kvmb Chapter 143: The Queen Who Left Her Name in History
Chapter 143: The Queen Who Left Her Name in History
Just when Lu Cheng had recruited five thousand households and was carrying out construction and military training, Emperor Wanli in Yanjing City also came to the end of his life.
Emperor Wanli Zhu Yijun became emperor when he was only ten years old. In his early years, with the assistance of Zhang Juzheng, the chief minister of the cabinet, he also created the situation of "Wanli Restoration". In his later years, he did not attend court for 28 years, but the Ming Dynasty still operated normally. It must be said that this is also a kind of skill.
He lived to be fifty-eight years old and had been emperor for forty-eight years. He had a great time in the harem and had basically no regrets in his life.
However, the death of Emperor Wanli had no impact on Lu Cheng. It was just a change of emperor. He still had to live his life and worry about all kinds of troubles.
In fact, for Lu Cheng, the death of the emperor was not as important as the sweet potatoes and corn in the fields.
Lu Cheng originally sent people south to collect sweet potato and corn seeds, and selected a suitable piece of land outside Haizhou City specifically for planting sweet potatoes and corn, preparing to use them as seeds for the future.
Unexpectedly, the Later Jin army failed to capture Haizhou City. Before leaving, they took out their anger on the surrounding land, sending cavalry to trample on the land and destroying large tracts of fertile farmland outside Haizhou City.
Now that he had finally finished all his affairs and looked at the fields outside the city which were in a mess, Lu Cheng had no choice but to send people south again to collect seeds of various crops.
This time, Lu Cheng simply sent more people to collect seeds of crops such as sweet potatoes, corn, potatoes, peppers, peanuts, and sunflowers, and plant them on the land near Haizhou.
Sweet potatoes and corn can be used as food, potatoes can be used as both food and vegetables, peppers and peanuts can also be used as dishes or condiments. Peanuts and sunflowers can also be used to extract oil.
These crops were introduced to China during the Ming Dynasty, and most of them spread from the southeast coast.
Just when Lao Ma from the logistics department had arranged the personnel and was ready to set off, Lu Cheng suddenly thought of someone.
Afterwards, Lu Cheng recruited a team leader from the special forces team and assigned him a special task.
Since Lu Cheng was promoted to commander, the size of the special forces team has been expanded again to one hundred people, divided into ten teams.
Currently, Ding Xian is leading a team of veteran special forces soldiers to train 50 new recruits. The remaining 40 special forces soldiers are ready to be dispatched by Lu Cheng at any time.
The captain of the special forces team recruited by Lu Cheng was named Zhang Quansheng. He was also one of the cavalrymen who followed Lu Cheng to kill the Jiannu scouts when Lu Cheng first arrived in Liaodong.
He has participated in every battle organized by Lu Cheng. He has extremely rich combat experience, is loyal, and is very capable, which is why he became a team leader of the special forces team.
"Zhang Quansheng, I'm going to give you a special mission this time. Take your team and select 20 elite soldiers from the reconnaissance brigade to follow the caravan southward through the pass and head to the Central Plains. After arriving in the Central Plains, you will lead people to Xiangfu County, Kaifeng Prefecture, to look for a scholar named Zhang Guoji. He should have a daughter who is about thirteen or fourteen years old this year.
After you find this person, invite the whole family here. Remember, invite, don’t scare the little girl.”
Zhang Quansheng immediately grasped the key point when he heard the last sentence: "General, I understand. I will sincerely and respectfully invite Mr. Zhang and his family to come here, especially Miss Zhang. I will treat her with great respect, right?"
"I understand. Take these banknotes with you and take good care of them on the way."
Zhang Quansheng respectfully took the banknote from Lu Cheng with both hands and found that there were three hundred taels. He took this mission more seriously. There was no need to think too much. His master was most likely interested in the girl from the Zhang family.
What I just don’t understand is how my general knew about the little girl who was thousands of miles away?
Could it be that the general had a childhood marriage? Was he planning to take the future wife who was engaged to him?
However, Zhang Quansheng did not dare to think too much. After returning, he immediately summoned his team and talked to the captain of the reconnaissance brigade about the situation. He selected twenty of the most elite scouts, brought goose-feather swords, bows and crossbows, and various equipment, and followed the caravan south.
In fact, Lu Cheng also thought of the carpenter emperor of the Ming Dynasty who was about to ascend the throne, and then he thought of the carpenter emperor’s empress, Empress Zhang.
Empress Zhang's real name was Zhang Yan, and she had the same name and surname as the pretty girl from the medical clinic in the original drama of "Embroidered Spring Blade".
It’s just that the pretty girl from the clinic is just a pretty girl from a small family.
This Empress Zhang Yan was the most beautiful woman who stood out from among five thousand beauties selected from all over the country of Ming Dynasty after passing eight levels.
Moreover, this Empress Zhang was not only extremely beautiful, but also well-versed in history books, had both talent and virtue, and had the demeanor of a queen. She is known as one of the five great queens of ancient China along with Xia Ji of the Spring and Autumn Period, Empress Zhen of Emperor Wen of Wei, Empress Li Zu'e of Emperor Wenxuan of Northern Qi, and Empress Xiao of Emperor Yang of Sui.
Unfortunately, Empress Zhang was not very lucky. She married the carpenter emperor Zhu Youxiao and became a widow after only seven years as empress.
Moreover, since Zhu Youxiao concentrated on being a carpenter and favored the eunuch Wei Zhongxian, he handed over all important affairs of the court to Wei Zhongxian and allowed Wei Zhongxian to control the government.
Empress Zhang advised Zhu Youxiao to be close to virtuous officials and stay away from villains, which offended Wei Zhongxian and his mistress. Empress Zhang finally got pregnant, but Keshi secretly made trouble for her, which directly led to the fetus's stillbirth. Empress Zhang could no longer have children.
Interestingly, the empresses of the Ming Dynasty were generally chosen from the daughters of commoners or minor officials, and rarely the daughters of nobles or high-ranking officials.
Perhaps it was because of this that the Ming Dynasty produced many virtuous empresses.
Moreover, the Ming Dynasty produced many romantic emperors, and even monogamous emperors, which is also quite interesting.
For example, the Wanli Emperor who just passed away, although he played very extravagantly in the harem, he had a deep relationship with his queen, Wang Xijie, and the couple lived in harmony.
Even Emperor Wanli insisted on establishing the heir instead of the eldest son, and waited for the queen to give him a son so that he could be made the crown prince. However, Queen Wang only gave birth to a daughter in her lifetime.
It was not until Queen Wang died that Emperor Wanli appointed Zhu Changluo as the crown prince. This also caused a dispute over the throne, which led to Zhu Changluo's death after only being emperor for more than a month due to taking the "red pill" presented by his subordinates. This is how the Carpenter Emperor came to power.
After reviewing the history and sighing about some random things, Lu Cheng has already made new plans for the future.
This time, Lu Cheng took the future queen of the carpenter emperor away in advance. On the one hand, he also wanted to see this queen who was famous in history books. On the other hand, he wanted to see if the carpenter emperor would collapse the Ming Dynasty faster without a virtuous queen.
As for which reason is more important, it doesn’t matter.
Of course, Lu Cheng is now in charge of a region, and he has a bunch of rough men under him, so he really needs a few women to take care of his daily life.
After fighting for so long, can't we enjoy ourselves once in a while?
Of course, even if the future Queen Zhang was brought here, she is just a little girl now.
Putting all this aside for the time being, Lu Cheng called Ding Xiu over again and said, "Ding Xiu, go get the cavalry team to prepare. We'll go to the grassland in the next two days to pick up a batch of good horses and expand the cavalry team."
"Yes, sir. How many men are we taking this time? All cavalry?"
"Yes, all the cavalry."
In the future, whether fighting against the Jiannu, the Joseon Dynasty, or the various tribes on the grassland, an elite cavalry will be indispensable.
Relying on the recent glass, soap, and newly developed flower soap businesses, Lu Cheng made a lot of money and saved a lot of money.
If you have money, you should spend it. Money that cannot be spent is just a pile of metal and waste paper. Only money that is spent can be transformed into real strength.
Today, Lu Cheng owns the entire Haizhou Guard and has a stable source of income, which is enough to support more than a thousand cavalry.
Two days later, Lu Cheng led his cavalry, fully armed and carrying silver, and headed north to the grassland to buy horses.
This time, Lu Cheng had made full preparations. If he could buy them with money, he would buy them with money. If he couldn't buy them with money, he would not buy them with money. Anyway, he had to get some horses...