The sound of the rain hitting the treetops in the courtyard was in harmony with the sound of the bronze oil lamps "beeping and peeling".

Lin Jian sat in front of the case, Gu Wuchen's suicide note was spread out on the desk, recalling the bits and pieces since Chongguan for eight years, which made people's hearts sad-after sitting quietly for a long time, seeing Jun Xun coming, Lin Jian stood up with the long case and walked towards the mourning hall.

The mourning hall is located in the north foot of the garden, and the Du family has helped Tang Gu to go to the side courtyard to rest; Gu Siyuan, Yang Shi, Liu Xilin and others were still keeping vigil in the mourning hall.

Lin Jian and Jun Xun walked over, burned incense and worshipped, picked up the futon and sat down, Jun Xun knelt beside him.

Lin Jian asked Yang Shi and Liu Xilin not to be formal, and said to Gu Siyuan: "The situation in Hehuai has been completely eroded, and hundreds of thousands of Yan soldiers have poured in from the eastern front, and the number of troops will continue to increase in the later period. Judging from the current situation in Yanhu, it can barely mobilize 200,000 to 250,000 troops to move south from the eastern front. The towns of Jiangning, looking together and detached, each of them supports the army as the most important, distrusts each other, and it is difficult to twist into a rope to defend the land against the enemy, and Chen Hansan is like a bone spur nailed to Xuzhou, which makes Lianghuai feel cold. If you can't win a battle in Huaibei, the homeland between the river and Huai will be lost. The Huai River line is threatened, and Luo Xiancheng in the west will also be worrisome; And once the troops are transferred from the southern front to the north for reinforcements, the luxury family will inevitably struggle to the death, and the next situation will become more and more difficult...... The world is difficult, my generation should work hard, and my father-in-law doesn't want you to indulge in the sorrow of the past, Hei Yuan, what are your plans for the future? ”

Qingzhou fell, Gu Wuchen, Du Juefu, Zhang Jinxian and others died, Chen/Yuanliang's whereabouts are unknown, and the forces operated by everyone in Qingzhou were devastated, but there were still many people and resources withdrawn to Huaidong.

More than 1,000 people and horses withdrawn from Qingzhou and Linqu were scattered in Yishan, and Yang Shi only selected more than 100 guards to escort Tang Gu's and Du family's Zongting to Huaidong, but the dead soldiers who withdrew from Yangxin with Gu Siyuan and Liu Xilin and the rest of the remnants collected were nearly 2,000 people, which was not a weak mourning army.

In addition, some of the wealth accumulated by Du, Gu, Chen and other families in Qingzhou was also withdrawn to Linqu in time to avoid robbery by Yanhu, and the equivalent of silver was also 350,000 taels.

Gu Wuchen's last letter said that the remnants of the forces withdrawn from Qingzhou would be accepted by Huaidong, but Lin Jian still wanted to respect Gu Siyuan's opinion, but he would soon go north to supervise the war, and there was not much time to wait for the sadness in Gu Siyuan's heart to fade before talking about it.

Regarding the remnants of Qingzhou's withdrawal, Lin Mengde rarely did not express his opinion.

Compared with the forces of Huaidong at this time, the remnants of Qingzhou's withdrawal either dissolved into Huaidong, or still maintained independence, or even maintained a hostile posture towards Huaidong, which did not have much substantial impact on Huaidong. Therefore, the going and staying of the remnants of Qingzhou is more like a family matter in the inner house.

Since the new emperor ascended the throne, Gu Wuchen was the first minister to defend the land and die to die. Regardless of whether Emperor Yongxing still has a grudge against the matter of supporting the establishment, the funeral and reward will be extremely glorious, and it will also benefit Gu Siyuan's head.

If Gu Siyuan is obsessed with the past and does not want to be attached to Huaidong, he still has a political foundation.

After arriving in Chongzhou, Gu Siyuan's spirit was slightly better.

To say that Gu Siyuan still had a blind optimism about the situation in Hehuai in the past, but today, that kind of blind optimism has been completely shattered, and he can naturally understand the difficulties of Huaidong.

Gu Siyuan said: "If you make a mistake, your bones will wither, in the past, I was so ambitious and involved too many people; When I boarded the ship from Yangxin, I was discouraged, and I could only calm down and think about something when I arrived in Chongzhou. My father's suicide note asked me to cherish my useful body and not be bound by vulgar etiquette, but no matter what, I had to go back to Hutang to set up a grave for my father first, and my mother and Lianniang stayed in Chongzhou for the time being, and asked my sister to take care of it. Yang Shi, Xilin, and the loyal people who withdrew from the south on this trip, I owe them too much, but I can't take care of them, so I can only ask you to arrange them on your behalf......"

"The family doesn't talk to two families," Lin Jian heard that Gu Siyuan was willing to accept the remnants of Qingzhou to Huaidong, nodded and said, "At this time, to resist Hulu, Yang Shi and Xilin are both useful materials, and Huaidong also needs it-you go back to Hutang to set up a mound, and keep filial piety in March, and then return to Huaidong." or govern a county, or govern a government, you can give full play to your talents. In order to resist Hu Lu and recover the mountains and rivers, people should do their best and use them, and do not formalize etiquette, which should also be the meaning of the father-in-law's suicide note......"

Gu Siyuan nodded, approving Lin Bin's arrangement.

Suffering from this setback, Gu Siyuan also has a clearer understanding of himself.

Huaidong Yong's generals are like forests, if you talk about the ability to govern the army and lead the troops, Fu Qinghe, Cao Ziang, Qin Chengzu and others are all the choice of the handsome ministers who can stand alone; Ning Zechen, Ao Canghai, Zhou Tong, Zhou Pu, Ma Yigong, Yang Yihang, Zhao Hu, Tang Fuguan and others are all first-class generals in the world; Including Liu Miaozhen, Sun Zhuang, Zhang Gou, Chen Yan and others, they are also famous generals who have risen in the exile army. Speaking of ministers, Gao Zongting, Ye Junan and others have long been famous in the world, and they are all used by Huaidong at this time, and Lin Mengde, Sun Jingxuan, Sun Jingtang, Liang Wenzhan, Wang Chengfu, Sun Shangwang, Yang Zichen and others are all the choice of the moment.

Huaidong can be said to be truly "eclectic and talented", which is far from being comparable to the original Qingzhou was mainly limited to promoting henchmen and cronies from the clan, Gu Siyuan also knew that after dissolving into Huaidong, his own talent could only be regarded as medium, and after receiving such a heavy blow, he could only do something down-to-earth.

Yang Shi and Liu Xilin heard Gu Siyuan say this, and respectfully moved to him and kowtowed, Gu Siyuan knelt up straight, picked them up, and said: "I owe you too much...... From then on, Yang and Liu were no longer regarded as Gu's retainers, as the generals of Huaidong, they got along with Gu Siyuan as colleagues, and the kowtow ceremony was an end.

The next day, Jiang Ning's edict went to Chongzhou, and Gu Wuchen pursued "Zhongjing", and posthumously awarded the Dongge University Scholar, Kaifu Yitong Sansi, and Dongyang Bo; Gu Siyuan was demoted to a first-class knight, sealed Shi Liangbo, and promoted to the fifth rank of Zhongsan doctor; Tang Gu's special gift is a lady of the order.

Gu Siyuan had to go to Jiangning first to give thanks to him, and then he could go back to Dongyang Lake to set up a grave for his father, and the remains of Yang Pu and Ma Chao were buried in a cemetery at the northern foot of Zilang Mountain.

Tang Gu's health was not good, so Gu Siyuan's wife Du stayed in Chongzhou with her son to take care of Tang Gu's family, including hundreds of people from the Du clan.

It was also on the second day of the first month of October that an edict came from Jiangning, summoning Huaidong to send troops from Huaisi and receiving aid from Yinan to Dongping, and also formally agreed to use Bianshui as the line to divide the areas north of Huaiyang and east of Bianshui, except for Jining, Caozhou, and other places, into Huaidong's defense area.

**************

On the second day of the first month of October, Lin Jian summoned Zhen Qitai, the special envoy of the Zhen family in Haiyang, Goryeo, and Zhen Feng's son, Chi Yuanji, the son of Chi Yuanji, the son of the governor of Dongzhou, and Li Ji, the son of the king of Danluo, and others.

After mid-June, the situation in Shandong became increasingly tense, and Huaidong's troops were also stretched thin at that time, so Lin Jian was forced to transfer troops and horses from Haidong to form a partial division and rush to the periphery of Dengzhou for emergency.

After the Dengzhou incident, Huaidong's deployment in Haidong naturally could no longer be hidden. It was only at this time that Jiang Ning realized more clearly that Lin Jian had been running Haidong for several years, and the foundation was far deeper than others imagined.

Not only did he borrow land to build Jeju Castle on Danluo Island, but he also formed an offensive and defensive alliance with the Saga clan and the Kongo clan of Fuso, as well as the Zhen clan of Goryeo Haeyeong, and Huaidong.

Under the current situation, Jiang Ning could only acquiesce to the fact that in the edict on the second day of October, the affairs of the Haidong Domain were brought under the jurisdiction of the Huaidong Envoy.

Zhen Feng sent his son Zhen Qitai as a special envoy to Huaidong this time, and also came to seek Huaidong's support to seize the royal power of Goryeo.

Lin Jian naturally hoped that the Zhen clan would expand the scale of the war in Goryeo to weaken Goryeo's military support for Yanhu to a limited extent, but the Zhen clan was still slightly weaker at the moment.

The Zhen clan currently occupies a county in Haiyang, with about 500,000 troops and more than 30,000 troops; Although the Goryeo royal family Li and the minister of state Zuo Jing, who temporarily took charge of the Goryeo royal government, were said to be corrupt and incompetent, the governance was chaotic, and they were subservient to Yanhu to the outside world, causing the domestic people to live poorly, complaining, and the military and civilians were centrifuged, but the land, population, soldiers and other resources under their jurisdiction were several times that of the Zhen family.

If the support for the Zhen clan is limited to the exchange of strategic materials, it will be difficult to completely involve Goryeo in the war in a short period of time, and it will be difficult to achieve the goal of weakening Yanhu's military resource support from Goryeo.

In exchange, in exchange for the Saga clan and the Kongo clan's direct use of troops from the east side against Shannan and other counties on the east coast of the Goryeo Peninsula, the Zhen clan promised to return Tsushima to the Saga clan forever after gaining control of Goryeo. Second, Lin Jian wanted to use the soldiers and horses of Jeju as the basis, unite the forces of Danluo and Dongju Governor's Office, form a joint camp army in Haidong, expand the strength to 12,000 to 18,000 people, and Huaidong and Zhen will jointly bear the military supply and attack Hanyang and other counties on the west bank of the Goryeo Peninsula - so as to form a situation of using troops on the third line of the Goryeo battlefield, not only to ensure that Goryeo can no longer support Yanhu with military supplies, but also to nail the Goryeo naval division on the west bank of the peninsula and unable to move.

Considering the limited population resources of the Dongzhou Governor's Mansion and the Danluo Kingdom, Lin Jian authorized the Danluo Li family and the Dongzhou Chi family to recruit soldiers from Huaidong to ensure that the troops of the two families participating in the war at the same time could be maintained at more than 3,000 people.

Lin Jian transferred Zhao Hu back to Chongzhou this time, and Ma Yigong replaced Zhao Hu as the captain of the Haidong Xingying Army, with full responsibility for Huaidong's defense and warfare in the Haidong region, as well as the development and escort of the Haidong trade route.

In addition to the elite of the first brigade from the Jinhai battalion, soldiers and horses were also transferred from the Gongyi battalion to ensure that Huaidong's soldiers in Haidong increased to more than 9,000 people.