A Journey Through the Worlds of Film and Television.

Chapter 161: Ding Baiying is pregnant

In the following period of time, Liaodong entered a long winter again, and everything calmed down again.

Lu Cheng has formulated a complete plan for the development of the entire southern Liaoning region, including recruiting and training soldiers, arranging defenses, expanding workshop production, strengthening trade, etc. Lu Cheng does not have to worry too much about these things.

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

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

At this time, Lu Cheng also paid more attention to 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 troops and ships, occupied some coastal islands, and established a pirate group.

After half a year of development, the pirate group also plundered some territories of the Joseon Dynasty and the Later Jin Dynasty many times, looted some food and property, and formed a certain scale.

Since there were many veterans in the pirate group to provide guidance and training, although the number of pirates in the entire group was small, they were well-trained, their tactics were flexible, and their weapons and equipment were not bad. They soon made a name for themselves in the coastal areas and attracted some refugees to join.

In fact, there have always been pirates active along the coast of the Ming Dynasty, and Japanese pirates were rampant before. It was also during the reign of Qi Jiguang that the Japanese pirates and pirates along the coast were cleared on a large scale, making the coast of the Ming Dynasty a little quieter.

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

During the early years of the Wanli reign, a pirate leader named Lin Feng appeared along the coast. He once had thousands of soldiers and dozens of pirate ships. He even occupied the islands in the bay. Later, he was chased by the Ming navy and had no way out. He also 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, and had to continue fleeing and eventually disappeared.

In fact, the Donglin Party in the Jiangnan area and the merchants in Guangdong and Guangxi have monopolized the Ming Dynasty's maritime trade and naturally would not allow pirates to disrupt their sea transportation lines.

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

But pirates cannot be completely eliminated because there are always some coastal fishermen who are forced to go to sea to make a living in order to have food to eat.

Especially in the past two years, the imperial court increased taxes on a large scale in order to pacify Liaodong. As a result, more and more fishermen along the coast could not make a living, and many of them turned to piracy.

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

The future famous pirate Zheng Zhilong (nickname: Yi Guan) was also learning Portuguese in Manila at this time. He was also baptized as a Catholic and was called Nicola Yi Guan.

The pirate group led by Ding Chong and Ding Tai was only active in Liaodong and Shandong areas. They never robbed the people of the Ming Dynasty and did not attract the attention of the Ming Dynasty navy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lu Cheng had 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 for the time being.

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

Ding Baiying was wearing a thick cotton coat, lying lazily on a blanket-covered lounge chair in front of the window. The sunlight shone through the glass window, shining on her bright and pretty face, adding a touch 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 said casually: "Husband, you should 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 that young anymore, is she? She'll be sixteen after the Chinese New Year. If you can't bear to part with her, you can just marry her and keep her company with me."

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

"Also, if you...if you want to...let Xiao He and Zi Lan serve you first at night. I don't mind."

Lu Cheng put down the pen in his hand and turned to look at Ding Baiying: "Our Madam Lu, what happened today?"

"It's nothing. I'm almost a mother now, and I won't be able to serve General Lu for at least another year or so. Instead of letting you eat out, it's better to eat at home. I feel more at ease."

"When have you ever seen your husband cheating?"

"No, that's why I feel even more sorry for General Lu."

Ding Baiying knew Lu Cheng's physique and endurance very well. After marriage, she had been tossed around a lot. 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 I got pregnant that things calmed down.

Lu Cheng has always been very doting on Ding Baiying, and has shown respect and love for her in small details of daily life, which is different from other men of this era.

Once an ordinary woman gets married, it is difficult for her to show up in public and she will have to stay at home almost all her life taking care of her husband and children.

But Ding Baiying can go out freely and do what he likes without any restrictions.

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

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

Of course, Lu Cheng came from the future after all, and he felt that all this was very normal, and he did not think of overly restricting Ding Baiying.

Moreover, Ding Baiying is not an ordinary woman. If her nature is suppressed and she is forced to take care of her husband and children like an ordinary woman, she will no longer be that Ding Baiying.

After chatting and laughing with Ding Baiying for a while, Lu Cheng walked over and kissed her thick lips: "Okay, stop imagining, take a good rest at home, I'll go to the workshop to take a look."

Now everything is developing at an accelerated pace. Lu Cheng has to coordinate the overall situation and is extremely busy with various things. He also lacks talented people under him. Lu Cheng simply does not have much time to care about love between men and women.

Being surrounded by beauties and having three wives and four concubines is certainly every man's dream, but strength is the foundation of all this. Now is not the time to start enjoying it.

It's okay to enjoy it occasionally, but you can't overindulge in it.

A steady and long-lasting life is the way to maintain good health.

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

After touring various workshops on the snow with his personal guards and comforting some craftsmen, Lu Cheng went to the military camp to check on the condition of the soldiers and horses.

As a rebel, Lu Cheng had to maintain a high degree of control over the army at all times, ensuring that all senior, middle and junior generals in the army knew whose orders they should obey and who they should be loyal to.

For middle and upper-level generals, we must use both kindness and severity, and have both ideological construction and strict systems. If they make mistakes, they must be severely punished. After the punishment, we can also comfort their parents, wives and children to win over the hearts of the people.

For lower-level generals, we mainly provide care and condolences, try our best to remember their names and family situations, and if any family is in trouble, we will ask the logistics department to arrange someone to take care of them.

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