Although the trees in the mountains have not had time to extract new buds and their branches and leaves are depressed, clusters of new grass emerge from the ditch, river beach, and rock gaps, giving the heaven and earth a faint green color.

After the wild plum blossoms with swaying shadows, the wild apricots and pears among the slopes and valleys gradually bloomed, and they were as white as snow, and as red as a girl's face, dyeing the spring light.

A few spring rains, thousands of streams gurgled and slumped; the Huai River gathered with thousands of peaks and ridges, and it also became vast.

However, the peaks and ridges are surrounded by reefs, and the dark beaches are dangerous, stirring up whirlpools of all sizes and causing layers of flying waves.

A team of people walked east along the post road, and saw that the water in the Huai River was so surging.

At this time, a bamboo raft was walking along the waves. The rafter stood barefoot at the head of the raft. The trousers with tightened lower tubes were already wet by the waves, and the upper body was exposed. The tung-colored muscles seemed to contain endless power, shining brightly in the sun.

The bamboo rafts were flying rapidly in the turbulent currents of the reefs and beaches. The rafters were walking with a bamboo pole in their hands to control the raft, but they were not familiar with the water conditions, which was even more dangerous.

Bamboo rafts are often brought to a sudden turn by the water flow, and a reef that emerges from the whirlpool is suddenly crossing in front of you, and the long pole is fast and on-point on the reef.

However, the bamboo raft was driven by the rapids very rapidly, like a galloping horse. How could it be easy to turn suddenly? I saw the long pole bend into a giant bow in the blink of an eye, making people afraid that it would suddenly break and break in the next moment.

The bamboo pole must be broken, and the rafter will lose its only tool to control the bamboo raft and will be pushed into the turbulent undercurrent at any time.

However, the rafter is not standing on the raft head, and his barefoot quickly turns sideways and tramples, which drives the waist, hips, and vertebrae like a big river. In the slightest difference, balances the power stored by the long pole, ensuring that it does not exceed the limit that the long pole can bear, and drives the bamboo raft to move and deform in the turbulent flow, avoiding the dark reefs

The rafters were still unaware of it, but the dozens of cavalrymen on the post road on the shore were shocked.

The cavalry followed the bamboo cut and soon arrived in front of Zhouqiao Post.

Seeing the cavalry coming from the mountains, a crowd of people from Zhouqiao Post came out of the Wuzhai.

Zhu Han looked around in the cavalry for a while and asked in a daze: "Where is Xu Huai, I'm going to Chushan with Xiangyang Seal. Why didn't he show up? Just Miss Liu and you guys come here?"

"I don't know where he is sick, so I have to take a raft by myself. Look, Zhu Langjun, look at the river beach, where is the sick guy!" Liu Qiong'er strangled his horse and pointed to the river beach pier north of Zhouqiaoyi, and said to Zhu Weng, Shi Zhen and others.

Zhu Han, Shi Zhen, Xu Wuli and others had long noticed that the bamboo raft came from the upstream alone, but they were far apart in Zhouqiao Post before, and they couldn't see it in detail. At this time, they twisted their heads and looked over and saw the raft-bearing man directly stranding the bamboo raft onto the river beach. Who was it if it was Xu Huai?

Several guards rode their horses down the river beach. Xu Huai wiped the water stains on his body, took the clothes, robe and armor from the guards and put them on. Seeing Shi Zhen accompanying Zhu Qingshen and kicking over, he smiled and said, "I'll tell Mr. Zhu Qing to see my embarrassing look!"

"It's a bit late spring cold today, but you are not afraid of the cold water!" Zhu Wei was still wearing a jacket. Seeing Xu Huai sitting on a huge rock on the river beach putting on the boots and socks handed over by the guards, he said with a smile.

"Walking on a raft, your blood veins are ignited, your whole body is hot, but you are not afraid of the cold," said Xu Huai.

In the early spring when the trees had just burst out new buds, Xu Huai walked on a raft, but not just to eat and fill up, but to treat this as a kind of practice, using long poles as guns, and feeling the subtle changes in gun power in the confrontation of turbulent flows, dangerous reefs and whirlpools.

After dressing neatly, Xu Huai and Zhu Han walked towards Zhouqiaoyi surrounded by everyone.

Tongbai Mountain is mainly divided into two main veins of the North and South ridges. Beiling extends eastward to Shimenling diagonally across the Zhouqiaoyi, stopping the mountain. Further east is the flat Hehuai Plain, with only very inconspicuous ups and downs on the terrain.

The southern ridge of Tongbai Mountain, which is mainly located on the southern bank of the Huai River, does not stop at Zhouqiao Post; it continues to extend for nearly a hundred miles from Zhouqiao Post to the southeast.

Overall, the Nanling Mountains of Tongbai Mountain are more Cui Wei and grand than the Beiling Mountains.

From Zhouqiaoyi to the east, it is considered as the eastern section of the Nanling Mountains, but also the Shixi River (Xi River), one of the main tributaries of the southern bank of the Huai River. It is divided into two parts, north and south. Huaiyang City, built across the Shixi River, is surrounded by it.

This section of Changling, located north of Shixi River (Xinyang City), is also known as Jinniuling, and its mountain is close to the southern bank of the Huai River.

Therefore, there are no ready-made roads along the south bank of the Huai River, but there is a post road that passes through Jinniuling to Xinyang City, then along the Shixi River, eastward to Luoshan, Huangchuan and other counties, and southward through Jiuli, Pingjing and Wusheng roads, leading to Anzhou on Jinghu North Road and Suizhou on Jingxi South Road.

Zhouqiao Post turns southwest and passes through Tongbai Mountain Road to lead to Tangzhou and Dengzhou where the Nanyang Basin is located.

Zhouqiaoyi is not only the most important node of Tongbai Mountain Road, but also the Huai River is right from Zhouqiaoyi to the east. It officially enters the Hehuai Plain area to the east. The river channel becomes smooth and open, which is conducive to the navigation of boats and ships.

As the first water and land pier for the Huai River to leave Tongbai Mountain, Zhouqiaoyi has developed into a large town where thousands of households gather and live in over a hundred years.

Because of the special geographical location of Zhouqiao Post, when the new Chushan County was established, Xu Huai not only built a fort in Shimenling on the north bank and added a patrol department, but also added a patrol department in Zhouqiao Post, and requisitioned thousands of labor camps to build city walls along the periphery of the town port.

At that time, the main consideration was to prevent the enemy troops from crossing the Huai River directly from the Hehuai Plain in the northeast, and invade the hinterland of the Chu Mountain from Zhouqiaoyi west.

After Guangzhou was included in the defense zone of Chushan Camp, Xinyang City will be the core node in the eastern part of the strategy of "emptying the outside and defending the inside". Zhouqiaoyi not only connects Qingyiling, Huaiyuan and Xinyang in geographical location, but also serves as Huaiyuan and Xinyang. Its strategic position is even more prominent.

Now the Chushan Camp has not officially taken over Guangzhou, Shi Zhen, Wang Ju, Xu Wuji, Xu Wujiang, Chen Zixiao and others have led the takeovers to enter Zhouqiaoyi in advance to prepare for the subsequent takeover.

Zhouqiaoyi also temporarily became the military and political center of the Chushan Camp.

With Shi Zhen, Xu Wuli, Chen Zixiao and other groups of people who are very good at military and political affairs, Xu Huai naturally had to be much more relaxed in handling these extremely cumbersome daily affairs.

Xu Huai also took this rare opportunity to return to Huaiyuan and Liu Qiong'er to inspect the workshops, mines, grasslands and various trunks in Tongbai Mountain. In Niu Er's words, he just took time to travel around the mountains and rivers for some time.

At this time, King Jing had officially opened a government office in Xiangyang. Zhao Yi, Duke of Wuwei, passed through Suizhou, walked on the Pingjingguan Road, took Shouchun and Xuzhou to lobby for fun.

Zhu Han pulled Zheng Tu and accompanied Wuwei Gong Zhao Yi into Guangshan through Pingjing Pass Road, and then separated to Zhouqiao Post.

Zhu Han came here this time, firstly, he brought the order to formally establish the Chushan Camp, and formally opened a yamen and established a government office after King Jing arrived in Xiangyang, which was different from Puban's proposals. He explained to Xu Huai in person. Secondly, he represented the Grand Marshal's Office to Shouchun, where the Huainan West Road Supervisor was located, and negotiated the transfer of Guangzhou to the Chushan Camp.

"This is the handwriting of Your Highness, or the first handwriting issued by Your Highness in the name of the Grand Marshal of the World,"

Walking into the lobby of the Zhouqiaoyi Inspection Office Office, sitting down, Zhu Han handed King Jing's handwriting to Xu Huai, and said,

"Your Highness has adopted the strategy of 'empty outside and solid inside', and you have fully deployed it. The big change now is that Zhou He, Gu Fan and others proposed to remove Jingxi South Road, and to transfer Sui and Ying into Jinghu North Road, and to establish the Xuanwei Army in Suizhou and Anzhou, and to form the Jinghu North Road Deployment Department and be under the jurisdiction of the Jinghu North Road Deployment Department. In addition, Dengzhou and Tangzhou will be merged into Nanyang Prefecture, and other prefectures and counties will be merged into Xiangyang Prefecture, Nanyang, and Xiangyang will be directly under the jurisdiction of the Marshal of the Bingma."

The content of Puban’s proposals mainly represents the intentions of King Jing and the Shaanxi Military and Political Group. All adjustments after entering Xiangyang were made, which was expected by Xu Huai.

King Jing will ascend the throne in Xiangyang in the future, and the new capital will be set in Xiangyang, and the surrounding areas of Xiangyang will become a new capital. The dismissal of Jingxi Road is to lay the foundation for supporting King Jing to establish the prime minister and capital in Xiangyang.

The situation in the entire Hehuai region was completely deteriorating. It was impossible to safeguard the deployment of defense lines in Caizhou and Chushan alone. It was extremely necessary to merge Tangzhou and Dengzhou into Nanyang Prefecture to deploy defenses as the second line of defense north of Xiangyang.

Part of the prefectures and counties of the former Southwest Jing Road were transferred to Jinghu North Road. At the same time, the Jinghu North Road Metropolitan Deployment Department came to form a new Xuanwei Army for the prohibited brigade. On the one hand, it was obvious that it took care of the interests of Jinghu North Road and could further strengthen the defense of Xiangyang's east wing.

Of course, Zhu Han didn't say anything explicitly, but Xu Huai could think of it too.

If you are not in Anzhou, a new army will be established in Suizhou to strengthen the defenses on the east wing of Xiangyang and the north of Jinghu North Road. The defense on this side will be completely dependent on the Chushan Camp.

Zhou He, Gao Chunnian, Gu Fan and others dared not control the Chushan camp for their own safety.

And this is obviously not what they hope to see.

The best way is to set up a new ban on the south side of the three passes of Wusheng.

However, Xu Huai didn't want to fight Zhou He and the others in this regard, and directly said to Zhu Han:

"The Jinghu North Road Metropolitan Deployment Department came forward to form the Xuanwei Army in Anzhou, Suizhou, and was led by the Jingbei Strategic Pacification Envoy Liu Xian. This is no problem. However, it is impossible for a soldier to become an elite force without fighting with the enemy. I think the Huangchuan, Guangshan, Huaichuan counties and Jiuli Pass in the eastern part of Guangzhou should be assigned to the Xuanwei Army to defend, so that they have the opportunity to fight with the enemy."

"The same is true for Zhou He, Gu Fan and others, but His Highness said that he agreed to enter the Chu Mountain camp when he was in Puban," said Zhu Han.
Chapter completed!