A Journey Through the Worlds of Film and Television

The couple's marriage was a happy one.

12

On New Year's Eve, Lu Cheng ate the mutton dumplings made by Zhang Yan, and looked at the snow outside the window. He felt a sense of belonging to this world.

After a few months of getting along, Zhang Yan had obviously recognized Lu Cheng as her future husband, and began to take the initiative to put herself in the role of a little wife.

Love in this era is actually very simple. Women don't have much right to choose, let alone free love. Women marrying is completely blind box.

Many women have never seen their husbands before the wedding night, and don't know whether their husbands are tall or short, fat or thin, handsome or ugly.

If you can marry the right person, you can live a peaceful life. If you marry the wrong person, you can only consider yourself unlucky.

Compared with many ordinary women, Zhang Yan is already very lucky. At least during their time together, she has made herself like this future husband.

Moreover, Lu Cheng's status and position are also there. Even if ordinary women want to marry him, they don't have this opportunity.

Just after the New Year, the firearms workshop gave Lu Cheng a big gift.

Standing at the shooting range, Lu Cheng watched a craftsman assemble a new flintlock rifle, then walked up to check the barrel and the rifling inside the barrel, and nodded with satisfaction.

Then, Lu Cheng handed the new flintlock rifle to a musketeer beside him.

The musketeer opened a paper shell filled with gunpowder and bullets, bit open the bottom of the paper shell, poured a small amount of gunpowder at the ignition position, then poured the rest of the gunpowder into the barrel, stuffed the bullet into the barrel, pushed the bullet to the bottom with a push rod, and compacted the gunpowder.

After doing all this, the soldier walked to the shooting position on the side, picked up the rifle in his hand, aimed at a target a hundred meters away, and fired.

In an instant, accompanied by a puff of white smoke, with a bang, the bullet successfully hit the target in the distance.

Lu Cheng nodded with satisfaction, and then ordered: "Keep shooting, try a target at a longer distance."

"Yes, General."

If it was a smoothbore flintlock rifle without rifling, it would not be easy to hit a human-shaped target within a hundred meters.

But now the soldier is holding a rifle with rifling and using conical Minié bullets.

Although the craftsmanship of this gun is still a bit rough due to the current industrial level, its range and power are definitely far superior to the previous matchlock gun.

Moreover, with the fixed paper shell bullets, a skilled soldier can shoot two to three times per minute.

"Bang bang bang" continuous shooting sounds rang out. After many attempts, the soldier was able to hit a target 300 meters away. The lethality and range are far superior to bows and crossbows.

If there were a team of four or five thousand equipped with such rifles, Lu Cheng would dare to lead people to attack Hetuala City directly.

Lu Cheng then looked at the craftsman beside him: "Master Liu, how many guns can we produce every month?"

"Your Excellency, if all the people in our factory do not do other work and only produce such guns, we can produce about 60 guns every month."

Lu Cheng shook his head when he heard this: "It's still too slow."

"Sir, it's mainly because the rifling in the barrel is really hard to drill. Even if you improve the processing technology, a skilled worker can only drill more than an inch a day, and it takes more than half a month to complete a barrel."

Lu Cheng also knows this problem. In the absence of machines, drilling the barrel manually is indeed too slow.

This is limited by the industrial foundation. We must first improve the foundation and make steam engines and the like.

"How about this, Master Liu. Recruit 200 craftsmen apprentices, and you will train them specifically on how to drill gun barrels, and try to train a group of suitable craftsmen first."

"Yes, sir."

"In addition, in the next two or three months, in addition to the necessary production tasks, we will focus on producing new flintlock rifles, and strive to produce 100 new flintlock rifles by the end of March."

"Yes, sir."

A seamless steel pipe in the future is a mountain that technology cannot temporarily overcome in this era.

But since we have the first new flintlock rifle, the production efficiency can be gradually improved in the future.

In fact, the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty are still very reliable and learn things very quickly.

Of course, the prerequisite is to be able to give them enough treatment and bonuses to mobilize their enthusiasm and potential.

After that, Lu Cheng went to other workshops.

After a round, he also went to see the seeds of crops such as sweet potatoes, corn, and peanuts stored in the warehouse.

After the spring, these seeds can be planted in the land of southern Liaoning.

With the high yield of crops such as sweet potatoes, corn, and potatoes, not only can the food problem of the Liaodong military and civilians be solved, but also the food problem of war horses can be solved.

Before there was corn, war horses had to eat black beans, soybeans, wheat, oats and other foods to ensure nutrition.

But after corn, with the high yield of corn, the food crisis can be greatly alleviated. By then, southern Liaoning will gradually achieve self-sufficiency, which can greatly reduce the money consumed by purchasing food from the south.

Just after the New Year, all parts of southern Liaoning are stepping up production. Merchants from the south and the north also gathered near Haizhou City in the severe cold of Liaodong to trade goods.

Lu Cheng specially set up a large trade market outside Haizhou City to facilitate merchants to gather and distribute materials.

While busy with development, Lu Cheng also kept an eye on the current situation in the capital.

After the Chinese New Year, Zhu Youxiao changed the reign title to Tianqi and began to select a suitable queen nationwide.

At this time, Lu Cheng's mansion also welcomed an old friend.

"Miss Ding, why did you come suddenly? You didn't even notify me."

"Why? General Lu doesn't welcome me?"

"Welcome, welcome, welcome at any time. If I had known you were coming, I would definitely send someone to pick you up. No, I will go out of the city to meet you in person."

"General Lu is a busy man. I heard that he is busy picking up a little girl from Kaifeng Prefecture. I dare not let General Lu go out of the city to meet him."

Lu Cheng clearly heard the jealousy in the other party's tone, and he was not surprised but happy in his heart. This also indirectly explained Ding Baiying's affection for him.

If she didn't care, how could she be jealous?

"Did Ding Xian tell you this, kid?"

"If it weren't for Ding Xian, I wouldn't know. Lu Cheng, I came here this time just to ask you, you said before...in the letter before, you would often think of me, is that true?"

"Of course it's true, absolutely true. This heart is clear to the heaven and earth, and the sun and the moon can testify."

"Then...then will you marry me?"

Ding Baiying is a woman of the rivers and lakes, not shy like ordinary women. On the way here, she had already made up her mind that as long as Lu Cheng agreed to marry her, she would stay with Lu Cheng. If Lu Cheng didn't agree, she would turn around and leave, and never come to Liaodong again.

"As long as Miss Ding nods in agreement, Lu will find someone to calculate an auspicious date, three letters and six engagements, eight sedan chairs, ten miles of red makeup, and promise you a prosperous life."

Hearing Lu Cheng's decisive agreement, the jealousy in Ding Baiying's heart immediately disappeared, and then she thought that as a woman, she actually took the initiative to ask for marriage, and it was inevitable that she was still a little shy.

"I... since I'm here... naturally I agree."

Lu Cheng laughed: "Okay, I'll find someone to calculate the date."

"Don't be so anxious, I still need to inform my senior brothers."

"Okay, I'll listen to you."

"Well. Lu Cheng, is that girl surnamed Zhang pretty? Is she as pretty as me?"

"Well... how should I put it, you two are not of the same style. You are a heroic beauty, like the ancient Mulan. As for Zhang Yan... you'll know when you see her."

"Then I want to see what she looks like."

"No problem, if you want to see her, I can take you there now."

"Not really, I'll rest for a night."

Women all have a competitive heart. Ding Baiying had just traveled such a long way at this moment, and she was exhausted. Naturally, she had to take a good rest, dress up, and then go to see the girl surnamed Zhang.

Lu Cheng didn't shy away from anything. In this era, which man with a little wealth and power doesn't have three wives and four concubines?

As a general guarding a region, it was normal for Lu Cheng to marry several women.

Even Ding Baiying came all the way here just to let Lu Cheng marry her first, and she didn't think of monopolizing her, which was unrealistic.