Although Li Laiheng is young, when he sees everyone's reaction like this, he also knows that he needs to be cautious, so he naturally will not accept He Zhen's gambling contract. He Zhen, who had not been able to pass on the losses, was in a bad mood and had no appetite at all, and Yuan Zongdi on the side saw this, and in order to liven up the atmosphere, he discussed how to distribute the capture of this battle.

Sure enough, at the mention of distributing the spoils of war, He Zhen, who was still sullen, immediately perked up, and was full of energy while describing his merits and hard work, and at the same time fighting for the Daning army to get the share it deserved. The mood improved, and the appetite was there, and by the time the armor, weapons, and strong men were all about the same, the meal in front of He Zhen was mostly empty.

The more than 1,000 women captured were valuable trophies.

Deng Ming and his party were twenty people, and He Zhen generously proposed to give Deng Ming fifty places, and he gave priority to selection. The remaining about 1,000 people will be divided equally among the Kui Dong people, and each of them will be divided into 200 people. After fighting for a long time just now, everyone was a little tired, but generally speaking, the generals who broke into the camp were still relatively united, and everyone had no objections to this distribution plan.

Liu Tichun thought for a while, and said to He Zhen: "Some of these women are advocates of excellence, and some are good families; Some of the good family are widows, and some are unmarried girls......"

"Of course, it's an equal score for all kinds of people," Before Liu Tichun finished speaking, He Zhen stared: "That's fair." ”

"Anyway, you will take it to the camp, why don't you sell me all the girls in your hands." Liu Tichun said to He Zhen, and then made a similar request to Hao Shaoqi: "I also want the girl you get, sell it to me, I can exchange it for grain or silver." ”

"The food is too heavy, I don't want it." Originally, He Zhen attached great importance to food, more than silver, but the harvest of this expedition was too rich, and he was already worried about how to transport the grain in his hand back to Daning, so he said that now he only collects silver: "How to count silver?" ”

"Twenty taels for one person." Liu Tichun immediately reported a number.

Hao Shaoqi and He Zhen were dissatisfied with this figure, and in order to raise the price, Hao Shaoqi also took the initiative to ask Yuan Zongdi: "Do you want to buy some and go?" ”

Yuan Zongdi didn't let Hao Shaoqi get his wish, he also wanted to buy it, but he didn't mean to raise the price: "Twenty two people, I am also at this price." ”

"When you buy girls for your soldiers, they are all thirty or forty taels, and some even fifty taels, why do you buy twenty taels from us?" He Zhen said angrily: "People are good and are bullied, so you want to take advantage of honest people." ”

"That's a kiss, not a girl." Yuan Zongdi corrected.

"What's the difference?" He Zhen asked rhetorically: "Isn't it one hand to pay the money and the other hand to the people?" ”

"That's different, the woman has parents and matchmakers, and my son-in-law has kowtowed to his father-in-law and mother-in-law." Liu Tichun and Yuan Zongdi are now companions in the trenches.

"It's easy, these girls are my adopted daughters, let the boys of your two families come and kowtow to me, and I will put my handprints on the marriage book. One price, forty taels of silver for a girl. He Zhen reacted quickly: "I will press as much as this handprint should press!" ”

Liu Tichun shook his head and said, "If you are also at this price, why don't I go to the white family?" I have to be an unknown woman. ”

"If you don't want it, don't ask for it, I don't want to sell it yet." He Zhen gambled on the airway.

After a while, Yuan Zongdi dragged a long voice and asked, "How about twenty-five taels of silver?" ”

"No way!" He Zhen immediately refused: "At least thirty-five taels." ”

"Fifty taels and one person, sell them all to me." Deng Ming, who had not spoken, suddenly interjected.

Everyone looked at Deng Ming together, and Deng Ming said with a smile: "There are more than 200 people in a family, for the sake of me buying so much face at one time, I will wipe it off with a fraction, and each family will count 10,000 taels of silver." ”

Deng Ming said to Liu Tichun, Hao Shaoqi and He Zhen: "The three of you owe me 10,000 taels, so you don't have to pay me back." Then he said to Yuan Zongdi: "Didn't I still save some money from General Yuan, you take 10,000 taels yourself, and give General Li 10,000 taels." ”

Liu Tichun asked tentatively, "What does the Admiral want so many people for?" Let them go back again? ”

"Yes," Deng Ming replied in a natural tone: "These are hard-working people in troubled times, let them go home, they will marry and have children in the future, and they will become mothers." ”

"We didn't get it." Hao Shaoqi felt that there seemed to be a suspicion of reproach in Deng Ming's words, and hurriedly defended: "They were all robbed by thieves." ”

"So I paid this money to buy them, of course I know that these are all the spoils of the soldiers' hard work to win." Deng Ming hurriedly defended, saying that he was not the slightest dissatisfied.

He said to Yuan Zongdi and Liu Tichun: "The families of these girls may not be willing to let their daughters marry far away, and besides, the origin is indeed unknown, so let's find some better relatives for the soldiers." ”

Then he said to He Zhen and Hao Shaoqi: "I don't object to the two generals wanting to buy some advocates for their sons, it's human nature, as for these good women, let's put them back." ”

"Since the Admiral said so, then do so." Yuan Zongdi was the first to respond: "As for the money, it's ......"

"Be sure to give it." Deng Ming saw that Yuan Zongdi didn't want money, so he immediately interrupted him: "This is all won back by the officers and soldiers desperately, I didn't send troops and efforts in this battle, how can I take the soldiers' things for nothing?" ”

"That's it, that's it, let's talk about how we spend money to raise soldiers, won't we also follow the admiral to fight the world in the future?" He Zhen hurriedly agreed, and said to Deng Ming: "Then, the last general and the admiral will not owe each other." ”

"Yes, we don't owe each other." Deng Ming said with a smile.

"It doesn't give us that much silver." Although Hao Shaoqi also felt sorry for the silver, he was still more honest and honest than He Zhen, and hurriedly reminded: "Some people are really advocating excellence, and many people are widows. ”

Being reminded by Hao Shaoqi, He Zhen was suddenly depressed, and it seemed that the gambling debt of 10,000 taels of silver could not be completely offset.

"That's right, fifty taels for one person, I want them all." Deng Ming thanked Hao Shaoqi for his honesty, but he had already made up his mind to buy all the women.

"Even widows?" Hao Shaoqi asked in surprise: "Do you even want to really advocate excellence?" ”

"They probably don't want to leave their homes. With this money, you can buy those who are willing to follow you, and these reluctant women will be put back. Deng Ming didn't plan to treat these women differently, since they were all forcibly recruited by Hu Quancai, he wanted to send them home safely.

……

After finishing the dinner party for Li Laiheng, Deng Ming returned to his camp and asked Li Xinghan if he would like to set off first and go to Hanyang.

Deng Ming had already asked Liu Tichun and Yuan Zongdi for some soldiers to send these women back to Hanyang immediately. There were also a few gentry captives from Wuchang, who patted Deng Ming's chest and promised that they would let these distressed women get home safely. Deng Ming planned to send a few of his own people to follow.

"I don't dare to let General He give them away, otherwise he will probably resell these women again." Deng Ming said with a smile.

Li Xinghan is an upright person and is very suitable for performing this kind of supervision task, Wu Baoping and Wu Yuewang also accompanied Li Xinghan on a trip, they don't need to get close to Hanyang, they can leave when they walk nearby.

If Zhao Tianba was allowed to go, Zhao Tianba would feel that this kind of small errand was not worth mentioning, and it was an insult to his world-class martial arts. Although Zhou Kaihuang is not as proud as Zhao Tianba, most of them will have similar feelings.

Unexpectedly, even the three people who seemed to be hard-working and resentful, Li, Wu, and Wu, had some resistance, and felt that escorting a group of women back to their hometown was really not a great feat, and it was a bit overkill to let these famous warriors do this job. Moreover, Li Xinghan and the others felt that Deng Ming was really redundant, 50,000 taels of silver was enough for two or three thousand soldiers to spend a year, and it could also provide good equipment.

"Saving more than a thousand weak women really can't be compared with Zhongxing's great cause." Deng Ming said in his heart that although he won the bet, but this gambling debt is not good to win, it is better to use it to replace people, he explained to everyone: "I remember that the ancestor said: Don't take the good as small, don't take the evil as small." ”

Speaking of the benevolent Liu Bei, Li Xinghan and the Sichuan army were immediately in awe, and they thanked Deng Ming: "What the Admiral said is that he is confused. ”

At the dinner, He Zhen and the others proposed in advance to give Deng Ming and his men fifty women, since Deng Ming released the captives and the women of Wuchang, naturally he could not treat the guards harshly, so he gave them one hundred and twenty taels of silver each, which was considered to be a ransom from them to buy these women, Deng Ming smiled and said: "You can do it yourself, this money can be used to buy things, or you can save it to go back to Fengjie to ask for a daughter-in-law." ”

"Admiral, are we going back to Fengjie?" Wu Yuewang asked. At present, the Ming army is advancing all the way, and seeing that the Huguang Green Battalion is already vulnerable, many people are thinking about activities and planning to leave the Three Gorges and enter Hubei, and He Zhen is already discussing with Hao Shaoqi the issue of establishing a new base area.

"Of course I want to go back." Deng Ming did not think that the Manchus could collapse with a single push.

After all, in his original history, the Anti-Qing League would collapse within a few years, and now although history has changed because of Deng Ming, the situation of the enemy's strength and weakness cannot be reversed in the short term.

And Deng Ming still had some thoughts that he didn't mention to the guards, that is, he didn't forget to open up a base of his own. Although Deng Ming met all the anti-Qing soldiers and horses he met now respected him very much, as long as he didn't have the strength, there were some things that Deng Ming wanted to change that he couldn't change, and he couldn't do what he wanted to do. Like the Wuchang women captured by the Ming army, the people of this era believed that they had the right to be taken for granted, and if Deng Ming wanted to release them, he needed to pay a reasonable price in exchange. If he didn't have his own base, Deng Ming didn't dare to say that he could win every bet.

……

As another group of gentry returned to Wuchang and Hanyang, Hunan Governor Zhang Changgeng felt that danger was approaching step by step. Although there are still many troops in Wuchang, the soldiers are quite afraid of Deng Ming and think that King Shaofu is invincible. Moreover, after Deng Ming released the prisoners twice, these soldiers were not too worried about the treatment of the queen who surrendered to Shaofu, and they would not contribute to the death.

As for the Hunan soldiers brought back by Zhang Changgeng, at the resolute request of the gentry in Wuchang and Hanyang, they are now all stationed outside the city. These guest troops had no desire to fight for Wuchang at all, and in addition, like the local soldiers, they were convinced that King Shaofu would treat the prisoners preferentially, and they also paid a severance pay of one or two silver.

Zhang Changgeng even heard the report of his generals, and many soldiers were quietly discussing in private: If you surrender once, you will get one or two pieces of silver, so if you can surrender several times a month, wouldn't it be more than the military salary? After coming back, I will continue to join the army, and the next time I continue to surrender, I only need to hand over the armor and weapons issued by the imperial court. These soldiers also exchanged experiences with each other, and if they surrendered, they must try to be captured by King Shaofu, and they must not fall into the hands of He Zhen's house, otherwise the little hard-earned money will be snatched away by He Papi.

Compared with the guest soldiers, the local Wuchang soldiers were more calm, they all said that before the expedition, the money and better clothes were left to the daughter-in-law at home, and even if they met He Papi, there would not be much loss, and as soon as they handed over the knives and guns, they took the severance pay of King Shaofu and went home.

The soldiers who followed Zhang Changgeng to break through and return to Wuchang were already complaining publicly, shouting that it was better to surrender Deng Ming than to surrender at the beginning, and to take one or two pieces of silver, forcing Zhang Changgeng to give each of them some silver.

Seeing that the army's heart is like this, Zhang Changgeng has nothing to do.

As for the gentry of Wuchang and Hanyang, there is not much resistance to King Shaofu now. Deng Ming's words when he released the gentry were widely circulated, and now many gentry privately claim to be the one who reported the news, a righteous man who pleaded for all the scholars in Wuchang and Hanyang. Seeing that he dared to admit the charges of fornicating with traitors and betraying military intelligence, Zhang Changgeng knew that most of the gentry were unreliable. He even guessed that when these gentlemen reported their military situation to Deng Ming in the future, they might not use anonymous letters. Generally, when defending the city, especially in the prefecture and provincial cities like Wuchang and Hanyang, the force of the gentry in the city is an important help that cannot be underestimated, but in the future, when Wuchang defends the city, it is really necessary to let the gentry send their families to participate in the war, Zhang Changgeng dare not say whether they will help him defend the city, or will help King Shaofu open the city gate.

Now the generals and soldiers all think that even if they surrender later, maybe King Shaofu will not use them for this, and compared to the obviously harder to speak Běijīng Qing regime, now everyone would rather offend the talkative King Shaofu than rush to the past.

After the women who were abducted by Hu Quancai were released and returned to Wuchang, of course, the mother-in-law did not need to be said, even the seventh aunt and the eighth aunt also cried together, and the people walking the streets and alleys talked about it, which was equivalent to automatically doing propaganda for Deng Ming.

What makes Zhang Changgeng most angry is that those who have been put back have many times more influence than women from good families. After these women came back, they also hugged and cried with the bustards and sisters, and then the social occasions in Wuchang and Hanyang, from the poetry meetings of the literati to the chambers of commerce of merchants, as well as the usual gatherings of relatives and friends, the women who accompanied the wine and sang songs all scolded Hu Quancai for their wolf heart and lungs, and praised Deng Ming's benevolence. It is said that there were three Deng Ming's personal guards in the Ming army who sent these women back, and the singers of Wuchang composed a new song for them, saying that these three people looked like Pan An, brave as Zilong, and all had the courage of ten thousand people, Li Xinghan, Wu Yuewang and Wu Baoping, and the names of the three people were well-known in Wuchang within a few days.

Suddenly, Zhang Changgeng received a report from the sentry that Zhong Xiang's Ming army had moved south to Hanyang, and the vanguard was Li Laiheng, the general of Kui Dongming, and Deng Ming was also in the army.

Zhang Changgeng only informed a small number of people, including a few of his subordinates, civil and military officials of the governor's yamen, and some reliable aides. At the same time, the report was strictly kept secret, but overnight, the news spread all over Wuchang City.

Yesterday, the sentinel sent confirmation of the news, Zhang Changgeng narrowed the scope of the report, and reiterated once again that even family members were not allowed to tell, but I didn't expect it to spread again in Wuchang City soon.

Last night, Zhang Changgeng specially arranged a poetry meeting and invited many Wuchang scholars, intending to take this opportunity to calm people's hearts. However, the invited gentlemen complained of illness one after another, and refused the invitation of the governor of Hunan in every way, and the last attendees were only half of the number of invitees. She knew that it was the feudal official of the Qing court who was sitting in the middle, so she didn't dare to sing the popular minor tune in recent days, so she sang a new word about "Water Margin", singing the praises of Yan Xiaoyi, who was suave and merciful, and took the risk to escort a group of Tokyo singers who were abducted by Jiān ministers and Gao Yu home.

Zhang Changgeng listened for a moment - this is Yan Qing, obviously it is the anti-thief Li Xinghan. Don't think that if you put on makeup and change your name, the official won't recognize you. But looking at the other people here, they all shook their heads and listened with relish, and there were even applaudings.

"Governor Hu said that Deng Ming, the thief yīn is sinister and cunning, and he is really not wrong at all." After the poetry meeting, Zhang Changgeng thought hatefully. Wuchang's three religions and nine streams, almost everyone thinks that Deng Ming is good in their hearts, and Zhang Changgeng feels that he will not be able to mix the same reputation in his life.

Despite the treacherous situation, Zhang Changgeng still wanted to hold Wuchang. Now he had the same concerns as Hu Quancai, fearing that if he gave up Wuchang, the court would be angry with him - after all, Hu Quancai was dead, and in order to cover up, Zhang Changgeng had to report to the court how Hu Quancai fought the assassins heroically and was eventually killed.

If he can hold Wuchang, he will definitely not be able to run away with a great achievement, so Zhang Changgeng not only does not have to worry about the imperial court holding him accountable for the death of the governor, but also can naturally sit on the throne of the governor of Huguang. It was precisely because of these considerations that Zhang Changgeng lingered in Wuchang, and tried his best to win over the gentry and appease the army, hoping that the Ming army would go home and let himself be able to hold the city by luck.

Now that the Ming army is really coming, Zhang Changgeng is frowning, gritting his teeth several times and wanting to abandon Wuchang, but he is really reluctant to take this credit -- maybe the Ming army will not be able to enter the city.

When Zhang Changgeng was hesitating, the doorman reported to Zhou Peigong for a meeting.

"Please."

Due to a series of prophecies that came true, Zhou Dacai's fame is now getting louder and louder in Wuchang. Although Zhang Changgeng left the gentlemen behind when he fled from Zhongxiang, after coming back, Zhou Peigong did not say anything bad about the governor, and today's dinner came as promised, and Zhang Changgeng was praised during the banquet.

Zhang Changgeng secretly doubted that the other party would slander himself as Yuan Shao, but when he heard that Zhou Peigong was coming, the governor of Hunan was still very excited, hoping that the other party would live up to the name of a talented man and come up with a good way to help him get out of trouble.

After the guests sat down, Zhang Changgeng first chatted with Zhou Peigong about family life. Although the other party was just a lifter, Zhang Changgeng's words were very polite, and he returned to the truth after a long time: "Now that the traitor is coming directly to Wuchang, the official is worried, does Mr. have a good plan to teach me?" ”

"That's what students are here for. Students have a plan, they can ensure that Deng Ming retreats on his own, Wuchang is as safe as Mount Tai, and adults can make extraordinary contributions! Zhou Peigong smiled slightly, as if he knew that Zhang Changgeng would ask this question. He stood up confidently and said something, which made Zhang Changgeng scratch his ears and cheeks, and couldn't help but be happy.

Exactly: Mo Dao only said a few words, better than a million soldiers!

yù knows what will happen next, and listens to the next breakdown.