When the Han Ming army returned to Xiangyang, the Sichuan army also came to Jiangling without any danger, where Deng Ming was warmly greeted by Li Laiheng.

Now the soldiers of the Three Walls are basically Deng Ming's guards, and the senior ones are Li Laiheng's old department, and the young ones are all apprentices taught by the old Three Walls. Deng Ming chose them as guards when he returned to Sichuan last year, the main reason is that the fighting skills of this group of people are far above those of the Zhejiang Volunteers, and they are all good riders, who can follow Deng Ming to maneuver at high speed on the battlefield.

However, in Li Laiheng's view, this is of course Deng Ming's great trust in him, since ancient times, few people have regarded other people's descendants as their own, let alone as personal guards. Generally speaking, the cavalry guards who follow the generals always get the most trust and promotion opportunities, and Deng Ming's heavy use of the three walls of soldiers is of course a great benefit to the camp. According to this trend, after the Ming Dynasty is revived, the camp department will occupy an extremely important position in the Deng Ming Group, and at that time, if anyone wants to settle old accounts, they have to weigh their own weight.

"This kind of big event, why doesn't the admiral call the last general?" After Li Laiheng heard about the results of the battle of Gaoyou Lake, he first applauded the festival, and then regretted it, feeling that he had missed a great opportunity, and he hated the dead Shunzhi to the core. In Li Laiheng's view, Shunzhi did not go to Jiangnan last year, instead of picking Li Laiheng's absence to come to Jiangnan, which was simply deliberately against himself.

"Hu Shuai wronged me," Deng Ming hurriedly defended: "I called Hu Shuai when I set off from Jiangling, obviously Hu Shuai said that something was wrong." ”

"Where?" Li Laiheng was anxious when he heard this: "When the admiral left Jiangling, he said that he was going to Wuchang to sell salt, and I think selling salt is not a big deal." The admiral also said that he was just using General Liu's bell to blow up the city wall to scare Zhang Changgeng, and he didn't plan to really fight. There were still a lot of troublemakers in my territory at that time, so I didn't go with the Admiral, but just went and went back. Who would have thought that the Admiral went all the way to Gaoyou and raided the Tartar Emperor, if the Admiral didn't say that he was selling salt, but that he was going to kill the Tartar Emperor, wouldn't he go? ”

"Oh, really?" It's been too long, and Deng Ming has forgotten a little about how he told Li Laiheng in the first place.

"Of course!" Li Laiheng replied loudly.

"Well, I guess so." Deng Ming recalled it carefully and found that Li Laiheng was not wrong, his original purpose of sending troops was to go to Wuchang to sell salt, and by the way, to train the army and sailors, so that the soldiers could adapt to the march and camping, and let the new sailors be familiar with the Yangtze River waterway.

The last time he passed by Jiangling, Li Laiheng didn't talk to Deng Mingshen, at that time he had a lot of internal affairs to worry about, so he didn't care too much about Deng Ming's salt business, and besides, he really thought that Deng Ming would return from Wuchang soon, and it was not too late to discuss the next strategy at that time. But I didn't expect Deng Ming to go for half a year, go around the south of the Yangtze River, kill Shunzhi, and bring back a large number of materials from Liangjiang, and the grain alone is more than 1.5 million stones.

At the urging of Li Laiheng, Deng Ming recounted the course of the war in great detail, and the whole introduction process lasted for more than an hour, and Li Laiheng was always listening carefully, occasionally interjecting to ask a question.

After Deng Ming finished speaking, Li Laiheng pondered for a moment and concluded concisely: "The Admiral sent troops from Sichuan last year, but it was just to go to Wuchang to sell salt; crossed Wuchang to attack Jiangnan in order to better sell salt in Wuchang; and Zhang Shangshu besieged Yangzhou, in order to sell not only salt but also other goods on the Yangtze River; In the end, the Admiral attacked Gaoyou Lake and killed the Tartar Emperor, because the Tartar Emperor was alive and the Admiral could not sell the goods properly. Is the Admiral right? ”

"Tiger Shuai...... Well, that's a good point. Li Laiheng's summary sounded a little weird, but he had to admit that Li Laiheng's summary was indeed very accurate.

"Haha, haha." Li Laiheng laughed, shaking his head while laughing: "Sure enough, he is an extraordinary person, and he has achieved extraordinary achievements!" The Admiral's thoughts, even after listening to the Admiral's own words, still feel unbelievable. ”

Hearing Li Laiheng say this, Deng Ming's eccentricity was also reduced a lot. The model of the Sichuan army made this army deeply influenced by Deng Ming, and the style was very different from other armies. Now many people in the Sichuan army, like Deng Ming, feel that it is natural to go on an expedition for the benefit of their own province, although this expedition is not to recover lost territory or crusade against puppet officials, but they do not feel embarrassed.

"The last general has one more thing to ask, what the hell is going on with that IOU?" Li Laiheng changed his words and asked about another matter.

When Deng Ming saw Hao Shaoqi and He Zhen before, these two people also asked about the IOU. They had no affection for the gentry in the new territory than Li Laiheng, so their relationship with Wuchang was also the most tense, and the governor of Huguang broke out into fierce battles with them several times, and it was difficult to say that there was no influence exerted by the gentry who had been robbed of their property.

However, in the past few months, the hostile attitude of the Wuchang gentry towards He Zhen and Hao Shaoqi has changed a lot, and many people have taken the initiative to stop the confrontation and pay heavy taxes according to the requirements of the Kui Dong Army. However, they asked Hao Shaoqi and He Zhen to provide tax collection vouchers, which were also stamped with the big seal of Kui Dongjun.

The efficiency of imposing taxes is very low, and it often leads to resistance and rebellion of taxpayers, and it is also a trouble to find out the amount of land, so if the gentry are willing to cooperate, He Zhen and Hao Shaoqi are willing to give appropriate tax relief. But to their surprise, these gentlemen rejected the kindness of the Ming army, saying that they would never bargain over the tax rate...... Even ghosts can't be deceived by this, in the past, these gentry were not only bargaining for the tax rate, most of them fled to Wuchang and threw all their production to the Ming army, preferring not to have a penny or admit the rationality of the Ming army's taxation, and wholeheartedly support Zhang Changgeng to fight back.

Hao Shaoqi knew that there was fraud, so he naturally investigated carefully, and found that the land of the gentry under the rule of Li Laiheng and Liu Tichun enjoyed the compensation policy, and those gentry whose family property was in the territory of Hao Shaoqi and He Zhen were also actively fighting for the same treatment for themselves, and Deng Ming also agreed in principle, and it will probably be implemented from the New Year, that is, this year.

Now He Zhen and Hao Shaoqi still lack a concept of IOUs, and asking Deng Ming is just curiosity, in He Zhen and Hao Shaoqi's view, this is just a way for Deng Ming to support them: Deng Ming used the profits of the Yangtze River trade to subsidize the Ming army in the Han River valley, and persuaded the local gentry to cooperate with the Ming army.

However, Li Laiheng knew much more about the IOUs than Hao Shaoqi and the two of them, and although the relationship between the camp and the gentry here in Jiangling was also tense, there had not been a large-scale mutiny or armed resistance to taxes. Therefore, the communication channels between Li Laiheng and the gentry were relatively smooth, and he inquired carefully, and he also had an understanding of how the gentry used the IOU to make profits.

After figuring out the original reason for the issuance of the IOU and the trading rules in Wuchang from Deng Ming, Li Laiheng asked Deng Ming: "Has the Admiral heard of the recharge?" ”

"I've heard of it." After being here for so long, Deng Ming already knew what was going on. The small landlords and yeoman farmers of the Ming Dynasty included their land in the name of the gentry, so that their land enjoyed the tax exemption of the gentry, so that the gentry could receive certain benefits from it. In general, it is at the cost of the loss of taxes that the Ming government should collect, and the gentry and ordinary people achieve a win-win situation. For the recharge, although the Ming government continued to clean up, but more and more, and finally there was no choice but to do so.

"Now there are people in Gangneung who are tinkering with it again." A strange smile appeared on Lee Rae-hyung's face.

"Charge? Regardless of fame or not, if you collect taxes all of them, is there any benefit to recharging? Deng Ming once heard that after Li Laiheng and Liu Tichun implemented the tax policy of treating the gentry equally, the phenomenon of investment disappeared immediately: for the people, since they cannot be exempt from taxes, why should they put their property in someone else's name? In the past, you could take risks for tax exemption, but now there is no benefit, and it would be foolish to continue to take risks; And for the gentry, if they can't help the people to be exempt from taxes, then of course they can't get the benefit fee, since the people who voted don't pay the benefit fee, then why let their land stay in their own name? Is it because he is afraid that he will not find out that he is a fat pig when he breaks into the camp?

A win-win situation turned into a lose-lose situation, and the Ming court's helpless surrender ended quickly in Jiangling, a district controlled by the Ming army, and without the Ming army going down to clean up, a large number of gentry and ordinary people spontaneously came to ask for a revision of the register and a clear understanding of property rights.

It is precisely because of this that Deng Ming really can't see any benefit in the current investment, and the obvious evil smile on Li Laiheng's face makes him feel a little puzzled. After a while, Deng Ming suddenly realized: "They want to pay taxes in the name of the gentry!" ”

"Exactly." Lee Rae-hyung stroked his palms and laughed. Deng Ming did not compensate the ordinary people in the territory of the Ming army, and the Ming army compensated the gentry who served as officials in Wuchang not only to open up the market, but also to win over the wall-riding faction in the local camp.

In the final analysis, the emergence of the phenomenon of investment and charging in the past was that the Ming government implemented discriminatory tax treatment for the gentry and the people, and after Li Laiheng and Liu Tichun ended the discrimination, the investment and charging became a tree without roots and naturally disappeared; Now that Deng Ming began to introduce new discriminatory policies, and the re-appropriation was immediately revived, the gentry immediately discovered a new win-win way, and they extended an olive branch to the small landlords and yeoman farmers who could not enjoy compensation -- they still divided the accounts in five or a half as before, and the people's land after the repossession would be subsidized, and half of the subsidy would belong to the gentry.

"In addition to charging, there is also overreporting." Li Laiheng had already prepared and asked his subordinates to take out the account books and show them to Deng Ming: "After the New Year, I began to re-register the land, and the general found that there was an astonishing amount of land that was 'newly reclaimed' last year, on the contrary, there was no cultivated land that was reported to be famine. This is only the first month, the amount of new land in Gangneung is almost 30% of the previous total, according to this posture, the doubling of Gangneung's land this year is a certainty, as for next year can be doubled will not be guaranteed. In other places, there are more or less, but the situation of the great increase in arable land is the same, and it is the best good land. The admiral should know that this kind of good land has the highest tax, and in the past, everyone did not hesitate to bribe the officials to report a bad land, but now it is good, it has become a bribe for my subordinates, and it must be reported as a good land. ”

If Li Laiheng ignores it, then Li Laiheng's taxes will increase greatly this year, and the compensation that Deng Ming wants to give will greatly exceed his expectations, and he is likely to face the problem of choosing between "economic bankruptcy" and "credit bankruptcy".

The more he looked at the account books, the more obvious the anger on Deng Ming's face became, and seeing this, Li Laiheng asked happily: "What does the Admiral think of this?" ”

"In the past, the purpose of charging was to maliciously evade taxes," Deng Ming saw a large number of documents for land sales, and the people who only broke away from the gentry last year voted back one after another: "And this is malicious tax payment!" ”