kingnovel Chapter 132: Sitting on the 1st side
Chapter 132: Sitting on the 1st side
15
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 calmly stuffed them into the other's hand: "My lord, it's so cold, I'm really sorry to bother you to come so far. I hope you will accept this as a small token of my appreciation."
Seeing that Lu Cheng had not expressed anything before, the eunuch who delivered the imperial eunuch thought that Lu Cheng was an ignorant fool and even thought about saying bad things about Lu Cheng later. However, he did not expect that Lu Cheng was also knowledgeable and sensible.
"Lu Youji, what are you talking about? We all serve the emperor, and we are just running errands. If we want to defend Liaodong and resist the Jiannu, we still have to rely on you soldiers. Lu Youji is loyal to his country, and your majesty will definitely remember it."
"Yes, yes, thank you for your hard work, father-in-law."
Before, when in Xiong Tingbi’s government office, Lu Cheng did not give any money to this eunuch, because Xiong Tingbi could not tolerate such things.
After sending off the eunuch who delivered the imperial edict, Lu Cheng hurried back to the military camp, summoned his centurions and general flags, and told them the imperial edict.
This official position conferred by the imperial court is also very interesting. The commander-in-chief is a military officer of the fourth rank.
According to the Ming Dynasty's garrison system, each garrison had a commander, who was a third-rank official. There were two deputy commanders, who were third-rank officials. The next was the commander-in-chief, who was a fourth-rank official.
Under the Ming Dynasty's Wei Suo system, military households could only be military households, and the official positions in the Wei Suo could be inherited. Qi Jiguang, the hero who fought against the Japanese pirates, inherited his father's position as the commander.
If a garrison is compared to a local military sub-district, the commander-in-chief is equivalent to a colonel chief of staff.
However, Lu Cheng also holds the position of guerrilla general.
In theory, the military officer stationed in one place should be the commander of the guard, the local garrison, the thousand-household commander, and the other side's guard, the next-level castle, and the thousand-household commander respectively.
But at this time in the Ming Dynasty, the Wei Suo system had collapsed, the conscription system was mixed, the military and political system was in chaos, and guerrilla generals were able to rule a region.
Just like Li Yongfang, who was killed by Lu Cheng himself, he was a 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 Commander-in-Chief and the Guerrilla General seem to be two different official positions, but in fact the Commander-in-Chief is equivalent to the military rank in later generations, while the Guerrilla General is the position of leading troops, similar to a colonel or a brigade commander.
However, Lu Cheng, the guerrilla general, can now be stationed in a city and command three thousand households, and can directly manage three thousand soldiers and horses.
The most important thing is that Lu Cheng finally had his own territory, and it was a prosperous and wealthy city like Haizhou.
Even though the city is now somewhat declining, Lu Cheng has the ability to revitalize it and make it his first base.
After convening a meeting of officers at all levels, they went to prepare for the move.
Moving house is not easy these days, especially when there are more than a thousand people moving together. The number of things to be transported is not a small number.
Fortunately, Lu Cheng’s base at this time was located in the southern part of Liaoyang, only sixty or seventy miles away from Haizhou City. It could be reached directly along the official road, and transportation was 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.
Afterwards, 1,200 combat soldiers and four to five hundred servants moved to Haicheng in batches.
Long before winter came, Lu Cheng spent a lot of money to purchase a large amount of food and supplies. The food alone was enough to feed Lu Cheng's more than a thousand people for half a year.
Normally, these food supplies are transported to the base little by little, like ants moving house.
Nowadays, when transporting them to Haicheng, a large number of mules and horses are needed to transport them in batches.
Before the large group of troops arrived at Haicheng, Lu Cheng led the cavalry into Haicheng first and met the two centurions.
The two captains had also heard the news that Lu Cheng assassinated the two rebels, and they admired Lu Cheng very much and did not feel dissatisfied.
What's more, Lu Cheng has the Liaodong Governor Xiong Tingbi standing behind him, so he has a powerful backer.
In the Ming Dynasty, if an ordinary soldier did not have a certain background, even if he worked in the army for his entire life and made various military achievements, he could at most be promoted to a thousand households. It would be very difficult to go any higher.
Lu Cheng is only 21 years old this year, but he has already become a fourth-rank deputy commander. Moreover, he did not rely on the influence of his ancestors, but achieved his success entirely through his own hard work. Who could not be convinced?
The two thousand households, one named Ma Bojun, 32 years old this year, and the other named Yang Youren, 29 years old this year, are both 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 City now? How much supplies are there to defend the city?"
"Your Excellency, Haicheng originally had more than 5,500 soldiers and five thousand households. In the Battle of Sarhu, three thousand households led their troops to the battle and never came back. Later, some of the scattered soldiers fled back. Now, the entire Haicheng still has more than 3,300 soldiers and more than 200 war horses. We have no shortage of weapons, but we lack food and gunpowder for defending the city."
"How many of these soldiers are young and strong?"
"This... young and strong people account for less than half. Some of them are new recruits recruited after the arrival of the governor."
Lu Cheng nodded. Before coming here, he had already imagined the worst and was even prepared to start over with two thousand households. The current situation was 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 could actively recruit soldiers.
Now, the troops in the entire Liaodong are recovering rapidly and are much better than they were a few months ago.
After understanding the situation in the military camp, Lu Cheng went to meet the civil officials of Haizhou.
Since Xiong Tingbi took over Liaodong, he had rectified the officialdom of the entire Liaodong, eliminated many corrupt officials, and issued strict orders to the prefects, governors, and county magistrates of the cities below, asking them to cooperate with the military officers guarding the city and do a good job in 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 troops in advance.
Also, because many soldiers of Haicheng had died in the battle of Sarhu, many camps were vacant, allowing Lu Cheng's soldiers to move in directly.
Otherwise, it would not be very convenient to start building barracks in such a cold winter.
After understanding the entire situation of Haicheng, Lu Cheng immediately began to arrange various tasks.
The more than 3000 soldiers and horses currently in Haicheng must undergo training.
Previously, Haicheng's recruitment of new soldiers was going smoothly, but the standards were still a bit low. Many of the new recruits did not meet the standards, including some who were only 14 or 15 years old or even in their 40s.
Lu Cheng directly ordered to continue recruiting soldiers and to train and classify the existing soldiers, distinguishing them into combat soldiers, auxiliary soldiers, and miscellaneous servants according to their 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 of silver set by Xiong Tingbi, Lu Cheng would also give the soldiers an additional half a tael of silver worth of food and supplies.
The more than a thousand people before Lu Cheng were recruited in this way, so naturally they must be treated equally here.
After this order was issued, Lu Cheng immediately won the support of Haizhou soldiers.
After all, in this era, which soldier wouldn't like a general who could get by without drawing a salary and also give extra subsidies to the soldiers?
However, after formulating these strategies, Lu Cheng was running low on food.
A few days later, when Lu Cheng's more than 1,000 soldiers entered Haizhou City and began training, they immediately caused quite a stir. Their uniform steps, full spirit, and strict military formations 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 troops to assist the other two thousand households in reorganizing the troops.
With the more than 1,000 soldiers and horses we had before, it would be much easier to train the rest of the soldiers and horses...