Author's note: It's a little late tonight, but only one thousand words more than -

Although the central tent of the Ming army was very large, there were not many people in the camp at this time. Seeing Deng Ming, Li Laiheng and Zhang Huangyan did not bring their entourages, Zheng Chenggong also asked Gan Hui, Yu Xin and others to leave, and in the end, there were only four of them left in the tent.

In the past, the chief general sat in the middle, and the generals were on both sides according to their status. Deng Ming felt that this way of laying the venue was very majestic. When everyone below looked at him, he did feel a sense of being tall and arrogant. Under this arrangement, the head coach was speaking to the whole person, while the other people were speaking to the head coach alone, and the person sitting in the middle seemed to be dominating the world.

Although it feels good, Deng Ming thinks it is very inappropriate to use this method on Zheng Chenggong, Li Laiheng and Zhang Huangyan. These people are heroes he knew in his previous lives. In particular, the Prince of Yanping was a great hero of the same level as the two Ming kings Li Dingguo, and in history the status of Li Laiheng and Zhang Huangyan is even higher than that of Li Laiheng and Zhang Huangyan.

In Deng Ming's previous life, Zheng Chenggong's ruins and ancestral halls were spread all over Kinmen, Xiamen, Taiwan and other places. It was completely different from Hong Chengchou, who had to cut off his relationship with his mother, younger brother and wife. A hundred years later, not only did the Qing Dynasty officials burn incense in front of Zheng Chenggong's statue with respect, but even Japan would compete with China for Zheng Chenggong's hometown. The Japanese claimed that Zheng Zhilong's fool, a coward who could have such a hero's son was attributed to Japan's Zhongyi education. It also recorded Zheng Chenggong's behavior of fighting against the millions of Qing troops alone in a small place, and said that his spirit could make the heroes be bold and make the cowards set their goals. Deng Ming remembered that when he saw these descriptions, he felt a burst of passion.

Of course, Zheng Chenggong knew nothing about Deng Ming's psychology. After seeing Deng Ming's table, the first thought that came to mind was: "Is the admiral going to play mahjong with us?"

The table Deng Ming brought in was square and the table was not big. It was indeed used to play cards before. Zhao Tianba, Li Xinghan and others would sometimes play with this table twice. Not only Zheng Chenggong thought so, but Zhang Huangyan had similar ideas when he had a secret meeting with Li Laiheng and Deng Ming two days ago. Zhang Huangyan even looked around to see if there was a fourth person coming to sit down together.

The general chairs and commanders in the central army tent usually only sit behind when they meet with Qing army envoys. When discussing matters with generals such as Li Laiheng, they always use this small square table - a few people are not far away, and they don’t have to pull their necks and shout when they talk. This will not only save energy but also save some tea.

Deng Ming smiled and pointed to the chairs placed around the table, asking everyone to take a seat. After Deng Ming sat down, Li Laiheng and Zhang Huangyan sat on the left and right sides of Deng Ming respectively. Zheng Chenggong hesitated for a moment, and then found that only the opposite of Deng Ming was left beside the table. Sitting in the empty seat, Zheng Chenggong felt that the scene was too familiar, and there seemed to be a numb atmosphere in the air.

"Let everyone leave must be to discuss major military situations. The admiral would not think about playing two laps as soon as he met, or discussing military affairs while playing cards, right?" Like Zhang Huangyan, who had been sitting at this table for the first time, Zheng Chenggong began to be upset in his heart, and it was even more serious than Zhang Huangyan. Zhang Huangyan felt that the number of people playing cards was not enough, and now Zheng Chenggong is here, and even the problem of three missing one is no longer there - Zheng Chenggong was full of uneasy, afraid that Deng Ming would take out a pair of mahjong cards from under his clothes like a magic trick.

After Zheng Chenggong sat down, Deng Ming immediately spoke: "That's what I think about the situation in the country..."

When Zhang Huangyan and the Zhejiang East Rebel Army had just started their army, the Ming and Qing armies confronted Qiantang. Whenever the King of Lu patrols, the first thing he had to do was to listen to the opera, so that the stages must be set up in the camps of various rebel army camps for entertainment. This hobby eventually spread to the entire army. The governor and a large number of generals did not train soldiers during the day, refused to rest and sleep at night, watched the opera and played cards in darkness, which made the Qing army on the other side of the river dumb. Zheng Chenggong had seen too many royal children over the years, almost all wealthy children who were as pampered as the Lu governor. Therefore, when he saw Deng Ming posing this square table, he was inevitably confused.

Hearing that Deng Ming was indeed talking about military and national affairs rather than inviting people to play cards, Zheng Chenggong let out a long breath and said in his heart: "The young master is a wise lord, not a rich young man like Lu Jianguo. How could he ignore playing cards in advance? Damu, Damu, aren't you scaring yourself?" After all the worries in his heart, Zheng Chenggong concentrated on sounding, but he didn't expect that all his expressions and actions had fallen into Li Laiheng's eyes.

"This man is a gambler. Even if you play, you don't have to hurry. You should finish the business first." Li Laiheng remained silent and made his own judgment on Zheng Chenggong, which was also his first impression of Prince Yanping. Seeing that Zheng Chenggong sat down and kept paying attention to Deng Ming's hands, Li Laiheng felt a little dissatisfied and guessed that Prince Yanping wanted to play two games. After hearing Deng Ming's words, Zheng Chenggong obviously let out a sigh of relief. Li Laiheng misunderstood the action as disappointed: "It's very addicted to gambling, well, it should be a master. If I meet him, be careful."

The first is the southwest issue: Deng Ming’s view is that it is difficult for the Ming army in the southwest to reverse the situation by relying on itself alone. This time, the opportunity to form such a big momentum in Huguang was indeed taken advantage of the opportunity of the main force of the Qing army going to Yunnan and Guizhou, resulting in the emptiness of Huguang. But even if there are only local Qing troops, the Ming army in Sichuan, Hubei and Ming troops will find it difficult to defend a large area of ​​Hubei. After the Qing army’s northern green camp goes south or adjusts its heavy army deployment, the Ming army will definitely give up part of the land that was restored and still defend with the Three Gorges and Yiling areas as the core.

Deng Ming told Zheng Chenggong that he must return to Sichuan and fight with the camp. The Sichuan army fought together and continued to put pressure on the northern part of the Qing court's 5,000-mile defense line, forcing the Qing court to continue to invest resources and manpower in this defense line. At the same time, Deng Ming also expressed that he would do his best to assist Li Dingguo. If the other party intends to counterattack Guizhou, he should also do his best to support, so that the Qing court will also be unable to free up from the southern end of the 5,000-mile defense line.

The second is the southeast issue: Although Deng Ming was very glorious under Nanjing City, the one who contributed the most was not Li Laiheng, but Zheng Chenggong's power was mainly relied on Zheng Chenggong to disrupt the rule of the Qing court. Especially in the Battle of Zhenjiang, the most elite and loyal main force of the Eight Banners in the southeast of the Qing court was eliminated, which made the Qing court lack a reliable and powerful mobile force, resulting in Nanjing having to use local troops that lack combat effectiveness as the main force. After the Qing court reinforcements from the north moved south, the Ming army still could not gain a foothold in Jiangnan.

However, whether it is to rebuild the southeast army or to draw troops from the north or the southwest to return to defense, the Qing court needed a lot of money. The main source of taxes of the Qing court was Anhui, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang. The taxes here not only allowed the Qing court to maintain a 5,000-mile defense line, but also used to supply the needs of the northern garrison.

"The southeast is the money bag of the Lu court." In Deng Ming's previous life, although Zheng Chenggong's attack on Nanjing led to a sharp reduction in tax revenue in the Qing court that year, the Southwest War had basically ended and did not cause insurmountable difficulties for the Qing court. This time, due to the joining of Deng Ming and Li Laiheng, the Qing court suffered even more heavy losses in the southeast: "The Zheng County Prince attacked Nanjing this time. I think it is impossible for the captive court to allocate much money and grain to Wu Sangui this year, and life will be much better for King Jin."

Deng Ming's analysis of the national strategy made Zheng Chenggong quite satisfied. In his opinion, the young Tang King was not only brave, but also had his own understanding of the general situation.

"Does the admiral hope that Zhang Shangshu and I can continue to launch such an attack? Let the captive court retain heavy troops in the southeast to share the pressure from the southwest and Sichuan?" Zheng Chenggong asked.

"That's true." Deng Ming nodded. This was also the biggest concern when Hong Chengchou was about the Shunzhi analysis of the situation in the Southern Ming Dynasty before the Changsha Shogunate opened. Although Zheng Chenggong's territory was not large, his military strength was always very concentrated. In addition, Zheng Chenggong's strong maritime strength led to a serious threat to all provinces in the southeast coast. In order to prevent Zheng Chenggong from defending him, the Qing court needed to leave troops everywhere in the long southeast coast. Such a huge expenditure would seriously affect the Qing court's investment in the southwest. The final result was that it could not form an overwhelming advantage over the Chuangying and the Xiying. In fact, even if Hong Chengchou was convinced that Zheng Chenggong would never be able to cooperate sincerely with Li Dingguo, the Qing court would have to invest huge forces to guard Zheng Chengchou, which led to Hong Chengchou being able to ensure the safety of the five thousand-mile defense line and waiting for internal strife in the Yongli court.

Now Deng Ming wants to turn Hong Chengchou’s most worried thing into reality. As long as he doesn’t go to Fujian and maintains a good relationship with Zheng Chenggong and Zhang Huangyan, they can play a greater positive role than before. Deng Ming used to help Zhang Huangyan strengthen his troops as much as possible, which was also for this purpose.

"No problem, we can once again rush into the Yangtze River in the summer and autumn next year." Zhang Huangyan replied confidently. Since Deng Ming provided a large number of weapons and equipment, although the number of Zhejiang soldiers was smaller, the combat effectiveness was far stronger than before this time. Moreover, Zhang Huangyan could also obtain supplements from the rebels from Shandong and other places: "We will not make any mistakes again, and we will definitely be able to take back Nanjing."

But Zheng Chenggong was silent for a moment, then shook his head slightly after thinking for a while: "Jin Xia's troops may not be able to reply next year."

This time, the dispatch of troops consumed a lot of Zheng Chenggong's savings, and the weapons and equipment were also very lost. Although Deng Ming helped him rescue a group of generals, the losses of experienced officers and soldiers were still very shocking, estimated to be more than 10,000. These officers and soldiers were all trained by Zheng Chenggong for a long time. He frankly told Deng Ming that even if he trained his soldiers with all his strength and built equipment, it would be difficult for the Fujian army to recover to the pre-war level in three years: "And..." Zheng Chenggong said hesitantly: "I plan to attack Taiwan."

"Taiwan?" Zhang Huangyan asked loudly: "What are you going to fight Taiwan?"

The reason why Zheng Chenggong hesitated just now was that he was worried that others thought he was useless. Originally, Zheng Chenggong didn’t plan to notify Zhang Huangyan in advance, but Deng Ming was right in front of him. Zheng Chenggong thought about it and felt it was not easy to hide it, so he said it. As Zheng Chenggong expected, Zhang Huangyan immediately opposed fiercely: "Does Prince Zheng want to go into exile?"

When discussing the situation in Sichuan and Huguang just now, Li Laiheng expressed many opinions and opinions, and had certain opinions on the strategy of Yunnan and Guizhou. However, since he began to discuss the Southeast issue, Li Laiheng has been unable to interfere. He vaguely knew that Zhoushan, Kinmen and Xiamen were islands, but Li Laiheng had no idea where he was. After hearing the word "Taiwan", Li Laiheng guessed in his heart that it might be another remote island. Seeing that Zhang Huangyan reacted so much, Li Laiheng asked: "Where is Taiwan?"

"Far apart from the ocean." Zhang Huangyan said unhappily.

"Although it is farther away, it will be of great benefit to our army as long as it can be seized." Li Laiheng's confusion did not surprise Zheng Chenggong. If the mainland generals knew where Taiwan was strange, Zheng Chenggong wanted to explain the importance of Taiwan to Deng Ming as briefly as possible: "Taiwan is located in the southeast of Fujian and was called Yizhou in ancient times. The land was fertile and the rice could be ripe..."

"It should be a good place to engage in maritime trade." Deng Ming often heard about Taiwan's Golden Sea Road in his previous life. Although he didn't understand how important it was, since he could obtain this name, it must have great commercial value.

"No," Zheng Chenggong's expression remained unchanged. In fact, he was shocked. Zhang Huangyan did not attach much importance to sea trade. In order to convince Deng Ming, Zheng Chenggong used the most tempting excuse of this era: land and food. As for the importance of Taiwan's monopoly on East Asian trade, Zheng Chenggong had no intention of mentioning it, and believed that he would not take it to heart if he mentioned Deng Ming.

"Can you get a lot of military expenditure?" Deng Ming asked curiously. Whether it was Zheng Chenggong in his previous life or the one in front of him, they were all interested in Taiwan. Obviously, there must be some reason for this.

"That's right." Zheng Chenggong replied seriously: "Now, I am a trade route between Fujian and Taiwan... owned by me, Daming and the Dutch, and I can provide me with...well, about five million taels of silver every year."

After hearing this number, Li Laiheng suddenly gasped, but Zheng Chenggong continued: "If Taiwan is seized, all merchant ships will have to pay taxes to me in the Ming Dynasty. I will be able to pay any taxes... We have the final say. The annual income will be at least 10 million taels. Moreover, Taiwan not only produces rice, but also grows sugar cane, which can make good sugar."

"Who are the Dutch?" Li Laiheng couldn't help but interrupt and asked, "Is Taiwan their territory?"

"Yes." Zhang Huangyan replied, still opposing the attack on Taiwan: "Now the Tartars have not been expelled, it is better not to start another battle."

"No! Taiwan is the territory of the Ming Dynasty." Zheng Chenggong immediately retorted.

"Whose territory is it?" Li Laiheng was very confused when he heard it.

Zhang Huangyan chuckled and shook his head and said, "Don't bully others, when will Taiwan be our territory? Did my Ming government ever have it?"

"It was not the territory of the Ming Dynasty before, but sooner or later," Zheng Chenggong argued without any concession.

Zhang Huangyan was still shaking his head: "Far apart from the ocean."

"That's because the sea route was difficult to walk in the past, and it was particularly difficult to travel between Fujian and Taiwan. But now we know that the wind and flood seasons can pass safely." Zheng Chenggong said in a deep voice: "A thousand years ago, Guangdong, Guangxi and other places were not our territory, but Han people passed by, and reclaiming and planting were our territory; the same is true for Yunnan and Guizhou. There are more and more Han people, and finally they have become our territory. In recent decades, Fujian people have been constantly crossing the sea to Taiwan, and sooner or later they can be included in the territory. The Dutch came later than Fujian people. After building two forts, they declared Taiwan as their territory. What's the difference between this and Jiannu stealing Liaodong? If they let them kill Fujian people, they will inevitably be another major concern in the future."

"Did the Dutch kill our people?" Deng Ming, who had been listening with peace of mind, suddenly asked in the intercept.

"It is exactly the same as what Jiannu did in Liaodong back then," Zheng Chenggong replied angrily: "They forced Fujianese in Taiwan to pay taxes to them. Sometimes, the merchant ships in Fujian were blown to Taiwan by the wind, and the Dutch would steal their goods, kill sailors above or turn them into slaves. It is precisely because the Tartars have not yet been expelled, so I only wrote books twice before, asking them not to plunder my merchant ships, but the Dutch still did. Besides, why should Fujianese pay taxes to the Dutch? They should pay taxes to the Ming Dynasty."

"If you want to attack Taiwan, how much time will it take? How long will it take to recover your vitality?" Deng Ming asked.

"The cost should be quite large, but once it is taken, the profits of sea trade can double, and it should not be delayed for a long time." Zheng Chenggong once estimated that this would probably lead to his inability to dispatch the main force to attack Nanjing for four or five years. However, even if he didn't fight, it would take three years to recover, not to mention that he could use this war to train his troops. He was afraid that Deng Ming would be too late, so he did not express his timeline in his heart, but began to describe a bright future: "Once Taiwan is taken, not only can the military subordinates be placed in a safe place, but also can provide a large amount of military rations. After the profits of sea trade are doubled, the Fujian army can also attack coastal areas more frequently."

Zhang Huangyan felt that this was delaying the expulsion of the Tartars, but he knew that he would definitely not be able to stop Zheng Chenggong. However, Deng Ming seemed to have a certain influence on the Prince of Yanping. Seeing that Deng Ming seemed to be intent, Zhang Huangyan sighed again: "If according to Prince of Zheng, Taiwan is the territory of the Ming Dynasty, then what is Luzon? I heard that the Franji people there have been killing Fujian people since the Wanli period. Is it another Jiannu?"

Zheng Chenggong remained silent. He actually had ideas about the Philippines, but he didn't want to say it clearly now.

"Luzon, is it a spice island?" Deng Ming was not very familiar with geography, so he asked Zheng Chenggong, the sailor of this era.

Deng Ming's question made Zhang Huangyan stunned. Although he had heard of the Luzon Tuhua incident, he did not know the output of Luzon, and Zheng Chenggong's shock was indescribable. Zheng Chenggong had heard before that the Thais bought a large amount of spices from Southeast Asia. It is said that after transporting them back to the Thais, pepper, cloves and other items could be exchanged for the same weight of gold. Now the Spaniards can obtain a large amount of spices at a very low price in Southeast Asia, and they also wantonly lower the price of goods transported by Zheng Chenggong's sea merchants.

Zheng Chenggong had long thought that if he could monopolize Luzon's sea trade and force the Thais to exchange real gold and silver for spices, wouldn't he be happy? Even if he only paid the average weight or one-third of the gold, it would be great. Besides, after monopolizing the route, the Chinese merchant's goods could also increase the price, allowing Zheng Chenggong to withdraw more taxes from it - not only can Chinese merchants, but also Thai merchants can draw together.

"The admiral saw Wanli clearly." Zheng Chenggong reacted from his great astonishment and hurriedly said to Deng Ming: "If Luzon was included in the territory, the income from the sea trade would probably not be under the regular tax of the two capitals and thirteen provinces."

"As the prince said, if the Chinese continue to move to Taiwan and Luzon, we will also send troops to protect the people and educate the indigenous people. In the end, these territories will be included in the Chinese territory. But if the Dutch and the Spanish... if the Franj people kill the Han people, these territories will never be ours. As for the Dutch and the Franj people, they are exactly the same as the Jiannu. Of course, we must protect the Chinese in Taiwan and Luzon, just like the Ming Dynasty did not give up the people of Liaodong." Deng Ming concluded the Dutch and the Spanish and said to Zheng Chenggong: "Taiwan and the Ming people of Luzon, please ask the Prince of Yanping to expel the barbarians and protect our people."

"Abide by the order." Zheng Chenggong said in surprise. Although Zhang Huangyan was right next to him, he did not pay much attention to the words: "Don't worry, admiral, with me here, everyone in Taiwan and Luzon's people will never be slaughtered."

Although Zheng Chenggong used the word "follow order", Zhang Huangyan did not notice this when he was shocked. He shook his head: "Admiral, the tiger has not yet been driven away, and he has provoked two wolves. There must be a priority for the matter."

"Sharpening a knife is free of firewood." Deng Ming replied: "I didn't want Prince Zheng and Shangshu Zhang to restore Nanjing immediately. You just misunderstood me. I think capturing Nanjing may not be beneficial to us, because we must defend it if we fail to block the attack of the Tartars. If we fail to block the Tartars' offensive, the people of Nanjing will suffer. We are different from the Tartars. They don't care about the life and death of our Han people, but we care a lot. Therefore, if we don't have the confidence to defend Nanjing for a day, we will not take Nanjing for a day."

"Then how does the admiral want us to restrain the troops of the capitulation court?" Zhang Huangyan asked back.

"It's good to keep it there, just be outside Wusongkou from time to time, or patrol the Yangtze River for a while, so the Tartars must retain heavy troops in the southeast, strictly guard the canal transportation, and spend a lot of money to rebuild the navy. Maybe it's better not to fight tough battles, as long as you don't fight for a day, the Tartars will not dare to relax in one day; on the other hand, if you are defeated, the Tartars can rest assured to send more troops to the southwest and Sichuan." Deng Ming felt that since the Ming army does not have enough strength, maintaining deterrence may be the best strategy. As long as the Ming army has the power to control the sea, it will always firmly control the initiative in strategic decisive battles: "This does not require too much force, and the Prince of Zheng should also have the strength to assist Zhang Shangshu from the side. If Taiwan can be recovered and Luzon can be recovered during this period, it might as well be recovered casually and trained the troops."

Seeing that Zhang Huangyan seemed to be a little doubtful, Deng Ming said again: "The Netherlands and Francis cannot be called two wolves. Their motherland is thousands of miles away and cannot send many people here."

Zhang Huangyan glanced at Zheng Chenggong and wanted to get some confirmation from here, but Zheng Chenggong didn't know much about how far the Netherlands and Spain were from China, but he only knew that it was indeed very far.

"If the Taixi people could not learn to respect us under our noses, then as Prince Zheng said, sooner or later, they would be like Jiannu's confidant." Deng Ming ended his speech.
Chapter completed!