The Military Governor in Dream of the Red Chamber

Hu Youcai smiled and said to Jia Chen, "Of the twelve heads you have at Qianshandun, you, Jia Chen, have earned four. The others have also made contributions and will be rewarded."

"Thank you, Eunuch Xie! Thank you, Your Excellency!" Jia Chen bowed to the three men with a look of surprise and delight.

The twelve human heads at Qianshandun exceeded Jia Chen's expectations.

He thought that it would be good if the three of them left him with five heads.

From this perspective, Hu Youcai seems quite kind.

In fact, Jia Chen didn't know that Hu Youcai did help him in this matter, but another reason was that Jia Chen was a member of the Jia family.

After Hu Youcai mentioned this matter to Chen Tai, Chen Tai stopped haggling and followed Hu Youcai's suggestion to distribute twelve heads to Qian Shandun.

Back in the day, the Jia family, the two dukes, served as the military governors of Datong and Xuanfu.

Chen Tai's ancestors had served under Jia Yuan, the military governor of Datong Town and Duke of Rongguo, so after learning of Jia Chen's identity, he felt a natural affinity for him.

Although few members of the Jia family have held military positions in recent years, they still wield considerable influence within the military, especially in Datong and Xuanfu towns. Many of the current commanders-in-chief and brigade commanders have connections with the Jia family.

With these heads, not all the soldiers at Qianshandun will be promoted, but they will certainly receive rewards.

"Four heads are enough to advance two ranks. You're a junior officer now, so becoming a centurion shouldn't be a problem," Chen Tai laughed.

He now has a very good impression of Jia Chen.

This time he got 23 kills. With these kills, and after some more maneuvering, even if it wasn't a huge victory, the merits and demerits of the North East Road team could be balanced out.

Liu Tianwang and Hu Youcai's Beijing garrison received 20 pills each.

Although the number of heads may seem small, a large part of Jia Chen's military achievements should be attributed to the Beijing garrison.

Therefore, the Beijing garrison deserves a great deal of credit this time.

Hu Youcai and Liu Tianwang were willing to give Chen Tai so many heads, and even offered him many other benefits, because it was a last resort.

This is Chen Tai's territory after all. Even if they are powerful outsiders, they still have to be mindful of the local bully's influence.

"Speaking of which, Jia Chen should be a captain," Hu Youcai said. "He won first place in the Beijing Garrison's martial arts competition and could have been promoted to captain, but he happened to come to Datong Town to guard the border, so the matter was delayed. Moreover, Jia Chen's father was a captain in the Beijing Garrison, so it was only natural for him to inherit the captaincy. However, because he was still young, he served in the Beijing Garrison as a junior officer."

"Oh, in that case, given Jia Chen's merits, he could have been exceptionally granted the hereditary title of Captain. However, promoting him to Trial Hundred-Household Commander as a Captain would be a bit too low. Hundred-Household Commander wouldn't be a problem." Chen Tai laughed. "Lord Liu, Jia Chen is one of your Beijing Garrison's men. You can't treat him unfairly; he's a great contributor."

The process of becoming a trial centurion typically requires a probationary period of one to three years. If no problems arise during this period, the candidate is considered qualified and can then be promoted to the sixth rank of centurion.

"Of course, I will report it personally. I believe that with Eunuch Hu's help, there will be no problem with becoming a centurion," Liu Tianwang said with a smile.

In fact, it would have been quite difficult for Jia Chen to rise from a squad leader to a centurion using only four people.

Two kills grant a promotion to a rank, but that only applies to the lower-ranking soldiers.

Moreover, the value of the heads of the Northern Barbarians has decreased.

However, Jia Chen's achievements were not limited to four heads; he also rescued Emubu, captured warhorses, and rescued kidnapped women, among other things.

All these achievements combined are absolutely enough.

Such a great achievement, and it has brought honor to the Beijing Garrison, so his promotion to centurion is well-deserved.

The warhorses were also divided up, with only one horse left at the front hill mound.

It wasn't that Jia Chen didn't want more; it was just that warhorses were difficult to raise.

Given the conditions of their front mountain mound, they couldn't afford too many; one horse would be about right.

The Jingying and Beidonglu garrison each received half of the warhorses. Although each side only had a dozen or so warhorses, which was not a large number, these warhorses could still be counted as war merits if the number of people was included.

Chen Tai, Liu Tianwang, and others celebrated with the soldiers at Qianshandun. There was meat there, but Jia Chen dared not bring out any wine.

Once it's brought up, the matter of the Sun family's caravan will be harder to explain.

During the celebration, Liu Tianwang beckoned Jia Chen over.

"Jia Chen, did your father also serve in the Beijing Garrison?" Liu Tianwang asked.

"Yes, three years ago, there was a rebellion in Qingzhou, and my father died in battle during the suppression of that rebellion," Jia Chen replied.

"A rebellion in Qingzhou?!" Liu Tianwang muttered one last time before falling silent.

Jia Chen felt something was off. He noticed that Liu Tianwang's expression was somewhat complicated, and he seemed to be angry.

Could it be that there was something wrong with what I just said?

If I were to inadvertently offend Liu Tianwang, wouldn't it cause unexpected problems in the realization of my merits?

Just as Jia Chen was feeling a little uneasy, Liu Tianwang asked, "What's your father's name? There aren't many members of the Jia family in the Beijing garrison."

There are indeed some members of the Jia clan, such as those from collateral branches, but their numbers are not very large.

On the contrary, many of Jia's servants and servants earned a living in the Beijing garrison.

"My father, Jia Gan, was once a captain," Jia Chen replied.

"Jia Gan? Your father is Jia Gan?" Liu Tianwang suddenly stood up.

The movement was so sudden that it startled Hu Youcai, who was standing nearby.

Chen Tai also noticed the commotion and turned to look.

Jia Chen felt a little uneasy. Could it be that there was something about this body's father that he didn't know?

"Lord Liu, what happened?" Hu Youcai noticed that the atmosphere seemed a bit off and assumed that Jia Chen had offended Liu Tianwang, so he hurriedly asked.

"It's alright, it's alright." Liu Tianwang took a deep breath. "Three years ago, Qingzhou was in chaos. My father led troops to quell the rebellion, but he fell into a trap and suffered a great defeat. If it weren't for your father leading the rearguard to cover the retreat, my father would not have made it back."

Jia Chen was stunned for a moment.

So there was another layer of relationship.

Liu Tianwang was actually the son of Liu Guangde, the deputy commander of the Fifth Army Battalion, one of the three major battalions of the Beijing Garrison.

After Liu Guangde's defeat, he was dismissed from his post.

Jia Chen remembered this incident.

He simply didn't know that Liu Tianwang was Liu Guangde's son.

When Liu Guangde was defeated, it was said that the supervising eunuchs made things difficult for him in various ways. Later, the emperor urged him to suppress the rebels within a limited time. With the deadline approaching, Liu Guangde had no choice but to take a risky attack, which is why he fell into the trap.

No wonder Jia Chen heard that Liu Tianwang was somewhat hostile towards eunuchs and had a tense relationship with Hu Youcai; there was a reason for it.

After Liu Guangde was defeated and dismissed, Liu Tianwang was also implicated.

Although he was still a guerrilla general, he had been relegated to positions with little real power in recent years.

This time, when it was time for the rotation of soldiers to guard the border in Datong Town, others were unwilling to come, so he volunteered.

He still wanted to prove himself and hoped to achieve something in the border town. He believed that by making meritorious contributions, he could change the current situation of himself and his family.

During his time in Datong Town, he thought there wouldn't be many opportunities.

However, they never expected that the Chahar tribe would raid southwards.

He thought this was a great opportunity to kill the enemy and earn merit.

But he was too naive.

He had been mostly stationed in the Beijing garrison, and although he had some understanding of the practices in the border towns, he realized that it was even more outrageous than what he had learned in the capital.

The local soldiers dared not leave the city to fight the northern barbarians.

Without the support of local officers and soldiers, what use is the small number of people in the Beijing Garrison?

Just when he was feeling disheartened, Jia Chen brought him an unexpected surprise.