People under the eaves have to bow their heads.
Aixinjueluo Yongqi, who understood the situation clearly, did not take Zhang Rui's words again. After all, they were not really in peace talks, and he was just a prisoner at this time.
"Since you said you want to negotiate with us, please show your sincerity. According to your statement, I think you don't have the sincerity to negotiate with us." Aixinjueluo Yongqi said.
"Letting you go back is my greatest sincerity to Qianlong. As for the sincerity you mentioned. It's very simple. After a few days, I will send troops to capture those two cities. At that time, it is called sincerity." Right!" Zhang Rui replied lightly.
"You..." Aixinjueluo Yongqi gritted his teeth, but there was nothing he could do.
If Zhang Rui dares to say this, then if he wants to occupy these two places, he will definitely be able to occupy them.
Regardless of other conditions, but last night, thousands of green battalions on their side surrendered to their bandit suppression army. On the basis of these forces, and relying on the advantages of their current firearms, if his troops only need to be deployed in front of the two cities, the officials in the cities will surrender immediately.
"Don't believe it. The best way for you to protect your Qing Dynasty is to quickly take my letter and discuss it with your emperor. Don't wait until all my troops have crossed the Yellow River. Then talk to me. If you negotiate peace talks, you will feel even more disadvantaged." Zhang Rui seemed to be advising.
"I will naturally take your letter to discuss with my emperor. But if you want to negotiate peace with us, please come up with reasonable conditions. Yes, we can't touch you now, but as long as we clear the The army on the Northwest Road has withdrawn, and I can still fight to the death with you." Aixinjueluo Yongqi looked fearless.
"Yes, our country, the Qing Dynasty, is in some difficulties now, but your difficulties will definitely not be smaller than ours, otherwise you would not be the first to propose peace talks."
"You are indeed very smart. But the conditions for all peace talks depend on whether your emperor is willing to lose face. Otherwise, we will die together! At that time, you Manchus still want to stay in Beijing. It's probably unlikely." Zhang Rui couldn't help but glance at Aixinjueluo Yongqi.
Yes, compared to the wars all over the Qing Dynasty, the situation faced by the bandit suppressing army was no worse than it.
If it was just an Annan invasion, Zhang Rui wouldn't even need to mobilize his current troops to go back. The troops stationed in Guangxi could just slap the Annan invading army to death.
Moreover, the anti-bandit army did not even need to dispatch the garrison stationed in Guangxi. The anti-bandit army only needed to release some money, food, oil, and salt as rewards, which was enough to mobilize the people of Guangxi to attack the troops invading Annan, thus delaying their progress. Or even annihilate them.
The reason why Zhang Rui wanted to negotiate peace with the Manchus was because what troubled Zhang Rui more than Annan's invasion was the various natural disasters that had occurred in the areas occupied by the bandits.
The Qing Dynasty once again showed its incredible luck, holding back Zhang Rui's preparations to continue the attack.
Guangdong and Fujian suffered severe typhoons, floods occurred in Jiangxi, drought occurred in Anhui, and epidemics even appeared in the Yangtze River Basin.
An earthquake occurred in Sichuan. Instead of providing relief, the Manchu and Qing officials in Sichuan diverted the disaster eastward and sent victims to Hubei.
When there was a flood in Henan, the Manchu and Qing officials still refused to provide disaster relief and drove the homeless and hungry victims to Anhui and Jiangsu.
In the 22nd year of Qianlong's reign, Zhang Rui really didn't know whether these things had happened in history. His understanding of the major events that occurred during the Qianlong period mainly came from the TV series he had watched before.
However, those TV series basically focused on praising the Qing Dynasty and would not truly explain historical events.
As for whether these natural disasters were inevitable in history or happened because of Zhang Rui, Zhang Rui didn't know. In history, Zhang Rui also didn't know whether the Manchus provided disaster relief or left the victims to fend for themselves.
However, since they have become common people under Zhang Rui's management, after these natural disasters occur, their bandit-suppressing army must do their best to provide disaster relief no matter what.
In addition to rescuing the people in the disaster areas, it is also to prevent rumors from spreading among the victims, thereby affecting the future dominance of the bandit suppression army.
It was precisely because they were going to war with the Manchus and Annan on the one hand, and at the same time they were also providing disaster relief, so the bandit-suppressing army's already-not-so-rich household treasury was almost at its bottom.
Fortunately, Zhai Dakun, who came to invest in the first place, found the treasure that Zheng Chenggong left behind with millions of taels of money. Otherwise, even if the bandit-suppressing army seized a lot of money along the way and gained huge profits from maritime trade, it would be difficult to support so many lines of business at once. expenditure.
Moreover, because the bandit-suppressing army has conquered too quickly along the way, a lot of tax revenue has not yet been collected. The huge military expenditure of the bandit-suppressing army is also a headache for Zhang Rui.
Qianlong needed peace talks, and Zhang Rui also needed them.
The territory of the bandit suppression army is getting bigger and bigger, but the team is also becoming more and more bloated.
Although the combat effectiveness of the bandit suppressing army is now stronger than that of the Qing army they faced, these are Qing armies that are inland and have not fought all year round. If they really have to face the Manchu border troops, Zhang Rui doesn't think that he You can get whatever you want.
At the same time, the anti-bandit army still has a big problem, which is the lack of enough civilian officials.
Civil and military forces are the two legs on which the court can walk, both of which are indispensable.
Otherwise, even if the bandit suppression army can defeat the Manchus militarily, there is still a risk of failure if the government fails to do so.
In order to appease the students on the territory, the Bandit Suppression Army had opened the imperial examination as early as last year to introduce talents for the upcoming imperial court. But even so, the number of civilian officials is still insufficient in the face of the ever-expanding territory of the bandit suppression army.
After all, the bandit-suppressing army divided the position that was originally just a county official into several positions, and even directly sent some students who passed the imperial examination to become village chiefs and township chiefs for training. Therefore, one can imagine the lack of civilian officials in the bandit suppression army.
More importantly than the lack of civilian officials, the bandit suppression army has not yet formulated its own set of laws and regulations. Except for some special regulations pointed out by Zhang Rui, the territory of the bandit suppression army basically follows the Manchu law. Pure law.
And all of this is waiting for Zhang Rui to solve one by one when he goes back.
Therefore, what appears to be a peaceful bandit-suppression force now actually contains many risks. If Zhang Rui cannot reach peace talks with Qianlong and have a stable period for Zhang Rui to deal with these risks one by one, then the future path of the bandit suppressing army will also become very dangerous.
