"When the first king was dying, he wanted to ask the imperial court to stop inheriting the king of Yanping County, and use the younger brother of Wang to recruit the general, and still use the young prince to guard Jin and Xia." Zheng Chenggong's younger brother is Zheng Xi, Zheng Chenggong's idea is to leave Taiwan to his younger brother instead of his son, and let Taiwan's civil and military officials assist Zheng Zheng well: "The former king explained to the generals in detail that his move was not a gamble or a rash move, but a deliberate decision. The first king said that even if the young prince was barren and accepted dozens of concubines, he would not be so disappointed: because the young prince could get any kind of woman he wanted, but he couldn't control his own desire to accept his mother as a concubine. Such a little thing can't be self-controlled, in the future to conquer the world, I don't know how many temptations will pass in front of me, and the young prince will definitely see Xiaoli and forget about himself. The hundreds of thousands of soldiers of the Fujian army must not be entrusted to this person; The first king also said that the young prince is responsible for the country, and the safety of the whole clan is in danger, so he can't control himself, and he dares to do it, and he does not hesitate to drag the whole clan and the whole army into danger for his own life. Greedy for life and afraid of death, how can he be expected to take the lead and swear to defend the territory to the death? Jin and Xiamen will definitely not be able to keep it. And if Taiwan, Jin, and Xiamen can be separated, the first king feels that he can still leave a way out for the young prince and the Fujian soldiers, and keep some vitality, so as not to be harmed by the young prince. ”

Zheng Chenggong also explained to the generals that Zheng Jing was generous and had no ambition to fight for power and profit, and in the future, Zheng Jing would flee to Taiwan, and Zheng Zheng would definitely not embarrass him, nor would he purge the soldiers of Jin and Xia.

"The first king also wants to be a commander and promise them that they will do their best to defend Taiwan and not let the young prince get their hands on it." The messenger ended his narration.

"Then what does Admiral Gandhi want? What can I do for the agent to recruit the general? Deng Ming asked again. After hearing Zheng Chenggong's last words, Deng Ming couldn't help but have a trace of fantasy, that is, to save more descendants of generals for Zheng Chenggong, maybe these people can realize Zheng Chenggong's last wish.

"Your young prince has already gone to attack Taiwan!" Zhou Kaihuang shouted: "The envoy from Xiamen just now said that your young prince was mourning for the country's surname in Siming, and then he used his Jin and Xiamen soldiers to attack Taiwan. ”

"That's true." The envoy from Taiwan sighed and pleaded to Deng Ming: "Governor Gan and others, please take refuge in Zhoushan." ”

"Really?" Deng Ming sighed lightly and nodded: "How many of them are there?" ”

"It's probably just some family members. Although the first king had a will, how could they meet the young prince with the young prince? The acting general also said that if the young prince really attacked Taiwan, he had no intention of resisting; The acting general and Gan Tidu discussed with them, and announced the last order of the former king, if the young prince saw that the current situation of the great enemy would not kill each other, he would govern Taiwan well, and leave a way out for the young prince and the soldiers of Jin and Xia; If the young prince must fight, then the agent recruits the general and does not plan to let the Min army kill each other for this position, and they plan to go to Zhang Shangshu to serve. However, the soldiers and horses of Gan Tidu were all given by the first king, and they did not plan to take them away, unless they voluntarily followed, they would only take their families to Zhoushan. ”

"Got it." Deng Ming asked the envoy how he planned to deal with himself. The envoy said that since Zheng Jing really sent troops to Taiwan, he had no intention of continuing to serve the young prince, and hoped to go to Zhoushan to join Gan Hui and Yu Xin.

"Zheng Jun is infighting, although Zheng Zheng retreats, but I don't know what it will turn into." After Taiwan's envoy left, Deng Ming and his companions discussed what kind of changes this would bring to the situation in the country.

"We must send troops to Jiangnan immediately," Zhao Tianba said without thinking: "Huguang is enough, the reason why Liangjiang is honest is not only because they can't beat us, but also because they know that the Qing court has no spare strength to help them, or clean them up, now that the pressure of the Qing army in Fujian has dropped sharply, Liangjiang may think that the situation has changed again, and may even try to compare with us again, at least they don't have to worry about the landing of the Fujian army." ”

"Zhejiang will also be stupid." Ren Tang added.

"I need to remind King Jin to be careful," Zhou Kaihuang glanced at Zhao Tianba and pointed this out for him: "The pressure on Liangguang has been greatly reduced, maybe there will be an army to support Wu Sangui, at least it can support Wu Sangui with some military salaries." ”

"Shandong's Yu Qi is hopeless. Zhang Shangshu must do his best to protect himself, Chongming and Zhoushan must strictly prevent the Qing army from sneaking attacks, I don't know if Zhang Shangshu still has the strength to pick up the remnants of Yu Qi. Li Xinghan also added.

"Let's go to the council." Mu Tan made his closing remarks.

……

"Parliamentarians of the Empire, this is where we are at the moment. Liangjiang and Huguang must have known about this for a long time, and the officials there will be lucky and will test our reaction and strength. If they mistakenly think that we have become weak, if they mistakenly think that they can do nothing without the help of the king of Yanping, the empire will lose a great deal of trade revenue, shipping will be threatened, merchant ships will be detained, salt sales will be reduced by at least half, Shu embroidery will be neglected, and we will not be supplied with porcelain...... The deterrent power of the empire consists in three points, first of all, great power, then the determination to use this power to fight the enemy, and finally to make the enemy clearly aware of our strength and determination. If we don't let Liangjiang know clearly that we are still a formidable enemy that they can't challenge, and if we don't let them know that we will not hesitate to use this power to fight provocateurs, the situation in Liangjiang will get out of control, and even Huguang will be separated from Germany. ”

Deng Ming ended his speech and looked around the venue: "I propose to mobilize immediately and increase the special tax, hoping that you can do your best to discuss the results and make sure that the special tax can not only meet the needs, but also not overwhelm the talents." ”

After walking out of the venue with the military personnel, Deng Ming said to his companions around him: "Do you know why I'm not worried about Zheng Jing coming out here?" ”

"I know," Ren Tang replied quickly, "No one here in the capital wants to pull out the army." I don't think we can even command a single soldier without the approval of the council, and not everyone can sell jade and pay military salaries out of their own pockets like the Admiral. ”

When a continuous cannon fire sounded in the direction of the prefect's yamen, the fellow talents on Chūn Xi Road all stopped their work and looked in the direction of the prefect's yamen.

"Mobilized again?"

The sound of artillery continued to come, and a large number of pavilion soldiers on horseback ran out from the direction of the yamen and rushed to the pavilions in Chengdu, and they shouted to the people on the road who looked confused: "Eighty-three against seventeen, urgently mobilize, send troops!" Sixty-one against thirty-nine, special tax! Ninety-five against five, war debt! ”

After several pavilion men shouted and ran from the door, the owner of the mule and horse shop strode out of the door, and the cannon fire just now was to summon the councilors of Chengdu Prefecture to participate in the discussion of the number of people to be mobilized in the province, and how much special taxes should be levied on various classes, including of course the distribution of dividends after the war.

"Didn't you say there won't be a war in the near future?" The owner of the mule and horse shop hurried to it, and he didn't want to be absent, only to find himself and his colleagues bearing an unfair burden: "If the prince has no good reason, I will have no money." ”

……

Five days later, Yu Youming, the chairman of the Sichuan Industrial Bank, rushed to Chóngqìng in a hurry to meet Gao Mingzhan, the governor of Sichuan appointed by the Qing court.

"Governor Gao, this is 20 million taels of silver for the Sichuan War Bond, please accept it and pay the silver." Yu Youming said straight to the point. At the same time as the mobilization order was issued, it was also decided to issue war bonds. Although there is interest to pay, when the people of Sichuan find that their survival is threatened, this interest is nothing. Sichuan urgently needs a military budget to meet the various expenses of the army along the way, and if it can sell more war bonds, then the special tax can also be collected less, which is beneficial to all walks of life. At present, the Tongxiu talents in western Sichuan are not rich, and they have also enthusiastically purchased a construction bond just now, so it would be better if other regions could share some of it.

Moreover, the bonds also have the function of insurance, and if Chóngqìng dared to provoke trouble after paying for the war bonds, then the empire would not hesitate to refuse to repay.

"This ...... Where does this start? Gao Mingzhan said in surprise. Not long ago, it was this Yu Youming, who came to Chóngqìng with a smile and persuaded the Qing Sichuan Governor Yamen and the Chóngqìng garrison to support the Ming army's construction of the wasteland in Jiangyou.

Although the other party smiled kindly, Gao Mingzhan and they were not willing to refuse categorically, after all, Yu Youming said that this was the time to test the friendship between Chóngqìng and Chengdu, so Gao Mingzhan and they finally reluctantly pooled money to buy a construction bond of two thousand taels of silver.

But today, Yu Youming didn't have a trace of a smile on his face, he just said coldly: "Two hundred and fifty thousand taels of silver, please Governor Gao pay me immediately." ”

"We don't have that much silver." Wang Mingde hurriedly helped to cry poor on the side.

"No, you have, we'll do the math for you, you must have the money. And we also know that you have just brought in three months' salaries, which is 200,000 taels. We estimate that you should now have between 35 and 400,000 taels of silver, which is why we ask you to pay 250,000 taels. ”

"Guogong promised that our two families would buy and sell equally, and how could the military salary be misappropriated?" Sun Sike, who had just returned to Chóngqìng, was so anxious that he was sweating down. Knowing that this would happen, he should have transported his share of the silver directly from Xi'an back to běijīng in the morning, instead of putting it in chóngqìng like a miser to appreciate.

"Now you can't manage so much, if you don't pay for it, our army will attack. To be honest, we don't want to waste time in Chóngqìng and interrupt our jewelry business, but we're worried that you're going to attack us. ”

"Absolutely not, conscience of heaven and earth, we don't even have knives, there are more carved knives than sabers in the barracks." Hu Wenke and the others all shouted to hit the sky: "Boss Yu must explain it to us." ”

"If you don't want to fight us, why don't you buy bonds?" Yu Youming carefully introduced the war: "As long as you are honest in a year, we will pay back the money and give you dividends." Don't you rush to buy such a good thing? Why not buy it? Give me a reason not to buy it! Dig up the money! ”

When Yu Youming was sitting in the tent drinking tea, Gao Mingzhan and his gang were worried about discussing countermeasures. It is unrealistic to leave chóngqìng and flee back to Boryeong, and it is impossible to save your life if you can keep the money. And as Hu Wenke just said, now the Qing army has more processing tools than weapons, how can this battle be fought? Not only can I not save my life, but I also have to have the surname Deng.

"Admiral Deng, he doesn't keep his word."

"Okay, don't cry your nose, the old man is not ashamed." Gao Mingzhan scolded: "The hero doesn't eat the loss in front of him, let's take out the silver first." In the future, remember not only to buy diamond diamonds, but also to keep two steel knives. ”

"How about exchanging half of their salaries for war bonds?" Wang Mingde asked.

"It's a good idea." Gao Mingzhan nodded: "Go back and gather the soldiers, and whoever doesn't agree will let him take the diamond diamond and fight with Admiral Deng." Those who agree will be issued war bonds to pay their salaries. Tell everyone, as long as we are honest, Admiral Deng will return this silver, and he will give us red. ”

"Well......" Some generals are still hesitating.

Seeing this, Gao Mingzhan scolded again: "What are you worried about? Are you worried that they will mutiny with diamonds? ”

After being awakened by Gao Mingzhan's words, everyone poured out of the tent and gathered their troops to go.

"If Governor Zhang doesn't know what to do, you will soon be able to get dividends." After getting the silver, Yu Youming didn't delay much, and told Gao Mingzhan that he would go downstream immediately. Many of his colleagues had already gone to Wuchang to sell war bonds: "When this matter is over, Guogong said that he would toast you and suppress the shock." In fact, the Duke of the Kingdom is a little short of money, so he borrowed some from Governor Gao, and you borrowed it righteously, and the Guild will remember your benefits. You can also sue your subordinates, and the Guogong guarantees that after this matter is over, there will be more cargo ships on the Yangtze River, and your sons and daughters will be able to buy cheaper and better things. ”