Despite being during the war, a large number of luxury goods from western Sichuan flowed into the north. Needless to say, ivory has always been a treasure, and now jadeite has replaced the status of the original jade - in addition to the high hardness of jadeite and the beauty of color, the main reason is that jadeite has a stable supply. The booming jewelry business convinced Běijīng that there was indeed gold everywhere in Sichuan, and that the construction of Chengdu would definitely make up for the imperial court's financial expenditures.

Over the past few years, Deng Ming has moved millions of people to Sichuan, and it is said that western Sichuan has become densely populated again, allowing the Qing army's army to requisition food and manpower along the way. The Vice-Chancellor did not have an exact figure of the population of Xichuan, but they estimated that there should now be three million strong men and about the same number of strong women in Xichuan, and this estimate was based on the recital of the governor of the south.

At the beginning, when Deng Ming went to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, in order to shirk their responsibilities, the governors desperately told Deng Ming's harvest to a lesser extent, trying their best to convince the imperial court that Deng Ming had lost money at their doorstep. At the same time, however, the governors tried their best to exaggerate what Deng Ming had received from them, in order to further shirk their own responsibilities, saying that the huge bandits were caused by their neighbors; Later, when the emperor died at Gaoyou Lake, and admitting a small setback to the officers and soldiers did not seem to be a big crime, the southeastern governor began to report that Deng Ming had plundered some of the population from them, and at the same time continued to spread rumors and exaggerate the losses of his neighbors to prove that his own plundered population was really insignificant.

At that time, the Auxiliary Minister often added some to the losses reported by the provinces and corrected them. Now that the shape has changed again, the magistrates seem to have a tendency to exaggerate their losses. Because they found that they could justifiably embezzle taxes by overreporting losses, they were often swept away by Sichuan thieves plundering a certain place and sweeping away hundreds of thousands of strong men in a certain prefecture or county with a single robbery -- now the Qing court's demands were already very low, and if this kind of piece of music was sent five years ago, it would definitely kill the head, but now as long as the county seat is not lost, the imperial court will encourage it -- so whenever the auxiliary minister sees this kind of report, he no longer increases the number of people who have lost money, but tries to squeeze out the water in it as much as possible, and "strictly prohibits" Deng Ming was so rampant in plundering the population, they should have paid the Ding Levy to the imperial court.

Sony has not made a clear opinion today. He also knew very well that as long as Deng Ming's arrogance could not be suppressed, the reverence of the local government for běijīngzhōngyāng would continue to decline, and similar yang worship and yīn violations would become more and more unscrupulous. If it had been left five years ago, who would have dared to propose to let the Min army help with Cao Yun. But now the governors of the southeast have this courage, and there are still applauds in the north, that is, the once staunch suppression faction Zu Zepu; And it is indeed not good for the imperial court to take drastic measures against these wall grasses when Deng Ming's threat is so great.

After listening to Aobai's words, Sony just said "hmm".

"Our army is still many times stronger than Deng Ming, we can concentrate the forces of the five provinces, and the financial resources of the seven provinces, even if we can't completely defeat Deng Ming, we can force him to agree to negotiate peace with the imperial court." This suspicion of the future of the Qing court also spread to the top of the Qing court, and Sukh Saha, who advocated an attack, even thought that as long as Deng Ming could be forced to agree to peace or show good faith in negotiations: "As long as Deng Ming and we negotiate peace, we can restore our authority and make the people in the southeast dare not play tricks on the court anymore." ”

"Even if Deng Ming negotiates peace with us, we can't deal with the governors and governors of the provinces immediately." Ao Bai hurriedly corrected: "At least wait until the emperor grows up and becomes pro-government, Deng Ming also puts his sword in the warehouse, and the horse is released in Nanshan." If he hurriedly forced the southeast to reverse, Deng Ming might tear up the contract......"

"Okay, that's still a no-brainer." Sonny interrupted. That is still something that needs to be considered for a long time, and now Deng Ming and the Qing court have not yet made peace. After the last time Nalan Mingzhu communicated with Deng Ming twice, the Qing court found that the gap between Deng Ming and his own conditions was too big, especially Deng Ming's request that the governors of Huguang, Liangjiang, Shandong, Zhejiang, Fujian, Liangguang and Caoyun all need to send protons to Sichuan, this condition made Běijīng realize that Chengdu believed that the Ming and Qing dynasties had reached a strategic balance of power, so Deng Ming demanded dual rule over the Yangtze River and the south, rather than completely belonging to the Qing court.

However, the Qing court did not think that the situation had reached such a bad point, and that the dual rule would certainly not be able to pass through the internal level of the Eight Banners. Although most of the Manchus acknowledged that the war could not be resolved anytime soon, and were unwilling to continue to let the Manchurians die in battle, they still held most of China's territory and could not accept a return to equal status with the Ming army overnight.

"Well, I also agree to attack Sichuan." Sonny finally nodded, since he couldn't come up with a better way to deal with the current crisis, and it was impossible to accept Deng Ming's negotiation conditions, he had to take another military adventure: "But I think there is a question we have to say in advance, that is, whether Chengdu should be taken." ”

News came from Tianjin that the silver was being shipped ashore one after another, and so far, the agreement between the two sides has been implemented very smoothly. Although the governors of Jiangnan all said that Mu Tan was taking the lead, whether it was the empress dowager or the auxiliary minister, they were convinced that Deng Ming acquiesced to the matter. From this point of view, Deng Ming also intended to stop the war with the Qing court. I heard that Chengdu has not annexed the nearby Kuidong and Jianchang until now, let alone the powerful Kunming Li Dingguo Group or the distant Zhang Huangyan Group. The auxiliary ministers treated others with their own hearts, and felt that Deng Ming's power was limited after all, and perhaps he also needed to quickly negotiate peace and truce with the Qing court, and concentrate on leveling the many mountains within the Ming army - if the internal unity could not be achieved, then what was the point of fighting the world, who dared to say that he did not make a wedding dress for others?

Ao Bai and Sukh Hasa glanced at each other, this time the Qing court was led by the prince, took out a lot of funds, mobilized a large number of troops to attack Sichuan, they felt that even if they could not annihilate Deng Ming's main force, there was no problem in taking Chengdu. Of course, taking Chengdu does not mean that the problem is completely solved, Sony believes that only by taking Chengdu and completely annihilating Deng Ming's main force can it be done once and for all, and it is only possible.

"If Deng Ming uses his advantage as a sailor to flow to the Hanshui Valley, or simply abandon the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and go downstream, and then start a big flow in Shandong and Zhejiang, he will still be turned upside down." Ao Bai pondered for a moment and felt that Sony's concern was very reasonable, and the Qing court would be so demoralized in order to pursue Deng Ming that it would have to rely more and more on the local Han Chinese armament - as can be seen from the rise of Zhou Peigong in recent years. The Qing court had not moved the idea of changing the governor of the southeast for several years, and Zhang Changgeng and their strength were all in the midst of a rapid expansion - if Deng Ming was stirred up for another ten years, the Qing court might be able to completely destroy him, but the court would also exhaust all its strength, including prestige, control, Manchurian lives, and the reserves of the treasury; At that time, many places may have already been turned into feudal towns, and the governors have become vassal kings with power in hand like Wu Sangui. If this is the case, then what is the intention of the Qing court and Deng Ming to fight to the death? Is it to make a wedding dress for Wu Sangui or someone else? Yes, Deng Ming killed the emperor, but he can't take the entire Qing Dynasty to the first emperor for burial, the empress dowager, the emperor and all the Manchurian compatriots will not agree.

"If Deng Mingken negotiates peace with the imperial court, Ken promises that he will never go east along the Yangtze River again, and we can not rob him of Chengdu." Sukh Saha also said approvingly. Sony's meaning was to try to use Chengdu as a hostage and sign an alliance with Deng Ming that would be beneficial to the Manchus: "If Deng Ming loses Chengdu, his prestige will also be greatly damaged, and he may no longer be able to subdue Li Dingguo and Li Laiheng." ”

"Not bad." Sonny was pleased to see that the other two auxiliary ministers had agreed with him on this issue: "Even if Deng Ming is stubborn, as long as he can repent after we take Chengdu, we will still make peace with him." So far, Deng Ming is the only one who has seriously considered peace. As long as he still has a part of the army, as long as he is willing to negotiate peace, we can still return Chengdu to him. If Deng Ming publicly announced his usurpation and sent troops to attack Li Dingguo, we could also let Wu Sangui support him. ”

Wu Sangui has also become a piece of běijīng's heart disease recently. In the past few months, Wu Sangui has continued to send secret letters to běijīng, saying that Zhang Changgeng seems to be suspected of betraying the imperial court.

At first, Běijīng didn't take this matter too seriously, because they knew that Wu Sangui and Zhang Changgeng had always had a stiff relationship because of the issue of compensation. The salary Wu Sangui got from Zhang Changgeng was probably less than 10% of the total amount he demanded. Because Wu Sangui constantly threatened Zhang Changgeng with force, Zhang Changgeng was completely to prevent King Pingxi from blatantly launching a civil war in the Qing army, so he barely provided him with a little.

However, Wu Sangui's recent secret report said that he had a nose and eyes, and said that he pretended to be anyway and tested Yongli's exiled court. It turned out that the Southern Ming court said that it did not agree with him to attack Hunan to redeem himself, and there was no other explanation except for the collusion between Deng Ming, Li Dingguo and Zhang Changgeng. Wu Sangui's temptation of the Ming court was presided over by Xia Guoxiang, who wrote a detailed report of all the experiences and sent them to Běijīng. Also sent was a reply from the Ming court to Wu Sangui - Wu Sangui said that he had long suspected that Zhang Changgeng did not pay him enough military salary, because of collusion with the Ming court, so Wu Sangui asked the court to allow him to sneak attack Huguang and kill Zhang Changgeng as a thief for the court.

The text sent by Wu Sangui was extremely credible, and the analysis of various doubts was also very organized, so that after reading it, the auxiliary ministers were immediately very skeptical of Zhang Changgeng's intentions.