Just when Wang Bodang assembled 20,000 troops and traveled west between Songshan and Jishan, Yang Guang's fleet had already reached the mouth of the Rushui River. The Rushui River estuary was the only area south of the Huai River that was not under the jurisdiction of the court. There were five or six thousand armed forces under the banner of the Wagang Army.

The Sui army then easily captured the Runan County they occupied, and their leader received a general amnesty and surrendered to the Sui army. Yang Guang transferred the surrendered army to Dabie, and stationed Yiyang Pass between the two major mountains of Tongbai to guard against Xiao Xian's northern invasion.

Yang Guang stopped in Runan for a while, leaving thousands of Xiaoguo Army waiting for the surrendered army to change defenses with the Sui army, hundreds of Viking warships sailed into the Rushui River. The centipede warships in the fleet were not suitable for navigation in the Rushui River, so they turned around and returned east. Their future mission was to rely on the Sui army strongholds on both sides of the Huai River to patrol and cruise in the Huai River waterway.

It was early April, and the southeast wind was in full swing. The Viking ships plucked up their sails, and the sailors rowed hard. The vast fleet of ships sailed into the Rushui River Valley with spring rain in just one day and one night. The layers of mast sails moved north. From time to time, the villagers and people spied into the rivers. They saw such a scene.

During this time of chaos in the Rushui Valley between Funiu Mountain and Ji Mountain, many bandits also formed camps and camps in the mountains, but the scale was very small. The counties and counties were basically still in the hands of the court.

However, at this time, a huge army entered Songyang along the foot of the northern foot of Ji Mountain. The army was obviously not in the Sui army. They were the 20,000 elite soldiers led by Wang Bodang, the general of Wagang.

The Sui army defenders along the way were all unable to stop them. Some county magistrates surrendered directly to the other side, but more of them abandoned the city and fled, rushed to the east to report to Wang Shichong, the left-behind behind Luoyang. Of course, there were also many stubborn resistance to the county town, and Wang Bodang was eager to arrive at Ruzhou, unless the strategic location of these cities was very important and directly threatened his logistics supplies and return, and Wang Bodang ignored it.

Wang Bodang's army rushed day and night, and in two days he arrived in Ruzhou at the northern end of the Rushui River Valley. He captured Ruyang County, which was not many Sui army defended, and used this as a place to hoard and transport grain for the front line of defense. At the same time, he recruited a large number of civilians and built a ten-mile defense line in the Rushui River Valley, cut off the Rushui River Valley, and built a large camp on each side of the east and west banks of the Rushui River.

On the construction site, Wang Bodang was investigating the progress of the Rushui defense line built. Two cavalry rushed from afar. They were the horses sent by Wang Bodang yesterday. The two men held the reins of the horse in front of Wang Bodang, jumped off the horse and kowtowed quickly and said, "Report to the general that the vanguard of the Sui army is less than fifty miles away."

Wang Bodang said a little surprised: "How could it be so fast? Although the terrain on both sides of the Rushui River is flat, there are no ready-made roads. It is estimated that they will not arrive in three days at the earliest."

Another explorer said something even more surprising to Wang Bodang: "Report to the general, the Sui army did not take the land route, but came on a boat and a water."

Wang Bo should have thought he had heard or understood it wrongly, so he shouted: "What? Make it clear and say it again!"

"Reported to the general, the Sui army did not march on land. They came on a large number of ships. There were only a small number of alert troops on land to follow the fleet. These ships were unique in shape, with large ships, and could carry dozens of people, but could sail in very shallow waters." This time, the horse prodding spoke carefully, so that Wang Bo should be clear.

Wang Bo frowned and thought for a moment before ordering: "Hurry, don't repair that line of defense, it's useless if you don't have time. Order all soldiers and civilians to strengthen the fortifications of the camp. In addition, pile up obstacles and set up river-blocking iron chains in the river!"

In fact, the Sui army came faster than Wang Bodang imagined. Just three hours later, the figure of the Sui army's scout and scout cavalry appeared in Wang Bodang's sight. When Wang Bodang was thinking about how to deploy defense, the Sui army's front army had arrived.

Wang Bodang finally chose to set up formations on both sides of the Rushui River-blocking iron cable to intercept the Sui army, and set up a large number of crossbowmen on both sides, preparing to shoot the Sui army ships in the river after defeating the Sui army's shores. He had learned from the horse that the Sui army's ships did not have decks or ship sheds. The soldiers on the ship were exposed to the open air, so they should be able to easily break them with arrows.

...

In a larger Viking ship on the Rushui River, Yang Guang kept observing Wang Bodang's military formation with a telescope. He thought about the enemy and us in his mind. The fleet loaded up enough supplies at one time and then headed west. There was no plan to organize a support team to supplement the supply team. Otherwise, not to mention twenty days, he might not have arrived in the eastern capital Luoyang even for two months.

After these sixteen days of voyage, although some cities conquered along the way have slightly replenished some food and grass, the food and supplies stored in the Viking ships are only enough for two or three days. What is more scarce than food and grass are war materials such as arrows, harsh tinder oil, hot bombs, etc.

So when Wang Bodang set up a formation in the valley, Yang Guang was a little disappointed. If Wang Bodang retreated to the camp and could not come out, Yang Guang could naturally ride a boat and easily cross the Rushui River Valley. There was no need to worry about Wang Bodang surrounding him because he did not have a navy. Now, the Sui army can only break through Wang Bodang's army formation.

So Yang Guang ordered decisively: "I passed my military order, and the ships docked, and dispatched a thousand Xiaoguo Guards to land on the east coast together with the spearmen, longbowmen and heavy cavalry of the Tianxing Army. We concentrated on attacking the enemies on the east coast. We transferred three thousand Xiaoguo Guards and crossbowmen to arrange defense lines on the right bank to prevent the enemies on the right bank from detouring from the shore to attack us on the flanks of our fleet."

After saying this, Yang Guang said again: "Where is the sunshine? Come over with your ears."

Chen Guang, not far behind him, quickly replied: "I am here, I don't know what Your Majesty has to do." While speaking, he leaned his ear close to Yang Guang.

After Yang Guang whispered a few words in his ear, Shen Guang took the order and left.

With a burst of drums and trumpets as if they were clamoring, a large number of warships moved towards the east bank. The Sui army successively climbed to the east bank of the Ru River, and the first one to get ashore were scouts and cavalry. They immediately searched for the forests at the foot of Funiu Mountain a few miles away on the river bank to see if there were ambushing the Wagang Army ambushing them.

The Sui army began to line up in military formations. Mountain spearmen formed three spear formations with more than ten battles between each other. Behind were the heavy cavalry of the royal court, which was lined up to two miles long. At the end were rows of long bowmen. On the left, there was also a military formation composed of a thousand-man Xiaoguo Guard to protect the flanks to prevent the opponent from infiltrating out of the mountains and forests and attacking the army from the rear.
Chapter completed!