyone to land again. Obviously, he knows that it is impossible to find food. If you are not careful, you will lose manpower. Dongqi sailors are all elite soldiers on the water. Come out of nowhere.

No one went ashore to look for food, and the food ration was reduced day by day, and no one knew how long it would last.

The Dongqi Navy blocked the Huai River in order to cut off the logistics supply of the Qinhuai Army, but many people were worried that the Qinhuai Army would not starve to death by then, and the people on their side would starve to death first.

As the commander-in-chief of the navy, Shen Tuluo could naturally feel the depressed mood of his soldiers. He knew very well that if it wasn’t for his prestige in the navy, in the current situation, this navy would probably have been 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 make everyone have enough to eat, even if they can’t eat enough, what will they make of allegiance?

Loyal soldiers will lose their loyalty little by little because of starvation. When one day starvation has the upper hand, even if they have unparalleled prestige in the navy, it is absolutely impossible to prevent the mutiny.

The subordinates saw that the Grand Governor was calm every day, but only Shen Tuluo knew how much pressure he was under.

It was already midnight. Although he hadn’t slept for several days, he still didn’t have any sleepiness. He stood on the side of the ship, looking at the dark south bank of the Huaihe River, without taking off his armor.

“Great Governor…!” I don’t know how long it took, when I heard a voice coming from beside me, Shen Tuluo shuddered, thinking that he was distracted, and he was not even prepared for someone to approach him. Assassin, I am afraid that he will be assassinated before he can react. Although the Shenhou Mansion came to assassinate the entire army before, the Chu people will never let him go easily, and new assassins will appear at any time.

Fortunately, the one who spoke was not an assassin. The man was wearing ordinary sailor’s clothes and a round sailor’s hat on his head. His eyes were looking at Shen Tuluo. Shentuluo turned around and saw the person coming, and hurriedly cupped his hands: “His Royal Highness!”

This seemingly inconspicuous man turned out to be Duan Shao, the Crown Prince of Dongqi.

Duan Shao looked very bad, his eyes were slightly swollen, and he didn’t seem to have rested for a long time, but there was a smile on his lips: “What are you worried about? Are you worried that the ninjas can’t complete the task?”

“This… .!” Shentu Luo hesitated for a moment, then sighed softly: “Your Highness, since it was His Highness’s careful deployment, and Danfu Feichan personally led people to the action, there must be no big problem.”

Duan Shao put his hands on his back, He also looked at the south bank and said, “Do you worry about what will happen next?”

“His Royal Highness…!” They are all capricious people who are ignorant of profit and righteousness. Beitangfeng has no talent, and his character is really bad. This person…I really don’t trust this person.

” The palace has a lot to do with it.” Duan Shao’s eyes showed a stern look: “I didn’t expect that the people of the state of Chu would be so cunning. I thought they would marry the state of Chu. ., Although Ben Gong did not expect that they would be so capricious, he still made some preparations and kept Su Zhen in the state of Qi, just to make the people of the state of Chu have scruples. Su Zhen is one of the four hereditary princes of the state of Chu. With him in our hands, we thought that the people of Chu would try their best to cooperate with our country of Qi…!” The hand behind him clenched his fist and sneered, “I just didn’t expect them to be so cruel, they don’t care about Su Zhen at all. Life and death.”

“The Northern Expedition is false, and attacking our country of Qi is the real goal.” Shen Tuluo said, “The minister and Linghu Xiang did not expect that the people of Chu would do such a thing.”

“Su Zhen is really stupid. Duan Shao’s eyes showed anger: “He was sent to Qi by Chu as a chess piece, and he was complacent, showing his prestige in our Qi, but he didn’t know that from the beginning, he became the abandoned son of Chu people. ”

“The State of Chu’s attack on our State of Qi must have been planned for a long time and made careful arrangements.” Shen Tuluo looked solemn: “And there must be very few people who know about this matter. Although Su Zhen is a hereditary candidate in the State of Chu, but in the State of Chu. Among the four hereditary lords, the weakest and the most incompetent are the most incompetent. This person has no qualifications to know about military affairs such as the seizure of Qi. The people of Chu were deliberate, they had already married, and they sent Su Zhen to Qi in person. It’s just to confuse us, it’s just hateful… We actually fell for them.”

“So Su Zhen deserved to die, and he also caught up with his daughter.” Duan Shao sneered: “Linzi City is broken, that woman He even begged me to take her away. At first, I thought of using her as a hostage, but the people of Chu country don’t even care about Su Zhen, so why would they care about such a woman? Not only does it have no benefit to bring her by my side, UU Reading www. On the contrary, sonicmtl.com is a burden, and a stab to death is clean.”

Shen Tuluo did not change his face, obviously indifferent to Su Zixuan’s life and death.

“Captain, if the action is successful, I will go to Luoyang in person.” Duan Shao said: “Everything here will trouble you.”

Shen Tuluo frowned and said, “Does your Highness really want to go to Luoyang? I’m just worried…! “I didn’t continue talking, but there was a worried look between my eyebrows.

“I’m worried that Ben Gong will be put under house arrest by them, or killed with one sword?” Duan Shao said with a smile: “Although Beitangfeng is incompetent, he is not an idiot. He will never kill me if the state of Chu is still alive.” Looking up at the night sky, He said softly: “If we can block the supply of food and make the logistics of the Qinhuai Army unable to supply, we can make tens of thousands of troops of the Qinhuai Army die on the land of the Northern Han. The Northern Han promised us that as long as we win this battle, we will do our best to help us restore our country. Hehe, this time the granary of the people of Chu country was burnt down, the defeat of the Qinhuai Army has been decided, and I should ask Beitangfeng to fulfill my promise!”