More than a year ago, Huang Taiji's widow blatantly violated the power of the Ming Emperor Zhu Youlang, and announced to the whole world that Deng's name was a close relative of the Ming Dynasty - recognizing someone as the Ming Dynasty, which was already one of the few powers in the hands of the Yongli Emperor.

If it weren't for the released Janissaries still living in Burma and Siam, a staunch ally of the Ming Dynasty, who worked day and night to bite off a piece of meat from Mangbai, the Son of Yongli might not even have the choice of what to eat for lunch. Of course, now Zhu Youlang can ask the Burmese guards for the food he wants, but he loses the freedom to eat or skip lunch - before Deng Ming supported the reckless, Wacheng didn't care too much about Zhu Youlang's life and death, so for a long time, Zhu Youlang relied on food to be given by monks from nearby temples. However, after the emergence of the reckless separatist group, the reckless government suddenly became concerned about the health of the Da Tianzi family.

Now on average, every two months, the Ming Janissaries in northern Myanmar and Yang Zai's scholars will concoct a rumor that the Son of Heaven has died or that Yang Zai's old father-in-law, Ma Shoufu, has been tortured to death, and then they tearfully announce that they will crusade against Wacheng; Sensing that both the King of Jin and the Duke of Bao Guo were busy dealing with the enemy in front of them and had no intention of inviting them to join in the crusade against Burma, Siam got in touch with Scholar Yang, and Siam was equally happy to spread the false news that Zhu Youlang had died of torture at the bereak of Mangbai, not once every two months, but twice a month!

In order to clarify the facts, Mang Bai could only keep asking Zhu Youlang to write letters to Kunming three times a month to report his peace to refute the lies that Yang Daxue and the King of Siam had passed on to Li Dingguo, Deng Ming, and Bai Wenxuan. Not long ago, Mang Bai also ordered the monks who remained loyal to Ava to pray for the blessing of the Son of Eternal Heaven, hoping that he would give birth to more dragon sons and dragon girls, so as to prove to the ill-intentioned Kunming and Chengdu that their emperor was in good health and happy in Ava.

Because Yongli Tianzi, Ma Shoufu, and Mu Guogong had no personal freedom, they could not protest to the mistress of the Aixin Jueluo family against her infringement of the genealogical compilation right of the old Zhu family—it is common to fight for the world, but the matter of fighting for the right to compile genealogy is ...... Didn't you Aixinjue Luo clan from Tunguska even let go of the right to pay tribute to the ancestral tomb of Fengyang? What a barbarian!

However, Scholar Yang, who can protest on behalf of the great emperor, is not on this mind, and he is now gradually persuaded by the reckless regime and the Siamese king, and wants to help the reckless regime launch a war to unify Burma, and by the way, let the Siamese friends get a piece of the pie, and let the Janissaries enter the city of Ava to take revenge.

Deng Ming was the last person to protest against the announcement of the Empress Dowager of the Qing Dynasty, but he didn't take it seriously at first. In order to reduce the probability of being exposed, Beijing did not specify which vassal king's descendant Deng Ming was, only vague hints. Deng Ming thought that if he didn't say it, Yongli or Yang Zai's exiled court would also do it for him. Later, Deng Ming felt that Beijing was making a bit too much trouble, and when he began to think about public refutation, Gong Yan came up with the strategy of "one clan, each with its own interpretation".

Now Deng Ming has obviously missed the best opportunity to publicly refute it, because Yongli, the exiled court, and Deng Ming himself have all remained silent about it for up to a year, so the Empress Dowager of the Qing Dynasty seems to have exceeded her authority - if it weren't for the incompetence of the minions of Sony and Aobai, and the analysis of which vassal king Deng Ming was, the Empress Dowager of the Qing Dynasty would have already named Deng Ming the prince of Daming for Yongli.

Today, the envoy of Beijing said this matter very confidently, and Deng Ming was not easy to refute, not because it had been too long to acquiesce, but because it was useless to refute the envoy on the basis of reason, and the empress dowager in Beijing would not admit her mistake, let alone compensate and clear the influence.

The envoy of the Qing court was so angry, also because Deng Ming actually wrote a letter to the Qing court to protect himself as the commander of the Qing Dynasty to destroy the Ming army. At present, the central government of the Qing court and the local yamen in Shandong are convinced that Deng Ming has set an unprecedented record, and no one will break it in the future. When encountering such a negotiating opponent, the envoy knows that no big reason will work.

Because the shape of the Shandong battlefield was not entirely favorable to the Qing court, the envoys had to show their negotiation skills and come up with something more convincing. This envoy is a descendant of the Yehe family, a Manchu of the Zhenghuang Banner, and his current position is the imperial guard, with the secret orders of the Empress Dowager and the Auxiliary Minister, and he has a certain right to negotiate and bargain in his hands.

"The imperial examination and the flow of officials can ensure that the local heroes will not threaten the imperial court." Although he was a Manchurian with a yellow flag, the envoy broke through the importance of the liuguan system with one word.

Since ancient times, whenever the Central Plains Dynasty occupied a piece of land, it would try its best to implement the system of changing the land and returning it to the stream, as long as it was not too much of an obstacle. Although Wu Sangui's crusade against the Shuixian clan made some courtiers in Beijing dissatisfied, thinking that he was letting Li Dingguo not fight, but he was going to clean up the toast, and he took the imperial court's money and did not work, but the auxiliary ministers' group did support this. Because Wu Sangui made the Wumeng region complete the work of changing the land and returning it to the river, this is equivalent to clearing the obstacles for the Qing court. Recently, the attitude of the auxiliary minister suddenly changed, and he sent people to find the descendants of An Jia and planned to pardon him, not because the Qing court felt that it was wrong to change the land and return to the river, but because the Qing court intended to return Guizhou to the Ming court. Since this is the case, there is no need to pull out thorns for the Ming court, and it is best to support the An family before returning Guizhou to the Ming army.

Wu Sangui did not object to this action of the imperial court, because he knew that the imperial court would not take trouble to support the An family before giving up Guizhou. If the Qing court rehabilitates the An family, it will be the Ming court and Li Dingguo who will have a headache in the future.

Now the envoy in Beijing thinks that Deng Ming is planning to do the same thing in Jiaodong, because he can't get it, and others can't think of it, so he supports the powerful local officials in Jiaodong with this purpose.

"Yes, there is no way to threaten the imperial court, so it is so vulnerable." Deng Ming replied coldly.

Because they are not in the local area for a long time, they may be transferred at any time, so the magistrates can only rely on the prestige of the imperial court, and they have no need to be honest, and they have enough oil and water to return to their hometown to benefit the party after leaving office - there is no need to be polite to the people in office, anyway, those who are admitted to the imperial examination and go out to be officials from here will not be polite when they go to other places.

For the local gentry and the people, the magistrate is a greedy outsider, but since everyone has no courage to kill the official and rebel, they can only make him happy. When the people are bullied too hard, the gentry will also come forward to beg twice out of nostalgia.

When fighting in Jiaodong this time, it was clear that the Fuqing Annihilation Army lacked combat experience, and the Fuqing House was currently a scattered and rabble, but such a backward organization and army could still defeat the Green Battalion. The local green camp saw that the shape was not good, and the gentry and the heroes were all united, although it was the army of the Qing court, few people wanted to be martyred for the prefect and county from other provinces. The officials in the yamen were all locals, and they were completely infiltrated by the Jingentry Council with the threat of the relationship between the villagers and the lure, and every time the military meeting presided over by the Dengzhou prefect was held, a copy of their meeting could be sent to the Jingentry Council for the study of the officers of the Fuqing and Ming Army.

Now it is obvious that even the grass-created Jinshen coalition army can compete with the Shandong Green Battalion, and as they continue to run in, the advantage over the Shandong Green Battalion will become greater and greater. As long as Beijing does not send elites into Shandong to fight, then it is only a matter of time before the Qing army is supported to drive the Qing army out of Shandong. And with the interference of the Ming army in Jiangnan, the Qing court did not have many troops that could be wasted on the Jiaodong battlefield.

"If the prince gives up the imperial examination and supports Haoqiang, then the prince will suffer from it sooner or later." Because of the will of the Empress Dowager, the Manchu envoys even regarded Deng as the prince in private.

"I don't know how much harm I will suffer, but the lord of this world will definitely not be yours." Deng Ming still had that cold tone.

There are only 40,000 Manchurian men left, which is also one of the reasons why Jieshu is afraid in the south of the Yangtze River, Beijing no longer has the confidence of the Dolgon era, and no longer dares to fight for the lives of tens of thousands of Manchurians to fight for the world; Relying on the Green Battalion, but not daring to let go of arming the Han Chinese, it is not yet possible to admit the result of the fiasco of the Green Battalion.

Jiaodong is not afraid of chaos, as long as Deng Ming retreats back to Sichuan, the Qing court can free up its hands to shoot the Jiaodong Gentry House to death - at least Beijing still has this confidence. However, if Deng Ming fanned the flames in the entire Yangtze River basin like this, the Qing court would definitely not be able to cope with it. Now the auxiliary minister suspected that Jiaodong was likely to be a pilot for Deng Ming, and if the other party felt that the effect was good and planned to promote it throughout the country, then the Qing court would almost certainly recognize the emergence of a large number of Han feudal states and try to maintain the status of a Zhou Tianzi.

"The prince is right, my dynasty should be exhausted, and most of them will not be able to suppress it in the end, if Haoqiang is so easy to deal with, the previous dynasties will not engage in the official system. The Han people feel that it is hard, and of course our difficulties are greater. The envoy of the Qing court actually frankly admitted Deng Ming's opinion, and had no intention of arguing: "But when the time comes, I will withdraw from the Guanwai if it is a big deal, or only keep Yanyun and make all the governors kings, as long as they pay tribute to me." At that time, it was not my dynasty, but the prince's trouble, right? ”

There was no third person present, and the envoy had no scruples: "Just for the fact that the prince threw the great emperor in Burma and came back with the gold, the emperor and the queen mother didn't think that the prince just wanted to drive us out of the customs and then retire." Abolishing the imperial examination is really harmful to others and himself for the prince, so don't do it. Last time, the prince did not agree to the conditions of the imperial court, and I thought about it for a while, and felt that Guangdong could also be handed over to the prince, and the prince could be called the emperor, and there was no need to be a vassal to our court. ”

"You don't even want to surrender?" This condition surprised Deng Ming.

"Of course, China is so big, why can't it accommodate two emperors?" The envoy calmly replied, "The prince and I will take a step back, and there will be no third or more emperors coming out." The prince is still the honor of ten thousand times, and the wealth extends to the descendants, why not? ”

Deng Ming was silent, while the Qing court envoy looked at each other with confidence.

"Shall we talk again tomorrow?" Deng Ming took the initiative to ask for a halt to the negotiations.

"Okay." The envoy of the Qing court said happily: "The prince needs time to think about it, and the specific details are not in a hurry to be negotiated in one or two days." ”

"No," Deng Ming shook his head, "I won't agree in the end, but I do need time to reject your offer, Mr. Nalan." ”

……

Before going to the Gentry House to meet with the people, Deng Ming asked the Qing court envoy to bring back his anti-construction yì, which was still the four-year total truce that he had proposed. Deng Ming promised to do his best to get other Ming leaders to agree to the armistice, and was willing to compensate the Qing court if anyone violated the armistice. In order to gain time to digest the fruits of victory, Deng Ming is willing to pay the price to maintain his reputation, and he is also willing to provide more guarantees. As for the situation in Jiaodong, Deng Ming meant to maintain the status quo at the time of the ceasefire, and he promised not to expand the fighting and overthrow the liuguan system in other areas. However, the Qing court had to recognize the status quo east of the Jiao River, recruit and support the Qing to destroy the Ming army, and ensure their safety.

After meeting the people in the Jin Gentry's House, Deng Ming did not hide from them the news that he was negotiating peace with the Qing court, and once again reiterated that he would not sacrifice the interests of the Jin Gentry to fight for more conditions for himself.

"In return, I need your authorization, that is, you promise to obey my peace and the outcome while I promise not to harm your interests." Deng Ming continued to exert influence on the Jin Gentry Council: "That is, if I reach a ceasefire agreement with the Qing court, you will not violate it without permission. ”

This authorisation, of course, must be issued by the House of Gentlemen. While helping Yu Qi gain authority, Deng Ming is also trying to help the Jin Gentry House establish a stronger framework, after all, the more combat effectiveness this House has, the more chips Deng Ming has in his hands, and the Qing court needs to invest more manpower and material resources to guard against Jiaodong - even if Zhao'an is recruited, as long as Jiaodong's military strength is strong, the Qing court must also stay with considerable troops to prevent the Jiaodong army from sneaking up on Jinan.

Deng Ming pointed out that the position of governor of Jiaodong should not be assigned by the Qing court or controlled by a person without restrictions, but should be elected by the gentry council. In other words, the decision rests with the gentry council, not the military power of the Qing court or the military chief, so that someone can prevent someone from dyeing his crown with the blood of the Jiaodong gentry. For Deng Ming's painstaking efforts to help the gentry design the rules of checks and balances, the House did not have too much vigilance, because Deng Ming's intentions were also clear, he was afraid that after Jiaodong was recruited, the gentry would be confused and bought by the Qing court, so he must ensure that the gentry and the Qing court deviated from morality and guarded against each other for a long period of time.

In view of the current situation in Jiaodong, the voting power of the House of Representatives is completely divided according to the amount of property, and only those who have property have the right to speak in the county council. If a group of small landowners unites a property that meets the standards set by the House, they can also nominate a representative to the House of Representatives. As for the opinions of the tenant farmers, they were completely ignored, anyway, they were all the only proprietors, and Deng Ming had no intention of helping them to obtain political rights immediately - Deng Ming still had to continue the war with the Qing court, and he could not offend the gentry in Jiaodong for the sake of the tenants, and he characterized himself as an imperialist rather than a revolutionary. And the heroes of the city can also have a place in the House of Representatives, as long as they provide military expenses for the Ming army of the Qing Dynasty like the gentry, then they can have the right to be represented, and if they can't provide military expenses, they won't have it.

As for the tens of thousands of refugees brought by Yu Qi, Deng Ming tried his best to persuade the Gentry House to draw the strong ones from them to form an army. Many gentry were worried about this, because now that the cease-fire negotiations had begun, they feared that the continued expansion of the army would arouse the hatred of the Qing court.

"Although we are negotiating with the Qing court, what do you guess the Qing court is doing now?" Deng Ming inspired everyone.

The Qing court never relied on virtue to conquer people to gain the world, but his fierce reputation, so it was easy for the gentry to guess that the Qing court was still thinking about winning both the Jiangnan and Shandong battlefields, and then suppressing the rebels in Jiaodong, and at the same time forcing Deng Ming to make concessions in the negotiations, if it was really impossible to completely annihilate Deng Ming.

"The Qing court must want to exterminate the Ming army of Fuqing and extinguish the Ming army, and then maintain the 'status quo' of Jiaodong at that time, so if you want to save your life, it is best to have the strength to break through Jinan and cut off Caoyun, so the Qing court should beg you to return to the east of the Jiaoshui River and agree to the conditions you proposed." Deng Ming worked hard to sell the mindset of being able to fight before making peace: "When the time comes, as long as you don't covet more territory in Shandong, it should be easy for you to reach an agreement with the Qing court to recruit peace." ”

"We don't have any idea about Qingzhou Mansion." The Gentry House was once again persuaded by Deng Ming, and they promised that they had no greater ambitions for the territory of the imperial court, but only wanted to keep the one-third of an acre of land in Dengzhou and Laizhou. Deng Ming also believed their statement. If it weren't for the fear that the Dengzhou Mansion would turn around and kill the rebels after destroying Yu Qi, the gentry of the Laizhou Mansion would not have much interest in leaving the mansion to fight. However, the gentry of Laizhou Mansion and Dengzhou Mansion are not interested in Qingzhou autonomy, which does not mean that the Qingzhou gentry after being "liberated" are not interested, but it is not Deng Ming's turn to worry about this matter.

With the exception of some who could be recruited into the army, Deng Ming planned to resettle the remaining Asan refugees in the coastal areas. Because the coastal areas have been deserted, it has caused great difficulties for the Fujian army to transport and raise grain and grass, and it has also affected the merchants of Sichuan and the autonomous Jiaodong to do business.

As for the resettlement fee, Deng Ming believes that it should be paid by the Jingentry Council, but this matter needs Deng Ming to take the lead, because the Jinshen House is indifferent to its own land and other matters other than Zhao'an.

"It seems that the only way to maintain the sea ban in Jiaodong is to continue." Deng Ming began to lobby the Gentry Council to continue to enforce the Qing court's ban on the sea, because the Qing court also exempted these places from taxes while moving the borders and forbidding the sea.

"The purpose of supporting the Qing Dynasty to destroy the Ming army is to be loyal to the imperial court, since the sea ban is a holy decree, of course it must continue to be implemented, otherwise it will be a traitor." Deng Ming gathered the gentry who lived relatively close to the coastal areas and mobilized them: "Since the ban on the sea will continue to be enforced, then naturally these areas cannot collect taxes, even the gentry council cannot collect taxes, and the sea is banned, so of course there are no fishermen or sea trade." ”

In short, if some gentry organized people to go to the forbidden sea area to farm and fish, they were naturally exempt from taxes, and even set up factories and engaged in maritime trade, such as participating in Deng Ming's arms and salt trading or participating in the processing of jade and ivory, of course, they did not have to pay taxes.