"The Sichuan Army of Baoguo Duke no longer looks like officers and soldiers." Zhang Huangyan sighed lightly. In fact, his Zhoushan Army is now gradually getting farther away from the definition of "official and soldier" in his mind. However, Zhang Huangyan always comforted himself, which was to cooperate with Deng Ming rather than to act like this.

"Don't look like officers and soldiers?" Zhu Zhiyu heard it even more inexplicably: "What does that look like? Why don't he look like officers and soldiers?"

Zhang Huangyan pointed to Ren Tang: "Tell me about it to Mr. Shunshui."

Now when he was in the Sichuan Army, Ren Tang would not feel embarrassed, but in front of Zhu Zhiyu's loyal ministers, he was immediately ashamed and blushed with shame, but he still said honestly: "It's true that he is not like a officer or a soldier. The Duke of Baoguo has called the Sichuan Army the Imperial Army."

"Imperial Army? What does empire mean?" Zhu Zhiyu could not understand such advanced words at all.

"It means a robber." Ren Tang said hesitantly. He told Zhu Zhiyu that the Sichuan Army did not seek thieves when they see thieves, but reached various agreements with the Qing army. When the Sichuan Army generals and generals met local officials appointed by the Qing Dynasty, they would not shout and rush up and give them a white knife and let them come out with a red knife. Instead, they would often drink and talk and make money at the negotiating table. As for the goods Zhu Zhiyu saw at Zhoushan Wharf, most of the goods they saw were bought from the Qing army.

When Ren Tang was narrating, Zhang Huangyan sighed repeatedly from the side, looking heartbroken, as if the Zhoushan Army had not participated in these agreements and transactions.

Of course, Zhu Zhiyu was stunned when he heard this. After finally reacting from the shock, Zhu Zhiyu jumped up and questioned Zhang Huangyan, "Don't Zhang Shangshu persuade the Duke Baoguo?"

Zhang Huangyan spread his hands: "Duke Baoguo is young and energetic. I have never met him a year. How can I persuade him? So Brother Shunshui went to Chengdu this time, it was too timely."

Although Zhu Zhiyu wanted to return to serve in the country before, he never thought that the responsibilities he shouldered were so heavy that he needed to bring the Sichuan Army, which was about to go astray, back on track.

"Duke Baoguo is really too young." Zhu Zhiyu has heard some rumors about Deng Ming, and the Duke who did not posthumously was enough to make people think. Deng Ming's achievements made Zhu Zhiyu not disgusted with him, but instead took his anger at the princes around Deng Ming: "This is completely a bandit, it must be those Kuidong thieves... No, those Kuidong generals led the Duke Baoguo to ruin."

Zhu Zhiyu also blamed Zhang Huangyan with some dissatisfaction: "Why didn't Brother Cangshui go to Sichuan? In my opinion, Chengdu is now the hope of restoring China."

"I'm going to help Baoguogong sell goods." Zhang Huangyan quickly found an excuse to excuse himself: "Brother Shunshui said so well, so I'm doing my best to manage Zhoushan to help Baoguogong raise some military supplies."

"When will you go back to Sichuan?" Zhu Zhiyu asked Ren Tang.

"Well, it's about mid-June..." Ren Tang said that there was a lot of preparations before boarding the road, and it was necessary to confirm that the Deng Zongli Yamen prepared the food and ships: "You can also buy some food on the road, but it's always okay to prepare more. We have hundreds of thousands of mouths, which is an unprecedented large marche. If we don't have enough food on the way, something big may happen. Whether it's starving the people who defect to us to death or let them plunder the people along the way because of hunger, it's not very good for the empire... to the reputation of the officers and soldiers."

After hearing the term "Suppressing Deng Zongli Yamen", Zhu Zhiyu nodded slightly and praised: "This name is well-known."

Now when Ren Tang complained about how much money he spent to relocate the people, Zhu Zhiyu looked puzzled again: "Aren't you the Imperial Army? Why do you still pay for ships and meals?"

Zhu Zhiyu fully agreed with Ren Tang's statement that he could not disturb the people; but the Ming army actually had to pay the remuneration to the Zongli Yamen of the Suppression of Deng, which made him unable to understand.

According to Ren Tang, in order to relocate hundreds of thousands of people back to Sichuan, the Ming army estimated to have to spend 5 or 6 million taels of silver. This amount was so large that Zhu Zhiyu was shocked. In his opinion, it was not good to do such a large amount of money, so why should I give it to Zhou Peigong of the Qing court with both hands?

"This is the truth of stealing." Zhang Huangyan said at the side without any chance, as a substitute for Ren Tang: "Although it is an imperial army, he cannot keep his word."

"In the past, Manhuo entered the pass and plundered hundreds of thousands of people every time, and robbed a lot of gold and silver. But unlike Manhuo, we cannot go through everything we can get ruined, so we must find a way to raise food and grass." Ren Tang explained patiently that in addition to the Ming army, there are many ships on the Yangtze River that have been suppressed by many Zongli Yamen, and if we want to use the ships to suppress Deng Zongli Yamen, we have to pay rent.

"Zhou Peigong has so many ships, is it a threat to the officers and soldiers?" Zhu Zhiyu had no idea about the situation in the country. After hearing that there were many Qing military ships, the first thing that came to mind was that the other party had military potential.

"Oh, there are no warships, all of them are civilian ships, and at most they are used for transportation of canals." Ren Tang replied indifferently.

"How do you know?" Zhu Zhiyu asked sternly when he saw Ren Tang underestimating his enemy so much.

"Because they sold them to Zhou Peigong." Zhang Huangyan interrupted again.

"Did Mr. Zhou buy your ship?" Zhu Zhiyu looked incredible: "Then he collected rent from you?"

"We still have money to make money, and we have also earned some money through shipping during this period." Ren Tang hurriedly explained: "Besides, we keep building ships in Sichuan, Zhou Peigong promised that as long as we keep selling them to him, he would not set up a shipyard."

"Zhou Peigong is also making money. How do you know that he won't open a shipyard after getting the money?" Seeing that Ren Tang not only underestimated the enemy but also believed it, Zhu Zhiyu was even more anxious.

"Because we have 50% of the shares in the Zongli Yamen of Deng, he will give us half of the money as long as he makes money, and there are also our people in charge of the accounts. What will Zhou Peigong do with money? We can check the accounts."

Hearing this, Zhu Zhiyu was completely confused. He turned to look at Zhang Huangyan: "What is General Ren talking about? Do you understand?"

"Well," Zhang Huangyan nodded: "I am the general manager of the account check. I have sent the account to the Zongli Yamen to the Deng Deng to the account."

...

"I know it's a turbulent autumn and the storm is in turmoil, so Duke Baoguo obeyed the people of Kuidong in order to win the battle." Zhu Zhiyu found that the difficulties in front of him were much greater than he had originally imagined. He did not blame Deng Ming, but believed that Deng Ming was adversely affected by the generals of Kuidong because he was eager to reverse the unfavorable military situation.

Ren Tang thought to himself: "I'm afraid it's not that Duke Lin and the others who influenced Duke Bao, but that Duke Lin and the others were all led by Duke Bao." However, Ren Tang did not say this. When Zhu Zhiyu was heartbroken, Zhang Huangyan and Ren Tang were silent.

"You're going to leave in mid-June, right?" Zhu Zhiyu calculated in his mind: "That means I still have some time."

Although he knew that the risk was very high, Zhu Zhiyu decided to venture into the enemy territory: "I want to find Meng Zhengfa."

"What are you looking for him?" Zhang Huangyan was shocked after hearing this. Zhu Zhiyu is famous and his ambition to resist the Qing Dynasty is well known. If his identity is exposed, he may encounter danger.

"I am just a scholar and have never led troops to fight. I have been running around in Japan to raise food and pay for officers and soldiers and seek reinforcements. I know nothing about military affairs. If I saw Duke Baoguo alone, Duke Baoguo might not be willing to listen to me." Zhu Zhiyu thought carefully. He had not made any amazing achievements in recent years. Deng Ming seemed to be deeply influenced by the Kuidong bandits. Zhu Zhiyu had no confidence to convince Deng Ming to repent: "Before the Manchus entered the pass, my ability was to study and teach, but Meng Zhengfa was different. He was called the 'the first person to fight since the southward crossing'. I took him to Sichuan. Duke Baoguo might not believe me, but Meng Zhengfa was a scholar with both civil and military affairs. Duke Baoguo would definitely listen to his opinions seriously. Sichuan also needs people like Meng Zhengfa to do their best."

Zhang Huangyan coughed and planned to speak.

But before Zhang Huangyan objected, Zhu Zhiyu said sincerely: "I know that Meng Zhenghai shaved his head and surrendered, but who is not a sage? He also hated the people of Kuidong. If he and Duke Baoguo talked about the previous bad deeds of the people of Kuidong, Duke Baoguo would be less affected by bad things."

Zhang Huangyan was hesitating whether to talk about Deng Ming to Zhu Zhiyu again, but saw Ren Tang secretly throwing his eyes. In the past, Ren Tang was Zhang Huangyan's confidant, and now he is a general of the Sichuan Army. Zhang Huangyan put away his idea of ​​persuasion when he saw this.

Zhu Zhiyu left as soon as he said that, and even didn't even care about rest, he hurriedly asked Zhang Huangyan for a fast boat and left Zhoushan. He planned to go to Hubei alone to convince Meng Zhengfa, Wang Fuzhi and others.

After Zhu Zhiyu left, Zhang Huangyan found the opportunity to ask Ren Tang: "Don't you see what Baoguo Duke means? Baoguo Duke has come to Jiangnan three times and has not visited any Shilin leader; and his way is definitely not taught by the generals in Kuidong."

"So some scholars do need to go to Sichuan, otherwise the student will not be able to deal with the Duke Baoguo alone." Ren Tang replied. After Chen Zuo arrived in Chengdu, Ren Tang felt that he saw a glimmer of hope. He felt that although Deng Ming did not respect Wang Fuzhi and Meng Zhengfa's military talents, he could have a minimum respect for scholars: "Is the Secretary of Shang worried that Mr. Shunshui would be in danger?"

"Of course," Zhang Huangyan nodded: "He hasn't returned to China for several years. Although Meng Zhengfa would not betray him, I know Shunshui's temper. As long as Meng Zhengfa refused to leave with him, he would definitely stay there and insist on pulling him away. It is inevitable that someone will see something strange and go to report to the Luting Court."
Chapter completed!