Deng Ming asked the escorts to record four copies of each confession, and then sent them back to their respective stations with their own and their colleagues' confessions. The extra copy of Deng Ming sent someone to Chongqing, and while giving Gao Mingzhan and his gang popularity, he also proved to them that the hijacking of Cao Yun was not Deng Ming's breach of the contract, but that the officers and soldiers who escorted Cao Yun were guarding and stealing themselves, and the Ming army had to defend themselves in order not to be framed.

After dismissing these Qing officers, Deng Ming once again convened the officers of the Sichuan army to discuss the next countermeasures. If Deng Ming could restrain the troops from robbing the boats, there would naturally be no problem; But since everyone has already done it and got the grain and silver in their hands, Deng Ming will not be able to return it, otherwise, not only Dang Shousu and Wang Guangxing and their subordinates will think that Deng Ming is an idiot, Li Laiheng and Liu Tichun may not be willing, even the Sichuan officers and soldiers will be dissatisfied-this is tens of millions of taels of silver and millions of stone grain.

"Why are we going to take Guazhou?" At the meeting of officers above the rank of captain, Deng Ming once again raised this issue to everyone.

"Because when the emperor's ** team broke into a person's house, they wanted to break two legs of the person they saw, and then asked him if he was a robber. If not, why did he block the house and not let us in. Many officers blurted out, and now Deng Ming's words have spread: "Do it first, then ask questions." ”

"Wait, am I saying that?" Although at first glance it sounded similar, Deng Ming noticed that his words seemed to have been tampered with, and he said that he was returning to his own home, not breaking into someone else's home.

"That's what the Admiral said." The emperors replied in unison, and everyone had a natural expression on their faces.

“…… All right. Deng Ming didn't plan to dwell on this issue: "Then why do you think the emperor ** team set up this rule?" ”

Mu Tan raised his hand, and as early as after Deng Ming dealt with it, he thought about the reason: "When our army finds a suspicious situation, the only correct response is to counterattack, instead of thinking about whether we have misunderstood, otherwise we may be attacked by surprise, and our army will be in a disadvantageous situation." And if the Admiral punishes or does not praise Major Wu and Major Jiang for their reactions, then the next time they encounter a similar situation, the officer may hesitate, fearing that it will be another misunderstanding - even if the first hundred times are misunderstandings, the next time they encounter a sudden situation, they should still shoot first and then ask questions? Ask questions, otherwise you are not responsible for the emperor ** team. ”

"Well said." Deng Ming felt that he had nothing to add, just as Mu Tan said, since the conflict had broken out, Deng Ming had to support his subordinates to win this battle completely: "It is impossible to return the boat, so simply fight to the end and completely subdue Lin Qilong; If we give up halfway, it is to ask the Qing army to forgive us for our misunderstanding, and now it is the Qing army that has created the misunderstanding, and we have forgiven them. ”

However, since Cao Yun was cut off, it means that Zhou Peigong's encirclement and suppression of Deng Ming has failed, the situation in the southeast is about to get out of control, and the Qing army in Shandong is unlikely to sit idly by.

"The possibility of the Qing army crossing the Yangtze River is very small, but if they are allowed to enter the area around Yangzhou along the canal, they can sack the north bank, and the Qing army will not retreat because of supply problems until the north of the river is robbed. And we have to defend the Yangtze River - to defend Jiang Guozhu's territory! Our army will be pinned down in Jiangnan, and I dare not say whether Jiang Guozhu and Zhang Chao will stab us in the back when we confront the Qing army in Jiangbei. Deng Ming felt that the only way was to follow the original plan along the canal to Huai'an to the north, and the Qing army was outside the country, so as not to let the Qing army enter the rich area.

"But this is to use our soldiers and horses to defend Jiang Guozhu's territory," Zhao Tianba thought that the Ming army was not afraid of such a battle, and with the current strength of the Sichuan army, it could compete head-on with the central troops of the Qing army in Shandong, but he felt that this was for the southeast governors: "Without the Yangtze River blocking, the battle will definitely be fierce, and if we lose a lot, these southeast governors will have different thoughts." ”

Deng Ming admitted that what Zhao Tianba said was reasonable, and the current situation gave him a sense of familiarity, and the officer meeting discussed for a long time, and there was no better way for a while. After the meeting ended, Deng Mingcai realized that the situation he was facing seemed to be somewhat similar to the situation of Li Zicheng's entry into Beijing as described by Gong Yan. The southeast governor was the surrender of the army at both ends of the first rat, and the role played by the Ming army was similar to that of the Shun army of the year: retreating without a fight might lead to a serious decline in prestige, fearing that the southeast would fall back to the Qing court; And if the main force of the Qing army is engaged, and they are worried that the descendants will suffer heavy losses, they will not be able to control these governors.

"I don't know if there will be another figure like Wu Sangui here," Deng Ming thought hard and couldn't come up with a particularly good way, he very much hoped to drive the local troops in the southeast to engage the central forces of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the Ming army could be used as a third party to watch the battle. However, first of all, the southeast side may not be willing to openly defect, and secondly, even if Jiang Guozhu and Liang Huafeng send troops to help in the war, Deng Ming is also worried about repeating Li Zicheng's mistake at Shanhaiguan: "How can these governors sincerely and fully prevent the central troops of the Qing court from entering the southeast?" ”

The main force of the Ming army moved from Zhenjiang to Guazhou, and at the same time, Deng Ming spread the word to the Quartet, explaining the intention to the Jiangbei government and the gentry, so that they did not have to be nervous.

After seeing Deng Ming's inscription, Li Laiheng frowned and thought about it, one of the paragraphs said that robbing Caoyun was not the original intention of the Ming army, but only because the Qing army was guarding and stealing, so he had to take action, saying that the Ming army would leave after this matter was handled safely, so that the righteous people who were interested in the Ming Dynasty should not be busy with the uprising. Although what Deng Ming said was the truth, Li Laiheng felt that something was not right: "It seems that our battle is a little awkward. ”

"Did Hu Shuai feel this way just now?" Dang Shousu shouted. After sending troops this time, he felt that there was nothing awkward, which completely subverted his understanding of war.

"Well, I did just react." Li Laiheng laughed: "I've cooperated with the Admiral a lot of times, and I'm used to abnormal things, don't worry, you won't be surprised in a few years." ”

……

After Deng Ming's essay was copied to Shandong, Jie Shu threw it to the ground after reading half of it: "This kind of sowing discord is too clumsy, does he think we will believe it?" ”

Caoyun was robbed by the Ming army, but the Ming army pretended to be very aggrieved in the text, as if they were forced to do so. Li Guoying picked it up and looked at it carefully, after being a neighbor with Deng Ming for a few years, he felt that Deng Ming might not be lying, if this text was Deng Ming's sincere words, then the situation in the southeast seemed to be more complicated than he imagined.

After hearing about this, Curb Pilon also rushed to the Jieshu camp, and like Prince Kang, Curb Pilon couldn't understand what Deng Ming was saying at all. After trying to read it several times, he failed and couldn't understand what the other party wanted to express, and the auxiliary minister was finally as angry as Prince Kang: "With such a preface and a follow-up text, Deng Thief is bound to become the laughing stock of the world!" ”

Seeing that Prince Kang and the auxiliary ministers both thought that Deng Ming's inscription was incomprehensible, Li Guoying didn't say anything more. Now that the situation in Jiangnan is obviously out of control, it hardly takes much time for Jieshu and Kupilon to make a decision and immediately assemble the main force to march in the direction of Yangzhou. If Deng Ming tried to besiege Nanjing, he would have to shrink his forces around the city so that the Qing army could find a spot on the long river and cross the moat to support Nanjing.

And after receiving the report that the text and Cao Yun were truncated, Beijing was also baffled by Deng Ming's statement - the Ming army did everything possible to maintain the Cao Yun of the Qing court, and such an absurd thing could not even be deceived by a three-year-old child, right?

But Nanjing's reaction to seeing the text was completely different from Beijing's. After hearing about the battle in Guazhou, Jiang Guozhu and Liang Huafeng first did not believe it, and it was hard to imagine that Deng Ming would take the initiative to violate the agreement with everyone. Long before the text reached Shandong, Deng Ming's report was sent to Nanjing, and there was a dejected Nanjing Caoyun escort officer who came back with a frustrated face. After reading the few confessions brought back by his subordinates, Jiang Guozhu nodded to Liang Huafeng: "As expected, the Guazhou incident was also forced to protect the country. ”

When the news reached Nanchang and Wuchang, Zhang Changgeng and Zhang Chao's reaction was similar to Jiang Guozhu's, and they both felt that Deng Ming really had something to do.

The Caoyun escort officers in these three places all said that they robbed some Caoyin in order to honor the superintendent and relieve the urgent need of the top boss, but Lin Qilong made a mistake in planning, so he caused the Ming army to misunderstand and interfere.

However, Deng Ming is not an unreasonable person, he promised to take out a total of 1.2 million taels of silver to the people who bought the bonds, and Lin Qilong, the culprit of the incident, was given 200,000 taels - the governor of Caoyun has no soldiers and horses, and he can't make large-scale assessments, so the bonds are still in his hands now. Although the silver is not very much, I can finally see the money back.

The happiest thing was Chongqing, which received the news at the latest, and when the report and the dividends given to them were delivered, Gao Mingzhan and his gang celebrated: "It really deserves to be Admiral Deng, that is, he does what he says." ”

Nanjing, Nanchang, and Wuchang were not as happy as Chongqing, and these three governors held the most bonds and dividends, but their generals could also get more or less some silver, which made them all smell a hint of danger.

The first to receive dividends was Jiang Guozhu, Deng Ming said that Caoyin had already been divided, so he couldn't pay it back, but if Jiang Guozhu was willing to pay out of his own pocket to send it again, he could put the second batch of Caochuan safely. Of course, Jiang Guozhu would not be the leader of this kind of injustice, and he didn't like Deng Ming's distribution method at all, Jiang Guozhu preferred that Deng Ming would directly give him the silver, and he would be responsible for distributing his subordinates.

Of course, Jiang Guozhu didn't dare to ask for back the money that Deng Ming had given to his subordinates - Deng Ming gave money, and the governor of Liangjiang apportioned the bonds and collected the dividends, so the army in Jiangnan would definitely be detached. However, if Deng Ming was allowed to send money to the Liangjiang troops like this, Jiang Guozhu was worried that his men and horses would be bought by Deng Ming.

"If I had known, I wouldn't have sent bonds as a banknote." Chiang felt that the bonds could become a void in his fortress, giving Deng Ming an opportunity to infiltrate his army. However, if the bonds are not apportioned, Jiang Guozhu may not be able to hold on financially: "Well, I have almost prepared for the sale case and the Ming history case, and the Waimiao case can also be overturned, but I have to be careful and communicate with Deng Ming in advance." When I got the money, I stopped the apportionment of the bonds, and I could not give Bao Guogong an excuse to buy my army. ”

After thinking about it for a while, Jiang Guozhu decided to wait, once Shandong's central troops went south, Deng Ming would definitely be more polite to himself, so that Jiang Guozhu would not be afraid of Deng Ming taking the opportunity to extort, as long as he seized the opportunity to reach an agreement, Jiang Guozhu still had confidence in Deng Ming's credit.

This time, Deng Ming took great pains to explain the Guazhou incident, which made Jiang Guozhu realize that the other party attached great importance to credit, for fear that the southeast governor would suspect him of taking the initiative to break the contract.

Unlike Nanjing, Wuchang had no plans to write prison, but Zhang Changgeng's emphasis on the army was not under Jiang Guozhu, so he was also in a dilemma. Zhang Changgeng, who had no windfall to distribute, could not help but issue the bonds as a discounted banknote, but in this way, Deng Ming could justifiably issue silver to the green camp generals in Huguang, and if Zhang Changgeng publicly stopped it, the offended people would go to the sea; If it is communicated privately, even if Deng Ming agrees not to send silver, as long as he reveals it to Huguang Green Camp and says that it is because of Zhang Changgeng's request, it will make the Governor of Huguang the object of resentment by everyone.

After thinking about it for a long time, Zhang Changgeng couldn't come up with the best of both worlds, and finally he could only sacrifice the magic weapon again - that is, to write a letter to Zhou Peigong, the prime minister of Deng, and instruct him to share Zhang Changgeng's worries and plug this gap that could be used by Deng Ming without aggravating Wuchang's economic burden.