This time, when Dong Weiguo set off from Nanchang, the gongs and drums were beating loudly, and everyone in the provincial capital knew that the political envoy had no time to seek a life for the country, so he personally escorted this year's Cao Liang to Yangzhou. Zhang Chao, the governor of Jiangxi, personally sent it to the wharf, and also toasted three glasses of wine to Dong Weiguo, who was leaving, wishing him a victory, defeating the water bandits entrenched in the Jiujiang area, and successfully escorting the precious grain urgently needed by the imperial court into the Yangtze River.

"What kind of wine is this? Zhuangxing wine is still the kind that will never return. ”

On the dock, Zhang Chao and Dong Weiguo were generous and heroic, and they were a touching scene of taking pictures of each other, but the gentry and people watching below were not optimistic about Dong Weiguo's trip, and many of them were whispering cool words. Originally, the Poyang Lake Naval Division was the weakest of the Qing Army's naval divisions on the Yangtze River, and it could not be compared with the fleets of Wuchang and Nanjing, and it had been annihilated twice by Deng Ming in the past eight months. I heard that Dong Bu's political envoy fled back from Jiujiang alone, and before his injuries were healed, he took a group of newly recruited sailors and drove a civilian ship to fight Deng Ming.

Dong Weiguo's fleet was loaded with the last shipment for Deng Ming, all kinds of porcelain were packed in straw bales, and the grain made into large bags lay quietly in the cabin.

The ransom of these ships is also a lot, and Deng Ming is unwilling to accept gold and silver, as long as all kinds of Jiangxi native products can be sold at high prices in other places, it is difficult for Nanchang to gather so many things in a hurry, so in addition to the goods, Nanchang also used some technicians to offset the goods. For example, those porcelain merchants who have been raided have a lot of shopkeepers, accounts, and apprentices in their homes, many of whom can read and write, even if they have only been in the industry for a long time, they will at least plan to make a plate.

Among them, the shopkeepers, the account room, and those stewards who transported and sold goods for the south and north were all accomplices who knew and did not report it, and their owners were executed for fornication, and the core elements of these commercial houses were also waiting in prison to be beheaded after the autumn. When Deng Ming asked Dong Weiguo about the aftermath of the case, he learned that there were many such technicians among the confiscated firms, and he immediately thought about being an important person. For Jiangxi, knowing a few words is nothing, they definitely don't know the scriptures, not to mention the kind of cheap business that they plan to sell. But in Deng Ming's eyes, these people are treasures, so he said that he wanted to accept this batch of death reprieve prisoners, and was willing to spend money to buy the lives of these people.

These people are really like ants to Dong Weiguo, since Deng Ming is willing to buy them, he has no reason not to sell. Deng Ming offered fifty taels of life, which was deliberately lowered in order to bargain with Dong Weiguo, but he didn't expect Dong Weiguo to have no intention of bargaining at all, so he agreed to it in one bite - now the political envoy of Jiangxi Province has not yet had the consciousness to negotiate the price with Deng Ming.

After returning to Nanchang, after Dong Weiguo reported the matter to Zhang Chao, the two reached an agreement in a blink of an eye: Isn't Deng Ming willing to spend fifty taels to buy his life? The standard is to know arithmetic, if you can know a few words and read the account book, of course, it is better.

This is so easy to do! Zhang Chao immediately instructed the famous master to condemn even the apprentices who were arrested to be beheaded - originally these small workers were beaten up, coaxed out in a pleasing way, and disliked the fate of being assigned to the army, but now since one can sell Deng Ming for fifty taels of silver, then don't leave.

At the same time that Zhang Chao made a confession of collaborating with the enemy, Dong Weiguo was not idle, he summoned his officials, inquired about the scale of each trading house in Nanchang City, and quickly made a new list of "fornication thieves" according to the number of their shopkeepers, accounts, and apprentices, and then quickly sent officers and soldiers to arrest and kill all these merchants, and all his subordinates were sentenced to death with a reprieve, and then sold them to Deng Ming together with the stolen things.

Although Zhang Chao and Dong Weiguo did not have the courage to bargain with Deng Ming, as the first and second leaders in Jiangxi, they would not pay attention to the life and death of more than a dozen merchants, the fate of hundreds of shopkeepers, account offices and apprentices.

When he sent hundreds of arithmetic talents to Deng Ming in one go, Dong Weiguo was still worried that the other party would not admit it, and explained to the escorted officer that if Deng Ming felt that the apprentice was useless, then don't argue so as not to make Deng Ming unhappy, and obediently bring it back and sink it into Poyang Lake. If a few people escape from Deng Ming's hands in the future, they will not be afraid, and the local government will definitely kill them on the charge of impersonation, or convict them of fraud and absconding, and send them back to their hometowns. Whether it is the Jiangxi government or not, no one will offend the governor of Jiangxi for a few untouchables, even Jiang Guozhu, who is fighting with the Zhang Dynasty, will not be an exception when he encounters this kind of thing, because there is a bottom line in the battle of officialdom, no matter how fierce the officials fight each other, no one will dare to break the rules that everyone acquiesces.

However, Deng Ming was very talkative, and he seemed very happy to see so many people who knew how to read, and those apprentices who Dong Weiguo was worried that Deng Ming would not look down on did not cause the slightest dissatisfaction from the other party, and were willing to pay fifty taels of silver for each person.

The last two batches of goods arrived in Nanchang and did not ask the Ming army to exchange grain ships immediately, but temporarily kept them for him, and delivered them to the Qing army together after Dong Buzheng arrived with the final ransom.

This way, Dong Weiguo walked well and unassumingly, and he must ask for fresh meat and tea everywhere he went, and he didn't even forget the routine meeting gift. The political envoy is handsome and goes alone to ask for robbers and giants, but there are a lot of gifts that should be received, this is probably the style of the legendary famous general, right? ”

After swaggering into Jiujiang, Dong Weiguo sent his henchmen to get in touch with Mu Tan and began to verify and trade. After getting back the grain and boats, Dong Weiguo personally led the sailors to Jiujiang to kill, and when he saw the dense Ming army ships at the mouth of Poyang Lake, Dong Weiguo, who was bold, couldn't help but be a little nervous, and suddenly he was very worried that the Ming army would lose his words and break his promises, and he was caught off guard.

The Qing army fleet slowly sailed into the Ming army's water camp, whether it was in the direction of Jiujiang or Hukou, no Ming army ships came out to meet the attack, and all of them stayed in the water camp silently, silently watching Dong Weiguotongguò.

"I'm really worried." After seeing the Ming army's reaction, Dong Weiguo's heart fell to the ground, and he reached out to gently wipe the beads of sweat from his forehead, and couldn't help but laugh at himself in his heart: "If Admiral Deng has the intention of losing his words, then why did he return the food to me first?" ”

When entering the Yangtze River, Dong Weiguo's fleet was not too far away from the Ming Army and Naval Division at Hukou, and he vaguely saw that some people seemed to be looking at the river from the shore, probably looking forward to watching a lively scene.

"These people." Dong Weiguo saw that the people on the riverbank were gathering more and more, and he had no choice but to order: "Beat the drum!" ”

With Dong Weiguo's order, the Qing fleet immediately entered the battle state: the drums of war rose from every boat, and the Qing army officers who were all over their bodies also ran to the bow of the boat, drew their swords and pulled out a large circle of light in the air with all their might, blowing their beards and glaring at the shore, and their soldiers were also holding weapons, so that the people on the riverside could see that they were shouting hoarsely at the Ming army camp at the mouth of the lake.

The earth-shattering sound of war drums touched a string in Dong Weiguo's heart, and he suddenly found that the scene in front of him seemed to be very familiar, and there was a sense of déjà vu.

Shut down

Soon after the Qing army beat the drums of war, the water camp of the Ming army at Hukou also reacted, only to see the red flag fluttering, and the black Ming soldiers poured onto the dock on the shore. Dong Weiguo saw that standing at the front was a Ming army general wearing snow-bright armor, holding a bright long sword in his hand, although he was separated by half of the river, Dong Weiguo could still see the bright cold light on it.

The general of the Ming army raised his sword high, and then slashed hard towards Dong Weiguo's side, and with this action, many arrows rose into the air.

"What kind of broken arrow is this?" Standing behind Dong Weiguo was a standard battalion officer of the Zhang Dynasty, this Fubiao officer had not participated in the previous two wars, and was only sent by the Zhang Dynasty to Dong Weiguo this time. When he first saw the countless feathered arrows rising into the sky, the Fubiao officer was still a little uneasy in his heart, but the quality of those bows and arrows was extremely poor, and the Fubiao officer was stunned to see that few of those arrows could not even reach between the two armies. Most of them fell into the river quickly, and some of the particularly poor quality were blown back by the river wind in the air, swinging around in the air like a kite - not only because of the center of gravity, but also because the weight did not meet the most basic requirements.

"Probably some ......branches," Dong Weiguo muttered, the scene in front of him was too familiar, he had fully understood, Dong Weiguo suddenly said viciously: "Huguang's rabbit cubs, you are so miserable!" ”

After scolding this, Dong Weiguo angrily brushed his sleeves away and walked into the cabin without looking back.

"Well, that Zhou Peigong seems to have made a great contribution to the recovery of the city repeatedly, at that time, Huguang's good news kept coming, and Deng Ming was said to be quite unbearable, and not long after, the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi was beaten by Deng Ming and defeated, at that time, the governor and I also laughed at Governor Li, saying that he was not as good as a small prefect. This reconquest of the city...... If you think about it carefully, it's too suspicious, won't I be able to recover Jiujiang soon? Dong Weiguo's fingers unconsciously tapped the seal of the chapter, and the more he thought about it, the brighter he felt in front of him: "This time Deng Ming invaded Wuchang and Hanyang again, Huguang said that Deng Ming blew up the walls of Hanyang in one day, but Zhou Peigong withstood the opponent's attack and built the wall overnight. Well, when I was in Jiujiang, I also felt that Admiral Deng had no combat effectiveness, and he prepared a lot of people and sent troops to the city wall to prepare for blocking, but they were all blown up all of a sudden, and the soldiers of Yudong rushed in hulala......"

Thinking of this, the anger in Dong Weiguo's heart could no longer be contained, and his palm slapped down on the table: "Governor Zhang is too unrighteous!" He must be a fake good news, what resisted Deng Ming - Heng paid enough money, Deng Ming returned the city to him, right? Or is it also a win-win situation, Huguang's rice is purchased and sold? ”

In Dong Weiguo's view, Huguang's fake good news has at least two benefits, the first is of course to coax the imperial court and boast of his achievements; The second is to mislead neighboring provinces and keep Zhang Chao and Dong Weiguo in the dark.

"Last time, Governor Zhang pitted Governor Li, and this time he cheated me again! When I was in Jiujiang, it was because of these good news that I always thought that Deng Ming was nothing great this time, and he didn't bring Jīng Rui's army. I went to fight with Deng Ming in a daze, and when Deng Ming was beaten up, I attracted the attention of the imperial court for Governor Zhang, which not only made the imperial court not notice his small actions and incompetence, but also made the imperial court feel that he was the pillar of the country...... Governor Zhang is so poisonous! ”

When he thought of this, Dong Weiguo was angry, and his teeth were chewed and creaked, and he did not hesitate, spread out a piece of fine white paper, lifted the pen and dipped it in thick ink, and began to write a chapter to the imperial court.

When writing the recital, Dong Weiguo still recalled the scene when the Huguang Cao boat broke through the customs again and again, and every time he remembered this evil time on his own, Dong Weiguo's eyes were so angry that this recital was almost completed in the curse and scolding of Zhang Changgeng, Zhou Peigong and Huguang Wenwu.

In this piece of Dong Weiguo, he first tried his best to exaggerate his fearless courage, and assured the imperial court that once he confirmed that the Cao boat fleet was out of danger, he would lead the sailors back to Jiujiang to fight Deng Ming again; Of course, Dong Weiguo did not forget to mention Jiangxi Governor Zhang Chao, pointing out that his feat exploits are inseparable from the governor's concern and support, and Governor Zhang's cordial condolences to the officers and soldiers of the Green Battalion before leaving made the officers and soldiers deeply inspired and morale!

Later, Dong Weiguo turned his pen and reported to the imperial court: Deng Ming, the thief of Yudong, plundered after capturing Jiujiang, and he estimated that the thieves in Yudong were now demoralized, and only wanted to return to their lair with the looted property. However, the cousin of Mu Tan, a general under Deng Ming, supports Dong Weiguo's argument very well, and this time when the Jiangxi Cao boat was passing through the Jiujiang River and Hukou, the Ming army did not send many ships to pursue the Qing army, which shows that the fighting spirit of the local generals has been sluggish; The Ming soldiers who came to pursue the Cao boat fleet gave up their efforts after several failed gang jumps, and left their accomplices who had fallen into the water and returned to the shore at full speed, which showed that the soldiers of the Dong thieves had no morale.

After describing the scene of the lazy soldiers of the Eastern Army, Dong Weiguo again optimistically reported to Běijīng that he was full of confidence in the recapture of Jiujiang and asked the imperial court to wait for good news.

Along with the recital, there was also a report to Anhui and Jiangsu, and the content was not much different from Dong Weiguo's recital. This great victory was bought back by Dong Weiguo with money, and he publicized it with great confidence. Whether it is a chapter or a good news, Dong Weiguo hinted that the combat effectiveness of Deng Ming's department has been greatly reduced, especially Mu Tan's department is the most incompetent, almost a fish belly army that everyone sees and bullies. However, Dong Weiguo played with his wrist here, he did not simply make this statement, but attached his determination to regain the lost territory after this expression, so the imperial court can fully understand this expression as Dong Weiguo's optimism - in other words, if a certain fool in Nanjing, Anqing, Yangzhou and other places went to challenge Mu Tan because he saw Dong Weiguo's performance, and was beaten well, then it could not be misled by Dong Weiguo anyway - it couldn't be, but since Dong Weiguo could do things more properly, Then he wouldn't be too lazy to add these two sentences.

"I don't know how much silver Governor Zhang spent, and bought this lesson, anyway, I spent 500,000 taels of silver, and if you want to 'recover' Jiujiang, you have to spend another amount of silver, fortunately, there is a good way to buy and sell, otherwise it is really a bit troublesome." After writing the recital and the good news, Dong Weiguo pondered again, since he bought the lesson with money, then he definitely couldn't give it to others in vain.

"After the loss of Jiujiang, Jiangxi has become the cusp of the storm, countless pairs of eyes of the imperial court are looking here, so that the governor is like sitting on pins and needles, of course I am the first to bear the brunt, no one to look at Huguang more, Governor Zhang really did a good article. Now I also need a bigger fool to attract the attention of the imperial court as soon as possible, so that they don't have to keep an eye on Jiangxi. Just like Di Sanxi's thinking after being knocked out of four teeth by Deng Ming, Dong Weiguo now urgently needs more famous contestants to appear and make more eye-catching moves to replace him in the championship of "competing for the first fool in the world".

As for the truth about Zhang Changgeng's successful recovery of Huangzhou and Huguangcao's boats, Dong Weiguo did not move at all, and the first ink lawsuit may not be able to win, and secondly, if the imperial court is suspicious, then Dong Weiguo must first think about explaining the reasonableness of his breakthrough and the feasibility of retaking Jiujiang.

The officer who summoned Fubiao, Dong Weiguo ordered him to immediately find someone to send the piece he had just written to běijīng.

"There are also these good news, immediately send them to Jiangning, Suzhou, Anqing, Huizhou, Yangzhou, Hangzhou, well, Shandong will also send a copy." Dong Weiguo felt that Deng Ming was not satisfied with the results he had achieved, and if Deng Ming continued to attack, Anhui and Jiangsu would now bear the brunt, and although Zhejiang and Shandong were relatively far away, Dong Weiguo also decided to send a good news in line with the psychology of casting a wide net and fishing more. If the local green camp is not careless enough, it may not suffer a big loss.

"It's enough to send a copy to Jiang Ning, right?" Officer Fubiao did not know Dong Weiguo's plan, and felt that there was no need to give Jiang Guozhu five copies of the same good news.

"No, Jiangning, Suzhou, Anqing, Huizhou, Yangzhou, one city, no one is missing." Dong Weiguo said categorically that he had already thought about it, and after recovering Jiujiang, he must write another good news to tell the people of the world how vulnerable Deng Ming is. Of course, the good news to Jiang Guozhu still has to be in five copies, to ensure that the civil and military forces under the rule of Governor Jiang can see it at the first time.

"Yes." The Fubiao officer replied respectfully, and he finally checked the report documents and found a loophole in Dong Bu's political envoy: "My lord forgot to send a good report to the Yamen, the governor of Huguang." ”

"Huguang doesn't need to send it there." Dong Weiguo didn't explain much, waved his hand to let the Fuying officer retreat, and then muttered to himself: "Governor Zhang won't believe it." ”