Deng Ming did not make specific suggestions to Zhang Changgeng, because the other party was a high-ranking official of the Qing Dynasty and could definitely understand the psychology of the Qing court better than himself. He just used a story to help Zhang Changgeng and Zhou Pei openly expand their ideas. After telling this story, Deng Ming gave a general idea. Zhang Changgeng could report to the Qing court that Wuchang City was about to be destroyed and suggested giving up Wuchang. The Qing court would definitely not agree. In this way, as long as the city could be defended in the future, the Qing court would probably not care about how much money it spent.

Zhang Changgeng's idea was similar. He immediately sent people to send 800 miles to Beijing, claiming again that Wuchang was in danger. Deng Ming led the entire Ming army in Kuidong to attack Wuchang. Originally, Deng Ming had more than 200,000 people, but because Hu Quancai suffered consecutive losses and generals, the Ming army was holding people. Now Deng Ming has already had 700,000 bandits under his command. Zhang Changgeng asked the Qing court for emergency reinforcements, and it would be better to send a 100,000 army at one time, because the troops in Wuchang had been completely lost by Hu Quancai. Zhang Changgeng asked the Qing court to transfer the Qing court to the southwest to Pingxi King back to the army. If Wu Sangui really couldn't be transferred, then Zhang Changgeng hoped that the Qing court would send Zhao Liangdong and Zhang Yong, two famous green camp generals, came to Huguang to reinforce him.

When Zhang Changgeng wrote this memorial, he did not expect the court to agree.

After Zhong Xiang returned from defeat, Zhang Changgeng immediately asked Beijing for help with urgent documents, but at this time, Beijing could not care about Wuchang. Nanjing sent several letters of emergency letters like snowflakes every day, saying that the Zheng army had begun to go up the river, and the crushing defeat in Zhenjiang caused panic in the entire southeastern people, and a large number of prefectures no longer listened to Nanjing's orders.

Even if Wuchang was lost, the Ming army had only opened up the road to Jiangxi. Only when Nanchang was captured could he threaten the Southeast financial resources. Now Zheng Chenggong's army was directed to Nanjing, and the priorities were clearly visible. After seeing Zhang Changgeng's letter of help, Beijing replied to him with an urgent letter that day, temporarily granting Zhang Changgen the right to act as the governor of Huguang, asking him to perform his duties and work for the court, allowing him to organize troops to defend Wuchang with all possible means. However, Zhang Changgen wanted no reinforcements. When Deng Ming had just captured Xiangyang and other places, the Henan Green Camp received a guard order and was ready to go south to support Hu Quancai at any time. However, after Shunzhi began to make an in-person expedition, Beijing immediately ordered the Henan Green Camp not to go south without authorization, but to prepare to follow him in Shandong.

The Qing court even asked Zhang Changgeng to send some Dongting Lake and Jingmen Navy to Nanjing as appropriate, because Beijing felt that Wuchang would be enough to defend the city, and the Navy should still go to the vicinity of Nanjing. Not only could it assist the Nanjing defenders, but it could also help Shunzhi's personal expedition army cross the Yangtze River in the future.

After sending away the letter of help from the court again, Zhang Changgeng waved his pen and promoted the leaders of many bandits and thieves in the upper reaches of the Han River, Jiangling and Yiling to guerrillas and generals, and promoted these people to rank without the consent of others. Zhang Changgeng then ordered these new generals to immediately launch an attack on the Ming army around them.

The order was sent to the Qing court in duplicate, and the other was sent to Deng Mingying immediately. I didn't think about sending one to the Qing army's guerrillas and gangs.

"I seem to have heard of some of these names, and some are unheard of them." Li Laiheng took the list of Qing generals sent by Zhou Peigong, and recalled one or two desperately. It seemed that he had dealt with him when he went to the Qing Dynasty to smuggle in the area controlled by the Qing court: "They were all bandits and water bandits who blocked the road, and there were dozens of subordinates, and at least more than ten, which was not worth mentioning."

"I'll ask the Husband to dispatch a large army to wipe out all of them." Zhou Peigong said to Li Laiheng: "These bandits are doing harm to one side, and Husband is also eliminating the harm for the people."

These bandits are all local constables and enemies of the yamen runners. Zhang Changgeng searched the reports of local yamen over the years and finally found such a group of elderly thieves. Among them, the most powerful group of water thieves had about a hundred subordinates, with more than a dozen fishing boats, and robbed them in Dongting Lake. Although their range of activities was under the eyes of the Qing army's Dongting Lake naval division, the Qing army never considered dispatching troops to wipe them out. When the strongest water thieves resisted arrest last year, they also injured three Yuezhou constables, one of them seriously injured. Seeing that the thieves were so strong, Zhang Changgeng looked at their leader differently and gave him the title of Yuezhou deputy general, and reported to the Qing court that the person was a local tyrant with more than 5,000 gangs. He asked him to attack behind the Ming army, which would definitely force Deng Ming's main force to return.

After hearing about the other party's strength, Li Laiheng said disapprovingly: "I sent two warships, and a hundred people can wipe him out. Why do you need a large army?"

"Tiger General should not be careless..." Zhou Peigong knew that not to mention sending 100 soldiers, even if he sent twenty fully armed soldiers, he could beat the thieves all over the ground to find their teeth. However, if he was escaped by this thief, wouldn't Zhang Changgen really recognize this deputy general in the future? And how could Li Laiheng prove the powerful military strength of the deputy general if he didn't send out his army?

"The Governor has ordered the deputy general to allocate 100,000 taels of silver, 30,000 stones of grain and 5,000 pieces of cloth, and ask them to make trouble behind the army... This is the bronze seal that the governor just carved for the deputy general." Zhou Peigong handed a seal to Deng Ming and informed the silver ship, the contact information and code of the grain ship: "The admiral sent someone to make up the deputy general, take away the silver, and sign it with this seal to collect it, so that the governor can also deposit the account."

"How much money is the governor of grain and cloth planning to distribute?" Deng Ming took the bronze seal over.

"Just 30,000 taels, and the boat will be given to the admiral." Zhou Peigong immediately quoted.

"The deal." Deng Ming agreed without a counter-offering.

"Then this deputy general?" Zhou Peigong pointed to the seal and confirmed again.

"Just let General Li send a capable general," Deng Ming said to Li Laiheng in front of Zhou Peigong: "You can't let him run away."

"He doesn't know that he is the deputy general of Yuezhou, right?" Li Laiheng asked.

"Of course I don't know." Zhou Peigong patted his chest and promised.

"Then he can't run away. I'll send my water camp to Yuezhou." Li Laiheng confidently assured Deng Ming and Zhou Peigong: "Take twenty boats and one thousand soldiers with you, and take down the thief's head within three days, and no one of the party members can escape."

"Don't hurry, fight slowly. If Hushang's men are defeated by one or two matches, the governor can also give him a reward." Zhou Peigong emphasized again: "Even if you reward, you should not rob. You must sign it with this seal to collect it."

"There are also Zhong Xiang and Xiangyang prefectures, and the governor appointed a group of generals and the admiral needed to fight with them." Zhang Changgeng was still working overtime to carve seals. After the engraving was completed, he would now keep the bottom of the governor's yamen, and then he could send it to Deng Ming's army.

"No problem." Deng Ming thought to himself that Liu Tichun and He Zhen and the others had already returned, but of course this matter could not be told to Zhou Peigong that if he could wipe out more than a dozen bandits and bandits, Li Laiheng could just send a general to do it: "Leave their names to me, and I will let He Shuai and the others wipe out."

...

Zhang Changgeng found that the situation in the southeast became increasingly critical. According to a report from Nanjing, Zhang Huangyan's vanguard had crossed Nanjing and headed towards the downstream of Jiangxi. Because the wind suddenly became smaller after the Battle of Zhenjiang, Zheng's army could not sail against the current and could only rely on Ding Zhuang to drag the sea boat. Fortunately, this greatly slowed down the speed of Zheng's advance towards Nanjing, but Nanjing believed that it would take only a few days for Zheng Chenggong's troops to arrive at the city.

Now that Wuchang is fighting fiercely, Zhang Changgeng continues to challenge Beijing for two fiefs every day, and at the same time informs the court of his strategy of buying local tyrants and fighting with the Ming army at all costs. Zhang Changgeng said that he would try his best to win time, but at the same time, he judged that these tyrants would find it difficult to compete with the hundreds of thousands of troops of the Ming army for a long time, and could only play a role in winning time. The key is that the court should quickly send reinforcements to Huguang.

Now the Yangtze River and the Han River are fighting fiercely everywhere. Zhang Changgeng noticed that Liu Tichun, Yuan Zongdi, He Zhen and others had not arrived for a long time, and Li Laiheng also transferred some of the troops. All signs indicate that Deng Ming was still abiding by the agreement, which made Zhang Changgen relieved. Whether it was sending cloth or food, Deng Ming returned gold to Zhang Changgen as one-tenth. The other party's performance of trustworthiness greatly increased Zhang Changgen's favorability for Deng Ming. What made Zhang Changgen even more satisfied was that after receiving his letter, Deng Ming issued an open letter to the officials of Hu Guang, admitting that he led his troops to sneak attack the Qing army camp and killed Hu Quancai in the big tent. The empty letter also claimed that two million taels of silver were seized in Hu Quancai's camp to facilitate Zhang Changgen's creation of fake accounts. In the future, Zhang Changgen could say that part of the disappeared vassal silver was privately misappropriated by Hu Quancai.

As the connection became wider, more and more people needed to buy the Hunan Governor's Governor's Governor's Office - although people outside could ask Deng Ming to help silence him, he could not let the Ming army enter the city and go to the Huguang Governor's Office to commit the crime. At the beginning, Zhang Changgeng willingly paid the money to Deng Ming himself, but after working twice, the Hunan Governor's mentality changed. He planned to ask Zhou Peigong to negotiate with Deng Ming again and let the other party give 10% of the money. As an insider's hush money, Zhang Changgen will be responsible for the control of the hush money.

The pressure from outside the city was getting smaller and smaller, and Zhang Changgeng was determined to put some pressure on the wealthy families in Wuchang and Hanyang. In the past, he was afraid that these people would have an affair with the Ming army outside the city and dedicated the city to Deng Ming, so Zhang Changgeng was mainly gentle on their policies. But now Zhang Changgeng himself had a secret agreement with Deng Ming, and his confidant Zhou Peigong advocated appeasement in the gentry circle in the city every day, which was a well-deserved leader of the compromise faction, so Governor Zhang was very confident about these potential surrender factions.

Deng Ming's words gave Governor Zhang a lot of inspiration, and he decided to adopt the strategy of lifting the roof for these wealthy families.

After summoning the rich, Zhang Changgeng first pointed out that the situation was very dangerous and it was still intensifying: the Ming army was powerful, and the various generals he appointed were defeated by Li Laiheng, Liu Tichun, He Zhen and others (actually Li Laiheng were all) and the vassal silver in Wuchang was misappropriated by Hu Quancai. Now the soldiers are determined to kill the thief, but the Huguang Governor's Office can no longer even take out the food silver.

Under such circumstances, Zhang Changgeng concluded that it was difficult for Wuchang to defend Hanyang and began to talk about the importance of scorched earth combat. Zhang Changgeng said that for the great cause of unification of the emperor, in order to avoid the Ming army seizing a large amount of supplies from Wuchang, and for the future counterattack of the king's army, the residents of Wuchang must evacuate and move to a safer Hunan. Governor Zhang himself would lead officers and soldiers to take charge of Wuchang and engage in desperate battles with the Ming army. When the city was about to fall, Governor Zhang would set fire to ensure that the Ming army had nothing to gain.

All the participants were stunned. Governor Zhang's scorched earth battle sounded like the trick that Dong Zhuo played in Luoyang in the late Han Dynasty. The outcome of the wealthy people in Luoyang seemed to be quite bad. However, Governor Zhang brought the emperor out at the beginning. Whoever dared to oppose the scorched earth policy was to be incomparable to the emperor, and would be against the great cause of the Qing Dynasty's unification. Seeing that Governor Zhang had seized the moral commanding heights and was shooting at everyone frantically. Everyone could not attack for force and had to take it wisely. They praised Governor Zhang for his strategizing. Now the endless harassment behind the Ming army has played a big role. It seems that in the short term, Deng Ming bandit gangs will definitely not be able to attack Hanyang and Wuchang.

Some smart people have heard the voice of Governor Zhang, so they took the lead in proposing to donate money and help the money. Didn’t Hu Quancai embezzle all the vassal silver so he couldn’t hold on? Then, wouldn’t it be enough for everyone to contribute money and work hard to fill in the vassal treasury?

But Governor Zhang shook his head repeatedly and said that according to his calculations, it would cost at least six million taels of silver to stick to Wuchang and Hanyang, and he would need to build weapons, reward soldiers, and consume food and grass. It is not easy to draw so many resources from the local area, and it is difficult for the gentry to donate, so it is better to implement scorched earth combat as soon as possible.

Learning from Hu Quancai's lesson, Zhang Changgeng was very kind to the local Wuchang soldiers and had already hinted that local officers and soldiers would pay them double wages as long as they get the money, and that the military subordinates did not have to be relocated forcibly. As for foreign tourists, of course, they would also receive double wages. In secret, they also assured the officers and soldiers that if the Ming army attacked the city in the future, they would never force them to defend Wuchang.

After receiving the guarantee of double salary, these troops waved flags and shouted to him behind Governor Zhang, expressing their firm support for the scorched earth battle and vowed to live and die with Dawuchang.

The most powerful gentry in Wuchang, such as the old Taishan, who was the admiral of the Ma Army, was very clear about Governor Zhang's abacus, but most of the wealthy households, especially the merchants, were panicked and did not know how the matter would end. After learning that Governor Zhang offered a price of 6 million, these wealthy businessmen even cried and said that even if they broke their families and made the country, they could only take out one tenth.

Governor Zhang was too lazy to talk nonsense to them, so he began to force the relocation of wealthy families to Changsha the next day. After seeing soldiers rushing into the door, the selected wealthy families paid the money and food that satisfied Governor Zhang without saying a word, and were then commended as righteous men, allowing them to stay and live and die with the governor together with Wuchang.

Other businesses and warehouses handled the same, which was also Zhang Changgeng's successful experience in learning Deng Ming. At the beginning, he wanted to delay time and not pay the bank, but Deng Ming knew that he would continue to act until the request was met. Afterwards, Zhang Changgen felt that this was an effective threat method and immediately learned and applied it to wealthy businessmen.

But Zhang Changgeng's actions also had their drawbacks. When Zhou Peigong ran to negotiate with Deng Ming the next day, the other party refused the request of the governor of Hunan to ask for another 10%. After some bargaining, he only agreed to increase the kickback to 15%. Deng Ming's trump card was a batch of letters with names hidden. These letters were written to Deng Ming by the gentry of Wuchang. In the letters, they asked Deng Ming to quickly attack the city and tear Zhang Changgeng, who was a lackey of the Qing Dynasty, to quell the public's anger.

In the evening, Zhou Peigong brought Deng Ming's gold and this news to meet Zhang Changgeng. After hearing this, the latter sighed: "Fortunately, I have already had a tacit understanding with Admiral Deng, otherwise I would have been harmed by these troublemakers."

"Admiral Deng means that it is okay to take away the money he used to buy concubines from a rich family, but it will not harm the people's family." Zhou Peigong also brought Deng Ming's request.

"Of course I know this, I am not Governor Hu." Zhang Changgeng knew that Deng Ming's kindness was starting to attack again, but it didn't matter. Anyway, ordinary people couldn't squeeze out any oil. Now Zhang Changgeng felt that Deng Ming was becoming increasingly difficult to understand. Sometimes he was so scheming that he was so scheming that he could not compare with him, an old man who had traveled several provinces.

"Have you ever thought about using armor and weapons to convert silver to Admiral Deng?" Zhou Peigong asked. He pointed out to Zhang Changgeng that the volunteers behind enemy lines that only exist on paper are still "fighting fiercely" with the Ming army. In addition to paying military salaries, rewards and food, they should also send armor and weapons to these troops. Moreover, Zhou Peigong further pointed out that armor is a productive material. There are many craftsmen in Wuchang and Hanyang, and pig iron in the city can immediately make weapons. The cost of these weapons is completely determined by Zhang Changgeng. He has clearly created five sets, so it can be said that only one set, and the remaining four sets are sold to Deng Ming.

"This is inappropriate." Zhang Changgeng had thought about this problem, but he was worried that the Ming army would use the equipment he gave to attack Wuchang, so he would shoot himself in the foot. Making money is important, but if even the governor is lost, how can he make money in the future? If he can ascend to the throne of the governor, are he still worried that he will not be able to do business with Deng Ming in the future?

"Sir, I'm too worried," Zhou Peigong smiled and said, "Do you think Admiral Deng will attack Wuchang? If he had some thought in his heart, he wouldn't have read the letters to the students today. If he captured Wuchang, he would not have gotten any money unless he was washed away, and this would affect his great cause of rejuvenation."

Zhou Peigong reminded Zhang Changgeng that the transfer of materials from various places in Huguang to Wuchang is only required by Zhang Changgeng. After Governor Zhang threw out the theory of scorched earth combat, no one in the Governor's Office has made any remarks about his transfer of local materials. Now that the Ming army is outside and the Qing army is inside, Zhang Changgeng can also collect taxes in a legitimate manner. He cooperates with Deng Ming very closely. If Zhang Changgeng is driven away, Deng Ming will be purely causing trouble for himself.

"Now the court's attention is all about Nanjing. Once the matter in Nanjing is over, the court will pay attention to the movements in Wuchang again. It is hard to say whether the lord can still cover the sky with such a move." Seeing that Zhang Changgeng was already moved, Zhou Peigong struck while the iron was hot, so he let the other party understand that if the money was not earned immediately, there might not be such a chance in the future.

"Well." Zhang Changgen nodded repeatedly when he heard this, and agreed.

"Sir." He confronted Deng Ming many times, and Zhou Peigong's ability was also improved rapidly. Seeing that Zhang Changgeng was so happy, he quickly reminded: "Armor is a military weapon. You can take the opportunity to raise the price. You need 10% more and settle it at 25%."

"No, not bad." Zhang Changgeng suddenly realized and praised him sincerely: "You are really my ovary."

...

When Zhou Peigong returned home in the evening, his wife took off his cover for him. Seeing that her husband had lost a lot of weight in a few days, she couldn't help but feel distressed: "My husband has worked hard for the country, thank you."

"Yes." Zhou Peigong is running around every day and feels that he is almost tired and separated. He carefully took out a large stack of land deeds from his arms, traded the books, handed them to his wife, and instructed: "Please keep them carefully, don't let anyone see them."

"Ah." Mrs. Zhou glanced at the land deed in her hand and exclaimed. The land deeds were all the land in Jingmen, their hometown, not a few pieces, but the fertile land that connects the fields. Mrs. Zhou saw that in addition to the land deeds, there were also house deeds. There were several original owners of the transaction, Mrs. Zhou also knew that they were all good gentlemen who were thrifty in their hometown, not prodigal sons. One of the transaction books was a transfer of hundreds of acres. Mrs. Zhou knew that she needed to buy these people's land, and she would have to spend a lot of money. After reading the contract book carefully, she found that the amount of land purchased was so high that it was not affordable for the Zhou family, and Mrs. Zhou knew that her husband had never taken money from the family.

"Don't ask too much!" Zhou Peigong said first without waiting for his wife to ask: "Go to bed quickly, I will go out tomorrow morning for my husband."

"Yes." The virtuous Mrs. Zhou immediately suppressed her curiosity and helped her husband loose clothes while asking other things: "Today, the two Chen brothers came together."

"What's the matter?" Now everyone knows that Zhou Peigong is a celebrity in front of Zhang Changgeng, so there are endless people coming to Zhou's mansion to inquire about news every day.

"They want to find out how much more money the governor wants."

"I don't know if I am a husband." Zhou Peigong replied.

"The cousin who I married into the Li family is here today. Her husband is worried about the industry outside the city and wants to ask when the Ming army will attack Hanyang."

"I don't know." Zhou Peigong said without raising his head while removing his shoes and socks.

"The old man from the Fang family sent his son to send a jar of wine. Didn't he have shares in the boat shop? So he wanted to find out when the Han River would pass, and there were many Ming soldiers."

"I don't know." Zhou Peigong lifted the quilt, got in and lay down, sighed with satisfaction, and boasted to his wife: "Today, the governor praised me again, saying that in the future, except Changsha Prefecture, I will choose one of the other prefectures in Hunan. I think that the wife is better?"

"Really?" Mrs. Zhou was very happy. This was the second time Zhang Changgeng promised to give her husband a prefect, but Mrs. Zhou was also a little worried: "When the Ming army withdrew, the governor will not repent, right?"

"Haha, absolutely not?" Zhou Peigong laughed loudly.

"Why?" Mrs. Zhou asked uneasily.

“Because I know too much.”—

Today is 6,000 words, Happy New Year, all readers

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