Yuan Guizheng rushed to Xuzhou the day before Lin Bin's wedding.

In the past year, most of the jurisdictions under the jurisdiction of the northern part of Hehuai and Henan have fallen.

North of the Huai River, the northernmost east line to Pei County in the north of Xuzhou, is about 300 miles deep on the north bank of the Huai River; On the western route, the depth from the north bank of the Huai River to Wuyang is less than 200 miles.

Although Tao Chun had enough troops and horses in Wuyang, he did not have enough cavalry, and he could not restrict the Yanyu outpost from penetrating south along the tributaries on the north bank of the Huai River to the bank of the Huai River.

Although it is the most convenient to come from Nanyang, take a boat along the Huai River to the east through Xinyang, and then go north to Xuzhou in Siyang, but Yuan Guizheng, Yuan Jinsheng and more than 100 people with his entourage cannot hire a boat in Xinyang.

The river gang forces in the upper reaches of the Huai River, even if there were still some remnants after the war, asked Dong Yuan to be transferred to Hongzepu to transport materials from Weiyang and Dongyang to Haozhou and Shouzhou, and the few dozen or so ships from Shouzhou to Xinyang were all official ships.

Although Yuan Guizheng had the name of Marquis of Yongchang, he could not hire two or three boats for himself and his entourage that could take the dangerous shoals of the Huai River.

Yuan Guizheng and his entourage traveled thousands of miles to Xuzhou by horse through Wuyang and Huaiyang, and it was very hard, and they even collided with the guerrilla troops of Beiyan on the road, and only after arriving in Huaiyang did they relax a little.

Huaidong deployed a considerable number of cavalry on the fortified defense line in the north of Xusi, which could prevent the infiltration of Yanyu outposts into the hinterland of Xusi - after Yuan Guizheng entered Huaiyang, he saw the situation of spring ploughing organized in Huaiyang, the fields were full of green wheat seedlings, roads and bridges were also intact, and the two ends of the Bianshui ferry were also repaired to prevent the blockage, as the key point of military control, there were soldiers to defend.

Before the war in Xuzhou last year, Yuan Guizheng and Yuan Jinsheng father and son went to Jining to see Liang Chengchong through Xuzhou, and stopped in Xuzhou for a few days.

A number of horsemen came over, and the first two horsemen stopped their horses when they came to them, and asked in a loud voice: "Can the Marquis of Yongchang and his party?" ”

Yuan Jinsheng came forward to negotiate with the reins, there were more than 100 people in their line, all riding horses and carrying knives, passing through the county, it was impossible not to interrogate, and when he passed Huaiyang, he was interrogated several times - Yuan Jinsheng also washed away the arrogance and frivolity in Jiangning, and in the past two years, he has been running north and south, and he is used to tormenting on horseback, and his muscles and bones are also strong, and he said: "It's not bad, I'm about to go to Xuzhou to congratulate the prince of Pengcheng County......

"Young Marquis!" Chen Xiaoyan, the scholar of Gao Zongting, rode over from behind, dismounted and said, "My husband is waiting for the young marquis to come over with the marquis in the pavilion in front......

The so-called "dehaired phoenix is not as good as a chicken", Yuan Jinsheng did not have the luxury of expecting Lin Lian to go out of the city to meet them, Gao Zongting, who was the chief strategist of Huaidong, could personally go out of Xuzhou City to greet him, which surprised him, and he was busy riding with Chen Xiaoyan to the back to meet his father.

Compared with the last time we met in Chongzhou, Yuan Guizheng's face was more frosty, and he quickly whipped up his horse and went to the Sanli Changting to meet Gao Zongting.

The Yongchang Marquis Mansion has long been without the glory of the past, Yuan Guizheng has left Jiangning in the past two years, running around for the Liang family, not so much to save the glory of the past, but to leave Jiangning, the place of right and wrong, so as not to give Emperor Yongxing a whim, a unhappy, casually find a reason to behead the Yongchang Marquis Mansion.

Huaidong did not mean to be lazy, and asked Gao Zongting to go out of Xicheng early to welcome Yuan's return to power.

"My family is full of trivial matters, so I specially asked Zongting to go out of the city to greet Hou Ye, Hou Ye is not strange." Gao Zongting walked down the long pavilion and bowed to Yuan Guizheng.

"Pengcheng Gong has seen outside" Liang Chengchong can gain a firm foothold in Nanyang, and whether he can get enough help from Huaidong has a lot to do with it, Yuan Guizheng came over this time with the idea of speaking in a low voice, Gao Zongting came out of the city to greet him, Huaidong's attitude made him feel relieved, and he was also quite comforted.

Gao Zongting invited Yuan Guizheng to ride with him, the newly made four-wheeled carriage in Huaidong was light and spacious, and Yuan Jinsheng led his followers and the entourage who came out of the city with Gao Zongting mixed together and galloped to Xuzhou City.

Yuan Jinsheng also sighed in his heart, when he was in Chaotianyi, Lin Jian was still a small role attached to the Gu family and did not give them in his eyes, but now he is a character who leans towards the government and the opposition, and can make the world sleep and eat with a stomp, and it will only take seven years before and after!

Many people are busy preparing for the wedding of Lin Jian and Liu Miaozhen, Lin Lian, the groom, is idle, and he has nothing to do, and he set up a banquet for Yuan Guizheng and Yuan Jinsheng in the line to wash the dust, and Su Mei stood in the courtyard, watching Gao Zongting accompany Yuan Guizheng and Yuan Jinsheng's father and son in, and said with a smile: "Tonight's small banquet, just a few of us, Hou Ye must not feel lonely......

Gao Zongting explained with a smile: "In the past few days, there has been a ban on alcohol in Xuzhou City, and adults also laughed and said that whoever poured him wine was not an exaggeration, and a few guys climbed the pole and put it on the shelf, inviting too many people, and the scene was probably very ugly and ......."

Yuan Guizheng also smiled festively, and greeted Su Mei, who had combed the woman's bun, "I've seen Mrs. ......."

"Su Mei has seen Hou Ye, Xiaoman is unwell, so I specially asked Su Mei to compensate Hou Ye." Su Mei returned the salute.

After Xiaoman grew up, he became more and more similar to Su Mei, and Yuan Guizheng suspected that Xiaoman was also Su Men's widow, but at that time, Xiaoman had already been admitted to Lin Jian in the room.

Although Yuan Guizheng's fundamental purpose is to use her sisters, her sisters have been able to get out of the mud without being stained over the years, and the Yongchang Marquis Mansion always has some shelter kindness.

Although there is a suspicion of lifting a stone to shoot one's own feet, the Sumen case and the assassination case of Qiuye Jian implicated in it are a sharp weapon to question the legitimacy of the imperial inheritance since Emperor Delong, but the initiative has been completely in the hands of Lin Bin.

Yuan Guizheng didn't know whether Lin Jian had such ambitions, but at least at present, when there will be 400,000 soldiers and horses in Hanghu, Huinan, Jiangzhou, Huaixi, Lianghu and the imperial camp, Huaidong's ambitions should not be exposed too early......

"Huaidong will march into Mindong after the autumn, and before the Hou Ye comes, I will submit the secret fold to the imperial ......" After entering the table, Lin Lian's first sentence went directly to the topic.

"......" Yuan Guizheng thought that Huaidong might be about to make a move on the luxury family, but he didn't expect Lin Jian to be so frank, so he was not afraid that the news would leak out, so that the luxury family could prepare in advance.

There is no way to leak the news, Huaidong's situation on the southern front is obvious, take Dongyang County, Huaidong in southern Zhejiang, southern Zhejiang's deep defense line can be concentrated in the eastern section of Quzhou, the defense line can be shortened by more than half, which means that nearly half of the garrison can be reduced. And the capture of Jin'an Mansion will drive the luxury family to the middle and upper reaches of the Min River, and the coastal counties of eastern and southern Fujian will be able to recover all - a war on the southern front, as long as the time is ripe, it is always better to start a war sooner rather than later.

The luxury family will not delusionally think that Huaidong will not start from Mindong, and there will be no problem of whether the news will leak out, and the key point is that Lin Jian must firmly defend the Huai defense line before attacking Mindong from the southern front after the autumn.

Not only is it a matter of the Xusi defense line, but the situation in Huaixi and Nanyang must be stabilized before autumn.

It is difficult to accurately predict whether the war on the southern front will progress smoothly and how long the main force of Huaidong will stay on the southern front.

With the Huaiyang Army and the Fengli Army guarding the Xusi defense line, the Huaibei line can almost be guaranteed, but this little force can only keep the Xusi defense line.

Once Yan Hu took advantage of Huaidong's big fight on the southern front and decisively moved troops to attack Huaixi and Nanyang, and Dong Yuan and Liang Chengchong failed to prepare, and Huaidong drew troops to threaten the flank of Yanhu's southern troops, Liang Chengyi of Hezhong Mansion and the Cao family further west forced Chen Zhihu to get out, and the next problem was tricky......

Dong Yuan set his eyes on Luo Xiancheng in Suizhou, and Huaidong also had one eye on Luo Xiancheng in Suizhou at this time. This is probably the most unpredictable and unstable factor in the defensive line.

Luo Xiancheng didn't move at this time, that is, he and Chen Zhihu were still separated from Nanyang, six or seven hundred miles away. Luo Xiancheng dared to vote for Yanhu at this time, that is, to find death.

Once Yan Lu enters the autumn and takes advantage of Huaidong's entanglement in the southern front to fight, the army will be raised to conquer Nanyang and open up the passage with Xiangyang, or the army will be defeated by Xinyang and open up the passage with Suizhou, it is difficult to say what choice Luo Xiancheng will make at that time.

Lin Jian didn't dare to take that risk easily.

"If Hou Ye doesn't come to Xuzhou, I will also send someone to Nanyang to see Hou Ye and the nearby townspeople," Lin Jian said, "Dong Yuan in Huaixi is doing a good job and is quite successful, but the resources that Nanyang can use are too tight." Now he has asked Chen Zhihu to cut off contact with Hezhong Mansion, and he must be very ......tight."

"That's true, I'm still worried about how to open this mouth?" Yuan Guizheng was in a relaxed mood, as long as Lin Jian still took care of the overall situation, he would not let the situation in Nanyang go away, and he really came to Huaidong to the right place.

"The Huaidong Military Division co-ordinates the purchase of grain from the prefecture and county, and the japonica rice is one stone and eight coins of silver, and it is transported to Xinyang ashore, and the freight rate is thirty percent, and after the autumn, ensure that Nanyang has 200,000 stone of grain storage, what do you think?" Lin Jian asked.

The price of rice shipped to Xinyang is only a little more than one tael of silver, and the price of rice in Jiangning has already exceeded this amount.

Some time ago, Yuan Guizheng went to Xinyang to raise grain, and the sky-high price of six taels of silver was offered for one stone of rice, and he only bought a thousand stones of grain.

In troubled times, grain is expensive, gold and silver are cheap, but I didn't expect Huaidong to have such an adequate supply of rice and grain. Of course, Huaidong controlled the export of grain, and at the same time, it was also very bad.

Nanyang can have 200,000 stone of grain stored in winter, even if Nanyang City is besieged by Yanhu's army, it can grit its teeth and hold on for more than half a year. Obviously, it was impossible for the Yanhu army to besiege Nanyang for more than half a year with both flanks threatened.

"Peng Chenggong is really fast-talking, this is really a solution to Nanyang's problem, I really don't know how to express gratitude." Yuan Guizheng said.

"I have benefited a lot from Su Mei and Xiaoman in the past, but today I still repay the kindness of the past...... Lin Jian said with a smile, as if the grievances with the Liang family had long since disappeared with the killing of Liang Xi, and now I just want to promote a good thing to repay the favor, "The grain ship passes through Huaixi, and Dong Yuan has to agree." I will write to Dong Yuan, but over there in Shouzhou, it is better for Hou Ye to go in person. In addition, don't tell Huaixi about the price of grain, Huaidong grain is also very tight, if Huaixi also reaches out to me to ask for food, it will be really difficult......

The Wu Party supports Dong Yuan's foothold in Huaixi, which has the meaning of restricting Huaidong, and Huaidong naturally wants to form a good relationship with Liang Chengchong and Yuan Guizheng at this time. It has always been the case with inbreeding and close felling.

"After eating Peng Chenggong's happy wine, I will go to Shouzhou to find Dong Yuan......" Yuan Guizheng said, feeling the kindness shown by Lin Lian, Yuan Guizheng was naturally very happy, and the hardships and sorrows along the way were also swept away.

Nanyang was waiting to be fed, and the Yuan Gui politicians wanted to return to Nanyang as soon as possible to organize people to enter Xinyang to transport grain, and would not stay in Xuzhou for a long time, so they discussed other materials - iron, farm tools, arrows, armor, ordnance, mules and horses and other important materials, and Lin Tie was supplied at parity according to Nanyang's consumption for half a year, and even considered supplying a batch of war horses to Nanyang.

The north and south of Nanyang are all mountains and plains, and once the Yanyu outpost infiltrates, Liang Chengchong will not be able to do without a cavalry in his hand.