The battle was not long, but more than 400 canal workers paid their lives.

Seeing that Yangzhou sent an envoy, Deng Ming did not ask the soldiers to continue to venture into the city wall, but instead took the envoy back to the military camp. However, after returning to the military camp, Deng Ming did not immediately negotiate with the envoy. Now he still has a big doubt that the canal union is so desperate. Deng Ming was worried that the people near Yangzhou would have strong hostility towards the Ming army, which would pose a threat to the follow-up actions of the Ming army.

At first, the prisoners' confessions were messy, and Deng Ming didn't understand it very clearly. He only knew that they saw a fire in the direction of the canal, so he thought that the Ming army had killed all the family members of the canal near the canal, and they killed the canal when they saw it, leaving no way out for them. Later, the Ming army found a wounded canal from the prisoners. After having this person, they quickly figured out the whole story. The Governor's Office of the Cao Transportation Transportation Army had been spreading rumors and causing trouble, and the role was extremely bad.

"Lin Qilong, this dog thief." Several guards from the camp were furious when they heard this. In their opinion, the reason why these canal workers paid a heavy price was because of Lin Qilong's bewitching.

After asking about the incident, the envoy sent from Yangzhou had been waiting outside the military camp for a long time, so Deng Ming asked the guards to bring him. Mu Tan, Ren Tang and Zhou Kaihuang were all around Deng Ming. Among them, Zhou Kaihuang had the most unkind vision of Yangzhou's envoys, and Ren Tang's expression was not very friendly, but Mu Tan did not show too much hostility.

As soon as he saw Deng Ming, the envoy from Yangzhou immediately poured out Lin Qilong's words and pushed him to the fullest.

"How dare you lie to face!" Zhou Kaihuang was furious when he heard this. Before the envoy finished speaking, he jumped up and pointed at the envoy's nose and cursed.

But Deng Ming stopped Zhou Kaihuang, so that the envoys would not have to panic: "A few prisoners just now spoke differently from what the noble envoy said."

First, he carefully explained the confessions of the captives to the envoys in Yangzhou, and then Deng Ming spread his hands: "But since the envoys said they were bewitched by the salt merchants, that's right. These people also mentioned several officials of the governor. It seems that they took the bribes of the salt merchants, pulled the tiger's skin as a banner, and incited the canal workers to attack our army."

"Don't worry, Lord Admiral, go back to report to the Governor of the Cao Transport to ensure that no one of these rats can escape." The envoy immediately patted his chest and then smiled on his face: "The Governor of the Cao Transport is willing to search the salt merchant's home and provide the admiral with a compensation of one hundred taels of silver."

"Now one million taels are not enough, it costs two million taels," Deng Ming shook his head and counted the other party with his fingers: "On the canal, our army burned a large number of houses and needed to compensate the canal workers who lost the houses; and in front of Yangzhou City, our army used a large number of bows and arrows to attack the canal workers, which also cost money..." After carefully calculating the envoy, Deng Ming told the other party: "The military expenditure and the compensation silver for the canal workers are 800,000 taels, and there are 1.2 million taels of punitive compensation, totaling 2 million taels."

"This..." The messenger saw Deng Mingshi speak loudly, and he doubled the compensation silver, and his face showed a bitter look: "Some bows and arrows don't cost 10,000 taels of silver. Even if you add the expenses along the way, it will be far from 800,000 taels of silver."

"Okay, maybe it's not used. For the sake of the envoy, I will reduce it by half. The military compensation will be considered 400,000 taels of silver." Deng Ming said generously: "Add to add the punitive compensation of 1.6 million taels of silver, a total of 2 million taels. What else do you have to do with the envoy?"

The messenger had nothing to say, and he just made a fuss about punitive compensation: "This is not what the Governor wants, it is entirely done by the salt merchants and some sluts. Moreover, the Admiral wants to compensate the canal workers for housing, so the Admiral can do it for him, so there is no need to spend it on the Admiral."

"Yes, so I hope the salt merchants who incite the canal workers and the officials of the Governor's office will be severely punished. Of course, Governor Lin is not strict in their power. Since this is the case, Governor Lin will be responsible for compensation; and I burn the house of the canal workers, of course I will also pay for it. But if Governor Lin is optimistic about his subordinates, I will not launch an attack or be resisted by the canal workers. So I will compensate the canal workers and Governor Lin will compensate me. This is very reasonable. With this punitive compensation, Governor Lin can weigh it in the future. It will cost a little money.

, It is better to eliminate those little kids who are hostile to our army, or should I wait for me to come to the door?" Deng Ming said relentlessly. Seeing the envoy giving up a dispute over compensation, Deng Ming mentioned the conditions mentioned before: "Governor Lin also needs to write me an affidavit, vowing not to support the reconstruction of the Liangjiang Navy, do not spend money to buy warships, and do not build a shipyard. If someone makes similar suggestions, I need to notify me and try my best to oppose it. This affidavit must be stamped by Governor Lin and also be stamped with the seal of Governor of the Valley. If Governor Lin goes back on his word, it is intentional to provoke trouble."

"Yes, the Governor will give the Admiral an affidavit." The envoy agreed. When Lin Qilong released him, he had already said that Deng Ming's request could be met. Caotou confessed the name of the subordinate of the Governor's Office who incited him. The envoy of Yangzhou recorded the name of the official of the official and then said goodbye to leave.

After seeing off the envoy from Yangzhou, Deng Ming sighed and waited for Zhou Kaihuang to ask questions.

But when Zhou Kaihuang jumped out of questioning, he answered not Deng Ming but Mu Tan. In Mu Tan's opinion, Deng Ming's reaction was very reasonable: "If Lin Qilong must take responsibility, how could he be willing to negotiate with us? It was not that he incited the canal work in person. Since he said that those officials were doing their own things, let him ask us for guilt."

"I don't believe it if I ask Lin Qilong to hand over the salt merchants and officials to us. This matter would not be his instructions." Zhou Kaihuang sneered.

"How could Lin Qilong give us people alive? Besides, who doesn't know that the behind-the-scenes instructions for this matter are Lin Qilong? But if he doesn't give him a way out, wouldn't he fight to the end with our army?" Mu Tan replied again with a smile and cry: "The Admiral just reminded me that Lin Qilong knew that the Admiral gave him a favor, so he pretended to be confused and let him pay the bank honestly to avoid disaster."

Zhou Kaihuang certainly understood Deng Ming's intention, but when he saw so many cannon workers die inexplicably, he always had the urge to pursue the culprit for them. After hearing Mu Tan's words, Zhou Kaihuang argued: "Today Lin Qilong can incite the cannon workers, and tomorrow can incite others to confront our army."

"As long as Lin Qilong causes damage to us, we will ask him for compensation." The Ming army suffered minimal losses this time. If Lin Qilong handed over the silver honestly, the Ming army would obviously make a big profit. So Mutan was even a little grateful to Lin Qilong, thinking that if he hadn't come out to find it uncomfortable, the Ming army would not have an excuse to blackmail him such a large sum of money: "It is their own business that those cannon workers were incited by Lin Qilong. They did not pay taxes on us and did not fight for wars for us. Can we control their lives or death?"

"After all, they are all citizens of the Ming Dynasty." Ren Tang felt a little awkward when he heard it, and couldn't help but say, "What Brother Zhou said makes sense. They are still people of the Ming Dynasty in the final analysis."

"The Ming people who attacked the officers and soldiers?" Mu Tan sneered: "All the officers and soldiers have touched each other, that is a thief, not a person, and he will be a meritorious and guilty! It would be fine if we don't kill these thieves, but we still have to stand up for the unjust thieves?"

Ren Tang had to admit that what Mu Tan said was very reasonable. He was immediately convinced and thought that he was indeed too polite. A group of rioters who obeyed the orders of pseudo-officials to confront officers and soldiers were betrayed by pseudo-officials in Yangzhou. Their killing was also caused by them. It was obviously a dog biting a dog. As a Ming officer and soldier, Ren Tang did not need to sympathize with these rioters too much.

But Zhou Kaihuang stopped doing it. He felt that Mu Tan's words were like scolding: "They also have their own difficulties."

"What's the hardship? A thief is a thief." Mutan was unreasonable: "It's thief that you have! Some people acted in a state of thief. They were like seeing a relative, and inexplicably insisted on pushing out a large sum of money."

"Nonsense!" Zhou Kaihuang confirmed that the other party was not pointing at the mulberry and locust, but pointing at his nose and cursing at the door. He raised his voice and wanted to fight back.

"Okay, okay." Deng Ming hurriedly came out to smooth things over, asking Zhou Kaihuang and Mu Tan to stop the fight.

Zhou Kaihuang immediately stopped talking, while Mu Tan was still muttering: "The admiral has his own destiny, and he will naturally receive the order. The army is alone and needs money everywhere. The mansion also wants to treat a penny as a two-money flower..."

"Okay!" Deng Ming spoke out again to stop Mu Tan, and decided on Yangzhou's policy.

Not long after, the envoy from Yangzhou rushed to Deng Mingying again. Several river officers and soldiers followed him were accompanied by a pile of bamboo baskets, with heads in them that were dying with their eyes closed.

After listening to the messenger's report, Lin Qilong cut off the mess with a quick knife. The officials from the yamen who were sent by him to incite the canal workers were immediately taken down without saying a word and cut off their heads and put them in bamboo baskets to Deng Ming. The officials of these yamen were also killed, including the salt merchants in Yangzhou who mobilized the canal workers. They were both insiders and rich people. Lin Qilong killed people with his right hand and sent troops to raid their homes with his left hand.

Deng Ming carefully checked the head and threatened the envoy: "I don't believe this matter has anything to do with Governor Lin, but if I know that there is an impostor here in the future..."

"The admiral is the only one who asks us." The envoy replied hurriedly. Lin Qilong was very quick to take action. Not only did the official who was offered the Caotou immediately took it down, but he even went to incite Dong Xiaoye to kill the Caotou, and he also killed him, ensuring that Deng Ming would not find any fault.

For Deng Ming, these people are also a good example. They can let the Governor of the Cao Transportation Army see clearly what the outcome would be like to help the Governor of the Cao Transportation Army come up with advice against the Ming army. If someone in the future persuades the Governor of the Cao Transportation Army to fight against Deng Ming, they will inevitably think about the outcome of the Ming army mobilizing troops to question the crime. Moreover, even if the Governor of the Cao Transportation Army wants to stumbling over Deng Ming, his officials need to consider whether they should really use their full strength to help him achieve his goal.

In addition to the responsible criminals requested by Deng Ming, the Yangzhou envoy also promised that they would transfer 2 million taels of silver to Deng Ming within two days, hoping that Deng Ming could suspend his attack on Yangzhou and return to Jiangnan after receiving all the silver and Lin Qilong's affidavit.

Deng Ming said that he could not withdraw his troops immediately. Perhaps Lin Qilong thought that Deng Ming's statement of compensating the canal residents was a scene, but Deng Ming did have to meticulously fulfill his promise. However, Deng Ming told the Yangzhou envoy that even if he stayed in Jiangbei, he would never continue to destroy the canal transportation. The canal transportation terminals occupied by the Ming army would be protected and handed over to Lin Qilong's river officers and soldiers intact.

"Shangshu Zhang hasn't crossed the river yet, right?" After dealing with the matter in Yangzhou, Deng Ming saw that the Qing army had compromised, so he asked someone to inquire about Zhang Huangyan's location.

Now Ma Fengzhi has crossed the river and is gathering troops on the shore, while Zhang Huangyan is still in Zhenjiang Prefecture on the other side.

"Since Zhang Shangshu has not crossed the river, let him not be troubled. There is no need for more troops here anymore. I will go back to the south bank soon." Deng Ming sent an envoy to Zhang Huangyan to report his victory and asked him to stay on the south bank to defend the camp. If Zhang Huangyan also crossed the river, he might have felt heartbroken when he saw Deng Ming burning so many houses with fire.

...

In the following two days, Deng Ming personally directed the relief and compensation work by the canal.

"What do you plan to deal with those orphans of the canal?" Some of the canals killed by the Ming army left behind their survivors. Deng Ming asked and learned that it was very normal for widows to remarry on both sides of the canal. The reason was very simple. The canals had no land and had almost no private property. A widow who lacked the ability to make a living would be similar to waiting for death if they did not remarry.

Orphans will almost certainly be abandoned. Most of the banks of the canal are extremely poor. People who cannot even raise their own wives and children will not adopt orphans from other people. If older girls can probably marry or be sold, they will have a slightly higher chance of survival. Girls under the age of eight and boys under the age of fifteen will almost never survive.

"If they come to the porridge factory, they will give them one," Jiang Nan reported.

"What if we leave? Who cares about these orphans?" Although it was only two days, someone had already set his sights on the surviving families. Deng Ming heard that the quick-acting people were already urging widows and orphans to marry them, and even take care of their children and brothers. But that's all. The extremely poor canal workers will not take long to abandon these burdens that they can't afford, and their wives will not persevere because of life.

"Go and look for it and bring all the orphans with you." The entire military operation killed thousands of canal workers. The number of orphans they left was more than Deng Ming thought. The combined number of underage men and girls was more than 3,000.

When the news was told that Jun was willing to adopt, the widows handed over the children with tears in their eyes, especially boys under the age of ten. No one next to the canal would be willing to raise them for many years. Although there was little hope to hand them over to Mingjun, as long as they didn't see the child die with their own eyes, they could still deceive themselves.

"By the way, I heard that the few Caotou who died had a lot of family members. For example, there was a man named Dong Xiaoye. He seemed to have two men and three women. Did he find them all?"

Deng Ming's question made Jiang Nan stunned for a moment, and after a while, he asked: "Admiral, do we need to save these Caotou children?"

The dead Caotou is not much different from the Caotou. The chances of survival are extremely low. Shortly after Dong Xiaoye and others died, their property was divided up and their wives and concubines were remarried. Perhaps a few subordinates could raise their children based on Caotou's previous kindness, but Caotou also had many enemies, and orphans were the ideal target of revenge.

Even if no one takes revenge and someone is willing to adopt it, Dong Xiaoye's son probably has only two roads to go, or like other ordinary canal workers, he swallows his anger and works hard labor; or like his father, he takes the guy to compete with other gangs for territory, and he will most likely die by the canal in the end.

"Take them away together." Deng Ming nodded, saying that his subordinates did not hear the wrong order.

"These are all enemies of the admiral." Jiang Nan asked in confusion. It would be fine if ordinary grain workers were not allowed to resolve the grudges with the Ming army. Their orphans had no future and they didn't have to be worse before following the Ming army. But these grain heads were all lackeys of the Qing court, and their orphan status plummeted, and they might hold a grudge against Deng Ming. According to Jiang Nan's view, Deng Ming could even consider cutting off the roots, so as not to seek revenge on Deng Ming if anyone could grow up.

"This is the same as when you ordered fire prevention to burn houses within fifty steps. Sometimes, in order to ensure the safety of the army, we must attack those who seem harmless and may actually be innocent. Such actions are sometimes inevitable, but they are wrong, so I will compensate the canal workers." After understanding Jiang Nan's hint, Deng Ming explained: "Just because he was afraid that someone would take revenge on me, he killed all the children. This prevention is a bit too much, just like if you want to prevent someone from attacking our army, you will kill people when you meet them. It is a reaction that exceeds the necessary standards."

"But, but..." Wu Baoping and Jiang Nan still felt dangerous.

Deng Ming glanced at them: "Sometimes the Tartars will prevent them uncontrollably, and they also think that this is natural and there is no need for compensation. Do you think you should learn from the Tartars?"

"Of course not." Wu Baoping and Jiang Nan shook their heads together.

"What is the Admiral going to let these children do?" Wu Baoping asked more: "Some children are only aged and can't do anything within ten years."

"They can study first. I will set up an orphanage to let them study. In the future, they will be good businessmen, sailors, craftsmen, and qualified accountants and breeders." Deng Ming thought for a while and decided to give his subordinates some vaccination: "Girls also have to study. In the future, they can be teachers and help the capital educate young children. Under my Deng Ming, it is not enough to just want to eat for nothing but do things. If they don't teach me for two years, they will pay off the debt, so they won't want to go out and get married."

"Indeed," Jiang Nan showed an agreement after the initial shock: "It takes a lot of food to raise a girl, and we have to find a way to recover some capital."

...

Fifty years later, when looking back at the first group of members of the Chengdu Orphanage, people found that among the children of this group of canal workers, a large number of talents that Deng Ming urgently needed emerged. The daughters of canal workers also made outstanding contributions in all aspects, which changed the traditional view more quickly. Researchers found that the orphans of Caotou paid more attention to politics than average. For example, a two sons named Caotou, the eldest son became a newspaper reporter, taking it as his responsibility to expose the shady stories of collusion between the underworld and the government. His investigation reports led to many corrupt officials and underworld figures falling into the legal gate and finally disappeared in a disguised invasion of the operation. No one has ever seen this brave reporter ever since. And reporter Dong's younger brother showed enthusiasm for the law and became a criminal officer. He analyzed hundreds of cases of infringement of civilian rights by the government in detail, and wrote a large number of relevant judicial x discussions, which were considered as the legal authority in this regard.

...

After reaching an agreement with Deng Ming, Lin Qilong was busy fulfilling the terms and dictating the spirit of the memorial to the court to the master, asking them to help draft the draft.

Lin Qilong reported that when Deng Ming besieged Yangzhou, he took over the grain workers and hundreds of thousands of people from the Liangjiang River, and the reason why Deng Ming invaded Yangzhou was because of the previous collaboration between the salt merchants. After Lin Qilong found out that many salt merchants in Yangzhou bribed Deng Ming's general Mu Tan in order to pass the Yangtze River safely, but later repented and refused to lose the large amount of bribes he promised to give Mu Tan, which led to Mu Tan holding a grudge and persuading Deng Ming to invade Yangzhou.

In addition to Mu Tan, many people in Jiangnan who were brought by Deng Ming also had a grudge against salt merchants. It was precisely because salt merchants bullied people and deceived people on both sides of the Yangtze River that they caused a large number of people to hate. Deng Ming used this dissatisfaction to incite them to attack Yangzhou together and block the canal.

As the canal workers participated in the besiege of Yangzhou, Lin Qilong claimed that it was because of the salt merchants - they repeatedly deducted the labor of pulling fibers on the canal and colluded with some Caotou to cruelly oppress the canal workers. These canal workers did not know much about the righteousness of the monarch and ministers. When Deng Ming called for going to Yangzhou to ask for wages, they all followed.

Why didn't these people take the formal path? Of course, there were some bad apples in the Governor's Office. They colluded with salt merchants and ignored the victims and deceived Governor of Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the Governor of the

In general, Lin Qilong believed that the canal workers and Jiangnan Baixin came to ask for accounts and ask for wages. However, after the formal channels were not available, they refused to continue to be good people. Instead, they caused such a big deal and shouted for Deng Ming. Of course, they were maliciously asking for accounts and maliciously asking for wages.

Regarding this kind of rebel who puts personal interests first, Lin Qilong believes that the suppression is completely reasonable. When some people shouted for justice to Liang Huafeng on the top of the city outside the city, the latter also showed enough awareness and rebuked the rebels with righteousness: "The general was ordered to fight the thief, but he knew that there was a war!"

"... Tens of thousands of chaotic thieves knelt on the ground without saying a word, pointing to the sky with one hand and the other with the heart..." After narrating Liang Huafeng's heroic words, Lin Qilong continued to describe the pitifulness of the people who were malicious in asking for money and asking for money: "All of them are said to be colluding with tyrants and evil businessmen, and there is no sun on both sides of the canal..."

Lin Qilong said that he felt that these people should be different from Deng Ming's best friends, so after carefully checking the thousands of documents they brought, Lin Qilong took out all the savings in the treasury, raised three million taels of silver and paid them to these people. He also beheaded the corrupt officials and the evil salt merchants as soon as possible to quell the public's grievances.
Chapter completed!