Wu Zheng hurriedly waved his hand and denied, "No, no. I mean, Duke Xingguo misunderstood."

"Misunderstood?"

"First of all, before the war, I did not expect Fang Guoan to turn against him. The purpose of my two troops coming was not just to reinforce Shaoxing Prefecture, but to hold Duoduo down to relieve the pressure on the Jiangxi battlefield. Of course, this is secondary, and the main thing is to evacuate the Shaoxing Prefecture and the dangerous place. In fact, on this point, my ideas with King Lu are consistent."

"In addition, Fang Guoan's army was disbanded, not because his soldiers were low in combat power, but because they failed to make the opportunity before the war. Without boosting the morale of the army and careful deployment, they suddenly rebelled and the generals and soldiers could not reach a consensus. The most important thing is that Fang Guoan exposed the surrender to the enemy too early. If he would meet with Duoduo and the matter of changing flags and surrendering to the enemy was kept secret until after the war, the soldiers would probably be confused and would not disperse in a hurry. When the army entered Shaoxing Prefecture, then everything was decided by Fang Guoan."

Wang Zhiren nodded slightly and expressed his approval.

"In the end, the dethronement of the state supervision was not the temporary intention of Wu Zheng. I have been conspiring with the ministers in the court for a long time. It's just that the important officials such as Lord Qian have always wanted to give the King of Lu a chance. Besides, the abolition of the state supervision is not abolishing the King of Lu, nor is it considered a rebellion. The state supervision is originally a support from the ministers, and the dethronement is not a great rebellion, right?"

"As for the Hangzhou war mentioned by Duke Xingguo, I would like to explain a few words. In Wu Zheng's opinion, Duke Xingguo was not arrogant. My idea at that time was not to defend Hangzhou City. Duke Xingguo should also be clear that he could not defend it at all. My idea at that time was to hold Duoduo's army as much as possible in Hangzhou. If Duoduo allowed Duoduo to easily occupy Hangzhou City, then his 60,000 troops would be divided into troops to advance west and reinforce Jiangxi. In this way, Jiangxi was just around the corner, and Shaoxing Prefecture would soon be trapped in the west, south and north of the Qing army."

"In addition, there is another reason why Duoduo did not divide his troops to attack at the same time. It was because when I and my nephew Wang Yilin were in the He Family, the mechanism that I had no intention of building was severely damaged by Duoduo, which made him have a sense of obsession with complete victory, defeat, and humiliation. As for the later counterattack, in fact, the news that Qian Sudian occupied Jiaxing Prefecture came, and Duoduo's fighting spirit was already chaotic. He could have thought that even if the city wall was captured by him, he would not be able to quickly deploy the city defense. The counterattack of the tens of thousands of Ming troops coming from behind would cause the battlefield to move from the city wall to the street fighting, which was not what the Qing army was good at. So, what I want to say is that even without the news of the revival of Jiaxing Prefecture, our army's victory was for sure at that time. Perhaps as Xingguo Duke said, there would be a large casualty, but it would not be as big as the one who severely damaged our army."

Wang Zhiren looked at Wu Zheng silently, and after a long time, he said, "Then let's talk about official business."

Wu Zheng smiled softly, "Wu Zheng is generally clear about the purpose of Duke Xingguo coming. It is better for Duke Xingguo to talk about the demands of the Navy."

Wang Zhiren said: "Lin'an Bo has a population of 100,000 people now?"

"No. Perhaps Duke Xingguo didn't know that 60,000 surrendered troops under Fang Guoan had been reorganized into Zhili of the imperial court, with a total of more than 15,000 people."

"Oh?" Wang Zhiren really didn't know. He hadn't heard the news yet, which made him a little confused. The young man in front of him looked not stupid. Although there were more troops in this troubled time, the more he had the right to speak, there was a limit on everything.

For example, if you control an army that is not consistent with your strength and is not commensurate with your identity, it is equivalent to putting yourself at the forefront. Not to mention attracting people to hold grudges, just say you should raise soldiers. Can you afford it?

Rely on the spot to plunder?

That is equivalent to falling into a vicious cycle. The less money you have, the more you plunder it. The more you plunder it, the more you attract people, the more you get hatred. The more you attract people, the less you can raise money, and then one day you are overthrown by the crowd.

"Even so, there are still more than 10,000 surrendered troops. I wonder how Lin'anbo arranged these people?"

Wu Zheng heard that Wang Zhiren wanted soldiers.

"I want to hear what Duke Xingguo means?"

"Then I'm not polite?"

"Duke Xingguo said it's okay."

"70%."

"Have you passed by Xingguo Duke?"

"No, you already have 60,000 or 70,000 people in Hangzhou Prefecture. I'm afraid you won't be able to chew too much. I'm doing this for your own good."

"40%."

"Sixty percent."

"Fifty percent."

"Okay. Just one word is certain." Wang Zhiren made a decisive decision.

Wu Zheng sighed, this is not a military and state affairs, but a whole vegetable market is bargaining.

Wang Zhiren said: "I have something unknown, so please give me advice from Lin'anbo. How do you raise soldiers?"

Wu Zheng carefully said: "The population of Hangzhou and Jiaxing is 3 million. I have only 70,000 people in my hands now. It is not difficult to support 70,000 soldiers with 3 million, right?"

Wang Zhiren raised his eyebrows, and he could hear it. Wu Zheng was saying this to him.

It means that Wu Zheng has more than 70,000 people, and his military pay is self-sufficient. Even if you have just blackmailed a few thousand people, it is only 30,000 people. The military pay is even more self-sufficient.

Wang Zhiren naturally refused, "This Duke Dinghai is not as good as Lin'an Bo's occupation of the two palaces. This military pay must be allocated to the court. What does Lin'an Bo think?"

Wu Zheng knew that this matter could not be avoided, and the court was not his court, so Wu Zheng was also familiar with the lament of others. Of course, the premise was not to be too much. Wu Zheng did not want to put the newly formed new court into a financial crisis due to Wang Zhiren's blackmail.

"Thirty thousand people, the court can provide Duke Xingguo with 100,000 shi of grain and 100,000 taels of military pay per year. I wonder what Xingguo's intention is to do?"

The price of grain here is one or two stone, which means 200,000 taels a year, and it is divided into each soldier, which means nearly seven taels a year. There should be no problem in supporting him. After all, Wang Zhiren occupied Dinghai and had a population of 200,000 or 300,000.

"Can you count your words?" Wang Zhiren asked lightly, neither happy nor sad.

Wu Zheng grinned and asked, "If I can't count what I say, will the Xingguo Guild waste so long with Wu Zheng?"

Wang Zhiren slapped the table and said, "Well, then as you said."

Wu Zheng shook his head and said, "But I still haven't finished speaking."

"Oh?" Wang Zhiren's muscles trembled slightly. He guessed what Wu Zheng wanted to say, "Lin'an Bo must think it through before he can say it."

This is a threat, but where did Wu Zheng take this trick?

Even Fang Guoan was defeated, but he was still afraid of Wang Zhiren?

If you can make concessions like this, you don’t want to cause internal conspiracy. Instead, it will be a disadvantage for the Tartars. After all, Wang Zhiren’s troops are also Ming troops, and they are stationed in Dinghai, which is of great importance.

Besides, Wu Zheng was also grateful to Wang Zhiren for sending Wang Yilin to help him, otherwise Wu Zheng would not be interested in bargaining with Wang Zhiren for Zhang Guowei, Qian Sule and others?

This is a thankless errand.
Chapter completed!