Continuing the attack downstream requires some preparations, and Deng Ming can't set off immediately, so he Jian Ye Tianming returned to Chengdu first: "The salt has already been said to be sold to Wuchang, and Boss Ye has nothing to do to follow us downstream, so it's better to return here, the capital still needs Boss Ye to supervise it, and it is not easy to meet the requirements of 50,000 catties a day here in Wuchang." ”

"What the Admiral said is that I will return to the capital, and as for the silver, I think I can represent the five major salt stores in the capital, and sell them to the admiral." After some careful calculations, Ye Tianming felt that it was more cost-effective to buy tools from Chengdu, these gold and silver were very useful to Deng Ming, but the effect in Chengdu, where gold and silver could not be circulated, was much smaller.

"How do you calculate the price?"

"How about a hundred dollars for a tael of silver?" Ye Tianming didn't plan to bargain with Deng Ming, if Deng Ming wanted to continue to lower the price, Ye Tianming would not refuse.

"Okay." Deng Ming happily agreed, and he wrote a note to Ye Tianming, telling Liu Jinge to raise eight million yuan to pay Ye Tianming and several other salt stores. After taking away the 40,000 taels of silver from the salt merchants, Deng Ming still did not forget to remind Ye Tianming: "This money has not been deducted from taxes, and at the end of the year, the tax officials of the capital will collect 4 million taxes, you must remember." ”

There will also be some Ming sailors returning with Ye Tianming, who will bring back to Chengdu those cargo ships that have been emptied of table salt, and there will be 2,000 sailors returning with them, so as to ensure that the sailors of Chóngqìng will not get out of their heads and look for trouble.

"I support the salt industry, and I am willing to block the downstream for your benefit, not for yourself." When seeing off Ye Tianming, Deng Ming solemnly said that he hoped to exert some influence as much as possible before Ye Tianming formed his own philosophy and worldview: "You told me that if you make money, you will be able to make more money for the people of the capital, and you will increase your wages." I believe what you said, when I return to the capital, I will also see your account books with my own eyes, I hope that Boss Ye can keep his promise and share a part of the profits to the people of the other capital. ”

"Don't worry, Admiral, I was an auxiliary soldier a few months ago, and there are thousands of old brothers in the capital who are bitter about me, and I will definitely not eat alone." Ye Tianming patted his chest and assured that Deng Ming had always instilled in him the idea of win-win and social returns.

After Ye Tianming and part of the Ming army set off and sailed back, Deng Ming was still thinking about how to build his base, and from childhood to adulthood, Deng Ming had only studied one philosophical system, and he could only learn about the ideas that were different from this philosophy through the guò network. If Deng Ming believed in the kind of philosophical system that he had studied relatively completely, he would not have hesitated like now.

"The economic base determines the superstructure, and the productive forces determine the relations of production, which seems to be the theoretical cornerstone of this philosophical system." Even if it was the set of philosophy that Deng Ming had studied, he didn't dare to say that he understood everything correctly, so he could only ponder it alone.

Deng Ming has always believed that facts speak louder than words, and he has personally seen the social laws of countries that believe in this set of philosophies refuse to abide by the social laws asserted by this set of philosophies: Two of these big countries, one was once the world's second industrial power, and the other was the world's largest steel producer, but the superstructure that other countries could implement in the age of navigation, and the two great powers could not be realized in the space age when satellites were launched on satellites because of the problem of national conditions -- facts have proved that "national conditions determine the superstructure" and "national conditions determine production relations" It is much more reliable than the theory of the founder of philosophy.

Deng Ming remembers a saying that describes the undoubted victory well: "Our final victory, even the enemy has no doubt." On this set of philosophical theories, that is, "the assertions of this set of philosophical theories, even its devout believers do not take seriously." If the founder has knowledge, then it is really embarrassing. Since the devout people can dismantle and dismantle the founder's platform, Deng Ming can only think that there are insurmountable difficulties in the actual cāo work, so he really does not dare to use this set of philosophy as a guiding theory.

However, the power of more than ten years of education is not trivial, Deng Mingmu was once nervous after sending Ye Tianming away, worried that he would harm the people of Chengdu: "I should have released capitalism, right?" It is said that as soon as it was born, every pore was filled with blood and other dirty things, tearing off the veil of warmth and affection between people under the feudal system. ”

"Whether it is Sun Kewang's military tun or Manchuria's Eight Banners, the grain produced is watered with the blood of auxiliaries or Han Chinese. If I let the beast of capitalism out, can the people of the capital be worse off than this? But Deng Ming pondered it carefully, and thought that there should be no need to worry about this in China, and after seeing the oppression of the auxiliary soldiers and the common people, without dignity and life security, Deng Ming felt that it was difficult to imagine that there was a worse and bloodier rìzi than now; Deng Ming estimated that under the feudal system in Europe, the people at the bottom of the West would have a happier and better life, so the founder said those words sadly: "This is probably because of the different national conditions, I have never been to Europe, I don't know if the European aristocracy loves the people like children, I don't know if the tenants in the West can have fish and meat to eat, don't worry about being insulted and oppressed, but at least they will live a lot better than the Chinese people." Mr. Ma is sincerely loved by working people all over the world and has a great personality, so he will not be a big fool, right? ”

Although Deng Ming couldn't imagine what life would be like worse than that of a feudal society, he still planned to avoid this risk as much as possible, and after Ye Tianming left, Deng Ming convened several meetings of officers. At several meetings, Deng Ming raised the same question, that is, how to ensure that the capital can benefit from the profits of the salt company: "It is not reasonable to ask the salt company to hand over all the profits, they take the risk and are responsible for the management and implementation of salt production; However, it was clear that they had benefited greatly from the support of the Metropolitan Government, and the officers and soldiers provided protection for their goods and helped them fight their competitors, and the officers and soldiers were made up of the common people of the Metropolitan Government, so it was obviously unreasonable for the salt company to monopolize all the profits. ”

As Deng Ming saw before, on the whole, the Sichuan army was still a feudal army, and the last time it dared to participate in the discussion of strategy collectively was because of Deng Ming's authorization. When Deng Ming first put forward this theory of the sharing of benefits by the whole society, many officers felt a little uncomfortable, but they could not tell where they felt awkward.

However, not every officer was ignorant of philosophical theories, and Ren Tang quickly found a loophole in Deng Ming's speech and summed up a set of arguments to refute Deng Ming: the general idea is that the army still belongs to Deng Ming, and the same is true of those salt stores, and Deng Ming will be rewarded for the contribution of the salt stores - this is the profit they receive; The army's receipt of military salaries and meritorious services from Deng Ming was not directly related to the business of the salt store; As for the people of the capital, Deng Ming is willing to give a reward, which is Deng Ming's benevolence, and if Deng Ming does not give it, there is nothing to say.

Ren Tang's views and theories were completely in line with the morality of feudal society, and Deng Ming was originally very difficult to refute, fortunately Deng Ming was not the son of today, but only the governor of Sichuan appointed by Wen Anzhi -- if Deng Ming had the status of emperor or superintendent, all the officers would not hesitate to accept Ren Tang's set -- but the current situation led to some confusion in the Ming army, which gave Deng Ming the opportunity to infiltrate.

Deng Ming insisted that the Chengdu regime, the Sichuan Ming army, the salt merchants, and the common people were all owned by the Yongli Emperor, and since Ren Tang could not refute this argument, then Deng Ming naturally did not have the legitimacy to reward and punish in the middle. Deng Ming did not have this right, and the Sichuan Ming army was in emotional problems and was unwilling to hand over this right to the Yongli Emperor, so some people began to accept the vague concept of Chengdu proposed by Deng Ming.

In this way, taking advantage of the fact that the prestige of the Son of Heaven had greatly reduced the country's prestige, as well as the fact that the warlords were self-reliant, Deng Ming used all his strength to reluctantly pry a thin gap in the army's originally strong ideological fortress, and infiltrated some ideas that denied that "I am the country".

After shaking this deep-rooted concept for a while, Deng Ming finally set off several big discussions in the whole army on how to reasonably distribute the war dividends, and the officers and men did not say "listen to the commander's arrangement" in unison, but began to try to think about this problem and share their thoughts with their companions.

The distribution plan that came back was strange, and the soldiers didn't need to think about the distribution of benefits before, and they naturally looked very naïve when they first came into contact with this problem, and all kinds of whimsical plans came out one after another. However, Deng Ming didn't expect them to come up with any clever solutions, as a person in the 21st century, even if he didn't know why, at least he would have heard of the terms income tax, progressive tax system, and social insurance.

What Deng Ming wants is that these soldiers begin to think about the distribution of social wealth, as long as they no longer take it for granted that the king has a qiē and distributes a qiē, such soldiers will be farther and farther away from the standard soldiers of the Son of Heaven, and closer and closer to the emperor.

As the Ming army continued to advance, Deng Ming again met with Zhou Peigong, who was now a representative of many interest groups in Wuchang. When he learned from Deng Ming that the Ming army was preparing to cross Wuchang and advance in the direction of Jiangxi, Zhou Peigong did not show the slightest surprise, but silently pondered.

"Is the Admiral trying to cut off the shipping of the Yangtze River and prevent Huaiyan from entering Wuchang?" After thinking for a while, Zhou Peigong asked bluntly.

"Exactly." Seeing that Zhou Peigong's judgment was so quick and accurate, Deng Ming was very surprised.

Long before Deng Ming decided to march downstream, Zhou Peigong guessed that Deng Ming's ultimate goal was Huaiyan, and Ye Tianming had not even entered Wuchang City at that time. Since Zhou Peigong had such a guess a long time ago, he naturally thought that Deng Ming would cut off the Yangtze River shipping, so he was fully mentally prepared for Deng Ming's report.

"If the Admiral just wants to simply block Huaiyan from entering Wuchang, I think the Admiral had better set up a card to inspect and not harm the pond fish." Now on a certain Cheng dù, Zhou Peigong and Deng Ming have a relationship of both prosperity and loss, so Zhou Peigong has long considered the best countermeasures for Deng Ming: "In addition to salt, Wuchang also has to buy a large number of goods from the downstream, such as the porcelain in Jiangxi is a bulk trade, as well as cotton and silk in the south of the Yangtze River, all of which are related to the livelihood of many merchants and shops in Wuchang." Although the Admiral's march was not guilty of the autumn, every time the Yangtze River was cut off, these merchants and shops would complain, and they often had gentry backgrounds behind them. ”

Deng Ming listened carefully and didn't say a word so as not to interrupt Zhou Peigong's train of thought.

"I guess the Admiral just wants to sell salt in peace and security at the moment, and doesn't want to make more enemies, and now there is almost no one around the Admiral who advocates confrontation with the Admiral, and this is because the Admiral has not harmed anyone's interests. Since no one thinks that they can defeat the Admiral and gain battle merits, and they are not damaged, they naturally do not advocate that it is unfavorable to the Admiral. But if the Yangtze River shipping is cut off, the prices of porcelain and silk in Jiangxi are rising, and a large number of shops are closed, there will be many gentry who are dissatisfied with the governor, and they will put new pressure on the governor to rebuild the sailor to ensure the navigation of the Yangtze River. If the Governor is unable to satisfy them, one day they will go to the imperial court to make a request regardless of a single thing, which will be a trouble not only for the Governor, but also for the Governor, the lower officials, and the people who buy the Admiral's salt here in Wuchang, and there will be too much trouble, and no one will want to deal with the Admiral. "If the trouble is too fierce, then Zhou Peigong would rather give up Deng Ming's compensation than risk continuing to trade with him and escort Sichuan Yan.

"Governor Zhou's golden and jade words, how dare I not listen?" Deng Ming thought for a while, and proposed a proposal: "After I learned that after I went east, the price of porcelain and silk here in Wuchang will inevitably rise, and the Zhou Governor can notify some friends to let them buy some in advance and sell them after I cross Wuchang; But when I reach the downstream, I will never stop the cargo ships other than salt, and I will not let the friends of the Zhou Governor's Mansion suffer losses, and I will not cut off their trade. ”

"Thank you so much, Admiral." Zhou Peigong pondered for a while, and felt that if Deng Ming acted like this, then his cutting off shipping would not only not be a bad thing for the big merchants here, but he could use inside information to speculate. As long as enough people benefit from Deng Ming's actions, there is no fear that even a small number of people will be victimized, let alone those small businesses with no background.

Thinking of this, Zhou Peigong glanced at Deng Ming again, and thought in his heart: "Maybe in the future, we can reach an agreement with Admiral Deng to block the movement of other ships, and only let the cargo ships we designated go to Wuchang." ”

…… After concluding the negotiations with Deng Ming, Zhou Peigong returned to Wuchang City and reported the contents of today's negotiations to Zhang Changgeng, and the governor of Huguang did not consider the problem of stopping Deng Ming's actions at all, because he knew that he was powerless to stop it. After careful consideration, Zhang Changgeng instructed Zhou Pei to be fair: "Be sure to ask Deng Ming to keep this a secret and not leak any rumors, and then suddenly cross Wuchang and appear on the downstream river." ”

"Xia Guan understands." Zhou Peigong knew that if this news spread, the price of goods on the market would rise, causing trouble for the Wuchang gentry to hoard Juqi; And if Deng Ming kept this secret until the army, then the gentry who knew in advance could eat the bulk of the goods quietly. When Wuchangcheng was unprepared to learn that Deng Ming had cut off shipping on the Yangtze River again, it was conceivable that the prices of all goods would double up - small merchants with no background would not know that Deng Ming had privately promised not to block the cargo ships, and they would think that this was another months-long shipping cut-off, and they would panic and buy in large quantities.

Zhang Changgeng thought about it for a while, and gave Zhou Peigong a list, saying that only a few people on him could know Deng Ming's exact time of entering the army, and the other gentry would at most reveal a little bit of tone to them.

Zhou Peigong borrowed the list of personnel, and all the people who could be listed on it were the gentry leaders of Huguang, and after reading it carefully, Zhou Peigong did not have the slightest objection to this list, he put the list in his sleeve and saluted Zhang Changgeng to retire.

Lu Chenyin went to Zhou's mansion that night, and after listening to the narration of the Wuchang prefect, Lu Chenyin hurriedly saluted and thanked him, and his shopkeeper would make good use of this inside information to make a lot of money for him.

"The old grandmaster is polite." Zhou Peigong politely got up and returned the half-salute, although he is now an official, but when he traveled to Wuchang, he had played the autumn breeze in the Lu Mansion and was treated by the old gentleman. Even if Lu Chenyin was not a gentry leader, Zhou Peigong would never be rude to him, lest he fall into an ungrateful reputation.

"However, the prefect still needs to talk to Admiral Deng about blocking the salt ship, and Admiral Deng can confiscate the salt and sell it to us secretly." After finishing speaking, Lu Chenyin's eyes rolled, and his brows furrowed: "This time, Admiral Deng left us three million catties of salt, and we are not afraid that shipping will be cut off for two months, but if it is longer, we will not be able to make money." ”

Although the cut off of salt transportation can help Wuchang salt merchants raise prices, Lu Chenyin thinks that it may not be good if it is cut off for half a year: "If the admiral can transport 50,000 catties of Sichuan salt every day, he can cut off the shipping for as long as he wants, and the old man will not feel that there is any problem, but if the admiral can't guarantee the endless supply of Sichuan salt, it is better to stop in moderation." ”

"I will tell Admiral Deng what the old grandmaster means, Admiral Deng has always been kind to others, I don't think he will be unsympathetic." Zhou Peigong nodded, but he didn't dare to guarantee on this issue, after all, he suspected that Deng Ming's real purpose was not to make money, but to prevent the Qing court from gathering wealth.

Lu Chenyin didn't know about this joint, but he agreed with Zhou Peigong's statement: "The prefect is right, Admiral Deng can best understand our difficulties, and when Admiral Deng returns to Sichuan in the future, the old man wants to give Admiral Deng a gift to thank him for not committing any crimes along the way, but I don't know what to send?" ”

"Pig iron is good, Admiral Deng will definitely not refuse to accept it." Zhou Peigong replied, pondered for a while, and then said: "If you can buy some craftsmen for the Admiral, whether it is shipbuilding or metallurgy, Admiral Deng will definitely be overjoyed." ”

"Thank you, Lord Prefect, for your advice."

"The old grandmaster is too polite."

Lu Chenyin did not leave immediately, but whispered to Zhou Peigong: "The prefect is young and promising, honest and honest, and Huguang Shilin is all respected. ”

Zhang Changgeng handed over all the specific matters to Zhou Peigong to deal with for security reasons, which actually gave Zhou Peigong more power and allowed the latter's connections to develop rapidly. And these gentlemen involved in it are also very clear that Zhang Changgeng has the opportunity to push the responsibility away, compared with the governor, Zhou Zhifu is the person who can really advance and retreat with everyone - he can't do it if he wants to live and die together.

Zhou Peigong knew that Lu Chenyin's words were not meant by him alone, but on behalf of many Huguang gentlemen, but he still smiled and shook his head again and again: "Don't dare to think, don't dare to think." ”

The guests and hosts looked at each other and smiled, and when Lu Chenyin left, Zhou Peigong kept sending him to the door.

…… Less than a month later, běijīng.

"Zhang Chao is too useless!" After Shunzhi read Jiangxi's pleading general emergency recital, he shouted.

Originally, the Qing court concluded that Deng Ming would gather in Sichuan and stay in Chengdu for at least one or two years, but they did not expect that he would go out again and approach Wuchang again just two months after the first battle of Chóngqìng. Deng Ming's move shows that he has no interest in the development of peace of mind, and many high-ranking officials of the Qing court have a feeling of rogue smell coming to their faces.

After receiving Zhang Changgeng's urgent report, Shunzhi strictly ordered Huguang to stick to Wu and Han, and on the other hand, ordered several neighboring provinces to be strictly guarded, so as to prevent Deng Ming from entering the Central Plains with a large number of thieves to start a new round of nationwide circulation. After learning that Hanyang was in a bitter battle, Běijīng began to feel uneasy, fearing that Wu and Han would change hands, and Deng Ming would be enveloped by the strong men of the city and go down the river, so that the situation would be erosive.

Fortunately, Zhou Peigong finally did not meet high expectations, led the whole city of soldiers and civilians to resist desperately, Deng Ming dug down the city wall of Hanyang several times, was re-blocked by Zhou Peigong, once the Ming army had rushed into Hanyang, and was driven out by Zhou Peigong, who was the first soldier, with his family, and forced the gap back to seal it again. After the end of the Hanyang Defense War, Zhang Changgeng made two concerts in a row to ask for credit for Zhou Peigong, and the ministers around Shunzhi also congratulated him, praising the emperor's previous insight, approving Zhang Changgeng's promotion, and promoting Zhou Peigong to the prefect of Wuchang.

Although Deng Ming was defeated under the city of Hanyang, he was unwilling to be defeated, and continued to advance eastward through Guò Wuchang. However, at that time, Shunzhi thought that this was no longer a big problem, the Ming army had lost troops and morale, and he judged that Deng Ming would soon have to return to Sichuan to lick his wounds. However, the incompetence of Zhang Chao, the governor of Jiangxi, and Dong Weiguo, the political envoy of Bu, was really beyond Shunzhi's imagination, and the Jiujiang guarded by Dong Weiguo himself was broken by Deng Ming after only one day, and thousands of Qing troops in Jiujiang were wiped out, and Dong Weiguo did not know whether he was alive or dead.

Jiujiang is still the station of the rebuilt Jiangxi Naval Division, the last time Deng Ming crossed Jiujiang without attacking, so that the Jiangxi Green Battalion thought that the Ming army had no ability to capture Jiujiang at all, so after Deng Ming besieged the city, the Jiangxi Naval Division also honestly stayed in the water city and did not try to break through, and was wiped out by the Ming army after breaking the city.

Zhang Chao's recital said that more than 100 ships and more than 2,000 sailors of the Jiangxi Navy Division fell into the hands of Deng Ming, and it is estimated that more than 400 civilian ships were captured by the Ming army. Now not to mention the sailors in Jiangxi, there are not even a few transport ships left, Zhang Chao begged Běijīng to quickly dispatch Huguang Jīng troops to help, and even asked the governor of Huguang to lend him the famous minister Zhou Peigong.

Originally, in Shunzhi's mind, Zhang Chao was still one of the candidates for the governor of Liangjiang, although Jiang Guozhu is currently acting as the governor of Liangjiang, but the final choice of Shunzhi has not yet made up his mind. Dong Weiguo, who did not know life and death, also had a good influence on Shunzhi, if Shunzhi decided to promote Zhang Chao, then Dong Weiguo would definitely take over the post of governor of Jiangxi.

"Send someone to ask Zhang Changgeng, if you have the spare energy, go and help Zhang Chao, alas, he was beaten so wolf by the newly defeated Deng Ming." Shunzhi gently rubbed the bridge of his nose and said helplessly, Zhang Chao's impression in his heart was plummeting, and he was no longer a strong contender for the governor of Liangjiang: "Let Jiang Ning be careful and ask how their sailors are rebuilding." ”