"This Li Shun Dynasty is really interesting, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty learned to change customs very quickly, how long has it been, and the Li Tang system has been established, which is also speechless." In the courtyard of the mansion of the original Wu clan in Chengdu Mansion, Chen Ming, the newly appointed head of the merchant station, pursed his lips and said softly to himself.

He had come early, and there were not many people in the hall, so he didn't have to worry about others listening. However, his behavior still made the deputy have a bitter face, and quietly pulled his sleeve, which can be regarded as a reminder.

There are about seven or eight people sitting in this room, and they seem to be all martial artists, but I don't know if it's from the left camp or the middle camp, probably the former. Chen Ming observed carefully and found that the costumes of these people were very interesting, wearing red foreheads, wearing robes embroidered with evil spirits on their upper bodies, hakama slaves on their lower bodies, and boots on their feet, which were typical Tang Dynasty kazakh clothes. Obviously, these people are all military generals, although they don't have weapons, but they speak in a thick voice, and they look forward to self-arrogance between their eyebrows and eyes, and this kind of temperament can't be raised.

In fact, Li Shun's regime admired the Tang Dynasty, not only now! As early as when Li Zicheng established the Caotai team government in Xi'an, he admired the system of the Tang Dynasty very much, which is probably related to his surname Li and his Shaanxi background at the same time, although his self-identified ancestor was Li Jiqian, a member of the party.

Later, Li Zicheng entered Beijing, although he basically followed the Ming system, but he also had to change his name, bringing many Tang Dynasty characteristics. For example, the Jiedu envoys and defense envoys set up in various provinces and strategic places, and the general Guoyi and Wuwei generals of the military officials, in short, it is called a sense of joy, and it is called a nondescript.

Later, Shanhaiguan was defeated in a stone, and after the Dashun court rushed south to Huguang, the system was even more chaotic, the Tang system and the Ming system were mixed, the prime minister and the bachelor shouted at each other, the military attaché's clothes were messy, and the civil servants wore regular clothes to the palace, which was even more grassy than the era of Li Zicheng. It is no wonder that the local gentry at that time looked down on these people, and they were indeed a little low.

The real formalization of the Li Shun regime was in the later period of the Li Guo era, when the Dashun regime, which absorbed many literati and gentry, and various systems slowly began to be formalized. Coupled with the assistance of the people on the east coast, a group of trained Dashun officials were transported, and finally this peasant army with an army of 300,000 people slowly transformed into a serious regime valued by the world.

At this time, the "Tangization" of Li Shun's regime system ushered in a climax again, and it looked more formal, such as the outfits of these generals in front of him, and the outfits of Li Yuxue who saw Prime Minister Pei Du after entering Caizhou at night, made people feel quite emotional.

"Stationmaster, this Dashun and the Li family are from Shaanxi, and most of the important ministers and generals in the court are from Shaanxi or descendants of Shaanxi people, and they have a preference for Tang Dynasty culture, but they are also ordinary, and there is nothing to blame." The deputy glanced at the doorway, which was already a little noisy, and said in a low voice: "The stationmaster, don't say these words again, the impact is not good." ”

"Got it, got it." Chen Ming waved his hand impatiently, looked at the pile of civil officials dressed in green and green who rushed in at the door, swallowed the words again when they came to his mouth, turned to look at a wine cup in front of him, and simply poured himself a drink.

This wave of people should be officials from Chengdu and the surrounding prefectures and counties, of course, there are also many important members of Liu Zhonggui's shogunate, especially Liu Qi, the secretary of the festival, in addition to some officials, inspectors, judges and other ministers. It can be seen that this is an important gathering of Dashun's civil and military officials in Chengdu, and Chen Ming and other guests from the east coast were also invited.

After the crowds came, the banquet hall inevitably became noisy, and many acquaintances gathered together and began to chat, and from time to time burst into laughter. Chen Ming looked at these officials of the Li Shun regime expressionlessly, and muttered in his heart that the spirit of these people is good, which may be related to the fact that they are on the rise, he has been to the Zheng Shogunate in Fuzhou before, and the officialdom culture is really miserable, with a very strong atmosphere of Huidang Xiangtang, which is probably related to their origins.

Some people felt strange when they saw people like Chen Ming in "fancy clothes", and they also came up with wine glasses to say hello. However, Chen Ming was not very interested in these low-level officials, and he didn't want to deal with them, but considering that he might have to deal with them in the future, he patiently got acquainted with them one by one, and drank a lot of wine.

Liu Zhonggui was the last to arrive. He wore a robe embroidered with "wild geese", which is said to have been given by Emperor Li Laiheng to reward the Zuo Battalion for its contribution to the attack on Sichuan. Accompanying Liu Zhonggui came in, including He Zheng, the Marquis of Duyu, Cao Xuanli, the commander of the soldiers and horses in front of the Yaqian (Liu Zhonggui's eldest son), Zhang Guangcui, the soldier and horse envoy of the left wing, and Zhang Jingchun, the envoy of the soldiers and horses in the right wing, all of whom were Liu Zhonggui's close generals.

Because the Qing army was still entrenched in northern Sichuan, coupled with some historical problems, Liu Zhonggui, the general of the left battalion, had already obtained the title of Sichuan Jiedu envoy and officially opened the government and built a government. This is actually a common practice in the Dashun army, for example, when Guo Sheng led the army into Jiangxi, expanded the land for thousands of miles, and received the title of Jiangxi Jiedu envoy - as early as 1644, Guo Sheng had actually been awarded the title of Shandong Jiedu envoy by Yongchang Emperor Li Zicheng, which was not new to him.

Of course, Liu Zhonggui is the boss of the left battalion, strictly speaking, he has been in charge of himself for many years, and this time he built a shogunate in Chengdu, which is just a complete transplant of the original team, at most absorbing some Sichuan degraded officials. But Li Laiheng issued a holy decree and gave a festival, which is different in the end, it is much more formal and more official.

After Liu Zhonggui entered, Liu Qi, the secretary of the festival, Lin Chenglong, the judge of the branch, Zhao Yourong, the judge of Yingtian, and other core civil officials also greeted him, and then took their seats in order, and the voice in the banquet hall was suddenly light. The official sitting next to Chen Ming didn't seem to be of high rank, and when he inquired, it turned out to be a hole official, but judging by his appearance and habits, he should be a martial artist and still on active duty. Chen Ming was a little puzzled at first, but after thinking about it carefully, this person may have made meritorious contributions on the battlefield and needed to be rewarded, but the position in the army was limited and could not be placed for a while, so he gave a Confucian official of the shogunate to solve the problem of rank, but his own position should still serve in the army.

After all, although the Confucian officials were of a lower rank, they had a great deal to do, and they were responsible for "managing files, checking mistakes, and issuing and paying for documents" in the shogunate, and it was obvious that they could not be let the shogunate do it. Therefore, Chen Ming concluded that this guy was still serving in the army, and as for the real Confucian official's own work, it was probably done by officials such as "driving officials" in the ya.

Liu Zhonggui on the main seat began to talk about something, because he was far away, and Liu Zhonggui's voice was not loud, so Chen Ming heard it a little unreally. However, he still understood the general meaning, that is, the Qing army is still entrenched in a few prefectures and counties in northern Sichuan, and there are also Qing army brigades in Hanzhong, so everyone should not take it lightly, and after a period of rectification, Liu Zhonggui will personally lead the army to the north, even if he can't take the barrier Hanzhong in Shuzhong, at least a few nails in northern Sichuan must be removed.

Chen Ming nodded secretly when he heard this, it seems that this Liu Zhonggui has not yet got carried away and knows the situation he is facing now. The gateway to northern Sichuan is in the hands of the enemy, and for the regime based in Shuzhong, it is really like a thorn in the back and a bone in the throat, and it must be eliminated quickly. Liu Zhonggui had actually organized two large-scale attacks before, but unfortunately under the desperate reinforcement of the Qing army in Hanzhong, they all returned in vain. Especially now the Qing army appointed general Zhao Liangdong, his people are brave and strategic, in Hanzhong to train the new army for many years, although in the hands of the Dashun army defeated once or twice, but he still has some ability, with the advantage of the favorable terrain in northern Sichuan to defend the appearance, so that Liu Zhonggui is very headache.

At that time, Zuoying had just taken the Chengdu Plain, and although many surrounding prefectures and counties had "surrendered upon hearing the wind", they had not yet sent officials and troops to receive them, and some prefectures and counties in the south had even been encroached upon by the "remnants of Xiying", and the internal situation was not optimistic, not to mention digesting the officials, soldiers and horses of the Wu regime after surrendering.

Therefore, at that time, after Liu Zhonggui was frustrated in the two Northern Expeditions, he decisively retreated and began to focus on digesting the control area to stabilize the foundation. Central Sichuan has been very rich since ancient times, especially the Chengdu Plain is close to the left, if it is well managed, the future is its biggest capital and dependence. Liu Zhonggui still has a clear understanding of this, so he even sent people thousands of miles to Madang Fortress to negotiate with the people on the east coast - although it is very inappropriate to travel to foreign countries privately, but Liu Zhonggui did just that, and it is no wonder that some people have always said that he is arrogant and "arrogant" - asking them to open commercial institutions in central Sichuan and trade with merchants in central Sichuan.

After this matter was reported to Ma Wenqiang, the captain of the Southern Pioneer Team, it was approved without many twists and turns, and then Chen Ming took office and was sent to Chengdu, which is 108,000 miles away from Ningbo, as the head of the commercial station. Chen Ming's father, Chen Shuo, had returned to work in the local Ministry of Industry and Commerce, and he had been working in Kushiro Prefecture on Ezo Island, occasionally assisting Japanese companies on the east coast to participate in private trade in the Tohoku feudal domains of Japan. In other words, diplomacy and intelligence work are his focus, as for business matters, they are all incidental, it is good to make a lot of money, it doesn't matter if you don't make a lot of money, anyway, the other two jobs must be done well.

Chen Ming's Chengdu trading station has been open for a while, and at present, in addition to the normal purchase of Sichuan Chinese medicinal materials, brocade and other commodities, it also transfers war materials including weapons, war horses, and armor here through various channels, but due to traffic problems, the scale is not very large, it can only be said that it is better than nothing, and the profits obtained are only enough to buy some informants to spy on the news while maintaining the normal operation of the commercial station.

Of course, Chen Ming also selectively revealed some information from Madang Fortress to Liu Zhonggui and his close ministers from time to time. For example, a while ago, he compiled the little incident between Galdan in the Western Regions and the Qing court into a book and informed Liu Zhonggui. Liu Zhonggui was silent for a long time after hearing this, it is difficult for people like them to have a global vision like the people of the East Coast, and even if they have some awareness in this regard, they are limited to conditional factors and cannot collect enough information. Therefore, these news from the people on the east coast are very precious to him, because it is likely to indicate the movement of the Shaanxi-Gansu Green Battalion of the Qing State, and the relatively warlike Shaanxi-Gansu Green Battalion is undoubtedly the most important opponent faced by Liu Zhonggui, the Sichuan Jiedu Envoy, if they cannot fully support the Hanzhong front, then it is undoubtedly a major benefit to the Zuo Battalion.

And through Liu Zhonggui's enthusiasm for these intelligence news, Chen Ming also basically judged that this person was ambitious, and he was probably thinking about how to go north to Hanzhong, and then attack the 800-mile Qinchuan and return to his hometown in Shaanxi. It's just that he plans like this, will Li Laiheng in Changsha agree? You must know that Liu Zhonggui's attack on Sichuan has already provoked Li Laiheng's sideways, so much so that he sent a veteran Zhang Neng over, called support, but actually supervised, and still occupies the Chongqing Mansion in Dongchuan, and the purpose of dividing Liu Zhonggui's momentum is very obvious.

Therefore, Chen Ming felt that it was not very likely that Liu Zhonggui would go out of Shu and invade Qin. Compared with this, it is very likely that he will attack Guizhou and Yunnan in the south, but it is unlikely that he will be the main force, it must be Li Laiheng's main force himself, but I don't know when. And this recognition also made him quite embarrassed, Shunguo now has the three provinces of Hunan, Jiangxi, and Sichuan, and Hubei also accounts for half of it, the territory is not small, and the army is also very strong, if they let them take care of the Southern Ming Dynasty and occupy the land of Yunnan, Guizhou, Guizhou and even Fujian and Guangdong, the pattern of the Northern and Southern Dynasties can be completely established, which is undoubtedly not in line with the strategy of the people on the east coast. After all, it is much better for the princes to stand side by side than the confrontation between the north and the south, and there will be more room for the people on the east coast to work together.

But now it seems that this trend has some signs, the Nanming regime is becoming more and more dead, the Qing country is in trouble, the external pressure of the Dashun regime is shrinking day by day, and the whole army will go south to attack the Nanming one day. You must know that Nanming's Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo have faintly rumored discord recently, and the scholars and doctors can't look at these Xiying thieves, and the internal centripetal force is not as good as a year. In this case, how could they be able to resist Li Shun's soldiers and horses? The grand scene of Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo's battle against Wu Sangui in Guizhou and southern Sichuan is afraid that it will never return, and the morale of the army in Xiying is not the same as that day, and this is undoubtedly an opportunity for Shunguo.

In addition to the territories directly under the jurisdiction of the three southwestern provinces, Guangdong and Fujian, which nominally belonged to the Southern Ming Dynasty, and the Lu Wang regime in southern Zhejiang, whose status was relatively vague, could not be beaten, which was more fatal. Chen Ming felt that if Shunguo really didn't care about the consequences, he could probably sweep the entire south, there was no doubt about it.

Now, it's up to the East Coasters to pull the reins of their horses tightly!