Before Deng Ming left Xuzhou, he arranged for Li Xinghan to stay in Chengdu and be responsible for training troops; At the same time, let Ren Tang go to Fengjie to report the news, and let him decide how to report the difficulty of the curse to Wen Anzhi. Ren Tang was helpless on the road, and muttered behind his back why he had to be responsible for reporting this bad news, it had been two and a half years, and what Fengjie had received from Deng Ming's subordinates had always been good news.

Mu Tan also walked with Ren Tang. Zhou Peigong seemed to want to talk to Deng Ming about something, and had already sent a secret envoy to Fengjie, but Deng Ming was too weak to meet Zhou Peigong's secret envoy in person, so he asked Mu Tan to do it for him. In Deng Ming's words, Mu Tan is good at negotiating and has a good relationship with Liangjiang officials.

"When it came to Fengjie, the two of us talked to the overseer about the curse of water." When taking the boat, Ren Tang said to Mu Tan hopefully.

"No, the Admiral said you were in charge of this." When he was in front of people, Mu Tan and Ren Tang had begun to call him by Deng Ming's title and military rank, but when they talked in private, they also habitually used the old name, not only Ren Tang and Mu Tan, but also the same talents in Sichuan.

Mu Tan shook his head like a rattle: "I'm clumsy and can't speak." ”

"Who said that?" Ren Tang retorted angrily: "The Admiral has said that you are good at negotiation. ”

"Alas," Speaking of this task, Mu Tan also complained: "What is good at negotiation, it is obviously notorious, and now even the capital has people who believe the rumors to be true, but I can't say that the gifts I received were taken away by the admiral." ”

"Didn't you have some left?"

"What a notoriety I've carried, what's that little allowance...... Besides, I'm all for the Admiral, otherwise who would want to ruin their reputation for that little money? ”

Deng Ming's request for a salary increase was vetoed, and Deng Ming said that he understood their difficulties, so he gave them the right to recruit staff, and the recruited staff and the staff government would pay salaries.

At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang was eager to let the officials do everything alone, how could he be willing to pay them more salaries? Later, the imperial court also realized that the actual work was beyond the personal ability of the officials, and a magistrate was responsible for judicial, teaching, taxation and other work, and several masters were needed to assist him. However, the government considered these aides to be the personal assistants of the officials, and there was no reason for the court to bear their expenses - no matter whether it was corruption, collection of official money, or any other gray income, the officials themselves would pay for it, and the court would not pay for the officials to support them.

And the result is that these people have indeed become the personal assistants of the officials, and just as the soldiers are tied to the general's chain of allegiance, the master is also tied to their owners. Perhaps the intimate Cheng is not as strong as the generals and personal soldiers, but when the interests of the owner and the imperial court conflict, these people will not hesitate to stand on the side of the owner, even if it is incumbent on the owner to plan to surrender to the enemy.

Therefore, Deng Ming decided to change this relationship, Ren Tang and Mu Tan are still easy to handle, as long as a staff organization is established; But the demands of these two men reminded him that Deng Ming had formulated a general policy before leaving, that is, including the prefect, if they needed staff, they could draw up a list of needs, and then sign short-term employment contracts of two or three years like volunteers, and the salaries of the staff members would be included in the government's expenses - Deng Ming called these people temporary workers.

In Deng Ming's view, there are many advantages to hiring such temporary workers, they belong to the government, and with the salary given by the government, the relationship between superiors and subordinates will be looser. For example, the magistrate will certainly pat himself on the prefect, but he will definitely not be as desperate as the staff. However, Deng Ming also knows that it is difficult to say what effect this change can play in the old master and staff relationship.

The biggest question is how many staff to hire. In the past, they were all hired by the officials themselves, and they certainly did not raise a group of idlers who only ate and did not work; Now that the government is paying for it, if it is not good, someone will take this position as a favor and install relatives and friends -- especially the two prefects of Chengdu and Xuzhou, who have the right to decide who to hire and how many people to hire, and also have the right to allocate funds...... Therefore, Deng Ming only set a general policy and no specific measures for the time being, and he planned to slowly figure out how to check and balance on the road.

After arriving in Fengjie, Ren Tang and Mu Tan found that there were far more big people here than they had imagined. Liu Tichun of Yiling, Dang Shousu of Badong, and even Wang Guangxing of Shizhou, who was quite estranged from Deng Ming before, also came. Since Liu Tichun came to Fengjie, Li Laiheng naturally couldn't move, but he also sent a deputy general to come with Liu Tichun; And according to Liu Tichun, Hao Shaoqi is also on his way. Hao Shaoqi and He Zhen reached an agreement that He Zhen would be in charge of commanding the Ming army in the Hanshui Valley, and he would take time off to attend the committee's meeting.

The difficulty of cursing the water made Wen Anzhi feel very bad, and Fengjie, who was originally jubilant because of the victory in Chongqing, fell silent. However, the reaction of the generals was not so strong, they looked very sad in front of Wen Anzhi, but after Wen Anzhi left the committee, everyone's topic immediately turned to the issues they were more concerned about.

Liu Tichun seriously reconfirmed: "Governor Zuo will definitely not come, right?" ”

"Yes." Ren Tang replied, he was engrossed in waiting for Liu Tichun to explain to him why so many important people gathered in Fengjie, and he saw that Zhou Kaihuang also had a stern face.

"Hmm." Liu Tichun's face showed obvious disappointment.

"This matter has something to do with the suppression of Premier Deng."

Liu Tichun's words made Ren Tang flurry again, of course he knew that it was Zhou Peigong who suppressed Premier Deng, but was it necessary to use honorific titles for the enemy at the meeting of the Ming army?

"This is the secret envoy of Zhou Bu's political envoy," Liu Tichun introduced a middle-aged man dressed as a wealthy businessman to Ren Tang and Mu Tan, "He came with us." ”

Zhou Peigong's envoy saluted the people in western Sichuan, and then began to introduce the situation in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. According to the secret envoy, after the Ming army left, the economic situation of the two rivers deteriorated sharply, and both Jiang Guozhu and Zhang Chao were helpless.

Tax arrears are the norm of the Ming Dynasty, before the Chongzhen Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty often reduced the arrears, even after the implementation of the examination method, generally received seventy percent of the tax is regarded as qualified. However, the examination method is a powerful weapon, and when the Chongzhen Dynasty linked the clearing of arrears with passing the examination, officials desperately collected taxes for their own future, leading to the destruction of a large number of peasant families. After the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, it continued to clear up the arrears. However, the Manchus were mainly aimed at the more affluent Jiangnan rather than the already dilapidated north; Moreover, the Qing court's constant attention to reducing the number of plagued areas, combined with the Manchu threat of force and the reputation of the fierce with butcher's knives, allowed the Qing court to receive large taxes without causing a large-scale uprising.

In the later period of the Shunzhi Dynasty, in order to maintain Hong Chengchou's 5,000-mile defense line, the Qing court's examination of Liangjiang and Huguang has always been qualified with ten points, that is, no matter how much loss there is in the middle, no matter what method is used, the government must get full taxes. This kind of severe examination has greatly increased the burden on the people of the southeast, and the common people have toiled hard all year round without the slightest surplus. As for the tenants at the bottom, it is even more miserable, and the average land rent has reached 60% of the output.

In the sixteenth year of Shunzhi, the price of fields in Nanjing, which had been as high as tens of taels per mu in Wanli years, was only ten taels, and that in Suzhou it was less than ten taels. The peasants were overwhelmed by the heavy taxes, and the burden of the yeoman peasants gradually became on par with that of the soldiers, and the tenants were basically no different from the soldiers - no one wanted to spend money to play the role of the soldiers, and when it was unprofitable to buy land, the price of land continued to fall.

Zheng Chenggong and Deng Ming attacked Jiangnan twice, and the expenditure on the Fujian and Sichuan fronts was still huge, which made it necessary for the Manchu government to stick to the previous tax policy. Now the small landowners in Liangjiang have also begun to go bankrupt, and they have to borrow money in order to pay their taxes, and then sell the land to pay it back, which leads to the price of land continuing to fall.

After it was difficult to feed themselves from farming, the peasants' purchasing power became lower and lower, and they were more and more reluctant to buy cloth, and they were reluctant to buy the products of merchants to make clothes for the Chinese New Year, but completely relied on the textiles of their wives and daughters, which made the cash crop areas of Liangjiang also begin to shrink. In short, in order to continue the war, the Manchus pressed the people of the southeastern provinces with all their might, and the financial resources of the southeast were exhausted.

"After this autumn's harvest, a lot of people are selling their fields, and very few are willing to buy them. The paddy fields around Jiangning can now be bought for five taels of silver, and if you buy more, three or four taels is not impossible. Zhou Peigong's secret envoy said.

The price of land has been so low that it is impossible for landlords and tenants to buy farm tools or increase livestock, and it is conceivable that next year's output will continue to decline. Many more have to borrow from usury to pay their taxes, and then have to sell their land to pay off their debts - and not many are willing to take it over. Even Liangjiang officials, who have no knowledge of economic principles, know that this means that the collapse of the economy is getting closer and closer.

In the past, Jiang Guozhu and Zhang Chao would not have hesitated in the slightest, that is, they would continue to collect taxes according to the orders of the imperial court, and if there was a popular uprising, they would send troops to suppress them - anyway, they were just exiled officials, and the people's livelihood could not be compared with the authority of the imperial court at all. But now Jiang Guozhu and Zhang Chao have different thoughts, and they, like Wu Sangui, can't turn a blind eye to the withering of people's livelihood, and can't blindly go on with the tyranny.

It's just that Beijing's tax task still has to be completed, and this year they are not a war zone, and there is no excuse for tax reduction.

"What are the plans of the envoy Zhou Bu? Do you want us to attack the two rivers? Mu Tan asked immediately after listening.

"Yes, I originally hoped that Admiral Deng could go around Jiangnan and at least fight for next year's tax exemption for a few prefectures. But this time we really can't provide enough food. ”

"If you don't give us food, then why should we go? Do we want to bring our own food? Ren Tang suddenly turned angry. Although Sichuan West has long had a plan to attack Jiangnan, if he doesn't shout angrily twice at this time, how can he let the other party know his difficulties?

And Mu Tan didn't complain immediately, he secretly glanced at Liu Tichun, and felt that there was probably something famous on Zhou Peigong's side.