Deng Ming did not make a specific proposal for Zhang Changgeng, because the other party was a high-ranking official of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and he was definitely better able to understand the psychology of the Qing court than himself, and he just used a story to help Zhang Changgeng and Zhou Peigong open up their ideas. After telling this story, Deng Ming said a general idea, Zhang Changgeng can report to the Qing court that the destruction of Wuchang City is imminent, and the Qing court will definitely not agree to give up Wuchang, so that as long as the city can be defended in the future, the Qing court probably will not care about how much money is spent.

Zhang Changgeng had a similar idea, he immediately sent someone to send 800 li to Běijīng urgently, once again claiming that Wuchang was in danger, and Deng Ming led the whole army of Kui Dongming to attack Wuchang. Originally, Deng Ming had more than 200,000 people, but because Hu Quancai continued to lose troops and generals, and the Ming army coerced the people, now there are 700,000 or 800,000 rogues under Deng Ming's command. Zhang Changgeng asked the Qing court for urgent reinforcements, and it was best to send 100,000 troops at a time, because Wuchang's soldiers and horses had been completely lost by Hu Quancai, and Zhang Changgeng asked the Qing court to transfer the king of Pingxi in the southwest to return to the division, and if Wu Sangui really couldn't move, then Zhang Changgeng hoped that the Qing court would send Zhao Liangdong and Daniel Zhang, two famous green battalion generals, to Huguang to reinforce him.

When Zhang Changgeng wrote this letter, he didn't expect the court to agree.

After returning from Zhongxiang's defeat, Zhang Changgeng immediately asked Běijīng for help with an urgent mail, but at this time, Běijīng could still take care of Wuchang, and the urgent letters from Nanjing were sent like snowflakes every rì, saying that Zheng Jun had begun to trace the river, and the Zhenjiang fiasco led to the panic of the entire southeast, and a large number of state capitals had not listened to Nanjing's dispatch.

Even if Wuchang is lost, the Ming army will only open the way to Jiangxi, and only after capturing Nanchang can it threaten the southeast financial land, and now Zheng Chenggong's troops are pointing directly at Nanjing, and the priorities are clear at a glance. After seeing Zhang Changgeng's letter asking for help, Běijīng replied to him with an urgent letter on the same day, temporarily granting Zhang Changgeng the right to act as the governor of Huguang Yamen, asking him to fulfill his duties and contribute to the imperial court, and allowing him to organize troops to defend Wuchang by any possible means. But Zhang Changgeng asked for reinforcements at all, when Deng Ming had just invaded Xiangyang and other places, the Henan Green Battalion also received a guard order, ready to go south to support Hu Quancai at any time, but after Shunzhi began to work on the personal conquest, Běijīng immediately ordered the Henan Green Battalion not to go south without authorization, but to be ready to go to Shandong with him.

Even the Qing court asked Zhang Changgeng to send some of the Dongting Lake and Jingmen sailors to Nanjing as appropriate, because Běijīng felt that Wuchang only needed to hold on to the city, and the sailors should still go to the vicinity of Nanjing, not only to assist the defenders of Nanjing, but also to help Shunzhi's pro-conquest army cross the Yangtze River in the future.

After sending away the letter of request for help to the imperial court, Zhang Changgeng waved his pen and promoted the leaders of many bandits and water bandit gangs in the upper reaches of the Han River, Jiangling, and Yiling to guerrillas and generals, and added officials to these people without the consent of others.

This order was issued in duplicate, one was sent to the Qing court for filing, and the other was immediately sent to Deng Ming's camp, but he didn't think to send one copy to the guerrillas and generals of the Qing army.

"Some of these names seem to have been heard of by me, and some of them are simply unheard of." Li Laiheng took the list of Manchu generals sent by Zhou Peigong, and desperately recalled one or two, as if he had dealt with his subordinates when they went to the Qing court to control smuggling in the zhì area: "They are all bandits and water bandits who block the road and rob x, most of them have dozens of subordinates, and there are more than ten of them, which is not worth mentioning." ”

"Please also ask the tiger marshal to send a large army to exterminate them all." Zhou Peigong said to Li Laiheng: "These bandits are the one who is in trouble, and Hu Shuai is also eliminating harm for the people." ”

These bandits are all opponents of local arrest and government service, Zhang Changgeng has been rummaging through the reports of local yamen for many years in the past few days, and finally found such a group of old thieves. Among them, the most powerful group of water thieves probably has nearly 100 subordinates, with more than a dozen fishing boats, robbing in Dongting Lake, although their scope of activity is under the nose of the Qing army's Dongting Lake water division, but the Qing army will never consider sending troops to exterminate it. When the strongest water thief resisted arrest by force last year, he also wounded three Yuezhou thieves, one of whom died of serious injuries. Seeing that the strength of this water thief was so strong, Zhang Changgeng also looked at their leader differently, and gave him the title of deputy general of Yuezhou, and reported to the Qing court that this person was a local hero, with more than 5,000 henchmen, and recruiting this person to let him attack behind the Ming army would definitely force Deng Ming's main force to return to the division.

After hearing about the strength of the other party, Li Laiheng said disapprerovitically: "Ben will send two warships, and a hundred or so people can wipe him out, so why do you need a large army?" ”

"Tiger Shuai can't be careless......" Zhou Peigong also knew that not to mention sending a hundred soldiers, even sending twenty heavily armed soldiers, could beat these water thieves all over the ground to find teeth, but if this water thief escaped, wouldn't Zhang Changgeng really want to recognize this deputy general in the future? Moreover, if Li Laiheng does not send a large army, how can he prove the strong military strength of the lieutenant general?

"The governor has ordered that the lieutenant general be given 100,000 taels of silver, 30,000 stones of grain and grass, and 5,000 pieces of cloth, and that they must make a disturbance behind your army...... This is the bronze seal that the governor has just carved for the lieutenant general. Zhou Peigong handed over a seal to Deng Ming, and informed the contact information and code of the silver ship and the grain ship: "The admiral sent someone to disguise himself as this lieutenant general, take the silver taels, and use this seal to sign the actual receipt, so that the governor can also settle the account." ”

"How much silver does the Governor of Grain and Cloth intend to convert?" Deng Ming took the bronze medal.

"Just 30,000 taels, and the ship will be given to the admiral." Zhou Peigong immediately quoted.

"Deal." Deng Ming didn't make a counteroffer, and agreed to come down.

"And the lieutenant?" Zhou Peigong pointed to the seal and confirmed again.

"Just ask General Li to send a capable general," Deng Ming said to Li Laiheng in front of Zhou Peigong, "You can't let him run." ”

"He doesn't know he's the deputy general of Yuezhou, right?" Li Laiheng asked.

"Of course not." Zhou Peigong patted his chest and promised.

"Then he can't run, so I'll send my water battalion guerrillas to Yuezhou." Li Laiheng confidently assured Deng Ming and Zhou Peigong: "Take 20 boats and 1,000 soldiers, and take off the head of this thief within three days, and none of the party members will be able to escape." ”

"Don't worry, fight slowly, if Hu Shuai's men lose one or two battles, then the governor can also give a reward." Zhou Peigong emphasized again: "Even if it is a reward, it cannot be robbed, and it must be signed with this seal." ”

"There are also Zhongxiang and Xiangyang, and the governor has also appointed a group of generals, and the commander needs to go to war with them." Zhang Changgeng was still working overtime to engrave the seal at this time, and after the engraving, he is now the governor's yamen to keep the bottom, and then he can send it to Deng Mingjun.

"No problem." Deng Ming thought that Liu Tichun and He Zhen had already gone back, but of course this matter could not be said to Zhou Peigong, to exterminate more than a dozen bandits and bandits, Li Laiheng could just send a general to do it: "Give me their names, and I will let He Shuai and them exterminate them." ”

……

Zhang Changgeng found that the situation in the southeast was becoming more and more critical, and according to the newspaper in Nanjing, Zhang Huangyan's vanguard had crossed Nanjing and marched towards the lower reaches of Jiangxi. Due to the sudden weakening of the wind after the Battle of Zhenjiang, the Zheng army could not sail upstream, and could only rely on Ding Zhuang to tow the sea boats, which fortunately greatly slowed down the Zheng army's advance towards Nanjing, but the Nanjing side believed that Zheng Chenggong's troops arrived in the city within a few days.

Now that the fighting was raging around Wuchang, Zhang Changgeng continued to report to Běijīng every two fiefs, and at the same time informed the imperial court of his strategy of bribing local tyrants and bandits to fight the Ming army at any cost. Zhang Changgeng said that he would try his best to buy time, but at the same time, he judged that it was difficult for these local tyrants to compete with the hundreds of thousands of troops of the Ming army for a long time, and they could only play a role in buying time.

Now that the Yangtze River and Hanshui are fighting fiercely, Zhang Changgeng noticed that Liu Tichun, Yuan Zongdi, He Zhen and others had not arrived for a long time, and Li Laiheng had also transferred some troops, and all kinds of signs showed that Deng Ming still abided by the agreement, which made Zhang Changgeng breathe a sigh of relief. Regardless of whether the cloth or grain was sent, Deng Ming returned the gold to Zhang Changgeng according to one-tenth, and the other party's promise and trustworthiness made Zhang Changgeng have a good impression of Deng Ming. And what made Zhang Changgeng even more satisfied was that after Deng Ming received his letter, he issued an open letter to the officials of Huguang, in which he admitted that he led his troops to attack the Qing army camp and killed Hu Quancai in the big tent. The open letter also claimed that 2 million taels of silver had been seized in Hu Quancai's camp, which facilitated Zhang Changgeng's creation of false accounts, and that in the future, Zhang Changgeng could say that part of the vanished feudal silver had been privately appropriated by Hu Quancai.

As the implication grew, more and more people needed to be bribed by the governor of Hunan - although people from outside could ask Deng Ming to help extinguish the mouth, he could not let the Ming army enter the city to the yamen of the governor of Huguang to commit murder. At the beginning, Zhang Changgeng willingly gave Deng Ming his own money, but after only cooperating twice, the mentality of the Hunan governor changed, and he planned to let Zhou Peigong negotiate with Deng Ming again, and let the other party let Yicheng come out again, and Zhang Changgeng was responsible for the hush money as an insider.

The pressure from outside the city gradually decreased, and Zhang Changgeng was determined to exert some pressure on the wealthy families in Wuchang and Hanyang. In the past, he was afraid that these people would have an affair with the Ming army outside the city and dedicate the city to Deng Ming, so Zhang Changgeng's policy towards them was also gentle. But now Zhang Changgeng himself has a secret agreement with Deng Ming, and his henchman Zhou Peigong advocates appeasement in the gentry circle in the city every day, and is a well-deserved leader of the compromise faction, so Governor Zhang is very confident about these potential surrenderers.

Deng Ming's words gave Governor Zhang a lot of inspiration, and he decided to adopt the strategy of lifting the roof of these wealthy people as well.

After summoning the rich households, Zhang Changgeng first pointed out that the situation was very sinister and was still intensifying: the Ming army was powerful, and the many generals he appointed were all broken by Li Laiheng, Liu Tichun, He Zhen and others, and the silver of Wuchang was embezzled by Hu Quancai.

Under such a situation, Zhang Changgeng concluded that Hanyang and Wuchang were difficult to hold, and began to talk about the importance of scorched earth warfare. Zhang Changgeng said that for the sake of the unification of the saints, in order to avoid the Ming army from seizing a large amount of supplies from Wuchang, and for the future counteroffensive of the Wang Division, the residents of Wuchang must be evacuated and moved to the safer Hunan, and Governor Zhang himself will lead the officers and soldiers to sit in Wuchang and fight the Ming army in a desperate street battle. When the city was about to be lost, Governor Zhang would set fire to the city to ensure that the Ming army would get nothing.

The participants were all dumbfounded, Governor Zhang's scorched earth battle sounded like Dong Zhuo's hand in Luoyang at the end of the Han Dynasty, and the fate of the wealthy households in Luoyang seemed to be quite bad. However, Governor Zhang brought the emperor out at the beginning, and whoever dared to oppose the scorched earth policy would not be able to get along with the emperor and oppose the great cause of unification of the Qing Dynasty. Seeing that Governor Zhang has seized the moral high ground, and is frantically sweeping shè to everyone, everyone can't attack but outwitt, and they have praised Governor Zhang for strategizing, and now the endless sāo harassment behind the Ming army has played a great role, and it seems that the Deng Ming bandit gang will definitely not be able to attack Hanyang and Wuchang in the short term.

A smart person has already heard Governor Zhang's voice-over, so he took the lead in donating money to help him, isn't it that Hu Quancai embezzled all the money and couldn't hold on? Then everyone will have to contribute money and efforts to fill in the treasury.

However, Governor Zhang shook his head again and again, saying that according to his calculations, it would cost at least six million taels of silver to hold on to Wuchang and Hanyang, and it would be necessary to build weapons, reward soldiers, and consume grain and grass. It is not easy to draw so many resources from the local government, and it is also difficult for the gentry to donate, so it is better to carry out scorched earth operations as soon as possible.

Having learned the lesson of Hu Quancai, Zhang Changgeng was very tolerant of the local Wuchang soldiers, and had already hinted that the local officers and soldiers would be paid double salaries as long as they got the money, and that military dependents did not have to be forcibly relocated. Behind his back, he even assured the officers and soldiers that if the Ming army attacked the city in the future, they would never be forced to defend Wuchang.

After receiving the guarantee of double salary, these troops waved their flags and shouted at him behind Governor Zhang, expressing their resolute support for the Governor's scorched earth battle, and vowing to live and die with Dawuchang.

Some of the most powerful gentry in Wuchang, such as the old Taishan, the commander of the Ma army, were very clear about Governor Zhang's calculations, but most of the wealthy families, especially the merchants, were terrified and did not know how the matter would end. After learning that Governor Zhang offered a price of 6 million, these wealthy businessmen cried and shouted, saying that even if they broke the family and became a country, they could only pay a tenth of it.

Governor Zhang didn't bother to talk nonsense with them at all, and the next day he began to forcibly relocate the rich families to Changsha, and after seeing the soldiers rushing into the door, these selected rich families paid the money and food that satisfied Governor Zhang without saying a word, and then they were commended as righteous men, and allowed them to stay and live and die with the governor and Wuchang.

Other commercial banks and warehouses are handled in this way, which is also Zhang Changgeng's successful experience in learning from Deng Ming, when he wanted to delay the time and not pay the silver, Deng Ming made it clear that he would continue to act until the requirements were met, and afterwards Zhang Changgeng felt that this was an effective threat method, and immediately used it on the rich businessman.

But Zhang Changgeng's action also has its drawbacks, the next day when Zhou Peigong ran to negotiate with Deng Ming, the other party refused the Hunan governor's request for another 10%, and after some bargaining, he finally agreed to increase the kickback to 105, Deng Ming's negotiation killer was a batch of letters with his name hidden. These letters were all written by the Wuchang gentry to Deng Ming, and they asked Deng Ming to attack the city quickly and break the body of Zhang Changgeng, who was willing to be a lackey of the Tartar Dynasty, to make the people angry.

In the evening, Zhou Peigong came to see Zhang Changgeng with Deng Ming's gold and this news, and the latter breathed a long sigh after hearing it: "Fortunately, this official has already had a tacit understanding with Admiral Deng, otherwise he would really be harmed by these Diao people." ”

"What Admiral Deng means is that it's okay to take the money he used to buy concubines from rich people, but don't harm the people's families." Zhou Peigong also brought Deng Ming's request.

"Of course this official knows, and this official is not Governor Hu." Zhang Changgeng knew that Deng Ming's benevolence was starting to attack again, but it didn't matter, anyway, ordinary people couldn't squeeze oil and water out of them, and now for Deng Ming, Zhang Changgeng felt more and more incomprehensible, and sometimes he was so scheming that he couldn't even compare with him, an old man who had traveled around several provinces.

"Have you ever thought of using your armor and weapons to go to Admiral Deng to convert them into silver taels?" Zhou Peigong asked, and he pointed out to Zhang Changgeng that the volunteers behind enemy lines, which were only on paper, were still "fighting fiercely" with the Ming army, and in addition to military salaries, rewards, and grain and grass, armor and weapons should also be sent to these troops. And Zhou Peigong further pointed out that armor is a producible material, there are many craftsmen in Wuchang and Hanyang, and there is also pig iron in the city that can immediately build weapons, and the cost of these weapons is completely up to Zhang Changgeng, and it can be said that there is only one set of five sets built, and the remaining four sets are sold to Deng Ming.

"That's not right." Zhang Changgeng didn't think about this problem, but he was worried that the Ming army would use the equipment he gave to attack Wuchang, then he would have lifted a stone and shot himself in the foot, making money is important, but if even the governor is lost, how will he make money in the future? If you can ascend to the governor's throne, are you worried that you won't be able to do business with Deng Ming in the future?

"Your Excellency is too worried," Zhou Peigong said with a smile: "Do you still think that Admiral Deng will attack Wuchang?" If he still had a little bit of this in mind, he wouldn't have read those letters to his students today. If he captures Wuchang, he won't get any money unless he washes the city, and this will affect his great cause of Zhongxing. ”

Zhou Peigong reminded Zhang Changgeng that now he only needed Zhang Changgeng's order to transfer materials from all over Huguang to Wuchang, and after Governor Zhang threw out the theory of scorched earth warfare, no one in the governor's yamen now said anything about his transfer of local materials; Now that the Ming army is outside, the Qing army is inside, Zhang Changgeng can also collect taxes justifiably, he and Deng Ming cooperate so tacitly, if Zhang Changgeng is driven away, Deng Ming is purely asking for trouble for himself.

"Now the attention of the imperial court is all in Nanjing, and as soon as the matter over there in Nanjing is over, the imperial court will pay attention to the movement here in Wuchang again, and it is difficult to say whether the adults can cover the sky with such a hand." Zhou Peigong saw that Zhang Changgeng was already moved, so he struck while the iron was hot, and let the other party understand that if the money was not earned immediately, there might not be this opportunity in the future.

"Hmm." Zhang Changgeng nodded again and again when he heard this, and then agreed.

"Your Excellency." He has confronted Deng Ming many times, and Zhou Peigong's ability has also been rapidly improved, he saw Zhang Changgeng agreeing so happily, and hurriedly reminded: "Armor is a weapon of the military, you can take the opportunity to raise the price, one percent more, and two percent of five settlements." ”

"Not bad, not bad." Zhang Changgeng suddenly realized and praised him sincerely: "You are really my ovary." ”

……

When Zhou Peigong came home at night, his wife took off his mask for him, and when he saw that his husband had lost a lot of weight in a few years, he couldn't help but feel distressed: "Xianggong has worked hard for the country." ”

"yes." Zhou Peigong now runs around repeatedly, feeling that he is about to fall apart, he carefully took out a large stack of land deeds and transaction books from his arms, handed them to his wife, and instructed: "Put it away carefully, don't let people see it." ”

"Ahh Mrs. Zhou glanced at the title deed in her hand, and exclaimed, these title deeds are all the land of her hometown Jingmen, not a few pieces, but a lot of fertile land, Mrs. Zhou saw that in addition to the title deed, there was also a house deed. Mrs. Zhou, the original owner of several transactions, also knew that they were all good gentlemen who were diligent and thrifty in their hometowns rather than ruined families, and one of the transactions was a change of hands of hundreds of acres, and Mrs. Zhou knew as soon as she looked at the name: If you want to buy these people's land, you need to spend a lot of silver. Looking at the deed carefully, sure enough, the amount of land purchased was so high that the Zhou family could not afford it at all, and Mrs. Zhou knew that her husband had not taken any money from the family at all.

"Don't ask!" Zhou Peigong didn't wait for his wife to ask back, so he preemptively said: "Hurry up and sleep, I have to go out for my husband in the morning." ”

"Hmm." The virtuous Mrs. Zhou immediately suppressed her curiosity, and generally helped her husband to loosen her clothes, while asking about other things: "Today, the Chen brothers are here together. ”

"What?" Now everyone knows that Zhou Peigong is a celebrity in front of Zhang Changgeng, so there is an endless stream of people who come to Zhou Mansion to inquire about the news.

"They want to find out how much more money the Governor wants."

"I don't know if I'm a husband." Zhou Peigong replied.

"The cousin who married the concubine to the Li family also came today, and her husband was worried about the industry outside the city, and wanted to ask when the Ming army would attack Hanyang."

"I don't know." Zhou Peigong said without raising his head while removing his shoes and socks.

"The old man of the Fang family sent his son to send a jar of wine, doesn't he have shares in the ship, so if you want to find out when the Han River will be able to pass, there are many warships in the Ming army."

"I don't know." Zhou Peigong lifted the quilt, got in and lay down, sighed with satisfaction, and boasted to his wife: "Today, the governor praised me again, saying that in the future, in addition to Changsha Mansion in Hunan, I will choose one of the other prefectures, which mansion does the good wife think?" ”

"Really?" Mrs. Zhou was very happy, this was the second time that Zhang Changgeng had promised to give her husband a prefect position, but Mrs. Zhou was also a little worried: "After the Ming army retreats, the governor will not regret it, right?" ”

"Haha, absolutely not." Zhou Peigong laughed loudly.

"Why?" Mrs. Zhou asked a little uneasily.

"Because I know so much." ――

Today's 6,000 words, happy new year to all readers and friends