Wuchang.

After receiving Zhong Xiang's report, Zhang Changgeng ordered his subordinates to prepare without thinking much, and the memorial to the court was also read. The content of the memorial was mainly: King Andong of the Ming Dynasty heard that the late emperor died in Gaoyou and thought that he could take advantage of the opportunity, so he personally supervised the Ming army in Hubei to besiege Wuchang; cooperated with the Ming army in Hubei, Deng Ming, a giant bandit who had flew back from the downstream, and was determined to seize Wuchang and burn the war to the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

In the memorial, Zhang Changgeng confidently assured the court that he had formulated a policy of strengthening the walls and clearing the fields, intending to stick to Zhongxiang and other cities, open up the road and attract the Ming army to the strong Wuchang and Hanyang city. King Andong and the Xiaofu King with the pseudonym Deng Ming did not come, and they would not be able to afford it when they came.

These bold words were not aimless. Zhang Changgeng asked himself that he had been working with Deng Ming in the past two years. In this battle of Gaoyou Lake, Zhang Changgeng spared no effort to provide the Ming army with a large amount of bows and arrows and equipment. He firmly believed that Deng Ming would work hard to maintain peace with him. The Governor of Huguang had a liaison envoy in the Ming army. Not long ago, the envoy rushed back to Wuchang and reported to Zhang Changgeng the importance of Wuchang's equipment to victory in Gaoyou Lake. At the same time, he also brought back Deng Ming's personal thanks - Deng Ming told Zhang Changgeng that Wuchang's equipment played an unparalleled and huge role in annihilation of the Imperial Guards - Deng Ming also said this to Lin Qilong, Jiang Guozhu and Zhang Chao's envoy, but the subject was replaced by intelligence, food and silver.

Previously, only Deng Ming adopted a win-win policy against Zhang Changgeng, and the Governor of Huguang and Hao Yaoqi, and He Zhen had fierce battles many times. Although Li Laiheng's side was a little better, the atmosphere had been tense. However, in recent months, the atmosphere of tense confrontation between the two armies on the front line of Jingzhou has been relaxing. This time, Hao Yaoqi and He Zhen also extended an olive branch to Zhang Changgeng. I believe that after this cooperation, you can gain trust and trade along the Han River.

"Admiral Deng really influenced many people." Thinking of this, Zhang Changgeng couldn't help but feel a lot of emotion. Needless to say, Hao Yaoqi and the others, even Zhang Changgeng himself gradually abandoned the irreconcilable thinking mode. In addition to surrendering and without any negotiation, he actively started negotiations and tried his best to use all advantages to win actual benefits. The former thinking mode Zhang Changgeng has regarded it as a golden rule for the past few decades and has never had a slight skepticism, but now he is increasingly fascinated by the new struggle mode.

Although Zhou Peigong left Wuchang, he always wrote letters to the Governor of Huguang regularly. At first, Zhang Changgeng didn't take it too seriously when he saw Jiangxi giving this capable subordinate title of governor. In his opinion, this was just Nanchang showing goodwill to him. When he heard that Jiang Guozhu opened the middle door to welcome Zhou Peigong and gave Jiangnan governor Da Seal, Zhang Changgeng just laughed at him and was complacent for the two rivers to curry favor with him.

But then Zhou Peigong played an increasingly important role. Before and after the Battle of Gaoyou Lake, Zhou Peigong ran around and became a bridge of communication between the governors and governors, ensuring that they did not have serious misunderstandings, and allowing several suspicious governors and governors to unite closely. After this battle, the entire Southeast Conspiracy Group recognized that Zhou Peigong was an expert on Deng Ming's issue and the well-deserved first person to Tong Deng.

A few days ago, Mr. Zhou Peigong wrote to him that he wanted to help the Governor Jiangning and the Governor Jiangxi. The more outstanding he performed, the more uneasy Zhang Changgeng was. Recently, when he saw Liangjiang and the Governor of the Grain Transportation Army asking for merit for Zhou Peigong, Zhang Changgen could no longer laugh it off. He vaguely felt that the Governor of Liangjiang wanted to dig his own corner, and Mr. Zhou Peigong's achievements did not seem to be enough to be paid by a Wuchang prefect. In the past two months, the Liangjiang Army paid Zhang Changgeng a rent fee. Jiang Guozhu even said that he would pay two months of silver in advance. It seemed that he did not want to return Mr. Zhou Peigong to Huguang.

Although his cooperation with Deng Ming is quite pleasant at the moment, Zhang Changgeng knew that peace could not be maintained forever. Now he has regarded Huguang as his foundation, which is completely different from the previous mentality of leaving after the term of office. At that time, Zhang Changgeng didn't care whether Deng Ming would attack Huguang later five years ago, but now he does not intend to hand over Huguang at all, and he knows that this position has become his life-saving talisman.

However, before Deng Ming unified Sichuan, the threat to Zhang Changgeng was still minimal. This can be seen from Deng Ming helping him to restrain the generals of the East. Now, compared with the Sichuan army far away in Chengdu, the threat to Zhang Changgeng was Wu Sangui in Guizhou. Since the court was completely unable to support the southwest, Wu Sangui's resentment became increasingly popular. After the news of the defeat in Gaoyou Lake spread all over the world, Wu Sangui even tentatively proposed the suggestion of leading his army back to Jiangnan.

Of course, the court could not allow Han vassal kings to enter Jiangnan. Zhang Changgeng knew this very well, so Wu Sangui's proposal was just a bargaining attitude. From this, Zhang Changgen saw Wu Sangui's ambition for Huguang. Even if Wu Sangui could not get the territory of Hunan, it might force the court to agree to let Huguang give Guizhou a large amount of joint funds - this money Zhang Changgeng could be used to strengthen his strength and would not be willing to feed the tigers around him.

Looking around, Zhang Changgeng found that he seemed to be able to count on Deng Ming's assistance. If Deng Ming could support Li Dingguo in Yunnan and restrain Wu Sangui's main forces, Zhang Changgeng would be more confident in dealing with Wu Sangui's blackmail and threat.

"I need Deng Ming to deal with Li Guoying, and I also need him to help Li Dingguo restrain Wu Sangui, but he will inevitably be blackmailed by him if he wants to do these things. If Deng Ming quickly unifies Sichuan, it will not be good for me. His navy is strong and he will definitely start to march into Huguang. Alas, it is really a dilemma." At this time, Zhang Changgeng felt the importance of Zhou Peigong. He read a memorial in his hand and then, and finally made up his mind: "I will send it to the court tomorrow."

In this memorial, Zhang Changgeng recommended Zhou Peigong as the governor of Hubei and also as the governor of Hunan. He was fully responsible for raising food and grass, consolidating river defense, and encircling and suppressing Hubei bandits: "Isn't it the governor? I can also take it out, and there are still two. In the future, I can also take out the position of governor."

The governor is the biggest bargaining chip that Zhang Changgeng can make. He is not planning to give it to Zhou Peigong for the time being, so as not to lose his motivation.

...

Beijing.

Oboi is so overwhelmed these days, and rumors are growing day by day. With the outbreak of the "Kangxi" incident, the previous suspicion of the Jiangnan officialdom disappeared. Now, everyone believes that Deng Ming's collaborator among the senior officials of the court was the man who betrayed the emperor's whereabouts to Deng Ming and directed the Battle of Gaoyou Lake. The suspect directly pointed to several auxiliary ministers, and Sony and Oboi suffered the most firepower of doubt.

Although Oboi was the victim of this rumor, he himself now firmly believes that some of the important officials of the court did have an affair with Deng Ming in the music, because it was not enough to explain why Deng Ming knew the reign of "Kangxi".

At first, Oboi was most suspicious of Sony, because the Han officials who participated in the meeting were only honorary and had no say, so Deng Ming didn't have to work hard to collude with those useless "decorations". As for Sukhaza, the outside world may think that the two white flags were suspicious and had the motivation to collude with Deng Ming to betray Huang Taiji's son. However, as an important official who knew the inside story, Oboi knew completely that this person was a fence-bearer and unconditionally supported Sony at the meeting.

However, Oboi was troubled by thinking about it, and he could not think of the motive for Sony to betray the emperor. Even if Deng Ming was the rumor that Boguoer was true, Sony could not get more benefits from Deng Ming. He had already obtained the highest status that a slave could obtain from Shunzhi. In this way, even Oboi had more reason to collude with Deng Ming than Sony. Perhaps Boguoer would trust him and upgrade him from Fulin's second confidant slave to Boguoer's first confidant slave, but Oboi was not so stupid yet.

After the initial shock, Oboi had to start thinking about why Deng Ming revealed this news to the prisoners of the Imperial Guards. Obviously, if Deng Ming really had an inner supporter among the regent ministers, he would definitely try his best to protect him without deliberately exposing him. Conversely, Deng Ming was deliberately misleading the court, trying to make the court believe that the traitor was one of the regent ministers, thereby protecting the real inner supporter.

Like Oboi, Sony now has similar speculations. He even further speculated that Deng Ming might have obtained the emperor's whereabouts and the new emperor's reign from different channels. In addition to the traitor who betrayed the emperor, Deng Ming achieved the reign of "Kangxi" through other methods, such as Sony, a certain teacher and aide of Oboi - these people played a great role in the determination of the reign of Kangxi, and the Han ministers who participated in the discussion also exerted some influence to a greater or lesser extent.

Although this speculation sounds reasonable, it still cannot explain why Deng Ming made such a noise. If a certain staff member of Sony or Oboi was Deng Ming's person, it would definitely be Deng Ming's precious wealth. He has no reason to risk exposing himself to the Imperial Guards to show off his abilities - wasting such precious sources of intelligence on the issue of the year number is too much fun.

These days, Oboi and Sony were thinking hard about Deng Ming's intentions, trying to find out the shocking conspiracy he was hiding, and they didn't even dare to discuss it with their aides, so as not to be misled by that "fine work". If they knew that Deng Ming was just a whim, they would definitely be furious.

Although he doubted his aides, Oboi still did not clean up easily, because cleaning up his aides would be like announcing to everyone that he had the responsibility to disclose the secrets and would be responsible for the death of the late emperor. This is a responsibility that Oboi would never want to bear and could not bear at all.

Today, the imperial court will be held. Several ministers of the regent stood from a distance, vigilantly keeping a distance, thinking about their own thoughts, and no one will walk to other people and whisper like before. The Han ministers hid farther away, and were also alone until they were summoned by the imperial guards sent by the Empress Dowager.
Chapter completed!