Chapter 854: Chapter Forty-Eight

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 Yanzhou City, which was a rare great victory since the Eastern Barbarian affairs. Especially since the beginning of this year, the disastrous defeat outside the pass buried the last elite of the Nine Frontiers and a number of generals, 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... Under the scorched head, there was actually a great victory against the Eastern Barbarians, which naturally made the imperial court overjoyed, and even the current Chongzhen Emperor ate a few more bowls of rice.

So immediately there were officials from the Ministry of War who came to verify the merit, and the eunuch who came out to announce the imperial decree and praise was even more impatient to run over under the emperor's urging. This great victory cut off more than a hundred heads before and after, and did not let the Eastern Barbarians plunder men and women, which could be said that the Qing soldiers lost a lot this time. So everyone in Yanzhou Prefecture was promoted, but getting rich was impossible—the imperial court was severely short of money, so they had to give more rewards in official positions.

And since there was such a great victory achieved through planning, the Chongzhen Emperor would inevitably be sick and seek medical advice, intending to promote the main officials of Yanzhou Prefecture to the ranks of capital officials, to govern one side to wipe out roving bandits or resist the Eastern Barbarians. So the civil officials from the Prefect downwards really didn't know whether to cry or laugh. The things after this exceptional 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 hurried a few steps over and wanted to hold Bai Lang's hand. "Ah, this report of victory document went up, and almost no one among the civil and military officials in the court believed that such a fierce warrior appeared in our Great Ming. I believe it, and I even congratulated the Emperor on the heaven-sent fierce warrior to our Great Ming. Now that I see Warrior Bai, he is indeed the rebirth of Lord Guan!"

These words made Bai Lang stunned for a moment, and he only remembered 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 decree. This imperial decree was indeed written in a way that sounded very excited. It seemed that the emperor also let the Grand Secretary responsible for writing it change it again and again. In short, it sounded like this Bai Lang seemed to have peerless loyalty and bravery, and then gave him a title of Yanzhou Qianhu, and his rank became Shoubei.

Now Bai Lang directly changed from a commoner to a hereditary Yanzhou Guard Qianhu, but he still didn't have a soldier under his command. Even if there was his camp in the imperial decree 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 Qianhu and the elite soldiers he led to listen to the orders under Governor Deng, to wipe out the roving bandits. "This Prefect Deng was promoted? In one leap, he became a Governor?" Bai Lang was also taken aback, not expecting the promotion speed of cutting off heads to be really so fast.

Now his twin maces had also been thrown to the Qing soldiers, perhaps it would take some time to get them back. Bai Lang also sighed—Governor Deng intended to let the Ministry of War forge a pair of iron maces for him, but Bai Lang declined. "This time I will use a saber, anyway, the usage of iron maces is quite similar to using a saber—but for the sake of easy control, it is better to forge a two-handed large saber." But before that, Prefect/Governor Deng and his party still had to go to the capital to meet the emperor, and Bai Lang naturally had to follow, because the emperor specifically named him to see such a peerless fierce general.

In fact, the vast majority of people didn't believe that one person rushed into the formation and killed dozens of enemy chieftains as claimed in the victory report. Bai Lang looked at the victory report document, 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 burly man different from ordinary people, not a general nine feet tall—in this era, although Bai Lang's height was considered quite outstanding, people about his height were not rare. But it was just a little over one meter eight. There were still quite a few such people in the Great Ming.

Bai Lang was also not tiger-backed and wolf-waisted, but he had a tiger's back and a wolf's waist. His upper body was a standard inverted triangle, but it really didn't look like a fierce general who could swing a sixty-four-jin purple-gold mace—fierce generals in this era all had big bellies, and Bai Lang touched his belly and didn't have clear six-pack abs—practicing martial arts required great strength, it wasn't that the lower the body fat rate, the better. From Shandong to the capital was not far, especially if taking the water route, it was even more effortless.

Looking at BJ City, Bai Lang riding on the horse also felt quite spectacular—when he came to BJ to play in later generations, the city wall had long been demolished, and 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 bad that the city wall was demolished in later generations. Architects of later generations stood and talked without feeling tired, 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? Architects don't care...

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

Bai Lang didn't care, anyway, he just practiced strength and martial arts every day, and it didn't matter where he lived. He also had an official robe, a green one with a bear on it, and a fifth-rank official robe was like this—but after settling down and before the court meeting, the Ministry of War sent a new official robe, a scarlet robe with a leopard patch. "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 through killing, and killing roving bandits and killing Tartars were about the same—before Yu Yu recovered, Bai Lang felt that 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, but after the court meeting, he followed the freshly baked Governor Deng to the Lantai to meet the Chongzhen Emperor. This Chongzhen Emperor looked older than his actual age, his hair was already slightly gray, and the clothes on his body couldn't be said to be luxurious—but it could be said to be simple, not as exaggerated as having patches. When meeting the emperor, the Great General and the little eunuch didn't seriously check whether Bai Lang was carrying weapons—if the rumors of such a fierce general were true, then even if he didn't carry weapons, killing people would be easy.

It could only be a few little eunuchs separating Bai Lang and 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 regained his energy again—this kind of thing happened to him several times a year, and the impatient emperor was always like this. The emperor regained hope, and next, he would see the fierce general claimed in the victory report. At first sight, Bai Lang could see a trace of appreciation in the emperor's eyes... ===== CHAPTER 855 =====