Deng Ming, who was still in Xuzhou, received a proposal from the Yuanhui, which did not contain any specific requirements, but only expressed the attitude of the Yuanhui, asking the imperial government and the army to make more efforts for the freedom of Han Chinese intellectuals to record history.

"We are in the midst of a war," Deng Ming did not immediately call his subordinates to read out the text, but looked at the proposal and said to himself: "If it weren't for the fact that in this crazy era, even a middle school student should know right and wrong, he would choose to side with Han intellectuals without thinking, even if this middle school student's household registration book is Manchu." And the war distorts people's view of right and wrong, making people feel that these people's family property seems to be more important, in fact, it also distorts me, if I first came to this world, I would not have such an ambiguous attitude, hesitating on this issue, but will take a clear stand and use all my strength to fight against the enemies of the Han civilization. ”

Deng Ming summoned the officers around Xuzhou and announced to them the proposals of the Senate and the Imperial Diet: "The Senate will order that we should do more than we do now." ”

"More than now?" Many people asked, "What does this mean?" What do you want us to do? ”

"The Yuan Council will not give orders," Deng Ming felt that he did not dare to give orders to himself, so he gave such a proposal that was almost non-binding: "As far as I understand, because we oppose the Qing court's offensive activities, such as providing arms and other military assistance to persecuted scholars, these activities must be retained; We also need more help to fulfill the orders of the Yuanhui, such as assisting the persecuted scholars to escape from the Qing-controlled districts, and taking the initiative to seek compensation from the Qing court on their behalf after the later war with the Qing court. ”

According to Deng Ming's previous orders, the Ming army did not interfere with the judicial power of the Qing magistrates, for example, after the capture of Jiujiang, Deng Ming did not release the prisoners in prison - and according to the general principle of hegemony, these prisoners would be incorporated into the Ming army. When passing through the Qing army-controlled area, the Ming army would not prevent the Qing army's officials from arresting the thieves who killed people and robbed, and if the king of the mountain had the bad deeds of kidnapping tickets and robbing relatives, the Ming army would not recognize them as friendly troops fighting side by side with them, but let the Qing army encircle and suppress them.

This kind of policy was a tacit agreement between Deng Ming and the governors of Huguang and Liangjiang, and it has been the case for many years, because Deng Ming believed that this order that guaranteed the safety of the lives of local people should not be destroyed because of the dynasty's struggle for hegemony. In Shandong and Zhejiang, the Ming army and the Jingnan army still followed the traditional path of fighting for hegemony, and although a large number of gentry participated, they were much more tolerant of bandits and criminals than the Sichuan army -- Deng Ming even ordered that if bandits took advantage of the Ming army's transit to try to attack the towns of Huguang and Liangjiang, the Ming army should support the defenders of the towns. In the past, there were many times when the bandits saw the Ming army passing by, and the Qing army retreated to the prefecture and county to defend and came out to kidnap and extort tickets, and then Deng Ming would order the Ming army to arrest and then hand it over to the Qing court's prefecture and county for interrogation - for example, Zhu Guozhi lost all the green camps around Anqing when Deng went to the south of the Yangtze River, and then for a long time it was the Ming army that shouldered the responsibility of maintaining local law and order, arrested a large number of bandit leaders and handed them over to the officials sent by Jiang Guozhu.

In the past, Deng Ming only interfered with the Qing court's suppression of scholars who sympathized with the Ming army, for example, every time Deng Ming went to Jiangnan to ask for the scholars who started an incident, Deng Ming made it clear that the Yamen, the governor of Liangjiang, must ensure their safety, and if the people on the Ming army's protection list committed murders and were investigated, the Ming army would also ask the Yamen, the governor of Liangjiang, to provide conclusive evidence.

Today, however, Deng Ming revised this policy: "If a Qing court official in Jiangnan or any other province tries to condemn a person for his words, even if this criminal does not support us, we cannot sit idly by, and we should help him and his family enter our military-controlled area." Deng Ming pondered for a moment: "However, the Yuan Council did not explicitly ask us to start a war with Jiang Guozhu for this reason, so it is better not to threaten by force, the Jiangnan chaos is not necessarily beneficial to the empire, and we can't control Jiangnan for the time being, so our army still does not intervene." ”

……

In mid-July, Nanjing, the Yamen of the Governor of Liangjiang.

The Jiangnan stock exchange had recently opened in Yangzhou with great fanfare, and the city of Nanjing was the center of attention, and Jiang Guozhu did not open the stock exchange here but moved it to the entrance to the canal, which was not the location of Lin Qilong or Zhou Peigong's yamen.

The people in the north may have remained in the dark, but the gentry and officials in the southeast soon learned that the imperial court had acquiesced in the Caoyun reforms, and the banks in Sichuan began to work hard to promote the issuance of their Caoyun bonds to share the risks and raise funds. In the future, if things go well, banks in Sichuan also plan to sell more bonds and shares on major exchanges in Wuchang, Jiujiang, Yangzhou and Hangzhou.

"The imperial court has ordered Zhejiang to let Zhao Guozuo immediately close the case of Ming History." An aide reported to Chiang Guozhu that this time the imperial court had completely overturned the previous conclusions, and the emperor and the empress dowager issued a holy decree and a decree, declaring that the Qing dynasty respected China and Confucian traditions, and hated the behavior of the previous dynasties for their sinners. The outbreak of the Ming history case was also the fact that the imperial court was deceived by villains (such as Wu Zhirong), who mistakenly thought that this was a conspiracy to rebel.

Now that it has been ascertained that this is just Zhuang Yuncheng writing history, rather than a conspiracy against the rebellion, the imperial court will naturally withdraw its fate, as for the controversial words and titles in the book, as well as the issue of the era name not being in the Zhengshuo of this dynasty, the empress dowager said that she simply laughed it off - the Qing court was so grand that it didn't take such a trivial matter to heart.

Although Zhuang Yuncheng and others were excessively aggressive when they encountered grievances, they did not explain to the Son of Heaven and the imperial court of Shengming but resisted by force, but considering that the imperial court was at fault, the empress dowager also said on behalf of the young emperor: "There is a crime in the world, and the crime is in me", and Zhuang Yuncheng's crimes were all pardoned.

Although the imperial court did not say it explicitly for the sake of face, Jiang Guozhu heard that there was still a question of recruiting security -- although Beijing pardoned Zhuang Yuncheng, but the other party was willing to accept the pardon, it was still a question of whether he would honestly hand over the prefecture and county. Under the mediation of the Sichuan people, Zhao Guozuo agreed to suspend the imperial examinations in Huzhou and Jiaxing, and let Zhuang Yuncheng and his allies control the official positions in these two prefectures. In addition, Zhuang Yuncheng and they also had to ensure that they paid the official taxes payable to the imperial court, abolish the title of the Jingnan Army and reorganize it into the Green Battalion, and Hangzhou gave the Jingnan Army ten battalions with 4,000 soldiers and horses, and the Zhuang Yuncheng group could withhold the corresponding military salaries from the taxes payable, and these troops could also be retained as officers and soldiers of the two prefectures after the restoration of the imperial examination in the future.

"This is an official letter from the Sichuan consul." The aides brought out another document, which was sent by the Sichuan office in Nanjing, which made it clear that Sichuan would not participate in the literary prison planned by the Qing court, and that it would try to help the framed escape.

"Is it just to escape from Jiangnan?" Jiang Guozhu asked, the expression on his face remained unchanged, and the matter of the text prison had several ups and downs, which made Jiang Guozhu also look very worried at first, and suspended the progress. But now that the governor of Liangjiang has reappeared, he has become unfazed, and has begun to fabricate charges again, obviously preparing to make a big deal.

"Yes."

"Hmm." Jiang Guozhu nodded, and didn't even look at the Sichuan consul's official letter carefully a few times.

"The meaning of the imperial court is obvious, that is, the Ming history case is because of the sinner, but it is difficult to say whether the others are not, and the reason why the Ming history case has become a sinner because of the words is also because Zhuang Yuncheng is very difficult to control. Now the imperial court wants to concentrate on dealing with Deng Ming, and it is also wary of the southeast, although the imperial court does not want to lose face, it will never invest huge amounts of manpower and material resources in the southeast. Jiang Guozhu pondered the situation in front of him in his heart, anyway, as long as Zhejiang can send Cao Yun to Beijing, Beijing will have a temporary opportunity to continue to turn a blind eye to Zhejiang - if there is Cao Yun, the situation will not continue to deteriorate, and it will take money to deal with Deng Ming everywhere, and Beijing will definitely be able to save the province, as long as Deng Ming is destroyed or the peace negotiation is completed, it is not too late to concentrate on cleaning up the troubles in Zhejiang (or just Zhuang Yuncheng, or Hangzhou needs to be added) to restore the prestige of the imperial court.

As for the Wailing Temple case and the sale case in Jiangnan, Beijing has not yet determined whether it is because of words or not, Jiang Guozhu has thoroughly figured it out, as long as the people involved in these two cases do not have the ability to make a big fuss with Yu Qi and Zhuang Yuncheng, then this is not because of words but because of the guilt but because of the guilt. But it can't be as big as Zhuang Yuncheng and Yu Qi, and the key to the obvious problem is still ......

"It's not Deng Ming." Jiang Guozhu denied the speculation of his staff without thinking: "Zhao Guozuo made a mistake here, he thought that the most critical person was Admiral Deng, so it was enough to buy Deng Ming all the time; And the mistake that the official made at the beginning was exactly the same, but fortunately, Zhao Guozuo's experience made the official not make a mistake to the end. ”

"The real trouble is still these gentry themselves, if they are willing to unite against their own officials, how can Admiral Deng sell them arms, and they can make money, contain their own officials, and weaken the prestige of the imperial court, why wouldn't he do it? What is the use of giving him money alone? Isn't it true that he sells cannons and rifles for the same amount of money? Jiang Guozhu glanced at the staff and told them what he had thought hard about: "But if these gentry don't unite to resist, then Admiral Deng will not send troops to stand up for them." Jiang Guozhu found that the attitudes of Chengdu and Beijing on this issue are actually exactly the same: if the gentry make trouble in Beijing, they will recruit An, and Chengdu will support it; If the gentry were to be arrested, Beijing would have Jiangnan convict him, hand over some of the confiscated property to the imperial court, and Chengdu would come back to sell bonds.

"Therefore, the list of persons involved in the sale case should be determined by a new method." Jiang Guozhu's previous principles for drawing up the list were: rich, disrespectful to the imperial court, and tax evasion (against the Ming Dynasty); And the new principle that Jiang Guozhu came up with is: I didn't buy Deng Ming's gun, and I didn't resist.

"All the gentry who have ties with Sichuan will not be included in the list, and the official can give them personal guarantees, but they also need to repay the kindness of the official, not to collude, not to resell Sichuan's rifles to more people-" Jiang Guozhu dictated the strategy to his staff: "And those who have no connection with Sichuan, misers, cowards and fears, are all criminals in this case." ”