All Heavens and Worlds Modified History System

Chapter 4: Ming Army’s Business

"The emperor knows me? So what?"

"Can you provide money, food, military supplies, and soldiers?"

Chen Ran’s first thought was why there weren’t any subtitles related to Emperor Chongzhen.

If he did, his hope of saving the Ming Dynasty would immediately increase significantly.

The current Ming Dynasty still has some assets, unlike more than ten years later when it lost its last three pounds of nails.

These assets are very rich, and Chen Ran wants them very much. If he gets them, he can speed up the process of destroying the Eastern Tartar and allow him to return home faster.

After being away for so long, he didn't know if Ruyan would still wait for him.

As Chen Ran's mind was spinning, two lines of subtitles appeared in front of him again.

'Emperor Chongzhen learned that you were the first to shout "Long live the Holy Emperor" and thought you were a loyal captain.'

'Note: You can modify one of the words.'

After returning to the palace last month, the angel who came to convey the emperor's imperial edict told Emperor Chongzhen in vivid detail what happened at the Jizhen parade ground.

The fact that Chen Ran took the lead in shouting was naturally the focus of the description.

In the entire Ji Town, the angel only remembered this one name.

Emperor Chongzhen was also impressed by Chen Ran, a small military commander.

'How come it's just one word again? Is there no pattern at all?'

'Historical events can be modified, and things related to me can also be modified. It's just that the changes are too small. If the whole line can be changed, it would be simple.'

The current environment did not allow him to think deeply, so Chen Ran quickly erased the word "总" and replaced it with "千".

Then he showed excitement and said, "It is really unbelievable that my name has reached the ears of the Holy Emperor..."

In the modern world, as long as you enter society, basically everyone can quickly become a movie star and perform with no pressure at all.

Zhao Lujiao nodded with satisfaction, "Since the left troop position is vacant, you will be the commander of the left troop of the Central Association of this unit."

As soon as these words were spoken, Zhu Laitong became very anxious, because he wanted to reserve this position for his confidant.

I opened my mouth to express my objection, but what came out was "General, you are right. That's exactly what we should do."

He himself is the deputy general of the China Association, and since he said so, it is natural that others would not say anything more.

'The modification has been completed, and the reward will be issued.'

"One hundred and twenty dan of rice and one hundred and twenty rolls of cotton cloth were issued as salary notes."

Qianzong was of the sixth rank, and his annual salary of rice was 120 dan, while his salary in banknotes was directly converted into a discount.

After all, to be able to receive silver directly, one must be at least a fourth-rank official.

With the reward, Chen Ran didn't care much about the money and food.

What he cares about is how much the strength in his hands has increased.

According to the Ming system, 448 people formed a department, and there was one captain.

The two divisions form a unit, which has 898 people and one captain.

In other words, Chen Ran now has nine hundred people under his command.

After a banquet, he was promoted from captain to captain.

This terrifying speed of promotion is comparable to that of Tao Chengdao, who was personally conferred the title of Wanhu by Emperor Taizu, tied a rocket to a chair and flew into the sky. He was later praised by later generations as the "first person in astronautics".

"Master Chen~~~"

A few days later, just after dawn, Chen Ran got up and washed up when he heard someone knocking on the door.

When he opened the door, he saw that it was Zhao Lujiao's servant again.

Compared to last time, the servant's face looked much better, and he even smiled.

"Master Chen." The servant bowed. "My governor ordered me to deliver the gift to you."

Chen Ran was surprised. "Gift, what kind of gift?"

"My master's house is in Ji County." The servant said as he took out the house deed and handed it over.

"This item is too valuable, I dare not accept it." Chen Ran evaded the question, "General Zhao, this is..."

"My governor has been ordered to move to Yongping Prefecture, so this house is given to you, my Lord."

Yongping Prefecture is Qinhuangdao and also the gateway to Shanhaiguan. It is obvious that in the eyes of the imperial court, dealing with the Eastern Tartars is the most important thing.

"Master Chen, please don't refuse." The servant stuffed the house deed into Chen Ran's hand. "This is a gift from my governor."

Zhao Lujiao gave the house to Chen Ran, on the one hand because he admired this man and felt that there seemed to be some kind of fate between them.

On the other hand, the person who gave him the house was Zhu Guoyan, the commander-in-chief of the Central Association.

Zhu Guoyan gave him the house in order to ask Zhao Lushi to speak well of him in the matter of the military pay.

After all, those who were rioting for pay were all soldiers under his command, so of course he could not escape responsibility.

But after receiving the gift, Zhao Lujiao did not help.

In the end, Zhu Guoyan had to use his connections in the court to barely get himself a chance to make amends for his crime.

If you accept gifts but don't do anything, you will certainly create a big enemy. I simply didn't come to the last banquet.

Zhao Lujiao, who had already moved to another town, had no shortage of houses, so he simply gave this one to Chen Ran.

Looking back at the shabby house he was living in, Chen Ran could only accept it with reluctance, "Governor Zhao's gift, I will definitely repay you in the future."

The house that Zhao Lujiao gave was a standard wealthy home in the north.

The three-courtyard house was large and beautiful, and even the servants and maids were left behind.

When he arrived at the gate of the mansion on horseback with the servants, the housekeeper had been waiting there with a group of servants and maids for a long time.

When he saw Chen Ran, he immediately bowed and shouted "Master~~~"

Chen Ran moved his lips and got off his horse. "Zhao Lujiao sent such a valuable gift. Could it be that he knew that he was originally the general of Jimen and I changed him to the general of Jizhen?"

"Master Chen." The servant saluted and said, "I'm leaving now."

The butler quickly stood up and skillfully stuffed the red envelope into the hands of the servant.

The servant accepted it very naturally, said goodbye with a smile, and rode away on his horse to catch up with Zhao Lujiao who had already left for Yongping Prefecture.

The people of the Ming Dynasty were so skilled at welcoming and seeing off guests that it made people feel distressed.

"master."

The butler lagged behind Chen Ran and led him around the house to introduce him, and even brought him the account book to look at.

Zhao Lujiao was very considerate and left him five hundred taels of silver, which was a huge sum of money.

After all, with Chen Ran's current salary as a captain, if he wanted to maintain such a large mansion, he would probably have to embezzle most of the food and wages of his subordinates.

"It's a favor that needs to be repaid."

Chen Ran thought about the historical figure Zhao Lushi, who died in battle when Huang Taiji broke through the pass the next year. This favor must be repaid when the time comes.

It's not just a matter of personal preference. A capable general like Zhao Lujiao must be kept.

If you want to save the Ming Dynasty, you must preserve the Ming Dynasty's famous generals and strength and consume the strength of the Eastern Tartars.

We must fight a good battle when the Ji Si Rebellion breaks out next year.

If you fight well, you will have a chance to go home. If you don’t fight well, you will probably be buried in this world.

After moving to a new house, Chen Ran's life was finally comfortable. All aspects of food, clothing, housing and transportation had been improved. Compared with the previous life in the military dependents' village, it was a world of difference.

There is a chef in the house, who is said to be invited from Yangzhou and cooks authentic Huaiyang cuisine.

The originally tattered mandarin duck battle jacket was replaced with a new one made of silk and satin, which was very comfortable to wear.

It was just that the wooden bed was too hard. Even with several layers of bedding on it, he still felt uncomfortable.

There were many maids in the house who, seeing that he was rich, powerful and handsome, often gave him all kinds of flirtatious glances.

Chen Ran, however, looked down upon the dry and withered one. His mind was focused on strengthening his own strength and he never gave a response.

After all, for him, finishing his work and going home is the first priority.

Chen Ran got a headache when he thought about Huang Taiji's invasion next year.

He now nominally has no more than a thousand soldiers and less than a hundred horses under his command, half of whom are empty-handed because they are engaged in mutiny and are collecting empty salaries.

With this level of strength, how can they stop the tens of thousands of tigers and wolves led by Huang Taiji?

"The important thing right now is to replenish personnel and equipment." Chen Ran thought for a moment, turned around and walked out. "Prepare the horses, I'm going to look for Deputy General Zhu."

At times like this, of course you have to look for a bootlicker to help.

Zhu Laitong has been very angry these days.

At Zhao Lushi's previous banquet, he had actually tried every possible way to curry favor with a small captain under his command, and had become a laughing stock among his colleagues.

He was angry at home that day, and the housekeeper came to report that General Chen Ran was here to visit.

The butler also hinted that this Chen Qian always came empty-handed and didn't even give a red envelope to the doorman.

Zhu Laitong, who was already furious, became even angrier.

He was about to say "Let him go!", but what came out was "Please invite Mr. Chen in quickly."

As soon as the words came out, Zhu Lai was stunned.

Then he saw the butler looking at him with doubtful eyes, and slapped him in anger, "Go now!"

In the main hall, Chen Ran and Zhu Lai took their seats respectively. A beautiful maid served them tea, and they started to talk business only after they drank the tea.

"Master Zhu." Chen Ran put down his tea bowl and said seriously, "The troops and horses of my department are insufficient, and the armor and weapons are extremely scarce. Please, Master Zhu, send us the troops."

"It's none of my business!" Zhu Laitong rolled his eyes, but what he said was "It's easy. If you don't have enough soldiers, go recruit them yourself. If you don't have enough horses, Zuo Shao has more than 50 horses here, you can take them all. As for armor and weapons, I'll write you a warrant, go to the headquarters warehouse to get them. I'll also give you 1,000 taels of silver to recruit soldiers."

As soon as he finished speaking, he wanted to slap himself.

Those horses were seized with great difficulty, and we have already found the buyers!

But his body seemed out of control and he ran to write a warrant for Chen Ran.

"What the hell is wrong with me?" Looking at Chen Ran's departing back, Zhu Laitong wanted to slap himself.

Chen Ran, holding the warrant and the silver note, first ran back to the military camp, gathered all his men who could ride horses, and brought a group of extra people with him, and went straight to the warehouse of the headquarters.

The Ming army's combat groups were based on battalions, and each battalion had its own storehouse.

The headquarters of the Santunying Camp has chariot, horse, infantry, and baggage camps, and the headquarters commander-in-chief Zhu Guoyan directly leads the regular military camp.

Zhu Laitong was the deputy general and led the special forces battalion.

There are also guerrilla generals leading guerrilla camps, lieutenant generals leading reinforcement camps, etc.

These are regular troops used in field battles.

Chen Ran belonged to Zhu Laitong's special forces battalion and came to the warehouse of the special forces battalion.

Having been in Ming Dynasty for so long, he knew everything he should know. He simply took out a stack of silver bills worth hundreds of taels and stuffed them into the warehouse officials, who immediately greeted them with smiles.

With enough red envelopes and Zhu Laitong's warrant, he could naturally get any good stuff.

The good-quality Rumi gun directly took away sixty gunshots and four hundred kilograms of gunpowder.

Sixty sets of leather armor, twenty sets of iron armor, and eighty Ming helmets.

Two hundred brand new goose-feather swords, forty high-quality crossbows, and a batch of wolf-whips, long spears, halberds, and horse forks.

Of course, there are also the fifty or so war horses.

Looking at the equipment in front of him, Chen Ran felt that it was too little.

"Master Chen." The treasurer was given two hundred taels of silver, and his triangular eyes smiled into crescents. "Are you satisfied?"

"Satisfied as hell." Chen Ran frowned. "There are only a few usable Lumi guns. They will probably be useless after the training."

Guan Ku immediately grasped the point, "Master Chen, do you want the Rumi gun?"

Chen Ran raised his eyebrows. "You're hiding something?"

"Master Chen, this is so unfair to me." The treasurer immediately cried out in injustice, "All the good Rumi guns in the warehouse are here, not a single one is left."

Then he changed the subject and said, "If Lord Chen wants it, I can go to his warehouse and allocate some."

Hearing this, Chen Ran immediately understood.

There are many warehouses here, not just the warehouses of the Special Forces Battalion, but also the warehouses of all the battalions of the headquarters and even the entire Ji Town.

The officials in charge of the treasury are all familiar with each other, and as long as the money is in place, there will naturally be a way.

Thinking of this, he lowered his voice and asked, "How much?"

Guan Ku smiled and raised a finger, "One stick, two taels."

Chen Ran thought for a moment, took out a stack of banknotes, counted them out, and handed them to him. "I want five hundred high-quality Lumi guns, and the rest is your reward. As long as the goods are good, money is not a problem."

The treasurer was overjoyed, and his face was full of smiles when he received the banknote.

"As for gunpowder, give me as much as you can get."

"This is easy. Gunpowder is easy to dispose of. A fire is enough."

Chen Ran raised his eyebrows. "How do we settle the account for the Rumi Gun?"

The warehouse manager who received a large sum of money did not waste any words and directly revealed the secret of the warehouse managers: "Use inferior products to replace good ones, and then report it as training damage. Anyway, everyone knows that inferior products are unusable."

Firearms were very popular in the Ming Dynasty, and the quality of the firearms was really excellent. They could fire dozens of rounds on the battlefield.

But the inferior products are really inferior, and it is common for them to explode directly after ignition.

Chen Ran cleared out all the good quality stock of 560 Rumi guns in Jizhen.

Add to that several thousand kilograms of gunpowder and various other equipment, and it took several trips to complete the haul.

"Master Chen."

When he was leaving for the last time, several warehouse managers came over and presented him with a set of bright iron armor. "This set of mountain pattern armor is our gift to you, sir."

Being in charge of the warehouse is a good job, but there aren't many things that can be moved.

The sales of swords, spears, halberds, armor and the like are actually not very high.

After all, those who can buy these things usually don't dare to sell them.

Chen Ran made them a small profit today, so naturally he was thinking of attracting customers so that they could continue to do business in the future.

Looking at the thick armor plate, Chen Ran nodded with satisfaction. This is a good thing.

Next, we should train the soldiers well and prepare to save the Ming Dynasty.

Saving the Ming Dynasty cannot be achieved by just talking, it requires going to the battlefield and fighting with real guns and swords!

(End of this chapter)