When the Han River Ming army returned to Xiangyang, the Sichuan army also came to Jiangling without any danger. Deng Ming was warmly welcomed by Li Laiheng here.

Now the three wall soldiers are basically Deng Ming's guards. Among them, the seniors are Li Laiheng's old subordinates, and the young ones are also apprentices taught by the third wall. Deng Ming chose them as the guard when he returned to Sichuan last year. The main reason is that the combat skills of this group of people are far above the Zhejiang Volunteers, and they are all good riders, who can follow Deng Ming to maneuver on the battlefield at high speed.

However, in Li Laiheng's view, this is of course Deng Ming's great trust in him. Since ancient times, few people regard other people's direct line as their own direct line, let alone as private guards. In general, the cavalry guards who follow the generals always get the most trust and promotion opportunities. Deng Ming's use of the three walls of soldiers is of course a great benefit for the camp. According to this trend, after the Ming Dynasty's revival, the camp will occupy an extremely important position in the Deng Ming Group. At that time, if anyone wants to settle the old accounts, they have to weigh their own weight carefully.

"Why didn't the admiral call the general of the Supreme General?" After Li Laiheng heard about the results of the Battle of Gaoyou Lake, he first applauded, and then regretted it. He felt that he had missed a great opportunity and hated the dead Shunzhi to the core. In Li Laiheng's view, Shunzhi did not personally fight last year, instead of picking Li Laiheng to the south of Jiangnan, which was simply intentional to oppose himself.

"The Hushang wronged me," Deng Ming hurriedly defended: "I called Hushang when I left Jiangling. It was obviously Hushang who said something was wrong."

"Where is it?" Li Laiheng became anxious when he heard this: "When the admiral left Jiangling, he said he wanted to go to Wuchang to sell salt. It was not a big deal for me to sell salt. The admiral also said that he was just using General Liu's big bell to blow up the city walls and scare Zhang Changgeng, and he didn't plan to really fight. There were still many troublemakers in my territory at that time, so I didn't follow the admiral, but just went back. Who would have thought that the admiral went to Gaoyou and raided the Tatar Emperor. If the admiral did not say that he would sell salt, but to kill the Tatar Emperor, wouldn't he go?"

"Oh, is that?" It took too long, and Deng Ming had already forgotten how he told Li Laiheng at the beginning.

"Of course!" Li Laiheng replied loudly.

"Well, it seems." Deng Ming recalled carefully and found that Li Laiheng was right. His original purpose of sending troops was to go to Wuchang to sell salt, and to train the army and navy, so that the soldiers could adapt to marching and camping, and let the new sailors become familiar with the Yangtze River channel.

When he passed by Jiangling last time, Li Laiheng did not talk to Deng Ming in depth. At that time, he had many worries about internal affairs, so he didn't care much about Deng Ming's salt transactions. Besides, he did think that Deng Ming would return from Wuchang soon, and it would not be too late to discuss the next strategy at that time. But he didn't expect that Deng Ming had been there for half a year, and he went around Jiangnan, killed Shunzhi, and moved a large amount of supplies from Liangjiang, with more than 1.5 million stones of food alone.

Under Li Laiheng's urging, Deng Ming described the war in detail. The entire introduction process lasted for more than an hour. Li Laiheng was always listening carefully and occasionally interrupting and asking questions.

After Deng Ming finished speaking, Li Laiheng pondered for a moment and concluded refinely: "The Admiral sent troops from Sichuan last year just to go to Wuchang to sell salt; crossed Wuchang to attack Jiangnan to sell salt better in Wuchang; and besieged Yangzhou with Shangshu Zhang in order to sell salt not only on the Yangtze River but also on other goods; in the end, the Admiral attacked Gaoyou Lake and killed the Tartar emperor because the Tartar emperor was alive, which made the Admiral unable to sell goods well. Is that right?"

"Hushang... Well, that's right." Deng Ming thought it sounded a bit strange after Li Laiheng's summary, but he had to admit that Li Laiheng's summary was indeed very accurate.

"Haha, haha." Li Laiheng laughed loudly, shook his head while laughing: "It turns out that he is an extraordinary person, and he has achieved extraordinary achievements! Even if the admiral thinks, even if he hears the admiral speak in person, he still feels unbelievable."

After hearing what Li Laiheng said, Deng Ming's strangeness also reduced a lot. The Sichuan Army's model made this army deeply influenced by Deng Ming, and its style was very different from other armies. Now many people in the Sichuan Army are like Deng Ming, and they feel that it is natural to go on the expedition for the interests of the province. Although this expedition was not to restore the lost territory or to attack the fake officials, they did not feel embarrassed.

"There is one more thing to ask at the end. What's going on with that IOU?" Li Laiheng changed his mind and asked about another matter.

When Deng Ming met Hao Yaoqi and He Zhen before, the two of them also asked about IOUs. They treated the gentry in the new territory without any affection than Li Laiheng, so their relationship with Wuchang was the most tense. The Governor of Huguang and them had several fierce battles. It is hard to say that there was no influence from the gentry whose family property was taken away.

However, in the past few months, the hostile attitude of Wuchang gentry towards He Zhen and Hao Yaoqi has changed a lot. Many people voluntarily stopped the confrontation and paid heavy taxes according to the requirements of the Kuidong Army. However, they asked Hao Yaoqi and He Zhen to provide tax collection certificates, which were also covered with the Kuidong Army's seal.

The efficiency of forced tax collection is very low, which often leads to resistance and rebellion by taxpayers. It is also a troublesome to find out the amount of land. Therefore, if the gentry is willing to cooperate, He Zhen and Hao Yaoqi are willing to give appropriate tax reductions. But to their surprise, these gentry rejected the good intentions of the Ming army and said that they would never bargain on the tax rate issue... This is something that even ghosts can't deceive this. In the past, these gentry have not only bargained for the tax rate, but most of them fled to Wuchang and threw all their production to the Ming army. They would rather not admit the rationality of the Ming army's tax collection and support Zhang Changgeng to fight back with all their hearts.

Hao Yaoqi knew that he was cheating, so he naturally investigated it carefully. It turned out that the gentry under Li Laiheng and Liu Tichun enjoyed compensation policies, and the gentry whose family property was in Hao Yaoqi and Hezhen's territory were also actively seeking the same treatment for themselves. Deng Ming also agreed in principle, and it will probably be implemented from the New Year, that is, this year.

Now He Zhen and Hao Yaoqi still lack concepts about IOUs, and they were just curious about asking Deng Ming. In He Zhen and Hao Yaoqi's view, this was just a way for Deng Ming to support them: Deng Ming used the profits of the Yangtze River trade to subsidize the Ming army in the Han River Basin and persuaded local gentry to cooperate with the Ming army.

However, Li Laiheng knew much more about IOU than Hao Yaoqi and the others. Although the relationship between the camp and the gentry in Jiangling was tense, there had not been a large-scale rebellion or forceful tax resistance. Therefore, the communication channels between Li Laiheng and the gentry were relatively smooth. He took some careful inquiries and also had some understanding of how the gentry used IOU to make profits.

After clarifying the initial reasons for the IOU and the trading rules in Wuchang from Deng Ming, Li Laiheng asked Deng Ming: "Have the Admiral heard of the recharge?"

"I heard it." After so long since I got here, Deng Ming had known what it was about to invest in the recharge. The small landlords and self-cultivated farmers of the Ming Dynasty included their land in the name of the gentry, so that their land would enjoy the tax exemption of the gentry and let the gentry collect certain benefits from it. In general, it was at the cost of the tax loss that the Ming government should have collected, and the gentry and ordinary people achieved a win-win situation. Although the Ming government continued to clean up the recharge, it was more and more, and finally it was completely helpless.

"Now someone is tinkering with the money again in Jiangling." Li Laiheng showed a strange smile on his face.

"Investing in the recharge? Regardless of whether you have any fame or honor, if you collect all taxes, will there be any benefits to investing in the recharge?" Deng Ming once heard that Li Laiheng and Liu Tichun implemented the taxation policy of treating gentry equally, and the phenomenon of investment in the recharge disappeared immediately: For the people, since they cannot be exempted from tax, why should they still put their property in the name of others? In the past, they could take risks for tax exemption, but now they have no benefits. It is stupid to continue taking risks; but for the gentry, if they cannot help the people exempt from tax, of course they can't get any benefits. Since the people who invest in the recharge do not pay the benefits, why should they keep their land in their own name? Are they afraid that they would not find themselves a fat pig?

Win-win turned into a loss-making. The Ming court had no choice but to invest in Jiangling, the Ming army controlled area, and it was quickly concluded. Without the need for the Ming army to go down to clean up, a large number of gentry and people spontaneously asked to modify the book and clarify the property rights relationship.

It is precisely because of this that Deng Ming really couldn't see the benefits of investing in the current recharge. The obvious smirk on Li Laiheng's face made him feel a little puzzled. After a moment, Deng Ming suddenly realized: "They want to invest in the name of the gentry to pay taxes!"

"That's true." Li Laiheng smiled. Deng Ming did not compensate the ordinary people in the Ming army's territory. The Ming army compensated the gentry who were officials in Wuchang to open up the market and win over the fenceists in the local camp.

The emergence of the previous phenomenon of investment and recharge was ultimately due to the Ming government's implementation of discriminatory tax treatment for the gentry and the people. After Li Laiheng and Liu Tichun ended their discrimination, the investment and recharge became a tree without roots and naturally disappeared. Now Deng Ming has begun to introduce new discriminatory policies, and recharge will immediately rekindle. The gentry immediately discovered a new win-win way. They extended an olive branch to small landlords and self-cultivated farmers who could not enjoy compensation benefits - as before, the people's land can enjoy subsidy benefits after recharge, and half of the subsidy belongs to the gentry.

"In addition to the recharge, there are also over-reports." Li Laiheng was prepared and asked his subordinates to take out the account book for Deng Ming to review: "After the New Year, we will start to re-create the land. Finally, we will find that the land that was ‘newly reclaimed’ last year is surprisingly large. On the contrary, there are no farmlands that have been reported. In the first month, the amount of new land added in Jiangling is about 30% of the previous total. According to this situation, it is a foregone conclusion that Jiangling's land will double this year. As for how many times it can be increased next year, it is not guaranteed. There are more and less other places, but the situation of accretion land is the same, and they are all the best fertile land reported. The admiral should know that the tax on this kind of fertile land is the highest. In the past, everyone would have to report a bad land without bribing the clerks. Now, it is better to become a bribe to my subordinates and must report a good land."

Many of the new lands are obviously in different dimensions, and they will definitely not be found on this planet. If Li Laiheng ignores it, then Li Laiheng's tax revenue will increase significantly this year, and the compensation Deng Ming will have to give will be greatly exceeded his expectations. He may have to face the problem of choosing one of "economic bankruptcy" and "credit bankruptcy".

The more he looked at the account book, the more the anger on Deng Ming's face became. Seeing this, Li Laiheng asked happily: "What do the admiral think about this?"
Chapter completed!