Liu Tingzhou went south to Luzhou in late July, on behalf of Huaixi to participate in the military and political conference convened by Lin Tie in Juchao, and at the end of July, he went to the north shore of Chaohu Lake, met Yuan Jinsheng, who came from Nanyang to discuss matters, and walked along the west bank of Chaohu Lake to Juchao.

Chaohu Lake gathers the surrounding mountains and water, and there are many water systems, which is conducive to the Chaohu Plain to use the natural river channel to sit on a large number of paddy fields, but at the same time, these rivers have short waterways, and the flood storage of the river is small in the summer and autumn rainy season, which makes the flood disaster along the Chaohu Lake in summer and autumn serious.

In the past, Luzhou was not directly involved in the war, but it suffered extremely heavy taxes; In addition, most of the money and food supplies of the Luzhou army and horses were obtained from the local government, which made the local government unwilling and unable to rectify the civil affairs, which also aggravated the waterlogging situation in Chaohu Lake since this summer.

When Liu Tingzhou drove south to live in the nest, the roads along the way were destroyed by floods.

It's just different from the past, after entering Luzhou, you can see that many Huaidong soldiers are participating in disaster relief in an orderly manner. The people recruited by the Luzhou government to participate in road construction and disaster relief are no longer unpaid labor, but can receive a certain amount of rice and grain on a daily basis.

This is Huaidong's consistent "work-for-relief" method, but it is extremely effective, since it ensures that even if the affected farmers do not fall into a desperate situation due to the disaster, it can also ensure that the affected areas can quickly resume production after the water recedes, and increase the local ability to resist flooding.

Of course, there is a premise for these to be that the taxes paid by Luzhou to the household department are not reduced, and Huaidong needs to subsidize a large amount of money and grain to Luzhou in order to do these things.

Luzhou has prepared a ferry on the north bank of Chaohu Lake to send Liu Tingzhou and Yuan Jinsheng to Juchao, but Liu Tingzhou and Yuan Jinsheng want to see with their own eyes what changes have changed in the six months that Luzhou has given control to Huaidong, and insist on bringing their own cars and horses to the south. Anyway, Juchao has to wait for someone from Jinghu to come, and he is not afraid that Lin will be impatient waiting in Juchao.

In the north of Juchao, there is a section of the road that was washed away by the flood, and the water receded, but it was muddy as far as the eye could see, and under the grass slopes of the fields, there were sparkling puddles.

Different from the Chaohu Lake in the embankment around the lake in later generations, the Chaohu Lake in the world is more than 800 miles around, it is composed of a series of lake swingers, when the water is dry, the lake area is a piece of sandbar, the summer and autumn rainy seasons are connected into a piece, and there are many wetlands, lakes and swamps around.

After the summer, the water rose, and the area of Chaohu Lake in 800 miles suddenly more than doubled.

The polders and polders formed by the people spontaneously and surrounded the embankments are like isolated islands, standing in the water.

Seeing a large group of people coming this way from a distance, there were soldiers and civilians, Liu Tingzhou only thought that it was the Huaidong soldiers and civilians who were repairing roads for disaster relief, and he didn't pay attention to it, and said to Yuan Jinsheng: "It seems that this can only change boats to live in the nest......"

Yuan Jinsheng looked left and right, the road ahead was washed away by the flood, I am afraid that the road from Luohu Mountain to the west bank of Chaohu Lake is different, to go around from the eastern foot of Luohu Mountain, I don't know what the road conditions are on the side of Yinping Mountain, let alone one more day, they retreat to the north at this time, and they can enter Juchao City before nightfall when they change boats in the back of the pavilion village......

Yuan Jinsheng nodded, asked Liu Tingzhou to get in the car first, and said, "Lord Liu first." ”

At this time, several military horses galloped in the mud, and Yao asked: "In front, there is the right deputy capital Yushi, Huaixi left Cheng Liu Tingzhou, Lord Liu......

Liu Tingzhou stopped, looked at the approacher, hugged his fists and said, "This official is Liu Tingzhou......"

"Chongguo Gong is in front of you, please come over!" The person who came said.

Only then did Liu Tingzhou know that the large group of people in front of him was actually Lin Lian.

Liu Tingzhou and Yuan Jinsheng abandoned the car and rode a horse, rode a horse with the attendants, did not take off their shoes and socks and rolled up their trouser sleeves, and stepped on a muddy road along the washed out road.

Lin Jian sat barefoot on the mud ridge, his trousers were pulled up to his knees, looked at Liu Tingzhou and Yuan Jinsheng coming over, and said with a smile: "Hurt Lord Liu and Jinsheng to take this rotten road, and after you get to the nest, ......ask Huawen to toast you and compensate for it."

Liu Tingzhou saw that Lin Lian and the others were covered in mud, and knew that they had come to inspect the disaster, and they happened to meet them, but he didn't intend to come halfway to greet them - Liu Tingzhou had no luxury of expecting Lin Lian to come out of the city to greet them.

Lin Lianzheng talked to Chen Huawen and other officials about the construction of embankments and roads and disaster relief, and when he thought of the critical places, he casually ordered them to go down, and did not deliberately avoid Liu Tingzhou and Yuan Jinsheng, and rested for a while before returning to the nest together.

Lin Bin's entourage and guards are almost all on foot, not that there are no horses to ride, but that the horses have been walking in the muddy land of the flood for a long time, and they are easy to rot their hooves, and the war horses are very expensive.

Liu Tingzhou and Yuan Jinsheng looked at each other, and they could see the surprise in each other's eyes - Lin Tie was in power at this time, and the Jiangning court could say that he covered the sky with one hand, and replaced him with other powerful ministers, but he was afraid that he was arrogant, lascivious, and difficult to control, but Lin Tie did not change his previous style. Huai'an is not loose internally, the more time goes by, Huaidong will only get stronger and stronger, can Huaixi and Jinghu really compete with Huaidong?

Thinking about it this way is inevitably frustrating.

Walking south, Liu Tingzhou found that the disaster situation in the north of Juchao County was more serious than expected, and the embankments on both sides of the Qingwei River coming down from Luohu Mountain were washed away by floods, and there were flood-soaked houses and villages everywhere, but the chaotic situation was much lighter than imagined.

Five or six miles to the south, the muddy road of Qingwei Creek joins the mouth of the lake and the flood has been almost repaired, and many camps have been set up on the surrounding highlands to house the victims, and there are soldiers stationed at the ferry. Three ships are docking, unloading stones to the pier on the north bank, as if to expand the ferry port on both sides to form a stable river wharf. In addition to more than 100 soldiers dressed in Huaidong uniforms, most of the people who loaded and unloaded the stones were people, and the order was not chaotic.

Crossing the river to the south, the road on the south bank has been almost repaired, the carriages and horses are barely feasible, passing through several streams, there are ferries, there are traces of extremely new, that is, the wooden bridge built after the disaster - counting the last round of rainstorm season in Lunan, it should be over ten days ago, and the speed of Huaidong is really shocking.

"Draw out all the manpower that can be drawn, and the road from Chaodong to Pingtang should be repaired within a month," the road was no longer muddy, Lin Jian sat in the pond and washed his feet, put on shoes and socks and rode on horseback, and instructed Chen Huawen beside him, "After that, when the water recedes, the embankment of the Zhuxi River in Chaodong will be repaired first." The shore of this Chaohu Lake should be the land of fish and rice, but the current situation is too far from the land of fish and rice...... As for Chaoxi," Lin Jian turned his head to look at Liu Tingzhou on the other side, "Lord Liu went back and told the Dong Bing Department that the water flowing out of the General Ridge in Chaoxi is an important waterway connecting Luzhou and Shouzhou, and the matter of embankment control and dredging should not be neglected."

"Of course......," Liu Tingzhou replied perfunctorily, thinking about the fact that Luzhou would build a road and build a flat pond first.

Pingtang is located at the west foot of Daishan Mountain, between Haozhou, Luzhou and Dongyang, and there is Changfeng between the Luojian River leading to Haoshou in the territory, and it flows into the Huai River - Lin tied Chen Huawen to call the power of Luzhou to repair the post road from Juchao to Pingtang first, which is nothing more than to strengthen the control of the northern region of Luzhou, Haozhou and Shouzhou will naturally feel the edge of Huaidong soldiers and horses, but there is nothing to be done at this time.

After entering Juchao City, Liu Tingzhou and Yuan Jinsheng were arranged to go to the pavilion to rest, and no dust washing banquet was arranged.

The Chizhou side was summoned by Yue Duming, the son of Deng Yu and Yue Lengqiu, and it was the Jingzhou Mansion that sent Hu Wenmu to Luzhou by Jinghu to meet Wei Jinyuan, and Tanzhou was too far away, so it was too late to send someone over this time......?? After entering the post house, Liu Tingzhou and Yuan Jinsheng knew that they had entered the nest at the latest.

Jinghu and Huaidong have the shallowest relationship, and they have been a family for a long time, and they really can't figure out their attitude towards Huaidong, but Chizhou, Huaixi, and Nanyang are driven by interests, and they will inevitably come together at this time.

Liu Tingzhou and Yuan Jinsheng entered the nest, and Deng Yu invited them over for a banquet.

As soon as the banquet was held, Yue Duming complained: "I waited for more than 100 people to live in the pavilion, and the expenses were actually paid for by my own family, speaking of which Huaidong is really a small family......

Liu Tingzhou smiled slightly, Yue Lengqiu only skipped people, but there were no characters in the nephews who could get their hands on it, this time Yue Duming was asked to cross the river with Deng Yu, probably to increase his experience, but I didn't expect him to pay attention to anything else, only to worry about Huaidong in the details.

Liu Tingzhou has his own identity, and there is no need to perfunctory Yue Duming, so he asked Deng Yu directly: "The privy envoy convened a military meeting in Luzhou this time, I am afraid that he is planning to use troops against Jiangxi, what is the policy of Chizhou?" ”

After Emperor Yongxing returned to Jiangning, the imperial camp was assigned to Chizhou, including a large number of warships of the imperial camp and navy, which were also given to Chizhou, and the money and grain given to Chizhou were also paid according to 30,000 foot soldiers and 20,000 sailors - half a year has passed since the imperial camp was incorporated into Chizhou, and Chizhou still wants to use the excuse of resting and digesting the navy as an excuse to delay the use of troops in Jiangzhou.

Half a year ago, Lin Tie didn't dare to cut off Chizhou's money and grain, but in the past half a year, Lin Tie deployed 60,000 elite combat forces, including armor soldiers and naval troops, in Qingyang, Nanling, Yijiang and Luzhou counties on the north bank of the Qiupu River.

"Chizhou has a narrow area, and from Chizhou to the west, there are mountains on both banks, there are only narrow and narrow paths along the river, and there are many lakes and marshes, so it is not so easy to fight westward," Deng Yu said, "In addition, there are few people in Chizhou, and there are no more than 10,000 Ding Zhuang, and the military department has a slight loss, and it is too late to replenish." I want to see these difficulties in the Privy Council, and Governor Yue called me over, and I also explained them to the Privy Council in detail......"

Liu Tingzhou nodded, after Qingyang, Nanling and other places were carved out to establish a new mansion with Yijiang, Chizhou only had two counties under its jurisdiction on the west bank of the Qiupu River, and the population of these two counties was only fifty or sixty thousand after being devastated by the war. Don't look at Yue Leng's more than 50,000 water infantry troops in his hands, but it is difficult to replenish them after consumption.

Unlike the Huaidong Army, which is getting stronger and stronger, no matter how many battles the Chizhou Army wins, it will most likely only get weaker and weaker - Lin Jian forced Yue Lengqiu to fight Jiangzhou, with ruthless intentions.

Liu Tingzhou felt that Lin Tie's strategy was very familiar, and when he thought about it, when Yue Lengqiu was the governor of Jianghuai, did he also force Lin Tie to lead the Jiangdong Left Army to fight hard against the Donghai Kou at that time, and didn't he also hope to use the hand of the Donghai Kou to weaken the Jiangdong Left Army that had just gained a foothold in Chongzhou at that time?

This feng shui takes turns, but I didn't expect it to come so fast!