The highest-ranking general in the Han army south of the Huaihe River was Zhou Bo.
He watched helplessly as the Han army north of the Huaihe River was defeated, but there was nothing he could do.
What he is now concerned about is how to get the 200,000 troops to cross the Huaihe River in time, otherwise there is the risk of being surrounded by three Chu troops following them.
In order to prevent the 200,000 Han troops from being raided, Zhou Bo ordered the entire army to mobilize quickly and build fortifications on the spot.
In addition, a small army was sent to investigate upstream and downstream to find another location suitable for building a pontoon bridge, or where one could directly cross the river.
In the dusk, a group of Han troops went into the water to explore in a place that seemed shallow and the current was slow.
More than a dozen arrows flew and hit the heads of the Han soldiers in the river.
The body jumped into the water and floated down the current.
It turned out that twenty Chu army cavalry patrolling the waterside shot arrows at them, and the Han soldiers on the shore quickly retreated.
Xiang Yu has already ordered that two thousand of the five thousand fine cavalry be allocated and divided into hundreds of groups to patrol upstream and downstream of the Han army's camp on the other side of the river to monitor the movements of the Han army.
At this time, Zhou Bo was so anxious that he could not cross the river.
He led his army to move upstream or downstream of the Huai River, but he still could not escape Xiang Yu's tracking and interception on the other side of the river.
In addition, Zhou Bo, like Liu Bang, was afraid of having a direct encounter with Xiang Yu in the wild.
Just when Zhou Bo was hesitant, at dawn the next day, Hu Ben's Kuaiji Division was chasing Han Xin on the right.
Zhang Division, Lujiang Division, and 20,000 colonization troops had already rushed to the Huaihe River.
Although they did not catch up with Han Xin, they Zhou Bojun's right wing was accidentally blocked.
He also received Xiang Yu's scouting battle report and orders.
Xia Yan, who was commanding the army, was also a soldier with a professional background, and his permanent position was the commander of the Kuaiji Division.
He immediately ordered the construction of forts and positions on the south bank of the Huai River.
Then they followed Liu Bang's troops all the way and set up camp behind Zhou Bo, consisting of Huben Dongting Division, Cangwu Division, and Nanjun Division.
This route is directed by Xia Yue.
The last road was composed of 30,000 reclamation troops, commanded by Xiang Han, and was the last to arrive on the south bank of the Huaihe River.
This is because they spent some time recovering some cities and counties in Huainan to ensure a smooth road back.
As soon as they recaptured Shouchun, the Guangling garrison who had relieved the siege sent more than 10,000 troops to join the 20,000 troops from Lujiang County sent by Xiang Sheng to take over their tasks, freeing them up to pursue northward.
At night, thousands of crossbows and crossbows repeatedly bombarded the Han army's camp from time to time, all night long.
The soldiers of the Han army could not get a good rest at all.
Although the casualties were not large relative to the base of the troops, the scene after being bombarded was very tragic.
The corpses shattered by stone bullets were too horrific to look at, and the camp was filled with rising flames.
This was a huge blow to morale.
What's even worse is that since it is a withdrawal operation, the army has not prepared a large amount of food and equipment with the army, and the Han army will be out of food today.
Yesterday, Zhou Bo planned to stand still and wait for help, believing that Liu Bang would soon ask Han Xin or Zhang Er to return to the division for rescue.
But today, he looked at the Chu soldiers on all sides, and there was no news of friendly troops.
No such confidence at all.
If this trend continues, in two days the morale of the Han army will be gone.
Therefore, he must make a decision to break out.
Fortunately, the Chu army did not have an advantage in terms of strength.
It only formed an encirclement situation and did not form a real encirclement.
If you give it your all, there is still hope.
The 200,000 Han troops were divided into several groups, lined up in a huge combat formation, and broke out separately at various "gaps" in the "encirclement circle".
These "gaps" are the huge distances between the Chu army's camps and their camps.
Then the sky was full of stone bullets, crossbows and arrows attacking the advancing Han army.
The Han soldiers with shields raised their shields to resist the Chu army's long-range attacks.
But the shield could block arrows, but not cannonballs.
The consequence of these stone cannonballs hitting the shield is that the shield is shattered and the shield holder's arm is broken, and then the stone bullets can still penetrate his head or body.
The formation of the Han army suddenly became scattered.
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When the Han army approached these "gaps", they discovered that the Chu army had already arranged a defensive formation at an extremely fast speed and was waiting for work.
In the spear phalanx with a depth of eight rows, a forest of spears stood upright in the air, with cold light and dense spear blades forming a front of death.
Behind the spear formation are the roaming Tiger and Ben shooters.
They can fire twelve arrows per minute and can hit six out of ten arrows within a hundred meters.
Huben's heavy infantry lined up to fill the gap between the general's formation and the barracks, and there was also a row in front of the spear phalanx.
Few individual soldiers could penetrate the shield wall in front of them and the short swords and javelins behind the shield wall.
When the Han army approached the Chu army's formation, the attacks from ballistae and crossbows became more intensive.
Han soldiers were constantly beaten to pieces with their heads and bodies broken.
When the two armies' formations approached 50 meters, the Han army also began to concentrate all their archers and crossbowmen to launch fire at the Chu army's formation.
The heavy infantrymen deployed at the front of the Chu army all raised their large shields to protect most of their bodies.
The heavy infantry and spearmen in the rear held large shields and two-and-a-half-foot round shields on their heads.
Arrows all over the sky hit the shields, but they did not have much damage to the Chu army.
When the Han army's forward was only thirty meters away from the Chu army's formation, Ru Lin's spears were leveled in unison with the general's command.
The Huben heavy infantry in front of the spear phalanx has withdrawn through the gaps in the phalanx to the rear of the military formation as a mobile reserve force.
The Han troops at the front were brave men selected from each battalion and each unit.
They all raised their swords, guns and shields and charged forward bravely.
However, facing the powerful lineup of the Chu army, even these brave men could not help but feel frightened.
"Brothers, charge, get close and kill these bastards."
A leading Han military captain shouted loudly as he rushed up with his soldiers.
He blocked several spear blades with a shield reinforced with a layer of wooden boards in his hand, and squeezed desperately towards the front of the Chu army's formation.
In the gap between the spear formations, a Huben archer fired an arrow and hit the Han military captain's knee.
The severe pain stopped him from shouting, and he continued to squeeze forward while limping while sucking in the cold air.
Then, a Chu army recruit in the fifth row of the phalanx stabbed his spear blade deeply into his eye socket.
Rows and rows of spear blades were like steel teeth chewing giant beasts, squirming rhythmically, tearing the Han soldiers into pieces and swallowing them layer by layer amidst the noisy sounds of the battlefield.
Under the orders of the Han military captain, the crossbowmen in the rear, regardless of the life and death of the soldiers in front, used their crossbows to fire at the Chu army's spear phalanx.
The Chu army's spearmen relied on their superior armor, but the Han army's arrows caused fewer casualties than the opponent's frontline soldiers.
Every time a pikeman fell, there was always someone behind to fill the gap.
Seeing this, the Huben shooters immediately launched suppressive fire, and the ballistae and crossbows at the rear of the military formation once again launched extremely lethal stone bullets and fire dragons.
A fire dragon shot happened to land at the feet of a Han crossbowman who had just fired an arrow.
With a "boom", flames rose, and the archer's whole body was ignited, and he fell to the ground and rolled in pain.
Stone bullets and fire dragons once again disrupted the Han army's rear formation.
The Han army's crossbowmen could no longer launch missiles in an organized manner.
The entire battlefield became a furnace of blood and fire: