After driving the envoy out of the lobby, Jiang Guozhu summoned a few more guards and asked them to entertain the envoy, leave him for a meal and let him leave the city.

What was prepared for the envoy was excellent rice, as well as a bowl of broth, and during the meal, Jiang Guozhu's guards did not forget to explain to the envoy the situation of the prisoners of the Fujian army: "Originally, the governor of Liangjiang wanted to behead them all immediately, but Governor Jiang felt that God had the virtue of a good life, so he stopped the governor. Governor Jiang also wrote to the imperial court to intercede on their behalf, saying that they were also their own masters, and even if they were to be executed, at least a whole corpse would be kept, so it has been delayed until now. In addition to a few generals, the surviving Fujian people are all left by the Governor, and they feel that they are all rare loyal people, although they are now enemies of each other, but everyone admires the heroes, that is, you don't exchange, and the Governor Guan also wants to let them go. ”

After eating and drinking, the envoy was sent out of Nanjing safely. When he went down from the city wall, the guards who saw him off also stuffed him with a string of copper coins, saying that it was the errand money that Governor Jiang had rewarded him.

When the envoy returned to the camp of the Ming army, Deng Ming was holding a discussion meeting, and he invited a group of officers from Li Laiheng and asked them to give tactical lessons to the officers of the Zhejiang army -- after ambushing the Qing army's sailors, Deng Ming began to train the officers and men of the Zhejiang army. After three consecutive battles, the courage and confidence of these soldiers have improved greatly, but the military skills still make Deng Ming very uneasy.

In the past two days, Li Laiheng's subordinates have taught the officers of the Zhejiang army some methods of using golden drums and banners, and Deng Ming wants everyone to talk about their experiences today, so that the students of the Zhejiang army can put aside their worries and speak enthusiastically.

The first to speak was Li Tianyuan. As a result of his great work in capturing Lang Tingzo, he is now also an officer, and he attended the study class with enthusiasm two days ago, but he was a little disappointed by the content of these two days. As soon as he heard Deng Ming's encouragement, Li Tianyuan took the lead in standing up and speaking: "Admiral, I feel that the golden drum may not be easy to use, and the biggest problem is that it is too loud, and it is easy for the enemy to discover our whereabouts. ”

"Of course the golden drum must be loud, otherwise how can everyone hear it?" The face of the instructor sent by Li Laiheng sank suddenly. Li Tianyuan always didn't listen carefully, but he was a big hero under the city of Nanjing, and although the instructor was a little dissatisfied, he was embarrassed to reprimand him.

Deng Ming was also a little strange, but he waved his hand and signaled the instructor not to interject first, and listened to the officers of the Zhejiang Army finish speaking.

Li Tianyuan's words aroused a chorus of approval among the officers of the Zhejiang Army, and someone immediately echoed him: "Although the flag order is important, it is also difficult to use it well on the battlefield. ”

Deng Ming was stunned for a moment, vaguely aware of the problem, and asked, "How do you think the war should be fought?" ”

"Search the enemy's camp, disguise yourself as a tartar, sneak around their camp, and attack while they sleep or eat." Li Tianyuan replied without thinking.

"Yes, exactly." The officers of the Zhejiang army applauded, and it seemed that they had summed up the experience of the three battles.

"There won't always be such an opportunity." Deng Ming couldn't laugh or cry.

Zhejiang officers come from all walks of life, they are not professional soldiers in the first place, and they used to spend most of their time in Zhoushan due to lack of equipment and training, and their main job was not to counterattack Jiangsu and Zhejiang but to try to survive, and there were many more smuggling activities than military operations. Even if some of them had participated in battles, it was guerrilla harassment, arson, or assassination of Manchu officials.

Li Tianyuan's idea was very representative, and many Zhejiang officers believed that a sneak attack on the enemy who was eating and sleeping was a very good tactic and should be carried forward.

"If the Tartars had built a camp wall and had strict precautions, it would be difficult to attack them," pointed out the instructor sent by Li Laiheng, noting that the normal state of war is to attack a guarded enemy fortress or a head-to-head field battle.

"If the Tartars are on guard, how can we quickly eliminate the sentinels, break through the camp walls, and kill the camp before most of the Tartars wake up?" A Zhejiang army officer asked. Upon hearing this question, almost all of them immediately widened their eyes and waited for the instructor's answer - this was their main concern, and all of them were eager to know the answer.

Li Laiheng's instructors all shook their heads helplessly: "There is no good way. ”

"The Battle of Dashengguan, as well as the two battles under the city of Nanjing, are very rare exceptions," Deng Ming saw the disappointed expressions on the faces of many Zhejiang army officers, so he came out to relieve the siege for Li Laiheng's subordinates: "Therefore, you must conscientiously study the use of golden drums and banners, master the methods of defeating the enemy in a dignified manner, and don't always think that you can fight the enemy while they are eating and sleeping." ”

At this time, a guard came to Deng Ming, saying that the envoy had returned from Nanjing, and Deng Ming asked the instructor to continue the lecture. In addition to teaching the officers of the Zhejiang army, the soldiers of the Zhejiang army were also pulled out for cāo training, and it was also Li Laiheng's officers who were responsible for teaching them how to recognize the flag and move forward and retreat in unison according to the command.

After listening to the envoy's account of the negotiations, Deng Ming and Li Laiheng glanced at each other, and Deng Ming asked, "What do you think?" ”

"It seems that they are reluctant to let Lang Tingzo go back." At first, he didn't understand what Jiang Guozhu meant, but after listening to the words of the guards relayed by the envoy, Li Laiheng could also see that Nanjing was eager for the Ming army to kill Lang Tingzuo.

"I think that's the case, it's getting more and more interesting." Deng Ming nodded and asked the envoy to go to Nanjing again.

Neither Deng Ming nor Li Laiheng planned to attack Nanjing. There is no doubt that the capture of Nanjing can bring a huge political impact, but even if it is not counted as the great difficulty of attacking the city, with the current strength of the Ming army outside Nanjing, even if it can be defeated, how to defend it is a problem.

If you want to defend Nanjing, then you can't be limited to this one city, it is best to march to the north of the Yangtze River and control the land between the Jianghuai River, so that when the Ming army counterattacks in a big way, the Ming army can have time to attack and defend against each other; If the Yangtze River cannot be crossed, at least the river defense must be consolidated, and the Yangtze River from Anqing to Suzhou should be controlled, so that the Qing army will not be able to cross the Yangtze River easily.

With the existing strength of him and Li Laiheng, it was very difficult to tightly control the isolated city of Nanjing: there were millions of people in the city, and a large number of gentry had many domestic slaves, and more than 10,000 Ming troops might not be able to monitor it. If the Qing army came to attack, it was difficult to guarantee that no one would betray the defenders - now these unstable factors were a headache for Guan Xiaozhong and Jiang Guozhu, but if Deng Ming took Nanjing, it would be his turn to have a headache.

If you can't hold on and give up, then the political interests are actually limited, and Deng Ming feels that the risk and cost of attacking Nanjing are too high, and the income is limited. If he could take advantage of the big victory to exchange prisoners and help Zheng Chenggong recover some of his strength, Deng Ming thought that he would already be satisfied.

After the envoy saw Guan Xiaozhong and Jiang Guozhu for the second time, he first asked them to let the others retreat, and then asked directly: "Admiral Deng asked the lowly post to ask Governor Jiang and Admiral Guan, do you want us to kill Lang Tingzuo?" Do you want us to exchange Lang Tingzuo's head for the generals and soldiers of the Yanping Domain? ”

After sending the envoy away, Guan Xiaozhong and Jiang Guozhu also discussed urgently, and now that the two have reached an agreement, Jiang Guozhu did not hide it, and nodded: "As long as Admiral Deng sends back Lang Tingzuo's head, we can talk about how to exchange prisoners." ”

"Do you just want Lang Tingzo's head?" The messenger asked. Before he came, Deng Ming and Li Laiheng studied it carefully and taught the envoy the negotiation skills: "Admiral Deng wants to get an accurate answer, will you return our prisoners immediately after Lang Tingzuo's head is delivered, or will there be other things?" Admiral Deng said that if you have other requirements, it is best to put them forward together, and we should prepare as soon as possible. ”

Guan Xiaozhong looked hesitant, when he discussed with Jiang Guozhu just now, he really wanted Deng Ming to do more things, but I don't know if it is the most appropriate time to bring it up now.

Jiang Guozhu also hesitated, but finally shook his head: "There is nothing else, please send Lang Tingzuo's head back first." ”

But this momentary hesitation made the envoy already have a number in his heart, and he immediately proposed to oppose Jianyi: "In this case, Governor Deng Jianyi, you first release Gan Hui, Yu Xin and other generals, we will kill Lang Tingzuo as soon as we see people, and send his head back to Nanjing, and after you verify that it is correct, then release the remaining Fujian officers and soldiers, how about it?" ”

"No!" Jiang Guozhu immediately shook his head.

"Is there anything else that Governor Jiang has to do?" The envoy asked again, and without waiting for the other party to deny it again, he took the initiative to say: "Why don't you discuss the governor with the governor in charge, and think about everything you want the governor of my family to do, you can go out and wait for a while." ”

After staring at the envoy for a few moments, Jiang Guozhu nodded and asked him to go outside for tea first.

After the envoy went out, Jiang Guozhu said coldly: "Deng Ming is young and has a lot of thoughts. ”

The reason why Deng Ming's envoy was invited to dinner last time was because Jiang Guozhu was worried that the other party was too young to understand the extraneous voice of himself and Guan Allegiance, and now it seems that the meal was completely superfluous.

"yes, a belly of ghosts." Guan Xiaozhong and Jiang Guozhu discussed just now, let Deng Ming kill Lang Tingzuo first, and then help them ambush Liang Huafeng, as long as these two people are solved, the Qing court can only rely on Guan Xiaozhong and Jiang Guozhu to guard Jiangnan: "If we swallow and vomit, maybe Deng Ming will be suspicious, and in the end even Lang Tingzuo will not kill, or we should tell him clearly." ”

Guan Xiaozhong and Jiang Guozhu studied the current situation, and anyone could see that Jiangnan was already in danger. After Ma Fengzhi's rebellion, if even Liang Huafeng was defeated and died, the shape would become even more severe, and at this time, as long as the two of them held Nanjing again, then the imperial court might really pardon them - after all, Shunzhi should also pay attention to the influence, and the two people who were dismissed and retained continued to work hard for the imperial court, if they were still held accountable, I am afraid that other local officials would also be chilled, and no one would believe in making meritorious contributions in the future.

"Well, anyway, sooner or later, tell Deng Ming, and after he slaughters Lang Tingzuo and Liang Huafeng, we will release them. But before that, Gan Hui and Yu Xin definitely couldn't let go, and not a single Fujian person could let go. ”

If it is just a simple exchange of prisoners, you can also consider releasing Zheng Chenggong's subordinates; But now that Lang Tingzuo and Liang Huafeng are involved, if Deng Ming really does what they ask, then the prisoners of war must not be released. Because Jiang Guozhu was worried that the content of the transaction might leak and bribe the enemy to kill the chief and colleagues, if this kind of rumor spreads, then the two of them will not only be a matter of raiding their homes, and Shunzhi will have every reason to behead them all over the house at that time.

As long as the prisoners of war of the Min army are not released, no matter what Deng Ming says, he will not be able to win people's trust. Therefore, Jiang Guozhu and Guan Xiaozhong planned to take advantage of Deng Ming's eagerness to return the captives, first let him help him kill Lang Tingzuo and Liang Huafeng, and then kill all the Fujian prisoners, claiming to avenge the governor of Liangjiang.

"That's it with Deng Ming." Guan Xiaozhong fully agreed with Jiang Guozhu's judgment, as for Deng Ming's reaction, there was nothing to be afraid of, anyway, they were hiding in the safe city of Nanjing, and Zhu Yuanzhang's capital would never be breached by the more than 10,000 Ming troops outside the city. Even if the worst happens, Deng Ming really breaks Nanjing and cuts Guan Xiaozhong and Jiang Guozhu with a thousand knives, then they will be loyal ministers who sacrificed their lives for the country, and Shunzhi will no longer be able to attack their families.

Guan Allegiance is not completely convinced of this, after all, there is a precedent for Hong Chengchou. But Jiang Guozhu told him not to worry, saying that it was just the imperial court to appease Wu Sangui and Zhao Liangdong. As long as Lang Tingzuo and Liang Huafeng are dead, the court will no longer need to appease anyone, but will commend their martyrs.

The envoy was called in again, and Jiang Guozhu spread out his hole cards: "In addition to Lang Tingzuo, we also want Admiral Deng to fight Liang Huafeng." He is now rushing back to Nanjing, and we will inform Admiral Deng of his route of movement and strength before he arrives, and the sentry detectives along the way can also help Admiral Deng to replace him with our men, so as to ensure that he can be caught off guard. After seeing the heads of Lang Tingzuo and Liang Huafeng, I asked the admiral to evacuate thirty miles from Nanjing to show his sincerity, and then we will release them. After seeing the people of the Yanping Domain, the Admiral can also release our people back. ”

The envoy took Jiang Guozhu's request to heart, repeated it and confirmed that it was correct, and then took his leave and left.

After returning to the Ming army camp, Deng Ming smiled at Li Laiheng after hearing this: "Remember Zhang Changgeng in Wuchang." ”

"Remember," Li Laiheng sneered, and Li Laiheng kept in mind the metaphor that Deng Ming played at the time: "These two thieves also treat us as donkeys and want to hang us with a carrot." ”

"Well, as long as we kill Lang Tingzuo, it will fall into their calculations, and we will have to get rid of Liang Huafeng for them at that time. They said it nicely, and they transferred all the sentries in advance, but it wasn't for our people to fight hard. When we kill Liang Huafeng desperately, we fantasize that we can save our own people by retreating thirty miles, and most of them will have some new tricks at that time. Deng Ming shook his head disdainfully and said, "These two people are too bad at doing business." ”

"Why did the Admiral say that?" Li Laiheng felt that the other party was very jīng Ming, and he refused to eat at all.

"Because they will not eat at all, and they will not give anything out of their money. Buying and selling is not a war, wishful thinking cannot be done, and both parties must agree. Deng Ming already had a plan in his heart, but he didn't say it immediately, but asked Li Laiheng: "Why do you think you should still use Yan Sè?" ”

"Hmm......" Li Laiheng frowned and groaned. In the past 30 years, he had been seriously training and studying martial arts, and had followed his father-in-law Li Guo to fight, except for fighting and operating the territory, he had never been in contact with business matters. After getting along with Deng Ming in Wuchang for a while, Li Laiheng felt that Deng Ming had opened a door in front of his eyes and let him see a whole new world.

When Wuchang negotiated with Zhou Peigong, Deng Ming told Li Laiheng his reasons unreservedly every time, and then let him deal with Zhou Peigong several times. After these practices, Li Laiheng's negotiation skills have been greatly improved, and he was secretly proud before, but today Li Laiheng was stumped again.

"If we say, as long as they don't agree to our demands, we will attack Nanjing......," Li Laiheng shook his head and vetoed halfway through his words. This trick can be used against Wuchang, because the Ming army seemed to be outnumbered at that time, and Wuchang was already a frightened bird; But now facing the fortified city of Nanjing, Guan Zhongzhong and Jiang Guozhu in the city are fearless, and they are not afraid of the Ming army's strong attack at all. If it is said that if the conditions of the Ming army are not agreed to, the Ming army will storm Nanjing, not only will Jiang Guozhu not believe it, but Li Laiheng himself will not believe it.

"It's really useless to say this, they will definitely say that they are convenient and accompany us at any time, and when the time comes, we will not be able to fight, or if we say that we dare not fight at all, it will only make us more passive in the negotiations. It would be nice if General Liu was here, maybe he could scare them. Deng Ming sighed on the side.

In the past, the Ming army successfully blasted the walls of those small cities, but it was definitely not comparable to the majestic Nanjing city walls. And now Deng Ming doesn't have much gunpowder in his hands, and most of them can't blow up the city wall of Nanjing. If Liu Tichun brought his demolition team and a large amount of gunpowder here, he could let Liu Tichun blow it up. If a gap can be created, it will definitely help the Ming army gain an advantageous position at the negotiating table.

Li Laiheng thought hard again and again, and finally shook his head helplessly: "There is no good way, I can only hope that they will not break the contract." ”

"This is the disadvantage of monopoly, a fixed price, there is no room for bargaining."

"What is a monopoly?" Lee Rae-hyung asked.

Deng Ming explained to Li Laiheng some definitions of monopoly and its dangers, and finally said: "In order to break the monopoly, we need to introduce a competition mechanism. ”

Without waiting for Li Laiheng to continue to ask, Deng Ming told the other party with practical actions what the competition mechanism was.

"Come on, go and invite Governor Lang."