The Yamen of the Governor of Nanjing Liangjiang, Zhou Peigong returned from Zhenjiang again, bringing back the terms of the final agreement with Deng Ming, Jiang Guozhu was satisfied after the pass, and the siege of Zhenjiang was lifted, which meant that the Ming army's massive invasion did not even take down a single city, and it also gave an account to the imperial court. As for Chongming Island, it was just a county seat, and Jiangnan let the Ming army return in vain under the circumstances of internal emptiness, Zhu Guozhi's misguided country, and Su Songshui's division no longer existed, and only occupied an island beyond the reach of Jiangnan's land division, which was enough to convince Jiang Guozhu's ability.

"The errand was done properly, and the official will write to the court to ask for credit to Brother Zhou." For Zhou Peigong, a great hero, Jiang Guozhu did not hesitate to praise, if there was no Zhou Bu's political envoy, Jiang Guozhu felt that he might not be able to negotiate such good conditions, not only did not pay military indemnity, but also half of the sea trade income, which greatly exceeded Jiang Guozhu's expectations, and also made him feel that the rent given to Zhang Changgeng was indeed worth the money.

After Zhou Peigong's persuasion, Jiang Guozhu also agreed in principle, he believed that as the former said, Deng Ming's greedy Cheng Dù was almost unprecedented, and he could even give up the recovered land for the sake of silver, and taking Chongming was more like securing a base for import and export goods.

"It's not for nothing that I came to Deng Ming to reuse Mu Tan, those who are good on the top will be very bad on the bottom, no, it should be the same smell." Since Deng Ming is greedy for money, it will be easy to do, Jiang Guozhu feels that he has grasped Deng Ming's weakness, give him the boatman, as long as Deng Ming can make money, then he will not come to fight Liangjiang for the time being, and Li Guoying will be troubled first. When he thought of this, Jiang Guozhu glanced at Zhou Peigong again, and felt that this guy's old boss Zhang Changgeng was much more unfavorable than himself, as long as he maintained the same level of Tongdeng , Deng Laohu would eat Huguang's gang first if he was hungry and wanted to eat people.

Then Jiang Guozhu and Zhou Peigong began to discuss how to distribute half of the sea trade profits obtained from Deng Ming, and now Jiang Guozhu has no idea how big the profits are, he has never been in business, but it is estimated that there should be a lot, and the profits of more than 100,000 yuan a year should be able to be counted on, and there are 70,000 or 80,000 yuan in half. The system of returning the fire to the public to make officials make a windfall has not yet begun, and the amount of money that the governor of Jiangning can get from the hands of his subordinate prefects in a year is only tens of thousands of taels, and after removing the expenses of the shogunate's masters, the rewards of his subordinates, and the tribute paid to the bigwigs of the court, Jiang Guozhu can probably save one or twenty thousand silver a year, and if he suddenly has such an income of silver, Jiang Guozhu's life will be much better, and the gifts to high-ranking officials in Beijing can also be doubled, which will also be very beneficial for him to compete for the post of governor of Liangjiang.

"There can be about 100,000 a year, the governor yamen will take 30 percent, and give 30,000 taels to the yamen of the governor of Liangjiang every year, and the rest will be decided by Brother Zhou." Jiang Guozhu deliberately overestimated some income, such a windfall Jiang Guozhu planned to kill forty percent of it himself, and leave it to Zhou Peigong and other subordinates who participated in it, based on the expectation of 70,000 or 80,000 taels of silver a year, Jiang Guozhu's plan was that he would take 30,000 yuan in drought and flood, and Zhou Peigong would be responsible for the distribution.

Zhou Peigong disagreed with this distribution plan, not because he thought that Jiang Guozhu had taken too much, but because he felt that it was too little. Wuchang's stolen goods group is estimated to make a profit of one million taels a year, and the Huguang Governor Yamen will take one-fifth of it without doing anything. Zhou Peigong also has no concept of the profits of sea trade, and also knows that Wuchang is now making a lot of profits because of Deng Ming's extortion in the downstream, thinking that if he does business seriously in the future, Zhou Peigong thinks that there will probably not be so much, but he estimates that the annual income can be about 300,000, and half of it is about 150,000.

Since Jiang Guozhu has indicated that the price in his heart is 30%, Zhou Peigong is afraid that Jiang Guozhu will be resentful when he finds out that it is less, and whoever takes less of this money can do it, but he must not let Jiang Guozhu take less: "Let's count it according to 30%, if it does not reach 150,000 taels, the governor yamen will also take 50,000 taels." ”

"Does Zhou Peigong think this money can exceed 150,000? That forty percent should be 60,000, right, did I say less? Jiang Guozhu sighed in his heart, but since the words had been exported, he couldn't take them back immediately, so he nodded in agreement, and at the same time pondered in his heart: "Zhou Peigong may be too optimistic, can he get so much silver for selling some goods?" This is a tax of hundreds of thousands of acres of land, but regardless of him, he will do it for a year first, if he can really have 150,000 yuan, I will not be too late. ”

Then there were some discussions about the distribution of the remaining part, although Jiang Guozhu said that Zhou Peigong had the final say, but Zhou Peigong categorically did not dare to take this seriously, he honestly came up with an idea to ask the governor of Jiangning to take a look, and everyone in the prefectures and counties, officers and soldiers along the way must have a share. In addition to the official people, there are also gentry who buy and sell goods. lest someone look at others for getting rich, and harm others and not for themselves, to find out the inside information, and then reveal the truth. Due to the experience of Wuchang, Zhou Peigong's plan was formulated in an orderly manner, and the expenses required in each link were well understood, and those necessary expenses were neither missed nor wasted.

Although Jiang Guozhu knows that there are many places that need to be touched, but the specific operation is a black eye, when Zhou Peigong spoke, he could only keep nodding, the more he listened to Zhou Peigong's explanation, the more respect Jiang Guozhu had in his heart: "No wonder Zhang Changgeng is so heavy on him, borrowing it will cost 400,000 taels of silver, this is the way to the door, and the passage is not leaky, if the topic of the imperial examination is how to pass Deng, this name is none other than Zhou Peigong." ”

While the two were discussing, a sweaty standard battalion soldier hurriedly came, holding a document: "Lord Governor, the Beijing division is in a hurry for eight hundred miles." ”

Jiang Guozhu leisurely went to the paperwork from the hands of the soldiers in the standard camp, and laughed with Zhou Peigong when he tore open the seal of the letter, but when he picked up the letter, his face changed suddenly.

"Not good!" The always calm governor of Jiangning screamed out in a gaffe, and threw the letter to the stunned Zhou Bu political envoy.

"If the emperor is in person, once he arrives in Jiangning, how can these things be hidden?" Jiang Guozhu quickly thought about countermeasures, now he is in a high position in Jiangnan, even if there are insiders in the standard camp and staff, he will definitely not betray himself and report to Beijing, even if he wants to inform, there may not be a suitable channel. As for Lin Qilong and Zhang Chao, they are all the same, everyone is a grasshopper on the same line, and they have no real evidence.

Even if there are really people who are mad and want to betray their benefactor, and find a communication channel to send part of the situation to the Beijing Division, and even have the opportunity to send it to the officials of the court, and even let Sony believe them, these officials may not report to the emperor. The rise of a large prison in Jiangnan against the governor level for the sake of an unexplained source would have unimaginable consequences, and the important ministers of the court and the central government would not be so reckless, but would first verify it, and those who Jiang Guozhu bribed in Beijing would warn him to be prepared and able to cover up. Beijing and Nanjing are thousands of miles away, and there will be no staff or petty officers who think that they can overthrow the governor and governor by their own strength, not to mention that even if they betray their benefactors, these former henchmen will not gain much.

But once Shunzhi is personally recruited, things will be completely different, and it is difficult to guarantee that there is no standard battalion officer or staff member who is hot-headed and wants to soar overnight and go directly to the emperor to report to the emperor. The witness is in front of him, as long as the rhetoric is more alarmist, such as Jiang Guozhu's rebellion is imminent, the minister of the guard may directly bring the informer to Shunzhi's eyes, and when the emperor is angry, he will immediately investigate thoroughly, and Jiang Guozhu will suddenly have no time to react because of the incident.

Thinking and thinking, Jiang Guozhu was already covered with cold sweat on his forehead, and he realized that not only his staff and henchmen might have problems, but Lin Qilong and Liang Huafeng were the same, once Shunzhi arrived in Yangzhou and Nanjing, then they would be in danger, and they would be unguardable.

At this time, Zhou Peigong had also finished his letter, his face was pale, and his arms were trembling constantly, he also thought of these crises, and what if Shunzhi arrived in Nanjing and wanted to see the Hunan army under his command? Where did Zhou Peigong go to gather 30,000 elites to come out, he didn't have 3,000 soldiers, if he used someone else's disguise, how would someone end up shouting and screaming during the emperor's military parade?

"This agreement can't be done," Jiang Guozhu immediately made a decision and said to Zhou Peigong: "First trick Deng Ming into withdrawing troops to Chongming, and then immediately stop all contacts with Deng Ming." ”

After Zhou Peigong left, Jiang Guozhu once again began to think about the problem of abandoning the official and absconding.

After thinking for a while, Jiang Guozhu gritted his teeth and summoned the commander of the Liangjiang Governor's Standard Battalion, and as soon as he saw the officer Jiang Guozhu, he asked: "If this official wants to raid the Zhenjiang Ming Army, how many soldiers and horses can he make up at once, and how is the combat strength of the Standard Battalion now?" ”

The standard battalion of the governor of Liangjiang also suffered a lot of losses in the last battle of Nanjing, and Jiang Guozhu carried out a purge under the pretext of Lang Tingzuo's rebellion, and relocated many Jiangning governors and standard officers, which was definitely the most reliable force in the hands of Jiang Guozhu. In the past year, Jiang Guozhu has tried his best to ensure the money and food of the standard battalion, despite the lack of financial resources in Jiangnan, and now has 800 well-equipped cavalry, which is not a big shortage compared to the standard of 1,000 cavalry of the standard battalion of the governor.

However, Jiang Guozhu was very disappointed by the answer of the commander of the standard battalion, although the armor and weapons of the standard battalion kept up, and the money and food provided also ensured that the standard battalion could maintain the standard training intensity of the ten-day exercise, but the vast majority of the cavalry had joined the army for less than a year, and now it can be said that they can ride horses, have not fought on the battlefield, and their riding skills are not up to par.

In fact, Jiang Guozhu is not unaware of this situation, if the standard battalion and the Jiangnan green battalion really have combat effectiveness, he would not be so afraid of Deng Ming, but he was just lucky just now.

"Why did the governor raid Zhenjiang?" It was a matter of life and fortune, and the officers of the standard battalion did not dare to make any bold remarks recklessly, but said to Jiang Guozhu very seriously: "Although there are only about 10,000 soldiers under Deng Ming's command, they have been fighting in the east and west for a year, and last year they were in Jiangxi and Huguang and even broke more than ten counties, which is enough to be called elite soldiers; Later, he fought with the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi in Chongqing, and this year he fought in Jiujiang and Anqing...... The last general felt that non-Manchurian soldiers could not overcome it, and with the current situation of the Jiangnan Green Battalion, even 100,000 people were by no means his field enemies, not to mention that we did not have so many soldiers at all. ”