After Sony brought the newspaper to the court, Ao Bai and the others also felt the need to buy these things, and they still remembered that decades ago, Nurhachi and Huang Taiji had carefully collected the Ming court's palace newspaper to obtain information. It's just that later the Ming court became more and more defensive in the war, and in the end it was completely passively beaten, and as for the boast of annihilating thousands or tens of thousands of Qing troops in the defensive war, Huang Taiji was not interested in watching it. After Dolgon entered the customs, the newspaper system of the court residence of the Southern Ming Dynasty completely collapsed, and the Qing court, which had stopped collecting newspapers, had the upper hand, so it was naturally necessary to pick up the old habit again.

Although Deng Ming was not the first to resume the offensive on the battlefield, the Ming army's strategic counteroffensive posture had been maintained in his hands for several years, and Deng Ming seemed to be rebuilding the newspaper system. Almost immediately, therefore, Ao Bai came to the same conclusion as Sony, that is, to try to order Deng Ming's newspaper and send it to the imperial court for research. For people like Ao Bai and Sonny who came from the Nurhachi era, twenty years after entering the customs certainly made them begin to have the feeling of the face of the court, but it was far more pragmatic than the last days of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in Deng Ming's previous life.

"Does this thing work?" Sukh Saha is much less experienced than Sonny and Aobai, and has never encountered a time when the Ming army has the strategic initiative, so he is even more overwhelmed when he encounters Deng Ming's counterattack: "This kind of newspaper stuff is not just what Deng Ming said, he may take the opportunity to use this thing to frame our officials, or boast about himself." ”

"This is the reason why there is no need to read the Di Bao of Longwu and Yongli, and there is no need to read the Di Bao of Chongzhen eight years later." Ao Bai immediately explained to this inexperienced colleague: "But the newspaper of the Apocalypse is to be read, and Deng Ming's newspaper is similar to the newspaper of the Apocalypse - Chengdu is launching an offensive, and he is full of confidence, and he needs to use the newspaper to brag about his martial arts to the people and allies under his rule; Because they are on the offensive, there is no need to turn defeat into victory, and there are occasional small setbacks that tend to admit that Chengdu is confident. It is also because they are full of confidence that the things in the Di newspaper are often very accurate, because this newspaper has to be sent to Wuchang and Jiangning to deter our officials, so they can't just say anything. ”

Speaking of this, Sukh Saha also understood that if the things in the newspaper about Wuchang were all made up, then the Wuchang officials would not believe the other narratives in the newspaper while sneering. When defending, you can brag unscrupulously in order to calm the hearts of the people in the territory - anyway, you don't expect the enemy to believe it, but since Deng Ming's newspaper is a weapon used to attack, it wants to be used to break the morale of the Qing court's military morale and attack the weak faction within the Qing court, so it is naturally completely different.

However, neither Sony nor Aobai realized the difference between private newspapers and government newspapers, and although the contents of these newspapers were confusing to both of them, they naturally regarded them as more complicated newspapers. And Ao Bai is still analyzing according to the old habit: "What Deng Ming got may not be true, but he did it himself in battle, and almost always followed the army on the front line; Therefore, there will be less deception in the army, and the rear will definitely hide enough from him, and he will only return to Chengdu once in a few months or half a year; Liu Jinge, who stayed behind, had a monopoly on power, and he didn't even have a Yanguan yamen similar to the imperial history, and there must have been a lot of rats there. As for Chengdu's internal affairs, he himself must not know the real situation, and we don't need to take it too seriously. ”

On the issue of sending troops, since the three auxiliary ministers who stayed behind and the prince of the army commander and the auxiliary minister of the army at the front were in agreement, they were quickly approved by the empress dowager. This time, the Qing court will once again mobilize the northern troops on a large scale to enter Shaanxi, and launch a crusade against Chengdu through Hanzhong and Guangyuan. It is expected that more than 200,000 troops will be mobilized, and at least 6 million taels will be invested in the military expenditure of this operation alone.

The additional military expenses for this operation had to be paid in silver, and the taxes of the northern provinces would be used for the needs of the army along the way, and the northern provinces, which were already difficult to balance their revenues and expenditures, also needed financial subsidies from Beijing, so although there would be tens of millions of taels of silver, Beijing would still have to continue to overdraft the savings of the state treasury. It is estimated that the Qing treasury, which had five years of money and grain savings, will be reduced to a level of less than three years before the start of the Cao Yun next year, in other words, if the Cao Yun is suddenly cut off, the Qing court will not be able to continue to claim the huge territory of the north for more than three years.

At the same time as this expedition, the Qing court decided to continue Huairou Western Mongolia in order to safely withdraw the three generals from the garrison for a period of time to be used in the Sichuan-Shaanxi region; In addition to the military crusade, Nalan Mingzhu, who had two contacts with Deng Ming, would also rush to the front of Prince Kang's army, and his duty was to force Deng Ming to negotiate peace with the Qing court when the Qing army overcame the resistance of the Ming army and approached the city of Chengdu. Nalan Mingzhu was given a wide mandate to agree to transfer a large area of land in the south to Deng Ming, as long as the other party publicly announced that the collegiate agreement had been reached and assured the whole world that the contract would be abided. As for the resistance forces of the Ming army that were unwilling to participate in this contract, such as Zhang Huangyan and others, if Deng Ming was willing to do it himself, then the Qing court would remain neutral and agree that Deng Ming would then accept Zhoushan and overseas islands; If Deng Ming was too far away, then the Qing court only needed Deng Ming to remain neutral in the ensuing conflict.

Now the Qing court is raising grain and grass, giving orders to the magistrates along the way to repair the roads and tidy up the post stations, while waiting for the results of Zheng Jing's Zhao'an negotiations, if Zheng Jing is willing to withdraw from the war, then the Qing court can consider using force to shock the Jiangnan governors while the army is approaching Sichuan, so that they can give up their illusions and hand over power - just shocking, unless it is absolutely necessary, the Qing court will not be willing to enter the southeast of the vassal army, even if it is a loyal lackey of the Dongjiang system.

……

November, Xuzhou.

Gong Sheyue of the Xuzhou Newspaper had already received a report from the prefect's yamen, saying that officials from the Sichuan governor's yamen led by Gong Yan would come to the door in the past two days. Speaking of the Sichuan Governor Yamen is also a scene of the empire, its person in charge of the official position is the Dashun Li Government Shangshu, it is said that the reason is that the Wen Governor refused to grant Gong Yan the position of Governor, so the latter was angry and hung up his Dashun official position in the Sichuan Governor Yamen of the Ming Dynasty.

However, the people of western Sichuan reacted indifferently to this, this time when Deng Ming came back with the title of the commander of the Ming Army, everyone basically said "oh", this Sichuan governor has done too many deviant things, and Baoguo Gong is in a hurry to follow the power ratio, which makes the Dashunli government Shangshu responsible for the Ming Sichuan Governor Yamen is still a matter? And many of the same Xiucai are still pondering, this Dashun's genuine Shangshu deigned to do the errand of the Ming Dynasty with the title of waiter, and we still made money in the Ming Dynasty, right? At least suppressed the rebel thief.

"Editor-in-chief Gong? Contemptible Liu Xuzhi. The official of the governor's yamen politely extended his hand to Gong Sheyue after entering the door, this kind of etiquette was very popular in the Sichuan army, and now it has also spread to the society, and many Quan Ruxiucai who have just immigrated to Sichuan are imitating it.

Gong Sheyue skillfully shook hands with the other party, and his skillful movements made the smile on Liu Xuzhi's face even thicker: "What year did Editor-in-Chief Gong enlist in the army?" ”

"The fifteenth of the eternal calendar." Last year, Gong Sheyue retired from the army as a first-class soldier.

"The contemptible man has served in Yongli for sixteen years, and he has just been discharged from the army, and he has found an errand with Gong Shangshu." Hearing that the other party was discharged from the army by a first-class soldier, Liu Xuzhi also gave a military salute: "I am also a first-class soldier discharged." ”

After a while of friendship with his comrades-in-arms, Liu Xuzhi said that not long ago, Gong Yan had just formulated some newspaper management measures, which had been discussed and authorized by the Imperial Parliament, and had also been announced to the newspaper in Chengdu. This time, Liu Xuzhi was ordered to come to Xuzhou to report to the Xuzhou Newspaper Office, the Xuzhou Prefect, and the Yamen for Punishment, and asked them to pay attention to the secrecy of the news.

Originally, Deng Ming was worried that the newspapers in Chengdu would be resistant to this kind of news control, and even prepared to persuade them in person if necessary, but things went much smoother than Deng Ming imagined, and the newspapers in Chengdu immediately expressed their unconditional obedience to the secrecy requirements of the governor's yamen to ensure that the Qing court could not obtain all kinds of military secrets.

Hearing that it was a matter of military secrets, and that it was further related to the victory or defeat of the Sichuan army and the safety of the soldiers, the veteran Gong Sheyue also immediately attached importance to it and immediately summoned all the editors to listen to Liu Xuzhi's explanation of the secrecy regulations.

After meeting a large number of editors and reporters, Liu Xuzhi first congratulated them on the official change of the newspaper of the Xuzhou Newspaper to a weekly newspaper, and then talked about the purpose of the secrecy regulations: "The imperial government wants the current political news to be as truthful as possible, so that the people can know how the government is using their taxes, including taxes and blood taxes for military service." Therefore, the Imperial Government will not only not hide defeat, but also wants you to expose this kind of behavior - if you find out, this is the purpose of the Imperial Government's allowance. But after all, we are at war, and if our newspapers help the Qing court understand the real situation of the war, it will mean that the soldiers will shed more blood. ”

While everyone was nodding, Liu Xuzhi distributed the control rules to everyone, and then waited for their questions.

"If it weren't for a decisive victory, we should have delayed reporting on the battle for two days." One editor asked, "How do we know if it's a decisive victory?" ”

"If it is a major victory that does not need to be concealed, Gong Shangshu will have the governor's yamen inform you; Otherwise, I hope that you will deliberately postpone it for a few days after learning the news. "In addition to this, there are many regulations about reporting on the Ming army, such as the number needs to be fluctuated by fifty percent to one double, and the battle damage should be truthful, but the location of the garrison and the route of the march, it is best not to investigate, even if you don't know it by accident, don't see the newspaper.

Compared with these regulations on the Ming army, the more detailed ones are about the secrecy rules of the Qing army, and even after a decisive victory, the commanders, the number of losses, and the number of prisoners of the Qing army are not allowed to report on themselves, but have to wait for the notice of the governor's yamen.

"The number of Qing troops, the condition of weapons, as well as the morale, equipment, and strength of the garrisons in various places, these are all military secrets of the Qing army, right?" A journalist asked: "Isn't the Imperial military interested in this intelligence?" ”

"Of course I dare to be interested, we have been doing this kind of intelligence work. However, if you manage to find out, you are also welcome to report it to the yamen or the military, there may be something we don't know. However, it is better not to write in the newspapers yet, for the Qing court, these are military secrets that they desperately need. ”

Since the strength of the local Qing army is a military secret that Chengdu knows but the Qing court does not know, of course, the reporters have no opinion on secrecy, but they still have questions: "What about the central force of the Qing army?" Their food, salaries, and troops are also our military secrets? ”

Chengdu had heard that the Qing government was preparing an offensive on an unprecedented scale, and the people of Sichuan wanted to know more about the offensive, so the newspaper had been trying to gather relevant information. It is also prepared to attach a map to the report, so that Tong Xiucai can see the battle situation at a glance, and know at any time that they are under the close protection of the imperial army, and the Qing army is blocked from the defense line of the imperial army.

"This is not a military secret that needs to be kept secret from the Qing court until the central forces of the Qing court leave Beijing, but as they get closer and closer to us, farther and farther away from Beijing, yes, this is our military secret."

"I have one more question." Another reporter raised his hand and asked: "This says that the generals and garrisons of the Qing army must also be kept secret, even if the number is unknown, doesn't the Qing court know who its generals are?" Don't know what strongholds it has? This is also a military secret? Our? ”

"Of course, the Qing court knows that it has those strongholds, and it also knows that it has those generals, but it is difficult to say when its generals are in the strongholds and when they are not. Sometimes the Qing army thought that there was a general stationed at the stronghold they were heading to, but this general probably only told his companion that he was there, and in fact he was a hundred miles away, and your report may not have intended to reveal our ambush plan...... Therefore, what city strongholds and generals of the Qing army are not military secrets, you can report them at will; However, the exact location of their generals at a certain time is extremely valuable information to the Qing court and the Qing army, and it is a military secret that belongs to us and must be kept secret. ”