Chapter 803

Bai Lang's reward had also come down, not just his. This time the Qing soldiers broke through the pass but gave up halfway, especially suffering a "great defeat" under the walls of Yanzhou City, which was a rare great victory since the Eastern Tartar affair. Especially since the beginning of this year, the disastrous defeat outside the pass had buried the last elite of the Nine Borders and many generals of the Governor, and in the Battle of Zhuxian Town, the Ming army was also defeated by the roving bandits Li Chuang, and even Kaifeng Prefecture was captured... In the midst of being overwhelmed, there was actually a great victory against the Eastern Tartars, which naturally made the court overjoyed, and even the current Chongzhen Emperor ate a few more bowls of rice.

So there were immediately officials from the Ministry of War who came to verify the merit, and the eunuch who came out to announce the imperial edict of praise was even more impatient to run over under the urging of the Emperor. This great victory involved taking over a hundred heads before and after, and no men or women were plundered by the Eastern Tartars. It could be said that the Qing soldiers suffered a big loss this time. So everyone in Yanzhou Prefecture was promoted, but getting rich was impossible—the court was severely short of money, so they had to give more rewards in terms of official positions.

And since there was the merit of planning to achieve such a great victory, the Chongzhen Emperor would inevitably be sick and go to the doctor, intending to promote the various main officials of Yanzhou Prefecture to the ranks of Beijing officials, to govern one side and wipe out the roving bandits or resist the Eastern Tartars. So the series of civil officials from the Prefect down really didn't know whether to cry or laugh. The things after this extraordinary promotion were not easy to handle. Bai Lang couldn't care about the dilemma of those people. The eunuch in front of him looked quite prestigious, but he also took a few quick steps to hold Bai Lang's hand. "Ah, this report of victory went up, and almost no one among the civil and military officials of the court believed that such a fierce warrior had appeared in our Great Ming. This servant believes it, and even congratulated the Emperor on the heaven-sent fierce warrior to our Great Ming. Now that I see it, Hero Bai is indeed the reincarnation of Lord Guan!"

This remark left Bai Lang stunned for a moment, only remembering that the eunuch claimed his surname was Du, but he didn't hear his name clearly, and his accent was quite heavy. Eunuch Du began to read the imperial edict. This imperial edict really sounded exciting. It seemed that the Emperor also had the Grand Secretary responsible for writing it change it again and again. In short, it sounded as if Bai Lang had peerless loyalty and courage, and then gave him the title of Yanzhou Thousand-Household, and his rank became Garrison Commander.

Now Bai Lang had directly transformed from a commoner to a hereditary Yanzhou Guard Thousand-Household, but he still didn't have a single soldier under his command. Even if there was his camp in the imperial edict and the Ministry of War's tally, there were simply no soldiers... And the next letter was the transfer order from the Ministry of War, transferring one Yanzhou Guard Thousand-Household and the elite troops he led to serve under Governor Deng to wipe out the roving bandits. "This Prefect Deng has been promoted? In one leap to become a Governor?" Bai Lang was also taken aback. He didn't expect the promotion speed of cutting off heads to be really fast.

Currently, his double halberds had also been left to the Qing soldiers, and perhaps it would take some time to get them back. Bai Lang also sighed—Governor Deng intended to have the Ministry of War forge a pair of iron halberds for him, but Bai Lang declined. "This time I will use a sword. Anyway, the usage of iron halberds is quite similar to using a sword—but for the sake of easy control, it is better to forge a two-handed broadsword." But before that, Governor Deng and his party still had to go to the Capital to see the Emperor, and Bai Lang naturally had to follow, because the Emperor specifically named him to see this peerless fierce general.

In fact, most people didn't believe the report of victory that said one person broke the formation and killed dozens of enemy chiefs. Bai Lang looked at the report of victory, and from an objective point of view, he didn't believe it himself. However, this was the career he had created. Bai Lang was not a big man different from ordinary people, nor was he a general nine feet tall—in this era, although Bai Lang's height was considered quite outstanding, there were not few people about the same height as him. But it was just over 1.8 meters, and there were quite a few such people in the Ming Dynasty.

Bai Lang was also not broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, but he did have a tiger's back and a wolf's waist, and his upper body was a standard inverted triangle. However, it really didn't look like a fierce general who could wield 64-jin purple-gold halberds—the fierce generals of this era all had big bellies, and Bai Lang touched his belly, which didn't have very clear six-pack abs—practicing martial arts requires great strength, not the lower the body fat rate, the better. The distance from Shandong to the Capital was not far, especially if traveling by water, it was more effortless.

Looking at BJ City, Bai Lang, riding on his horse, also felt it was quite spectacular—when he came to BJ to play in later generations, the city walls had long been demolished, but now he could see this magnificent city wall. "It seems it's just like that?" He didn't feel moved, nor did he feel that it was a pity that the city wall was demolished in later generations. Architects of later generations stood and talked without feeling pain, saying to preserve the city wall and build a new city, asking how to solve the people's livelihood problems, where the money for building the city came from, and how to raise so many materials? The architects didn't care...

After entering the city, Bai Lang felt it was okay. The rumors of later generations that BJ City was full of sandstorms in dry weather, full of mud when it rained, and piles of feces everywhere didn't seem to exist now. "Even if there are, it's the good work of the Manchu Qing!" Bai Lang muttered, but no one around could hear clearly. There were houses in the city for officials who came to the court to stay, and Prefect Deng wanted to win over Bai Lang, so he specifically ordered Bai Lang to stay with him. This treatment was seen as the treatment of a Governor level.

Bai Lang didn't care. Anyway, he practiced his strength and martial arts every day, and it didn't matter where he lived. He also had an official robe, blue with a bear on it, and the fifth-rank official robe was like this—but after staying and before the audience, the Ministry of War sent a set of new official robes, scarlet robes with leopards on the patches. "Fourth-rank official robe? Am I not a fifth-rank official?" Bai Lang didn't understand, but he didn't want to understand. Anyway, he came to practice by killing, and killing roving bandits was about the same as killing Tartars—before Yu Yu recovered, Bai Lang felt he could kill a bright world.

Bai Lang also went to the court meeting, but his position was very far out, and he basically couldn't see what the Emperor looked like. However, after the court meeting, he followed the freshly baked Governor Deng to the Orchid Terrace to meet the Chongzhen Emperor. This Chongzhen Emperor looked older than his actual age, his hair was already slightly gray, and his clothes couldn't be called luxurious—but they could be called simple, not to the point of being exaggerated with patches. When meeting the Emperor, the Great Han Generals and the little eunuchs didn't carefully check whether Bai Lang was carrying weapons—if the rumors about such a fierce general were true, then even if he didn't carry weapons, it would be easy to kill.

It could only be that a few little eunuchs separated Bai Lang from the Emperor, but the Chongzhen Emperor took the initiative to let the little eunuchs retreat. "This is a loyal and brave soldier of our Great Ming, why is this necessary!" In a conversation with Governor Deng, the Chongzhen Emperor once again gained momentum—he had such things several times a year, and the impatient Emperor had always been like this. The Emperor had hope again, and next he would see the fierce general claimed in the report of victory. At first sight, Bai Lang could see a hint of appreciation in the Emperor's eyes... ===== CHAPTER 804 =====