On April 11, Liu An'er's general Wu Shiyi led an army of 20,000 refugees across Huainan, and then fell into Haozhou and Sizhou.
Although Lin Tingli led the Dongyang Army to guard Shiliang and block the hilly valley road where the refugee army went south from the west bank of Hongzepu, the news that Haozhou Prefecture had fallen again was undoubtedly a shocking news to everyone in Jiangning.
At this point, hundreds of thousands of migrant troops spread all over the ground along the north bank of the Huai River (the confluence of the Huai River and Hongzepu between Sizhou and Huai'an).
In mid-April, Jiangdong has entered the rainy season. It has been drizzling for several days. The whole river is covered in water mist, rain and mist. The new willow branches on the riverside are green and bright. Lin Fu is reading in a pavilion at the southern foot of the mountain.
Song Jia and Xiaoman were waiting on the stone table.
The scarlet green thin shirt is so bright and moving, it seems that the green color of the rivers and mountains is not as pleasant as the two girls.
A large ship drifted down the river and emerged leisurely through the mist. The style of the ship looked like the official system of Jiangning. Song Jia first put down the book in her hand and stared at it. After a stick of incense, the official ship approached the Nanya Pier and slowly drew in its sails.
, a person stood on the bow of the ship, shouting to the sentry on the dock: "Prince Ning's Mansion has sent an envoy to summon the Jinghai Capital Supervisor, Mr. Lin Fulin!"
The sound was loud and could be heard faintly halfway up the mountain. Lin Fu put down the pen in his hand and looked into the river. More than thirty feet away, the man on the bow of the boat was as small as an ant. He was wearing a green robe and looked like an official envoy. Lin Fu frowned.
Frowning slightly, he seemed to be wondering why Prince Ning's palace sent an envoy to see him.
Yue Lengqiu led the Huai army to retreat to Xuzhou, almost alone. The purpose of the imperial court to appoint King Ning to vassal Jiangning was to enable King Ning to play a role in the southeast at the critical moment.
King Ning directly sent an envoy to summon him, which shows that in the eyes of the people in Jiangning, they also believed that the situation had reached the most critical moment.
Lin Fu didn't care what the envoy sent by King Ning and the sentry general at the dock were saying. He raised his brows, waved a guard outside the mountain pavilion over, and ordered: "When you go down the mountain, tell me that I will patrol Shengsi."
, I don’t know when I will come back, just ask King Ning’s envoy to leave the edict..."
As the guards walked down the mountain along the stone path, Song Jia raised her hands to hold her hair. Mei Lai glanced at Lin Fu intently before saying, "Everyone in Jiangning thought that the Jiangdong Left Army was a divine general. Yue Lengqiu retreated to Xuzhou and did not dare to
When we go out of the city and fight the bandits to the death, I hope you will lead the left army from the east of the Yangtze River to cross the Huaihe River and go north!"
"Do you think that King Ning's imperial edict requires me to cross the Huaihe River and go north?" Lin Fu looked at Song Jia and said with a smile, "How can you be sure that the imperial edict does not require me to guard the east of the Huaihe River?"
"If we were to defend Huaidong, would you let King Ning's envoys block Chongzhou?" Song Jia glanced at Lin Fu, dissatisfied with Lin Fu's test of her intelligence.
Xiaoman couldn't guess why Lin Fu and Song Jia both guessed that King Ning was summoning Jiangdong's left army to cross Huaibei instead of guarding Huai'an. Seeing that the two of them looked at each other with a tacit understanding between words, they said unconvinced: "This way
With the status of being a leftist political activist, it is only natural to go to the left to defend the Huaihe River. On the other hand, crossing the Huaihe River to the north has nothing to do with this place. I think you have all guessed it wrong..."
"We will know when King Ning's edict is brought up," Lin Fu said.
"How about we make a bet?" Song Jia was interested in teasing Xiaoman.
"How can you two bully me?" Xiao Man was unconvinced, but he would not be fooled into making a bet with Song Jia. He propped himself up and watched what was going on under the cliff, waiting for the guards to bring up King Ning's edict.
Between the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River, it is divided into Huaidong and Huaixi by watersheds such as Hongzepu and Gaoyou Lake. Huaidong contains the three prefectures of Huai'an, Weiyang and Hailing, and Huaixi contains the three prefectures of Dongyang, Haozhou and Luzhou.
Seeing that Xiaoman was not fooled, Song Jia smiled and analyzed it for her: "Everyone in Jiangning will not shed tears without seeing the coffin. Although Haozhou and Sizhou were lost, Yue Lengqiu was still able to retreat along the Si River to defend Suyu, Huai'an, and Jiangning. How could it be possible?"
Will Jiangdong Zuojun be sent to guard Huai'an? Besides, if King Ning really wants to order Lin Fu to guard Huai'an, Gu Wuchen's messenger will most likely be the first to go to Chongzhou to report the news... Gu Wuchen's lack of movement, doesn't it mean that this side is also standing still?"
"What do you mean by standing still?" Lin Fu asked rhetorically, "The main force of the refugee army is in Huaibei, and they are advancing on the Sishui River. Can the three to five thousand left army in Jiangdong reverse the situation?"
"I'm not the only one who thinks so," Song Jia said with a smile, "When Liu An'er started his army in Hongzepu, he fell into Sizhou, Wuhe, and Shiliang counties. After Chen Hansan defected in Huai'an, Liu An'er joined forces with him.
He defeated Haozhou and launched an army to plunder its city. Haozhou, a famous city in Huainan, was destroyed in the war. Yue Lengqiu went south to reorganize the Changhuai Army. Just as the Huaihe River burst its embankments, there was no chance to rebuild Haozhou, so the Dongyang Army
We can only defend Shiliang, but cannot enter and defend Haozhou. In the eyes of some people in Jiangning, the fall of Haozhou and Sizhou is somewhat natural. Although King Ning sent envoys, in their eyes, they even expected the situation
There is still a possibility of recovery... You used a weak excuse to block the envoy, but are you just standing still?"
Lin Fu smiled and did not argue. When the guard came up with the edict from King Ning, he opened it and saw that it was indeed an order for him to lead the soldiers and horses left behind in Chongzhou to go north across the Huaihe River to suppress the civilian bandits.
Lin Fu rolled up King Ning's edict and threw it into a paper basket made of bamboo strips, and ignored it. He really couldn't understand such a lucky edict.
A little later, an urgent message came from the Jiangdong Left Army's sentry in Huaibei. Liu An'er led the main force of the refugee army to cross the Surabaya River and arrived at the foot of Henan City.
Only 4,000 soldiers and horses of the Changhuai Army remained in Suyu, and the situation was critical.
If Liu An'er rushes to attack Suyu, even if Lin Fu decides to raise troops to cross the Huaibei River, it will take eight or nine days to reach Suyu, and it will have no effect.
*************
On the 14th, the troops sent by Yue Lengqiu to rescue Suyu were ambushed by Chen Hansan in Suining. They were defeated and fled eastward. Suining fell on the same day. Seeing that Suining had fallen, the defenders of Suyu contacted Xuzhou to help the refugees.
The army was cut off and worried about being encircled. On the 15th, he abandoned the defense of Suyu and retreated to Shuyang in the east. He and the Linyi defenders were at odds with each other to protect the eastward retreat of the Changhuai Army into Qingzhou.
Suyu is in the south of Xuzhou and north of Huai'an, blocking the passage of the Chang Huai Army from Xuzhou to Huai'an along the Sishui River south.
The Sishui River originates from Quanlin County in western Shandong Province, flows into Nansi Lake, flows through Xuzhou, Suyu, and joins the Huaihe River in the north of Huai'an.
After the fall of Suyu, Chang Huai'an's main force retreating to Xuzhou was almost alone except for the border with Linyi to the east. The Huai'an Mansion at Huaisikou was also in danger.
On the afternoon of the 17th, Jiangning's official ship docked at Nanya Pier again. The person who came was no longer an envoy from King Ning. Zhang Yubo, wearing a crimson official robe, boarded the pier in the drizzle.
Zhang Yubo had an extraordinary relationship with this place. Li Chai, the sentry on duty at Nanya Wharf, knew Zhang Yubo when he was in Jiangning. He didn't waste any time in informing him and directly led him up the narrow stone path to Linfu.
Lin Fu was playing in the grass pavilion on the top of the mountain with his only son Xin'er in his arms. When he saw Zhang Yubo coming up the mountain wearing the crimson official robe that can only be worn by fifth-rank officials, he said with a smile: "Brother Yubo has been promoted. He came to Chongzhou to ask for my congratulations."
?”
Liu Yue'er stood up and bowed to Zhang Yubo. Zhang Yubo bowed to Liu Yue'er and bowed in return. He smiled bitterly with Lin Fu and said, "Brother Lin Xian, don't make fun of me. I was caught in a fight. I was caught at the last moment and sent to Huai'an."
"I was sent by the government magistrate," he paused, and then said, "I was born in the bitter cold, and I was cultivated by the imperial court to be here today. The imperial court used me in times of crisis and did not dare to cherish my life. I had no choice but to bite the bullet and go to Huai'an alone to take up my post. I
I came to Chongzhou because I think there are orphans, widows, and old ladies in the hall who have no one to take care of me, so I want to entrust Brother Lin Xian!"
"Your trick of slandering me is of no use to me," Lin Fu said, "You smell the smell on my body. I just peed all over this kid, and for a moment I have no idea of being loyal to the imperial court!"
Liu Yue'er took her son away from Lin Fu's arms, and the front of Lin Fu's purple official robe was indeed wet with urine.
Zhang Yubo couldn't laugh or cry.
The third grade wears purple, and Lin Fu is only from the fourth grade, but he is rewarded with purple. He has become a noble at a young age, but such a precious purple robe is worn by Lin Fu every day to hold his children and urinate.
I don't know how much trouble it will cause if I know this.
Liu Yue'er went back with her son in her arms. Lin Fu, dressed in bulletproof clothes, asked Zhang Yubo to sit down in the thatched pavilion and asked, "Should I control Liu Tingzhou, or Liu Tingzhou control me?"
Liu Tingzhou is the prefect of Huai'an.
"The situation is so critical. If Huai'an is lost again, the bandits will go south unimpeded. How can those people continue to be ignorant?" Zhang Yubo said, "Besides, you are the Xuanfu envoy, Si Zuo, participating in politics. Since the founding of the dynasty, you can participate in government affairs and control prefectures and counties, but how can you?
Are there any prefectures and counties that refrain from participating in politics? This is the edict of King Ning and the letter from the Jiangning Ministry of War..."
The situation was critical, and there was no time to ask the central government for orders. King Ning and the six departments of Jiangning jointly had the authority to handle the military and political affairs of the southeastern counties, which actually made Jiangning the political center of the southeastern counties.
Lin Fu took the letter, opened it and looked at it. His official title of Zuo Shenzheng finally played some role. With his Zuo Shenzheng position, he served as the envoy of Jingkou system in Huaidong. Not only the local soldiers in Huai'an Prefecture were under his control, but also Hailing,
The military preparations in Weiyang's local prefectures and counties were also temporarily under his control. Shi Zhang Xitong, the governor of Prince Ning, attached a seal to Prince Ning's edict. Faced with the situation, he had to bow his head.
At the same time, Lin Tingli was appointed as the Huaixi system envoy, taking charge of the local military equipment of Dongyang and Haozhou. Since the entire Haozhou Prefecture was lost, Lin Tingli was appointed as the Huaixi system envoy. He only had a good name and did not control Luzhou.
The local military preparations in Anzheng Hefei were under his control.
In fact, Lin Fu, the envoy of the Huaidong system, is somewhat worthy of his name. Shen Rong, who knew Weiyang Mansion, had a deep grudge with him, so how could he listen to his orders? Hailing Mansion also basically relied on Chongzhou to send troops.
Seeing Lin Fu frowning slightly after reading the official letter, Zhang Yubo asked: "I am going to Huai'an today. The official ship in Jiangning does not listen to my instructions, and I still want you to send a ship to take me to Huai'an. Also, I would like to ask you again, what is Chongzhou?"
When can we send troops?"
In the past, we were friends and got along casually; after Lin Fu received the imperial edict, he became his superior, and Zhang Yubo followed the rules and addressed himself as an adult.
"The troops are very fast. If we delay it for three to five days, it may be difficult to enter Huai'an City. I will leave today." Seeing Zhang Yubo's surprise, Lin Fu smiled and said, "You and those people think that I am standing still? King Ning on the 12th
Send envoys, Chongzhou will start preparations, and will send troops just waiting for you to come... Chongzhou wants to defend Shengsi, and there are not many soldiers available, three thousand infantry, one thousand cavalry camp, one thousand water camp, plus
There are 7,000 auxiliary troops, craftsmen and supplies, and they can barely defend Huai'an!"