When Gao Mingzhan came to the Ming army camp again, Deng Ming had already started transporting his auxiliary troops to Chengdu. The total number of prisoners from Guizhou and Shaanxi exceeded 30,000. In addition, the original troops of the Ming army would take at least two round trips to complete the transportation. Since the Qing army was willing to exchange, the Ming army's transportation volume became even larger. Deng Ming decided to leave most of the volunteers in Zhejiang until the end. The main force of the Ming army can ensure that the Qing army would not have any risky thoughts.

"Can the admiral give up his hands and return the personal soldiers of General Zhang Yong and General Wang Jinbao together?" Gao Mingzhan asked pitifully. This kind of exchange of prisoners will definitely not be hidden for long. If Zhang Yong and Wang Jinbao's personal soldiers are not redeemed together, Li Guoying is afraid that they will have any objections.

"No!" Deng Ming was very firm on this issue: "If these people plunder the people in Guizhou, if I put them back, how can I explain to those people in Guizhou? There is no need to mention this matter."

But Gao Mingzhan still refused to give up. Now, only by pulling Zhang Yong and Wang Jinbao into the water can we ensure that this behind-the-scenes transaction will not be known to the court.

Unable to resist Gao Mingzhan's pleading, Deng Ming thought for a while and ordered the guards to conduct another screening. Perhaps any of the two's personal soldiers participated in the plundering operation. As a result, more than 100 people did not directly participate in the robbery activities in Guizhou. Deng Ming reluctantly said to Gao Mingzhan: "There are a total of 115 people, so I will put them back, but each of these 100 people costs twice the price."

In addition to exchanging Zhang Yong and Wang Jinbao's people, Gao Mingzhan also mentioned the issue of confidentiality, which is to say to the outside world that this exchange was a plan of the Qing army, rather than surrendering to the pressure of the Ming army in turn.

"There is no problem." Deng Ming expressed his willingness to cooperate very happily. He even had a better idea: "It would be better to say that the generals in charge of the prisoner-of-war camp here are very greedy. Governor Gao, you all escaped with bribes, and then they used to continue bribing him and rescued the other prisoners. The so-called "using a cow to replace people is just a guise that he did to give me an explanation after accepting your bribes."

"The admiral's plan is great." Gao Mingzhan was overjoyed when he heard this. In the eyes of the Qing court, surrendering to Deng Ming's request was a loss of power and humiliation of the country. If it was the exchange proposed by the Qing army, although it was a little better, it was also suspected of investing in the enemy. If it was done according to Deng Ming's latest plan, the nature would be better. This was a means used by the Qing army, which not only recovered the losses but also corrupted Deng Ming's senior generals.

"This matter," Deng Ming looked around the guards in the camp, as if he was assigned someone to take charge, but Zhou Kaihuang, Ren Tang and Li Xinghan shrank back one after another, and no one wanted to stand out.

Zhao Tianba even clearly expressed his opposition when Deng Ming saw him. Zhao Qianhu’s biggest wish now is to make a name for himself and let him play this role? Just kidding, Zhao Tianba’s reputation has not spread all over the world, how could he wear a hat of stealing the master?

"Let's do this matter." Seeing that everyone else avoided Deng Ming's gaze, Mu Tan took the initiative to agree: "Bijie is willing to be responsible for this exchange."

"Okay." Deng Ming immediately ordered the entire army to be informed, and Mu Tan was responsible for managing the prisoner-of-war camp. The inside story of this exchange did not need to be known. In the future, in front of other officers, Mu Tan could pretend to report to Deng Ming that he had come up with an idea to replace people with a cow, and then Deng Ming agreed.

"Governor Gao is relieved?" Deng Ming asked after arranging all the work in front of Gao Mingzhan.

"Thank you, the admiral." Since he had confessed to Deng Ming, Gao Mingzhan was completely relieved. He also thought about how to write a memorial to the court in the future, which was to brag about Mutan's status with Deng Ming; then he made some contributions to the court, and talked about how he saw through Mutan's greedy nature, so that Deng Ming's confidant general danced according to his baton; finally, of course, he had to emphasize to the court that Mutan could help the Qing army prisoners escape because of bribery, and he might betray Deng Ming to the Qing court for money tomorrow; for the purpose of protecting Mutan, the court must not make a big fuss, and should not let the censors know about this exchange operation, as long as the emperor and important officials knew about this.

These memorials will definitely be endorsed by Li Guoying. The more Gao Mingzhan thinks, the more he feels that there is a great chance of success. If everything goes well, then he who presides over this bribery and rescue mission can be regarded as a redeeming his sins.

...

It was not until early April that Deng Ming was able to lead the main force to arrive in Xuzhou. The people who originally gathered near Xuzhou also went to Chengdu in large numbers, making it completely an empty city.

"After seeing us transporting a large number of plowing oxen back to Chengdu, the people in Xuzhou were unwilling to live a hard life in the mountains." The officer who arrived earlier reported to Deng Ming that not only Xuzhou, but also Jiadingzhou people also flocked to Chengdu in large numbers. When the people in these two places were already moved when they saw Ming military ration ships passing by one by one, the recent continuous carrying of plowing oxen made most people give up their wait-and-see attitude. After more than ten years of war, Sichuan's production has been completely destroyed. Many people have not seen iron farm tools for many years, let alone plowing oxen.

"Well, Chengdu's IOU may be printed again." Deng Ming was of course very happy to see the people around him returning to Chengdu with hope and longing, but the surge in Chengdu's population also put huge pressure on Deng Ming's economic policies.

Deng Ming did not intend to be in charge of the government for the plowing ox exchanged this time. He first ordered the orphans and widows of the fallen soldiers to send two oxen; if there is no bachelor without a wife, then check if he has any brothers, and if there is one. The second group was the wounded who were disabled due to injuries, some were on the battlefield, and some were beaten after being captured. Each of these lost-labored people could also get two oxen, and they could make a living by renting out plowing oxen to ensure their livelihood.

In addition, Deng Ming also had more than a thousand cows in his hands. After the first batch of oxen arrived, Liu Jinge wrote to Deng Ming, suggesting that the government raise the batch of oxen and then rent it to the fellow scholar to collect rent, so that he could wear it in the main places of each pavilion.

Deng Ming clearly expressed his objection to this: "The government has many disadvantages: First, it requires hiring people to take care of them. These people are not taking care of their own cattle, so they will definitely not be very careful; second, in order to collect more money, to show their ability to the superiors, they will not be jealous of oxen, and they will work hard; third, the people need to use oxen, and if there are too many oxen in the pavilion, someone may bribe the pavilion chief... Finally, in order to make money, the government may make things difficult for those who own and rent oxen."

Out of deep-seated distrust of the government, Deng Ming immediately wrote back to Chengdu Prefecture, ordering that all plowing oxen be auctioned publicly. The auction rules were also formulated by Deng Ming himself. Every time a batch of oxen arrived, they would be led to Chunxi Road and displayed to the onlookers in a temporary auction hall, and then everyone would bid freely, and those with the highest price would be awarded.

After arriving in Xuzhou, Deng Ming received another letter from Chengdu. According to Liu Jinge, the auction was very successful. In order to raise the price, he only auctioned ten heads every day. The onlookers were crowded with people, and many people desperately borrowed IOUs to buy cows with their neighbors.

"This guy!" Deng Ming was so amused after reading the letter. Although Liu Jinge was less than twenty years old, after being the prefect of the prefect for several months, he became more and more proficient in the method of raising prices: "I really have the understanding."

After reading the letter, Deng Ming asked Zhao Tianba and others to continue to advance with the army, and he himself returned to Chengdu with the ship transporting agricultural tools.

On April 10, Deng Ming returned to Chengdu, and Yuan Xiang and Xiong Lan also ran to Liu Jinge's yamen to pay their respects.

"I plan to conduct a census to see how many people there are in Chengdu now." After seeing Liu Jinge, Deng Ming immediately expressed his plans. When he came back this time, Deng Ming noticed that Chengdu had become very different from when he left, and there were twice as many shops on Chunxi Road: "How many people are there in Chengdu now? Do Brother Liu have a general idea in his mind?"

Liu Jinge's main job these days is to sell cattle, but he knows the population of Chengdu.

The most retired auxiliary soldiers in Chengdu are of course in Chengdu, with more than 18,000 retired auxiliary soldiers in Chengdu, and recently the number of people pouring into Chengdu from Xuzhou and Jiadingzhou is as high as 50,000, half of which are males. Including the number of males in Sichuan is already 43,000; the second is Yunnan, 15,000 of the 20,000 auxiliary soldiers in Jianchang were Yunnan, and the number of males in Yunnan is also as high as 22,000. Shaanxi people are tied for second place, they are all former Qing soldiers abandoned by Li Guoying, and the number of people is equal to that of Yunnan; the fourth is Guizhou people, and this time the captives and the original Jianchang auxiliary soldiers are also as many as 16,000.

In addition to these more than 100,000 males, there are 30,000 volunteer soldiers and their 20,000 relatives. Among these 30,000 volunteers, Zhejiang people have more than 20,000, and the remaining 10,000 come from Huguang, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shandong and other places.

"There are about 130,000 males, 50,000 women and more than 10,000 young children." Deng Ming nodded. There were still some males on Liu Yao and Yang Youcai, but those people are currently owned by the Sichuan Army and have nothing to do with Deng Ming.

"Liu Shuai also came to the letter, saying that there seemed to be refugees west of Tongxin Pass." Liu Jinge reported to Deng Ming that Tongxin Pass was near Dujiangyan and was the farthest point of the traditional controlled area of ​​the Ming court. Going westward is the mountainous area on the border of Sichuan, which is far less suitable for farming than western Sichuan. Therefore, the rich Han people in western Sichuan were generally unwilling to take the Tongxin Pass step in peacetime. However, more than ten years of war have made many Han people rather go to the difficult Sichuan border area than stay in the western Sichuan plain: "Liu Shuai said that the people are rare and they run away when they see the army. Now Liu Shuai has limited supplies and has not gathered refugees. However, if we have a wealth of food in the future, we can prevent people from crossing Tongxin Pass, searching for refugees deep into the mountainous areas on the border of Sichuan, and persuade them to come back."

"That's right." Deng Ming was not surprised by Liu Yao's report. The post station officer in Jiading Prefecture also told Deng Ming that in Emei, Leshan there were still refugees hiding, and as long as there was enough food, they could go into the mountains to search. Food could also convince these refugees to come out. After all, life in the mountains was extremely difficult, and people hiding in it were all problems with eating and dressing. This time, the large amount of food transported by the Ming army made the people who were hiding in the mountainous areas near Jiading Prefecture and Xuzhou unable to resist the temptation to eat and return to Chengdu.

In addition to briefly laying out the census issue, Deng Ming told Liu Jinge that he also brought back a large number of iron farm tools this time, with a total of more than 20,000 pieces.

"That's great." Liu Jinge said immediately: "It's better to use the old method of the admiral, let's auction them."

"No." Deng Ming knew that Liu Jinge would have this idea again, so he personally escorted these farm tools back to Chengdu: "How many farm tools have those blacksmith shops built in the past few months?"

Liu Jinge immediately asked someone to take out the tax account book and hand it over to Deng Ming. Deng Ming looked through it and it was still the three ironware business companies when he left. In the past few months, they only built more than a thousand agricultural tools.

"It's much less than I thought. They all add up and can't make 10,000 tools a year, and 5,000 is good." Deng Ming sighed softly. With the current metallurgical ability of Chengdu Prefecture, even the production tools needed in Chengdu cannot meet the requirements: "What I need is not only a blacksmith shop that can make a few axes and sickles every day, but what I need is an iron tool business that can produce from iron pots, iron spoons to swords and muskets. I need them to produce hundreds of thousands of tools and utensils every year, and I need them to reach this scale as soon as possible."

"If we auction farm tools, the business of these blacksmith shops will be even more difficult, and they will not have any staff to expand production. If someone goes bankrupt, it will cause greater damage to us." Deng Ming stared at the account book and thoughtfully. Now these three blacksmiths seem to be very enthusiastic about their work, and their monthly output is increasing: "They must be supported."

Among the three blacksmiths, one of them was the best, hired the most short-term workers, and the largest number of ores purchased. Among the more than 1,000 tools made in Chengdu, almost half were produced by the Li Family Iron Shop, and the output growth rate was also the highest.

"I handed over 10,000 agricultural tools to Li Muyang for sale. Haven't he made 700 pieces in the past three months? Is there 700 of them I gave to him for free." Deng Ming finally made up his mind and began to assign tasks to Liu Jinge: "The other two companies will also handle this, give them the same agricultural tools as their output as their rewards, and ask them to sell our agricultural tools on behalf of them according to the output ratio; I charge half of these agricultural tools for taxes, they take half of the IOU, and the government takes half of the IOU. But for every piece they produce and sell, I will refund them the tax, and the tax refund period is the end of this year."

Liu Jinge and Xiong Lan looked at each other and asked carefully: "Admiral, if they really made 20,000 pieces by the end of the year, wouldn't they all give them for free?"

"I'm talking about real things that can be sold, but yes, if they can make them, I will give them these 20,000 pieces for free. Sales can allow them to make money as soon as possible. If there is an IOU, they can buy more people and buy more ores. As long as they want to take my farm tools for nothing, they have to increase the output as soon as possible." Looking at Liu Jinge who was a little distressed, Deng Ming smiled and said, "Don't remember what I said? The government not only needs to make money, but also can spend money. If we can use this money to buy a quadruple iron production in Chengdu, we will benefit. Don't forget that we are still fighting. Let's not talk about making weapons now, we can't even make agricultural tools."

In addition to iron tools, the horse bank is also a key support project for Deng Ming. However, the scale of the horse bank in Chengdu is even more pitiful. There are not many mares. It is estimated that a horse may be born in one year: "In four years, we do not have to expect the horse bank to provide horses to our army. Whether it is war horses or horse picking, we will die less than one in a few years unless we go to the Qing army to grab them. In addition to continuing to support these horse banks, we also need to set up rewards and punishments. I plan to allocate one hundred horses to the horse bank for sale this time... Well, it's still 200 horses to the horse bank for sale. The allocation ratio is calculated based on the number of horses they store. The IOU sold is temporarily owned by them, but it is all considered a five-year loan. They can first improve the stables and buy more mares and better feed. I will settle accounts with them in five years. Every time they raise a foal, I will exempt them from the IOU, otherwise they will have to pay me back with interest."

"Enough capital and profit?" Xiong Lan felt that this rule was obviously much more harsh than the Iron Manufacturer: "Their other loans will expire in five years. If they don't raise enough foals, the horse manufacturer will go bankrupt."

"If you go bankrupt, go bankrupt. If these horse stores can't raise 200 horses for five years, they deserve to go bankrupt. I will not invest money in such horse stores." Deng Ming felt that not all horse stores were waste, and survival of the fittest was also worthy of survival of the fittest: "Unlike the ironware business, the horse stores have no achievements so far, and I don't know if they are wasting the bank's loans; of course, this agency sales are voluntary. If the horse stores are unwilling to ask for it, I will not force it."

Although Deng Ming took out incentive measures to stimulate Chengdu Iron and Horse Raising Trading Company, he knew that Chengdu still had no ability to make blood in the short term, and the troops' equipment could only be seized from the Qing army.
Chapter completed!