Zhou Peigong returned from Nanjing in only three days, and most of the terms of the contract had already been agreed upon, the most important military aspects: under the premise of absolute secrecy of the contract, the Ming army abandoned Zhenjiang within ten days, and the Zhoushan army retreated to Chongming, and was not allowed to land without reason; The Sichuan army returned to Huguang as quickly as possible, and was not allowed to stay in Jiangnan under the pretext of staying. Correspondingly, Nanjing was responsible for assuring Beijing that it could face Chongming alone, and would not try to rebuild the sailors or make other moves that threatened Chongming.

However, in addition to the military contract, there were also commercial issues, and Zhou Peigong demanded that Wuchang's example be followed, and that the Nanjing side should be responsible for the formation of a trading house to sell stolen goods, rather than the Zhoushan army not blatantly entering the Jiangnan territory to trade. Even Zhou Peigong asked for this business group to be responsible, and the reason Zhou Peigong came up with was also very high-sounding, that is, the need for security and confidentiality.

Deng Ming was not worried about the price of goods, the biggest profit was brought by transportation, as long as the Ming army was responsible for most of the transportation, then the pricing could not be decided by Nanjing. In particular, the most profitable sea trade is something that Nanjing cannot interfere with, perhaps Nanjing knows that the profits of sea trade are very high, but in the end, the transaction price between Zhoushan Army and Yanping is still unknown to Nanjing, unless the Ming Army takes the initiative to reveal.

"These transactions are all accounted for in silver." Zhou Peigong saw that Deng Ming was silent, and added a clause that he thought was very important.

"It seems that Zhou Peigong found that the goods in Wuchang have suffered a loss." Deng Ming originally had no intention of using the IOU policy in Nanjing, at least now the time has not come, he did not immediately agree just now mainly because he was worried that Nanjing would suddenly cut off the supply of goods, and the credit of officials has always been bad, so Deng Ming also wanted to intervene in it, trying to support and cultivate an interest group whose wealth was closely related to the Ming army.

"Well, in silver." Deng Ming happily agreed to Zhou Peigong's request, but he immediately came up with a quid pro quo: "Since the governor of Jiangning does not plan to rebuild the sailor, then give me the shipbuilders, anyway, the sea will be banned soon, and it will not be possible to build some boats with so many shipbuilders now." ”

"Is Admiral Deng going to take them away and then build warships to fight us?" Zhou Peigong sneered: "How could the governor agree? ”

"I'm planning to build some ships in Sichuan, if there are not enough ships, the goods can't be transported, and in addition, if you want to ship goods overseas, you also need a lot of ships." Deng Ming patiently explained to Zhou Peigong: "The sea trade is a million profits, and the price of Jiangnan silk sold to Wuchang will increase by three or four percent at most, and the sale to the king of Yanping County can at least double or two, and the porcelain may be even higher." ”

"Twice as much?" Zhou Peigong was a little strange why Deng Ming wanted to tell him this price, but he couldn't help but sigh: "It's really a big profit, Yanping must have to make some money there." ”

"I don't know how much Yanping can earn, but if it weren't for these ships, I wouldn't be able to feed many troops with 100,000 people close to Sichuan." After Zhou Peigong left last time, Deng Ming spent a full night trying to figure out Zhou Peigong's psychology, thinking that he had grasped some of the other party's pulse: "If I have more troops, the position of Zhou Bu's political envoy will become more and more stable, right?" ”

"I am a loyal minister of the imperial court, and Governor Deng Hugh should underestimate people." Zhou Peigong said coldly, and then changed the conversation: "But if I help the Admiral build more merchant ships, how does the Admiral plan to repay me?" The official position cannot be counted, it is the grace given by the imperial court. ”

"How about we set up a joint firm? No, it should be called a merchant group. Deng Ming came up with his plan, which is a plan different from the Wuchang model, this merchant group buys goods from the Qing court-controlled zhì district, which is covered by the yamen, the governor of Liangjiang, and sold to Zheng Chenggong after being transported to Chongming Island, and the difference in the middle is the profit of the merchant group: "The money earned is three or seven, you are three and I are seven, how about it?" ”

Zhou Peigong laughed twice: "Does the Admiral want to bargain to four or six?" Let's open a three-seven first, and wait for me to say that it's good to bargain at five or five. ”

"Political envoy Zhou Bu knows my heart." Deng Ming also smiled: "Then five-five, has this matter been decided?" ”

"But how do I know how much money the Admiral makes?" Zhou Peigong asked rhetorically.

"This is easy, can Zhou Bu's political envoy send a few account offices to do business in partnership, and still make the audit fail?" Deng Ming said generously.

"Okay, that's it." Zhou Peigong was very satisfied with this agreement, everyone knew that the profits of Haimao were huge, but if there was no channel, he could only stare dryly, so that he would directly take half of the profits of the Ming army, which was not only higher than his original plan, but also not afraid that Deng Ming would give himself a similar IOU for exchange. With such a large amount of silver, not only did he have the funds needed to buy insiders, but he could also let the Yamen of the Governor of Liangjiang get some oil and water.

The Ming army gave up some of its interests, but since Chongming allowed the accounts of the governor of Liangjiang to manage the accounts together, then the account book of their purchase can also be seen by the Ming army as a matter of course, so that Chongming will not be blind to the source of goods and shippers

It's also much more convenient to be private.

"The shipbuilder."

"It's all on me." Zhou Peigong had already thought of his argument with Jiang Guozhu, the imperial court was about to ban the sea, the shipyard was disbanded, except for leaving some shipbuilders needed for the boats, the rest were obviously dismissed to farm, and there was no loss to Deng Ming; Regarding Jiang Guozhu's possible uneasiness, Zhou Peigong intends to explain from two aspects, on the one hand, it is tactical: Deng Ming was unable to occupy Jiangnan because he was short of troops, not because there were few ships, and it was Li Guoying who was unlucky first when there were many ships; On the other hand, it was strategic: Zhou Peigong planned to point out to Jiang Guozhu that Deng Ming was different from Zheng Chenggong, that he went to the south of the Yangtze River to make money and not to expand his territory, that Deng Ming's ships would make more money, and that the tiger would not hurt people when it was full -- judging from Deng Ming's good fortune table, if an agreement was really reached, Deng Ming's chances of fighting with the two rivers would be very slim if he did not cooperate well to make money. Maybe in another ten years, if Deng Ming was not only not exterminated by the imperial court at that time, but defeated Li Guoying, and wanted to go out of Sichuan to expand his territory, then Huguang would bear the brunt of it, and Jiang Guozhu might have left Nanjing long ago. The top priority now is to feed Deng Laohu, so that he does not stay in Jiangnan, and Nanjing can also get a large sum of silver.

After reaching an agreement with Zhou Peigong, Deng Ming felt that he did not need to stay in Jiangnan for a long time: "It will take some time for Huangwu's sea ban to be launched, as long as the Chongming passage is improved during this period, the Qing court's destruction of coastal maritime merchants will not pose a fatal blow to the Fujian army, Zheng Chenggong can continue to put pressure on the coast, and Zhoushan will not collapse due to lack of materials." The situation in the southeast can still be stabilized without a sharp deterioration. Well, as long as Li Dingguo can help recover the territory of Guizhou and Guangxi, the situation can be restored to the situation before the internal strife of the three kings, and the crisis of ruin will be freed. But Wu Sangui is really a hard bone, and there is also Li Guoying in Sichuan, what should I do? ”

……

In Beijing, after receiving the Zhang Dynasty's recital, Shunzhi was in a very bad mood, and a young Han official suddenly rose to the fore, not only mastering an army that seemed to be quite combative, but also won the appreciation of the local officials and people, which could not but make the imperial court feel threatened. After Jiang Guozhu's recital was also delivered, Shunzhi's mood became even worse, Zhou Peigong's popularity was higher than he imagined, and the army was a little scary.

The minister Du Jian yì Shunzhi agreed to Jiang Guozhu and Zhang Chao's request and gave Zhou Peigong a special honor, and Shunzhi also knew in his heart that this was the safest way. But if he agrees to the request of the minister of Liangjiang, then Zhou Peigong's reputation will undoubtedly be even higher, acting as the political envoy of Jiangnan, hanging the title of a political envoy of Jiangxi, and the official of the Wuchang prefect, this is simply a pillar of optimus, if Zhou Peigong defeats Deng Ming again, how should the imperial court reward him?

It is precisely because of this concern that Shunzhi has not made a reply to the Liangjiang concert. During this time, his favorite concubine Concubine Dong E was still seriously ill, which made Shunzhi feel even more troubled.

Today, when the courtiers went to court, they felt that the atmosphere in the palace was not right, Suo Etu, who served as the imperial guard, was on duty yesterday, and he found an opportunity to secretly report to his Lao Tzu, last night the little master of Concubine Dong E passed, and the emperor was furious and killed a few palace maids and eunuchs who served her.

"What? So the emperor is still in court today? Sony was taken aback: "Why doesn't the emperor keep courting?" ”

"Emperor Shengming, how could it be for ......"

"!" Sonny scolded his son in a low voice, took two quick steps, and walked into the hall with the other ministers, he observed his words and looks, and found that Ao Bai and the other ministers were also like him, with a stern expression and a sense of atmosphere, and they obviously got the news from their familiar attendants.

In the midst of the shouts of the ministers, Shunzhi walked up to the main hall and sat on his throne, the emperor's posture did not look much different from the past, but his face was a little pale.

"Deng Wei disturbed the south of the Yangtze River, threatened Cao Yun, and the local governor was ineffective in suppressing bandits, and waited and watched to raise thieves, so that the southeast was uneasy and the lives were ruined." After Shunzhi sat down, he said loudly: "I have made up my mind, and I will conquer Jiangnan in person." ”

The elite of the green battalion in Shandong and Henan and some of the Eight Banners of the forbidden brigade have already followed Dasu southward, and the successive battles in Jiangnan and Huguang have made the Qing court's finances a little tight this year, and it is difficult to mobilize a large army to follow Shunzhi in a hurry.

It stands to reason that the ministers should now rush to the top and convince Shunzhi to retract his fate. But all the ministers in the main hall, everyone knows that although Shunzhi looks calm now, it is actually a volcano that is about to erupt.

"The minions obey." Sonny took the lead in bowing, he pondered that the pro-conquest was not trivial, and there was still time to delay, and only after Shunzhi was in a better mood did he persuade him to take back his fate.

"The minions obey." Other Manchurian ministers also followed, even if they were as brave as worshipping, after seeing Shunzhi's murderous and red eyes, they were terrified and did not dare to offend Long Yan at this time.

"Obey." The Han ministers also sang along with each other, while kneeling deeply and bowing to the emperor on the throne.