A Journey Through the Worlds of Film and Television

After leaving Xiong Tingbi's government office, Lu Cheng hurriedly caught up with the eunuch who delivered the imperial edict, took out two hundred taels of silver notes, and stuffed them into his hands calmly: "My dear eunuch, it's so cold, I'm really sorry to trouble you to come so far. Please accept this small gift."

Before seeing that Lu Cheng had not expressed anything, the eunuch who delivered the imperial eunuch thought that Lu Cheng was an ignorant fool, and even thought about how to say bad things about Lu Cheng later, but he didn't expect that Lu Cheng was also knowledgeable and sensible.

"Lu Youji, what are you talking about? We all serve the emperor, and we just run errands. If we want to defend Liaodong and resist the Jiannu, we still have to rely on you soldiers. Lu Youji is loyal to the country, and your majesty will remember it."

"Yes, yes, yes, eunuch, you have worked hard."

Before, when he was in Xiong Tingbi's government office, Lu Cheng did not give the eunuch money, and it was also because Xiong Tingbi could not tolerate these.

After sending away the eunuch who delivered the order, Lu Cheng rushed back to the military camp, summoned his hundred households and general flags, and told him the order of the court.

This official position conferred by the court is also very interesting. The commander is a military officer of the fourth rank.

According to the guard system of the Ming Dynasty, each guard has a commander, who is the third rank. There are two commanders, who are considered deputy chiefs and are of the third rank. The second is the commander, who is the fourth rank.

Under the Wei Suo system of the Ming Dynasty, military households could only be military households, and the official positions of the Wei Suo could also be inherited. Qi Jiguang, the hero who fought against the Japanese pirates, inherited his father's command assistant.

If a Wei Suo is compared to a local military sub-district, the command assistant is equivalent to the colonel chief of staff.

However, Lu Cheng also has the position of guerrilla general.

In theory, the military officers stationed in one place should be the Wei Commander, the local garrison, and the Qian Hu of the Qian Hu Suo, who are respectively in charge of a Wei Suo, the next-level castle, and the Qian Hu Suo.

But at this time in the Ming Dynasty, the Wei Suo system collapsed, the recruitment system was mixed, the military and political system was in chaos, and the guerrilla general could also sit in one place.

Just like Li Yongfang, who was beheaded by Lu Cheng himself before, was the guerrilla general stationed in Fushun of the Ming Dynasty before surrendering to the Later Jin.

It can also be said that Lu Cheng used the heads of Fan Wencheng and Li Yongfang to exchange for an official position similar to Li Yongfang's previous one.

The Commanding Assistant and the Guerrilla General seem to be two different official positions, but in fact, the Commanding Assistant is equivalent to the military rank in later generations, and the Guerrilla General is the official position of leading troops, similar to the Colonel or Brigade Commander.

However, Lu Cheng, the Guerrilla General, can now sit in a city and govern three thousand households, and can directly manage three thousand soldiers.

The most important thing is that Lu Cheng finally has his own territory, and it is a prosperous and wealthy city like Haizhou.

Even if this city has declined a little now, Lu Cheng has the ability to make it revitalized and become his first base.

After convening a meeting of officers at all levels, officers at all levels went to prepare for moving.

These days, it is not easy to move a house, especially for a collective move of more than a thousand people, and the things to be transported are not a small number.

Fortunately, Lu Cheng's station at this time is located in the south of Liaoyang, which is only sixty or seventy miles away from Haizhou City. It can be directly reached along the official road, and the transportation is also very convenient.

After spending two days to pack up everything, Lu Cheng sent a team of cavalry to Haicheng in advance and notified the two thousand households in Haicheng to send people to meet them.

After that, 1,200 soldiers and 400 to 500 servants moved to Haicheng in batches.

Long before the winter came, Lu Cheng spent a lot of money to buy a large amount of food supplies, of which the food alone was enough for Lu Cheng's more than 1,000 people to eat for half a year.

Usually, these food supplies are transported to the garrison bit by bit, like ants moving.

Now when they are transported to Haicheng together, a large number of mules and horses are needed to transport them in batches.

Before the large group of people arrived in Haicheng, Lu Cheng led the cavalry into Haicheng and met the two thousand households.

The two thousand households had heard the news that Lu Cheng assassinated the two rebels, and they admired Lu Cheng very much, but they did not disobey him.

What's more, Lu Cheng had the Liaodong governor Xiong Tingbi standing behind him, so he had a big backer behind him.

In the Ming Dynasty, if an ordinary soldier did not have a certain background, even if he worked in the army for a lifetime and made various military achievements, he could only be promoted to a thousand households at most. It would be difficult to move up.

Lu Cheng was only 21 years old this year, but he had already become a fourth-rank commander.

Moreover, he did not rely on the inheritance of his ancestors, but worked hard on his own. Who could not accept that?

Two thousand households, one named Ma Bojun, 32 years old this year. The other named Yang Youren, 29 years old this year, both are in their prime, and both are from military households in Liaodong.

After seeing the two, Lu Cheng didn't waste any words and directly asked about the situation in Haicheng: "Captain Ma, Captain Yang, how many soldiers are there in Haizhou now? How much supplies are there for defending the city?"

"Your Excellency, Haicheng originally had more than 5,500 soldiers and five captains. In the Battle of Sarhu, three captains led their troops to the battle and did not come back. Later, some of the scattered soldiers fled back. Now there are more than 3,300 soldiers and more than 200 war horses in the whole Haicheng. There is no shortage of weapons, but there is a shortage of food and gunpowder for defending the city."

"How many of these soldiers are young and strong?"

"This... young and strong account for less than half. Some of them are new recruits recruited after the arrival of the general."

Lu Cheng nodded. Before coming, he had already had the worst-case scenario and was even prepared to start building two captains again. The current situation is better than Lu Cheng expected.

In fact, since Xiong Tingbi arrived in Liaodong, he personally went to various cities in Liaodong to inspect the situation, and urged the court to transfer food and money, so that each town actively recruited soldiers.

Now, the soldiers and horses of the entire Liaodong are recovering rapidly, which is much better than a few months ago.

After understanding the situation of the military camp, Lu Cheng went to see the civil servants of Haizhou again.

Since Xiong Tingbi took charge of Liaodong, he has also rectified the officialdom of the entire Liaodong, eradicated many corrupt officials, and issued strict orders to the governors, prefects, and county magistrates of the cities below, asking them to cooperate with the military officers guarding the city and do a good job of defense.

Therefore, none of these civil servants dared to drag their feet.

As early as two days ago, Lu Cheng notified the officials of Haizhou to prepare barracks for his soldiers in advance.

Also because many soldiers and horses of Haicheng died in Sarhu before, many camps were vacated, allowing Lu Cheng's soldiers to move in directly.

Otherwise, it would not be very convenient to start building barracks in this winter.

After understanding the situation of Haicheng, Lu Cheng immediately began to arrange various tasks.

Haicheng's existing 3,000 soldiers must be trained.

Haicheng's recruitment of new soldiers was relatively smooth before, but the standard was still a bit low. Many of the newly recruited soldiers did not meet the standards, including those who were 14 or 15 years old and over 40 years old.

Lu Cheng directly ordered to continue recruiting soldiers and train and classify the existing soldiers, distinguishing between combat soldiers, auxiliary soldiers, and miscellaneous servants according to age, physical fitness, etc.

At the same time, Lu Cheng also improved the treatment of new recruits. In addition to the monthly food and salary of one and a half taels set by Xiong Tingbi, Lu Cheng would also give combat soldiers an additional half tael of food and supplies.

More than a thousand people before Lu Cheng were recruited in this way, and naturally they had to be treated equally here.

After this order was issued, Lu Cheng immediately won the support of the soldiers of Haizhou.

After all, in this era, which soldier would not like a general who could give extra subsidies to the soldiers without taking empty salaries?

However, after deciding these strategies, Lu Cheng had insufficient food on hand.

A few days later, when Lu Cheng's more than 1,000 soldiers entered Haizhou City and began to train, they immediately caused quite a stir. The uniform steps, full spirit, and strict military formation all showed that this was a strong army.

Lu Cheng also specially mobilized a large number of small flags and general flags from the original soldiers to assist the other two thousand households in reorganizing the soldiers.

With more than 1,000 soldiers before, it would be much easier to train the rest of the soldiers...