Chapter 48
Bai Lang's reward has also come, not just his. This time the Qing army broke through the pass but gave up halfway, especially the "great defeat" under the city of Yanzhou, which was a rare great victory since the Eastern Tartars. Especially this year, the disastrous defeat outside the pass buried the last nine elite troops and a general of the commander-in-chief, and the Ming army was also defeated by the bandit Li Chuang in the battle of Zhuxian Town, and Kaifeng Prefecture was captured... Under such a desperate situation, there was a great victory against the Eastern Tartars, which naturally made the court very happy, and even the current Emperor Chongzhen ate a few more bowls of rice.
So immediately, the military officials came to check the merits, and the eunuchs who came out to announce the imperial edict and praise the troops could not wait to come over under the emperor's urging. This great victory saw more than a hundred beheadings, and no men or women were captured by the Eastern Tartars. It can be said that the Qing troops suffered a great loss this time. So everyone in Yanzhou Prefecture was promoted, and it was impossible for them to get rich - the court was in great need of money, so they had to give more rewards in terms of official positions.
And since he had won such a great victory through planning, it was inevitable that Emperor Chongzhen would be desperate and intend to promote the chief officials of Yanzhou Prefecture to the ranks of Beijing officials, to govern a region and suppress bandits or resist the Eastern Tartars. Therefore, a series of civil servants from the prefect down really didn't know whether to cry or laugh, as things would be difficult to deal with after this extraordinary promotion. Bai Lang didn't care about the dilemma of those people. The eunuch in front of him looked quite prestigious, but he also took a few steps forward and wanted to shake Bai Lang's hand. "Ah, when the victory report was sent up, almost no one in the court believed that such a warrior had appeared in our Ming Dynasty. We believed it, and even congratulated coming of a warrior from heaven and our Ming Dynasty. Now it seems that the warrior Bai is indeed the resurrection of Emperor Guan!"
Bai Lang was still stunned by these words. He only remembered that the eunuch said his surname was Du, but he didn't hear his name clearly. His accent was quite heavy. Eunuch Du began to read the imperial edict. The edict was indeed written with excitement. It seemed that the emperor had asked the university scholar in charge of writing it to revise it again and again. In short, it sounded like Bai Lang was extremely loyal and brave. Then he gave him the title of Qianhu of Yanzhou, and his rank was changed to garrison commander.
Now Bai Lang went from being a commoner to a hereditary commander of the Yanzhou Guard. However, he still had no soldiers under his command. Even though his battalion was listed in the imperial edict and the Ministry of War, he still had no soldiers... And the next letter was a transfer order from the Ministry of War, transferring a commander of the Yanzhou Guard and his elite troops to follow Governor Deng's orders to eliminate the bandits. "This Governor Deng got promoted? He became a governor in one leap?" Bai Lang was also surprised. He didn't expect that the speed of promotion of a beheader was really fast.
At present, his double maces have been lost to the Qing soldiers, and it may take some time to get them back. Bai Lang also sighed - Governor Deng intended to let the Ministry of War make a pair of iron maces for him, but Bai Lang still declined. "This time, I will use a sword. Anyway, the use of iron maces is quite similar to that of swords - but for the sake of easier control, I will make a two-handed sword." However, before that, Governor Deng and his entourage had to go to the capital to meet the emperor, and Bai Lang naturally had to go with them, because the emperor specifically asked to meet this peerless warrior.
In fact, most people did not believe the report that one person killed dozens of enemy chiefs. Bai Lang read the report and objectively did not believe it himself. However, this was his achievement. Bai Lang was not an ordinary burly man, nor was he a nine-foot-tall general. In this era, although Bai Lang's height was considered quite outstanding, there were not a few people who were as tall as him. However, he was only a little over 1.8 meters tall, and there were still many such people in the Ming Dynasty.
Bai Lang is not a strong man, but he has a strong waist. His upper body is a standard inverted triangle, but he does not look like a fierce general who can wield a 64-jin purple gold mace. In this era, fierce generals all have big bellies, and Bai Lang feels his belly and sees six unclear abdominal muscles. He has to practice martial arts vigorously, and the lower the body fat percentage, the better. Shandong is not far from the capital, especially if you take the water route, which is more labor-saving.
Looking at Beijing, Bai Lang felt it was quite magnificent while riding on his horse. When he visited Beijing in his later life, the city wall had already been demolished. Now he could still see the majestic city wall. "It seems to be just like that?" He was not moved, nor did he think it was bad for the later generations to demolish the city wall. The architects of later generations spoke without difficulty, saying that they would keep the city wall and build a new city. When asked how they would solve the people's livelihood problems, where the money for building the city would come from, and how to raise so many materials, the architects did not care...
After entering the city, Bai Lang felt that it was not bad. According to legend, when it was dry, Beijing was full of sand, when it rained, the ground was full of mud, and there were piles of manure everywhere. But now it seems that there is no such thing. "Even if there is, it is the work of the Qing Dynasty!" Bai Lang muttered, but no one around could hear it clearly. There are houses in the city for officials who come to the court to live, and Governor Deng wanted to win over Bai Lang, so he specially ordered Bai Lang to live with him. This treatment is like seeing the treatment of the governor-level.
Bai Lang was indifferent. He just wanted to train his strength and practice martial arts every day, so it didn't matter where he lived. He also had an official robe, a green one with a bear on it, which was the robe for a fifth-rank official. But just after he settled down and before the audience, the Ministry of War sent him a new set of official robes, a scarlet robe with a leopard patch. "A fourth-rank official robe? Am I not a fifth-rank official?" Bai Lang didn't understand, but he didn't want to understand. He came here to practice martial arts through killing, and killing bandits was almost the same as killing Tartars. Before Yu Yu recovered, Bai Lang felt that he could kill his way out.
Bai Lang also attended the court meeting, but his seat was far outside, so he could hardly see what the emperor looked like. However, after the court meeting, he followed the newly appointed Governor-General Deng to the Lanting to meet Emperor Chongzhen. Emperor Chongzhen looked older than his actual age, his hair was slightly gray, and his clothes could not be said to be luxurious - but they could be said to be simple, not so exaggerated as to be patched. When meeting the emperor, the big Han general and the young eunuch did not seriously check whether Bai Lang had any weapons on him - if the rumors about this fierce general were true, then even if he was unarmed, it would be easy for him to kill people.
Only a few young eunuchs could separate Bai Lang from the emperor, but Emperor Chongzhen took the initiative to let the young eunuchs leave, "This is my Ming Dynasty's loyal and brave soldiers, why do you have to do this!" After a conversation with Governor Deng, Emperor Chongzhen once again became motivated - this kind of thing happened to him several times a year, and the impatient emperor was always like this. The emperor was hopeful again, and next he was going to meet the fierce general announced in the victory report, and when he saw him, Bai Lang could see a hint of appreciation in the emperor's eyes...
