When Dong Weiguo led the Jiangxi canal ship to sail downstream, Deng Ming remained in Jiujiang.

Since the end of the Ming Dynasty, local officials liked to cause trouble and lead the enemy to the east, and always wanted to drive the enemy to the neighbors. As soon as they left their jurisdiction, the local officials ignored it because no matter how fierce the enemy was at the neighbor's house, it had nothing to do with him. The only thing they needed to do was to strictly guard the border to prevent the enemy from escaping back. If it was to reinforce the neighbors and cause the enemy to return, wouldn't it be a pity for themselves?

Even if Chongzhen granted many "supervisors" positions, this situation did not improve. For example, when Zhang Xianzhong made a big fuss in Huguang, Jiangxi was slanderous in the orders of recruiting grain for the commander of the commander, and Henan did not want Shaanxi's guest troops to transit. After Zhang Xianzhong entered Sichuan, it was Huguang's civil and military officials who lost interest in pursuit. The precious manpower and financial resources were better than to help Sichuan solve problems.

Therefore, although Chongzhen's supervisor could nominally save several troops, money and food, he had many factions under his command, and his civil and military personnel had their own plans, and only the power of the province was the most reliable. The position of supervisor was still a temporary dispatch, but it was only the court temporarily granted it as needed. All local officials knew that as the situation improved, this position would definitely be cancelled by the court. In this case, it would be very unpaid to offend the governor in order to obey the order of the supervisor. Even if the supervisor was nominally greater than the governor, the supervisor could not guarantee your life's safety. Therefore, the subordinate officials of each province would still choose the latter without hesitation before the interests of other provinces and the orders of the provincial government. The supervisor could give orders to the governor of a province, but if the governor was tantamount to the governor of the supervisor, there was no way to do so.

After the Qing Dynasty entered the pass, it adopted a stricter accountability system for local officials, which undoubtedly greatly strengthened the mentality of self-protection of officials. In order to offset this harm, after studying the gains and losses of Chongzhen, the Qing Dynasty strengthened the rights of the governor. Governor of Liangjiang, Governor of Zhejiang and Fujian, Governor of Huguang, Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, Governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi... Under the Qing Dynasty, these governors held military and political power in the two provinces. Their power was not under the supervision of the late Ming Dynasty. Moreover, unlike the supervisor of the late Ming Dynasty, this was no longer a temporary dispatch, but a permanent position - the position of governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi was later abolished. Because the Qing court thought about it for a while, he felt that the power of governors of Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia was so great that it was so great that Sichuan was divided into special governors.

In this way, if one province is attacked, it can at least rely on the full support of another neighboring province. The two provinces have very considerable strength. Now, even if Deng Ming does his best, he may not be able to seize the entire Huguang, so he can only be satisfied with threatening Wuchang and taking advantage of Zhang Changgeng's selfishness.

On a larger scale, there are still conflicts between different provinces in the late Ming Dynasty between different governors. It is good that the enemy is weak, but in order to compete for merit, the two governors may compete to attack, but when the enemy is strong, such as the current Dengming Group, the governor of Liangjiang and the governor of Huguang cannot cooperate sincerely, but instead hope that Deng Ming will stay at his neighbor's house and not cause trouble here.

However, the possibility of an enemy making the two governors feel fear is much smaller than that of the two governors. After all, the power in each governor is about six or seventh of the country's strength. But if the strength of an enemy can make the two governors feel uneasy, then his power must reach one-quarter of the national strength of the Qing Dynasty. He must be the number one enemy of the Qing court, and his opponent will definitely not be the local governor.

So far, only the Qin Dynasty's Qin King Sun Kewang and Jin King Li Dingguo, who were forced to send higher-level officials to deal with it a few years ago, in order to resist their attack, the Qing court appointed Hong Chengchou as the strategy, not only granting him the military and political power of the five provinces, but also allowing him to coordinate the Qing army in other war zones. Of course, this position cannot be a permanent position. In fact, the power of the Qing court's governor was unprecedented. Although the governor of Huguang and the governor of Liangjiang did not have the name of a vassal king, their actual power had exceeded that of Geng Jimao. Shang Kexi, these vassal kings who only had military power but no power. Although Wu Sangui had a veritable vassal state, the wealth of Yunnan and Guizhou was obviously not comparable to Liangjiang and Huguang.

In the late Ming Dynasty, the junction of the two provinces was not the safest place for the peasant army but was quite dangerous, because both provinces would do their best to drive the bandits into each other's territory, and the two provinces would at this time take out delicious food and drink to entertain the border troops coming to support. As long as they enter the hinterland of one province, the other province would breathe a sigh of relief, and the pressure of bandits was immediately reduced by half.

The same is true now. The junction of the two governors' jurisdictions will be a more dangerous place than the late Ming Dynasty, because at this time we have to face the pressure of two provinces but four provinces - if we really have the strength to fight the four provinces alone, there is no need to wander around.

Although he had a tacit understanding with Zhang Changgeng, if he always wandered around Huguang, the Governor of Huguang would be very dissatisfied. Deng Ming hurriedly left Hubei as a way to express his kindness to Wuchang. After leaving Huguang, Deng Ming immediately went deep into Jiangxi and did not stay in Hubei or Jiangxi border areas. He also assured Wuchang that he would not only notify him in advance when he returned in the future, but also pass through the border at full speed without making any non-essential stays.

With solemn promise and friendly actions, Wuchang's concerns about Deng Ming were all alleviated. After Deng Ming left the country, the Governor of Huguang quickly transferred all the troops from eastern Hubei to western Hubei. Deng Ming had reached an agreement with Zhang Changgeng, who had agreed that Zhong Xiang and the east of Yuezhou belonged to the Wuchang sphere of influence. Zhang Changgeng was eager to recover these lost lands and establish some buffer zones for Wuchang to prevent Li Laiheng, He Zhen and others from harassing Wuchang. Now Zhang Changgeng and Zhou Peigong both believe that Li Laiheng and others are more dangerous enemies than Deng Ming, because the generals of the East did not know how to win-win and wanted to swallow the entire Hubei - well, Zhang Changgeng knew that Deng Ming would try to annex Huguang in the end, but as long as Huguang was not Zhang Changgeng's sphere of influence at that time, he wouldn't care.

After entering Jiangxi, Deng Ming's enemy was only the Governor of Liangjiang. In theory, in order to get rid of the court's responsibilities, the Governor of Liangjiang should mobilize Anhui and Jiangsu troops to enter Jiangxi to fight, annihilate Deng Ming on the spot or drive him back to the territory of the Governor of Huguang. At the same time, Anhui and Jiangsu's financial resources will fully support this war. But... wait, who is the Governor of Liangjiang now?

There is no Governor of Liangjiang now, only Governor of Jiang Guozhu, who is acting in the affairs of Governor of Liangjiang. The biggest rival who competes with him for the position of Governor of Liangjiang is Zhang Chao, the current Governor of Jiangxi.

Therefore, Deng Ming stayed very freely in Jiujiang and did not feel any pressure at all. He would definitely not see the soldiers and ships of Anhui and Jiangsu. In fact, it is also suspicious whether there are warships in these two provinces. When Lang Tingzuo was in power, Nanchang followed Nanjing and could reduce his military expenditure to Nanjing. After all, Anhui and Jiangsu were facing military pressure from Zhang Huangyan, and Jiangxi was always peaceful. At that time, the funds provided to Susong Navy every year were much more than the money allocated to the Jiangxi Navy. The navy in Jiangxi Province was very small. Like the navy in Anqing and Suzhou, they were all at the level of local governments.

However, after Zheng Chenggong and Deng Ming joined forces to make a big splash in Nanjing last time, Nanchang also had its own plans. Anhui, which suffered severe wars, suffered losses from Jiangsu and the two provinces were much heavier than Jiangxi, and they still needed to bear Dasu's logistics. Jiang Guozhu once hoped that Zhang Chao would cut Jiangxi's military expenditure as usual to subsidize Nanjing's finances, but this time Zhang Chao brought out a lot of reasons and refused to hand over the military expenditure of the province to Nanjing for unified control. Nanchang first used the excuse Deng Ming was on the way back.

Shang fought with the Jiangxi soldiers, so he was unable to help Jiang Guozhu bear Dasu's military expenses. Later, he invested a lot of money to build the Jiangxi Navy into a provincial fleet, but he refused to spend a tael of silver to help Jiang Guozhu rebuild the Susong Navy. The generals of the Jiangxi Navy were also ready to fight, hoping that Zhang Chao could enter Jiangning. At that time, they could transform into the direct troops of the Governor of Liangjiang. This was convenient. As long as the Susong Navy was beaten, they would be able to become the direct troops of the Governor of Liangjiang.

While waiting for Zhang Huangyan's reply, Deng Ming carried out training for recruits with all his might. After capturing Jiujiang, the Ming army seized a large number of ships, and the existing sailors were already difficult to control. In addition to trying their best to surrender the captured Jiangxi sailors, Deng Ming also had to recruit Jiangxi people to join the army. The Yangtze River passed through Jiangxi, and there was a large lake like Poyang Lake. Jiangxi did not lack sailors, but these people were not qualified soldiers. After half a month of training, these recruits were still unable to serve as sailors.

This is of course because Deng Ming's requirements for soldiers are far higher than that of Jiangxi Green Camp. Even those captured Jiangxi Navy navy were no one out of ten who could meet the standards of Ren Tang and Mu Tan. In addition to the sailors, the Ming army also needed to add some auxiliary soldiers. Among Ding Zhuang, who signed up for the army, some people simply had the idea of ​​cheating food and drink. These people were quickly bombarded away after being identified.

In addition to this kind of people, there is another type that the Ming army does not need, that is, people who are hard to leave their hometown. If the Ming army occupied Jiujiang for a long time and even launched an attack on Nanchang, these soldiers would be willing to stay in the Ming army, but if Deng Ming left Jiangxi, they would definitely flee in large numbers.

"How did they learn cultural courses?" After listening to Ren Tang's recruitment report, Deng Ming asked about these Ding Zhuang who the Ming army did not intend to absorb immediately. For those who came to cheat food and drink, Deng Ming invited them to have a meal and then politely invited them to leave. There were more people who were willing to join the army but were unwilling to leave their hometowns. Deng Ming did not simply expel the matter, but ordered the soldiers to teach cultural courses.

"At least half of the numbers within ten are recognized." Ren Tang replied. Of course, Ding Zhuang, who joined the army, did not conduct military training, and the number was thousands. Deng Ming did not have so many resources to teach them cultural knowledge, so their literacy progress was very slow.

"Well, after they know all the numbers, hundreds, thousands, and millions, they will teach them how to know stones, pounds, ounces, money, and parts, and then they can let them go."

"Affect the order." Ren Tang was very satisfied with this order. As a Jiangxi native, he was very happy that Deng Ming was able to treat the people of Jiangxi well. Ren Tang, a scholar, also did not take the merchants who were not engaged in production to heart, and Deng Ming also carefully mentioned the matter of unified purchase and sales in an understatement.

Keeping these people in the military camp and providing them with food is of course an expense, but Deng Ming can still bear the burden for the time being. At present, all expenses come from the warehouses in Jiujiang. In the past, the rebel army liked to open warehouses and release grain to capture the hearts of the people, and explained to the people that the rebel army was friends of civilians rather than enemies. This was also an effective means to recruit Ding Zhuang. Many poor people joined the army because of the hope of having enough food in the army.

According to the description of Yuan Zongdi, Liu Tichun and others, this is a costly way to win people's hearts. Taking Li Zicheng's opening warehouses and grain releases in Luoyang as an example. After hearing about this, the people in prefectures and counties around Luoyang came to support the elderly and young. After seeing the hill-like grain in the warehouse, these people who came from afar desperately put them in their pockets until they could no longer carry them. Not long after leaving the warehouse, the people would find that they could not transport so much grain out of the city, so they began to abandon part of the grain and barely put them in their pockets.

The rest of the people came out of Luoyang, and could not walk anymore, so they had to bear the pain and threw some of them down, struggled and walked out for several miles, and stopped again to abandon part of the food... In order to return to their hometown, the people who came to collect the food abandoned the food as much as 70% of the food they took from the Luoyang warehouse. At that time, the ground was covered with white food on both sides of the roads around Luoyang, which was all seen by Yuan Zongdi and Liu Tichun. During the Chongzhen period, when Henan was famined due to disasters and the government's levies and taxes, it was really heartbreaking and huge waste.

This time, Deng Ming in Jiujiang changed some methods. He knew that many people who came to join the army just for the sake of their meals. Deng Ming was willing to provide them with daily rations that were enough to make a living. The exchange was to learn simple numbers and units of measurement from the Ming army.

If the people are allowed to carry food from the warehouse, they will not only be regarded as a bandit style by the gentry around them, but also the publicity effect of the people is also questionable. And Deng Ming's food that Ding Zhuang provided for more than ten days will not be more food that could be taken away from the warehouse with his strength, and there is no need to worry about being wasted. These people would have to stay in the Ming army camp for more than ten days, and their favor for the Ming army will definitely be higher than that of simply entering the warehouse to move food. These simple numbers and units of measurement will definitely be used frequently by them. Whenever they use these skills, they will remember that this is the benefit of the Ming army.

Ren Tang's main job was to recruit soldiers, identify and carry out publicity. Ding Zhuang, who was considered reliable, would hand over to Zhou Kaihuang for training. From conquering Jiujiang to the present, together with the captured prisoners, the Ming army obtained 6,000 new recruits, of which 2,000 were sailors.

"There is no combat power at all and is far from comparable to our standing army. Even if we train for another month, we will not meet the requirements of the admiral. Before returning to the capital, they can only be used as auxiliary soldiers." Unlike the volunteer army that Deng Ming obtained from Zhang Huangyan, these Jiangxi soldiers have much worse fighting will and morale, and they have no combat experience. In Zhou Kaihuang's opinion, they are even worse than those fellow scholars who participated in military training in Chengdu.

If these people are incorporated into the combat force, it will definitely drag down the existing Ming army. However, if they are incorporated into the auxiliary army, Deng Ming is a little unwilling to do so, because he has begun to implement preferential treatment of veterans in Chengdu and will implement more new policies in the future. If these new recruits do not contribute any strength to the army and enjoy the benefits of these policies, the veterans may feel dissatisfied, and even Deng Ming himself thinks this may be unfair.

"Since that's the case, don't organize them into the army first. Don't call them soldiers, and don't grant them military ranks." Deng Ming thought for a while and said to Zhou Kaihuang: "Tell them clearly that they still cannot meet the requirements of our army for soldiers. Our army is unwilling to let them go to the battlefield to die. Ask them if they are willing to serve our army as civilians first. Except for the identity of a soldier, the other treatment will not be bad. There will be rations and they will continue to train them. When they meet our army's requirements for soldiers, they can become formal soldiers."

Zhou Kaihuang and Ren Tang both believed that this would not be a big problem. These Ding Zhuang did not value the name. Some of them wanted to be born with wealth by joining the army. As long as they continued to provide opportunities to train and join the combat troops, they would not be disappointed or dissatisfied.

"The task for these civilians is to drive all our extra ships back to Sichuan," since these people are not useful for the time being, Deng Ming plans to send most of them back to Sichuan. Sichuan has a gradually standardized military training system, which is lower than training here, and is safer. You can also engage in production in your spare time: "When you pass by Huguang, sell some porcelain and exchange it for silver to bring it back to Jiujiang."

Huguang and Jiangxi have a large grain production, so Deng Ming does not need to worry about military food at all. Since Deng Ming has been insisting on using silver to buy grain for a long time, the landlords in some places sent people to deliver letters to Deng Ming very early, hoping to be able to provide part of the grain supply of the Ming army, and the price will not exceed the market price. If Deng Ming needs a large amount and the quality of the silver is good, they can also give Deng Ming some discounts.

Although Deng Ming had begun to strictly inspect passing ships to prevent local shipping in Jiangxi in order to monopolize Jiangxi's local trade, the nearby gentry didn't realize that this was anything. The scholars have not admitted that circulation has a stimulating effect on production since ancient times, and believed that circulation is not important or even worthless, and production is everything. The gentry here in Jiujiang also despises merchants who do not engage in production. The merchants who passed by this did not have much relationship with the locals, and they would not buy a large amount of their food. They were far from comparing with Deng Ming's purchase volume, so they did not feel that their interests were violated, let alone Deng Ming did not rob the merchants of their goods, but just banned the passage under the pretext of preventing spies - this was not only natural but also quite kind to the gentry.

Even if the small gentry in these places sells grain, they are still producing land. No one realizes that commerce is different from agriculture. Circulation is the only way to create wealth. Stop circulation is to completely kill commerce. On the contrary, because Deng Ming did not enslave the people, did not open warehouses and release grain, and used real money and silver to buy grain at a fair price, the gentry in Jiujiang now has a good impression of Deng Ming, and the fact that he taught Ding Zhuang to read and recognize words was also interpreted by the gentry as Deng Ming was promoting education to the best of his ability.
Chapter completed!