Yangzhou, the closest to Zhenjiang, was the first to meet the Mid-Autumn Festival envoy to return.

"Have you accepted all the things?"

Lin Qilong's question was answered with a positive answer, and Liang Huafeng was next to the Governor of the Cao Transportation. Has his gold and maid been returned by Deng Ming?

"We want gold and women, and Deng Ming is really willing to accept everyone." Liang Huafeng thought that Deng Ming would at least return the maid, so he didn't spend any effort to select reliable people. Now he regretted it and slapped his thighs: "I should have thought of it long ago that Deng Ming was full of energy and could not resist women's beauty. He should have sent a few devoted people to it."

Even if he couldn't spy on the information, he could at least blow the wind beside his pillow, which affected Deng Ming's judgment. Liang Huafeng regretted it so much that his intestines were blushed: "I used my own heart to judge others. I thought he would definitely not dare to stay and would definitely return it. Oh, I don't know if it's time to send it out now."

"Now I'll show my tracks when I send it off again," Lin Qilong also felt that Deng Ming was too careless, but because of Liang Huafeng's mistake, he did not seize this opportunity: "Let's talk about it next time I have the chance, too much is not enough."

Then Lin Qilong asked the two envoys again: "What else did Deng Ming say?"

"He said that he came to Jiangnan this time either for the land or to protect the interests of Sichuan salt merchants..." The envoy reported Deng Ming's words to Lin Qilong in detail. Deng Ming not only spoke to them, but also mentioned other envoys.

"What is this?" Lin Qilong was stunned when he heard this, and turned to look at Liang Huafeng: "What's all this nonsense?"

"Well, let me see it." Liang Huafeng thought about it carefully for a while and gave a thoughtful conclusion: "Deng Ming came here to take advantage of the emptiness of Jiangnan to extort us a sum of money. This matter is certain! The thieves are powerful, and the elites and supplies from Jiangnan are all supplied to the generals of the Southern Conquest to wipe out the Fujian thieves, so we are not able to do anything but smart. Seeing that Deng Ming is short-sighted and greedy for small profits in front of him, he used the trick and gave the thieves some money to gain time to strengthen the city defense..."

"This is all nonsense," Lin Qilong heard Liang Huafeng discuss with them. If the court heard something about the matter here, he said it again, and urged impatiently: "Deng Ming is here to blackmail, but why is he saying this for?"

"Deng Ming saw us congratulating him on Mid-Autumn Festival, and gave him another gift. He knew that most of the money would be obtained, so he wanted to find a way for us. He said that he was here to smuggle this time, so he would not conquer the city and land, which would be natural." Liang Huafeng always felt that Deng Ming was very good. Although he was betting on both sides when he was in Nanjing, he did keep his promise and had a good credit.

"Oh." Lin Qilong savored it carefully, and felt that it was indeed the truth. He nodded and said, "I have heard that Admiral Deng promised a thousand gold medals for a long time. He is indeed a famous scholar. However, this reason is too far-fetched, and no one believes it if he says it. Well, it's just a reason. As long as we all pretend to believe it. At that time, he will only prove that he is a fool, and he will be satisfied with the little profit of smuggling."

However, Lin Qilong also understood that whether Deng Ming would withdraw his troops in the future still depends on whether he would agree to Deng Ming's request. Now that Deng Ming has begun to release his kindness, he must start to take Deng Ming's proposal seriously.

Not long after, Jiang Guozhu from Nanjing listened to the envoy reporting Deng Ming's statement, but his face was very gloomy: "This statement cannot even be deceived by a three-year-old child. Is he hiding a ghost?"

Unlike Lin Qilong and Liang Huafeng, Jiang Guozhu smelled the scent of conspiracy and sighed to his staff: "What do Deng Mingdi want to do?"

If Deng Ming asked Jiang Guozhu for a considerable city redemption expense in addition to the money last time, then Jiang Guozhu might be relieved. But now the governor of Jiangning was very nervous about Deng Ming's real purpose, and he said to his surrounding staff: "Last time Deng Ming wanted us to be relieved and ask for money. Although the conditions were very harsh, I could also deal with the moves. This time Deng Ming concealed his reluctance to tell him his true intentions. Does he really want to beat Jiangning?"

No aide can answer Jiang Guozhu's question. After hearing the analysis of the Governor Jiangning, the aides in the Governor's Office of Liangjiang also found that the situation was serious. As long as they could defend the city, private transactions would be easy to handle - if they could be covered up, they could cover it up. If they could not cover it up, they could argue that it was a trick to deceive the enemy. Anyway, the city had not lost it, so it was a great achievement.

But the more Deng Ming refused to express his intention, it meant that the bigger his goal was, which made Liangjiang Governor's Office feel nervous.

"I lack talents under my command." Seeing that the staff were helpless and could not tell me why, Jiang Guozhu couldn't help but envy Zhang Changgeng. Although Huguang was close to Gaodong, his previous family background was defeated by the prefectural governor Hu Quancai, but Zhang Changgen could defend Wuchang as solid as a god. No matter what shameful things were behind it, at least there was no flaw on the surface. Unlike Jiangnan, where it was already a mess, everyone knew about Deng Tong and all prefectures and counties.

"Zhou Peigong." Jiang Guozhu said this name gently. A year ago, he was an unknown young scholar, but now he has already made the name of Tianting. He is promoted as fast as a rocket. In the publicity of Huguang, this is of course because Zhou Peigong is both wise and brave, and can deal with Deng Ming without falling behind. Jiang Guozhu is very suspicious of this and speculates that Zhang Changgeng used the means of communicating Deng to ensure the peace of Wuchang. However, no matter what method Zhang Changgeng used, Jiang Guozhu concluded that Zhou Peigong had played a major role in it. If it were not because he was particularly good at fighting, it must be because he was particularly good at communicating Deng.

The situation was very dangerous. The 50,000 Ming army was in Zhenjiang Prefecture, and the two prefectures and counties were in a mess, but Jiang Guozhu couldn't even guess Deng Ming's real purpose. At the critical moment, Jiang Guozhu didn't care whether he would owe Zhang Changgeng favors. He made a quick decision to write a memorial to the court. In the memorial, Jiang Guozhu said that Jiang Guozhu had suffered repeated wars and tried his best to supply Dasu's army not long ago. Now the defense is extremely empty. After being defeated by Zhu Guozhi, he has no ability to fight in field battles. In order not to let Deng Ming show his power in Jiangnan, Jiang Guozhu demanded that Dasu's elite soldiers be transferred back from Fujian immediately - Jiang Guozhu knew that the court could not agree, and giving priority to the elimination of Zheng Chenggong and completely eliminating the hidden dangers on the southeast coast was a strategy set by the court early in the morning.

The key is the second article. Jiang Guozhu said that if Dasu had no time to withdraw, he strongly demanded that Huguang send troops into Liangjiang territory to cooperate in the suppression. As the governor of the acting governor of Liangjiang, he had no idea of ​​the door, and did not force the Huguang reinforcements to obey the order of the governor of Liangjiang and were willing to cooperate with the guest army in turn. Jiang Guozhu, the commander of the Huguang reinforcements, claimed that it was Zhou Peigong, the famous current governor of Wuchang.

After writing the memorial to the court, Jiang Guozhu immediately began to write a letter to the Governor of Huguang, asking him to send Zhou Peigong to lead reinforcements to Jiangnan to wipe out Deng Ming. After writing the letter, Jiang Guozhu wrote another private message. In the letter, Jiang Guozhu implied that he had no choice but to try to make trouble for the slander, but there was no effective man to use magical strategies to persuade Deng Ming to withdraw.

In a private message, Jiang Guozhu begged Zhang Changgeng to pull him anyway and promised that if he could overcome the current difficulties, he would definitely repay the situation a hundred times as long as Zhang Changgeng encountered in the future. No matter what difficulties he encountered in the future, as long as Jiang Guozhu was still in charge of Nanjing, the entire Liangjiang would be the strong backing of the Governor of Huguang.

After writing the private message, Jiang Guozhu sent his confidant to send it to Wuchang with the official letter, and also gave it two generous gifts to bring along: one for Zhang Changgeng and the other for the prefect of Wuchang.

...

When Jiang Guozhu wrote to Zhang Changgeng, the military camp here also started to quarrel. Zhang Huangyan originally did not intend to interfere with Deng Ming's external publicity, but when he asked about Deng Ming's real purpose, he still got the same answer as he gave to the Qing army. This made Zhang Huangyan angry and thought that it would be fine for Deng Ming to deceive the Qing army, but he even wanted to hide it himself. He really distrusts himself.

This is more than this one that made Zhang Huangyan angry. He had previously found Deng Ming privately, talking about the fact that King Lu planned to adopt him as his heir, and asked Deng Ming what his plans were for it. As a result, Deng Ming refused desperately and refused to accept it - just kidding, Deng Ming knew very well that once he agreed, he would inevitably report the inheritance and genealogy. Deng Ming could not make up any matters, and he could only insist that he would never be a clan.

But Zhang Huangyan was not willing to believe it. When he recalled Wen Anzhi and Zheng Chenggong's attitude, Zhang Huangyan vomited out the anxiety in his heart and asked what the relationship between Deng Ming and King Tang was. Deng Ming still pushed it cleanly and insisted that he had nothing to do with the Tang Palace. If Deng Mingzhen had nothing to do with King Tang, of course it would be best. For King Lu, Deng Ming was a distant branch, but Zhang Huangyan chose to believe it, but what made him angry was that Deng Ming still refused to admit that he was a royal family.

If Deng Ming was a single family member, even if he was not a prominent family member, Zhang Huangyan would not be able to force Deng Ming to agree to his own family's supreme sacrifice. If this is the case, Zhang Huangyan would understand it, but the hateful thing is that Deng Ming's speech is untrue and he refused to openly explain why he rejected King Lu's kindness. If he was a remote branch that had no importance and had no inheritance issues to consider, this would of course be an insult to King Lu.

Zhang Huangyan was heartbroken, but Deng Ming did not talk about his life experience. Zhang Huangyan could not even blame him. He found that Deng Ming's move was indeed very harmful. If the other party was not a royal family at all, then there was no way to talk about inheriting Lu Fan. But look at Wen Anzhi's trust and Zheng Chenggong's abnormality, just say that Deng Ming was not a royal family? He thought Zhang Huangyan was a fool, would he believe such nonsense?

Zhang Huangyan was full of anger on the issue of inheriting the Lu family. Now that he saw Deng Ming lying openly, he was furious and did not care about unity. He shouted in front of Ma Fengzhi. Zhang Huangyan blamed Deng Ming for being narrow-minded and completely distrustful of other loyal ministers and righteous men, and even asserted that if Deng Ming did not change his past, he would inevitably ruin the great cause of rejuvenation.

Ma Fengzhi was shocked and admired by the side, and couldn't help but sigh again. Zhang Shang set up a plan early to deploy a large number of confidants around Deng Ming, and now he has the confidence to speak. Of course, Ma Fengzhi would never get involved in this mixed water. Although he was determined to hold Zhang Huangyan's thighs unshakable, Deng Ming could not offend him. Therefore, Ma Fengzhi never spoke when the two of them spoke, like a primary school student who made a mistake, dodged back two steps and looked down at the ground.

Deng Ming explained, but the more he said that Zhang Huangyan became more angry. Seeing that the other party couldn't listen to his words, Deng Ming hesitated and had to apologize: "Don't blame Zhang Shangshu. Actually, my main purpose in the first time I came to Nanjing was to extort some money from officials in Nanzhili. It was just that this reason was too bad to say, so I wanted to deny that Zhang Shangshu would forgive me and forgive me."

"What's so hard to say? Admiral Deng felt that this reason was not good, but wasn't the remark that came to Nanzhili for merchants to be even more unpleasant?" Zhang Huangyan's anger disappeared suddenly when he saw Deng Ming apologizing sincerely. After all, Deng Ming helped him a lot. Not only did he provide a large amount of food and salary, but he also handed over all the armor and weapons seized from Zhu Guozhi and Dong Weiguo to the Zhoushan Army. The more than 10,000 sets of equipment, like military rations and porcelain, were like timely help for Zhang Huangyan.

Deng Ming apologized again and again, and the atmosphere between the two eased. Seeing that Deng Ming and Zhang Huangyan were calm, Ma Fengzhi regained his speaking ability. He first praised Deng Ming's magic tricks, and then praised Zhang Huangyan and said: "Shangshu Zhang is also a genius in the world. He knows the small things and guessed Admiral Deng's thoughts clearly from the beginning. As the saying goes, heroes have a similar view. It is a meeting of wind and clouds, and dragons and tigers gather together..."

After flattering the two of them, Ma Fengzhi took the lead and nodded to Deng Ming and Zhang Huangyan and said, "I will go to inspect the troops first."

Both of them asked Ma Fengzhi to take advantage of themselves. After Ma Fengzhi left the tent, Deng Ming asked Zhang Huangyan strangely: "Does Admiral Ma always speak so in a mess?"

"No, it has been quite normal for more than half a year." Zhang Huangyan also felt something was wrong these days. Ma Fengzhi seemed to have become a different person when he was in Zhoushan.

"I'm increasingly disliked talking, and I always look unsteady, very strange." Deng Ming remembered that when he first saw Ma Fengzhishi, the other party didn't seem to be like this.

"Yes," Zhang Huangyan said to Deng Ming that he had the same feeling: "It started after the joint venture, but it was not like this when I first arrived in Zhenjiang. Well, it started from the second day after the joint venture, and it started to be in a foggy way, which was always incomprehensible."

"After the joint venture?" Deng Ming thought for a while and asked hesitantly: "Is it because Admiral Ma ate something unclean in my camp?"

"I don't know this." Zhang Huangyan shook his head and said.

Another day later, Deng Ming ran to Zhang Huangyan's camp to find him: "Shangshu Zhang, I will chat with the generals for at least one night every month and give them a lecture. There will be one this afternoon. Are you interested in seeing it?"

"How can you not go?" Zhang Huangyan became energetic as soon as he heard this. He knew that Deng Ming often gave lectures to his officers, which was also one of Deng Ming's methods of training the army. Since that's the case, he wanted to take a look.

In addition to those on duty, Deng Ming had more than 30 captains present. Ren Tang and Zhou Kaihuang, who were not in charge, also sat opposite Deng Ming with the officers. There was also a Grand Master chair on the side, which was prepared for Zhang Huangyan who visited.

"I believe everyone remembers that before leaving Wuchang, we discussed why we sent troops to Jiangnan; after arriving in Jiangnan, we also discussed why we should control trade on the waterway - in order to attack the business of the Qing court and develop our business. Today, I will tell you why I value business so much." Deng Ming paused, letting the officers have time to guess his answer first, and then continued: "We all know that the army relies on the wealth of the country. The more wealth the country is, the stronger the army will be. I think farmers, craftsmen and merchants are creating wealth for the country."

Zhang Huangyan's face showed a slight disapproval, but he kept silent politely.

"If we had no agriculture, we would all starve to death and we would not think of anything. Therefore, it can be said that all social wealth is involved in agriculture." Deng Ming drew a line on the blackboard and pointed at it and said, "This is agriculture, the beginning of wealth."

"If there is no industry, we can only collect wild fruits, and cannot reclaim wasteland in large quantities. There are no ships and fishing nets, and no clothes. We cannot live and farm in places where snow will occur in winter. So I think I can say that except for picking wild fruits and fishing barefoot in the river, the remaining wealth is created by agriculture and industry." After saying that, Deng Ming drew another straight line on one line, and then made a parallel line opposite the two straight lines and drew a rectangle: "With industry, the country's wealth is not just a golden thread, we got a piece of gold foil."

"If there is no business, what would happen?" Deng Ming paused for a while, gave the officers time to think about the answers again, and then expressed his thoughts: "Everyone needs to mine, smelter, build farm tools, grow cotton, make needles and threads, and then make clothes for themselves... Take our Du Mansion as an example. If we don't have merchants, then more than 100,000 people in the Du Mansion need to have a set of mining tools, and each has a blacksmith shop. Everyone must be able to raise cattle, they must be able to make and have time to make farm tools... Otherwise, the people in the Du Mansion can only wear bark and use wooden sticks to farm."

Deng Ming drew the third line again: "This is the business that the merchants engage in." He drew a cube: "We got a gold brick, which is the wealth of the country and the foundation of the army."

"I just talked about the extreme business situation. What would it look like if the business was extreme? " Deng Ming asked the third question and immediately gave the answer: "A couple who are good at farming does not need to make farm tools by themselves, nor even repair them by themselves. He needs shoes, does not need his wife to take care of them, but just work hard to farm. He needs clothes, does not need his wife to weave them, but just continue to farm. The same is true for people who are good at making clothes. He does not need to farm by himself, fish, or even spin, knit, or button by himself. He can get everything he wants by doing the garment job he is best at."

What Deng Ming mentioned already involves the concept of social division of labor. In his previous life, relying on developed business, people can focus on their most proficient jobs to meet all life needs.

After giving the officers some time to digest, Deng Ming came up with the next question: "Why do the Tartars need to use whips to force the coat to farm?"

"Because the Tartars are cruel by nature." Someone immediately gave the answer.

"Then why do our military camps also need to formulate a large number of punishment rules?" Deng Ming asked.

"Because there are always lazy bones?" Most people didn't speak, only Zhou Kaihuang replied hesitantly, and he also knew something about Yuan Zongdi's military camp.

"We produce because we need it. When we are hungry, we have to farm, when we are cold, we have to weave, coat, and eat and wear all the food and clothing that are wrapped by the Tartars. They don't need it, so they don't need to produce."

"Yes, the admiral said that they are allocated on demand." Zhou Kaihuang had a good memory.

"Is that true?" Deng Ming laughed, and everyone else was a little surprised. I don't know why Deng Ming thought this word was so ridiculous.

After laughing, Deng Ming nodded: "Yes, so whips and torture are needed. If the Tartars' coats and our garrison need not be beaten or suffered, they need to work, which is also a kind of business."

"Produce only when needed. Through commerce, we can provide more things to the people. If they need meat, fruits, wine, and warmer clothes, they need to work harder. We can also let the people know that they can give their children better toys, have their own horses and vehicles, and if they need these things, they have to work harder to farm and mine." Deng Ming turned around and began to draw the three lines: "But when the line of commerce becomes longer, the other two lines will also grow longer. In this way, we get a larger brick that can help us support a stronger and more well-equipped army."

In Deng Ming's past life, the ever-developing business in Europe stimulated people to improve tools, invent and create, and their extreme hunger for technology led to countless people working day and night to study, dreaming of discovering a technology patent that would make them rich. A philosopher also admitted that the productivity created in this century was more and greater than that created in all eras in the past, and the ultimate solution to develop productivity was: destroying business and eliminating demand - on Deng Ming's blackboard, this is the third pillar to erase gold bricks.

"If we have enough troops to seize a large area of ​​land and cities in Huguang and Jiangnan, then we will take away the Qing court's agriculture and industry." Deng Ming pointed to the two bottom sides of the cube and said: "This is a complete destruction and a method of fighting for the world since ancient times. Unfortunately, we have not been able to seize this dignified method."

Then Deng Ming moved his finger to the vertical edge of the cube and said to the officers: "Commerce is the weakest of the gold bricks owned by the Qing court and the one they least valued. But now this pillar is still the Qing court's own. We started by attacking the salt and salt merchants in Huai, and turned this pillar into our own. Starting from the salt merchants, and then other industries, Huguang, and the freight and shops in the mainland of Jiangnan, when our business banks are replaced, they will become an indispensable link in the south. If our business banks are better at operating than the merchants of the Qing court, the gentry and people in Jiangnan will even live better than before, and the two lines of worker and farmer may even be extended. But!"

Deng Ming said in his tone: "But this pillar exists in our army and belongs to us. We can share the greatest benefits of the expansion of this gold brick; and if our army is repelled, the line will shrink and even no longer exist." Deng Ming wiped the third pillar away and turned the cube into a plane. He drew a small cube on the side: "This is our capital. Although our agriculture and industry are not as good as the Qing court, we are a gold brick, and they are a layer of gold foil. The gap is not as huge as the surface."

After discussing with the officers for a long time, Deng Ming announced his dissolution, and the captains would spread Deng Ming's thoughts and intentions to the entire army, so that the Sichuan Army would have a clearer strategic consideration of their command.

"Shangshu Zhang," Deng Ming said to Zhang Huangyan: "Maybe you can believe it now. My original purpose of coming to Jiangnan this time was not just for extortion, but for the development of Sichuan's salt industry."
Chapter completed!