In the Upper Forest, Lin Xie stayed for three days. On April 26th, it was the day of Zhao Hu's wedding to a girl from the Guo family. The wedding procession set off early, with drums and cymbals, in grand style. As the head of his own household, Lin Xie would also join Zhao Hu's parents in receiving the new couple's respects when they returned. Lin Xie was not very familiar with all the complicated etiquette, and even after listening to explanations, he still felt dizzy. However, since the Zhao family had elderly people in charge in the Upper Forest, Lin Xie simply followed their instructions.

  Zhao Hu's wedding chamber was arranged in the new courtyard, and the banquet was held in the old courtyard with a canopy set up. Lin Xie arrived at the Zhao residence before noon and after lunch, he temporarily rested in the new courtyard.

  The new courtyard outside is a wheat field, Lin Xie stood in the courtyard wall and talked to Cao Zikang and Zhou Pu, looking at the wheat that was just emerging from the ear in the wheat field outside the courtyard wall, and said with some regret: "Xiao Man has just passed, the wheat grains of Dongyang have begun to emerge and fill with milk, and there are more than ten days before they can be harvested. After harvesting wheat, it's time to plant rice, what a pity..."

  Cao Zikang understood Lin Tie's meaning. The situation in Hongze Lake was critical and would not drag on until the wheat harvest was completed before it erupted.

  Li Zhuo has been in office for ten days, and Qin Chengbo has completed the handover with him. Lin Xuan and others are in Shanglinli, receiving messages from Jiangning twice a day. The Qin family is moving out of the Defender General's Mansion these two days, and most people have already moved onto the boat. The Qin family's advance scouts have set off from Jiangning.

  This year, bandits are rampant and no road is absolutely safe. Qin Chengbo is also aware that his vast wealth accumulated in Jiangning has made him the target of envy for many bandits. Apart from having 400-500 elite warriors at home, Lin Xie and others have received news that Qin Chengbo has hired 200 guards from the Jiangning Wu Feng Escort Agency with a large sum of money. Additionally, the scouts sent out by the Qin family are also divided into two routes, one going to Weiyang and the other already entering Hongze Pu, making it impossible to discern what is real and what is fake. Perhaps tonight or tomorrow morning, the Qin family's fleet will set off from Jiangning heading north. Once Qin Chengbo finally chooses to take the Shiliang River route northward, it means that the crisis in Hongze Pu will inevitably erupt. In fact, the more Qin Chengbo makes a show of his strength in Jiangning, the more Lin Xie and others are convinced that he will take the Shiliang River route northward.

  Most areas north of the Huai River are still experiencing drought this year, and the large-scale clearing of bandits by the imperial court before and after the New Year's Day has led to an early outbreak of migrant tide, causing many areas in the north to miss spring planting. The famine in the north will further worsen. The area around Hongze Lake is originally a major grain-producing area, but the war disaster will lead to a significant reduction in grain production, and it will also miss summer planting, which can't be considered a good thing at all.

  Cao Zikang and Zhou Pu exchanged a glance, their thoughts having grown somewhat cold after years of experience. Perhaps they shouldn't be worrying about the fate of the world or the livelihoods of the common people either, but seeing Lin Xie's solemn expression as he gazed out at the wheat fields beyond the courtyard wall made them feel uneasy too.

  Lin tied up the past few days and had two private letters sent to Gu Wudun, mentioning the strange situation of Hong Zepu. Gu Wudun did not return a single word, and the Procuratorate also did not have any defense against the situation in Hongze Pu.

  The old house is busy preparing for tonight's wine banquet, Dongyang wedding banquet, tonight is the formal banquet, welcoming the bride to enter the door and worship the hall. Although there was a wine banquet at noon, some dignitaries always come to congratulate in the afternoon.

  Lin Xuan listened to the commotion from next door, someone said that Seventh Madame had arrived, and everyone was praising Zhao's family for having such a great face. Normally, the Zhao family should have found a few dignified female relatives to accompany Seventh Madame to a quiet room to talk, and the banquet should also be arranged in a separate room, not mixed with the ordinary seats. Lin Xuan waited for a moment in the new courtyard, and soon saw Zhao Hu's two sisters accompanying Seventh Madame and her two maids into the new courtyard.

  The Seventh Lady saw Lin Xie standing in the courtyard, wearing a green shirt and looking at her. Her eyebrows were joyful, but since Lin Xie was accompanied by Zhou Pu and Cao Zi'ang, she restrained her joy of meeting her lover again and slightly bowed: "You're here..." Zhou Pu and Cao Zi'ang appeared to be Lin Xie's attendants on the surface, and Gu Yingshou still didn't know their identities at this time. Seeing that they were extraordinary, he only nodded in response.

  The Zhao family had no decent female relatives, and Zhao Hu's two sisters were companions. Perhaps they had been instructed by their mother, although not very old, they didn't say much, and first entered the house with the two maids who knew what to do.

  "Yingxiang sister, there are many things I haven't had a chance to tell you," Lin said, "Today is a rare opportunity, let me introduce you to Master Zhou and Master Cao. Master Zhou has a nickname 'Lin Bao' in Huaiyang, Master Cao is known as 'Cao Xiutalented', they are both friends I made during the two months I spent outside last autumn, we can entrust our lives to each other..."

  Gu Ying's sleeves were calm and composed, but Lin Xie's voice calling out "Sister Ying" in front of outsiders made her feel a little embarrassed. A warm feeling grew in her heart as she softly asked Lin Xie, "Where is Master Wu?"

  Last winter, Lin Xie went to Jiangning. The influx of refugees in Jiangning did not materialize, and Wu Qi and others did not have a clean identity, so they could not follow Lin Xie to Jiangning. They were first arranged by Gu Yanxiu to work as farmhands in Shanglinli. Gu Yanxiu was not without insight, otherwise she would not have been able to survive in the cunning Lin family. She had long guessed that Lin Xie must have experienced unimaginable hardships during that period after autumn last year. The identities of Zhou Pu, Wu Qi and others were also destined to be not simple. However, Lin Xie did not take the initiative to talk about it, and Gu Yanxiu did not ask. In Shanglinli, she took care of things properly for Lin Xie.

  "I usually call him Old Crow, and people in Huaiyang call him Black Sky Crow. In reality, he's not as fierce as that name suggests. He's also come to Lin's place, but he has other things on his mind," Lin Xie said with a smile. "To be honest, even Sister Yingxiao wouldn't believe it, I also have a nickname called East Sea Fox, but it's just a name people use for convenience, and I'm too embarrassed to acknowledge it... This isn't the right time to discuss this in detail, but after we arrive in Jiangning, I'll tell you everything that's happened over the past half year." Many things can only be said face-to-face and cannot be written in letters to prevent loss. It wasn't until now that Lin Xie had the opportunity to briefly mention it to Gu Yingxiao.

  "Ah," Gu Yingxu bowed again to Zhou Pu and Cao Zikang, saying: "Gu Yingxu has paid his respects to Master Zhou and Master Cao. This younger brother of mine often relies on Masters Zhou and Cao for care..."

  Cao Zikang saw that the Seventh Lady could remain calm and composed after hearing such a secret, and thought to himself that she was indeed no ordinary woman. He made a fist and bowed to Zhou Pu, saying: "Seventh Lady's words are too kind, we all rely on Master Lin's protection, your words make us feel ashamed..."

  At this moment, I heard someone in the next courtyard say that Mrs. Liu brought her young master to congratulate us. Lin Xie was slightly stunned. Mrs. Liu, surnamed Shan, had no connection with the Zhao family and rarely showed up. Gu Yingxu smiled and said: "If I were her, I would also worry that you are helping me seize the power of the Lin family behind my back... it's really hard for her..."

  Lin Xuan smiled, and the chaos in Hongze Pu was about to erupt. The severity of the war would be like a nest being overturned. He only thought that this time he could use various excuses to arrange for people to go to Jiangning to avoid disaster. As for the power of the Lin family, he didn't have any greedy thoughts. It wasn't that he wasn't greedy, but rather that the six ladies and Lin Zonghai thought they had a grasp on manipulating the clan's power, so it wasn't difficult to understand why they were guarding against him.

  After a moment, he saw the young and beautiful Lady Six, Madame Sing, leading her son, Lin Xuhui, who was wearing a brocade robe, walking over with Zhao Hu's mother accompanying them.

  "It turned out that Little Qi was talking to Lin Xiuzai here, right? And didn't Little Qi say he wanted to go to Jiangning to visit his relatives after Lin Xiuzai's matters were settled and then go to Jiangning together?" The Sixth Lady smiled cleverly, compared to the gentle weakness of half a year ago, she had learned many skills that she originally wouldn't have known.

  "Lin's family hasn't had a boat going to Jiangning for some time, I won't borrow a place from Lin Xie to settle down, would I, as a woman, still hire another boat to go to Jiangning?" Gu Yingxu said. The Sixth Lady, Shan Shi, implied in her words that she and Lin Xie were unclear and had hidden motives, but she wouldn't be guilty even if she was a thief, so she directly countered with the remark.

  The Sixth Lady was not a match for Gu Yingxue in terms of eloquence, but she didn't get angry either. She smiled and said: "Little Seven will have to rely on Lin Xiuzai's care from now on. Although you two are nominally different generations, everyone knows that you're like siblings, so there's no need to avoid it..." Her eyes sparkled with amusement as she gazed at Lin Xiu, her lips curving up in a subtle smile. She continued: "Lin Xiuzai returned to Upper Lin Village, but why didn't he come see me? I'm his aunt, after all. Even when Master was awake, he never said anything about driving him out of the clan. We're all Lin family members; we should still interact with each other." As she watched Lin Xiu with her eyes, she thought to herself: People are really strange. Someone who used to be completely useless is now... and it hasn't been long since I last saw him. Now that I look at him, he truly has an extraordinary air about him. Could the things people said happened in Jiangning really have been done by him?

  Lin Fu didn't care what the Sixth Lady thought in her heart, and made a bow to apologize: "It was Lin Fu's fault for being slow, I'll make it up to the Sixth Lady now."

  Lin Mengde and Lin Zonghai came over one after another. The Zhao family didn't have any relatives with impressive status, so Lin Xie could only make small talk with Lin Zonghai. Later, an elder from the Lin family came to offer congratulations, and Lin Xie was able to get rid of Lin Zonghai and discuss matters with Lin Mengde.

  "Wheat is heading, and there are more than ten days to harvest. Young and strong laborers who work outside are rushing back to prepare for the summer harvest and summer planting. It's hard to persuade people to leave their hometown at this time..." Lin Mengde squatted on the muddy ground in the courtyard, looking worried, and said to Lin Fu, "You say things won't be delayed until after the summer planting? After the summer planting, it will be easier to persuade people to leave their hometown."

  "Can't drag on, let's just do our best and leave it to fate," Lin Xie said, "Have your family members been arranged to go to Jiangning?"

  "They were all sent away this morning," Lin Meng said, "This military disaster cannot be clearly stated, and the crime of deceiving the public is not something that just anyone can bear..."

  "In private, spread the rumor, mislead some people, and after a few days, it will be chaotic. The government wants to investigate, but they can't find anyone." Lin said, but he also doubted how effective spreading rumors of war would be.

  Lin Xie wouldn't discuss the matter of fishing in troubled waters with Lin Meng, but he needed his help to arrange for as many people as possible to go to Jiangning to avoid disaster, so he briefly told him about the current urgent situation.

  Don't even try to persuade others, not even Zhao Hu's parents would be willing to abandon the wheat that's left in the fields for over ten days before harvest and follow him to Jiangning. Fortunately, Gu Xiu wanted to go to Jiangning and asked Zhao Hu's mother and two sisters to serve her. Second brother Zhao Bao was originally learning to do things with Gu Xiu, and younger brother Zhao Mengxiong had been in Jiangning for almost half a year. The whole family was going to Jiangning, so Zhao Hu's father couldn't come up with an excuse to stay behind and could only entrust the tens of acres of land to tenant farmers. Lin Jingzhong's family used Lin Jingzhong's marriage as an excuse to squeeze out Sun Jingtang, who took advantage of his relationship with the family to take Lin Jingzhong's whole family to Jiangning to live for a while. As for others in Shanglinli, Ji Yun She could only use the name of recruiting workers to pull people in. Those without land or property were easily swayed, but those with land or tenant farmers who rented land naturally wouldn't give up their harvest of over half a year and followed them to Jiangning to work.

  Lin Tie sent scouts to Hongze Pu, monitoring the situation around Hongze Pu, so they knew the urgency of the situation. They even clearly saw that more than a dozen ships anchored at Shanglin Du were actually arranged by the Hongze Pu water camp to block the retreat of the Qin family's fleet. Ordinary people naturally couldn't feel the urgency of the situation, and Lin Meng was also skeptical when he first heard Lin Tie mention this matter.

  The welcoming procession returned, and there were many rituals to attend to. Wearing the bright red official robes of the groom, Zhao Hu asked Lin Xie in a low voice: "Will Qin Chengbo set out from Jiangning tonight?"

  "You'd better go back to your bridal chamber, how can the groom just disappear? You're guarding at Shanglin, if something goes wrong, you'll still be in charge," Lin Fu asked again, "What did the Guo family say?"

  "I followed Master Cao's instructions and put on a stern face, telling them to take the whole family to Jiangning for a trip, but can we drag this out for three days?" Zhao Hu asked.

  Dongyang custom, after the third day or sixth, seventh, ninth and tenth day of marriage, or on the full moon, the newlyweds must go to their maternal home to pay respects, commonly known as "returning to the maternal home", only then is the entire wedding considered complete.

  "Qin Chengbo sets out from Jiangning tonight, the boat is slow, if it sails day and night, it will enter Hongzepu in three days, the situation is extremely urgent," Lin Fu said. "When you return to the gate, take a boat, see that the situation is not good, prepare to retreat back to Shanglin first, but there is no time for you to linger in Shanglin either, it's hard to say that the Hongzepu families won't work together to control the strategic points south of Hongzepu."

  After nightfall, Lin Xie and Zhao Hu's parents were in the main hall to receive the new couple's gift. Zhou Pu rushed over and handed him a note, which brought news from Jiangning: Qin Chengbo had moved up the farewell banquet originally scheduled for tonight to this afternoon. After the farewell banquet, the Qin family's fleet would set off from Jiangning and enter Shiliang River immediately, half a day earlier than Lin Xie and others had judged.