Although it was during the war, a large number of luxury goods in western Sichuan still flowed into the north through Chongqing. Needless to say, ivory has always been a treasure, and now even jade has replaced the original status of jade. In addition to the high hardness and beautiful colors, the main reason is that jade has a stable source of goods. The growing jewelry business has made Beijing believe that Sichuan is indeed full of gold, and winning Chengdu will definitely make up for the court's fiscal expenditure.

In recent years, Deng Ming has moved millions of people to Sichuan. In theory, western Sichuan has become denser again, which can give the Qing army the opportunity to requisition food and manpower along the way. The ministers of the regent did not have the accurate figure of the population of Xichuan. They estimated that Xichuan should now have three million strong men and strong women who are similar to this number, and this is probably obtained based on the memorial of the governor of the South.

When Deng Ming first arrived at the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the governors and governors tried their best to shirk responsibility, saying that they tried their best to make the court believe that Deng Ming lost money at their doorstep. However, the governors and governors tried their best to exaggerate Deng Ming's gains from them, of course, the purpose was to further shirk their responsibilities, indicating that the huge bandits were caused by their neighbors; and later the emperor died in Gaoyou Lake, admitting that the small setbacks of officers and soldiers did not seem to be a serious crime. The governors and governors in the southeast began to report that Deng Ming had plundered some of their population from them, and at the same time, they spread rumors and exaggerated the losses of their neighbors as usual to prove that the population they had been plundered was really insignificant.

At that time, the ministers of the regent often added some of the losses reported to the provinces and corrected them. Now the situation has changed again, and local officials seem to have a tendency to exaggerate the losses. Because they found that overreporting losses can be corruption of taxes with confidence, they often robbed some places, and once they robbed them, hundreds of thousands of strong men from a certain prefecture and county were swept away all the hundreds of thousands of strong men in the Qing Dynasty. Now the Qing court's requirements are very low. If this kind of memorial was sent five years ago, it would definitely be beheaded. Now as long as the county town is not lost, the court will encourage them. Therefore, whenever the regent ministers see such reports, they are no longer increasing the number of people who have lost them, but trying to squeeze out the water inside. It is strictly forbidden to" Deng Ming to plunder the population so rampantly. They should have paid the tuition to the court.

Sony has not made a clear opinion today. He is also very clear that as long as Deng Ming's arrogance cannot be dispelled, the local government's awe of the central government for the Beijing Central will continue to decline, and similar lip service violations will become more and more unscrupulous. If it were five years ago, who would dare to ask the Fujian army to help the grain transportation? But now the governors in the southeast have this courage, and the north has the praise, which is the former firm suppression faction Zu Zepu; and the court is indeed not good for taking decisive measures against these fences when Deng Ming's threat is so huge.

After hearing Oboi's words, Sony just said "hmm".

"Our army is still many times stronger than Deng Ming. We can concentrate the troops of the five provinces and the financial resources of the seven provinces. Even if we cannot completely defeat Deng Ming, we can force him to agree to negotiate peace with the court." This suspicion of the future of the Qing court also spread to the top leaders of the Qing court. Suksaha, who insisted on launching an attack, even believed that as long as Deng Ming could be forced to agree to peace or show sincerity in negotiations: "As long as Deng Ming negotiates peace with us, we can regain authority and make the people in the southeast dare not be fooled by the court again."

"Even if Deng Ming negotiates peace with us, we cannot deal with the governors and governors of various provinces immediately." Oboi hurriedly corrected: "At least, we have to wait until the emperor grows up and takes power. Deng Ming will also enter the warehouse with his sword and release his horse to the south mountain. If he hastily forced the Southeast to rebel, Deng Ming might tear the contract..."

"Okay, that's still nothing." Sony interrupted Oboi's words. That was something that needed to be considered in the future. Deng Ming and the Qing court have not yet negotiated. After Nalan Mingzhu and Deng Ming had two communications last time, the Qing court found that the conditions between Deng Ming and his own were too big, especially Deng Ming asked Huguang, Liangjiang, Shandong, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi Governors to send protons to Sichuan. This condition made Beijing realize that Chengdu believes that the Ming and Qing dynasties had reached a strategic balance, so Deng Ming demanded that the Yangtze River and the south be subject to a dual rule, rather than belonging to the Qing court.

However, the Qing court did not think that the situation was so bad, and that dual rule would definitely not be able to pass the level within the Eight Banners. Although most people within the Qing Dynasty admitted that the war could not be resolved in the short term and were unwilling to continue to let the Manchus die in battle, they still occupy most of China's territory and cannot accept the return of an equal position with the Ming army overnight.

"Okay, I agree to attack Sichuan." Sony finally nodded. Since he couldn't come up with a better way to deal with the current crisis and could not accept Deng Ming's negotiation conditions, he could only take another military adventure: "But I think there is one problem we have to agree in advance, that is, whether Chengdu should be taken down."

From Tianjin, the Caoyin was being transported ashore one after another. Until now, the agreement between the two sides has been implemented very smoothly. Although the governors of Jiangnan said that Mu Tan was taking the lead, both the Empress Dowager and the Minister of the Regent, they all believed that Deng Ming had acquiesced to this matter. From this point of view, Deng Ming also intended to stop the war with the Qing court. I heard that Chengdu has not annexed the nearby Kuidong and Jianchang until now, let alone the powerful Kunming Li Dingguo Group, or the far-far Zhang Huangyan Group. The Ministers of the Regents judged others by their own hearts, and felt that Deng Ming was limited in power after all, and he might also need to quickly negotiate peace with the Qing court, cease war, and concentrate on the efforts to pacify many mountains within the Ming army. If the internal cannot be unified, what's the point of conquering the world? Who dares to say that it was not a wedding dress for others?

Oboi and Sukhasa looked at each other. This time, the Qing court was led by the prince, and they took out a lot of funds and mobilized a large number of troops to attack Sichuan. They felt that even if they could not annihilate Deng Ming's main force, there was no problem in taking Chengdu. Of course, taking Chengdu would not mean that the problem would be completely solved. Sony believed that only by taking Chengdu and completely annihilated Deng Ming's main force could it be done once and for all, and it was just a possibility.

"If Deng Ming took advantage of his navy and flew to the Han River Basin, or simply gave up the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and went straight to the lower reaches, and then started a rush in Shandong and Zhejiang, he would still be upside down." Oboi pondered for a moment, thinking that Sony's concerns were very reasonable. The Qing court would be greatly damaged in order to pursue Deng Ming, and had to rely more and more on local Han armed forces. This can be seen from the rise of Zhou Peigong in recent years. The Qing court had not had the idea of ​​changing the Southeast Governor for several years. Zhang Changgeng and his team were all expanding rapidly. If Deng Ming was disturbed again, they would have been disturbed by Zhang Changgeng.

Like the last ten years, the Qing court might have completely destroyed him, but the court would have exhausted all its power, including prestige, control, Manchus' lives and treasury reserves; and at that time, many places probably had already been vassal states, and the governors became vassal kings who were in power like Wu Sangui. If this really happened, then what was the Qing court fighting with Deng Ming forever? Is it to make wedding dresses for Wu Sangui or someone else? Yes, Deng Ming killed the emperor, but he could not use the entire Qing Dynasty to bury the late emperor. The Empress Dowager, the Emperor and all the Manchu compatriots would not agree.

"If Deng Ming was willing to negotiate peace with the court and promised not to move eastward along the Yangtze River, we could not steal his Chengdu." Suksaha also agreed. Sony meant to try to use Chengdu as a hostage and sign a city alliance with Deng Ming that was beneficial to the Qing Dynasty: "If Deng Ming loses Chengdu, his prestige will be greatly hit, and he may no longer be able to suppress Li Dingguo and Li Laiheng."

"Not bad." Sony was satisfied with seeing the other two regents and he reached an agreement on this issue: "Even if Deng Ming is stubborn, as long as he can repent after we capture Chengdu, we still have to negotiate with him. So far, Deng Ming is the only person who seriously considers peace talks. As long as he has a part of the army, as long as he is willing to negotiate peace talks, we can still return Chengdu to him. If Deng Ming publicly declares usurping the throne and sends troops to attack Li Dingguo, we can also ask Wu Sangui to support him."

Wu Sangui has become a heart-wrenching problem in Beijing recently. Over the past few months, Wu Sangui has been sending secret letters to Beijing, saying that Zhang Changgeng seems to be suspected of betraying the court.

At first, Beijing did not take this matter too seriously, because they knew that Wu Sangui and Zhang Changgeng had always had a stalemate due to the issue of joint salary. The joint salary that Wu Sangui received from Zhang Changgeng was probably less than 10% of the total amount he asked for. Because Wu Sangui kept threatening Zhang Changgeng with force, Zhang Changgeng barely provided him with some in order to avoid the King of Pingxi launching a civil war in the Qing army.

However, the secret report sent by Wu Sangui recently said that he had pretended to have tried to test the exiled court of Yongli. As a result, he found that the Southern Ming court did not agree to his attack on Hunan and redeem himself. Except for Deng Ming, Li Dingguo and Zhang Changgeng had already colluded with each other, there was no other explanation. Wu Sangui's test of the Ming court was chaired by Prime Minister Xia. He wrote all the stories in detail into a report to Beijing. The Ming court's reply to Wu Sangui - Wu Sangui said that he had long suspected that Zhang Changgeng would not give him enough military salary because he had colluded with the Ming court, so Wu Sangui asked the court to agree to him attack Huguang and kill Zhang Changgeng, the thief.
Chapter completed!