A Journey Through the Worlds of Film and Television

The new year has just passed.

11

In early 1627, just after the New Year, news came from Confucius' hometown in Shandong that it was occupied by the roaming rebels and the Confucius family was unfortunately in trouble. Once the news came out, many scholars were deeply saddened.

However, now is a time of chaos, and there are so many noble families destroyed by the rebels, who can care about the Confucius family?

In the spring of 1627, all areas north of the Yellow River and the Yangtze and Huaihe River basins were occupied by the Liaodong Army under Lu Cheng, and the two provinces of Fujian and Guangdong and the southern part of Hunan and Jiangxi were also occupied by the expeditionary army under Lu Cheng, and the rebels in various places were successively eliminated and incorporated.

Throughout the Ming Dynasty, except for the Western Regions and Southwest China, most of them were under the banner of the Liaodong Army and the banner of the Left General Lu Cheng.

At the same time, the arsenal in Liaodong was further expanded to produce all kinds of guns, bullets, and shells.

New arsenals were also built near the capital to step up the production of new weapons such as rifles and mortars.

Lu Cheng sat in Kyoto, looking at the battle reports from all over the country every day, drawing and circling on the map, issuing various orders to the front-line troops, and controlling the entire situation.

Not long ago, a battle report came from the northwest. The rebel forces of Li Zicheng and Gao Yingxiang in northern Shaanxi had been wiped out and incorporated. The Northwest Army was split into two routes, one heading to the Western Regions and the other heading to Hanzhong.

In the Central Plains, He Shixian had led his troops to clear all parts of the Central Plains and was marching towards the land of Jingchu.

Tong Zhongkui in Shandong was about to meet with the expeditionary force in the south in Jiangnan.

Lu Cheng never had to worry about war work, as he had many capable generals, brave soldiers and advanced weapons and equipment.

What gave Lu Cheng the most headache was governance.

After the successive cleansing of the rebels in various places, the Donglin Party, wealthy merchants, and aristocratic families were almost all cleaned up, and most of the officials and scholars in various places were killed or injured. Many places were in a state of no governance.

For this reason, many places implemented the simplest and crudest military control. The army was responsible for guarding one side, maintaining public order, and handling all the affairs that could be handled, and the personnel of the logistics department assisted.

Of course, this was not a long-term solution. After Lu Cheng discussed with some of his civil and military officials, he posted recruitment notices in various places, calling on all scholars to stand up, start from small officials, solve the worries of the people, and preside over the work of one side.

For those who have outstanding performance, they will also be quickly promoted and appointed to become grassroots officials to govern one side well.

At the same time, Lu Cheng also sent people to invite Xiong Tingbi, Sun Chengzong and others to let these old ministers stand up and make use of their remaining energy.

Although Lu Cheng did not like the Donglin Party, he was still willing to reuse those old ministers of the Ming Dynasty who had practical talents and good moral character.

While busy with war and government affairs, Lu Cheng also paid great attention to the development of people's livelihood.

When the spring ploughing season came, Lu Cheng issued a number of decrees in succession, asking civil and military officials from all over the country to actively organize the people to carry out spring ploughing and never let the land go to waste.

In some places, due to the war, the people were displaced and the land was barren. Lu Cheng also ordered the reorganized rebels to cultivate the land on the spot.

After the beginning of spring, the weather gradually warmed up, and Ding Xian also returned to Liaodong with his men and horses, escorting Lu Cheng's women to the capital, and temporarily settled them in a royal palace in the capital.

In addition, the focus of future development will gradually shift from Liaodong to the capital, and the road between Liaodong and the capital is also under construction.

All kinds of messy things need Lu Cheng to worry about it personally.

After all, this territory has suddenly changed from Liaodong to the entire Ming Dynasty. Lu Cheng is really a little uncomfortable for a while, and the talents under his command are not enough.

Lu Cheng is indeed professional in fighting, but in governing the country, Lu Cheng also needs to continue to learn and improve.

In the summer of 1627, Xiong Tingbi brought some students to the capital and gave Lu Cheng great help.

After Xiong Tingbi, some other famous officials and generals in the late Ming Dynasty were also assigned to various positions by Lu Cheng, such as Sun Chuanting, Lu Xiangsheng and others.

In fact, some talents have emerged in the uprisings in various places, such as Li Yan, who was Li Zicheng's counselor in history.

Lu Cheng's subordinates are in short supply at the time. As long as there is no big problem with morality and talent, there is a chance to stand out.

Of course, as the orphans trained by Lu Cheng grow up, they will gradually move to various positions and replace some unsuitable talents.

However, all this requires a

process.

Foreign and domestic wars, people's livelihood governance in various places, the recovery and development of agriculture and commerce, the selection and training of talents, the management of various infrastructure, etc., Lu Cheng is almost busy from morning to night every day, even the women in the back house are distressed.

Fortunately, everything is developing in a good direction, and work in all aspects is gradually getting on track, and Lu Cheng is getting more and more relaxed.

When Lu Cheng can finally breathe a sigh of relief, it is already autumn.

Lu Cheng personally went to various places to inspect and ensure the smooth progress of autumn harvest.

In recent years, the Ming Dynasty has experienced various natural and man-made disasters, and the people are starving and cold, and have to rebel.

Now that Lu Cheng has occupied such a large territory, he naturally cannot let the people endure hunger and cold.

While the autumn harvest is going smoothly in various places, food from Southeast Asia is also being transported to the north in an endless stream to ensure the food reserves of the court and various places. Not to mention that all the people can eat enough, at least they can't let the people starve to death again.

To this end, Lu Cheng specially promulgated various policies to allow the people to rest and recuperate, and reduced or even exempted taxes for areas with poor harvests. For those people who could not eat, the government directly lent them food to help them tide over the difficulties.

Taking advantage of the opportunity that the wealthy merchants and wealthy families in various places were destroyed by the rebels, Lu Cheng directly took compulsory measures to nationalize all the land, prohibit private transactions, and only distribute it to the people for cultivation. The people directly paid grain taxes to the government in proportion.

The implementation of this policy certainly encountered considerable resistance, but now all places are implementing military control, everything is decided by Lu Cheng, the army and the guns, and those opposing voices were quickly suppressed.

If 1626 was a year of turbulence, a year of turmoil, and the end of the Ming Dynasty.

Then, 1627 was a year of recovery, a year of good things and stability.

In order to stabilize faster, the overseas expansion of the expeditionary army was suspended, and the recovery of Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and the Western Regions was also slowed down.

In the winter of 1627, although the world was temporarily without an emperor, the lives of ordinary people began to return to peace, and even much better than before.

Throughout the winter, Lu Cheng rarely stayed in the capital, and he was always running around, going to various places to understand the people's sentiments and whether the people in various places really had food to eat and clothes to wear.

Whenever he encountered officials who were ineffective or even corrupt, Lu Cheng would order them to be dealt with on the spot and would never tolerate them.

In order to understand the most real situation in various places, Lu Cheng often took his personal guards, disguised as ordinary businessmen and civilians, to various places to investigate and care about the people.

In this way, General Lu soon gained widespread prestige among the people and won the support of the masses.

As the Spring Festival approached, Lu Cheng sent greetings to the troops in various places, sent New Year gifts to generals at all levels, and gave all the soldiers an additional month's food and salary, etc.

After raiding so many houses and looting the entire Jiangnan and Kyoto, Lu Cheng had hundreds of millions of silver and gold and jewelry piled up in the warehouses of Kyoto. Only by spending this money can its greatest value be reflected.

Lu Cheng was not very good at winning people's hearts, but after so many years in Liaodong, he had already practiced it.

Moreover, Lu Cheng not only did it himself, but also asked the personnel of the Intelligence Department to do a good job of publicity, arranging storytellers in various places to spread the glorious deeds of General Lu's development history widely, praising General Lu as rare in the sky and on the earth, and that he was a great saint sent down by heaven to save all living beings because he could not bear the suffering of the people.

Of course, this may be a bit exaggerated, but the people at this time just believed it.

When the winter passed and the spring of 1628 came, Lu Cheng's prestige among the people had accumulated enough, paving the way for his enthronement.

Indeed, Lu Cheng had to enthronize himself.

Lu Cheng controls 3/4 of the entire Ming Dynasty, plus Liaodong, Jianzhou, the Korean Peninsula, the Mongolian grasslands, and Southeast Asia. The total territory is far beyond the Han and Tang dynasties.

If he doesn't declare himself emperor, how can his subordinates make progress? How can those soldiers who have fought for many years bring honor to their ancestors?