A Journey Through the Worlds of Film and Television.

As September came to an end, the assessment of officers and soldiers at all levels in the Kyoto City Defense Camp and the Five City Military Command finally came to an end. Lu Cheng was also busy for a while.

At the same time, a battle had just ended in Gaozhou Prefecture of Guangdong Province in the south.

The Prince of Nan'an set out from Kyoto in June, arrived at the Guangdong Provincial Administration Commission in August, and began to deploy troops.

In September, the Prince of Nan'an mobilized troops and engaged in combat with 100,000 rebels fleeing southward.

When the two sides first started fighting, the imperial army made quite smooth progress, chasing the rebels all the way, and soon pursued them into the territory of Gaozhou Prefecture.

Just when the Prince of Nan'an thought that the so-called rebels were just a bunch of loose sand, the rebels suddenly stopped fleeing and first blocked the court troops in sections to slow down the attack speed. After that, the rebels harassed the court troops day and night, making them exhausted and their morale dropped sharply.

After failing to capture the city for a long time and eager to make a contribution, the Prince of Nan'an finally led his army straight in to have a decisive battle with the rebels after learning that the scouts on the front line had captured the main force of the enemy.

As a result, the imperial troops walked directly into the pocket formation set up by the rebels and were surrounded.

The rebels took advantage of the favorable terrain and relied on rolling stones, battering rams, arrows, and firearms to easily defeat the imperial army at the lowest cost and capture the Prince of Nannan.

Afterwards, this group of rebels occupied the Leizhou Peninsula, facing the rebels in Qiongzhou Prefecture across the sea, and successfully gained a foothold.

Immediately afterwards, the rebels sent a letter to the Guangdong Provincial Administration Office, demanding that the Nan'an Prince's Mansion spend eight million taels of silver to redeem the Nan'an Prince.

At the end of September, when the news reached Kyoto, the court was shocked and the emperor was furious: "How can this be? A dignified prince of the imperial court was captured by rebels. These rebels even dared to ask for a ransom from the imperial court? It really makes me angry!"

"Your Majesty, please calm down. Concubine Nan'an just went to see the Queen. Maybe now..."

At this moment, the queen came in from outside.

"His Majesty……"

"Zitong, are you here to plead for the Prince of Nan'an?"

"Your Majesty, please calm down your anger. The Nan'an Concubine did come to see me just now, and wanted me to plead with Your Majesty. This time, the Nan'an County Prince was defeated and captured, which greatly damaged the face of the court and damaged Your Majesty's prestige. But he was ordered to go to war this time and serve the court.

Now, the Prince of Nan'an has been defeated and captured by the rebels. If Your Majesty ignores this, it will probably chill the hearts of the civil and military officials in the court."

"Humph, after such a defeat, you still have the nerve to come and beg for mercy? Since Emperor Chengzu, our Ming Dynasty has never pledged loyalty, paid tribute, ceded territory, or made marriages. The emperor guards the country's gates, and the king dies for the country. How could there be such a cowardly prince? If I set this precedent, I will be ashamed of my ancestors."

"But…"

Not only was the emperor furious, but many civil officials in the court also stood up to impeach the Prince of Nan'an for his poor performance in battle, loss of many soldiers and generals, and defeat and capture. He was unworthy of the emperor's trust and brought disgrace to the court.

The four kings and eight dukes pleaded for mercy, but this only made the emperor even more disgusted.

At this time, all the dignitaries in the court and the emperor who was high above did not know that the mastermind behind the capture of Prince Nan'an was sitting in the Ministry of War, drinking tea, looking very uncomfortable.

Recently, after completing the assessment of officers and soldiers in the Beijing Camp and the Five Cities Military Department, a group of newcomers with excellent assessment results were promoted, including many disciples from the Xuanwu Hall and the Qinglong Hall.

Among them, the young man with the best performance has already been promoted to the position of deputy captain.

While everyone was still arguing about whether or not to redeem the Prince of Nan'an, Lu Cheng made a detailed analysis of the Prince of Nan'an's defeat and wrote a detailed strategy.

In this report, Lu Cheng pointed out the current problems of the Ming Dynasty, such as insufficient soldiers, lack of training, and arrears of salary. He also pointed out that the generals in the army were incapable of leading the troops, so that one incompetent general would exhaust the entire army.

After analyzing the various reasons for the defeat, Lu Cheng put forward many targeted reform measures, including appointing talented young generals, reorganizing the army, and training a new army.

After writing the detailed strategy, Lu Cheng did not even say hello to his superiors. Instead, he directly entrusted Dai Quan to deliver the strategy to Emperor Changtai's desk.

Emperor Changtai was angry at the incompetence of Prince Nan'an, and suddenly received such a detailed strategy, and he immediately became interested.

After reading it carefully, Emperor Changtai could not help but applaud: "Great! Lu Shouxin really did not disappoint me. He has only been in the Ministry of War for a short time, but he has discovered so many shortcomings. He has also put forward so many useful suggestions. This is truly a loyal minister to me!"

If this strategy had appeared a few months ago, no matter how brilliantly it was written, Emperor Changtai would not have been able to implement it. The main reason was only one: he had no money.

Today, the national treasury has a total of tens of millions of taels of silver, which is enough to train a new army.

If we have a new army that dares to fight, it can not only be used to quell rebellions in all directions, but also to intimidate those nobles and completely grasp the power in the court without being constrained by anyone.

When he thought of this, Emperor Changtai felt much better.

However, Lu Cheng is only sixteen years old this year, and he has been an official for just over a year. It is unlikely that such a heavy task of training a new army would be left to a sixteen-year-old boy.

What's more, Lu Cheng is a civil official, and it would not be appropriate for him to completely control an army.

But for a moment, Emperor Changtai could not think of anyone who could take on this important task.

The next morning, in the court, Emperor Changtai first agreed to the request of the military heroes, and then reluctantly agreed to allow the Nan'an County Prince's Mansion to pay money to redeem the Nan'an County Prince.

Afterwards, Emperor Changtai changed his tone and said, "My dear ministers, the Prince of Nan'an was defeated and captured this time. How can our Ming army be so vulnerable? I intend to train a new army. What do you think?"

When the military heroes heard that the emperor wanted to train a new army, they all volunteered. However, the civil officials believed that this was a turbulent time and they should stabilize the local area first and then fight for the troops in the garrisons, which would be enough to deal with the problem.

For a moment, all the civil and military officials in the court began to argue again. Only a few understood Emperor Changtai's intentions and wanted to stand up to support him, but they were quickly drowned out.

After a debate, no conclusion was reached, so Emperor Changtai called several cabinet ministers together and asked them to recommend candidates.

At the same time, the Prince of Nan'an's Mansion also began to urgently raise money to redeem the Prince of Nan'an.

In the original novel, it was because the Prince of Nan'an was defeated by the vassal state that the Prince of Nan'an's mansion had to agree to the other party's request for a marriage. The Nan'an Concubine was reluctant to let her daughter go to marry, so she went to the Jia Mansion to recognize Tanchun as her goddaughter and asked Tanchun to marry on behalf of their daughter.

Now, Lu Cheng specifically proposed a ransom in order to have the Prince of Nan'an nailed to the pillar of shame of the Ming Dynasty.

Eight million taels of silver is enough to cause great damage to a hundred-year-old prince's mansion.

Of course, this is just the beginning...