From a traditional perspective, kowtowing is just a way of rituals, expressing respect for elders and venerables. As for personality, no one in feudal society has any personality.

Before Zhao Tianba came to Kunming, Deng Ming asked him to repost three requirements: the first is that he himself would not kowtow to the princes and princes in Kunming; the second is that the Sichuan army officers and soldiers he brought did not kowtow to the princes and civil and military officials in Kunming; the third is that Deng Ming and his officers did not accept kowtow to the Kunming people.

In Ren Tang's words, Chengdu is now "the rituals and music are broken", and Deng Ming abolished all the kowtows that should be held in the name of "not insulting the fame of the court". Although Ren Tang enjoys being on par with Deng Mingping, this does not prevent him from complaining. After all, the price is that Ren Tang cannot enjoy other people's kowtows.

Zhao Tianba did not dare to directly convey Deng Ming's words to Li Dingguo. He felt that even if Kunming could tolerate Deng Ming's first request, they would be furious when they heard the second one, thinking that this was Chengdu deliberately humiliating Kunming and raising the status of Chengdu's soldiers to the same level as the King of Jin; let alone the soldiers of their own country had to bow to the prince, even the envoys of the enemy country. As for Zhao Tianba himself, he would never bring the habits he had developed in Chengdu to Kunming.

Deng Ming's first request made the room quiet. No one spoke, and they all looked at Li Dingguo silently, waiting for the decision of King Jin. When he withdrew from Kunming, Li Dingguo had handed over Huang Yue to the Southern Ming court, but when he returned to Kunming, Yongli sent an official to send Huang Yue back to show his absolute trust in King Jin. The official was named Chen Zuocai, and now he was standing in the house with everyone. Although Chen Zuocai did not speak, a trace of dissatisfaction had already risen to the face of Huang Yue's position as a prince, which was equivalent to that of the governor. Not to mention Deng Ming, who was only in the name of the admiral, even the chief minister Ma Jixiang would kowtow when he saw Li Dingguo.

Li Dingguo Zhan smiled: "Of course. Admiral Deng has great martial arts and I respect it very much. When I came to Kunming, I regarded him as brothers, only polite to his comrades, regardless of his superiority or inferiority."

The statement of King Jin did not dispel the dissatisfaction of others, especially Chen Zuocai. The prince can give favors, but Li Dingguo should speak. Even so, if Deng Ming takes the prestige of the court to heart, he should be tactful and humble. Even if he doesn't kneel three times and nine times, he should be the minimum respect for the prince of the court and the emperor's Huang Yue. Now Deng Ming makes a request, which not only seems arrogant, but also threatens.

"Before people arrived in Kunming, they should despise the court and give the emperor, the court and the King of Jin a warning?" Since Li Dingguo had already spoken, Chen Zuocai did not argue, but his dissatisfaction became increasingly serious.

Several other generals also had their thoughts in their hearts, but they did not say anything. Bai Wenxuan and they all knew that Li Dingguo had decided to join forces with Deng Ming. The current situation in Yunnan also required Kunming to tolerate, and the generals also had the idea of ​​joining Chengdu to suppress Jianchang. The unhappiness with Deng Ming for the sake of etiquette will affect the plan and it is not in the interests of Kunming.

"I heard that Deng Ming was a royal family." While Li Dingguo agreed, his suspicion became even more serious. According to the system set by Zhu Yuanzhang, no matter how high the status of ordinary people is, they cannot be compared with the Zhu family. Even if the other party is a general who is a subordinate, or even a lieutenant, as long as they are from the Zhu family, officials will have to kowtow when they see him. Even the cabinet master and the Shangshu are no exception. Li Dingguo is at most equal to them.

"Are there any other requirements?" Li Dingguo asked again.

"Well, yes." Zhao Tianba felt that the atmosphere in the house was a little bad, so he did not dare to tell Deng Ming's second request, but changed the order and said the third one first: "The Admiral of the Yangtze River hoped that the King of Jin would order that all the civil and military officials in Kunming, including the people, should not give him a great gift, and the military salute would be good."

Unlike the silence when the first article was proposed, a buzzing sound rang in the house, and Li Dingguo's face also seemed a little confused: "What does the Yangtze River Admiral mean?"

If the request just now was Deng Ming raising his own value, then this request would be a huge self-depreciation. This contradictory behavior made Li Dingguo and others feel very puzzled.

"Report to the King, as the King said just now, the Admiral of the Yangtze River also hoped to discuss only the friendship between the Kunming soldiers, regardless of the superiority and inferiority." Zhao Tianba was not stupid at all. His mind was very flexible, and he immediately used what Li Dingguo said just now: "This was how the Admiral of the Yangtze River explained to his humble position."

"So that's it." Li Dingguo said with a smile.

The house was filled with laughter, and the tension just now suddenly dissipated a lot. Bai Wenxuan, He Jiuyi and Ma Bao's resentment just now almost dissipated. Bai Wenxuan, who had the best relationship with Li Dingguo, said easily: "The Yangtze River Admiral is kind, but it's not good to do this. You can't let the soldiers in Kunming lose their etiquette."

Chen Zuocai even objected: "Admiral Deng's heart is naturally understandable, but this is incompatible with etiquette."

Li Dingguo nodded slightly, obviously he had to agree with everyone's opinions. He felt that Deng Ming's request was very polite, and it was mostly not Deng Ming's original intention. Li Dingguo certainly could not accept it.

"It's okay, it's okay." Seeing that Li Dingguo had the intention of rejection, Zhao Tianba hurriedly said: "Admiral Changjiang said that if all the generals don't mind, his guards would also use military salutes to show that Sichuan and Yunnan are brothers."

"Oh." Li Dingguo hesitated again after hearing this. It sounded like Deng Ming was quite sincere, as if Deng Ming was trying hard to show friendly relations. After a moment, the King of Jin nodded: "Okay, now the military situation is urgent and the strong enemy is approaching, so both sides will use military salutes."

"King, this matter is inappropriate." Chen Zuocai still disagreed and said anxiously: "It's not in the army now, but etiquette is indispensable. Although the Admiral of the Yangtze River has no position, it was also appointed by the Wen Governor and has made great contributions to the country. How can the soldiers be despised?"

After hearing Chen Zuocai say this, Zhao Tianba was delighted. Obviously, the generals in Kunming did not think that Deng Ming was rude. Zhao Tianba hurriedly said that Deng Ming was indeed sincere. In the end, Li Dingguo did not adopt Chen Zuocai's opinion, but said that the marching salute was also good, so that the soldiers were prepared for danger in times of peace, although the situation was actually very critical.

After setting the etiquette for meeting between the two parties, Li Dingguo waited for Deng Ming to arrive with peace of mind. Zhao Tianba said goodbye and walked out, quietly wiped away the sweat from his forehead: "After all, it did not cause any big trouble."

...

On May 10, Deng Ming and Li Siye arrived in Kunming, and King Li Dingguo of Jin personally went out to greet him. Seeing the prince of the fake Huang Yue, Deng Ming hurriedly stepped forward and bowed deeply and clasped his fists: "King, I will meet you later."

"Admiral Deng is here." Li Dingguo also bowed his fists and returned the salute.

When Deng Ming came to Kunming last time, all the people in the city were bombarded by Wu Sangui, but now there are still not many people. Apart from the army of Xiying, there are some craftsmen living in it. After entering the city, he saw that there were still large areas of ruins that had not been cleaned. Li Dingguo pointed to several blackened walls and said to Deng Ming with a smile: "These are still left by the admiral when he came to Kunming last time."

Kunming is now like Chengdu at the time. The surrounding farmland and canals were destroyed by continuous wars. Officers and craftsmen could only provide rations and other daily necessities by the military. Kunming is just equivalent to a particularly large military fortress, and is even worse than Chengdu in terms of prosperity. Li Dingguo hopes that the situation will continue to improve. Not only will the lives of soldiers improve, but the number of people increases, and the city gradually recovers, handicrafts appear, and later commercial or even taverns and hotels appear. At that time, the city walls need to be strengthened to protect these people.

Seeing the current situation in Kunming, Deng Ming also felt secretly that Li Dingguo's situation was worse than Deng Ming imagined.

After a few greetings, Deng Ming asked, "I wonder if I have anything to help the king?"

Li Dingguo pondered for a moment, feeling that there was no need to hide it from Deng Ming. Now it is not the time to pretend to be fat, so he put forward the most urgent request: "Food."

At present, there is nothing more important than food for Yunnan. Kunming tried his best to meet the minimum needs of the army. Although Li Dingguo hoped that a large number of people would settle down to develop production, he was powerless. In fact, there were many people in Yunnan who fled to other places, but they were all scared by the heavy taxes of the Ming army. They would rather hide in the deep mountains and forests than return to the control of the Ming army. The heavy taxes of the Ming army would also cause the people to escape further, leading to further shrinking the tax sources of the Ming army.

To get rid of the vicious cycle, Li Dingguo had only three methods: disarmament, war and food import. Disarmament could reduce expenditures, but could not be considered when a strong enemy was in a dilemma. War was strongly advocated by Ma Bao, and by defeating Jianchang, he could absorb a large number of male men and obtain Liu Wenxiu's storage, but Li Dingguo also disagreed. Finally, food imports could not only make the Ming army take a breath, but also call on the people to return home.

Compared with Yunnan and Guizhou, Sichuan's products were much richer. During the She'an Rebellion in the Ming Dynasty, the Yunnan-Guizhou Ming army relied on Sichuan's grain to siege the rebels for a long time. In the late Qing Dynasty in Deng Ming's previous life, Sichuan's joint salary was also the pillar of the Yunnan-Guizhou border army. However, the situation is completely different now. Even if Deng Ming had the grain from Jiangnan, he could not transport it to Kunming through an unmanned area. Now there is a weak transportation line from Chengdu to Jianchang, and there are stations along the way, so that the grain transport troops can find a place to rest and shelter from the rain. Although the transportation volume is limited, the consumption is still within an acceptable range. There is no such supply line from Chengdu to Kunming.

Deng Ming told Li Dingguo: "If the king needs food, he can only be sent by Jianchang."

Before coming to Kunming, Deng Ming had already talked with Feng Shuangli about this issue. Relying on Liu Wenxiu's storage, Jianchang's Xiying soldiers have been doing well. Large areas of military farmland are ready-made, and they have obtained a lot of food from Chengdu through the exchange of population. This year, Jianchang's reserves have not decreased, but there is still a small surplus, but Feng Shuangli will not take out the food in vain.
Chapter completed!