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Chapter 57 Perception (Part 2)

When the Ming army fleet approached Chongqing, western Sichuan merchants who purchased waste products around Chongqing and sold tobacco and jerky were also standing on the bank of the river, waving their arms enthusiastically to the fleet, shouting to support their army.

"A touching scene, the law-abiding gentleman is the backbone of the country in the world." After seeing this scene, the British businessman commented again. Although the businessman who could communicate in Chinese was not his native language and was a little stiff, Deng Ming could already feel funny from it. If it were not for their proud explanation, Deng Ming would really find it difficult to connect the pirates who killed people without blinking, the sinful slave traders, and the kidnappers of their own fishermen to these two British gentlemen.

In addition to these scholars from western Sichuan, there are also a large number of Chongqing Qing soldiers welcoming the Ming army's fleet on the shore. Song Liang is also one of them. The above told him that he must leave a good impression on Deng Ming who was passing by, because everyone could see that Deng Ming was anxious this time. If he was embarrassed by Deng Ming's bad luck at this time, he would definitely be impatient.

Therefore, Gao Mingzhan and others asked a large number of Qing troops to welcome the Duke of Ming Baoguo to Chongqing on the bank of the Jialing River. When he left happily, he would send him to Wuchang with singing and dancing. Now Chongqing only has the army but no people, so there is no civil service system for handling local government affairs. Li Guoying returned to Beijing to report his work. Gao Mingzhan, as the governor of Sichuan who supervises military generals, organized a welcome party. The farewell party was unscrupulous.

The only possible thing that can balance Gao Mingzhan is the Eight Banners, Sun Sike, Yuan Jiawenbi and others. But now everyone is a grasshopper tied to a rope. Not only does they do jade trading together, but no one can survive if Chongqing city is broken. Therefore, the Eight Banners and Sun Sike will not stop Gao Mingzhan, but they just follow him to give advice to please Deng Ming.

When the Ming army fleet sailed past Chongqing City, Deng Ming saw a colorful banner from afar, including the Shaanxi Green Camp and the Shanxi Green Camp, as well as the Eight Banners, the Han Eight Banners, and the Niu Lu, who were all here. Gao Mingzhan posed a big banner in the crowd of these people:

"Gao Mingzhan, the governor of Sichuan in the Qing Dynasty, wishes the Ming Baoguo Duke to be invincible and return victoriously."

There are countless banners similar to greetings behind, with official titles such as "Qing Sichuan General", "Qingfeng Camp Commander", and "Han Eight Banner Deputy Chief".

"Stop for a while, I'll go and talk to them." Deng Ming ordered the boat to stop and wait.

After the flagship was leaning on the shore, Gao Mingzhan and others came to board the ship to pay homage to Duke Baoguo of the Ming Dynasty.

Deng Ming first expressed his appreciation for their enthusiastic purchase of Ming Dynasty war bonds.

"A distant relative is worse than a close neighbor." Gao Mingzhan did not dare to take credit, and nodded and said, "The Duke is a little tight, why dare not help? In the past six months, have we been taking care of the Duke?"

Deng Ming was very satisfied with this statement and kindly asked the Industrial Bank how he was when selling bonds and whether there was any forced buying and selling. After hearing this question, Yuan Jiawenbi was excited and wanted to come forward to call for justice, but was kicked to the ground by the quick-eyed Sun Sike.

"What's wrong?" Deng Ming glanced at the sound of the movement.

"I rarely get on the boat normally, and I am not used to it. I swayed on the water and didn't stand firm." Sun Sike bared his teeth and smiled desperately at Deng Ming, and the corners of his mouth were almost cracked to the root of his ears.

"What is the Duke?" Gao Mingzhan immediately attracted Deng Ming's attention. He patted his chest to ensure that the Qing army in Chongqing was willing to purchase the Ming Dynasty's war bonds, and it was completely out of sincere gratitude.

The commander of the Eight Banners stationed in the Eight Banners made even louder words: "In fact, we still have about 100,000 taels of silver in our hands. I just regret that the Duke had too few bonds, otherwise we would really want to buy more."

Originally, everyone listened with a smile, but as soon as the Manchu Taijun said this, many people's smiles froze on their faces, and even Gao Mingzhan's face turned pale.

"Oh?" Deng Ming smiled, his eyes slowly swept across the faces of these people.

Deng Ming's eyes were everywhere, and everyone grinned and flattered to Baoguo Duke. Gao Mingzhan also tried his best to hide his anxiety and said loudly: "That's right, the officials still have 100,000 taels of silver. If the Duke still has a public debt, we still have to buy it - lending money to the Duke, which not only helps the Duke, but also earns interest. Isn't this the win-win situation advocated by the Duke?"

"Thank you, thank you." Deng Ming bowed to them: "But you can't leave some money without leaving any money, otherwise the jade business will be troublesome."

The meeting ended here. Deng Ming asked them to have a meal on the boat, and asked the Ming soldiers who had been on the boat for a few days to walk on the shore in batches for a while, and waited for Deng Ming to send the guests back to the city before boarding the boat to continue the journey.

"Brothers of the Sichuan Army, come and have a bowl of noodles?"

Around Song Liang, many Qing troops in Chongqing set up their small stalls again, wanting to do some small business.

Several big men played tricks to relieve the boredom of the Ming soldiers who were on the shore for a break. After acclaimed cheers with their superb acrobatics, the Qing soldiers bowed to the Ming soldiers with their fists and saluted: "Brothers, if you have money, you can support your money, and if you have someone, you can support your personal ones."

Seeing that someone in the Ming army soldier took out an IOU, Song Liang felt aroused, took off his shirt, revealing the beauty on his body. As he danced his arms, the tattooed beast seemed to have come alive, which caused a burst of shouts.

Although they were veteran soldiers, half of the military pay paid to Song Liang by the superiors was paid by Sichuan war public debts. Moreover, the superior said that he would handle it in the future, and he had to wait until Deng Ming returned to redeem the bonds to redeem the bonds before he could resume the payment of silver. At that time, the bonds in the soldiers could also be cashed in. Looking at the bonds in his hands, Song Liang and others could only hope that Deng Ming would make a fortune and then come back to redeem his bonds. However, this was not all bad. At least when the bonds were paid, the chief did not deduct it like the silver, even the auxiliary soldiers received one of theirs. In the past, the auxiliary soldiers had almost lost 70% off the military pay paid, but this time, from generals to officers, they were not very interested in bonds, so they were basically given in full. That is, the difference between half of the silver, half of the bonds, and 20% of the auxiliary soldiers, and 80% of the bonds.

"We must win."

"Whoever refuses to accept it will beat him hard, and if you don't pay the money, you will burn his house!"

After the Ming army had finished resting and boarded the ship and was about to set off, the Qing army in Chongqing still waved hard on the shore reluctantly.

With the ardent hope of the Qing army, the Ming army returned to the ship safely, and Deng Ming also sent a small boat to send the distinguished guests back to the shore.

After watching the Ming fleet sailing towards Tongluo Gorge, Sun Sike had time to blame Yuan Jiawenbi: "What is 'forcing selling forcing selling forcing'? Of course there is absolutely nothing. Why can Yu Youming, that bastard, forcefully sell us bonds? It's not because Admiral Deng said he would not buy it and beat us! He asked casually, and we just followed him and said casually, and we could show loyalty, so as to avoid being beaten and collect debts in the future. If you tell the truth, will Admiral Deng pay back the money immediately? It makes him unhappy in vain."

"That's right, our lives and money are all in our hands," Gao Mingzhan glared at Yuan Jiawenbi in dissatisfaction: "Fortunately, it's a big thanks to Sun Dutong's rapid response."

"But what you said just now was scaring us," Gao Mingzhan turned around and bent down to the Manchu Taijun and said, "You said you still have 100,000 taels of silver. If Admiral Deng went down the donkey..."

Seeing the mysterious smile on the face of the Manchu Taijun, Gao Mingzhan paused and suddenly changed into a surprised and joyful tone. He seemed to have just realized: "Is it... not bad, not bad... Admiral Deng has always had room for work, and we only have 30% of the money left, so he will not force us to go to the forefront; and he also let Admiral Deng know that we really have no money."

"Gao, Gao Ming, really high!" Gao Mingzhan took a thumbs up and praised the Manchu Taijun, looking convinced: "Too high!"

...

Because the situation was urgent, Deng Ming stayed in Fengjie for less than an hour. After visiting Wen Anzhi, he immediately left Fengjie, and Wen Anzhi did not try to keep him. Gong Yan was sitting in Wen Anzhi's yamen, and it seemed that the two were having a good conversation. When Deng Ming left, Gong Yan also smiled and nodded repeatedly to show encouragement.

After entering Hubei, Deng Ming had no time to visit the generals of Kuidong along the way, but he just asked the envoy to send his greetings to the people of Kuidong and told them that if they were interested in sending troops together, they could take the other fleets that came one after another.

After constantly crossing Jingmen, Deng Ming entered Zhang Changgen's sphere of influence. In front of him was Yuezhou, an important city in Hubei. In the past, Deng Ming would notify Zhang Changgen and the governor of Yuezhou in advance every time he passed, and then arrived in a hurry at the agreed time, so as not to cause misunderstandings from the other party and lead to something unpleasant.

But this time Deng Ming had no time to wait for the messengers to come and go slowly. He only sent an envoy to ride a fast horse to notify the governor of Yuezhou when he was approaching Yuezhou.

"Have you bought our bonds in Yuezhou?" Deng Ming asked.

"It must have been bought." The left and right answered. They felt that if the Yuezhou prefect rejected the bond seller's request, the front line would have sent someone back to report and asked Deng Ming to prepare for the offensive.

"I think so too." Deng Ming's opinion was similar, but he didn't have time to slowly verify it, so he let the army prepare for combat. When his fleet arrived in front of Yuezhou City, the envoys sent just now were almost time to return. At that time, Deng Ming would be able to understand Yuezhou's true attitude.

As they got closer and closer to Yuezhou, Deng Ming saw many people gathering on the shore, as if they were still holding many flags.

"What do you think?" Deng Ming couldn't believe what he saw.

"It seems to be a lion dance team." The three walls and Rangers around him were watching carefully while expressing their views.

When Deng Ming's flagship first came to Yuezhou City, with the order from the Yuezhou prefect, there were gongs and drums on the shore. The soldiers from the Green Camp and the artists who were urgently recruited danced dragons and lions on the shore, and set off firecrackers desperately, just like the New Year.

As Deng Ming expected, Huguang received news of Zheng Chenggong's death before Sichuan. However, before the Yuezhou prefect could figure out how much impact this would have on the southeast situation, the murderous West Sichuan Commercial Bank sent people to Yuezhou. In the past, both these private banks and the bosses of the commercial banks were all kind and were very polite to the Yuezhou prefect's office.

But the situation was completely different this time. The man who claimed to be Sichuan Minsheng Bank carried a box directly into the prefect's court, revealing the 20 million yuan Ming War public debt contained inside. He ordered the prefect to immediately take out 250,000 taels of silver to buy it, and only a one-hour reply was limited to one hour. Seeing that the Sichuan people were already red from their eyes, the prefect of Yuezhou was unwilling to seek death. While reporting to Zhang Changgeng, he mobilized the gentry in the city to take out the silver as much as possible.

As the prefect expected, there were batches of Sichuan people coming from behind. After entering the city, they had to pay the money without saying a word. Several Sichuan people were impatient, and they shouted loudly and spoke harshly, trying to summon the western Sichuan army behind to attack. When they saw the prefect carry out a large box of war bonds, they muttered reluctantly and left.

Seeing that the Sichuan people completely slapped their faces and changed their gentle faces before, the prefect secretly thanked that he had made the right decision at the beginning, and was preparing to welcome Deng Ming's army, Yuezhou, located at the junction of the Ming and Qing dynasties. The prefect was of course Zhang Changgeng's confidant. Not only did he know the strength of both sides, he also knew the thoughts of the benefactor very well, and knew that Huguang would never go to fight Deng Ming, who was anxious.

Today, the envoy sent by Deng Ming was even more abnormal and did not give Yuezhou any time to prepare. He told Yuezhou magistrate that the Sichuan Army had approached and did not make any hostile moves if he knew the situation. Otherwise, the Sichuan Army would not blame him for turning against others. The envoy's cold face made the Yuezhou magistrate even more frightened. He hurriedly ordered the welcome team that had been prepared long ago to welcome the Ming Baogong by the river.

Next to the flying team of dragons and snakes, the governor of Yuezhou led a group of confidant officials. The clerk stood on a high platform, with large boxes filled with war bonds in front of him. Each of the officials of Yuezhou held a bundle of bonds in his hands, and raised his arms and danced rhythmically towards the Ming army's flagship.

While waving their arms neatly, everyone shouted in unison under the command of the prefect of Yuezhou, the Qing Dynasty, and sent their sincere blessings to Deng Ming:

"Breaking the flag and winning!"

"Breaking the flag and winning!"

"Breaking the flag and winning!"

...
Chapter completed!
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