After Zhou Peigong left, Deng Ming said politely to the person beside him: "It's okay, Boss Ye will go back and rest first." ”

The person named by Deng was named Ye Tianming, not an officer of the Ming army, he was Liu Yao's auxiliary a year ago, and became a salt merchant in Sichuan after retiring. Now there are five salt shops in Chengdu, one of which belongs to Ye Tianming. He was entrusted by his peers to follow Deng Ming out of Sichuan. Along the way, Deng Ming not only taught him to recognize dozens of words, but also taught him some simple mathematics. Fortunately, Boss Ye doesn't need to calculate the cost by himself, not only Deng Ming volunteered to help, but he also had a bookkeeper. In fact, Boss Ye has gone bankrupt, and of course he does not have the ability to hire Mr. Ledger, and the money was made up by the five major salt stores in Chengdu.

As a representative of Sichuan's salt industry, today Ye Tianming was invited by Deng Ming to observe his negotiations with Zhou Peigong, and the next time he teaches Ye Tianming to learn the four arithmetic, Deng Ming will also explain some negotiation skills to him by the way.

After Ye Tianming left the tent, Mu Tan couldn't help but ask: "Why didn't the Admiral give Zhou Peigong a salt guide, but gave them an IOU, wouldn't this be equivalent to giving them a batch of salt for nothing?" ”

"It doesn't matter if you give some away for free, selling salt is a lucrative business." Ren Tang replied for Deng Ming: "Now that the salt industry is completely controlled by the Hui merchants, the big merchants are all dead set on the Běijīng court, and even if there is one loyal person who can help Zhoushan do a little salt industry, it will be enough to feed thousands of people." ”

Mu Tan is a native of Fujian, so he may not look down on the smuggling of salt, and there is no place in Fujian where there is a need for smuggled salt, but Zhang Huangyan's subordinates in Zhoushan have always been very concerned about salt smuggling, and they also have some access to low-level salt merchants. Although the status of the salt merchants that Zhang Huangyan could contact was relatively low, and the amount of private salt that he could help them carry was very limited, just such a little salt could allow the Zhejiang army to exchange for rations to feed hundreds of people.

Zhou Kaihuang nodded again and again when he heard this. In the past, Yuan Zongdi relied on salt smuggling when he was in Daning, and almost 1,000 Daning soldiers relied on salt to get their rations back. Zhou Kaihuang agreed with Ren Tang's windfall profits in the salt industry, but he, like Mu Tan, felt distressed about giving Zhou Peigong some IOUs for nothing. Deng Ming was also confused when he heard it in the end, and he didn't know which faction Zhou Kaihuang supported.

"This is the Admiral's attempt to win hearts and minds." Ren Tang said loudly: "Without the support of the gentry, how can the village know the benevolence of the admiral? If the gentry are deliberately enemies of our army, then the villagers and village women will hear all kinds of bad words about our army, which is no different from the evil ghosts that eat people. ”

Unlike Zhou Kaihuang, Ren Tang attaches great importance to the interests of the gentry, which is also the consistent policy of the Eastern Zhejiang Army. Ren Tang was quite dissatisfied with the various policies of breaking into the camp in Hubei, so after Deng Ming put forward the idea of compensating the Wuchang scholars, Ren Tang was a resolute supporter, and even built yì Deng Ming to compensate those gentry who stayed in his hometown.

Ren Tang's words went to Deng Ming's heart. Although he has only been in this world for less than two years, he has a deep feeling for the strength of the gentry class in this era, they have all the tools of public opinion, have a large number of intellectuals, and are the most well-informed people in this era, and they are the owners of most social resources. The last time Hu Quancai had not sent troops from Wuchang, Deng Ming had mastered the name, troops, route, and camp of the other party's vanguard from the gentry, and he did not want to anger the gentry class before Deng Ming cultivated his own intellectuals and established a new tool of public opinion.

However, a few days ago, when Ren Tang proposed to compensate the gentry under the rule of the Ming army, Deng Ming still refused without hesitation. For him, it was the internal affairs of the Allied Army, and when the Allied Army was hostile to the gentry under his rule, it was impossible for Deng Ming to stand on the opposite side of the Alliance to express goodwill. Maintaining external unity, at least superficially, was the key to maintaining the stability of the alliance in Deng Ming's view.

This is also the reason given by Deng Ming when he refused to mention Ren Tang, but there are more reasons for Deng Ming. First of all, there was the problem of expenditure, most of the squire landlords lacked the means to flee to Wuchang or did not have sons who studied in the provincial capital, and if Deng Ming had to bear half of their taxes, his profits from salt trading would be greatly reduced; Second, these people remained under the rule of the Ming army, and even if there were complaints, it was difficult to have an impact on the Qing court's control of the zhì area. In Deng Ming's view, the most important thing is Wuchang, the top gentry in Hubei, as long as they do their job well, then Li Laiheng and He Zhen will have little impact no matter what they do, at least it will not affect Deng Ming's reputation.

"Yes, that's exactly what I meant," after hearing Ren Tang's speech, Deng Ming immediately agreed: "I gave Zhou Peigong an IOU instead of grain and salt, if they want to get real money, they must let Huguang's official channels be opened to us." It is actually worth taking such a small amount of money to buy the scholars of Wuchang and Hanyang. ”

In the sale of salt, the Sichuan side must make concessions, because at present, the Sichuan side is more urgent than the Huguang side to buy and sell salt, and the Sichuan side cannot get the salt introduction of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, so the sales completely depend on Zhang Changgeng's Huguang bureaucratic system.

"There is a limit to the official salt transported to Huguang every year, and it is hard to say how big the difference is, but it is definitely not enough for the people to eat salt, and a large number of people are sick or even die because of this, so everyone will buy * official salt at a high price." Deng Ming continued.

At present, there is no major difference between the salt administration system adopted by the Qing court and that of the Ming court, not only the purchase of salt requires salt introduction, but also there are clear regulations on where the purchased salt should be sold. Since the Qin Dynasty, salt has been an important tool used by the government to exploit the people. Salt is a necessity of life, and if you don't eat it, you will have to worry about your life, but the government is not very interested in increasing the production of salt, on the contrary, only if the supply of salt is insufficient, the government can raise the price dozens or even hundreds of times. The stipulation of the place where salt was sold further strengthened the government's monopoly on salt, and the profits of the salt business were raised to an unprecedented level.

"We don't have salt to induce, we can't sell Sichuan salt in Huguang, and we can't sell Sichuan salt anywhere. General Yuan and Zhang Shangshu's previous method of letting local small salt merchants carry it in the official salt was neither stable nor able to sell in large quantities. But Zhang Changgeng is different, although he can't give us salt, all the government can sell the private salt they 'confiscated', and there is no limit to the quantity. ”

Because the profits of the salt industry are higher than those of drugs in the future, smuggling salt has been repeatedly banned since ancient times, and the smuggling of salt even has their own armed forces, and once they meet the anti-smuggling officers and soldiers, they will fight desperately. In order to encourage local governments, officers and soldiers to have the courage to inspect illegal salt, the seized private salt will generally be rewarded to the locality, and these private salt officials do not have to sell to merchants who own salt pipes, but can easily sell to local merchants. Now Deng Ming plans to take advantage of this opportunity, as long as the Sichuan salt transported into Wuchang is marked by the government and becomes "seized private salt", it can be sent to the entire territory of Huguang, and even flow out of Huguang into Henan, Jiangxi and other places.

Layers of government and local snakes, Deng Ming could not rely on the strength of the Ming army to buy them one by one, so it was necessary to keep the Huguang Governor Yamen led by Zhang Changgeng, and only Zhang Changgeng had the ability to help the Ming army open up the joints along the way.

Zhou Kaihuang was not dissatisfied with Deng Ming's arrangement, but seeing that Hanyang was at his fingertips, but he couldn't take it, it was still a little sad after all. After listening to Deng Ming's explanation of the importance of Zhang Changgeng Huguang to Sichuan, Zhou Kaihuang just sighed lightly: "It seems that we will not be able to take Wuchang until we have the ability to take the entire Huguang in one go." ”

Deng Ming basically thinks the same way. The strategy he formulated for the Sichuan Ming army was to make friends from afar and attack closely, and treat the Sichuan-Shaanxi Green Battalion, the Huguang Green Battalion, and the Liangjiang Green Battalion differently. For the farther Huguang Changgung, for the time being, it is mainly to win over, and he will not hesitate to make profits for this reason. But Li Guoying is right under the nose of Chengdu, so he must resolutely crack down.

However, Ren Tang had another opinion, and after hearing Zhou Kaihuang's words, Ren Tang immediately said: "In my opinion, we must wait for the unification of the Huguang government decree before we can consider taking Wuchang." ”

As soon as Zhou Kaihuang heard this, his neck immediately turned red, and he felt that these words were an attack on the camp.

"That's right, I'm talking about you breaking into the camp." Ren Tang noticed the change in Zhou Kaihuang's face, but still said unceremoniously.

In his opinion, the Yuandong army that plundered the gentry was a trouble, and if Li Laiheng and Liu Tichun did not change their identities from allies to subordinates, even if they captured Wuchang and held it, it would be just an enclave far from the Sichuan base area. That is, he has been with Zhou Kaihuang for a long time, and Ren Tang has also had a friendship with him, so he did not blatantly use the word "thief".

"What's wrong with our camp?" Zhou Kaihuang shouted angrily.

"Alright, alright." Deng Ming saw that the two of them were about to quarrel, so he hurriedly came forward to resolve it, so that Ren Tang and Zhou Kaihuang could calm down. Deng Ming pondered for a moment and said to Zhou Kaihuang and Ren Tang: "I expressed to the gentry of Wuchang that we are willing to bear half of their taxes, and it is also to better persuade the princes of Yudong to adopt the same policy as us in the future. ”

Zhou Kaihuang's eyes widened when he heard this, while Ren Tang smiled.

"If I directly give food and military funds to the Zhugong of Yudong, I don't understand what I want to do, I'm afraid the Zhugong won't take it boldly and with confidence, right?" Deng Ming said frankly.

Although they all fought under the banner of the Ming court, the Yudong Alliance was still wary of the imperial court, even if Deng Ming, who had fought side by side, if he wanted to exchange some grain for part of the ruling or military power in the hands of the generals of Yudong, he would definitely be unceremoniously rejected by the other party, and Zhou Kaihuang knew that even Yuan Zongdi would not be an exception.

"If I directly compensate the gentry of Jianghan, or help them fight for tax exemption, most of the princes of Yudong will be very dissatisfied, and they will wonder why I did this, why do I want to buy the hearts of the people under their rule?" Deng Ming bit the word "people's heart" very hard. Zhou Kaihuang was about to protest when he heard this, but Deng Ming waved his hand and did not let Zhou Kaihuang say his justification: "But it has nothing to do with them that I give these gentlemen in Wuchang some benefits, and they will not have any estrangement with me because of this." As long as the business of this salt goes well, our IOU will be accepted here in Wuchang. Since the IOU has the right of first refusal, they may even need more IOUs, and the generals will also feel that the IOUs are valuable and may ask us for some. At that time, I will ask the generals to adopt the same pace with us, and it will not be easy to arouse their disgust and suspicion. Brother Zhou, don't worry, it's not that I'm wary of them, it's that I'm afraid that they will misunderstand me. ”

Shut down

Seeing that Deng Ming was so open and honest, he really had no malice towards the Eastern Army, and Zhou Kaihuang had nothing to say.

But Ren Tang still had to ignore people: "There are no soldiers in the Eastern Army, so it is so troublesome, it is really hard for the commander to work hard." ”

On this issue, Mu Tan and Ren Tang have similar views, Zheng Chenggong and Zhang Huangyan together began with "Li thief advocating chaos" in the article on the Qing Dynasty, and their subordinates of course have the same position on this issue, Mu Tan sang and harmonized with Ren Tang: "Scholars are the pillars of the country." ”

Zhou Kaihuang's eyebrows were raised, and he was about to sneer at him, but before he could think about what to say, Deng Ming had already spoken for him: "Brother Ren, you repair a book for me, and Zhang Shangshu will return the military power and governance power to the imperial court, and ask the emperor to send someone to Zhoushan to govern the army and govern the government, how about it?" ”

Ren Tang was furious: "Zhang Shangshu has been working hard for more than ten years, and only then does he have such a little foundation, how can he let the imperial court in Myanmar send people to mess around?" ”

"The Duke of Yasukuni has also worked hard for more than ten years to open up a little situation in Yudong, you don't want the imperial court to go to Zhoushan to make trouble, should we let outsiders into Yudong to make trouble?" Zhou Kaihuang held back for a long time and didn't figure out how to refute it, but now he finally found a breakthrough.

That's what I mean, each family has its own difficulties. Now that the captives are powerful, we don't know if we can tide over the difficulties, so how can we not understand the difficulties of the alliance? Deng Ming interjected in time, glanced at Mu Tan again, and found that he was silent in a witty manner, and it also saved Deng Ming from taking out the king of Yanping County and saying: "Let's wait for the news of Wuchang with peace of mind, as long as this matter goes smoothly, it will be no problem for Sichuan Yan to feed an army of 10,000 people for us." ”

…… Zhou Peigong returned to Wuchang at night and discussed with Zhang Changgeng until late at night.

"Did Master Deng Minglao come here just to sell us salt?" Zhang Changgeng still has some doubts about this, but since it is Deng Ming's solemn request, it is obviously impossible not to agree.

"Yes, probably Deng Ming wants to exchange Sichuan salt for some grain and cloth. And the so-called field tax compensation is the cost he used to buy the gentry's secrecy," Zhou Peigong now has some understanding of the win-win meaning that Deng Ming said, and on the way back to Wuchang, Zhou Peigong was full of thoughts about how to persuade Zhang Changgeng to nod. Although the nominal field subsidy is only half, as long as Deng Ming's asking price is not too outrageous, it is easy for Zhou Peigong to get back all the taxes handed over to Li Laiheng by relying on salt. And with Zhou Peigong's understanding of Deng Ming, since the other party has the intention of bribing the Wuchang gentry, the exchange price of IOUs and salt will not be too outrageous.

"How much salt does Deng Ming want to sell, and how much does it cost?" Zhang Changgeng was worried that Deng Ming was forced to buy and sell, and used the sale of salt as an excuse to steal money from the treasury of the Wuchang Domain: "If the amount is too large, this account cannot be done." ”

"Xia Guan thinks that the people can come forward to take over Deng Ming's salt." After Zhou Peigong noticed Zhang Changgeng's concerns, he immediately threw out a solution: "Isn't Deng Ming going to give an IOU?" Well, a merchant house will come forward and exchange the grain for the taxed scholars, and then the merchant will exchange the salt in Deng Ming's hand, and the feudal treasury will not pay a penny for this. ”

After returning to Hanyang today, Zhou Peigong first briefed the hawkish clique in Wuhan about the conditions of the Ming army, and almost all of them firmly supported the continuation of negotiations with Deng Ming. However, everyone felt that it was too dangerous to go out alone to exchange salt with the Ming army, and everyone might be in trouble if the news leaked in the future. Therefore, the hawkish group negotiated this method, and a firm came forward to contact the Ming army, and the hawkish members only had to hide behind and take profits. As for how much Deng Ming wanted to exchange and how much he asked for, he asked him to negotiate with this trading house, and the salt he exchanged for was also sold by this trading house.

Zhou Peigong doesn't think that selling salt will pay off: "If the transaction loses, it's the firm's own business; If it is earned, the feudal treasury can also take taxes. As long as the Governor gave the salt a name. ”

Zhang Changgeng nodded: "Let's give it a try, let's see what Deng Ming wants to do first." ”

"Yes." Zhou Peigong breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. If Zhang Changgeng disagrees, then how many IOUs Deng Ming gave are waste paper, and now Zhou Peigong's loss can finally be recovered. But it's not enough to just think about getting back the loss, you must let Deng Ming also benefit, otherwise he will probably regret it again.

"Win-win, it's really good, otherwise this business won't be able to go on for a long time." Zhou Peigong pondered in his heart.

At this time, another person was called by Zhang Changgeng, who was the Admiral of the Ma Army in Wuchang, and he had always been in charge of investigating illicit salt.

After briefly introducing the two sentences, Zhang Changgeng withdrew from the matter and asked Zhou Peigong to arrange it.

Although Zhou Peigong didn't say it very clearly, Admiral Ma Jun immediately understood where the salt came from, and he patted his chest and said: "The prefect understands what he means, that is, there is a large group of thieves, who will frantically traffic illegal salt from western Hubei to Wuchang from next month, and will be seized by officers and soldiers every year in the future. The prefect can rest assured, all of them can be easily sold, and there is absolutely no need for the prefect to cāo heart. I thanked the prefect for my subordinates, and I thanked the prefect for drinking. ”

"Maybe more," Zhou Peigong said softly, "and this matter should be kept as secret as possible." ”

"More?" Admiral Ma Jun was stunned for a moment, and once again assured: "As for secrecy, the prefect can rest assured. In the past, every time Wuchang seized illegal salt, it was always the lowly old Taishan who shared the worries for the country, and the lowly went back to talk to him. ”

"The Governor's Yamen is here—" Zhou Peigong hurriedly reminded.

"Don't worry, Lord Prefect, will you be so ignorant of your humble position?"

When he returned home in the evening, Zhou Peigong told his wife about the danger of today's battle and the details of the subsequent negotiations.

"Admiral Deng is really unfathomable." After finishing speaking, Zhou Peigong sighed.

"Why did you say that, sir?"

"Hehe, isn't it all because of this table salt? If it weren't for Admiral Deng's request, I wouldn't have looked at the salt industry at all, I just knew that this thing was very profitable. But I know very well that Admiral Deng is far-sighted and unborn heroes, since he does not sell anything else but focuses on salt, how can he not have a deep meaning? ”

In front of his wife, Zhou Peigong put down all his disguises, and his face was full of reverence and fear when he mentioned Deng Ming: "I think about it carefully, every year the imperial court can earn one or two million taels of silver by selling salt. The local government still has some salt in its hands, which can be used for emergencies, although it is not included in the annual income, and I don't know how much, but millions of taels of silver can't run away. All of this adds up to the taxes of one or two wealthy provinces. ”

Speaking of this, Zhou Peigong paused for a moment and was stunned for a moment.

"What are you thinking?" After waiting for a while, Mrs. Zhou asked softly when she saw that her husband had not followed for a long time.

"Alas, I'm thinking, the world is full of fires, and the imperial court needs money everywhere, if you suddenly lose such a large amount of money, I don't know how the imperial court should open up sources and reduce expenditure." After speaking, Zhou Peigong shook his head vigorously, and continued the topic just now, he didn't dare to mention these words to anyone, so he could only say happily in front of his wife: "Since I entered the customs, the salt introduction has almost only been issued to Hui merchants, although it has just been more than ten years, but the salt merchants have become extremely rich, and the annual donations are also millions, and there are also a number of taxes paid by a province. Hui merchants have always been wholeheartedly supportive of the imperial court, the last time the sea invaded Jiangning, the Jiangnan Shi crowd supported them, and went out of the city for dozens of miles to meet Zheng Damu and Zhang Cangshui. On the contrary, Hui merchants competed to donate money without waiting for the call of the imperial court, and I once heard that a merchant donated 500,000 taels of silver to Caoyun Yamen at one time. They all knew very well that if the Ming army returned to the Yangtze River, they would definitely not be allowed to monopolize the benefits of the salt industry. ”

Mrs. Zhou had begun to understand the meaning of her husband's words, and Deng Ming's malice was faintly revealed, and Mrs. Zhou's voice began to tremble: "What the master means - Deng Ming's drunkard does not mean to drink!" ”

"At first, I didn't understand, how could Admiral Deng come to Wuchang simply to sell a little salt with such fanfare and mobilize the people?" Zhou Peigong sighed a few times, lowered his voice and said: "Huguang connects nine provinces, it is the center of the world, with the cooperation of the governor of Huguang Yamen, I guess Deng Ming will never sell less salt to Wuchang every year, I am afraid that there will be millions of catties?" I finally understand why he must show goodwill to the Governor, how can a mere Wuchang compare to the importance of the Huishang salt industry to the imperial court? ”

"Isn't this going to be said to the Governor?" Mrs. Zhou asked quietly.

"What if you say that? Do you persuade the Governor to judge himself in order to serve the court? Besides, all of my qiē was given by the Governor, and it has nothing to do with the Hui merchants. Zhou Peigong paused again when he said this, was stunned for a moment, and then said slowly: "I used to say that Admiral Deng is a woman's benevolence, but it is actually completely wrong. He passed Wuchang without entering, treated the Huguang gentry well, and did he do a win-win situation, the so-called benevolent invincible, probably this is what it means, right? ”

"Just now, the Governor seemed to ask me unintentionally, asking Deng Mingke if he had been married, and if he had a favored concubine?" A moment later, Zhou Peigong spat out another shocking news to his wife.

"What did the lord say to the Governor?"

Zhou Peigong did not answer his wife, but asked rhetorically: "Your little sister is fourteen years old this year, right?" I remember she hadn't been married yet. ”

"Nope."

"Do you have a foot wrap?"

Mrs. Zhou smiled and said, "How can it not be unjustified? ”

"It's a pity," Zhou Peigong sighed: "Admiral their family's rules!" ”