A Journey Through the Worlds of Film and Television.

Chapter 142 Commander Lu

Half a month after the Haizhou Guards' defense battle ended, the imperial court once again sent eunuchs to convey imperial decrees to reward the generals in Liaodong.

Among them, Lu Cheng, who slaughtered two Later Jin tribes, led troops to defend Haizhou Guard, and killed thousands of enemies in total, naturally made the greatest contribution and received the highest reward.

After receiving the battle report, Emperor Wanli was very happy and wanted to directly promote Lu Cheng to a deputy general or deputy commander, to the level of the second rank or even the second rank. However, the ministers in the court said that Lu Cheng was only 22 years old. If he was promoted too quickly, it would be difficult to promote him if he made meritorious contributions.

In fact, Emperor Wanli didn't think too much about it. He had been the emperor for decades and he knew his body was weak and he didn't have many good days left. If Lu Cheng could really make great contributions in his lifetime, he would not be stingy with rewards.

As for future events, Emperor Wanli could not care so much, but he had to consider the opinions of the ministers.

In the end, Emperor Wanli chose a compromise and promoted Lu Cheng to the commander of Haizhou Guard and gave him the title of General Zhaoyong. He was also given a bullfighting suit and an embroidered spring sword.

A garrison commander is also the military chief of a garrison, a third-rank military officer who can command five thousand households. He is equivalent to the commander of a smaller military sub-district.

Lu Cheng's previous position as a commanding officer was actually equivalent to a military sub-district chief of staff, and was not considered a true military commander. Lu Cheng was able to command three thousand households because of his guerrilla general status.

Now, Lu Cheng has become the true military chief of the entire Haizhou Guard, and he can add two more thousand households, so the number of soldiers he can command is close to six thousand.

As for the General Zhaoyong, he was a military rank. The general Zhaoyong usually served as the commander of the guard.

As for the bullfighting suit and embroidered spring sword bestowed by the emperor, they were completely a symbol of honor and status, somewhat similar to the military medals of later generations.

In every dynasty, there are usually granted clothes. The Ming Dynasty also had them. The four most famous ones are the python suit, the unicorn suit, the flying fish suit, and the bullfighting suit.

Needless to say, the dragon robe was awarded to the emperor. In addition to the royal family, only those who were in high positions and had made great contributions to the country could be awarded the dragon robe. Zhang Juzheng, the chief minister during the Wanli period, was awarded the dragon robe by the Wanli Emperor.

Qilin clothing is usually awarded to dukes, marquises, prince consorts, earls, etc., and sometimes it is also awarded to officials.

As for the Feiyu suit, it is regarded as the standard outfit of Jinyiwei in many film and television dramas. In fact, not every Jinyiwei is qualified to wear Feiyu suit and embroidered spring sword.

Only the leader of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, or an Embroidered Uniform Guard who had made great contributions and was appreciated by the emperor, was qualified to wear the Feiyu robe and carry the Embroidered Spring Sword.

The bullfighting suit was used to reward officials above the third rank. In addition to being worn by the Jinyiwei, the embroidered spring sword was sometimes also awarded by the emperor to meritorious generals of the frontier army.

Lu Cheng accepted the imperial edict and thanked the emperor, took the reward, and gave a generous gift to the eunuch who came to convey the imperial eunuch, and watched the eunuch leave.

Pulling out the Xiuchun Knife, the quality of this knife is quite good, it was carefully crafted by the royal craftsmen. Compared with the knives that Lu Cheng used, the quality is much better.

After all, this was a reward from the emperor, not those standard equipment. It concerns the royal family's reputation, so naturally there will be no quality problems.

If the emperor rewards a meritorious official with a knife of questionable quality, will the emperor still retain his reputation?

In the original drama, after Shen Lian's sword was cut off by Ding Baiying, he went home and took out the Xiuchun Sword passed down to him by his father, which was a precious sword bestowed by the royal family.

From this we can also see that Shen Lian’s father must have been appreciated by the emperor back then.

However, even if this knife can cut through iron like mud, it is still just a knife.

Lu Cheng casually put the Embroidered Spring Sword into the storage space as a backup weapon.

As for the bullfighting suit, Lu Cheng didn't wear it and put it away.

In fact, the costumes of civil and military officials in the Ming Dynasty were very distinctive. The civil officials' uniforms were embroidered with birds, while the military officials' uniforms were embroidered with beasts.

Therefore, the term "beast in human clothing" was originally used to refer to civil and military officials.

However, after the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the bureaucracy was corrupt and officials were greedy, and the people began to call those corrupt and despicable officials "beasts in human clothing."

After sending off the eunuch who delivered the imperial edict, Lu Cheng immediately summoned all the officers under his command, big and small, and issued an order to recruit soldiers from the entire Liaodong. He also required that as long as they were young and strong, they should fill up the five thousand households as soon as possible and start training.

When it comes to the expansion of the army, the officers and logistics personnel at all levels already have considerable experience and have formed a complete recruitment process, so Lu Cheng doesn't have to worry about it.

After the Battle of Haizhou, Lu Cheng single-handedly repelled the attack of tens of thousands of Jiannu troops, and became famous throughout Liaodong, and his appeal was greatly enhanced.

As soon as the conscription point near Haizhouwei was established, people from nearby villages, towns and cities came to sign up for the army.

Now, who doesn't know that General Lu of Haizhouwei is good at fighting? Who doesn't know that the soldiers of Haizhouwei are well treated?

Looking at the lively scenes at various recruitment points, Lu Cheng was very pleased that he had finally gained a firm foothold in Liaodong.

Whether it was the Jianzhou Jurchens or the Liaodong generals, who dared to underestimate General Lu?

All the generals of Liaodong combined could not defeat the Jianzhou Jurchens, and the Jianzhou Jurchens had no way to deal with Lu Cheng. This meant that Lu Cheng was already the most capable fighter in the entire Liaodong.

Of course, as the number of soldiers and horses under his command increased further, the weapons, armor, and food required also increased greatly. Lu Cheng began to speed up the stockpiling of various materials and food, and the money on hand was spent like water.

Fortunately, the glass and soap business has gradually expanded and made more and more money, which gave Lu Cheng the confidence to recruit more soldiers.

Otherwise, the original two hundred thousand taels of silver would not have lasted long.

Just when Lu Cheng was busy dealing with various affairs, one of his personal guards suddenly came to report that General He Shixian came to visit.

Upon hearing this, Lu Cheng quickly stood up and went to greet him.

"General He, what brings you here?"

"What else could it be? I came here specially to congratulate Commander Lu. Congratulations on your promotion. You became a commander at the age of 22. I'm afraid you're the youngest commander in Liaodong, right?"

"General He, you are too polite. I am still far behind you. General He, please take a seat."

When Lu Cheng saw that He Shixian actually brought a gift with him, he understood that the other party must have some purpose.

Sure enough, after the two exchanged a few pleasantries, He Shixian directly stated his purpose: "Brother Lu, to be honest, I came here this time to ask for something."

"General He, what are you talking about? Just tell me if you have something to say."

"I heard that Brother Lu used firearms when he was defending the city. I wonder if Brother Lu can tell me how to make this new type of firearm."

"General He, actually, the General has mentioned this to me before. It's not that I'm stingy, but it took my craftsmen a long time to research this new type of firearm, which is quite difficult. In order to keep the production method confidential, I strictly guarded the entire workshop, and I also arranged for the families of each craftsman.

If I pass these methods to General He, can General He guarantee that these methods will never fall into the hands of the Jian Nu?"

"This..." He Shixian really didn't dare to guarantee it.

"However, since General He is here, I cannot let you make a wasted trip. Besides, you and I are guarding Liaodong together, so we should also keep an eye on each other. How about this, if General He needs it, you can deliver gunpowder and other supplies to me, and I will manufacture new firearms for you and teach your men how to use them. What do you think, General He?"

He Shixian thought he would return empty-handed this time, but he didn't expect Lu Cheng to be willing to do the processing for him, so he immediately agreed: "No problem, what materials do you need, brother Lu? I'll have someone deliver them to you later."

Lu Cheng immediately told He Shixian all the necessary materials, and He Shixian wrote them down immediately.

In fact, the things made by Lu Cheng were not of high technical content. They were just some processing of the black gunpowder to make its explosion more powerful.

As for more powerful explosives, Lu Cheng also made some but did not put them into use.

In fact, if he had a certain industrial foundation, Lu Cheng could even produce nitroglycerin, picric acid and so on.

But the current Haizhou Wei is still a little small.

Thinking of this, Lu Cheng has already set his sights on some islands along the coast...