The requirements of the Qing side are very clear, that is, Deng Ming must leave immediately, Zhang Huangyan and Ma Fengzhi can't stay outside Zhenjiang City for longer, it is best for the Ming army to leave today, Deng Ming took the Sichuan army back to Sichuan, Zhang Huangyan and Ma Fengzhi took the Zhoushan army to Chongming, and the two governors of the two rivers and the governor of Caoyun needed along the way were all covered.

Deng Ming still had some doubts about this, some worried about the authenticity of the two copies of the holy decrees that Zhou Peigong showed him, and worried that Shunzhi would not give up his plan to conquer himself. The governor of Caoyun and Jiang Guozhu's envoys, as well as Zhou Peigong, swore to him that the copy of the holy decree was exactly the same as the original, and as long as Deng Mingken left, they would definitely be able to stop Shunzhi.

Now the sea trade agreement negotiated with Jiang Guozhu has not yet begun, and Zhang Chao has only started the policy of unified purchase and sales of porcelain in Jiangxi, Deng Ming knows that as long as time passes, the strength of the Ming army can be further enhanced, and it can also break the Qing court's ban on the sea for the Fujian army, so that Huang Wu can lift a stone and shoot himself in the foot. Therefore, if it does not involve the safety of allies, Deng Ming is not willing to stiffen relations with these local governors. Another reason why Deng Ming refused to leave before was that he was worried about the damage to his prestige, but now it was not he who took the initiative to leave, but the Qing court magistrate strongly asked him to leave, so there was no need to worry about this.

Lin Qilong, the governor of Caoyun in the Qing court, also gave the Ming army a large sum of silver, and Deng Ming could not resist their urging and finally agreed to leave as much as possible. After reconfirming that the other party would do its best to prevent Shunzhi from conquering and threatening Zhoushan, Deng Ming organized his army and set off to return to Sichuan.

When the Ming army opened Kuimen, Deng Ming brought more than 10,000 soldiers, horses, and sailors, and when he returned from Zhenjiang, the number of ships increased by fifty percent, and there were 20,000 strong men from Jiangxi and Jiangnan who volunteered to serve in the army, not counting the ships and personnel that Deng Ming had transported back to Sichuan before. From Huguang to Jiangnan, Deng Ming recruited hundreds of poor talents who were willing to teach in Sichuan, some of whom had been sent away by him, and the remaining fifty people did not let them be idle, and had begun to help Deng Ming educate Zhuangding in literacy.

The most troublesome thing is those shipwrights kidnapped by Jiang Guozhu, this kind of behavior is of course a ticket kidnapping, and Deng Ming is still an instigator and accomplice, and all he can do at present is to appease with good words. Like the bookkeepers and apprentices that Zhang had kidnapped to him, Deng Ming assured them that they would be treated well in Sichuan, that they would not be treated as slaves, that they would own their own private property, that they could buy land, and that the best of them could also count on their own shipyards instead of monitoring the shipbuilding of the Ming army.

Just before Deng Ming left, Zhoushan drove another fleet, this is Zheng Chenggong's messenger, originally only intended to send to Zhoushan, after hearing that Zhang Huangyan entered the Yangtze River and Deng Ming joined the division, they sent more than 200 captured prisoners of the Eight Banners into the Yangtze River.

Deng Ming didn't want to delay too much time with these captives, so he simply asked, "Did any of them participate in the Jiangnan massacre?" For example, when attacking Yangzhou, was anyone present? ”

"Admiral Deng rest assured, the king of Yanping County has been carefully screened, these captives were all made into Ding ten years after Shunzhi, and the youngest was only made last year." These Eight Banner soldiers were all painted in charcoal black, and Zheng Chenggong meant that if he could manage to smuggle them, he would smuggle them, and if someone checked them, they would be killed, and they were said to be bought slaves.

"In that case, let's sell it." Deng Ming originally wanted to sell it to Jiang Guozhu, but after thinking about it, most of the current governors of Jiangning were already shy and couldn't sell it at a good price, so he handed over this task to Mu Tan: "You immediately take them to Yangzhou and sell them to Lin Qilong." ”

"Yes." Mu Tan took the order and left, lamenting in his heart when he left, feeling that he would probably never get rid of this image: "I am a wise and brave general, not a greedy martial artist." ”

Zheng Chenggong's envoy also brought a lot of chili peppers, packed in large packages, originally wanted Zhang Huangyan to try to hand them over, when he was in Nanjing City, Deng Ming mentioned this thing, since it was the young master's preference, Zheng Chenggong also planted a large piece of heart. Zheng Chenggong tasted it out of curiosity and came to the conclusion that it was "unpalatable", and the views of the other Min soldiers were no different from those of the king of Yanping County.

After seeing the whole ship's chili peppers, Deng Ming was very happy, obviously happier than when he heard about the sacrifice of prisoners, and immediately ordered a burden to be opened. After staring at the red chili pepper for a long time, Deng Ming let out a long sigh of satisfaction, in his previous life, whether it was Hunan cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, or hot pot or grilled fish, where could there be less chili peppers.

Immediately, Deng Ming ordered the slaughter of sheep, a pot of meat slices to satisfy hunger, and traveled to Sichuan for two years, but he didn't expect that the first simple Sichuan hot pot was actually eaten in Jiangsu. This kind of good thing is not willing to be enjoyed exclusively, and it is also ordered to be distributed to the Sichuan army, and the whole army will kill pigs and sheep, so that everyone can jointly verify the moment when chili pepper has become an official condiment.

Seeing Deng Ming's salivating look, Zhang Huangyan and Ma Fengzhi were also suspicious and wanted to try it together, Deng Ming is not a stingy person, and he is very willing to share the food with everyone. At the same time, Deng Ming also called the guards to taste together, a table could not sit down, so it was divided into several pots, although Deng Ming said that it didn't matter, but Zhou Kaihuang felt that it was not good to squeeze a table with Deng Ming in front of Zhang Huangyan, so they were with Ren Tang and a few guards.

In the red, hot boiling water, there are countless peppercorns floating, Zhang Huangyan sniffed the delicious mutton smell in the air, and couldn't help but praise: "Although it has not yet been eaten, two of these colors and fragrances are already excellent, which really makes my index finger move." ”

"Yes, just by looking at the color, you know that the meat must taste luscious." Ma Fengzhi also hurriedly praised, he felt that the soup looked like watermelon juice, and it was cute red.

"Admiral Deng, please."

"Zhang Shangshu, please, Admiral Ma, please."

"Together, together."

After being polite and humble with Deng Ming, Zhang Huangyan, the old Zhejiang, scooped up a large lump of meat and put it in his mouth. Immediately afterwards, Zhang Shangshu reflexively covered his mouth, so as not to spray the table on the spot, and after secretly spitting out the meat, Zhang Huangyan still felt that his cheeks twitched, and his lips didn't seem to be his own. And Ma Fengzhi, a Jiangsu guy next to him, still kept his mouth closed, trying his best to suppress the urge to cough violently, and tears were splashing out, although this thing looked like watermelon juice, but the taste was different at all.

The situation at the next table is slightly better, after living in the Sichuan army for a while, Ren Tang has adapted to the spicy eating habits of Sichuan and Exi, and has also tasted dogwood, seeing that the soup boiled out of this thing is redder than dogwood, Ren Tang was careful in his heart, and did not swallow a large piece in one gulp.

Despite this, Ren Tang was still speechless for a while.

"It's a fire." Ren Tang went out to fetch a bucket of cold water, but was first begged for a lot by Zhang Huangyan and Ma Fengzhi, especially Ma Fengzhi, who poured half a bucket of water. After scooping a scoop of water and drinking it, Ren Tang commented: "This thing is much spicier than dogwood." ”

"Admiral Deng just has a vision." Sichuan hot pot is known as a third-rate hot pot: drooling, tears, runny nose, now Zhou Kaihuang is in this situation, Deng Ming, of course, is very inauthentic, but even so Zhou Kaihuang is extremely satisfied, when Ren Tang slowly drank water, Zhou Kaihuang was sweating profusely, and he also felt sorry for Li Xinghan: "If Brother Li is here, I don't know how happy I am." ”

The reaction in the Sichuan army is similar, the batch of Zhejiang soldiers who entered Sichuan last year can eat, but they don't eat much, but the soldiers from the Sichuan army are extremely fond of it, when distributing chili peppers, these soldiers have heard how this thing is obtained, and many people are also proud to say to their companions when they are addicted: "I said earlier that the Admiral is the king of Shu, not from our Sichuan, can we deliberately find such a good spicy taste from overseas?" ”

……

After learning that the Sichuan army had returned on the road, the governor of Jiangning was in a happy mood, ate well, and slept soundly.

Today, when he learned that the Ming army was about to pass through the waters near Nanjing, Jiang Guozhu also deliberately grazing a batch of pigs and sheep outside the field, and also sent people to fish in the river. ”

Yangzhou Liang Huafeng was also in a good mood, he learned that his silver ship returned safely, and Deng Ming and Zhang Huangyan also left from Zhenjiang respectively. As far as Liang Huafeng knows, after confirming that Deng Ming left, the governor of Caoyun also celebrated with a crown, and last night he also invited the troupe to sing all night, celebrating the officers and soldiers who repelled Deng Ming's great martial arts; The civil officials of all Yangzhou, including the prefect, were invited by Lin Qilong to have fun - Lin Qilong had just bribed Mu Tan to rescue a group of Manchurian princes, adding new achievements, and now he was in a good mood that he could almost fly - it is said that this celebration will last for three days and three nights, and as for the recital of the victory, it was reported early yesterday morning.

While Liang Huafeng was comfortably drinking tea in the backyard, a standard battalion guard of the Caoyun Governor's Yamen suddenly asked for an urgent meeting, and asked the Jiangnan Admiral to go and meet with the Caoyun Governor immediately.

"What's going on again, could it be that Lord Lin wants to get the silver back?" Liang Huafeng followed the envoy to Lin Qilong's mansion full of suspicion, because he really couldn't think of anything urgent, so Liang Huafeng couldn't help but start thinking nonsense: "This is impossible, Lord Lin is not a person who doesn't know the rules." ”

"Your Excellency the Doge." After seeing Lin Qilong, Liang Huafeng greeted An in a regular manner, he noticed that the troupe had been blown away by Lin Qilong, but the stage had not been dismantled yet, obviously in a hurry, and the prefect of Yangzhou stood beside Lin Qilong dejectedly, with the two long sleeves hanging to the ground with his hands caged, and seemed to be trembling slightly.

"Looks like something happened." Liang Huafeng had some ominous premonitions in his heart.

"General Liang, how are your soldiers doing?" Lin Qilong didn't make any politeness, and asked bluntly.

"Could it be that Lord Lin really has the idea of asking for the silver back?" Liang Huafeng was stunned and forgot to answer the question.

"General Liang, look at this." Lin Qilong's face was gloomy, he picked up a yellow silk from the table and threw it at Liang Huafeng, although the governor of Caoyun tried his best to control it, Liang Huafeng could still detect the fury under the other party's strict expression.

"Is this a holy decree? Probably not, how dare Lord Lin treat the Holy Decree like this? Liang Huafeng's heart was full of doubts, he picked up the piece of yellow silk that Lin Qilong threw over angrily from the ground, opened it and looked at it twice, and felt a wave of anger rise from the dantian, rushing straight to his chest and abdomen, almost hitting out of his throat.

"It's a personal vendetta, isn't it? It's a personal vendetta, right? Liang Huafeng yelled silently in his heart.