In the first year of Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty and June in the sixteenth year of the Yongli Dynasty in the Ming Dynasty, Nanjing.

Jiang Guozhu and Liang Huafeng chatted about the situation in the southeast while drinking tea. In the past two months, Jiang Guozhu's mood has become better and better, tens of thousands of Ming troops have crossed the border, causing a sensation in the government and the opposition, and Beijing has ordered Nanjing and Nanchang to be strictly guarded, and the Ming army cannot be given the opportunity to attack and seize the important towns of Liangjiang. This order was in line with the wishes of Jiang Guozhu and Zhang Chao, and the Liangjiang Green Battalion had even more reason not to engage the Ming army. After the Ming army passed, the yamen of Liangjiang vigorously performed a show of merit, and asked for tax exemption by the way.

After the Sichuan army landed in Zhejiang via Chongming and Zhoushan, the Zhejiang Green Camp and the Fujian Green Camp that came later were defeated by Zhou Kaihuang, Li Xinghan and Ren Tang.

In the past, when the Ming army was crisscrossing the two rivers and Huguang, the Zhejiang officialdom had been singing a high profile, resolutely suppressing the main suppression, constantly impeaching the officials of the two rivers and Huguang for their incompetence, and also instigating the imperial court to send a large army into Sichuan to suppress the Ming military regime in Chengdu; After it was reported that Li Guoying suffered a big defeat, the Zhejiang side also impeached Li Guoying for losing his teacher and humiliating the country, and committing a heinous crime. But this time, after Zhejiang really met the Sichuan army, this voice disappeared immediately, and only one was left to ask the court for help.

"Why should we save them? First of all, we can't save it, and even if we can, how they scolded me in the first place, don't they remember? Jiang Guozhu sneered and handed over the letter of help from Zhejiang to Liang Huafeng: "Anyway, I have written to the imperial court, Jiangning is the first in the southeast, as long as we respond to all changes with the same and strive to ensure that Jiangning is not lost, then this time the Ming army will enter the army the same as the previous two times, and they will go back where they come from after all." ”

"What the Governor says is very true." Liang Huafeng had just rushed back to Jiangning from Songjiang Mansion, and his explanation to the imperial court was to concentrate elite troops and strong generals to secure Nanjing, while to the Ming army, he said that the Jiangnan Green Battalion would never interfere with their sincerity: "The last general heard that it seemed that the Eight Banners garrisoned in Hangzhou went out of the city to discuss and paid a ransom fee of one million taels of silver to General Zhou, so that Hangzhou could be regarded as keeping Hangzhou safe, and I don't know whether this matter is true or false." ”

"Ten of the best is true." Jiang Guozhu sneered: "Fornication, it's really shameless!" However, this official is a kind-hearted person, so he will not hear about the incident and impeach the officials of Zhejiang and Fujian. ”

When the Ming army crossed the border, the local products along the Yangtze River finally had a sales object, and the Ming army also needed a large amount of firewood and grain, which greatly alleviated the economic crisis of the two rivers. Now the Ming army has begun to set off for Sichuan, renting ships everywhere to buy grain and cloth, causing the low prices in Liangjiang to climb steadily.

For example, because of Beijing's squeezing, in order to pay taxes, small landlords and peasants even began to sell their rations and seed grains in order to tide over the immediate difficulties, so that the price of grain fell again and again, once falling below one tael of silver and five stones of grain; It is conceivable that after the tax is paid, the small landlords and peasants will inevitably have to borrow heavily to buy food and seeds, and then there will be a wild rise, and I don't know how many people will go bankrupt this winter. The Ming army not only purchased a large amount of grain when it came, but also took out more than ten times the previous order before returning to Sichuan, and the agreement between the Ming army and the Yamen of Premier Deng was not a secret to Jiang Guozhu, the governor of Liangjiang, who knew that the Ming army had ordered rations for hundreds of thousands of people. These orders kept food prices stable. Moreover, the Ming army took out real money and silver, and the price of grain in July this year must be able to maintain around one or two stones.

In addition to food prices, the recovery in land prices is even more pronounced. Before the Ming army went down to the south of the Yangtze River, the land price fell to one acre and one tael of silver, and many small landlords thought of the upcoming terrible taxes, and even gave birth to the idea of giving the land to others for nothing, but unfortunately few people dared to take it over for nothing.

As the price of grain rose, the price of land also rose, and many small landlords either sold rations to the Ming army, or took the Ming army's deposit to prepare the grain needed for the Ming army's return journey. When they had the money to pay their taxes, they were reluctant to sell their land. In addition, in the past few days, the rumors of tax exemption have also spread, and I heard that a large number of prefectures and counties will be able to get tax exemption treatment, and the price of land has been greatly increased, and the price of some fertile land near Jiangning has approached the mark of 121 mu.

Through the suppression of the Yamen of Premier Deng, Chiang Guozhu's Liangjiang Governor Yamen could also count on a sum of money from the Ming army returning to Sichuan - for Liangjiang, this was actually the Ming army's sharing of commercial profits with them and the harvest of the attack on Zhejiang. Although Jiang Guozhu is no longer worried about how to send the silver to Beijing, he is still a little dissatisfied with Sichuan's handling this time.

Because Sichuan did not act according to Jiang Guozhu's plan, it is obvious that Sichuan is still very wary of Jiang Guozhu - well, Jiang Guozhu admits that this is completely reasonable, he is also careful about the Sichuan army, if the Sichuan army suffers a big defeat in Zhejiang, he may also let Liang Huafeng beat the water dogs. Sichuan's vigilance deprived Chiang Guozhu of the opportunity to purge the Shilin in Jiangnan, and he had wanted to eliminate those who were particularly loyal to the Qing court and the most dangerous supporters of the Ming court, but now because of Sichuan's non-cooperation, he had lost this opportunity to unify the hearts of the people in Jiangnan. What's more, these scholars also have rich family assets, which can make Jiang Guozhu's small treasury more abundant and give him more confidence to fight against Beijing and Chengdu.

"When the Sichuan army passed by, it was estimated that the two sides of the strait were welcomed again, right?" Jiang Guozhu said a little sourly.

"It must be, the gentry and rich families on the shore are carrying money to their homes in large bags, can they not support the Sichuan army? The people on both sides of the strait have already said that as long as the Sichuan army comes once, they will not worry about the New Year. Liang Huafeng told Jiang Guozhu: "There are still many people in Songjiang Mansion shouting at the passing Sichuan ships: 'Don't forget to come next year, let's go to Shandong next year', I heard that there are still many people shouting." ”

"They're all looking forward to selling food and buying bargains, right?" Jiang Guozhu snorted coldly again: "These people are Diaomin." ”

After the important matters were discussed, Jiang Guozhu chatted with Liang Huafeng about a trivial matter he had just heard: "There is a person surnamed Zhuang in Huzhou, who wrote a book, it seems that it is the history of the Ming Dynasty or something, and he was sued. ”

"Zhuang Yuncheng." Liang Huafeng replied quickly.

"Well, yes, it seems to be the name." Jiang Guozhu and Liang Huafeng talked about it, because he vaguely heard that Liang Huafeng seemed to be involved.

"The last general knows about it. Zhuang Yuncheng is a wealthy man, his only son was a famous talent when he was fifteen years old, and was selected as the former Ming Dynasty's Guozijian, but then suddenly fell seriously ill and became blind. Liang Huafeng enthusiastically introduced: "Seeing that his son had no chance to achieve fame, he bought a manuscript of Zhu Guozhen......"

"How could Zhu Guozhen sell manuscripts?" Jiang Guozhu asked casually. Hearing Liang Huafeng say this, he has already determined that the dealer must be rich, so he can send his son to the Guozijian. However, the talent is estimated to be average, otherwise it will not be without fame. Zhu Guozhen's fame is not small, Jiang Guozhu knows that his writing is very good, and the only thing he doesn't understand is why his manuscript ended up in the dealer's house.

"I heard that after Zhu Guozhen's death, his family fell into disarray, and the manuscript was sold by his sons to the banker." Liang Huafeng was obviously well aware of this matter, and he carefully reported to the governor of Liangjiang: "The Zhuang family invited a lot of talented people to revise this manuscript, and it took three or five years to write it, and it was published in the winter of the seventeenth year of Shunzhi -- well, it was published before the Battle of Gaoyou Lake. ”

Liang Huafeng said happily, he heard that Jiangnan talents gathered to compile this book, and even Gu Yanwu had been to Huzhou once, and Liang Huafeng also sent someone to send a gift money, and forced the dealer to write his deeds well: Liang Huafeng felt that this book had so many Shilin Junxiu involved in the compilation, and it would definitely be able to be passed down through the ages in the future.

"Oh. I see. Jiang Guozhu nodded. After the book was released in the eighteenth year of Shunzhi, Zha Jizuo and Wu Zhirong reported and denounced the book for defaming the imperial court. This matter is really trivial to the governor of Liangjiang, but after hearing that the governor of Jiangnan under his command seems to be involved, Jiang Guozhu asked Liang Huafeng a few words.

"Where will this dealer slander the court, he is trying to make his son's name go down through the ages." Liang Huafeng also knew that someone was suing the banker, but he thought it was a complete frame-up: "And the bookmaker named this book "Ming History Compilation", and the master of the last general said that with this name, the banker admitted that the Ming Dynasty had fallen." ”

"That's a good point." Jiang Guozhu thought about it for a while, and the book took several years to complete, apparently acknowledging the unification of the Qing court before the internal strife of the three kings of the Southern Ming Dynasty. Since this is the case, even if there is a little taboo, it will not be a big deal in Jiang Guozhu's mind, the general direction of this book is correct, and it is definitely not an anti-book.

"The Ming Dynasty is already dead." Since he was all worried about it before, Jiang Guozhu, who was completely relaxed, said: "Although Deng Ming is brave, what about their emperor? Even the emperor ran away, of course it was the death of the country. ”

"The Governor is right, Deng Ming even claims to be the emperor's ** team, they are not only robbers, but they are not ashamed but proud." Speaking of this, Liang Huafeng's face was also disdainful: "Where is there still a little bit of the posture of officers and soldiers?" Sooner or later, it will be swept away. ”

"They're just surviving in that remote corner of Sichuan."

The two of you talked about Deng Ming's ambition and did not have the slightest doubt about the fact that the Ming Dynasty had fallen. When the conversation was in full swing, one of the guards sent two urgent letters to the governor of Liangjiang.

"Shu has been a peaceful place since ancient times, Deng Ming is so blind, what's so terrible?" After Jiang Guozhu read the two letters, he belittled Deng Ming again, and at the same time handed an urgent letter to Liang Huafeng: "The letter from Ren Tang said that there was an important person crossing the border, and Admiral Liang sent a team of soldiers to follow him quietly, neither let him find out, nor be known by outsiders, let alone let him have any accidents in our territory." ”

"Your Excellency the Governor, rest assured." Liang Huafeng nodded and retreated.

After Liang Huafeng left, Jiang Guozhu's face sank. The second report said that the stone tablet erected by Deng Ming by the river was splashed with dirty things, as if a person who did not know the height of the sky wanted to show loyalty to the government and express that he did not share the sky with the Ming army.

"Can't you do such a small thing?" Jiang Guozhu was furious: "Immediately send someone to clean the stone tablet, arrest the maniac who splashed things, beat him hard, and then throw his whole family into the river to feed the fish!" ”