The next period of time, Liaodong entered a long winter, and everything calmed down again.

Lu Cheng made a complete plan for the development of the entire southern Liaoning region, including recruiting soldiers, arranging defenses, expanding workshop production, strengthening trade, etc., so Lu Cheng didn't have to worry too much about these.

It is worth mentioning that after taking over the area around Zhenjiangbao, Liaodong and Lee Joseon re-established contact and opened up trade routes.

Various commodities from Liaodong were also sold to Lee Joseon, especially products such as glass and soap, which were quite popular among Korean nobles, and they made a lot of money from them.

At this time, Lu Cheng also put more attention on the sea and the south.

Half a year ago, Ding Baiying's two apprentices, Ding Chong and Ding Tai, with the support of Lu Cheng, led some people and ships to occupy some coastal islands and set up a pirate group.

After half a year of development, the pirate group also plundered some areas of Lee's Korea and the Later Jin Dynasty many times, robbed some food and property, and formed a certain scale.

Because there are many veterans in the pirate group to guide the training, although the number of the entire pirate group is not large, they are well-trained, flexible in tactics, and have good weapons and equipment. They soon made some names in the coastal area and attracted some refugees to join.

In fact, there have always been active pirates in the coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty, and there were Japanese pirates rampant before. It was also when Qi Jiguang was there that the Japanese pirates and pirates on the coast were cleaned up on a large scale, making the coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty a little quieter.

But after Qi Jiguang's death, the pirates on the coast gradually prospered again.

In the early years of Wanli, a pirate leader named Lin Feng appeared along the coast. He once had thousands of soldiers and dozens of pirate ships. He once occupied the Wandao Island. Later, he was chased by the Ming Navy and attacked Manila in the Philippines in an attempt to drive out the Spanish colonists there.

Unfortunately, Lin Feng was eventually attacked by the Ming Navy and the Spaniards. He could only continue to flee and finally disappeared.

In fact, the Donglin Party in the Jiangnan area and the merchants in the Guangdong and Guangxi areas have monopolized the maritime trade of the Ming Dynasty. Naturally, they would not allow pirates to destroy their maritime transportation lines.

Therefore, whenever pirates appeared along the coast, those wealthy businessmen along the coast would support the navy behind the scenes to clean up the pirates.

But the pirates could not be cleaned up, because there were always some coastal fishermen who were forced to go to the sea to make a living in order to have a meal.

Especially in the past two years, in order to pacify Liaodong, the court increased taxes on a large scale. More and more fishermen along the coast could not survive, and many of them embarked on the road of pirates.

However, there were no large pirate gangs along the coast at this time, only small-scale guerrillas.

Zheng Zhilong (nickname: Yiguan), a famous pirate in the future, was learning Portuguese in Manila at this moment, and was baptized as a Catholic. He was called Nicola Yiguan.

The pirate group led by Ding Chong and Ding Tai was only active in Liaodong and Shandong, and never robbed the people of the Ming Dynasty, nor did it attract the attention of the Ming Dynasty Navy.

The current pirate group has just started, and it is not yet self-sufficient, and needs Liaonan to support some food supplies from time to time.

Of course, the reason why Lu Cheng privately formed such a pirate group was not just for plunder.

In the situation in Liaodong, it is not possible to form a navy or navy for the time being. But Lu Cheng will sooner or later form his own navy and navy in the future, and this pirate group can be regarded as providing some reserve sailors for the navy in advance.

Moreover, in the future, if we want to develop like the southeast coast or even Southeast Asia, we cannot do without a navy.

Sometimes, if there are things that are inconvenient to solve openly, the pirates can also solve them privately.

In addition to the pirate group, the scale of Haizhouwei's caravans is also getting bigger and bigger. The caravans on land can go to the interior, to Jiangnan, to the grasslands and Korea. The caravans on the sea can also go directly south along the coast to trade with various places in the southeast.

Lu Cheng originally planned to go to Jiangnan this year, but due to the war and the recruitment and training of soldiers in winter, he could not spare the time and had to give up temporarily.

On this day, the heavy snow that had fallen for a day and a night finally stopped.

Ding Baiying was wearing a thick cotton coat and lying lazily on a blanket-covered recliner in front of the window. The sunlight through the transparent glass window sprinkled on her bright face, adding a bit of softness to her.

Looking up at Lu Cheng who was handling official business, Ding Baiying reached out and gently stroked her slightly bulging belly, and then

She said, "Husband, marry Zhang's sister after the New Year, so that you can have someone to serve you."

"Don't worry, wait until she grows up a little bit."

"She's not young anymore, right? She'll be sixteen after the New Year. If you can't bear to marry her, you can marry her to accompany me first."

"That's fine, I'll listen to you."

"Also, if you...if you want to...let Xiaohe and Zilan serve you at night, I don't mind."

Lu Cheng put down the pen in his hand and turned to look at Ding Bai. Ying: "What happened to our Madam Lu today?"

"Nothing, I'm almost a mother, and I won't be able to serve General Lu for at least a year or so. It's better to eat at home than to let you go out and cheat. I feel more at ease."

"When have you ever seen your husband cheat?"

"That's not the case, so I feel even more sorry for General Lu."

Ding Baiying knew Lu Cheng's physique and endurance very well. He had been tossed around a lot after marriage. Fortunately, she had practiced martial arts and had a stronger physique, otherwise she might not be able to get out of bed often.

It wasn't until she got pregnant that it stopped for a while.

Lu Cheng had always been very doting on Ding Baiying, and in the small details of daily life, he also showed respect and love that was different from men of this era.

It was difficult for ordinary women to get married and have a chance to show their faces. They had to stay at home to take care of their husbands and children for almost their entire lives.

But Ding Baiying could go out at will and do what she liked without any constraints.

At first, Ding Baiying didn't realize how rare this was. It wasn't until she came into contact with some wives of other civil and military officials in Haizhou City that she realized how much freedom she enjoyed.

For this reason, Ding Baiying was also somewhat moved and secretly vowed to be a good wife.

Of course, Lu Cheng came from the future after all, and felt that all this was very common, and he didn't think about over-constraining Ding Baiying.

Moreover, Ding Baiying was not an ordinary woman. If her nature was suppressed and she was allowed to take care of her husband and children like an ordinary woman, she would not be that Ding Baiying.

After talking and laughing with Ding Baiying for a while, Lu Cheng walked over and leaned over to kiss her thick lips: "Okay, don't think about it, take a good rest at home, I'll go to the workshop to see."

Now everything is accelerating, Lu Cheng has to coordinate the overall situation, and he is busy with all kinds of things. He lacks talents under his hands, and Lu Cheng doesn't have much time to take care of the love between men and women.

It is every man's dream to have three wives and four concubines, but strength is the foundation of all this. It is not time to start enjoying it yet.

It is okay to enjoy it occasionally, but you can't be too addicted.

A steady stream of water is the way to keep healthy.

The good days are still to come, and Lu Cheng has the patience.

After walking through the snow with his personal guards to inspect various workshops and comforting some craftsmen, Lu Cheng went to the military camp to see the soldiers and horses.

As a rebel, Lu Cheng must always maintain his high control over the army to ensure that all the upper, middle and lower-level generals in the army know whose orders they should obey and who they should be loyal to.

For the middle and upper-level generals, both kindness and severity should be used, ideological construction and strict systems should be implemented, and they should be severely punished if they make mistakes. After the punishment, they should also comfort their parents, wives and children to win the hearts of the people.

For the lower-level generals, they mainly care for them and try to remember their names and family situations. If they encounter any family in trouble, they will ask the logistics department to arrange people to take care of them.

In this way, the families of those generals can also stand on the same front with Lu Cheng...

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