"set sail!"

At the order of the deputy commander of the Navy, Li Hanrong, as the flagship set sail first, after the flagship, six warships and hundreds of civilian ships carrying 10,000 troops followed one after another, preparing to cross the Qiongzhou Strait to fight Qiongzhou Prefecture.

The Ming court had only about 10,000 troops in Qiongzhou Prefecture, mainly the guards and not many warships. The People's Army successfully crossed the Qiongzhou Strait. Only when it was about to set foot on the land of Qiongzhou Prefecture did it encounter the Ming army's blockade.

The Ming army set up artillery on the shore to bombard the People's Army fleet sailing on the sea surface. The warships of the People's Army fleet also fired fires to fight back. Both artillery fired solid shells, which could not cause much damage to the other side.

Finally, the People's Army fleet landed, and the People's Army, which was honed on the battlefield, rushed to the land, launched an attack on the Ming army, and easily defeated the Ming army.

When the People's Army conquers Qiongzhou Prefecture, its first goal is Qiongzhou Prefecture City. After capturing Qiongzhou Prefecture City, it will quickly go south and occupy the entire Qiongzhou Prefecture.

However, the total area of ​​Qiongzhou Prefecture exceeds 30,000 square kilometers, and it will take some time to occupy the entire Qiongzhou Prefecture. After the People's Army completes its occupation of Qiongzhou Prefecture, it will quickly dispatch personnel to build roads, mine iron ore and coal mines, and build a large steel plant.

It is only a matter of time before the People's Army takes over Qiongzhou Prefecture. On the other hand, in southern Jiangxi, the peace talks between the Ming court and the People's Army are still continuing.

Talk about peace is not something that can be accomplished in a short time. The capital is thousands of miles away from Jiangxi, and Song Yingchang himself made meritorious service. Even if the Ming court gave Song Yingchang certain authority, Song Yingchang could not make the final decision.

When the People's Army captured Qiongzhou Prefecture City, the People's Army offered Song Yingchang the conditions for peace talks: 10 million taels of silver, and the Ming army retreated a hundred miles away.

Ten million taels of silver were not transported directly from the Ming court. Silver was just a precious metal. It was not very useful to transport the precious metal back. Instead, it used this ten million taels of silver to purchase various materials from the Ming court to transport it back to Guangdong to support Guangdong's development.

In fact, when China was invaded by Western powers in modern times, it was defeated and paid tens of millions of taels of silver and hundreds of millions of taels of silver from China to transport them back. These materials were transported back to the victorious country, but their value was much higher than the amount of silver in compensation.

Of course, the People's Army's demand for 10 million taels of silver was purely a sky-high price, waiting for the Ming court to bargain. The Ming court's current fiscal revenue is only a few million taels of silver every year. The income of grain, cloth, etc. is calculated into silver, which will probably exceed 20 million taels.

It was difficult for the Ming court to give out 10 million taels of cash, and the Ming court could not bear this humiliation. It was more likely that the Ming court gave up peace talks and even if the south was destroyed, it would continue to go to war with the People's Army.

When he received the People's Army's talks and conditions, Song Yingchang was also angry by the People's Army's talks and conditions, and he wanted to continue to command the army and go to war with the People's Army.

However, the Ming army cannot defeat the People's Army at present. Tens of thousands of Ming troops in Fujian, Huguang and Guangxi were besieged by the People's Army. If you accidentally get eaten by the People's Army, Song Yingchang could only endure it.

Then Song Yingchang replied a letter saying that the Ming Dynasty would not give 10 million taels of silver, and would not even give a penny of silver. The condition of withdrawing a hundred miles was not enough. The army on both sides could retreat fifty miles each.

Faced with Song Yingchang's response, the People's Army replied directly: "Then keep fighting."

The people's army in Fujian, Huguang and Guangxi continued to bombard the Ming army besieged in the city, and even Wang Shengrong's army moved from Xinfeng County to Ganzhou Prefecture.

Seeing that the fierce battle was about to break out, under the persuasion of his subordinates, Song Yingchang had to continue bargaining with the People's Army.

From 10 million taels to 5 million taels, to 3 million taels, Cheng Xinyuan stopped the price from falling.

Song Yingchang has sent the People's Army's request for silver compensation to the capital, and said that Fujian, Huguang and Guangxi are in crisis, and tens of thousands of Ming troops are besieged by the People's Army and cannot last long.

Faced with the silver compensation from the People's Army, the entire Ming court, from the emperor to the ministers, was furious and wished to eat the People's Army raw. However, the People's Army is now strong, and the Ming court cannot send many troops to encircle and suppress the People's Army for the time being, so it can only allow the People's Army to cause chaos in Guangdong, Fujian, Huguang and Guangxi.

The Ming court was already in progress to recruit a million-strong army to expand one million troops, but it was not an easy task to expand one million troops. The matters of the People's Army were quickly spread throughout the country under the rule of the Ming court, and the contributions of the People's Army's Military Intelligence Department were made to the People's Army Military Intelligence Department.

When they learned that they were going to fight the thieves to fight against the thieves, they were very likely to die. Many young and strong men were unwilling to join the army even if they were hungry, which made the Ming court's military expansion plan slow. Some local governments even directly arrested the strong men and caused a lot of chaos.

The Ming court was unable to go to war with the People's Army for the time being, and there were still tens of thousands of Ming troops waiting for rescue on the front line. Under the persuasion of the ministers, Zhu Yijun humiliatedly agreed to the silver compensation requested by the People's Army, but he could only give the People's Army one million taels of silver compensation, which would be discussed specifically by Song Yingchang.

When Zhu Di, the Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty, went back to the court for the second time, he personally led a thousand miles to sweep the desert, and returned to the court: "The power of our dynasty is beyond the past. He controls the Western barbarians of the Xifannan Island in the north, has no relatives from the Han, no alliances from the Tang dependents, no Song levies from the Song Dynasty, nor has the etiquette of brothers to fight against the country."

In fact, the so-called Ming Dynasty description of "not being in harmony, not being indebted, not cede land, not paying tribute, the emperor guards the country's borders, and the king dies in the country" is not correct.

For example, in order to avoid fighting on both sides and hope to use Lin Dankhan's power to restrain the Later Jin Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty agreed in 1617 to use Guangning Town as a window for trade with Mongolia to give Mongolia economic benefits. Therefore, in the early days of Nurhaci's attack on the Liaodong region, the northern border of the Ming Dynasty was in peace with Mongolia.

And in return, the Ming Dynasty gave Lin Danhan a thousand taels of silver every year to express his gratitude. Later, the rewards continued to increase, and by the end of the Apocalypse, it reached 120,000 taels of silver.

Compensating the rebels with one million taels of silver is definitely a rare humiliation in the founding of the Ming Dynasty for hundreds of years. The biggest humiliation to the Ming Dynasty was that Emperor Yingzong of Ming was the capture of Ming Dynasty. If the Ming court still had the strength to fight against the People's Army in the south, Zhu Yijun would not agree to this decision that shamed his ancestors.

In order to get Zhu Yijun to agree, the ministers in Fujian, Huguang and Guangxi made the most efforts, and they were most worried that their hometown would be attacked by the People's Army.

The ministers kept belittling the People's Army, believing that as long as the People's Army negotiated peace, the People's Army would be able to wipe out the People's Army when the Ming Dynasty attacked.

The other one million taels of silver compensation is not a compensation for defeat, but a ransom for the redemption of the captured Ming army generals and soldiers.

The ministers took turns to persuade Zhu Yijun to agree.
Chapter completed!