Deng Ming briefly introduced to Zhang Huangyan the strategy of occupying and dealing with himself: "Originally, we would not care about the life and death of the governor of the southeast, but since they compromised with us, we have gradually found that we cannot ignore their demands. ”

Jiang Guozhu was resolutely opposed to a war on the Jiangnan side, but if the Qing court changed its face and wanted to kill him, Jiang Guozhu would need the protection of the Ming army, and Deng Ming assured him that the Ming army would try to avoid fighting on his territory, and would also help Jiang Guozhu when he was cornered, at least allowing him to take refuge in Sichuan, as a reward for his subscription of the Ming war treasury.

"So your expression is not to cut off the luck?" Zhang Huangyan already fully understood what Deng Ming was going to do.

"Exactly, the rat bogey, only when the device is still intact, can others be taboo." This time, Deng Ming's instrument was Caoyun, and Deng Ming had used similar methods to force Qing court officials to pay for the city fee many times before, and he was extremely skilled in operating this kind of thing: "Jieshu doesn't dare to say it, young people are not sensible, but Ji Bilong and Li Guoying will definitely be able to detect my kindness." ”

"Goodwill ......" Zhang Huangyan glared at Deng Ming: "Tartar King Jieshu seems to be not a few years younger than Admiral Deng, right?" It can be seen that being young is not a reason to be ignorant. In addition, Zhang Huangyan also felt that Deng Ming's words were too literary, isn't it just a meat ticket, of course, you have to eat and drink it first, and you won't be able to get the ransom if you tear the ticket? Zhang Huangyan suddenly thought that the kidnappers had always been very trustworthy, and he glanced at the young man in front of him who was known for his promises and trustworthiness, as well as the word "empire" that he liked to hang on his lips the most, and a thought popped up in his heart: "It seems that Mr. Shunshui is also in vain." ”

After listening to Deng Ming's description of his strategy, Zhang Huangyan talked about the defection of a large number of Fujian officers and soldiers to Zhoushan, and Deng Ming shook his head again and again.

"It is inevitable that a husband will have a bad wife and a bad son." According to Zhang Huangyan, Zheng Zheng estimated that the defection of the Min army might continue, Zheng Jing originally began to purge because of his weak heart, and as a result, everyone was in danger and fled in large areas, which may cause Zheng Jing to be more weak-hearted, so that everyone looks like a traitor. Deng Ming felt that this possibility was very high, more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians in Jin and Xiamen, some of them may flee to Zhejiang by boat, but there will also be a large number of people who cannot flee Fujian because of lack of transportation, then they will inevitably surrender to the Manchus: "How does Zhang Shangshu plan to explain this matter to Zheng Jing?" ”

"Of course, it is to persuade him to settle things," Zhang Huangyan even wanted to suggest that Zheng Jing exile his suspected subordinates to Zhoushan, these Zheng Chenggong soldiers gathered from all over the world Zheng Jing didn't want Zhang Huangyan to want it, but thinking about it, he also knew that Zheng Jing couldn't agree to this condition, even if he killed everyone, he would never be cheap Zhoushan: "These people who have fled to Zhoushan, of course, are under the protection of their own officials, and they will definitely not return it to him." ”

"What if Zheng Jing sends troops to attack?" Deng Ming asked rhetorically.

"He's not going to be unwise about that, is he?" Zhang Huangyan felt that with the influx of a large number of Fujian troops into Zhoushan, Zheng Jing no longer had the strength to cross the sea to attack Zhoushan, and Zhang Huangyan was still an ally of Zheng Jing's father for many years. At the beginning, because of the problem of supporting King Lu, the relationship between Zhang Huangyan and Zheng Chenggong was very tense for a while, but even if the two sides accused each other, Zheng Jiansheng did not try to solve Zhang Juren, who was much weaker than him, by force, on the contrary, Zheng Jiansheng scolded Zhang Juren for not knowing the general situation, while giving him material help and military coordination.

"He can make the country surnamed Ye angry to death, and force the army that the country surname has worked so hard to build, what else can't be done? The little prince of the Zheng family is still young and not very sensible. Deng Ming felt that Zheng Jing might be in a state of panic now, looking at the people around him who felt like a thief, and felt that everyone wanted to be unfavorable to him, and at this time people were the easiest to do things that were not calm: "We must let the little prince of the Zheng family calm down and give him time to learn from his pain." ”

Although he was a little distressed, Deng Ming still made a decision: "The academy will grant me full military and diplomatic powers, well, Zhang Shangshu might as well repair a letter and go to Xiamen, just say that these defected ships are all bought by me, and those defected officers and soldiers are also rented or borrowed from Zheng Xiaowangye, and I will pay the silver." ”

Zhang Huangyan stared at Deng Ming for a while: "Does Admiral Deng know how much silver this will cost?" ”

"I just sold some bonds, I took advantage of some silver in my hand, and then I asked for the price to repay the money on the spot, and I talked about a few back and forth, and the fire of Zheng Xiaowang was gone, and then I found some problems such as old ships and broken sails, and I think I can still save a lot of silver." Deng Ming said that he would do it, let someone take a piece of letter paper, and wrote a letter to Zheng Jing with a pen: "I remember that the little prince of the Zheng family asked to inherit the surname of the country, the throne of the county king, and the rank of general and officer, right?" ”

Deng Ming called the other party the king of Yanping County and the general Zhu (Jing) in the letter, and politely said that the war in Zhejiang was tense, so he hoped to lease some warships and generals, officers and soldiers from him, and after filling in the names of Zheng Xi, Zheng Zan Xu, and Gan Hui, Deng Ming also left a long blank in the back, so that Zhang Huangyan could continue to fill in the lives of the later generals.

"Alright." Deng Ming handed the letter to Zhang Huangyan, hoping that the other party would sign it with him: "After the little prince of the Zheng family sees this letter, he will have the steps to step down, and he can still count on the compensation of the silver, and he probably won't be hot-headed to beat us." ”

"Even so, hundreds of thousands of taels of silver can't run away, and the lion in Xiamen may even open his mouth to ask us for millions of taels of silver." Zhang Huangyan said as he signed his name at the end of the letter.

"Hundreds of thousands of taels of silver buy tens of thousands of officers and soldiers, and hundreds, thousands of ships, is there a more suitable deal than this? Even if it is millions of taels, I will admit it, Zhang Shangshu can rest assured, no matter how much silver is needed, I will give Zhoushan the full amount of this money. Deng Ming took a large amount of compensation for Zheng Jing on himself, and said to Zhang Huangyan: "People cannot be resurrected after death, and the country cannot be resurrected. ”

"Only the benevolent can do big things and small things." Zhang Huangyan sighed lightly.

"We're in the same boat." Deng Ming said with a smile: "Zhang Shangshu has won the award." ”

"It's not like I'm complimenting you," Zhang Huangyan said here, slightly stunned, and asked Deng Ming: "Don't you know who said this?" ”

Deng Ming shook his head, and Zhang Huangyan smiled bitterly: "Yasheng." At the same time, another sentence came out in his heart: "Last time, Baoguo Gong didn't even understand 'Qingzhou Engagement', I knew that his teachers were all unlearned, but I really didn't expect it to come to this point." However, Baoguo Gong is generous, and he will not be able to step down for a long time if he changes others, but he doesn't care about it. ”

"Thanks for the pointers." Deng Ming really didn't take it to heart at all, he didn't think it was a great thing not to read "Mencius" from the bottom of his bones, and he didn't guess that Zhang Huangyan was secretly ashamed of his enlightenment teacher.

After determining his strategy and attitude toward Fujian, Zhang Huangyan once again turned the topic back to the issue of Caoyun.

Now Zhang Huangyan has given up the idea of persuasion in response to Deng Ming's endless strange ideas. When he first met Deng Ming in Nanjing, when he heard the other party sternly ask Lang Tingzuo "Is it worthy of the emperor and the court", Zhang Huangyan was so shocked that he couldn't speak; Later, when Deng Ming's face did not change and sold Lang Tingzuo and Jiang Guozhu for 500,000 taels of silver each, Zhang Huangyan felt that his cheeks were burning...... And then there were many, many more...... And now, when Deng Ming talked about threatening Cao Yun to demonstrate to the Qing court, and then expressing goodwill to the Qing court through measured actions, Zhang Huangyan no longer felt anything.

When listening to Deng Ming's introduction of ideas, Zhang Huangyan was able to accept it without any obstacles, and felt that the war should be fought like this -- when he opened a duty-free zone in Chongming and sent people to suppress Premier Deng's yamen to check the accounts, Zhang Huangyan also accepted it all at first, but after a while, he suddenly woke up and asked himself: "Can the war be fought like this?" Because of this contradiction in his heart, Zhang Huangyan also tried his best to persuade Zhu Zhiyu to go to Sichuan, and faintly hoped that Mr. Shunshui could bring Deng Ming to the right path - and now Zhang Huangyan may not even have this kind of reflection anymore.

"Let the party ...... The party general stared at the entrance of the Yangzhou Canal. After Zhang Huangyan learned about the specific candidates sent by Deng Ming to camp, he looked uneasy: "Can the party general control his subordinates and not rob the boats?" ”

After asking this question, Zhang Huangyan felt a little confused in his heart: "Before I met Admiral Deng, I would definitely be worried that the party would not be able to cut off the Cao Yun and intercept all the grain and silver ships of the Tartars, right?" What am I worried about now? Are you worried that the Tartars' grain ships and silver ships will not be safe all the way and will be robbed? ”

"No problem, it's the committee's decision." Deng Ming replied confidently, and he told Zhang Huangyan that after selling the public bonds along the way, in addition to the necessary military expenses, Deng Ming also purchased local products and used the golden waterway to sell them, and now he has made a lot of money. Needless to say, generals like Dang Shousu are auxiliary soldiers brought out by the Kuidong Army, and there is no problem in dividing a new set of clothes, and everyone will share this wealth when they return to Sichuan.

And if someone violates the committee's order, then they will be fined, so that Liu Tichun and Dang Shousu have already negotiated before crossing the river, and if anyone robs the boat, the fine will be doubled, and the stolen goods will also be confiscated, and the committee will not take him out to make a fortune next time - he will be suspended for one round.

"Sell the money from the sale of public bonds, and then divide the profits." After hearing Deng Ming say that his share was to be handed over to the imperial government, Zhang Huangyan casually asked, "How will the silver be returned in the future?" Is the imperial government in Sichuan still there? ”

"What else? Silver? Deng Ming asked a little confusedly: "Zhang Shangshu plans to return the silver to these governors who bought public bonds in a year?" ”

Zhang Huangyan opened his mouth, and after looking at Deng Ming for a moment, he suddenly burst into laughter: "Haha, this soldier is really old and confused, and he can ask such an obvious answer...... Well, I can figure out the loss of returning the money to Jiang Guozhu and them. Zhang Huangyan muttered to himself in a low voice, throwing this ridiculous idea out of the clouds: "Admiral Deng, this time I brought another person to invite Admiral Deng to meet." ”