Chapter 35 Treating Guests (Part 1)
Although Deng Ming brought more than 2,000 standing troops to Chongqing this time, the soldiers had left Chengdu and fought outside for a year. Most of them were looking forward to returning home quickly. Now, Deng Ming did not disband the army but ran around Chongqing. It was because everyone was very respectful to Deng Ming, so there was no complaint. Deng Ming was unwilling to let this loyal army take any risks, so he had no intention of fighting. In order to prevent the Qing army in Chongqing from taking irrational actions, the Ming army's water camp was located on the other side of the river. When Gao Mingzhan came to negotiate several times, he had to cross the Yangtze River to see Deng Ming.
Deng Ming also did not object to the issue of food expenses of the Qing army. Strictly speaking, this rule was pioneered by him. Last time he was in Zhong County, he asked Wang Mingde for a meal expenses. These Kuidong Army prisoners followed Li Laiheng, Liu Tichun and others to fight in Chuan and E, and did not live a few good days. Deng Ming just casually looked at the bills issued by Wang Mingde and nodded in agreement.
However, since this time, Deng Ming was worried that the Qing army would continue to increase the food costs of Ming army prisoners in the future, so he had to be careful. Deng Ming told Gao Mingzhan that in the future, each Ming army prisoner would pay up to one tael of silver per month for food and accommodation. The standard for food and accommodation was: three meals a day to be full, and hygiene was required. The Ming army was not allowed to eat moldy and spoiled food. One meal would be provided with beans or vegetables every day, and at least one tael of meat every five days.
Seeing Deng Ming write down this standard, Gao Mingzhan was stunned, but since Deng Ming was willing to pay the bill, everything was easy to say. In the end, the two sides drafted an agreement to prohibit the abuse of prisoners. However, this agreement was only valid for the armored soldiers of the Western Sichuan Army and the Chongqing generals. Gao Mingzhan didn't care about the life or death of the unarmed soldiers. If someone in the Kuidong Army was captured, Deng Ming was willing to pay the bill in principle, but Chongqing needed to send an envoy to report to Deng Ming immediately. As long as Deng Ming nodded his head and signed, he would definitely fulfill the contract, otherwise Deng Ming had the right to refuse to pay the food and accommodation fee - lest Wang Mingde and others would catch a few bandits and say that they were the Kuidong Army.
"If my school lieutenant is captured..." Deng Ming felt that the possibility of the school lieutenant being captured was not high. Now it is only Li Xinghan, Zhao Tianba and several others are school lieutenants. If these people are captured by the Qing army, the Qing army may not be released. However, Deng Ming planned to quickly promote another group of people to be promoted to the school rank, so he still set the standards in advance: "For third-level lieutenants, I will pay their food and accommodation fees according to the standards of five taels, ten taels, and fifteen taels of silver per month. They have to have meat every day; school lieutenants are four times that of lieutenants of the same level. They should live in a single room, with mosquito nets in summer and quilts in winter..."
Gao Mingzhan was stunned when he heard this. No commander had ever taken the treatment of captured soldiers so seriously. Although these conditions were basically difficult to achieve - the Qing army in Chongqing did not expect to capture the officers in western Sichuan, Gao Mingzhan remembered from then on that if he captured the soldiers in western Sichuan, he must treat them properly, otherwise Deng Ming would definitely turn against him.
The conditions for this prisoner exchange were soon agreed: Gao Mingzhan would bring some deposit back today, and when the prisoners were released in batches tomorrow, the Ming army would pay a part of the ransom for each batch of prisoners. After all the people arrived and they were confirmed to have no worries about their lives, the last batch of Qing troops escorted could bring back the food expenses.
Although Deng Ming had no intention of fighting, Gao Mingzhan did not know this, and no one dared to think of greed for Deng Ming's deposit; the next day after the exchange of prisoners, a three-wall guard said to Gao Mingzhan and others: "In order to celebrate the successful success of this cooperation, Baoguo Duke invites you to cross the river to have a meal."
Of course, the Qing generals didn't want to go. Although Deng Ming had a good credit, if he could not go to the enemy camp, it would be better not to go. But the envoys from the three walls refused: "Duke Baoguo has already killed pigs and sheep, are you really unwilling to give him a favor?"
"Since it is the invitation of the Duke of the State, the officials must be bothered." Wang Mingdeqiang said with a smile. In addition to him, there are several people including Hu Wenke and others on the list listed by Deng Ming. Now the three major gaps in northwest Chongqing have not been blocked. They all think that as long as Deng Ming attacks, everyone will have to be killed, so it is difficult to offend Deng Ming to death.
Sun Sike hurriedly stepped forward and shouted, "How can I do this? If Deng Ming detains you all, what should I do in Chongqing?"
"If he wants to attack Chongqing, we will be the same as deducting it or not." Wang Mingde just figured out that if Deng Ming really wanted to attack Chongqing, he would never deduct himself, but he really couldn't say this sentence.
In addition to the Shaanxi generals such as Wang Mingde, Deng Ming also sent invitations to the commander of the Eight Banners of Manchuria, because what he wanted to do had to be dragged into the water. The commander of the Eight Banners of Manchuria stood up for a moment after seeing the invitation, thinking about it, the fight between the masters should not do anything to him. Last time Deng Ming caught him, he also let him go. Thinking of this, the commander squeezed out a smile and agreed.
Sun Sike, Yuan Jiawenbi and Shanxi generals were stunned when they stood aside. Seeing that the commander of the Eight Banners of Manchuria was about to walk to the river, Sun Sike couldn't help but scream again.
The answer from Manchu Taijun is even more straightforward: "Chongqing is now broken, and we can only rely on the determination to sacrifice for the country to join Deng Mingxu and make time for the Governor to strengthen the city defense."
The Manchu Taijun refused, and Gao Mingzhan could not find a reason to refuse. Moreover, he felt that Deng Ming did not make things difficult for him yesterday, probably not today. He had said that if Deng Ming attacked him, he would burn the warehouse in Chongqing. If he released such cruel words, he would probably dispel Deng Ming's desire to attack a lot. It was to comfort himself and to show off his heroes. Gao Mingzhan pretended to be relaxed and said to Sun Sike and Shanxi people: "Deng Ming has a good credit. Although he likes to bargain, he will definitely do it as long as he says it. There are few people who believe in this kind of trust now, so it is no wonder you are worried - by the way, Deng Ming's food is quite good."
Sun Sike and most Shanxi people were not invited. Deng Ming also knew that if there were too many people invited, most of them would not dare to come, so he only asked the Shanxi Green Camp to send a representative. The Shanxi people discussed for a while, and finally decided to send a guerrilla to follow Governor Gao and the generals of the Shaanxi Green Camp to see the world. The remaining people remained in Chongqing's own army based on the principle of "Zhuge was only cautious in his life."
Sun Sic and the Shanxi generals became more and more worried. They collectively went to see Li Guoying and wanted to ask the Governor to prepare in advance. If Deng Ming turned against the generals of the Shaanxi Green Camp and attacked the city, he would not be caught off guard.
But Sun Sike and the others were turned away. Yesterday, after throwing the specific negotiations to Gao Mingzhan and the Manchu Prince, Li Guoying announced that he had gone to bed early, and he didn't know anything that happened. Just now, when Gao Mingzhan and others accepted the invitation, a guard of the Governor Biao Battalion hurried back to Chongqing without saying a word and slipped into the Governor's yamen without notice. When Sun Sike and the others came to the door, Li Guoying's housekeeper and the Governor's guerrillas had been waiting in front of the yamen for a long time, and once he reached out, he stopped Sun Sike and his gang: "Governor is resting."
"Didn't the Governor go to bed early yesterday morning?"
"Yes, it has not yet started yet, please go back." The housekeeper, the guerrillas of the Biaoying camp led the guards to take action and pushed the group of people who came to petition out of the yamen without saying a word.
...
"You guys are so proud of you." Deng Ming's main purpose of treating these people to dinner was to sell his stones, especially jade. Jade was obviously so expensive in later generations, but it was impossible to sell in the early Qing Dynasty, which really made Deng Ming unwilling to accept it.
When giving gifts under Chongqing City, Deng Ming put a lot of jade into the box, but because Li Guoying said "fake jade", these Chongqing guys lost interest and did not accept jade when exchanging prisoners of war.
Although the invited guests smiled on their faces, they were a little restless after entering the camp. Deng Ming pretended not to see him. He prepared a round table and invited the guests to sit around the table. Gao Mingzhan's performance at the top of Chongqing City made Deng Ming feel confident, knowing that the other party would not dare to anger him, but Deng Ming did not use this advantage in bargaining the captains, but in the matter of treating guests.
"Today I invite you to Sichuan hot pot." In order to promote his stone, Deng Ming carefully prepared this meal. Not only did he kill a sheep, but he also took out a lot of specialties brought back from Yunnan.
Chili peppers, peppers, butter... Deng Ming knew that what he prepared was not the authentic Sichuan hot pot currently, but there were chili peppers and various spices brought back from Myanmar, which would definitely leave a deep impression on Chongqing officials. Deng Ming enthusiastically welcomed guests and introduced: "We call Sanliu hot pot, why is Sanliu? It's just drooling, running nose, and tears." Deng Ming once went to Sichuan for a trip in his previous life. At that time, he used the vocabulary of the tour guide, and it really won applause.
Gao Mingzhan looked at Deng Ming's copper pot and said in a compliment: "The Admiral's pot is pretty good."
"Governor Gao has good eyesight. This pot is made of brass produced in Tongling, which is the most delicious." Deng Ming immediately gave it a high hat and continued to introduce the dishes to everyone. Some of the mushrooms on the table were shipped from Dujiangyan: "These are all mushrooms from Qingcheng Mountain, so you must try them."
Shaanxi people are indeed better than Zhang Huangyan. Ma Fengzhi and they can eat spicy food. Not long after Gao Mingzhan, Wang Mingde and others yelled and praised the fact that this kind of pepper is really good. Admiral Deng is indeed a gourmet - they all sacrificed their lives, and even if they were about to die, they would be a full devil first - but most people still have confidence in Deng Ming's credit.
The Shanxi guerrilla seemed to be very uneasy. After entering the table, he hid far away from Deng Ming. He was also very restrained when eating, and did not attract other people's attention as much as possible. But after eating a few bites, the Shanxi guerrilla couldn't stop crying, and everyone on the table burst into laughter, complimenting today's third-rate hot pot is indeed worthy of its name.
But the next thing was wrong. The Shanxi guerrilla tears flowed and she cried out loud. Only then did everyone realize something was wrong, and the tent suddenly became cold.
Chapter completed!