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Chapter 38 Trading (Part 1)

More than two months passed in a flash, and news continued to be heard back in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Starting from late October, the migrant people in the eastern region continued to enter Sichuan through Kuimen. The scale of this relocation was extremely large. The Ming army had never had the experience of large-scale migration of people, and many problems also arose on the road to migration. Thanks to Li Xinghan, Ren Tang and others were born with calf and were not afraid of tigers, and dared to think and do it. The Ming army regarded these people who were willing to come to Sichuan as future companions rather than slaves, and attached great importance to the food and accommodation arrangements along the way. Deng Ming also had not relocated so many people at once, so he could only let the army take care of it. As long as you remember to carefully record the problems, countermeasures and effects that occurred temporarily thought out.

During this period, Deng Ming has been writing new student textbooks. In his opinion, the most important basic education is algebra, geometry and logic. Deng Ming used to compile some of them. This time, when he had time, he tried to recall some of the knowledge he had read and read in the past every day.

At the end of August, the army sent several British people from Chongming Island. These people were adventurers who came to the East. Although they claimed to be merchants, Deng Ming felt that they were actually gangsters who took risks. The English language of this era was quite different from what Deng Ming had learned. Deng Ming, who was only a little bit of a fur, had no ability to communicate with these British people in foreign languages ​​at all, but this did not prevent Deng Ming from calling the algebraic formulas, logical syllogisms and Arabic numerals in his memory all translated works. Deng Ming claimed to people that these things were brought by those British people and were translated from their books. Although Deng Ming doubted that the degree of education of these British merchants might have been semi-illiterate who had not received regular education.

The formulas that Deng Ming can recall are all broken, and he is not sure whether it is correct or not. If these things are signed with their names, they will most likely be worshipped by many people, but if they were sent by several British people of unknown origin, they will undoubtedly be questioned. The errors are easier to be picked out, and it will not make Deng Ming blush. However, when putting together these textbooks, Deng Ming also made people try to find all books and materials about the three disciplines of algebra, geometry and logic.

Although Deng Ming wrote textbooks for District 51, he often lived in Xuzhou because in addition to writing textbooks, he also needed to help the jewelry bank design jewelry styles so that it could be processed and sold to the Qing army in Chongqing. Deng Ming theoretically held the full power of western Sichuan, but Deng Ming had not been inquired about too much government affairs and military affairs in the past two months. The prefects of Chengdu and Xuzhou had adapted to Deng Ming's work model. The bank managed by Xiong Lan, the tax bureau managed by Qin Xiucai, and the academy taught by Chen Zuocai have been operating independently and normally for a long time without Deng Ming's interference. Deng Ming's journey not only couldn't help, but would cause trouble. As for the account books of all walks of life, there were naturally a prefect and courts who would review it.

...

There are more than 30,000 Qing troops in Chongqing City. Li Guoying, the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, was not in the city at this time. While reporting the victory, Li Guoying once again asked the court to retreat to Baoning. After learning that the battle of defense in Chongqing was finally won, Beijing breathed a sigh of relief, which was to put his heart back in his stomach. Soon, Beijing issued an edict to the whole world that the Qing army won a great victory in Chongqing, and at the same time began to mobilize troops and generals to suppress the Yu Qi uprising in Shandong. After Yu Qi issued a call, responders were spread all over the Jiaodong Peninsula, which made Shandong's military and political officials furiously ask Beijing for help. Those who responded to Qi attacked prefectures and counties and had been fighting fiercely with the Qing army for several months. However, Yu Qi, the leader, took his main force in his hometown, neither attacking the surrounding cities nor leading the rebel army in Shandong.

The Qing army in Shandong judged that although Yu Qi called for an uprising, he himself hoped to make the Qing court realize his appeal, and then pardon him and recruit him as he did in the early years of Shunzhi. However, unlike the five years of Shunzhi, the political and military pressure facing the Qing court is far less than that when he first entered the pass. Beijing instructed the Jinan official office to suppress the uprisingers outside Yu Qi first, while raising food and money and mobilizing troops. The Qing court never considered recruiting Qi again, but because of fierce fighting in Chongqing, it was not enough to fully eliminate him. If Li Guoying's entire army was destroyed, the camp would have a great possibility of returning to Guanzhong - in any case, the camp that refused to compromise was much more dangerous than the Yu Qi who was a tumultuous crowd. If this situation really happened, the Qing court would have to send reinforcements to Xi'an immediately and consider recruiting Yu Qi to end the chaos in Shandong.

While Beijing was waiting for the results of Chongqing, the Shandong side reported that the situation was becoming increasingly stable. Due to the lack of unified leadership, although there were many rebels in Shandong, the threat to the Qing government was limited and they were being defeated by the Qing army. As for the strongest Yu Qi headquarters, the Qing army in Shandong has not yet begun to fight, so that Yu Qi was lucky to disappoint the people who followed the Yu Qi Uprising and were disenchanted with him. After Beijing reinforcements arrived, they were eliminated in one fell swoop.

After confirming Chongqing's victory, Beijing did not need to send troops to Xi'an for the time being to prevent the camp from returning to Guanzhong. Finally, it made up its mind to solve the problem of Yu Qi, Shandong. It transferred the troops that were once planned to be sent to Xi'an from Shanxi and Henan to the east, and sent the Eight Banners of Manchuria to supervise the battle. It rushed to Shandong in October. Although Yu Qi was almost defending himself, Jinan had almost wiped out the rest of the rebels. Beijing estimated that it would completely eliminate Yu Qi within half a year and uproot his power.

As for Li Guoying's request for withdrawal, Beijing refused without thinking. At the same time, he sent an envoy to Chongqing to tell Li Guoying that this was an exciting victory. Many powerful men who were secretly eager to try temporarily put aside their thoughts of rebellion because of this victory. Beijing was not wrong with this. At least Yang Qilong stopped the uprising and continued to lie dormant because he heard that Li Guoying won a great victory in Chongqing and defeated 200,000 Ming troops. Yang Qilong was not clear about the relationship between the Kuidong Army and the Western Sichuan Army. In his opinion, this means that there will be recurrence in Sichuan. Deng Ming's previous victory may be a flash in the pan, just like the great victory of Li Dingguo in Hengyang.

In order to calm people's hearts and eliminate the undercurrents within the Eight Banners, Beijing hopes that Li Guoying will continue to persevere in Chongqing and strive for more victory, and it is best to completely pacify Sichuan for the court.

After receiving the imperial edict, Li Guoying immediately told the envoy that this was impossible. The Qing army in Chongqing once had the strategic initiative in Dongchuan and Xichuan. After Ertan's defeat, it was only a logistical issue to prevent the Qing army from advancing in Chongqing, not the enemy's strength. However, after Xionglan, Wanxian failed to attack Chengdu, the Qing army and the Ming army entered a strategic stalemate period, attacking and defending each other; and with the defeat of the Jiangjin and Qijiang Battle, the Qing army had lost its strategic initiative in western Sichuan; after the defeat of Zhongxian and Wanxian Battle last year, the Qing army was passively beaten in both directions.

This time, Chongqing only faced the attack from eastern Sichuan and won extremely difficult times. Li Guoying bluntly told the envoy that this victory only allowed the Qing army to be completely wiped out in Chongqing. He fought to the death to achieve such a victory, and just wanted to win a chance for the Qing army to withdraw troops safely. Li Guoying took the envoy to visit Chongqing's broken city defense and described how the city wall was vulnerable in front of the Ming army's new siege weapons. Finally, he led the envoy to the top of the city, allowing him to witness the busy Ming army boats on the Sichuan River with his own eyes.

"The Governor General believes that the number of reinforcements sent by the court can defend Chongqing and counterattack Zhongxian, at least restore the situation to the situation before the battle in Zhongxian?" asked the envoy. Although he saw all this, the envoy still told Li Guoying that the court could not agree to withdraw from Chongqing.

"This is not a problem of reinforcements, but depends on the warships, a large number of warships, and at the same time, Huguang's full cooperation is also required. The key to the battle in Sichuan was the navy. When the Wei State attacked Wu, the navy was built here in Chongqing. When 80,000 Wei troops boarded the ship and went down the river, the Wu Lord had no choice but to open the city gate of Jiangning to surrender. When the Song Dynasty attacked Sichuan, the Shu Lord thought that the road to Shu was difficult to reach the sky, but the Song army came on a boat like Zhang Fei back then, and 200,000 Song troops headed straight to Chengdu on a boat.

Sichuan was pacified in a blink of an eye. Deng Ming's ships are now enough to transport more than 100,000 troops and 200,000 troops. Huguang and the two rivers said that they had nothing but the canal ships, and the same was true in Chongqing - so this battle cannot be fought! To pacify Sichuan, it is necessary to build a naval army in Wuchang. As long as the navy in the court is stronger than the thief in western Sichuan, even Hanzhong is useless in the hands of Deng Ming; and if there is no navy, even if we occupy Xuzhou, we will be driven back by him." The envoy's question made Li Guoying shake his head.

After this conversation, the envoy returned to Beijing. In September, Beijing reiterated that Chongqing must ensure that, and the court is willing to send more reinforcements to Chongqing after resolving the Shandong rebellion. The edict repeatedly encouraged Li Guoying to continue his efforts and use Chongqing to consume Deng Ming's troops to find a fighter jet to give him the final fatal blow.

After seeing this edict, Li Guoying wrote a letter to go to Beijing to report the memorial. In early October, Beijing agreed to Li Guoying's request and asked him to arrange Chongqing's defense properly and then return to Beijing on a date.

A month ago, on October 5, Li Guoying hurriedly left Chongqing with the guards and went to Beijing to appeal to the Empress Dowager and the Ministers of the Administration in person, and handed over the specific matters here to Gao Mingzhan.

The troops stationed at Jintang Gate were Wang Mingde's troops. Several sentries at the city gate were bored to count the Ming army ships passing by the river. A melodious horn floated over from the city: "Damaged land - sell!"

Several western Sichuan merchants holding the "recycling waste" brand were wandering outside the Jintang Gate, constantly recruiting business. The Chongqing defenders had long received orders that no one was allowed to provoke these vendors. After Li Guoying left, these vendors were unscrupulous and kept turning their business in front of Chongqing's city gate.

A green camp soldier walked up to the vendor, hollowed out a cloth pocket, poured out a few pokes, a trigger that was obviously removed from the musket, and a lead bullet on the ground, and even a pair of cowhide boots that should belong to the officer. They looked 80% new. These things obviously would not be the private property of a soldier, and he was also wearing the military uniform of the green camp, so it was even more impossible for him to have parts of the musket.

"Five kilograms of scrap iron, two kilograms of scrap lead, and two ragged leather boots." However, the vendor who collected the rag ignored it, and his voice seemed to be singing: "Does this brother want Shunzhi Tongbao or IOU?"

"IOU." Now the defenders of Chongqing also know that when buying tobacco and wine, or clothes and cloth shoes from merchants in western Sichuan, this IOU is better than copper coins.

After doing a few business operations, another green camp soldier sneaked up next to the vendor and hinted that the vendor would go with him.

"One broken saddle, ten kilograms of iron." I have seen this scene many times. Two vendors stood up and asked the green camp soldier to lead the way. One of them completed another transaction before leaving. Anyway, they would not bring money on them, nor would they go too far, and safety was still guaranteed. Besides, these vendors in western Sichuan have also undergone military training, and several of them are veterans.

After following the Green Camp soldier to a hill, he saw a few big men there, and the one who came to sell pokes and lead bullets just now was also among them. He came with those things just to throw stones and ask for directions. There was something covered with cloth at the feet of these Green Camp soldiers. After the vendors in western Sichuan approached, the leading Green Camp soldier jumped over and lifted up the cloth suddenly, revealing something with a metallic luster below.

"How is it? Is it a good thing?" The man's face was full of smug smile, and pointed at the tiger's squat cannon and asked, "How much is this guy worth?"

"Scrap copper--you will know if you have to weigh it."

"This is a cannon! It is a cannon!" The Green Camp soldiers screamed in a hurry. In order to steal this thing, the people present took great risks. There was a leather pocket next to the cannon. The Green Camp soldiers hurriedly opened it and showed the things inside to the vendors: "There are also oil pots, cannonballs, and a full set of them."

The scraps in the abandoned houses in Chongqing were basically plundered and sold by the generals. The soldiers of the Green Camp could only pick up some residues. It was fine before that the Ming army vendors did not come to the door. Since the vendors came to the door, the Green Camp soldiers bought various condiments and luxury goods from them. Not to mention anything else, Sichuan salt alone is stronger than the coarse salt mixed with sand and soil rationed by the Green Camp. In recent days, when Sichuan merchants passed by, they even put on good things such as dried fish, bacon, and salted duck eggs that make people drool. Many of these delicious foods in Chongqing Green Camp soldiers could not see during the Chinese New Year, but their military pay was not enough and they could not buy them.

Yesterday, the chief told the chat that Sichuan Shangyun came a dried yak called "Zhang Fei Beef" with a delicious chili pepper. These green camp soldiers were so itchy that they discussed these delicious food and couldn't sleep at night. Finally, everyone was determined and went to steal things from the Han Eight Banners.

After the accomplice just now, they observed for a long time to confirm that these Ming army vendors did not inform, and then they mustered up the courage to sell the cannon.
Chapter completed!
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