The terrain of the south bank of the lower reaches of the Huai River is lower than that of Sizhou and Haizhou on the north bank, which is also destined to be more serious than Sizhou in the lower reaches of the Huai River. Of course, the area of Sizhou near Hongzepu is even lower, and because the embankment built by the previous dynasty was completely abandoned, it has long been turned into an ocean.

Wang Wenqian, Yin Peng, Wang Yuan, and others took a small boat to evacuate to the Shanyang Embankment in the east of Jinhu City the next day, at this time the embankment was crowded with fleeing households, and the land was full of wolves and pathos, and anyone felt helpless at this moment, and Wang Wenqian could only organize boats and boats to evacuate these victims to the east bank of Shanyang as soon as possible, so that they could temporarily escape to the counties in the east that were less affected.

At this time, an official ship came from south to north, Wang Wenqian stared at it for a long time, and then suddenly remembered that this should be the official ship of the Weaving Bureau, and he didn't know what the people of Cishou Palace had to do when they went to Chuzhou to see Wang Yang Yuanyan at this time.

Perhaps the hundreds of large and small boats crossing here were extremely mixed, or perhaps they came over to see the damage on the west bank of Shanyangdu, and the official ships anchored on the west bank at five or six hundred paces.

Or after stopping, they found that Wang Wenqian and others were mixed with the victims, and after a while, they saw Yao Xishui, Zhou Yuan and others walking towards them.

"Lord Wang, I haven't seen you for many years." Zhou Yuannai is a waiter in the Ministry of Works, and his rank is no longer under Wang Wenqian, but he still waved his hand to Wang Wenqian with Yao Xishui very politely.

"Lord Zhou and Yao Weaving are polite." Wang Wenqian returned the courtesy.

Wang Wenqian knew that most of these people didn't notice that they were on the shore when they stopped the boat and docked, but when he saw them after the boat docked on the west bank, it was inconvenient not to come to see them, so he just wanted to deal with it embarrassingly at this time, and then send these people to Chuzhou to see King Xin.

As Wang Wenqian expected, after saying a few words that were not nutritious, Zhou Yuan and Yao Xishui said goodbye and left, and did not say what they were going to Chuzhou this time, as if he Wang Wenqian had become an inconsequential figure in Chuzhou.

Wang Wenqian didn't mind, but just asked the boat that was evacuating the victims to get aside, and let the official boat taken by Zhou Yuan and Yao Xishui pass through first.

"What the hell are they going to do when they go to Chuzhou at this time?" Yin Peng vigilantly stared at the official ship heading north along Shanyangdu, and couldn't help but ask Wang Wenqian.

Zhou Yuan, as a waiter of the Ministry of Works, was nominally ordered to inspect the water situation in Chuzhou, but everyone knew in their hearts that Zhou Yuan and Yao Xishui's appearance here was by no means as simple as inspecting the water situation on the surface.

Wang Wenqian also shook his head.

He was almost sick and recuperating in the house during this time, and he deliberately did not come into contact with the military and political affairs of Huaidong, and the information became closed, he didn't know how deep the collusion between the Late Red Mansion and the Guanjiang Building was, and he didn't know what Lu Qingxia, Zhou Yuan, Li Changfeng and others thought about the Yuhe River seizing the Huai River into the sea, and he couldn't accurately guess what kind of intention Yao Xishui and Zhou Yuan wanted to achieve when they went to see King Xin at this time.

After a while, Wang Wenqian said: "Yao Xishui and Zhou Yuan kept their mouths shut after seeing me, they didn't leak a breath at all, and they regretted hitting a ghost on the shore, thinking that their intention to come to this trip shouldn't be a good thing for Tangyi, right?" ”

Yin Peng frowned.

Not to mention the profound impact of the Yuhe River seizing the Huai River into the sea on the situation in the Hehuai River, Yin Peng knew that Huaixi, which had carried out disaster prevention and disaster control four months in advance, was far less affected by the disaster than Huaidong, and it was only one aspect.

The four prefectures of Guangshou Huohao, as the newly recovered areas of Tangyi, generally speaking, if they want to digest and consolidate their local rule, it will take four or five years to achieve initial results.

However, Han Qian mainly recruited more than 60,000 young and strong laborers from these four states this time, but he effectively promoted the development of disaster prevention and treatment, which shows that even though it has only been two years, Tangyi's grasp of the newly recovered counties is far deeper than others imagined.

It also shows that Han Daoming said in front of many people in the Chongwen Hall a few years ago that the Tangyi army has the ability to mobilize 100,000 soldiers and horses in Huaixi, without the slightest exaggeration, and this disaster prevention and treatment can even be said to be a pre-mobilization of the large-scale assembly of the Tangyi army.

At this time, even if Huaixi only relied on the supply that could be generated internally, and mobilized 100,000 troops to carry out a war that lasted for about half a year, there should be no problem at all.

In other words, Huaidong was no longer able to resist the offensive launched by the Tangyi army from the western flank alone.

Even if the Mengwu people and the Weizhou rebels dug up the embankment of the Yu River at this time, they were the main culprits for the Yu River seizing the Huai River into the sea and causing large-scale floods in the middle and lower reaches of the Huai River, but considering that the situation in the Hehuai River will continue to be extremely complicated in the future, Yin Peng still thinks that the court princes and Huaidong will be more afraid of Tangyi at this time, right?

Yao Xishui and Zhou Yuan chose to go to Chuzhou at this moment to meet King Xin and Ruan Yan, breaking their toes, they could guess that they were deliberately unfavorable to Tangyi, but what did they think about specifically, it was not good for Tangyi?

"I vaguely heard the news before, and I don't know which party deliberately released the rumor, saying that Li Zhihe secretly colluded with Zhao Mengji and Wang Xiaoxian, I don't know if this is related to their trip?" Yin Peng said worriedly.

"I should have thoughts, but Tangyi has ordered too many people to throw in the rat trap, isn't it that even Xu Mingzhen and Sima Tan have not officially defected to Zhu Rang at this time?" Wang Wenqian said, "Let's see......"

…………

…………

Ye Feiying stood on the deck of the ship, looking numb and indifferent at the ragged and sad victims on the embankment on the west side of Shanyangdu, who had not yet been completely numbed for the time being, and looked at the raging flood west of the embankment, and the turbid water was floating with miscellaneous trees, dead grass, and the corpses of people and animals.

Who would have imagined that the phrase "spring flowers blooming" in the deserted house years ago would be confirmed in the situation at this moment?

Ye Feiying didn't know much about military strategy, but she stayed by Yao Xishui's side, listened to the discussions of Zhou Yuan and Li Changfeng, Li Xiu and others who were transferred to Jinling at the beginning of the year, and also knew that the Mengwu people were very vicious this time.

Even if Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang launched a desperate offensive against the Heluo area from the dangerous mountain road at this time, even if he could successfully capture Heluo, the strategic intention of the Hehuai Liang army to reorganize the Hehuai region would be completely defeated.

Li Changfeng predicted early on that as long as there was a group of Mengwu soldiers and horses to cooperate with the Weizhou rebels to use troops on the eastern front, Qingmi and other prefectures and even the Sima clan occupying the Xusi region would choose to surrender to Zhu Rang, the king of Lianghe, and then make the Bianjing soldiers and horses become a lone army again.

Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang returned to Caizhou last year through Tangyi and regained his momentum in the southern part of Xingzhou, but in that case, and Sima Li, the head of the Sima family, was still in Bianjing, Sima continued to choose to wait and see from Xu Si, and did not express his position to re-serve Emperor Liang.

Now that the situation in Hehuai has taken a sharp turn again, even if Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang regathered forty or fifty thousand elites in Xu Ru and other places, but they were isolated by the flooding west of the Shaying River, it is not difficult to imagine that Sima Shi joined the rebels of Weizhou.

In the past two years, after retreating to the north bank of the Huai River, Xu Mingzhen, who took Ruyin County as the government and mainly operated Yingzhou and Qiao, was the most seriously affected because Yingzhou was located in the lower reaches of the Shaying River, and almost the entire territory of Ruyin County was submerged, and more than 40,000 Shouzhou troops were forced to retreat to the east to Mengcheng and Bozhou City to garrison, and after the Sima clan on the east side surrendered to the Weizhou rebels, Li Changfeng predicted that Xu Mingzhen would inevitably follow him.

Before, Han Yuanqi, Chen Kun, Lei Jiuyuan, Jing Hao and others guarded Bianjing and supported it for nearly two years, which is already very rare, but if they are besieged again, is it possible for them to stay in Bianjing City for another year and a half?

Of course, Sima and Xu Mingzhen have not officially surrendered to the Weizhou rebels until now, Ye Feiying can't understand it somewhat, and Li Changfeng and Li Xiu guessed that these two may be afraid that Han Qian will lead his troops to directly intervene in the Hehuai war.

At the beginning of the year, it seems that Emperor Liang did not do much to deal with the Mengwu strategy of breaking the embankment and seizing Huaihuai, but he still strengthened and heightened the Chen Bian Post Road connecting Bianjing City and Wanqiu City in Chenzhou Prefecture in the higher terrain of Wanqiu County.

Although the flood flooded in Chenzhou, this post road was not washed away by the flood, which means that once Tangyi decided to send troops to participate in the Hehuai war, he could use military ships to go north from the main channel of Yingshui, but on the south side of this post road, through the floodplain area of 50 or 60 miles deep to the north of the Yinghe River, and enter the southern wing of Bianjing.

From this point, it can be judged that at the beginning of the year, when they saw the Mengwu people digging the Yuhe embankment on the east side of Xingyang City, Han Qian and Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang had a clear understanding of the subsequent deterioration of the situation in Hehuai.

Without this post road, even if the soldiers and horses of Tangyi could pass north along Yingshui through warships, the floodplain with a width of fifty or sixty miles on both wings would be an insurmountable moat for foot soldiers; The floodplain is flooded with deep and shallow water, and the silt is so heavy that it is difficult for even small boats to pass through.

And even if it was expected that Han Qian was very likely to send troops and intervene in the Hehuai war without authorization, the reactions or positions of the princes and ministers of the court to the situation in Hehuai were completely different.

Most of the courtiers not only believed that it would take time for the Mughurs to digest the Jin land, but also tended to think that the main purpose of the Mughurs was to fundamentally dismember the forces of Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang and support the Weizhou rebels led by Zhu Rang, the king of Lianghe.

At that time, Zhu Rang, the king of Lianghe, colluded with the Sima clan, and Xu Mingzhen may indeed join Zhu Rang, and they will also form a new Liang state to rule the 29 states of Hehuai east of the Shaying River, and become a buffer between the land of Jianghuai and the Mengwu people.

Even if the Muguls could successfully capture Guanzhong and Heluo at the same time, it would not be enough to pose a mortal threat to Chu Shu.

After all, the banks of the Shaying River were flooded, and the passage between the Shaying River and Funiu Mountain became extremely narrow, and it was difficult to break through the defense line of Gwangju in the upper reaches of the Huai River and backed by Tongbai Mountain.

And the Mengwu people want to cross the Qinling Mountains from Guanzhong to the south, and Liangzhou will be a moat that they can't cross.

In contrast, Tangyi, which has a big tail and is unruly, has increasingly become an imminent threat in the eyes of some people in the imperial court and the forces of the feudal towns - of course, among these people, Cishou Palace is the mainstream, and Ye Feiying also believes that Huaidong should have a deeper understanding.

In contrast, Yang En, the Marquis of Liyang, became more worried about the deterioration of the situation in Hehuai and the extraordinary strength of the Mughal people in the past two or three years.

However, Shen Yang, Xue Ruogu, Huang Hua, Yang Zhitang and others were more neutral, and their thoughts were more about speeding up the preparation for the establishment of the Right Wuxiang Army under the system of guarding the pro-army after the Zuo Wuxiang Army was transferred to Jinling.

"In the past two years, Wang Wenqian has spent most of his time in the house sick, and he can be regarded as well versed in the way of Taoguang cultivation, but the people of the Wang clan will inevitably have their minds floating......"

At this time, hearing Zhou Yuan's voice from the cabin, Ye Feiying turned around and saw that Zhou Yuan's face hidden in the depths of the cabin looked very gloomy, and he didn't know what his idea was when he suddenly diverted to this topic at this time.

"Yang Yuanyan has a short temperament, but he is not reckless, Ruan Yan and others are all scheming, and Wang Wenqian does not hesitate to deign to show favor to the favorite concubines around Yang Yuanyan, even if there are several young children of the Wang family who are fluctuating at this time, but if you want Yang Yuanyan to attack the Wang family at this time, I am afraid it is not easy." Chun Thirteen Niang, who was too lazy to land just now, said lazily in the cabin at this time.

Wang Jun married Han Qian, and any person can see the embarrassing situation of the Wang family, and if you want to sow discord in this case, it is not easy to start.

"Yang Yuanyan must be suspicious of the Wang family, so it is difficult to make a direct article on this matter, but what if you make a fuss about Yang Yuanyan's favorite concubine?" Zhou Yuanyin smiled and said, "If I remember correctly, in Xiangcheng back then, Your Majesty gave the woman surnamed Gu to the Marquis of Qianyang first?" And Yang Yuanyan should have a lot of women competing for favor around him, there is nothing big in their eyes, if we can encourage these people, there is no need for us to take action directly......"

Yao Xishui and Chun Thirteen Niang did not respond to Zhou Yuan's words, and they didn't seem to approve of making a fuss about an unrelated woman.

Zhou Yuan also seemed to be aware of the emotional changes of Yao Xishui and Chun Thirteen Niang, and he laughed twice and said: "At this time, Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang entered Heluo and fought to the death, whether Liang Shixiong could hold Luoyang and Hangu Pass was also said, Wang Yuankui and Tian Weiye wanted to avoid the disadvantage of storming Huazhou, and once Hangu Pass was lost, they fell into a dilemma, so they concentrated their forces on attacking Yongzhou - anyway, there is really not much time left for us......"

The situation on the eastern front of Hehuai is almost decided, even if Tangyi decides to send troops to Hehuai, it can only barely keep the line from Bianjing to the north of Chenzhou, but there are still great variables on the western front all the way to Guanzhong.

It is possible that Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang first captured Luoyang and Hangu Pass, opened up contact with Huazhou and Yongzhou, and re-suppressed the two troops and horses of Tian Weiye and Wang Yuankui in Hejin and Tongzhou, and could not go south for the time being.

Of course, it is also possible that at the same time that Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang captured Luoyang and Hangu Pass, Wang Yuankui and Tian Weiye also captured Yongzhou.

In either case, as long as the situation in Guanzhong is settled, it will be unfavorable to Xiangbei.

In the first case, Emperor Liang captured Luoyang and Hangu Pass, and opened up contact with the Liang army in Guanzhong, even if he did not consider the factor of Tangyi, obviously he would not agree to Xiangbei and Zhao Mengji and Wang Xiaoxian to join forces to attack Shu, but would plot to Shenzhen City to incorporate Zhao Mengji and Wang Xiaoxian into the Liang army, and drive them to the north bank of Weishui to fight against Wang Yuankui and Tian Weiye.

In the second and third cases, the Mughurs either fully or partially gain control of Guanzhong, at this time, Xiangbei should consider more of the ambitions that the Muguls may have in Liangzhou, rather than being greedy and plotting, let alone acting rashly.

It must be said that the favorable time is to take advantage of the stalemate between the remnants of the Liang army and the Weizhou rebels, as well as the soldiers and horses of Wang Yuankui and Tian Weiye in Heluo and Yongzhou, and no one has time to look south, or there may be a gap of two to three months, to give them the opportunity to unite with Zhao Mengji and Wang Xiaoye to attack Shu first.

Even they don't need to take Shu in one fell swoop, the Xiangbei army only needs to occupy Lizhou, Bazhou, Tongzhou, Langzhou and other northern Shu regions in the early stage, so it is convenient to advance and retreat and wait and see the situation - and in the early stage, with the goal of Shubei Prefectures, Xiangbei does not need to use many troops, so that Zhao Mengji and Wang Xiao can first enter Shu from Yinping Road and attract the main force of the Shu army.

However, even so, not only did Li Changfeng and Li Xiu not support it, but Li Zhihe was also worried that the situation might not be under their control.

At present, they can confirm that about two million horses of Qianyang cloth and other commercial goods such as armor and war weapons worth three or four hundred thousand yuan of money and grain are imported into Shuzhong in Xuzhou every year, and under this kind of big interest entanglement, it is difficult to imagine that they really want to join forces with Zhao Mengji and Wang Xiaoxian to attack Shu, and Tangyi will not send troops to threaten the eastern flank of Xiangbei.

It's not enough to just predict that Tangyi may directly send troops to reinforce Chenzhou and Bianjing, but if Huaidong and Tangyi start a military provocation at this time, and further contain the Tangyi army from the eastern front, making it difficult for Han Qian to take care of other directions, Li Zhihe will really make up his mind, right?

Ye Feiying walked into the deserted house with Yao Xishui a few years ago, of course he knew that the people in the pavilion had great expectations for this side, but in addition to Li Zhihe's side who had not expressed his position, Yao Xishui and his wife were also worried that the people in the pavilion would count them in, but they didn't want Zhou Yuan to be quite eager, and thought to himself, could it be that Zhou Yuan secretly had contact with the people in the pavilion?

…………

…………

The disaster in Huoqiu and Shouchun is not serious.

Haozhou is sandwiched between the Huai River and Hongzepu, and the water level of the river flowing into the Huai River rises sharply, and the flooding is more severe.

However, the total number of people in the four counties of Haozhou is only in the early 100,000s, and the benefits of being vast and sparsely populated are fully reflected at this time.

The real serious situation is still in the western part of Huoju and Gwangju, where more than 100,000 people have crossed the Huai River and moved into these areas for temporary resettlement since mid-to-late April, and within a month of being evacuated from the west bank of Yingshui and Cai Ru Prefecture, which were unable to resettle in the south.

There are more than 30 camps for displaced people, and every day they need to allocate thousands of stone japonica rice for relief, and this number is increasing every day.

Han Qian didn't feel happy because there were 100,000 new people in Huaixi, but he was still full of worries about the current grim situation, Hehuai collapsed, Guanzhong fell, even if Huaixi had two million people, what could he do?

The roof leak happened to rain overnight.

During this time, the northern foot of Tongbai Mountain also continued heavy rain, and the tributaries of the Huai River on the south side such as Gushui and Huangshui were also flooded, and many sections of the road leading to Gwangju from the west of Chaozhou were washed away by the flood, and more than a dozen pontoon bridges were erected along the road, and only less than half remained.

A large amount of materials needed to be transported to Shouju for loading on ships, and then transported ashore from the mighty Huai River to the western part of Hoju and Gwangju.

Han Qian kept running around the counties, busy with disaster relief.

On May 20, Han Qian and others were expecting to think.

Due to the formation of a large area of flood detention in the middle reaches of the Huai River, the low-lying Qisi City near the Huai River is also full of stagnant water that has flooded the feet and necks.

Guo Duanduo, Zhou Daoyuan and other Liang ministers also transferred to Qi Sicheng, and used Qi Sicheng as a transit point for Tangyi to contact Cai Ru and other states; Han Qian rushed over to discuss with them about the follow-up reinforcements.

At this time, Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang personally led the elite, and after entering the western foot of Songshan Mountain, he had captured the two key cities of Songxian and Yichuan in the south of Luoyang regardless of casualties, but there were still 30,000 rebels in Luoyang, Mianchi and Hangu Pass near the Yu River and Yanshi and Xingyang on the east side.

At this time, the Monghurs collected hundreds of fishing boats in Hejin and other places, and were able to support Luoyang from Mengjin and other places, making the rebels have a stronger will to fight.

Fortunately, Heluo is the land of Longxing of Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang.

Seeing that Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang led the Liang army over Songshan Mountain and entered Heluo, the clan lords of Lu, Luoning, Yiyang and the people all raised troops to expel the rebels, so that Emperor Liang temporarily gained a foothold in the south of Heluo, and he could also raise a part of the grain from the local area.

At present, Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang decided to divide a part of his troops and horses to defend Yiyang and keep an eye on the Luoyang rebels below Yiyang, so that Jing Zhen led a part of the elite through the hills on the north bank of Yishui, directly inserted into the south bank of the Yuhe River, and attacked Mianchi and Hangu Pass from east to west, and first opened up the communication with Guanzhong.

Since the Liang army completely lost control of the upper waterways of the Yu River (including the Wei River), the Mengwu people gathered hundreds of small ships and could choose to cross the river from Luoyang to Hangu Pass at any time, which was equivalent to attacking the flanks of soldiers and horses in Michi and Hangu Pass. During this period of time, it also rained heavily in the Heluo area, which was not conducive to the attack, and the battle between Heluo and Luoluo could not be seen until two months later at the earliest.

Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang was worried that Sima Tan and Xu Mingzhen might rebel at any time, and hoped that Tangyi could send troops north as soon as possible to avoid being cut off by Sima Tan and Xu Mingzhen first.

Not only Guo Duanduo and Zhou Daoyuan were thinking about it, but Shen Peng also rushed over with a handwritten letter from Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang, once again mentioning his request for Tangyi to send troops as soon as possible.

Han Qian was very hesitant about this.

On the one hand, Sima Tan and Xu Mingzhen may defect to the Weizhou rebels at any time, while Sima Tan and Xu Mingzhen occupy the southern region of Hehuai, and the two troops and horses add up to more than 100,000 people.

On the one hand, the Monghurs built a barrage dam in Wuzhi, and their cavalry vanguard soldiers and horses had already entered the area of eastern Bianjing.

At this time, even if Han Qian transferred 20,000 elite infantry armor into the northern part of Chenzhou, and the Bianjing garrison led by Han Yuanqi and Chen Kun combined, it would be more than 40,000 horses, but he would have to face the encirclement and interception of the enemy army that might be as high as 200,000 in the open plain area of nearly 200 miles between Bianjing and Chenzhou.

How will this battle be fought?

In the current situation, the Muguls did not hope to drag the Tangyi soldiers and horses into a battle situation that was more favorable to them; Han Qian even suspected that this was the case, and Sima and Xu Mingzhen had not clearly raised the rebel flag until this time, but in fact they had secretly surrendered to the rebels.

As soon as the facts turned out to be as he expected, the reinforced soldiers and horses could not gain a foothold in the north of Chenzhou, and it was likely that the enemy army several times his size would be forced into Bianjing.

After the reinforcements and horses meet with Han Yuanqi, Chen Kun and others, they may be able to continue to hold Bianjing without losing it, but how to solve the problem of grain and grass?

Bianjing City suffered a long period of siege before, the food was once exhausted, thousands of people starved to death, thanks to the Liang Emperor Zhu Yu returned to Hehuai in time, once lifted the siege of Bianjing, the starvation did not expand, resulting in a more tragic tragedy.

In order to solve the food crisis in Bianjing, especially to confirm that the Mughuls and rebels had the evil intention of breaking the embankment and seizing Huai, Emperor Zhu of Liang ordered a large number of residents to be evacuated to escape the famine, but there are only more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians in the city.

Like the outer cities of Jinling and Shouchun, there are large areas of open space between the outer city walls of Bianjing and the inner city (imperial city) or Guocheng area, and Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang also ordered these areas to be cultivated as much as possible, but there are only 70,000 or 80,000 acres.

Counting the subsequent imports of grain to Bianjing City and the grain produced in Guocheng City, it was barely enough for tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians to eat for four or five months; Bringing in more soldiers and horses will not only be beneficial, but will even exacerbate the crisis of food depletion.

If the two cities of Xingyang and Wuzhi cannot be recovered, the barrage dam cannot be dug in time, and the breach of the Xingyang embankment cannot be blocked in time, and the yellow flood area on both sides of the Shaying River will exist for a long time; Tangyi also did not have the ability to ensure that the post road from the northern part of Chenzhou to Bianjing City would not be cut off by the enemy in the central part of Hehuai, where the enemy had an absolute advantage.

Transporting grain from Huaixi to Bianjing is an extremely unrealistic option; Not to mention that there are less than 20,000 elites in Huaixi, who knows what kind of actions Cishou Palace and Huaidong will do behind their backs?

Han Qian hoped that Han Yuanqi, Chen Kun, Lei Jiuyuan, Jing Hao and others would decisively abandon Bianjing City, and take advantage of the fact that the enemy army had not yet been able to complete the siege, and withdraw the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Bianjing who were still loyal to Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang to the north of Chenzhou.

8)