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Chapter six hundred and forty-eight the puzzle

Han Qian assigned Han Donghu to personally direct the sneak attack.

Wang Che did not accompany him, but Shen Peng, Zhao Ci and other seven Liang Jun secret agents, as well as a dozen scout attachés from the Military Intelligence Staff Department, and two battalions of elite cavalry guards set out from East Lake early the next morning under the leadership of Han Donghu.

After arriving in Linhuai, they will look for opportunities to change their clothes and sneak across the Huaihe River in batches, enter the western territory of Sizhou, and go to the northern part of Xuzhou; in addition to Lin Haizheng of Haozhou, they will send a small group of troops to cooperate with the crossing of Huaihe to harass Tongkou and others. In addition to arranging people and horses for later support, the Chishan Club will also directly arrange for several sea ships to rush to the waters near Haizhou in two locations to lurk.

No matter what, it is still worrying to see hundreds of elite key soldiers leaving their base during the cold weather, taking the risk of sneaking into enemy territory to carry out such a big move when many situations are uncertain.

Watching the distant generals disappear in the vast mist, Han Qian, accompanied by Xi Faer, Xi Rong, Huo Li and others, took a detour from the north slope of Qingcang Mountain to Liyang.

No matter how well the confidentiality work is done, the sudden movement of five to six hundred elite bodyguards and cavalry from East Lake will inevitably attract the attention of spies from all sides. In order to confuse these spies, Han Qian left East Lake with the sneak attack troops in the early morning, using All this looked like an ordinary trip for him.

After seeing off the sneak attackers, Han Qian will not return to East Lake for the time being. Instead, under the protection of a small team of troops, he will take a detour to Liyang. In the past few days, he plans to stay out of the sight of ordinary people and stay in Lianyuan to handle official duties.

Gao Shao, Feng Liao, Guo Rong, Guo Que, Wang Che and others rushed to Lianyuan early in the morning to wait.

Han Donghu led his troops to the north, and even if he successfully hijacked the Wen clan and returned, even if he did not consider other variables, he could successfully persuade Lu Qingxia and others to use rat weapons, and he did not dare to easily let Chai Jian send troops from Junzhou to attack Wuguan, but the root of the problem was not solved. solution.

At this time, it was the monarchs and ministers of Shu who really wanted to attack Guanzhong and wanted to incorporate Guanzhong into their territory.

Among the four kingdoms of Chu, Liang, Jin, and Shu, Shu was the weakest at the beginning of the founding of the country. It was even so weak that the leader of Shu, Wang Jian, did not dare to directly proclaim himself emperor. Instead, he presented a petition to the Liang State as a minister, accepted the canonization of the Liang State, and became the King of Shu.

Although there have been constant internal troubles in Shu over the past few years, they are much better than those in Liang and Chu, which were plagued by endless civil strife and frequent invasions from foreign enemies. After so many years of rest and recuperation, the country's national strength can barely be considered to be thriving.

Guo moved a sack of files into the study.

Over the past few years, without realizing it, the Military Intelligence Staff Department had accumulated so much intelligence collected from Shu and divided into categories.

As for Wei Qun's mission to Jinling, the Marquis of Changxiang and Wang Yong have not yet sent anyone from Yuzhou to inform them, and no new news has come back from the hidden stakes they sent to lurk in Shu, and Wei Qun has not sent anyone. When they come to Donghu to make contact, the exact information they have received so far is limited. All they can do is to go through the information collected in the past.

"Is it possible that the Marquis of Changxiang knew our position, and they supported sending troops to annex Guanzhong, so they didn't send anyone over to communicate with us?" Feng Liao speculated.

After the civil unrest in Sizhou was successfully resolved, their focus shifted to Jianghuai.

At the same time, there were also large internal personnel transfers. He Liufeng, who was previously responsible for spying on intelligence in the Shu region, was promoted to the rank of Du Yuhou and commanded the troops. Naturally, it was impossible to continue to keep an eye on this mess.

At present, there are only three scout military attachés in the Military Intelligence Staff Department who are dedicated to their duties. There are also Tan Yuliang and Chishan Society who are in close contact with Yuzhou and are more aware of the situation in Shu. However, after learning that Wei Qun was sent to Jinling as an envoy,

Only four days have passed, and some personnel who are more familiar with the situation have not yet been transferred to East Lake for questioning.

More than three years have passed, and Feng Liao, Gao Shao, Guo Rong and others, like Han Qian, need to reorganize the intricate relationships within Shu.

The focus of conflict within the Shu Kingdom is still the dispute between Changxiang Marquis Wang Yong and Crown Prince Wang Hongyi.

In the past few years, Wang Yong, the Marquis of Changxiang, governed Yuzhou, controlled Banan well salt, and conducted large-scale border trade with Xuzhou, accumulating a large amount of resources, and was able to form a formation headed by him, with Qi Lun, deputy envoy to the privy council, and Jing Qiong, the official minister.

Wen, Yuzhou Sima Cao Qian and others were the core, and the military and political forces were supported by the Zuo Qingjiang Army.

Although Wang Hongyi, the crown prince, was jealous of the Shu Lord Wang Jian and had kept a low profile in the past two years, he was assisted by a number of generals such as Zhao Weisheng, his minister, and General Zhenqiang, Weihou Wang Xiaoxian, and Wei Qun, the minister of Honglu Temple. His reputation was still high.

Steady pressure over Changxiang Hou.

The most important thing is that although Wang Jian, the king of Shu, was quite suspicious of his crown prince Wang Xianyi, he never expressed the idea of ​​changing his heir.

Now even if it can be speculated that Changxiang Marquis Wang Yong most likely supported the Shu army's attack on Guanzhong, it is difficult to speculate based on what the Changxiang Marquis Wang Yong had in mind for his support.

Did he see that the monarchs and ministers of Shu strongly advocated this and he personally could not disobey it, or did he see better opportunities to expand power or compete for heirs?

Wei Qun, as a Shu minister who was closer to the Shu Crown Prince Wang Hongyi, rushed to Jinling again. Undoubtedly, the Shu Crown Prince Wang Hongyi and his family also advocated taking advantage of the situation and attacking Guanzhong.

It was previously speculated that Guanjiang Tower might be secretly adding fuel to the flames. In other words, it has a deeper relationship with Changxiang Marquis Wang Yong and Shenlingsi. What kind of conditions can Guanjiang Tower promise to enable Wang Yong and Wang Hongyi to at least superficially join forces with the Shu army?

Is there a unanimous opinion on cutting down Liang?

The Lord of Shu, Wang Jian, had previously been suspicious of the crown prince Wang Hongyi and worried that Wang Hongyi would usurp the throne if he became more powerful. Even before Liang Emperor Zhu Yu usurped the throne and the Liang Kingdom was in civil strife for the first time, he gave up the opportunity to attack Guanzhong. This time it was out of fear that Wang Hongyi would usurp the throne.

What kind of mentality leads to greed for the Guanzhong area?

Analysis after analysis, before further intelligence information is obtained, too many doubts are intricately intertwined. It will be difficult to see through it for a while, and it is impossible to guess what kind of deployment the Shu army will use to attack Guanzhong. Han Qian can only make Feng Feng

Yi and Guo Que first rushed to Yuzhou to meet the Marquis of Changxiang, Wang Yong.

Even if he could not influence more Shu kings and ministers, Han Qian also hoped that Wang Yong would understand in his heart that the Mongols were completely different from the nomadic peoples who had entered the Central Plains for two to three hundred years and were satisfied with just looting, but did not have enough strength to take root.

Same.

Han Qian hoped that Wang Yong would understand in his heart that once the Shu army launched a large-scale attack on Guanzhong this time, even if it had a chance to defeat the main force of the Liang army, it would not be possible to annex Guanzhong, and it would even be more likely that the Mongols would gain another advantage.

…………

…………

After Feng Yi and Guo Que set foot on the westward road to meet Wang Yong, the land of Jianghuai quickly cooled down.

Han Qian could not predict which direction the situation would develop.

Han Donghu led his troops to sneak into the Xusi area. Although it was not too far from Zhongli and Linhuai, within a range of about three to four hundred miles, he pretended to be Liang Jun and sneaked further north, and then pretended to be Han Yuanqi.

Or Chen Kun's troops marched south.

In order to reduce the probability of being discovered by Xu Si and the Shouzhou Army, unless there are very special circumstances, or the Wen clan members are successfully hijacked and then withdrawn, Han Dong will not take the initiative to contact Tangyi again when he sees them.

All Han Qian can do at this time is to consolidate the foundation of Huaixi as much as possible. Even if the world falls apart, he must take it calmly.

The Liang Kingdom was in chaos, and the drought in the Liang Kingdom was still particularly serious since summer.

The locust plague seems to be directly related to the severe drought. Scout Search

Regular information retrieved shows that locust swarms in Yingqiao, Xusi and other places have covered the sky like dark clouds. Floods have occurred in Dachu since the spring and summer this year, which has had a great impact on crop production in Jiangdong, Jiangxi, Hunan and other places.

, seems to want to show the people of the world what natural disasters and man-made disasters are, and the world is difficult.

When Han Qian was inspecting shallow coal mine resources in Wujianshan, the torrential rain that lasted for several days was actually a large typhoon that had not happened once in decades. It landed in Xiuzhou, swept through the prefectures and counties along Taihu Lake, and then passed from Gyeonggi Province.

Chizhou swept towards Chaochu, Haoshou and other places in the north.

Suho, Gyeonggi and other places were severely affected by the storm. According to preliminary statistics, more than 100,000 houses collapsed, tens of thousands of people were injured or killed, and countless people were displaced.

In places such as Chichao, Chuhao, Shushou, etc., the wind disaster was not serious, but heavy rain fell continuously over a large area, floods occurred in the mountains and hills, and flash floods surged, making life difficult.

Chao Lake, which collects water from the surrounding mountains, almost overflowed the newly built lake embankments on the east bank at the end of August. The two new embankments on the west side of the East Lake were both built according to the height of the largest flood remnants that can be measured so far.

It has reached a level that only occurs once in fifty years, but the end of August is already mid-autumn and the turn of late autumn, so there is still such a large flood coming, which catches everyone off guard.

East Lake once deployed four thousand soldiers and horses to guard the embankment, fearing that the embankment would be washed away by the turbulent waves of the lake, destroying the construction achievements on the east bank in the past three or four years.

Fortunately, the dredging and widening of Yuxi River has not stopped in the past two years. As soon as the heavy rain stopped, the water level of Chaohu Lake dropped quickly. By early September, the danger was completely over.

The wind and rain have stopped now, but the disasters in various places are approaching as quickly as the snowflakes.

Fortunately, Huaixi is vast and sparsely populated, and most houses are built on high ground. Once the heavy rain stops, there is no need to worry about waterlogging.

Townships and counties are currently focusing on strengthening the drainage of rice fields that are about to bear ears, so that the losses are within an acceptable range.

Dozens of newly built coal and iron mines and workshops in various counties were destroyed by flash floods and mudslides. Fortunately, casualties were minimal, and production in the entire Huaixi region was not greatly affected.

At present, the Chishan Association is using the manpower deployed along the Taihu Lake to more actively guide and divert the victims whose homes were destroyed by the wind to Huaixi.

In fact, since the beginning of summer, floods have been frequent along the Yangtze River and Taihu Lake. Thousands of flood victims have fled to the countryside. The local authorities have found it difficult to control them and cannot provide timely relief, so they have become refugees. Under the active guidance of the Chishan Society,

, as many as two to three thousand households flowed into Huaixi in July and August.

The number of victims flowing in in September was even greater.

In more than two years, Tangyi Army's defense line made great strides forward twice to the north.

The previous defense lines built along the Chu River, Shiquan River, and Fucha Mountain, as well as the later defense lines built along the Wujin Ridge, Zipeng Mountain, and the northwest foot of Wujian Mountain, as a large number of garrison troops advance northward, there are currently a large number of semi-permanent defense lines.

All the military camps and villages were vacated.

The vacated military camps and villages, as well as the newly reclaimed fields near the villages, can be used to resettle newly moved households without any additional investment; and even if they are sold to the victims at a low price, they can be recovered to a certain extent.

Some military expenditures.

And long before Han Qian and Wang Jun got married, after the large-scale relocation of disaster-stricken households from Huaidong last year, Han Qian came forward with the official money bureau to purchase a large number of livestock from Jiangdong, Jiangxi, Hunan and other places, and developed from Xuzhou

The various workshops that were established purchased large quantities of iron farm tools and necessary daily necessities, and then distributed them to newly relocated households in the form of loans.

When Han Qian first came out of Xuzhou, the total capital of the Official Money Bureau was only 200,000 yuan. However, weavers in Xuzhou were allowed to directly fold cotton yarn into money and deposit it into the Official Money Bureau, and through Chishan, Jiangdong and Jiangxi

After selling in other places, the total capital of the Guanqian Bureau soon expanded to 1.2 million yuan.

In the next two or three years, the total capital of the Official Money Bureau expanded steadily to 4 million yuan, which of course included the millions of yuan of grain imported by Qiao Chen and other families; and sold land and houses to households that moved in from various places,

The money and food loaned out are also included.

Among the four million yuan, the total amount lent to Prince Shou's Mansion and Huaidong reached 1.2 million yuan. In order to make up for the lack of military resources, the Tangyi Army lent a total of 1.1 million yuan.

Donghu runs various workshops, weaving courtyards and coal and iron mines, and borrows a total of more than 500,000 yuan. In addition, in addition to the official money bureau, which still has a reserve of 600,000 yuan, there is almost more than 500,000 yuan in savings.

It is lent out in this way.

In this way, in addition to ensuring that the capital of the Official Money Bureau can increase steadily and making full use of the capital of the Official Money Bureau instead of sitting idle in the money warehouse, more importantly, it can no longer be limited to the limited fiscal resources of counties and townships.

level, and can help newly relocated farmers quickly take root in Huaixi and quickly improve local agricultural production levels.

Large-scale centralized procurement also contributes to the stable expansion of the production scale of various workshops in Xuzhou and Donghu.

In the early years, Chuzhou Pavilion had a similar official money shop, but its function was too single. It obviously lacked a sufficient and deep understanding of the prototype of this early financial institution, and there was no way to integrate it so closely with local governance.

Only by continuously filling in new populations and allowing them to take root quickly can the land in Chuzhou, northern Chaozhou, and southern Shouzhou and Huozhou that was abandoned due to frequent wars and wars be redeveloped.

However, even though the total number of soldiers and civilians under the jurisdiction of the Tangyi Zhifu officially exceeded one million at the end of June, and the monthly inflow of people in July and August was more than 10,000 people, compared with the vast area, there are still too many people.

Thin.

We must know that in the middle of the previous dynasty, the population of Huainan Road, including today's Huaidong and Huaixi, once reached 1.2 million households and more than 7 million people.

At that time, Chaozhou, which occupied the richest land in Huaixi, had a population of over one million.

However, after more than a hundred years of frequent wars, Huaidong and Huaixi have a combined population of less than 2 million at this time.

Han Qian originally planned to reduce Tangyi's left and right armies by about 45,000 to 45,000 in this autumn and winter in order to free up more financial resources to support local construction. At present, it seems that this plan will be delayed indefinitely.

On September 20th, Chen Ruyicai entered East Lake with the decree and asked Tangyi for his opinion on the alliance with Shu to attack Liang on behalf of Emperor Yanyou and the Zhengshitang.

Wei Qun was sent to Da Chu as an envoy to join forces with Chu to attack Liang. It was only then that it was officially announced in the Da Chu court, and the government and the public were talking about it.

Han Qian was of course the first to submit a letter stating his firm opposition. Apart from his group of officials, Shen Yang, Yang En and Zheng all still held opposition at the beginning.

Shen Yang and Yang En were not worried that the Mongol people would benefit from the situation, but considering the current actual situation in Da Chu, they did not advocate sending troops.

In the three towns on the northern line, Han Qian was the first to make it clear that the Tangyi Army would not send troops northward, and it would not attack from the narrow gap of Tongkou before setting off in Shouchun, Fengtai, Huoqiu and other places. Rushing into the hinterland of Liangjing; even this autumn and winter, there is no condition to attack Shouchun, Fengtai and other cities.

Li Zhigao first ensured that he could capture the Luoshan defenders.

In the view of Shen Yang and Yang En, if they want to support Huaidong in sending troops to attack the Xu Si area, they must allocate more money and food resources to Huaidong. Now all parties advocate expanding the bodyguard army, and there is a major disaster in Jiangdong. Where is the money and food allocated to Huaidong?

Huaidong naturally hopes to take advantage of this rare opportunity to seize Xu

Si area, but what Shu really wanted was for the Chu army to send troops to attack Wuguan.

However, having said that, the Shu army sent troops from Liangzhou to attack Guanzhong, and to control and rule Guanzhong in the future, it had more geographical advantages.

Even if they succeed in conquering Guanzhong in the end, it will be difficult for the small-scale Chu army to gain a foothold in Guanzhong. It is very likely that they will not get any benefits at that time, and they will give it to the Shu army as a wedding dress.

Over the years, the fundamental purpose of Chu's alliance with Shu was to jointly resist the more powerful and aggressive Liang army, but it did not mean to support the Shu army to become stronger.

The Shu army seems to be very harmless now on the western flank of Dachu, but after the Shu army annexes the Guanzhong area, its ambitions will definitely not grow?

At this point, Shen Yang, Yang En and others are somewhat aware of it.

For the Zheng family, at this time, they hoped that the imperial court could concentrate resources to ensure that the Youlongque Army could continue to use troops against Guizhou, Liuzhou and other places after completing the elimination of the remnants of the Yongzhou rebels this winter.

Of course, in addition to Huaidong and Chai Jian actively preparing for war in Junzhou, the voices from both the government and the public were also very strong in support of sending troops; some important ministers such as Huang Hua, Zhang Chao, Zhang Han, and Shou Wang Yang Zhitang even advocated uniting the Shu army. Send troops to attack Liang.

Since the rise of Emperor Tianyou in Huainan, Liang and Chu have been fighting for more than thirty years. The Liang army has always been the most important threat to Da Chu. In the past ten years alone, the two large-scale wars launched against Da Chu almost completely destroyed Jing Dynasty. In the Xiang area, the imperial troops were blocked for the second time from annihilating the Anning Palace rebels, causing heavy casualties to the elite Chu army.

The vast majority of people do not think that the Mongolians are a threat, even if many people can think of Da Chu sending troops, which may make wedding clothes for the Shu army, and expand the territory of Shu to the Guanzhong area, but at this time, the Liang army will be dismembered. In the opinion of many people, the benefits to Dachu still outweigh the disadvantages.

In the eyes of many people, after the Liang Kingdom was dismembered, the Sima clan in the Xusi area and the Shouzhou rebels who retreated to Yingqiao, Cairu and other places would be left alone. The Chu army crossed the Huaihe River and headed north. Annihilating these two armies and merging Xu Si and the southern region of Liang into the Chu territory will be a matter of time, or it can be done at the same time as sending troops to Guanzhong.

In any case, compared to when the main force of the navy was destroyed more than three years ago, although Dachu did not rest much, the three towns on the northern front had 160,000 to 70,000 troops. They were also strong and strong, but they were still capable of crossing the Huaihe River to fight. of.

After eliminating the threat in the north, Gu Zhilong attacked and eliminated the Fujian army in southern Zhejiang. After Zheng Hui destroyed the Yongzhou rebels in southern Hunan, he would then go south to attack the Qingyuan army, and he would have no worries.

It is also because of these reasons that the opposition positions of Shen Yang, Yang En and even Zheng are not so firm.

In the end, the key fell on Han Qian.

No matter how deep the suspicion of Han Qian was between the government and the public, Han Qian's prestige among the middle and lower-level generals over the years was unparalleled.

Han Qian's firm opposition will not only make the most powerful soldiers and horses in the town idle and cannot be used, but will also directly affect the choices of a considerable number of generals in the court.

A more direct reason is that the Shouzhou Army has no intention or action to assist the Luoshan defenders for the time being, mainly because it was suppressed by the Tangyi Army.

At this time, Han Qian insisted on opposing the alliance with Shu to attack Liang. Speaking with ulterior motives, perhaps some people were worried deep down that the Tangyi Army might relax its suppression of the Shouzhou Army?

Once the Tangyi Army relaxed its suppression of the Shouzhou Army, allowing Xu Mingzhen to gather 20,000 to 30,000 elite troops on the western front to break the siege of Luoshan, how would Li Zhigao respond?

Therefore, before Han Qian's attitude changed, although Chai Jian was actively preparing for war in Jingzikou, Xichuan and other places, they had not yet launched any military provocation in the direction of Wuguan.

…………

…………

In early October, there was mist and mist on the Yangtze River, and both sides of the river were entering the autumn grain harvest season.

An official ship marked with the words "Hunan Xuanwei Ambassador's Office" sailed on the river. It turned into the Qiupu River from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and headed towards the Donghuamen Shuiguan. A fine white wave was dragged from the stern of the ship.

When the official ship passed Yandangji, it saw a dozen people standing on the river embankment from a distance.

Zhou Qinian stood at the bow of the boat. He knew that Yandangji was originally the farm where Han Qian was rewarded for his meritorious service after the Jingxiang War. Later, it was merged under the jurisdiction of the Changchun Palace. Both sides of the strait are under the name of the Queen Mother or are affiliated to the Changchun Palace. .

Seeing someone on the river embankment waving a signal, Zhou Qinian lowered the sail and made the official ship slowly approach the river embankment.

After getting closer, Zhou Qinian saw clearly that Zhou Yuan, Xu Jing, Yao Xishui and others were standing on the embankment surrounded by a graceful and luxurious woman.

Although Zhou Qinian is an important figure in the Huang Hua family, he has always been a guest of the Huang Mansion and traveled among officials. He has not had the chance to meet Lu Qingxia, but he can also think of the people surrounded by Zhou Yuan, Xu Jing and others. who.

Zhou Qinian pretended not to know, bowed his head to Zhou Yuan and said, "Why is Mr. Zhou so leisurely and leisurely today, wandering under the autumn shade of the willows?"

"Mr. Zhou, are you coming from East Lake?" Zhou Yuan asked with a bow.

In order to resolve the crisis in Chenzhou in April, Zhou Qinian rushed back to Jinling with Cao Xiushi, and then rushed to East Lake with Shen Yang and Zheng Chang to meet Han Qian. After that, he returned to Huang Hua; this time he returned from Huang Hua's side under Huang Hua's order. Yue Yang returned to Jinling and made sure to meet Han Qian at East Lake on the way.

Although Huang Hua advocated joining forces with Shu to attack Liang, he also hoped to persuade Han Qian to change his mind, so he asked Zhou Qinian to make a special trip to East Lake to meet Han Qian.

However, after Zhou Qinian arrived at East Lake, Han Qian entertained him with good wine and meat, but he did not respond to the incident of joining forces with Shu to attack Liang.

When Zhou Qinian saw Zhou Yuan, they knew his itinerary very well. They must have guessed what the result would be when he went to see Han Qian. However, they were very curious about what Lu Qingxia, who rarely appeared in public, was doing here to intercept him?

Zhou Qinian cupped his hands and said with a smile: "Master Zhou is really sharp and sharp. He knows the old man's whereabouts very clearly. What advice can I give you?"

"I know that Mr. Zhou went to East Lake because he wanted to persuade Marquis Qianyang to change his mind. But if Marquis Qianyang is determined to collude with the enemy, what decision will the abbot make?" Lu Qingxia said directly.

He opened his mouth and asked.

"The Marquis of Qianyang may be a little more lustful for power, but if he is determined to collude with Liang Guo, I don't know where the madam starts from?" Zhou Qinian raised his hand and asked.

At the beginning, Huang Hua led the Huzhou troops to wait and see the situation. Zhou Qinian did not think that selfishness and ambition were big problems in this war-torn world. But by this time, the Huang clan and the Chao clan were not fierce and irreversible.

Contradictions and conflicts.

In the final analysis, the Chenzhou crisis was caused by the fact that the people in Wan Honglou's group were too stupid. Thinking this way made Zhou Qinian somewhat look down on these people in front of him.

"Previously, the Marquis of Guizhou Yang sent a message to Chen Kun and Han Yuanqi. It can also be said that he is greedy for power and is bent on expanding the territory of the Tangyi Army without any effort. This may not mean that he is determined to collude with the enemy," Lu

Qingxia seemed to be able to see through what Zhou Qinian was thinking, and said calmly, "But Mr. Zhou may not know that just a few days ago, a group of light soldiers from the Tangyi Army penetrated into the northern part of Xuzhou, and captured Wen from under the nose of the Sima family.

Muqiao and more than 400 Wen clan members were kidnapped - Mr. Zhou thinks that without the full assistance of Liang Jun, the Tangyi army could have accomplished this?"

(End of chapter)


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