A Journey Through the Worlds of Film and Television.

Chapter 173 Apocalypse Year 5

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In the spring of the fifth year of the Tianqi reign, the Southern Expeditionary Force sent the latest battle report, saying that it had sent troops to occupy Java and march towards Annan.

While Lu Cheng was sending reinforcements to the south and delivering a new batch of guns and ammunition, he also sent some generals to the south to replace some of the expeditionary force's generals.

After all, the north and the south are too far apart, separated by the entire Ming Dynasty. Those expeditionary generals lead their troops abroad all year round, so it is inevitable that they will have some uncertain ideas.

However, the families of those expeditionary generals are basically still in Liaodong, and the military supplies needed by the expeditionary force also need to be supplied by Liaodong, so it is unlikely that they can achieve independence.

Moreover, Lu Cheng also arranged many secret agents in the expeditionary force. Those secret agents were unaware of each other's existence, just to make it convenient for Lu Cheng to remotely monitor and grasp the situation of the entire expeditionary force.

At the same time, starting from April of the fifth year of the Tianqi reign, the South also began to gradually transport grain, cotton and other supplies to the North.

In the north, after harassment during the winter and spring, the Later Jin had entered a defensive state.

According to intelligence sent back by some spies lurking in the Later Jin, Huang Taiji has recently considered leading his troops north to compete with the Russian bear in the north for the bitter and cold land.

As for the Korean Peninsula, after several months of governance, it has gradually stabilized. Various educational and propaganda methods have been used in turn to dilute and suppress the local culture of the peninsula. With one hand holding a big stick and the other hand holding a big date, the people on the peninsula have gradually turned their hearts to China.

Not only that, in the past six months, many young Korean women have married soldiers from Liaodong.

The soldiers in Liaodong had high salaries, good treatment, and living conditions far better than ordinary residents of the Korean Peninsula, which indeed attracted many young women.

Moreover, in order to completely conquer the peninsula last year, the Later Jin also massacred many adult men on the peninsula, leaving only a few soldiers and many orphans and widows behind.

In this regard, the older soldiers among Liaodong did not look down on widows or not. Some of the small banners and general banners even married two or three wives.

This also greatly promoted national integration and eased the gap between the two sides.

Nowadays, most ordinary people on the entire peninsula have a good impression of the Liaodong soldiers, and some have even begun to take the initiative to learn Chinese.

The schools opened by Lu Cheng in various places were filled with students, and he began to teach Chinese language and characters.

In addition, teachers would often assign tasks to students, asking them to teach Chinese to their parents and relatives after returning home.

Teachers will also make home visits from time to time. If the parents or relatives of a student can communicate in Chinese proficiently, the teachers will give certain encouragement and rewards.

Ordinary people have no intention of protecting their own culture and heritage, they only care about tangible benefits.

I believe that it won’t be long before Chinese becomes the official language on the entire Korean Peninsula, and Chinese culture will become mainstream.

Only then will we truly conquer this land.

While Lu Cheng was concentrating on development, the generals of Liaodong also began to recruit craftsmen and study firearms.

It’s a pity that not every general has the financial and material resources like Lu Cheng, and not every general can recruit skilled craftsmen.

In fact, Sun Chengzong also sent people to send some of the muzzle-loading and breech-loading flintlock rifles made by Lu Cheng to the capital, so that the craftsmen in the capital could study and imitate them.

But there are also some skilled craftsmen in the capital. Most of them are ordinary craftsmen who are just trying to make a living. The three-barreled guns and bird guns they usually make would have various quality problems, not to mention the flintlock rifles that require drilling rifling.

After a period of research, the generals of Liaodong spent all their savings to buy first and second generation flintlock rifles from Lu Cheng.

Lu Cheng did not refuse this. As long as they could afford the money, he would sell it to them.

Anyway, the most advanced third-generation weapons are now in mass production and are gradually being equipped to the military. As for those first- and second-generation weapons, just leave them to it.

Moreover, with the continuous improvement of technology, the research on the fourth-generation bolt-action rifle is also constantly breaking through and is approaching the weapon standards of World War I.

With an expert like Lu Cheng, weapons research can avoid many detours and achieve phased leapfrog development.

Lu Cheng directly selected representative guns of each era for imitation, and as long as the technology was capable of it, they could be produced.

In the autumn of the fifth year of the Tianqi reign, Ding Baiying and Zhang Yan gave birth successfully, each giving birth to a son, named Lu Junyi and Lu Junyuan respectively.

After having three sons in succession, Lu Cheng began to look forward to having a daughter.

The eldest son, Lu Junhong, who was over three years old, ran around the yard all day long under the care of maids. He was very energetic and made the maids who served him closely very tired.

It was also during this period that Lu Cheng sent someone to Zhou Wencheng's house to propose marriage and brought Zhou Miaoxuan into the family.

If it were someone else, Zhou Wen really wouldn't want to let his daughter be a concubine, but Lu Cheng is the eldest brother now, and he has also been granted a title and become the Earl of Dongping.

As for whether Zhou Miaoxuan is unwilling or not, that is not important.

Her parents' orders and the matchmaker's words meant she had no choice but to get married.

Of course, Lu Cheng's attraction to Zhou Miaoxuan was purely lustful. Zhou Miaoxuan was already an adult, with a well-developed body. She was obviously a woman with a broad mind and a hidden talent.

The two women in Lu Cheng's family had to breastfeed their children for the time being and could not get close to each other. Lu Cheng himself did not want to use the little maid in his house casually, so naturally he had to find another suitable and beautiful one to warm the bed.

Ding Baiying and Zhang Yan didn't say anything about this. It was very normal for a man to have several wives and concubines.

Even Ding Baiying's apprentice Ding Xiu had three or four women at home, one of whom was robbed from the grassland and one was married from the Korean Peninsula.

Even Ding Xian has two wives.

As a man, after becoming successful, who doesn’t want to be surrounded by beauties and enjoy all the tenderness?

Of course, Lu Cheng was not obsessed with it, nor did he neglect government affairs and personal training.

Normally, if I can’t sleep at night, I’ll just move around and have some fun, and do whatever I need to do during the day.

Moreover, Lu Cheng himself is also a senior traditional Chinese medicine practitioner who pays great attention to his own maintenance and conditioning. He will never let his physical fitness decline due to excessive love affairs.

In the history of China, there are very few emperors who can live over a hundred years old. In this life, Lu Cheng not only wants to enjoy the best of everything, but also wants to be a long-lived emperor, unify China, conquer the world, build a true empire on which the sun never sets, and experience the feeling of being a "captain of football".

It is worth mentioning that a major event occurred in the fifth year of the Tianqi reign. When the carpenter emperor Zhu Youxiao was taking a boat trip in the Western Garden, a sudden strong wind blew up and the newly built treasure ship was blown over, causing the Tianqi emperor to fall into the water, triggering the special property of "the Ming emperor is easily soluble in water."

Afterwards, although Zhu Youxiao was rescued, his health was sometimes good and sometimes bad. His illness recurred and he was bedridden for many years, often not even able to attend the morning court.

When the news reached Liaodong, Lu Cheng had already anticipated it.

In real history, it is still unknown whether Zhu Youxiao died in a conspiracy.

But in the world of "The Sword of the Assassin", Zhu Youxiao's death was obviously a conspiracy.

Behind this conspiracy were the future Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian, the Donglin Party who were severely suppressed by Wei Zhongxian, and perhaps some other factors.

Of course, Lu Cheng was not very interested in these. Only by constantly strengthening himself could he have the ability to influence the world in the future.

Any conspiracy or trickery will be useless in the face of absolute strength.

However, Lu Cheng had already made plans in advance for the Donglin Party and the Shanxi merchants.

In fact, there are some things that you don't need to do yourself. You just need a little guidance and you can reap the benefits...