Nanchang, Jiangxi Governor Yamen.

Since learning of Zheng Chenggong's death, Zhang Chao's mind has become a lot more active, and after carefully analyzing his own situation, Zhang Chao found that he was still the most advantageous one in the southeast. Jingdezhen was in the hands of Zhang Chao, and after the implementation of the policy of unified purchasing and marketing, Jingdezhen was a stable source of foreign exchange for exports, which to a large extent made up for the disadvantage that its income was inferior to that of Jiangnan and Huguang. Moreover, because of the small chassis, Jiangxi's military spending is relatively low, and there are relatively few areas along the Yangtze River threatened by Deng Ming, so in the past two years, I have saved a little belongings.

And Jiangxi also has the advantage of small goals. Jiangnan was an area that the Qing court attached great importance to, and if the southeast was unstable, Jiang Guozhu would definitely be the main target; Zhang Changgeng's territory is the largest, and it is adjacent to the nine provinces, and it is also the one that has fallen into the deepest quagmire in Tongdeng. The Zhang Dynasty is different, it is not the main target, and there are relatively few evil neighbors around, if the Qing court is determined to conquer the southeast again, then Jiangxi will definitely be a secondary target, and the possibility of attracting surrender is also very large.

The only trouble is the battle of Gaoyouhu, once the matter of participating in the murder of the former emperor is revealed, Zhang Chao will confess, and the Qing court will settle the account, and the family will definitely be executed. Although this matter is extremely secretive, and the insiders are all top-level personnel, but in case Jiang Guozhu and Zhang Changgeng are forced to be urgent, they may have to be poked out at all costs.

"Well, how did you get involved in this in the first place?" Now Zhang Chao regretted it when he thought of this, and he couldn't help but think that even if he pretended to be deaf and dumb at the beginning, maybe Deng Ming would be able to kill Shunzhi -- before the Gaoyou Lake Incident was launched, Zhang Chao was afraid that Deng Ming would not succeed, and he did not dare to spare his strength, but as a result, Deng Ming won so easily, and no one died, which made the governor of Jiangxi have the idea that it is better to be a bystander.

Zhang Chao still remembered that Deng Ming mentioned the matter of "Kangxi" to Dong Weiguo in person, and the southeast governor exchanged secret letters in private, and they all thought that there was a big tiger hidden in the court. And this mysterious figure of Tong Deng is at least one of the auxiliary ministers, Zhang Chao and Dong Weiguo even identified it as Sony, and only this old guy has the ability to rule out the public to agree on this era name. This hint made no one in the southeast governor dare to betray his companions to the imperial court, because exposing his neighbor Tong Deng not only increased the possibility of exposing the Gaoyouhu incident, but also very likely to fall into the hands of Deng Ming's accomplice -- Dong Weiguo had privately analyzed it to Zhang Chao, and he suspected that Gaoyouhu Sony also had a part, and it was probably Sony who pushed Shunzhi to recruit himself, in order to force the southeast governor into a corner, and had to cooperate with Deng Ming, who seemed loyal and honest, so that there was no way out. If it is really as Dong Weiguo expected, even if Zhang Chao does not participate, Deng Ming's chances of winning are still very good -- even if the governor of Jiangxi does not submit this nomination letter, Deng Ming will most likely not be resident in Jiangxi, which makes Zhang Chao feel even less counted.

"And why did Zheng Chenggong die in the prime of life?" Until the whole news came, Zhang Chao still felt that his position was as safe as Mount Tai, and the Qing court's forces on the southern coast were nailed to death by Zheng Chenggong; Last year, Zhejiang suffered another major defeat, and was pulled back by the Sichuan army with a population of hundreds of thousands; And although Li Guoying tried his best to smear himself with grease and whitewash, the governors could see that Chongqing was not optimistic, and when the imperial court was overstretched, he could only be tolerant of the southeast. Since entering the Kangxi Dynasty, Beijing has been obedient to the appointment of officials in Jiangxi, and as long as Zhang Chao can still transport the rated taxes to Beijing, then Beijing will never mention the matter of letting him move his position.

However, although Zheng Chenggong's death was both a danger and an opportunity, it increased the bargaining chips with Deng Ming. Zhang Chao felt that without the support of Zheng Chenggong, Deng Ming, the confidence of the southeast governor would become worse, and Zhang Chao's position became more important, at least it was a matter of course for the price of porcelain to rise.

Therefore, the fact that the man from the Chengdu Development Bank came to Nanchang to sell war bonds was tantamount to a blow to Zhang Chao, who was full of self-confidence and longing. Deng Ming, who lost Zheng Chenggong's support, not only did not give in, but became tougher. How could Zhang Chao, who was thinking about raising the price of porcelain, swallow this breath? Needless to say, the person who came to sell public bonds was just a pariah who didn't even have a reputation - Tong Xiucai, this kind of fame was not recognized by Zhang Chao; This untouchable was not even an official appointed by Deng Ming, so he dared to roar in court, and threatened Zhang Chao again and again: "Call the soldiers of western Sichuan to beat you!" ”

The angry Zhang Chao almost beat this fanatic who didn't know how to be inferior to him to death on the spot, but fortunately, he had been an official for many years, and he was already very good at raising his spirit, and in the end he just ordered this madman to be put in prison first, and the 50 million bonds he brought were also confiscated into the official -- Zhang Chao, who had become a man of the country, did not dare to order it to be burned on the spot -- didn't he say that Zhuge was only cautious in his life?

When the bankers of the Chengdu Development Bank were dragged away by the officers and soldiers, they shouted to Zhang Chao over and over again: "Call the soldiers of western Sichuan to beat you!" Call the soldiers of Kawanishi to fight you! ”

Needless to say, Zhang Chao was so angry that his hands trembled. When he asked Deng Ming to ask his wife and children, Deng Ming never shouted at him so loudly. After returning to normalcy, Zhang Chao instructed the left and right that the cell where the banker and his entourage lived must be cleaned, and three meals a day were indispensable.

Two days later, Zhang Chao sent someone to inquire about the prisoner's movements, and heard that the death thief prisoner kept asking for water to drink every day, and when he finished drinking, he pulled his neck and shouted: "Call the soldiers of western Sichuan to beat you!" ”

After muttering for a while, Zhang Chao ordered the thieves to be taken out of their cells and placed under house arrest in a small heavily guarded courtyard, and also found two eminent monks to play chess with them to relieve their boredom, and by the way, they gave a lecture on Buddhism to the banker to eliminate his anger.

Around this time, another person from the Xuzhou Construction Bank came to sell public bonds. This time, Zhang Chao's strategy was much more ingenious, he took out the confiscated bonds and showed them to the newcomers, saying that all the money in Nanchang had bought this. This trick is not bad, people were discouraged when they saw it, checked the number, and found that there were as many as 50 million, and the people from Xuzhou Construction Bank muttered something: "I didn't leave any balance for me." ”

Zhang Chao, who was strange in his heart, invited this Xuzhou man to dinner, and took out a lot of information from his mouth, as if when they were selling public bonds, the president of the Bank of Sichuan, Xiong, also sent them a quota table, and set an upper limit for all prefectures and counties downstream, so that they should not exceed the quota, otherwise they would be fined.

In a private letter, Zhang Chao said that he thought that he should unite against Deng Ming, and if Deng Ming wanted to come hard, then arrange a Gaoyou Lake for him, so that he would know that the Southeast Governor's Alliance was not easy to mess with.

In his reply, Jiang Guozhu applauded loudly, saying that Nanjing was the strong backing of Wuchang and Nanchang, and that whoever dared to provoke the Southeast Alliance, whether it was Beijing or Chengdu, would let anyone return with a feather, and Shunzhi would be a lesson for them -- of course, Jiang Guozhu only dared to say this in a letter without leaving a seal.

Zhang Changgeng also said that Wuchang also encountered the Ming War treasury bond salesman from western Sichuan. Since Yuezhou, Huguang has categorically rejected this kind of intensified blackmail. He hoped that Liangjiang would be able to support him with some grain and grass, and allocated to him the balance of the suppression of Premier Deng's yamen, so that he could recruit warriors and block Deng Ming, a red-eyed bandit, west of Wuchang for the Southeast Alliance.

The words of the governor of Huguang are very beautiful, but Zhang Chao will be skeptical about it, and it seems that Jiang Guozhu does not believe that Zhang Changgeng, a senior expert in Tongdeng can sacrifice himself for others and use his old skills to fight for the invincible Deng Ming. In the end, Liangjiang hesitated to allocate 200,000 taels of silver to Zhang Changgeng, intending to see the results.

The day before yesterday, there was good news, Zhang Changgeng announced that he had Chen Shi Yuezhou, and had conducted reasonable, well-founded, and restrained negotiations with Deng Ming, and in front of the Huguang officers and soldiers who were waiting for the battle, the invincible Deng Ming also flinched, and now the two armies are facing each other. Zhang Changgeng asked Liangjiang to quickly send a letter to Prime Minister Deng's yamen, and agreed that Zhou Peigong would allocate all this year's financial balance to Wuchang, so that Wuchang could gather more troops and horses to intercept Deng Ming.

Every word written on the letter was something Zhang Chao was willing to believe, and he estimated that Zhang Changgeng would definitely be beaten half to death by Deng Ming, and if he didn't accept it, Wuchang would not want to keep it. However, Deng Ming must have been tired after beating Zhang Changgeng, but Zhang Changgeng is also a governor. In this way, Zhang Chao and Deng Ming have more confidence to talk about the price increase of porcelain, and as for the public debt, they will not buy it at all. Of course, Zhang Chao would have put the banker under house arrest back and continue to maintain a good relationship with Deng Ming - according to the monk sent to explain Buddhism, the banker was very short-tempered, and when he was playing chess, he would smile when he ate the monk's horse, but when his car was eaten, he would flip the chessboard and point at the monk's nose and shout: "Call the soldiers of western Sichuan to beat you!" ”

Out of caution, Zhang Chao did not unconditionally trust the governor of Huguang, nor did he immediately blow up the banker. In the past two days, the envoys of Wuchang can come two or three times a day, and they ask Zhang Chao to quickly allocate them to the assistants. Recently, a messenger burst into tears, saying that if no more money was given, the governor of Huguang would not be able to maintain the 200,000 male divisions he had recruited.

Unable to withstand the envoy's bitter pleading, Zhang Chao began to hesitate, whether to agree to allocate the money from Jiangxi in Premier Deng's yamen to Huguang first?

Suddenly, a messenger stumbled in: "My lord, my lord, intercept, intercept!" ”

Zhang Chao deployed his eyeliner in the yamen of the governor of Henan, and during this time they have been following Zhang Chao's instructions, staring at the official letter from Huguang with wide eyes.

When the envoy handed over the official letter that he had secretly copied, he also praised it sincerely: "Your Excellency the Governor is really a miracle, Governor Zhang really did not send the recital according to the usual route, but went to Henan to send the recital. ”

Zhang Chao stood up, hurriedly stepped down from his seat to greet him, snatched the memo from the messenger's hand, and only looked at it twice before scolding: "Zhang Changgeng, Lao Tzu knows that you have a human face and a beast's heart!" ”

The governor of Huguang said in his urgency: Deng Mingshuai's 100,000-strong army marched east again, and the Kuidong giants Li Laiheng and Liu Tichun also followed, and even Wang Guangxing and Dang Shousu, who had always been shrinking, and Hao Shaoqi and He Zhen, who were cruising in the Hanshui Valley, were also dispatched, and even if they did not come, they also sent generals, sons and nephews. More than 100,000 Sichuan Kou and thieves besieged Yuezhou for several days, and the prefect of Yuezhou urged the soldiers and civilians of the city to resist to the death, killing many of the generals of the thieves, and the corpses of the city were pillowed, and finally Deng Ming had to withdraw from the siege and turn to Wuchang; And Wuchang is impregnable under the leadership of Zhang Changgeng. Deng Ming, Li Laiheng, Liu Tichun, and others, who had no chance to take advantage of it, went down the river on 6 April and headed for Jiangxi. Zhang Changgeng reported to the imperial court that he had warned Jiangxi, and now the waterway was impassable, so he sent this urgent report from Henan.

"When did this guy warn Lao Tzu?" Zhang Chao hurriedly counted the time with his fingers: "April 6th...... Go to Jiujiang to call the police, and let Dong Bu be careful, Deng Ming will be there soon! ”