A Journey Through the Worlds of Film and Television.

Chapter 130 Winter Development

After returning to the base, Lu Cheng counted the gains of this trip, including the two families of Fan Wencheng and Li Yongfang, and the final sweep of a tribe. This time he really became rich overnight.

The gold alone added up to more than 12,200 taels, thanks to the generosity of Li Yongfang and Fan Wencheng.

The silver and silver notes amounted to more than 54,000 taels, and the remaining jewelry, ancient calligraphy and paintings were expected to sell for tens of thousands of taels of silver in total.

If all of these were converted into silver, it would be around 220,000 taels.

Fortunately, the density of gold is nearly twenty times that of water. One tael is equal to 37.3 grams. More than twelve thousand taels of gold is less than five hundred kilograms, so the volume is not very large.

The density of silver is more than ten times that of water. Thirty thousand taels of silver notes plus more than twenty thousand taels of silver do not take up too much space.

Moreover, Lu Cheng's storage space is completely flexible. After those irregularly shaped gold and silver items are stored in it, the gaps basically take up no space.

In fact, all the gold, silver and jewelry combined do not take up as much space as the antiques, calligraphy and paintings.

In addition to these gains, they also brought back twenty or thirty war horses and some swords, bows and arrows and other weapons, which was also a small gain.

All Lu Cheng paid was about twenty explosive packs.

With more than 200,000 taels of silver, not to mention a team of more than a thousand people, even a team of more than ten thousand people can be supported for more than a year.

Of course, there were two major gains from this trip, namely the heads of Li Yongfang and Fan Wencheng.

After counting the harvest, Lu Cheng immediately took the two heads to meet Xiong Tingbi.

When Xiong Tingbi saw the two human heads that Lu Cheng had displayed, he was also shocked: "Lu Cheng...how did you do that?"

Xiong Tingbi was not very familiar with Fan Wencheng. After all, before Fan Wencheng defected to the Later Jin Dynasty, his family had fallen into poverty and he was just a scholar.

As for Li Yongfang, Xiong Tingbi had met Li Yongfang when he inspected Liaodong 10 years ago. At that time, Li Yongfang was already the garrison commander of Fushun, the highest military commander of the entire Fushun.

When Lu Cheng said he wanted to chop off the heads of these two men, Xiong Tingbi just treated it as a joke.

Now, Lu Cheng actually placed the heads of these two men in front of him. How could Xiong Tingbi not be shocked?

This was a direct penetration into the capital of the Later Jin, where they successfully killed two high-ranking Jiannu leaders and escaped unscathed.

"Sir, a few days ago, one of my men and I rode four horses for hundreds of miles and sneaked into Hetuala City at night. We successfully killed these two traitors..."

Lu Cheng simply described the process, and Xiong Tingbi could imagine the danger. Once Lu Cheng was discovered, he would face the pursuit of countless Jian slaves, and there would be no chance of survival.

"This move is really, really too risky."

"But I succeeded, didn't I?"

"Yes, you succeeded. This is a great achievement. These two villains surrendered to the Later Jin and assisted the tyrants in their tyranny. They are indeed a great threat to our Ming Dynasty. Now that you have successfully killed this man, it will surely deter the Later Jin and boost the morale of our Liaodong.

I will immediately write a memorial and send someone to send the two heads to the capital to ask for your credit. However, in the next period of time, we must strengthen our defenses to prevent retaliation from the Later Jin. "

"We do need to strengthen our defenses. However, I'm afraid the Later Jin won't come this year. Judging from the current weather, it will snow heavily in the next two days, which is not conducive to marching and fighting. Nurhaci will not rashly send troops. Of course, if Nurhaci really comes in the snow, we will definitely make him suffer a great loss."

"You are right. It seems that you have considered everything carefully. I will start writing the memorial now. You can go back to train the troops first."

"Yes, my lord."

Shortly after Lu Cheng left, Xiong Tingbi wrote the memorial and immediately sent someone to deliver it to the capital.

The next morning, snowflakes began to fall from the sky. In Lu Cheng's military camp, the soldiers stopped training and stayed in the barracks, staring at the falling snow outside the window in a daze.

Lu Cheng asked the cooks in the logistics department to kill two pigs, and stewed the pork with cabbage in a big pot, adding pork bone soup, so that all the soldiers could have a taste of meat.

When the aroma of meat spread throughout the camp, the soldiers immediately became excited: "Today we have meat to eat again. I am almost dying of greed."

"Hehe, it's better to follow our captain. Not only can we eat enough, but we can also have meat every now and then. If it were in previous years, we would still be starving now."

"Who said it wasn't true? I've gained weight in the past few months. We must follow the captain carefully from now on."

The soldiers gathered in groups of three or four, chatting and waiting for the food to be ready.

Lu Cheng was looking at the heavy snow outside, but he was thinking about a problem.

It is definitely impossible to conduct outdoor training during the snow, but the soldiers cannot be left idle either.

Then, Lu Cheng looked at one of his men standing aside and said, "Old Ma, how many Tongsheng scholars are there in our military camp now?"

"Your Excellency, there are currently three scholars and twelve students in the military camp, and the remaining twenty-one clerks who have read and can read."

"So, you gather all the literate people together, and teach the soldiers how to read by the general flag."

"Sir, it may not be easy to teach those soldiers to read and write."

"It's just to let them learn some simple common characters. It's not to let them study for the imperial examination. Let me make a rule that for every character they learn, they will be rewarded two cents. If they can't learn a hundred characters by the end of this winter, they will be punished to clean the entire barracks for two months."

Hearing this, Lao Ma was silent for a moment: "This may be feasible."

"Since it is feasible, let's do it immediately."

"Yes, my lord."

"Wait, if this is done well, everyone who teaches literacy will be rewarded. If the general flag has the highest literacy rate, the teacher who teaches them will be rewarded with five taels of silver. There are more than twenty general flags in the army, rank them, and the top five teachers will be rewarded."

"Yes, sir! Can I teach as well?"

"If you can do it without affecting the work at hand, go ahead."

"Thank you, sir."

So, the soldiers, who had eaten and drunk their fill, were thinking of going back to rest, but they were summoned by their respective general flags to attend literacy classes.

Some soldiers were excited when they heard that they could read and write, and thought that they could become learned people in the future.

Some soldiers, however, were reluctant to learn and some even resisted it.

Fortunately, Lu Cheng’s army now has strict discipline and orders are enforced. Anyone who disobeys orders will face severe punishment, and no one dares to disobey orders easily.

Soon, in this snowy weather, the not-so-uniform sound of reading began to be heard in the military camp: "When a person is born, his nature is good..."

Lu Cheng organized this literacy class in order to improve the literacy rate of his subordinates and make it easier to carry out ideological construction.

Moreover, Lu Cheng did not want all the officers under his command to be illiterate. At least all officers above the rank of general flag must be able to read and understand military orders.

After arranging everything, Lu Cheng went to the carpenter's workshop again, took out some drawings, and asked the carpenters to make some sleds and poles.

In heavy snow conditions, the training of ordinary soldiers can be stopped, but the training of special operations teams cannot be stopped.

At present, the special operations team formed by Lu Cheng has only ten people, who are the best selected from hundreds of miles away. They have undergone more than two months of rigorous training in physical fitness, combat, archery, horsemanship, etc., and are already elite soldiers.

Of course, they are just elite soldiers, and are far from the standards of a special operations team.

Lu Cheng treated the special operations team very well, with each person receiving five taels of silver per month and being able to eat meat every day.

Such high treatment naturally requires them to try their best to train, learn various combat skills, master various techniques and knowledge, so that they can complete various tasks assigned by Lu Cheng in the future.

As for these people, as long as Lu Cheng is free, he will personally train them. If Lu Cheng is not free, Ding Xian will train them.

After this period of training, Ding Xian has grown up and has initially acquired the basic qualities of a special forces soldier.

After all, this person is also the target of his main mission, so Lu Cheng naturally has to pay special attention to him.

For Ding Xiu and Ding Xian, Lu Cheng has already begun to strengthen their physical fitness and improve their combat effectiveness.

It is worth mentioning that Liaodong is rich in medicinal resources, especially some main medicines for configuring medicines to improve physical fitness. There is no shortage of them here and the prices are relatively cheap.

Lu Cheng has already purchased a batch of medicinal herbs, planning to improve the physical fitness of ten special forces members as well as Ding Xiu and Ding Xian.

If conditions permit in the future, Lu Cheng will also consider improving the physical fitness of some of his loyal centurions.