Jieshu's camp was camped outside the city of Xuzhou, which already belonged to Jiangnan Province. If it is determined that the battle will be carried out in the south of the Yangtze River, then there is almost no question of choosing a route, that is, along the canal to Huai'an, and then through Gaoyou to Yangzhou, looking for opportunities to cross the river in the area of Guazhou. Now the main force of the Ming army is said to be stationed in Jiangbei, this situation is a bit strange, but if the other party really intends to fight with the Qing army in Jiangbei, it will definitely choose a point on the canal, and the Qing army's marching route must be well known to the other party.

There are pros and cons to this well-known route, and while it is impossible to hide the enemy's movements, it is unlikely to be ambushed, as there are too many guides who know the terrain and every position along the way is carefully studied. In particular, the sad Gaoyou of Kupilon, the auxiliary minister hoped that the Ming army would choose to fight here, and then use a victory to pay tribute to the first emperor who did not have time to rush to reinforcements.

The Qing army, which had now entered Jiangnan, was separated along the canal, and in Jiangnan Province, this section of the canal and the post road basically coincided, and this route was not only convenient for the army to travel together, grain and grass transportation, but also had the advantage of intelligence transmission. To the north of Xuzhou is the boundary of Shandong, and the Green Battalion troops are entering Jiangnan in a steady stream, and they will first meet Jieshu and Kupilon, accept their reassurance and encouragement, and then join the army preparing for war.

The post road in the north of Xuzhou connects Teng County through the Lincheng Station, and continues to fork in Yanzhou to the north, and one leads to Jinan, relying on this post road Prince Kang can understand the situation in Shandong, but Yu Qi and other Shandong heroes are in a state of lingering, and Shandong has not been to the emergency report for many days; The other post road is parallel to the canal, connecting Beijing with the shortest distance through Dongping, Tongcheng and Gaotang, this post road ensures the connection between Beijing and Xuzhou, and through it, Jieshu can grasp the transportation and transfer situation on the canal at any time.

As for why the Ming army gathered in Jiangbei, Kubilong's view is that the Ming army's ambitions were inflated, and they planned to look for opportunities to fight a decisive battle with the Qing army like Zheng Chenggong. If the main force of the Qing army is defeated, Jiangnan may once again have a large-scale defection -- Deng Ming was worried that such a treatment would cause serious hidden dangers to himself, but for the Qing court, it was not the hidden dangers of the Ming army that were concerned, but the serious consequences of losing Jiangnan. Once Jiangnan is anyway, it will be a stab in the throat for the Qing court, and if it loses the taxes from the southeast, it will not be able to feed the soldiers in the northwest. If there was an avalanche that caused Zhejiang, Fujian, and Huguang to get out of control and could not be recaptured, then the Qing court would have gone back to 20 years ago overnight.

Under the repeated explanations of Kubilong and Li Guoying, Jieshu also realized the sinister intentions of the Ming army, which was a war that the Qing army could not afford to lose. It doesn't even need to be a big defeat, just a small setback that can allow Deng Ming to use the propaganda can have disastrous consequences. In Li Guoying's words, this is a gamble that makes more money and loses less for Deng Ming, and if he loses the bet, he will at most be a dead person, and if the Qing court loses the gamble, it may lose half of the country -- if the south of the Yangtze River is returned to the Ming army, even Li Guoying will have doubts about whether the Qing court can unify the world.

Since he absolutely cannot afford to lose, and he cannot even fight a small defeat, Prince Kang's military operations must be extremely careful, there are never too many troops, and as long as he is not 100% sure of winning, he should not move the idea of fighting at all. The only good news was that the confident Ming army did not take advantage of their naval superiority to fight guerrilla warfare on the Yangtze River, and it looked like they would fight a field battle with the Qing army in Yangzhou Prefecture, so that their naval superiority could not be fully exploited.

This morning, the Beijing envoys who had gone to Guazhou returned to Xuzhou, having already met Deng Ming and received a reply from the other party.

As soon as they stepped into Huai'an Mansion, they were closely protected by the heavy troops of Liangjiang and Caoyun Governor Yamen, escorting them all the way to Yangzhou, and then escorted by Yangzhou's green battalion to the Ming army camp.

Regarding Deng Ming's reply, Jieshu and Kubilong were very concerned. Shunzhi had been dead for almost three years, and most of the initial anger and humiliation had dissipated, and even if he still hoped for the opportunity to pay tribute to the first emperor, he could realize that this desire was not enough to compare with the safety of the imperial court.

When Duoduo attacked Nanjing, he brought almost all the troops of the Eight Banners, and this time Prince Kang's army of 100,000 was almost all Han Chinese, and there were only 3,000 poor Baba as the overseers of the Eight Banners. There are only more than 40,000 men left in the Manchurian era, and the elite soldiers and strong generals of the Huang Taiji era, even if they have not died in the past 20 years, have all held their grandchildren at home in Beijing to tell stories.

"What did Deng Ming say, did the conditions of the imperial court make him seem excited?" After seeing the envoy, Prince Kang immediately asked.

"Deng Ming is very impressed, and he seems to be quite anxious for negotiations." The envoy replied that Deng Ming, after reading the terms of Beijing, immediately said that he would let the envoy return to Beijing as soon as possible with his counter-proposal.

After hearing about Deng Ming's performance, Jie Shu and Ji Bilong glanced at each other, and the other party's eagerness to make peace made them suddenly have the idea of stopping peace, because this kind of performance is likely to show that Deng Ming has encountered some insurmountable internal problems, maybe the Qing court gritted its teeth and persisted for a short time, and the Deng Ming group will fall apart like Sun Kewang back then.

However, the envoy learned that Deng Ming was unanimously opposed by his allies, and except for the Sichuan army, there was no army to support the peace, at least not openly echo Deng Ming's proposal.

Upon learning that Deng Ming was openly discussing this issue among his allies, he felt that the imperial court's plan was in a bit of trouble, because the imperial court had thought that if Deng Ming showed war-weariness, it could spread the news to drive a wedge between Deng Ming and his allies - Beijing had thought that Deng Ming would not care about his image as a pro-war faction, so it would refuse to recognize the existence of peace talks. The Manchu Qing did not need to have too many concerns, and could completely publicize that it was Zhao'an - of course, Zhao'an, a thief who killed the first emperor, was also humiliating enough.

In the end, because everyone was opposed, Deng Ming said that he could not immediately agree to the court's request for recruitment, but he still gave a palindrome.

The envoy handed over the palindrome given by Deng Ming, which was actually Deng Ming's counter-suggestion, which said that in order for the people along the Yangtze River to live and work in peace and contentment, Deng Ming was willing to suspend the offensive for four years so that the people could recuperate. In return, the Qing court first had to stop attacking Ming territory for four years, not only in Sichuan, but also in other units under the banner of the Ming army. The deadline for certification is when the ceasefire agreement will take effect; Second, the Qing court allowed Ming ships to enter the Yangtze River freely, without blocking them under any pretext and without collecting taxes; In order to ensure the smooth implementation of the above agreement, Deng Ming demanded that the four governors of Sichuan, Shaanxi, Huguang, Liangjiang, and Caoyun, as well as all the governors along the river, send one son to Chengdu to ensure that they would not make small moves in private to sabotage the ceasefire agreement.

Deng Ming believed that this cease-fire agreement was a solid step towards the Ming and Qing peace talks, because he was above board, so he would not ask the Qing court to take the initiative to cede provincial territory before peace came, so the cease-fire agreement was based on the Line of Actual Control and did not require additional compensation from the Qing court, unless Deng Ming could persuade his allies and the Yongli Emperor to accept the final peace treaty. In turn, Deng Ming will not stop military operations until a ceasefire agreement is reached.

"This thief can't even strike the army temporarily, how can he convince the court that he really wants to be appeased?" Jie Shu said coldly. When negotiating with Zheng Chenggong at the beginning, at least the Min army would make a gesture of suspending the offensive, although it turned out later that Zheng Chenggong and Zhang Huangyan were secretly accumulating strength and wanted to make a big one.

"Deng Ming said that since both sides have freedom of movement before this 'ceasefire agreement' is reached, no one should worry that this is a delaying tactic by the other side......

Hearing this, Jie Shu couldn't help but smile, this Deng Mingzhong's strategy to delay the army was too many times, and it seemed that he was finally going to learn a lesson.

"Only in this way can we talk boldly and confidently, and if anyone thinks that the negotiations have suffered a loss, they can continue to fight until a satisfactory result is reached."

After listening to the envoy's report, Kubilong felt that this plan was a little different from the imperial court's expectations, although it seemed very advantageous for Deng Ming to achieve a ceasefire first without asking for the cession of provinces, and maybe he could give less land in the future, but it was very troublesome to let the governor send his son as a hostage. Deng Ming's palindrome insisted that the hostages were very important to avoid the governor from provoking the border because he wanted to make meritorious contributions, but if such conditions were announced, everyone would know that this was not a recruitment, but indeed an equal negotiation.

Of course, Deng Ming's real purpose was to find a better reason for the governor of Tong Deng to send his son to Chengdu. Although Lin Qilong can send it secretly, if there is a reasonable and legal excuse, it is of course better for the governors.

"Deng Ming said that he was willing to continue negotiations, and would try to persuade the Kuidong thieves and Zhoushan thieves to advance and retreat with him, but he would not stop fighting until a collegial agreement was reached." Jie Shu knew that this meant that Deng Ming still had the freedom to block, ambush, and attack the Qing army - even if an agreement was reached, whether it was to swear to the Emperor Tianhou Tu or the ancestral gods, Jie Shu also believed that he still had complete freedom to attack the Ming army, and the only question was to weigh whether it was cost-effective.

So seeing Deng Ming actually tell the truth on this issue, Jie Shu was a little moved.

"I heard that Deng Ming has a good reputation?" He had also heard a lot of rumors about Deng Ming, and he asked Li Guoying for confirmation.

Although Li Guoying could not testify against all the cases of release coupons, coupons, and the exchange of cattle for people, he felt that it was necessary to let Prince Kang and the auxiliary ministers understand what kind of people their enemies were, and perhaps this was also Deng Ming's Achilles' heel.

"Deng Ming, this person...... Well...... "Originally, Li Guoying wanted to say that Deng Ming was very cunning, but suddenly remembered that in order to explain why Deng Ming would delay the army again and again, he had already described Deng Ming as naturally kind: "Deng Ming has a quirk, that is, talking counts, and the slave thinks that he will definitely be defeated and die on it in the future." ”

Kupilon pondered for a moment: "It's a pity that this is a peace talk and not Zhao'an, we have to believe that he is a promise-keeping person, otherwise we can try to see if Deng Ming is sincere." ”

"What do you mean by letting Deng Ming shave his head?" Li Guoying asked rhetorically, he knew that Sony had used this trick back then, and it turned out that Zheng Chenggong was actually insincere.

Suppilon nodded.

"This trick is useful for Zheng Chenggong, but not for Deng Ming. Although it was not a recruitment but a peace, the slave dared to say that Deng Ming didn't mind shaving his head at all. There is no need to threaten, as long as he is given 10,000 taels of silver, he can shave his head in front of the messenger, and it is a big deal that he will shave his head again when the messenger leaves. Li Guoying said with confidence: "When Deng Ming was in Sichuan and Yunnan, he didn't shave his head once or twice. ”