At the beginning of May, the two sides of the Huaishui River also entered the rainy season, and for several days, the rain did not stop.

Lin Tie got into the battle tent with a low body, untied the rain lily, exposed the green armor that was soaked with the neckline, put the pocket on the cypress table, and hugged his fist with Liu Tingzhou: "I went to the Shushui River to take a look, let Lord Liu wait for a long time, where is Yue Du's messenger?" ”

"Lord Lin, the last general, Tao Chun, serves in the left battalion in front of Yue Du's tent......" The man standing behind Liu Tingzhou walked forward and saluted Lin Lian.

Lin Jian saw that he was about thirty-two or thirteen years old, and he was a little familiar, as if he had seen it when he was in Jinan, it should be the general Shao Wujun who wooed Yue Lengqiu in the past, and it was quite strange to see him wearing a lake-blue Confucian shirt.

Tao Chun seemed to see the confusion in Lin Lian's eyes, and said: "Although the bandits have not yet encircled Xuzhou, but from Xuzhou to the south, they are all bandits' sentinels...... This is a letter from Governor Yue to you. ”

Lin Lian took the secret letter signed by Yue Lengqiu, opened it and read it, knowing that Yue Lengqiu must have other instructions to Liu Tingzhou, and he was not busy expressing his position, he handed over the secret letter to Liu Tingzhou first, he walked to the long case and sat down, and asked Liu Tingzhou and Tao Chun to sit down.

Liu Tingzhou read the secret letter and said: "In the letter, Governor Yue asked Lord Lin to immediately lead the Jiangdong Left Army to the north along the east bank of Yishui, tear up the blockade of the Liumin Army, and the Jiangdong Left Army will arrive at Linyi, and Yue Governor will send troops from Xuzhou to attack the Liukou in the northeast of Xuzhou to relieve the siege of Xuzhou......"

Lin Lian looked at Liu Tingzhou for a few breaths, then looked away, and said to Tao Chun: "General Tao sneaked from Xuzhou, from Xuzhou to Suining, then to Yusu, and then to Yancheng, all the way to the bandits' camp in Shuyang South, what is the situation, General Tao must have seen it with his own eyes." I dug up all the old capital of the Jiangdong Left Army in Chongzhou, and gathered 5,000 old, weak, sick and disabled men and horses. Yue Du's instructions, how do you think I should carry them out? ”

Tao Chun was slightly stunned, he knew that it was not easy for Lin Jian to send troops, but he didn't expect him to trickly say that the five thousand elites were five thousand old and weak soldiers, and said: "Lord Lin recruited three thousand people to go north to King Qin the year before last, and the feat of being alone in Yannan is still yearned for, Lord Lin has 5,000 male soldiers under his command today, and the rogue is just an ant in front of Lord Lin......"

"We shouldn't be afraid of the rogues, but if we really want to catch and kill them, we really can't despise them as ants," Lin Jian shook his head, he didn't expect Tao Chun to speak in a crepe, "General Tao should feel that killing the rogue is as easy as ants, there are still three or five thousand soldiers and horses in Huai'an City, I will hand them over to General Tao to lead and cooperate with Yue to relieve the siege of Xuzhou, and I will go back to the south bank to guard Huai'an ......City."

Tao Chun's face was quite ugly.

Lin Jian said again: "General Tao or go to Jiangning, maybe Cheng Bingbu and King Ning will have some clever plan." ”

Lin Lianshui looked at Tao Chun and Liu Tingzhou inadventurously.

When Lin Jian said this, Tao Chun didn't know how to persuade him, and how could the five thousand defenders of Huai'an City compare with the five thousand elites here? But he was too full of Lin Tie's words just now, saying that Lin Tie dared to intersperse behind enemy lines with three thousand people, and Lin Tie gave him the five thousand defenders in Huai'an City at this time, even Yue Lengqiu couldn't complain that Lin Tie would not move, after all, he couldn't give up Huai'an City and not defend it!

As soon as Lin Tie said this, Liu Tingzhou was not easy to speak, and he was really afraid that Lin Tie would transfer the five or six thousand defenders in Huai'an City to meet the Changhuai army trapped in Xuzhou. Those armies are okay to defend the city, and it is okay to fight five or six thousand bandits in the field, but in the south of Xuzhou, the bandits are close to 200,000, and they don't send meat to others to eat when they go north?

Lin Tie pierced the north bank of the Huai River like a nail, which really made the Liukou uncomfortable.

From the day of the establishment of the camp, the Liukou organized as many as six large-scale attacks on this side, losing nearly 2,000 troops after losing their armor. Only then was Chen Hansan forced to abandon the plan to encircle Shuyang City, set up two river-sealing camps on both sides of Yishui and Shushui, and blocked the passage of the Jiangdong Left Army along Yi and Shubei with 20,000 elite bandits. Wu Shiyi, the commander of the Liukou Canal, also led the elite of the bandits to capture the city, and further strengthened the encirclement formed by the two cities of Xuzhou and Linyi on the periphery.

At this time, the Jiangdong Left Army also built a defense line against the luxury family on the Shengsi Islands.

Judging from these two points alone, the contribution made by the Jiangdong Left Army to the Jiangdong Left Army and to the imperial court has far exceeded the status obtained at this time.

Don't say that Lin Lian and Yue Lengqiu have a deep contradiction, even if there is no contradiction, few people will pay attention to Yue Lengqiu's orders, right?

When King Ning and the Sixth Department of Jiangning discussed the temporary establishment of the Huaidong Jingkou envoy in Jiangning, Xuzhou and Jiangning had lost contact, and the temporary dispatch of the Huaidong envoy of Lin Tie had nothing to do with the Jianghuai Governor's Palace, and was only subject to the jurisdiction of the Jiangning Military Department.

Under the current circumstances, even the Jiangning Military Department may not have the determination to let Lin Tie lead the Jiangdong Left Army to the north to take the risk of receiving Yue Lengqiu.

If you can pick up the Changhuai Army, that's okay, if the Jiangdong Left Army also falls into it and there is a mistake, who will defend Huaidong?

Based on Liu Tingzhou's understanding of Cheng Yuqian, the Jiangdong Military Department will definitely not give any death order to Lin Bin, and whether the north will go north or not in the end depends on Lin Bin's attitude.

Yue Lengqiu probably saw this, so he forgot the grievances between the two, and directly sent Tao Chun to break through to Lin Lian's side to ask for help.

To say that interspersed with the north, Lin Liangang led the army over was the best opportunity, at that time there was still a big gap between the Wandering Army in Surabaya and Shushui, and Yancheng County had not yet been lost, and there was no defense.

Lin Lian didn't go north decisively at that time - based on Liu Tingzhou's observation, Lin Lian was able to go north to meet Yue Lengqiu at that time - then Lin Lian had no intention of going north at all. After establishing a village in Huaibei, the exiled army continued to gather between Shuyang and Huai'an, and it was really difficult to go north at this time.

Lin Lianshui couldn't enter, Liu Tingzhou didn't help to speak, Tao Chun had no choice, and he didn't dare to spread in the camp of the Jiangdong Left Army if he had a temper, so he said goodbye and hurriedly went south to find Shi Zhangxi, the head of King Ning's mansion, to ask for ideas.

***********

After Tao Chun and Liu Tingzhou left, Zhang Yubo escorted the military in the rain in the afternoon.

"I heard that Yue Lengqiu sent someone over to ask for help?" Zhang Yubo went into the dark, damp and slightly stuffy war shed and sat down, and asked about Yue Lengqiu sending Tao Chun over to ask for help.

"Hmm." Lin Lian looked through the official letter from Chongzhou and answered.

"If the Changhuai army suffers a major setback in Xuzhou, it will be very bad for Jiangdong...... "Zhang Yubo said.

Lin Jian put down the official letter in his hand and looked up at Zhang Yubo.

What Lin Jian admires most about Zhang Yubo is that although Zhang Yubo has shown people the core members of Lin Gu's family, he can always have a more fair position, so in Gu Wuchen's mind, his status is not as good as Chen/Yuan Liang.

Zhang Yubo and Zhao Shuhan were the same kind of people, loyal to this gloomy Dayue Dynasty, and although Lin Jian didn't want them to be like this, they were always much more noble than the two-faced and three-stabbed people there.

"Yes, I still have some troops in Chongzhou that can be temporarily transferred, and it is not certain that it will be impossible to spread the river closure camp formed by Chen Hansan on both sides of Yishui and Shushui to go north, what will be the effect if I go to relieve the siege of the southeast of Xuzhou?" Lin Jian asked Zhang Yubo rhetorically, and without waiting for Zhang Yubo to answer, he directly said the answer, "Between Huaisi, Liu An'er and Ge Ping's troops and horses have more than 400,000 troops, Liang Xi and Cao Yiqu have not moved their troops and relieved the siege of Xuzhou, and Yue Lengqiu will lead the Changhuai army to retreat to Huainan...... In this situation, Yue Lengqiu retreated to Huainan, and I can't say anything about him, but Xuzhou and Linyi don't defend it, just blocking the passage for the wandering army to go south, where will the exiled army flock to? ”

Qingzhou!

Zhang Yubo said ashamedly: "I can't think about you deeply, and I think about it." ”

"I'm not a generous person," Lin Lian laughed, "I don't create a chance for Yue Lengqiu to break through, and I desperately lure the displaced army to Yi and Shu, blocking the passage for Yue Lengqiu to break through to the south, just to let him hold Xuzhou and Linyi well, and not let the exiled army from chong Dongchong...... Qingzhou grain can't be lost, I'm afraid that if this lawsuit is stabbed to the emperor, I won't lose. ”

"But it's not a way to hold on like this, the grain and grass in Xuzhou and Linyi may not be ......sufficient," Zhang Yubo's face was worried, he was not worried about the life and death of Yue Lengqiu, but about the situation in the north of Huai, if Xuzhou and Linyi fell, the army of three or four hundred thousand Liukou would rush to the south, and Lin Lian's three or five thousand elites would not be able to gain a foothold on the north bank.

"I didn't expect that the Eastern Capture would still refuse to withdraw from the periphery of Datong so far," Lin Jian also sighed slightly, and said, "Otherwise, the imperial court has more troops to be deployed in the north, and the Liang family or the Cao family will be more active in sending troops, so we can only wait for now...... In any case, I am confident that I will hold Huaidong, and there are deficiencies on the Dongyang side......"

The Huai River and Hongzepu lie in the hinterland of the Central Plains in the north of Jiangdong County, becoming the main geographical obstacle for the northern army to move south.

The Huai River flows into Hongzepu through Haozhou Mansion and flows out of Hongzepu from Huai'an Mansion, and Haozhou in Huainan and Hongzepu West and Huai'an in Huainan and Hongzepu are the two important places in Shouhuai.

Now Haozhou, Sizhou and other important places on the west bank of Hongzepu have fallen to the hands of the exile army one after another, and Lin Tingli in Dongyang, to the south, only has five or six thousand elite soldiers available, but he has to bear the resistance of blocking the exile army from the southwest of Huai. Now the Wandering Army mainly wants to eat the Changhuai Army trapped in Xuzhou, and the main forces are concentrated in the Huaisi area, Lin Tingli still doesn't feel the pressure, once Xuzhou is lost, the Wandering Army will continue to move south, and it will not be able to break through from Huaidong, so it will naturally change to Huaixi......

"Speaking of which, I thought that I should suggest that Lord Gu should transfer the Jiangningshui camp to help defend Dongyang," Qin Chengzu had been listening to Lin Jian and Zhang Yubo talking to him, and interjected at this time, "Compared to you who are worried that Xuzhou will fall, but I see the situation of catching turtles in the urn, you see, Liang Xi is in the north, Cao Yiqu is in the northwest, we are in the south, and Yue Lengqiu is in the east, stranding four or five hundred thousand exile troops on the Huaisi line. They can still raise food and grass at this time, so they don't panic, but if they hold on, the situation will only be unfavorable to them. At that time, Cao Yiqu's troops went out of Tongguan and went south along the Yellow River into Yingshui or Bianshui, and the speed was also fast; Liang Xibing went out of Jinan and went south along the Beisi River and Surabaya, is it really a game of catching turtles in an urn? There is no way for four or five hundred thousand exile troops to escape! ”

When Qin Chengzu said this, Zhang Yubo felt that the situation would gradually become favorable if it dragged on, and said: "Mr. Qin is really extraordinary, and Uncle Yu has been taught......

Lin Lian smiled: "If Liu An'er thinks the same way, then Yue Lengqiu will be comfortable!" ”

Zhang Yubo also wanted to understand the meaning of Lin Bin's words, if Liu An'er saw through the changes in the situation of catching turtles in the urn, he would never dare to delay, either give up the siege of Xuzhou and go south immediately, or attack Xuzhou and break the momentum in the urn. I also wanted to understand that Lin Lian and Qin Chengzu had the same opinion on the overall situation, and if they didn't understand it first, they were afraid that they would persuade him to save Yue Lengqiu.

Zhang Yubo sighed slightly in his heart, Lin Jian was able to do this far, and he could no longer blame him for standing by and watching.

In a series of battles in Chongzhou, the Jiangdong Left Army captured 12,000 soldiers and suffered more than 2,000 casualties, but under Yue Lengqiu's obstruction, Jiangdong County and the imperial court allocated less than 80,000 taels of silver and silver for military merit around last year.