Ming Dynasty: I am truly not the Emperor of Longevity

"Return to the banner-sama."

Gao Ruopu glanced at Shen Zhui.

"Qin Fang's late father was a hereditary commander-in-chief. He was an old subordinate who had followed my father for many years. Now he has accumulated enough seniority and can officially inherit the position when a vacancy becomes available.

Tang Zhe and Miao Feng, like Shen Zhui, come from hereditary households and will have hereditary positions to inherit in the future.

Their fathers, Tang and Miao, also served in the Linqing Thousand Household Office. Like Shen, they were related to my family by marriage and were my father's right-hand men.

As for the fifty captains and strongmen, they were all drawn from various centurions and were sons of centurions and bannermen.

However, most of them were not the eldest sons of the legitimate wife, and therefore had no hereditary titles to inherit.

"Please rest assured, Commander."

Shen Zhui added,

"These men were all personally selected by Commander Qianhu. They are all skilled in martial arts and are definitely the elite of our Linqing Commander Qianhu Garrison."

After listening to Gao Ruopu and Shen Zhui, Lu Chen suddenly understood.

It turns out that he was leading a genuine army of privileged children of officials!

All fifty-five of his men were sons of hereditary military officers, without exception!

Their father's official rank was at least the same as theirs, a seventh-rank Jinyiwei (Imperial Guard) captain.

The only difference is that some people have hereditary positions that they can inherit, while others do not.

Even if they were not the eldest sons of the legitimate wife and had no right to inherit, their fathers, who were centurions or bannermen, would raise them from a young age and arrange a way out for them.

For example, one could join the Embroidered Uniform Guard and become a low-ranking officer or strongman.

These people, after all, grew up in military families. Learning martial arts from a young age was a basic skill, and receiving an education was also a given.

In other words, not only should all of Lu Chen's group of sons of officials be quite skilled, but none of them should be illiterate.

So that's what Commander Shen told me before: Commander Gao wanted to rotate the old and weak soldiers under Commander Jiang because the military equipment of the Customs Hundred-Household Office was insufficient, and transfer a group of elite soldiers and generals over.

This wasn't about strengthening the military preparedness of the customs garrison; it was clearly about placing him and his trusted subordinates' sons and nephews under his control!

The purpose of doing this is probably because they believe that these people can have a good future under their command.

It seems that "Lu Chen" is indeed a hot commodity!

Who exactly was the real "Lu Chen" who died in that shady shop, and what was his relationship with Lu Bing?

Lu Chen originally thought that since Lu Bing sent Yuan Xun south to intercept "Lu Chen", it was because he didn't want him to go to the capital, but also wanted to give him a lucrative position.

The real "Lu Chen" is likely a relative of the Lu family, but for some reason he doesn't know, he has become someone that Lu Bing needs to treat well, but doesn't want to get close to.

After I handed Gao Mingqian the appointment letter written by Lu Bing himself, he would definitely be able to tell.

It's quite normal for Commander Gao to take care of someone like that. It's also expected that he and Commander Shen would treat him like a mascot, taking money without doing any work.

Judging from this appointment letter alone, Lu Bing did take good care of "Lu Chen," but that's about it.

When Commander Gao gave away a mansion worth at least 30,000 taels of silver, Lu Chen felt it was a bit excessive.

Trying to curry favor with Lu Bing by flattering him shouldn't go to this extent!

Now, to go to such lengths to replace all the men left behind by the martyred Commander Jiang, whom he was supposed to take over, with the sons of hereditary military officers from the Linqing Jinyiwei Thousand-Household Office, and even more outrageous, with all five junior officers being the sons and nephews of Commander Gao himself and his subordinates who were related to him by marriage!

Lu Chen originally thought that the real "Lu Chen" was at most Lu Song's illegitimate son and Lu Bing's half-brother!

Now it seems that this is probably not the case!

The real identity of "Lu Chen" is far more important than he originally expected!

This also means that more people will discover and pay attention to you in the future.

As more and more people pay attention to you, the probability of you being discovered to be an imposter will also increase exponentially over time!

Hehe, he had originally thought that if his identity as "Lu Chen" was never exposed, it wouldn't be bad to live a wealthy and leisurely life in the bustling ancient metropolis of Linqing.

Now it seems like pure wishful thinking!

Previously, he painstakingly carved out half a month from his journey to take up his post, using the clean identity of "Lin Chaoxi," to prepare a "living" safe house in Biyang County with a mistress, a housekeeper, and servants. It was indeed a very correct decision.

If I were ever exposed, I could simply sneak back to Biyang County to lay low.

No one would doubt that this wealthy and well-off Lin was actually a wanted criminal who had openly impersonated an official of the imperial court.

Since it's only a matter of time before "Lu Chen's" identity is exposed, the most important thing to do at this stage is to quickly amass wealth and transfer it to Biyang County!

Now, everyone in the Linqing Imperial Guard Command is trying to curry favor with him, which means that he has a huge protective umbrella in Linqing!

No matter what industry you're in that makes a lot of money, you don't have to worry about being robbed or exploited!

Which industry should I choose?

Once their identities are exposed, they will certainly lose these lucrative businesses.

Therefore, the cycle should not be too long, the scale should not be too large, and it must be a highly profitable industry in order to accumulate wealth quickly.

Moreover, we must also consider the impact if these industries are seized by the imperial court.

Industries that would severely disrupt the technological barriers of this era are also off-limits!

Technology that transcends this era can only be released when one has complete control over the situation.

The best option at present is a highly profitable product that already exists in this dimension but is still a rare commodity in the Ming Dynasty.

Lu Chen ignored Gao Ruopu and Shen Zhui who were standing to the side, and picked up the Venetian Murano glass that he had bought for a huge sum of 150 taels of silver that day, which was what the Ming Dynasty merchants called a Western glass cup.

Glassware has existed in this world for a long time; Venice has been producing it for many years.

Lu Chen naturally didn't know the intricate techniques of the glassmakers on Murano Island.

However, without considering artistic design, creating crystal-clear glass products is not difficult for this time traveler who has received a modern education.

Lu Chen certainly didn't know the complete glassmaking process, but that didn't matter!

During the Ming Dynasty, there were already production techniques for "liuli" and "yaoyu," which are opaque and semi-transparent glass.

The kiln temperature of over 1200 degrees Celsius required for firing glass has long been achieved by the official kilns of Jingdezhen.

All I need to do is break through the thin layer of paper and make the glass crystal clear.

If they are seized in the future, just consider it as introducing overseas technology to the Ming Dynasty in advance!