A Journey Through the Worlds of Film and Television.

Chapter 120 Attack Again

Map of Liaodong in the Late Ming Dynasty

In one day, Lu Cheng instilled courage in these soldiers and told them that they could make money by following Captain Lu out of the city to kill the enemy.

Seeing everyone eager to sign up, Lu Cheng stretched out his hand to signal everyone to be quiet, and then said again: "Everyone has seen what happened today. Everyone has received more than eight taels of silver. It is equivalent to the military salary of many people for most of the year, right?"

"Sir, we may not receive this much military pay in a year."

"Yes, it's pretty good to get half of the military salary a year."

Everyone is poor, so who wouldn’t want a chance to make money?

"However, of the enemies I killed today, except for a few killed by Ding Xiu, the rest were killed by me. After all, this is the first time for everyone to go out with me, so I don't care about these things, so I divided the silver among everyone.

But if you do this again next time, I will also lose money, don’t you agree?"

Those who had not received any silver nodded immediately, and those who had received silver also nodded immediately: "Your Excellency is right."

After all, they just helped to clean up the battlefield and got eight or nine taels of silver. Think about it and you will know that such a good thing will not happen often.

Lu Cheng continued, "Moreover, if we go out together in the future, and one of the brothers risked his life to kill a Tartar, he would have to share the silver with everyone else. Isn't that unfair?"

"Master Lu is right. Only those who have made contributions can share the silver."

Lu Cheng nodded, "That's right, only those who have made contributions can get the silver. So, we have to change the rules next time we go out. If there are still people willing to go out of the city with me tomorrow, whoever can kill a Tartar will get the money from selling the horse, armor, and weapons on his body. The things on this Tartar should be worth at least 20 taels, right?"

Everyone's breath was held when they heard this. This was more than twenty taels of silver, a huge sum that many people could not earn even after working for two years.

"In addition, whoever kills a Tartar will not only get all the spoils, but I will also give him an extra five taels of silver. Moreover, as long as you follow me out of the city, even if you don't kill the last Tartar, but just clean up the battlefield, I will give everyone some hard work fees when I come back. Apart from anything else, I will definitely not let anyone return empty-handed."

After he finished speaking, Lu Cheng looked at everyone and asked, "Is there anyone else willing to go with me?"

"I'm going."

"I also need to go."

All the soldiers who had followed Lu Cheng out of the city once today immediately stood up, including the guy who was shot by the enemy.

Seeing this scene, Lu Cheng nodded with satisfaction: "I'll state in advance that you may encounter danger if you leave the city tomorrow. If you are afraid of death, it's not too late to withdraw now."

After hearing this, some people hesitated and retreated, but most people continued to sign up enthusiastically.

Lu Cheng took a look at the situation and found that among the more than 40 people who left the city today, several of them actually backed off. Lu Cheng immediately wrote down the names of those people and would never use them again.

Afterwards, Lu Cheng selected another forty people to accompany him in the expedition tomorrow.

None of them was injured, and the injured one was still a little unconvinced: "Sir, I was just bitten by the Tartar's arrow, the wound is not deep, maybe it will heal tomorrow, it's not a big deal."

"You'd better take good care of your wound. The bumpy ride on horseback can easily cause your wound to split. Don't worry, I will definitely take you with me when you're well."

Afterwards, Lu Cheng had people return Li Ruzhen's horses and sort out the remaining war horses.

Afterwards, Lu Cheng called Ding Xiu and Ding Xian over and asked them to select some smart soldiers to publicize everything Lu Cheng had done today.

On the one hand, it creates the image of Lu Cheng as a brave man.

On the other hand, of course, it is to achieve the effect of "spending a fortune on horse bones".

At present, there are still many defeated soldiers who have fled from various places in Shenyang City. Lu Cheng wants to attract those defeated soldiers to join them voluntarily.

The situation only fermented overnight, but early the next morning, groups of defeated soldiers came to him and asked to join Lu Qianhu's army.

Lu Cheng asked Ding Xian to take people to be responsible for the registration of photos, and to accept all the defeated soldiers who were willing to come.

Afterwards, Lu Cheng took Ding Xiu and set off again with forty cavalrymen.

This time, Lu Cheng was not planning to just kill a few scouts.

Since the three generals Li Ruzhen, Li Guangrong and He Shixian had each led several thousand troops to the north, Lu Cheng's small group ran for dozens of miles without seeing any enemy scouts.

It was not until he approached Tieling that Lu Cheng encountered He Shixian's three thousand soldiers.

When Lu Cheng read some history books in his previous life, he always focused on the history of the last years of the dynasty. He had some knowledge of He Shixian, the fierce general of the late Ming Dynasty.

Long before the Battle of Sarhu, the Eight Banners Army attacked Qinghe Fort. He Shixian led his troops to reinforce and beheaded more than a hundred people.

During the Battle of Sarhu, He Shixian suggested to Li Rubai that he should join forces with another large army to attack the Later Jin army. Unfortunately, Li Rubai was too afraid of the enemy to send out troops, which led to a great defeat.

In the previous battle of Tieling, He Shixian was the only one who dared to send reinforcements. Unfortunately, when He Shixian arrived at Tieling, Tieling had already fallen. After the Eight Banners Army swept through Tieling, they withdrew. He Shixian encountered the rearguard troops of the Eight Banners Army and fought with them, beheading more than a hundred of them.

It was precisely because of these outstanding performances that He Shixian was promoted two or three levels and became a general, stationed in Hupiyi between Shenyang and Liaoyang.

Historically, Xiong Tingbi’s ability to stabilize the situation in Liaodong and repel Nurhaci’s attack was inseparable from He Shixian, a brave and capable general.

Moreover, He Shixian was both brave and resourceful. He accurately predicted the movements of the Eight Banners Army many times. He also took advantage of the geographical conditions of Liaodong and fully utilized the advantages of artillery, causing the Eight Banners Army to suffer heavy losses repeatedly.

It can be said that it was thanks to the cooperation between Xiong Tingbi and He Shixian that the situation in Liaodong was stabilized.

If Lu Cheng wants to gain a foothold in Liaodong in the future, he must of course get familiar with General He in advance.

Upon hearing that Lu Cheng was coming to visit, He Shixian immediately sent someone to greet him and personally stood at the door of the tent, waiting for Lu Cheng.

In fact, in the early Ming Dynasty, the general was not a fixed official title, but a general temporarily appointed to lead troops when a war broke out, similar to an imperial envoy. When the war started, the general was given a seal to lead the troops, and after the war ended, the seal was returned.

By the end of the Ming Dynasty, due to constant wars on the borders, the general had become a fixed general guarding a certain area.

A general usually has a thousand soldiers at the level of an independent regiment, and can temporarily manage an army of 20,000.

In terms of official rank, General He is equivalent to a second-rank military general.

However, Lu Cheng, a fifth-rank military officer, is still far behind his opponent.

However, the person behind Lu Cheng is Xiong Tingbi, so even He Shixian cannot help but take him seriously.

"I am Lu Cheng, honored to meet General He."

“Captain Lu, you are too polite. Please come in quickly. I heard that you led your troops out of the city yesterday and killed more than a dozen scouts?”

"It is true, but it is just a spy."

"It's already pretty good. However, if we go north after Tieling, we may encounter a large enemy force at any time. I'm afraid the cavalry under Captain Lu are not enough. How about Captain Lu temporarily joining me and marching together?"

"Thank you for your kindness, General He. I will lead my troops to continue heading north, clear out the scouts, and investigate the enemy's situation. If we find a large number of enemy troops, we can inform General He in advance. How do you think?"

"In that case, I'll have to trouble Captain Lu."

After passing He Shixian's army, Lu Cheng continued to lead his men northward. When passing Tieling, Lu Cheng deliberately took dozens of cavalrymen to take a look at the city.

At this time, Tieling had just suffered a massacre not long ago, and the whole city was dead silent. It was summer, and rotting corpses and flies flying everywhere could be seen.

Such a tragic scene made many of the cavalrymen behind Lu Cheng vomit.

These soldiers who came out of Kyoto City witnessed the brutality of the Later Jin Tartars for the first time.

Because they were worried about contracting the plague, Lu Cheng only took them for a quick look and left in a hurry. During the visit, he asked them to cover their mouths and noses. After leaving the city, he gave each of them some anti-toxic and antiseptic medicine just in case.

"Yesterday, I helped you make money. Today, I let you see the cruelty of the Later Jin Tartars. If anyone is scared now, you can turn back. I won't laugh at you.

But even if I am the only one left, I will continue to move forward. Not for anything else, but to avenge the dead Ming people! From now on, those who are willing to stay and fight with me are my brothers, Lu Cheng! Is there anyone who wants to leave?"

After the words fell, there was a moment of silence below, and then Ding Xiu spoke loudly: "I am willing to follow you, sir, to kill the enemy and avenge you!"

"Kill the enemy and take revenge!"

"Okay, brothers, follow me and kill the enemy!"

At this moment, dozens of cavalrymen seemed to have something different for the first time...