Since returning to the yamen, Zhou Peigong has been thinking about the strategy of negotiating Deng Ming. Since he had never considered compromise before, Zhou Peigong was very nervous. The suspicion that surged again and again interrupted Zhou's thoughts repeatedly. Zhou Peigong suffered a crushing defeat in several negotiations with Deng Ming before. Although he could comfort himself and was not taken away by the other party, Zhou Peigong was also very clear that it was entirely because Deng Ming's subordinates showed mercy, and deliberately left some benefits for himself for some reasons that he was not clear about.

After an afternoon of intense thinking, Zhou Peigong found that his situation was unprecedentedly unfavorable in this negotiation. Hanyang was almost unprepared, and the Ming army showed unprecedentedly powerful siege ability. Hanyang and Wuchang were directly related to Zhou Peigong and his loving proposition. Changgeng's wealth and life were forced to the edge of the cliff. It would be fine if the other party pushed harder, but at that time, only the fish would fight to the death, but Deng Ming's attitude of trying to push but not pushing, which made people even more uncomfortable.

Before dark, the envoy from Wuchang arrived and sent Zhou Peigong an urgent order from the Governor of Huguang. Although Zhang Changgeng was very worried before, he also hoped that Zhou Peigong could create miracles and block the arrogant Deng Ming under Hanyang City, at least he had to buy some time for Wuchang. Only after the Qing army in Zhongxiang and other places returned could Zhang Changgeng have hope to turn the tide in Wuchang. But things were worse than Zhang Changgen expected. Hanyang City and Zhou Peigong Group, which were highly anticipated, could not hold on for even a long time.

After receiving the urgent reports from Biaoying guerrillas and Zhou Peigong, Zhang Changgen almost fainted on the spot. He knew that if Deng Ming conquered Hanyang in one day, the morale of Wuchang's military might collapse. Although the Qing army could retreat to Hunan and east Hubei resisted step by step, Deng Ming might also stop to digest the fruits of victory, but nothing had anything to do with Zhang Changgeng, and even if he had any contribution, he would be the next governor of Huguang.

After reading Zhou Peigong's report, Zhang Changgeng became generous. Just then, Zhang Changgen had the idea of ​​going to fight with the Ming army in person. If the Ming army really entered Wuchang, Zhang Changgeng, who had no way out, would have only one way left, to send his family out of the city to escape, then put on armor to fight, and finally died on the steps in front of the governor's office in Huguang - he would do this, so that his family could survive.

Zhang Changgeng, who was completely desperate about the battle, immediately wrote a reply to Zhou Peigong, strictly ordering him to accept any conditions of Deng Ming: as long as Deng Ming does not want the two cities of Wuchang and Hanyang, all the requirements of the Ming army can be agreed. Of course, Zhang Changgeng instructed Zhou Peigong to bluff first and curb Deng Ming's ambitions as much as possible, but the bottom line of the Qing army was Wuchang and Hanyang.

In order to ensure that the hawkish Zhou Peigong would not ruin major events, Zhang Changgeng also sent two family members to serve as deputy envoys. Both of them accompanied Zhou Peigong to Deng Ming's camp last time. Zhang Changgeng thought they also had good negotiation skills, so when did they not have to wait?

If it weren't for the concern that Zhou Peigong was disrupting the situation, Zhang Changgen even had the idea of ​​transferring back to the hawkish flag and another negotiation secret envoy. After thinking about it, Zhang Changgen did not stimulate Zhou Peigong too much at this critical moment. After the two families of Governor Huguang came to Hanyang, they also gave Zhou Peigong a big cake that had just been baked by Governor Zhang: "The Governor said that if Deng Ming could force him to withdraw his troops this time, the future memorial would state that the thief of the Tief of the Tief of the Tief of the Tief of the Tief of the Tief of the Tief of the Tief of the Tief of the Tief of the Tief of the Tief of the Tief of the Tief of the Tief of the Tief of the Tief of the Tief of the Tief of the Sword. With this achievement, it would be almost the same as the prefect of the Hubei governor, not far from the governor of Hubei. Now these two locations are empty."

"A governor of Hubei who is less than 30 years old?" Zhou Peigong smiled unquestionably when he heard this, and knew very well that this was the remark that Zhang Changgeng used to comfort him. Zhou Peigong knew that being too young was not the most critical issue. The fatal problem was that his foundation was too shallow. With Zhang Changgeng's favor alone, a prefect of Wuchang would end. If Zhou Peigong wanted to become a provincial governor or even a high-ranking official, he needed a large number of allies, not only in the officialdom, but also the support of local gentry. As a 20-year-old candidate, Zhou Peigong obviously could not have so many powerful alliances, and Zhang Changgen would not force him to a position that he could not be competent: "Governor is afraid that I will make trouble. This is the Governor's fault. Even if Deng Ming does not return my property, I will not implicate him even if I try my best."

Seeing that the departure time was approaching, Zhou Peigong briefly introduced his negotiation ideas to the two assistants: "Deng Ming has broken the Hanyang wall. If we talk about any military issues, we will make us more passive, so don't mention a word, let alone the tens of thousands of soldiers in Wuchang are waiting for the battle. This unconfident bragging will not bring any benefits to our negotiations. Today's plan is to insist that Deng Ming regrets his promise, and that we have always strictly implemented the previous agreement with Deng Ming, but Deng Ming condoned his subordinates to plunder the gentry of Hubei and attack Wuchang again. Even if we have money, we can't help but Deng Ming robbing him over and over again. And we have to express our distrust of Deng Ming. This time we can give money, but he needs to give a guarantee that he will not threaten the Governor with Wuchang again in the short term."

Both Zhang Changgeng's servants were confused. They wanted to make a fuss on the way and told Deng Ming that there was an army that should not be humiliated easily, and that a hundred thousand troops were coming, but Zhou Peigong rejected the idea as soon as he opened his mouth. In addition, the two people also felt that Deng Ming could not give Zhou Peigong's hope at all. They were in a hurry and had to agree to all the requests of the Ming army. As long as they passed the current hurdle, Zhang Changgeng planned to transfer all the Qing troops in Zhongxiang to defend Dawuchang.

"First of all, Deng Ming would not believe that there are tens of thousands of soldiers to fight in Wuchang. If you don't come, I might be able to say a few more words, but you are all here - if Wuchang still has the power to fight, how could the Governor send you here?" Zhou Peigong shook his head slightly. Although Zhang Changgeng and Zhou Peigong were not at odds with each other during negotiations with Deng Ming, this difference would always put the Qing army in a more disadvantageous position: "As for this kind of guarantee, I know that Deng Ming can't give it, but my official intention is to use this bargaining to let Deng Ming let us go."

The plan was decided, so Zhou Peigong took two Zhang Changgeng's family and several confidant guards from the Biaoying guerrilla camp to disguise themselves from the city and soon arrived in front of the Ming army camp.

The soldiers guarding the camp gate asked Zhou Peigong to enter the camp while asking him to enter the camp. The officer said politely: "The admiral has already made an explanation. As long as the prefect Zhou arrives, he will immediately bring it into the camp. Don't let the prefect Zhou wait for a long time."

The two Zhang family members behind him nodded and thanked him, but Zhou Peigong was calm and raised his head, with a hint of anger on his face - of course, they were all for the Ming army to show. Now Zhou Peigong hated the two deputy envoys who followed him the most. At this time, his mind was full of the words Deng Ming had said to him about his teammates.

Deng Ming had prepared a tent for negotiation in advance. After Zhou Peigong was introduced into the tent, he saw a slender table in the tent, whose length and width ratio was far greater than what Zhou Peigong had seen before. On both sides of the long table, there were two rows of chairs. The old rival Deng Ming sat on the chair in the middle of the left row, and there were several Ming army officers sitting next to him. One of them, Zhou Peigong had also seen it, was a scholar in Zhejiang, and Zhou Peigong had also had a friendship with him.

"Prime Minister Zhou, please sit down." Deng Ming and his subordinates stood up to welcome him.

Zhou Peigong walked to the chair opposite Deng Ming, pulled the chair open and sat down with dignified. After searching, the two Zhang family servants who came with him were also put into the negotiation tent. The two of them stood tremblingly behind Zhou Peigong.

"These are two deputy envoys of my official." Zhou Peigong said loudly.

"I know, I have met these two gentlemen once." Deng Ming obviously did not forget Zhou Peigong's two teammates. He smiled and said, "Please sit down, two deputy envoys."

"The Admiral asked you to sit, and you will sit." Zhou Peigong shouted impatiently when he heard that the two of them were still modest behind him.

After the two deputy envoys sat down carefully, Zhou Peigong took the initiative and rebuked: "Supervisor Li Hu and Liu Wan plunder the gentry of Jiangling, that's fine; Hao and He from Jianghan even robbed the people's land. What's the difference between such behavior and bandits? The knowledgeable people in Huguang heard that they all hated them and donated money and paid. They asked the Governor to send troops immediately to capture Hao and He thieves! Didn't the Admiral hear that they had many helps, but they were helpless? Although the subordinates and the Admiral are enemies but not friends, the Admiral is so indulging his subordinates, and he knows that the Admiral is not far from defeat."

"Master Zhou is right." Zhou Peigong thought Deng Ming would defend himself, at least as an excuse to go abroad, but he did not expect Deng Ming to agree: "The tax collection can be discussed again, but Hao and He have done too much."

Zhou Peigong sneered: "Admiral is really a deceptive story. Who in the world knows that they are all generals under the Admiral. Does the Admiral want to leave the relationship clean with just one sentence?"

For a moment, Zhou Peigong felt that the negotiations had begun to enter his scheduled pace again. As the leader of the Ming army, Deng Ming's mistake was his mistake. Zhou Peigong did not expect that Deng Ming would admit that his side was wrong so easily. This was very beneficial to Zhou Peigong's next negotiation. He could seize Deng Ming's fault and do something. Whether it was to compensate or reduce the cost of redemption, it would be beneficial. It can be said that both public and private are not wrong.

"Where are they the generals under my seat?" In the next moment, Deng Ming shook his head and said, "They have no dependent relationship with me. They called me the admiral to give me face. I can't give them orders at all. They decided on any policy and did not need my prior permission. This is really too proud to prevail for me."

Deng Ming's words made Zhou Peigong lose his mind for a long time. Although the other party's words seemed to make sense at first glance, they were absolutely indescribable in essence. Because Li Laiheng, Liu Tichun, Hao Yaoqi and others were under the banner of the Ming court, Yongli was the king and father, and they were the ministers, which was the righteousness of the king and the ministers. Wen'anzhi was the military supervisor sent by Yongli, and Deng Ming was the royal family and the commander of Sichuan and Hubei appointed by Wen'anzhi. As long as Li Laiheng did not raise the flag of rebellion for one day, or Yongli did not declare Li Laiheng a rebel thief for one day, then Wen'anzhi and Deng Ming were the bosses of Li Laiheng and others.

At this time, Deng Ming continued to say: "I have never paid military salaries to Hushuai and others. There are no officials appointed by Wenshu in their controlled areas, and their army will not obey my orders, so no matter what they do, it has nothing to do with me."

"It's too shameless." Zhou Peigong thought of this. He admitted that Deng Ming's trick was very fierce to remove the firewood from the cauldron, and he blocked all his accusations in an instant. But Zhou Peigong felt unbelievable that Deng Ming would use such a trick to resist a few accusations that were not harmful. No matter what the fact is, no king would admit that he could not command the warlords under his command, because it was a shame. For example, Emperor Xian of Han would not publicly admit that Cao Cao had the right to act freely. In addition to being a great humiliation, it would also lead to the loss of justice of the monarch and ministers. Cao Cao's actions only mean that he was a traitor. Emperor Xian of Han lost the ability to use the right to command his ministers, but did not lose the ownership of this right.

It has been the same throughout the dynasties. The emperor has no choice but to do with the warlords, but despite this, the warlords are also the emperor's ministers, and the emperor will never put them on an equal footing. From any perspective, the loss of justice of the monarch and ministers is more terrible than the loss of actual rights.

But Deng Ming obviously didn't think so. Zhou Peigong looked at Deng Ming's accompanying in surprise, wondering if they could accept Deng Ming's easy abandonment of justice - even though it was just a secret meeting.

"The Admiral said it is right." Ren Tang saw Zhou Peigong's eyes swept to him and hurriedly expressed his agreement with Deng Ming: "Including Li Hushuai, the Admiral has no right to inquire about his official arrangements, tax expenses, and military arrangements. If the Admiral wants to get things from Li Hushuai, he must take out the things to exchange them. If he fights with Li Hushuai, he must distribute the spoils according to the size of his efforts. Rather than saying that Li Hushuai and others are subordinates of the Admiral, they are more of the Admiral's ally. Since they are ally relationships, it is obvious that the Admiral cannot bear the reputation of the alliance's actions."

Originally, Ren Tang also thought Deng Ming's actions were too ridiculous, but he was close to Zhu and Chi. Young people in their early twenties had a strong ability to accept, and now they have been deeply influenced by Deng Ming's logic. Whether in Nanjing or Huguang, from the perspective of the righteousness of the monarch and ministers, Lang Tingzuo and Zhang Changgeng were all traitors who were irreconcilable, but Deng Ming could do business with them without any psychological burden. Since Deng Ming could give the traitor a chair that was equal, it would be nothing difficult to understand to regard Li Laiheng and others as allies. At least Ren Tang felt that it was much less difficult to overcome the latter psychological barrier than the former.

"Although I cannot be responsible for the actions of my allies, because I am full of kindness to the gentry of Huguang, I take the initiative to discuss with Hushuai and others, hoping that they will return the confiscated land for my sake; although I can't get a single tax they collect, I am willing to give some compensation to the scholars because of their kindness to the gentry of Huguang." Deng Ming changed into a serious expression and said to Zhou Peigong: "It's a pity that Wuchang seems to have some misunderstandings about me because of the distance, so I brought troops to let the Governor of Huguang and Wuchang understand my kindness."

Although he was an expert in turning black and white into the memorial, Zhou Peigong couldn't help but retort when he heard this: "The admiral attacked Hanyang and blew up a large section of the city wall. Isn't it because he was kind-hearted?"

"Of course!" Deng Ming said in surprise: "Of course this is kindness."

Seeing Zhou Peigong's face full of unbelievable expressions, Deng Ming smiled slightly and said, "Have you ever heard a saying that "Have a sharp blade in your body, killing will arise on your own?" I have the ability to easily break Wuchang and Hanyang, just like a sharp blade in my arms, so why don't I use this sharp blade to stab General Zhang? Of course, this is because I am full of kindness to Governor Zhang. If I don't blow up the walls of Hanyang, Governor Zhang wouldn't know that I was in my hand, and maybe I would misunderstand that I had malicious intentions towards him but had no ability to display them. Therefore, I must blow up the walls of Hanyang, so that Governor Zhang and President Zhou would not misunderstand me and would realize my kindness."

"Robber!" After Deng Ming finished speaking, Zhou Peigong and Ren Tang's eyes intersected in the air, and were surprised to find that they had reached a tacit consensus on Deng Ming in their hearts.

At this point, Zhou Peigong was completely speechless, and he had no idea how to refute Deng Ming.

After completely overwhelming the opponent in momentum, Deng Ming could finally throw out his solution: "For those Wuchang gentry who have land under the control of Hu Shuai and others, I am willing to help them bear half of the tax out of goodwill."

"How to bear it?" Zhou Peigong suddenly felt spirited again: "Does the admiral give it to us?"

"I don't have that much grain to you," Deng Ming shook his head: "So I must owe you first. I plan to give you IOU. Every time you take two stones of rice to Hushuai and the others, I will give you one hundred yuan. One hundred yuan means you owe you one stone of rice. If it is other grain, it needs to be converted according to the market price..."

After explaining the conversion of IOU and grain, Deng Ming told Zhou Peigong: "Except for me not having so much grain to you for the time being, the transportation of grain consumes a lot of food, which is very heavy and importantly occupies a large number of ships, so I plan to redeem these IOUs with salt."

"Salt?" Zhou Peigong's eyes lit up when he heard this. He pondered for a moment, remembering a policy that the Ming Dynasty had implemented, which was to use salt to encourage merchants to transport grain to the border army in order to solve the military food problem of the border army. Now Zhou Peigong's viewpoint, Deng Ming also seemed to want to use this method to solve the military food problem of the Ming army in Huguang: "Is this IOU equivalent to salt?"

"No, I will exchange salt directly with the IOU without paying additional gold and silver." Deng Ming shook his head. Most of the gentry who owned the land was still in his hometown. After all, there were still a few people who fled to Wuchang. Deng Ming would not give any compensation to those gentry who remained in his hometown. As before, even if he had different opinions, he would not directly interfere in the internal affairs of his allies.

Deng Ming has carefully calculated that the number of IOUs to be paid to the gentry is limited, which is far from enough to digest Sichuan salt. This is just an introduction to open up the trade barriers in Huguang and improve the image of the Ming army among the gentry in Huguang: "I will establish a salt bank to ensure that all IOUs can be fulfilled into Sichuan salt. If the IOUs are fulfilled and the salt is still left, I will also allow you to exchange gold and silver for the remaining salt, which is my additional compensation for your taxes."

"Then what price is the admiral going to exchange for salt?" Zhou Peigong just opened his mouth and shook his head, "Admiral, I can't agree to you immediately. The involvement is too wide. I must go back to the city first. Can I talk about it later?"

In addition to the Governor of Huguang, Zhou Peigong knew that there were many people who had to visit and asked for their opinions.

"Okay, but before that, I needed you to retreat to the defenders of the upstream strongholds and stop the mobilization of Zhongxiang's troops. For this, I will use keeping the troops in return." Deng Ming said.

"This is no problem." Zhou Peigong agreed immediately. He knew that Deng Ming was cautious, and he had expected Deng Ming's request, and he knew that the other party would never retreat on this issue. When he first dealt with Deng Ming, Zhou Peigong discovered that Deng Ming attached great importance to security issues. Later, there was a lesson from Nanjing Zheng Chenggong, and Deng Ming would not give the Qing army the opportunity to use negotiations to threaten him.

Now that Hanyang is in danger, Deng Ming's request for the Qing army to retreat from the upper reaches of the strongholds is not harmful to Zhou Peigong. If Hanyang is lost, these strongholds are meaningless, and now they can slightly enhance their defensive capabilities; and stopping the mobilization of Zhong Xiang's defenders is also more symbolic than practical significance in a military situation where the Ming army can seize Hanyang at any time.

"There is also the issue of city redemption expenses. Can the admiral give a rough figure? It is better for the minister to go back and discuss with the governor first?" Zhou Peigongzheng planned to say goodbye, but remembered another important thing.

"Reden the City Fee?" Deng Ming laughed and waved his hand: "Master Zhou misunderstood. As I said just now, I am full of kindness to the Governor of Huguang and the gentry. This time I came purely to compensate you, and there was no such thing as a redemption of the City Fee."

Before leaving, Zhou Peigong, who was surprised and happy, couldn't help but ask again: "The admiral mobilized all his troops this time, is there really no other request?"

Zhou Peigong asked himself, if he had been in a different place with Deng Ming, he would definitely speak loudly and snatch a slap. The preferential conditions for Deng Ming to give Zhang Changgeng last time might be explained by discrimination against Zhou Peigong and Zhang Changgeng. So what is Deng Ming's purpose for this time to restrain himself?
Chapter completed!