At the same time as pleading guilty to the imperial court, Zhao Guozuo also sent people to Shandong to urgently recruit Zhou Peigong, who was the political envoy of Zhejiang, to return to Hangzhou to discuss matters.

After the matter was satisfactorily resolved, although Governor Zhao did not cross the river and demolish the bridge, he also felt that Zhou Peigong was of little use, so he did not keep him in Hangzhou for a long time, nor did he further win over and buy Zhou Bu's political envoy. Now that his eyebrows are burning, Zhao Guozuo remembered Deng Ming's expert again, and what happened in Shandong is similar to the problem encountered by Governor Zhao now.

After the official document was issued, Zhao Guozuo was also very uneasy, for fear that Zhou Pei's guild would not come to Hangzhou to serve because of resentment; But Zhou Peigong's belly far exceeded Zhao Guozuo's imagination, and he replied to Hangzhou through Jinan's post station system at the first moment, saying that he had succeeded in recruiting an in Jiaodong, and he would immediately rush back to Hangzhou to solve problems for the governor of Zhejiang.

On May 25, after learning that Zhou Peigong galloped into the gate of Hangzhou with a few entourages, the nervous Zhao Guozuo and Song Kui both landed on a big stone in their hearts. Like Nanjing that year, Governor Zhao ordered the middle door of the Governor's Mansion to be opened, and hundreds of officials in Zhejiang collectively went out to welcome Zhou Dabu's political envoy, who had just been promoted by Shandong Governor Zu Zepu as Shandong's political envoy, and now he has the title of political envoy of six provinces, and he definitely has the status of fighting against Zhao Guozuo.

Despite this, Zhou Peigong still greeted the governor in the courtesy of the lower officials, and was also very polite in the face of the Hangzhou general Songkui, and the civil and military forces of Hangzhou secretly praised him, believing that Zhou Peigong was modest and virtuous, and was an outstanding figure among the young generation of my Qing Dynasty.

During the period of waiting for Zhou Peigong's return, Hangzhou and Beijing had two official exchanges, and at first the auxiliary minister Ao Bai was obviously furious, threatening to let Zhao Guozuo and Song Kui go to northern Xinjiang to gnaw old corn together, insisting on thoroughly investigating the Ming history case to the end, and never compromising with the terrorist group headed by Zhuang Yuncheng and Zhu Youming who attacked the official mission. However, after Zhao Guozuo further reported on the sinister situation in Zhejiang, the attitude of the auxiliary minister also softened somewhat, and the second reply sent back the day before yesterday hinted that Zhao Guozuo could first adopt the strategy of delaying the army, stabilize the Zhuang Yuncheng group, and settle accounts after the autumn when the situation changed -- just like Shandong's treatment of the Jiaodong gentry.

"The Auxiliary Minister agreed that we should equip the Green Battalion with some firearms, but only the Tiger Squat Cannon and the Three-Eyed Gun, and we are not allowed to provide the Green Battalion with bird guns." After showing Zhou Peigong Aobai's second instruction, the governor of Zhejiang said helplessly: "But the three-eyed gun is also a firearm, which is better than nothing." ”

As for the Governor Biaoying, which also belonged to the Green Battalion, Ao Bai did not resolutely prohibit the use of bird guns, and in Deng Ming's previous life, before and after the Rebellion of the Three Feudatories, the Qing court's ban on firearms in the Green Battalion was gradually relaxed. However, in this world, in the eyes of Sony and Aobai, these feudal officials are much less reliable, and the Han armed forces like the Green Camp are still a great threat to the Qing court, so Beijing has more concerns.

"The crux of the matter is not in Beijing, but in Chengdu." After carefully reading the various reports on the Zhejiang incident, Zhou Peigong pointed out sharply: "Whether or not Zhuang Yuncheng and them can accept Zhao'an, the key lies in whether the officers and soldiers can ensure that their weapons and equipment do not lag behind and the party is too chaotic, and Zhuang Yuncheng and them must realize that if they do not accept Zhao'an, they will need to pay a great price, so as to force them to give up the siege of the county town and be willing to sit down and negotiate with the government." And if the officers and soldiers can confront the rebels, there are only two ways, one is to ask Baoguo Gong to stop selling rifles to the rebels. ”

Now Beijing may still think that the rebels are using bird guns, but Hangzhou has sensed that they have a more powerful weapon, the name of which is clearly known, called the "flintlock rifle", and a caretaker can kill the fierce generals of the imperial court after two to three months of training.

Zhou Peigong's words made Zhao Guozuo and Song Kui nod again and again, they really deserve to be experts on the Deng Ming issue, they have only been in the city for an hour, and the countermeasures coincide with the conclusions reached in Hangzhou after a month of research. However, the random governor of Zhejiang and the general of Hangzhou began to shake their heads, it would be simple if things were so easy, the consul sent by Deng Ming had a very tough attitude, and said that he would not agree to stop the arms sales to Zhuang Yuncheng's group.

"I'm afraid this path won't work, but what about the other one?" Zhao Guozuo asked, after hearing Zhou Peigong's words, he realized that in addition to this unlikely plan A, there was also a backup plan B - Zhou Bu's political envoy's intelligence was simply arrogant in the world.

"That is, we also buy rifles from Baoguo Gong to equip the green battalion, and now the imperial court has agreed to us to produce tiger squat cannons, as long as the officers and soldiers are also equipped with rifles and tiger squat cannons, Zhuang Yuncheng's advantage will be gone, and he will have to sit down and discuss the conditions of Zhao'an with us." Zhou Peigong said confidently, seeing that Zhao Guozuo and Song Kui were embarrassed, Zhou Peigong made his words clear: "If you can't recruit Anzhuang Yuncheng, or can't use a reasonable clause to recruit Anzhuang Yuncheng and his gang, the governor and the general will have to be punished by the imperial court and exiled to Ningguta." Then the imperial court will change people to Zhejiang, but can the new people solve the problem? Can you do better than the Governor and the General? Obviously still no! In the end, their solution must also be to buy rifles from Baoguo Gong, and then recruit Zhuang Yuncheng, and sooner or later the imperial court will agree. For the Imperial Court, this was not different in the slightest, but it delayed the resolution of the problem, and led to the wronging of the Governor and the Shogun. ”

Of course, Zhao Guozuo and Song Kui would not think that others would perform better than themselves in the face of this problem, Zhou Peigong said very reasonably, if the later people also used this method to solve the trouble in the end, then they were exiled to Ningguta It is indeed too wronged - rather than being unlucky to let the descendants betray the country, it is better to sell it yourself, and sell it as soon as possible to save more vitality for the country.

This reason can be a good way to relieve Song Kui as the Taijun of Manchu and Zhao Guozuo as the godson of the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty, but the imperial court still can't get around, if they ignore the ban on worshiping and wantonly arm the green camp with firearms, even if they succeed in recruiting the Zhuang Yuncheng group, it is estimated that they will have to face the anger of the imperial court.

Seeing that the two of them were already moved but couldn't make up their minds, Zhou Peigong asked all the irrelevant staff members to go out, and even the guards rushed to the door, and then lowered his voice and said to the two: "Lord Governor, Lord General!" If there is a little misunderstanding between Zhejiang and the imperial court, do you think it is possible for Baoguo Gong to remain neutral? Similar to this neutrality of Baoguo Gong in our conflict with Zhuang Yuncheng? ”

……

Beijing

Ao Bai has been in a very bad mood recently, the matter of Jiaodong was pinched by the imperial court and confessed, and now Zhejiang is making trouble again, the black hand behind the scenes is undoubtedly the unscrupulous Deng Ming, he blatantly destroyed the unspoken rules of fighting for the world, in order to prevent the Qing Dynasty from getting the world, he actually armed the landlord Hao Qiang regardless of the consequences. And Zhao Guozuo and Songkui seem to be unable to hold on anymore and want to arm the green battalion with firearms, do they still have basic thinking skills? If the Green Battalion becomes so strong, how can the deterrent power of the Manchurian soldiers be maintained?

When the kingdom is about to perish, there will be demons.

In addition to the demons in Jiaodong and Huzhou, there is actually a situation in Liaodong, and a few days ago, Liaodong came to report that some Westerners attacked Ningyuan - who knows what the ghosts are thinking about in their heads? Since the Qing soldiers entered the customs, almost all the Manchus in Liaodong moved to the Huahua world in the pass, and the bitter cold land in Liaodong was abandoned, and Ningyuan, the former important town of the Ming Dynasty, is now just a post station connecting Beijing and Shengjing, with only dozens of clothed slaves, what is there to loot in that ghost place?

The strange incident in Ningyuan did not cause any major turmoil in Beijing, a post station was robbed, and when the Qing court, which had only received the news for a long time afterwards, sent people to dredge the post road, which ghosts had already retreated, and the losses did not seem to be large—and it could not be very large, there were only a few stagecoaches in it. Anyway, the communication with Shengjing was not very important, and now that it has been restored in time, Beijing no longer cares about this matter. The most important thing now is the chaos in Zhejiang, as long as it has nothing to do with Zhejiang, the auxiliary ministers will not bother to pay attention to it, that is, the empress dowager is concerned about Manchuria and asks a few more words, and after getting the assurances from the three auxiliary ministers that this matter is irrelevant, she will also put her mind at ease - after Guiyi, who has been to Ningyuan once, sees that the place is so poor, he probably will not go to the second trip.

Ao Bai discussed with Sonny and Sukh Saha, and thought that if necessary, he could also slow down the restrictions on Green Shadow's weapons a little, and it would not necessarily be impossible to take back their firearms after he suppressed Zhuang Yuncheng's powerful power.

……

Huzhou, the banker's compound.

After February, Amnes reappeared, and Zhuang Yuncheng introduced him to gentry leaders from all over Zhejiang, along with two high-nosed Englishmen, who were wanted by the Batavian Parliament and had a superior clipper. The British shipowner and his first mate were chased by the Dutch and had nowhere to hide in the South Seas, so they came to Zhoushan to repair the ship and replenish supplies. As a result, when Chongming was collecting information about Dutch porcelain merchants, he was recruited by An Lesi and hired to go to Liaodong at the cost of two thousand taels of silver.

This trip to Liaodong was a new starting point for the development of his career, marking his growth from an arms smuggler to a multinational arms tycoon.

"This is an eighteen-pound Hongyi cannon," An Lesi introduced his latest product to the gentlemen present, and the two British gentlemen distributed the performance evaluation report of the product to the audience when Anlesi spoke, and Boss An assured that for every one of the ten cannons sold, they still had dividends: "It is rumored that the rivers and lakes can erode dozens of miles with one shot." Five thousand taels of one door, want to buy as soon as possible. ”