A Journey Through the Worlds of Film and Television

The old man was born in a young age.

22

As early as when Columbus discovered the New World of America, he saw Indians playing with a very elastic ball. According to the local population, this ball was made of the tears of a tree.

And this tree is the rubber tree later.

However, the European explorers at that time only had gold and silver mines in their eyes, and did not take rubber seriously, so the rubber tree continued to be buried in the tropical rainforest.

It was not until 1736 in the 18th century that the rubber tree was transplanted to Europe and used by Europeans to make rain boots and raincoats.

As a person of later generations, Lu Cheng naturally knew the importance of rubber to the development of modern industry.

On the one hand, one of the reasons why Xiao Rizi entered Southeast Asia was also for the rubber resources in Southeast Asia.

Rubber has a wide range of uses, from a pair of medical rubber gloves, cable covers, car tires to various transportation, electronic appliances, and construction projects.

With rubber, the industrial process can be greatly accelerated.

Of course, rubber grows in the tropical rainforests of South America. If you want to wait for the expedition team to bring back rubber tree seeds, you may have to wait for more than a year.

In June of the fourth year of Tianqi (1624), Yang Lian, the left deputy censor in the court, impeached Wei Zhongxian for 24 major crimes. The ministers in the court wrote letters to echo and attacked Wei Zhongxian. But Zhu Youxiao turned a blind eye to these impeachments, and ignored all the civil and military officials in the court, and only favored Wei Zhongxian.

After this incident, Wei Zhongxian became more unscrupulous in eradicating the Donglin Party, successively executing the famous Donglin Six Gentlemen in the Donglin Party, and ordered the destruction of academies founded by the Donglin Party across the country.

At the same time, Xiong Tingbi was also implicated in the party struggle because of his old friendship with the "Six Gentlemen of Donglin". Wei Zhongxian repeatedly advised Zhu Youxiao when Zhu Youxiao was concentrating on carpentry work, saying that Xiong Tingbi was a charlatan, operating in Liaodong for several years, with few achievements, but instead wasting a lot of money and grain.

Finally, Emperor Tianqi was annoyed by Wei Zhongxian's words.

In August of the fourth year of Tianqi, Xiong Tingbi was dismissed from office, and Sun Chengzong, the Minister of War, was ordered to go to Liaodong to take over the management of Liaodong.

Fortunately, Xiong Tingbi had been managing Liaodong for many years, allowing Liaodong to regain its strength, and did not lose cities and land, and also recovered the Zhenjiang Fort area. Therefore, although Xiong Tingbi was dismissed this time, at least he did not have to be beheaded and displayed to the public as in the original history.

When bidding farewell to Xiong Tingbi, Lu Cheng looked at the old man whose hair and beard had completely turned white, and he also sighed in his heart.

Xiong Tingbi has indeed worked hard for Liaodong. At the age of 55, he looks older than a 70-year-old.

"Sir, don't think about anything else when you return to your hometown. Just enjoy your old age at home. As for Liaodong, with young people like us, we will never let the Jiannu get involved."

Xiong Tingbi took a last look at the land of Liaodong, and his heart was filled with infinite emotion: "I am here in Liaodong, and I am worthy of the court and Your Majesty. I may never return to Liaodong in this life. Everything here is left to you. Sun Chengzong is also a capable minister, and he should be able to defend Liaodong."

In fact, Lu Cheng is still very grateful to Xiong Tingbi.

Not only because of Xiong Tingbi's kindness, but also because of his help in the past few years.

In the past few years, Lu Cheng has vigorously developed southern Liaoning, expanded his business to various parts of the grassland, and trained so many soldiers and horses.

If it weren't for the threat of the Liaodong Jiannu, Lu Cheng's actions could be equated with rebellion.

Moreover, Liaonan has developed so fast and earned so much money, how could it not attract people's covetousness?

If it weren't for Xiong Tingbi blocking in front, Lu Cheng would inevitably encounter some troubles.

Especially in the first two years, before Lu Cheng became the deputy general of Ping Liao, he was several levels lower than those generals. If those generals really wanted to come to share the business, Lu Cheng might really have some troubles.

Fortunately, Xiong Tingbi suppressed the generals of Liaodong and gave Lu Cheng the most autonomy, which allowed Lu Cheng to open up the current situation.

In any case, Lu Cheng was grateful to Xiong Tingbi.

Therefore, when Xiong Tingbi left Liaodong, Lu Cheng also asked the Intelligence Department to send an elite action team to protect him along the way and stay in Xiong Tingbi's hometown for a long time to prevent someone from assassinating this old man.

After Xiong Tingbi left, Sun Chengzong sat down

To stabilize Liaoyang, Sun Chengzong first summoned the Liaodong generals, affirmed their achievements over the years, encouraged them, and calmed their hearts.

Afterwards, Sun Chengzong personally led people to various places to inspect and understand the strength of the troops of various ethnic groups, the layout of defense, etc.

Of course, when Sun Chengzong inspected southern Liaoning, Lu Cheng had already hidden everything that should be hidden.

The latest breech-loading guns and mortars were all hidden, and other steam engines, gunpowder workshops, etc. were also temporarily sealed.

The soldiers were holding the first batch of muzzle-loading flintlocks.

Even so, the performance of those flintlocks made Sun Chengzong full of praise, and he took a few away, saying that he would take them to the court's craftsmen for imitation.

Lu Cheng didn't mind this. Even if the court tried its best to make those flintlock muskets, it would be difficult to produce them quickly due to technical conditions.

Moreover, the imperial court did not have mercury fulminate as a primer, nor did it have improved gunpowder, smokeless gunpowder, etc. Even if it made a flintlock with rifling, it was not as good as the Lu-style first-generation rifle produced in Liaodong in the early days.

Compared with the new musket, Sun Chengzong was obviously more interested in the agricultural development and business in southern Liaoning.

In this era when the imperial court was short of money, southern Liaoning under Lu Cheng's rule was thriving and full of vitality, which forced Sun Chengzong to pay attention to it.

"General Lu, I didn't expect that you are not only good at leading troops in battle, but also good at governing a region. It's a waste of talent to be just a deputy general."

"What are you talking about, sir? These are the results of the concerted efforts of the civil and military officials of the four guards in southern Liaoning. I am just leading the soldiers and providing them with a safe environment for farming."

"This is already very rare. If all the generals in Liaodong can be like General Lu, the court and your majesty can rest assured."

After understanding the situation of Liaodong as a whole, Sun Chengzong learned in detail about the various Mongolian tribes on the grassland and the situation of the Later Jin, and finally made a judgment that Liaodong is not yet capable of a decisive battle with the Later Jin.

Moreover, Sun Chengzong concluded that the Later Jin would definitely launch a large-scale attack on Liaodong within one or two years.

After all, the progress of the Later Jin on the grassland was not very smooth. If it wanted to expand further, it still had to take Liaodong.

After considering all factors, it can be concluded that the next attack of the Later Jin Dynasty has only two options: either attack Shenyang directly from the North Pass to the south, or bypass the Khorchin tribe and attack Guangning to cut off the connection between Liaodong and the interior of the pass.

Subsequently, Sun Chengzong wrote to the court, detailing the comparison of the situation of the entire Liaodong and the Later Jin Dynasty, and also recounted his own judgment on the future situation. He applied to Emperor Tianqi to establish a defense line outside Liaoyang and Guangning, and to step up the training of a group of cavalry to deal with the cavalry of the Later Jin Dynasty and the grassland.

Emperor Tianqi did not expect that after sending away Xiong Tingbi, who was dead for money, Sun Chengzong was now chasing the court for money and food.

But Sun Chengzong had been an official in the court for many years, and his relationship with the officials in the court was far from that of Xiong Tingbi.

Soon, many officials in the court stood up to support Sun Chengzong.

In addition, Wei Zhongxian also made a lot of money for the court in the past two years. Emperor Tianqi finally decided to support Sun Chengzong in building a defense line and training troops.