Zhang Shenyan's mind is very simple, that is, to use the strength of the Donglin Party to promote Jiang Yueguang to the throne of Shoufu.

Zhang Shenyan thought very well, but he forgot that although the emperor in front of him was a little stupid, he still knew the basic way of being a king. Originally, your Donglin Party was outnumbered, and you were using your people as the first assistant according to your wishes, so what rights did the emperor have? It's better for you to be the emperor.

In addition, it was indeed unfair to Ma Shiying a few days ago, and no one else became the first assistant, so Zhu Yousong did not let other Donglin Party members speak after listening to Zhang Shenyan, but said directly: "What Uncle Cheng said is very right, now that the country is in crisis, a minister with practical experience like Ma Shiying is needed, so Uncle Sincerity please play it!" ”

The emperor's words are the holy decree, and the other Donglin party members heard that the emperor had selected Ma Shiying as the first assistant before they spoke, and their eyes immediately grew, and now they really regretted that it was better not to persuade Zhu Yousong to be the emperor at that time, and now that the status of the monarch and the minister has been decided, do you dare to object? There was no way, and the Manchu ministers of civil and military affairs could only kneel down to receive the order.

Ma Shiying heard that the major event of his first assistant had been decided, and he was overjoyed, and quickly knelt on the ground to thank him. Immediately afterwards, Ma Shiying wrote to remove Xu Hongji from the official position of governor of Caojiang on the grounds of poor defense, and replaced it with Liu Kongzhao, the sincerity of the uncle.

Shi Kefa, who was standing in the back, saw Ma Shiying so beautiful and hated in his heart, if this guy hadn't been kicked out of the core of power?

Thinking of this, Shi Kefa thought of those town generals in Jiangbei, most of the reason why Ma Shiying was able to take the position this time was because of the town generals' support for him, if he also won over these town generals, wouldn't he be able to come to a military admonition in the future?

Thinking of this, Shi Kefa stood up and said: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that he should consider the geographical advantages and urgently set up the four feudal domains. The four feudatories: one of them, Huai and Xu; One of them is Yang, Chu; One of them, Feng, Si; One of them, six. Huai, Yang, Si, Lu self-defense, and Xu, Chu, Feng, six as the basis for progress. The ministers asked Gao Jie, Liu Liangzuo, Liu Zeqing, and Huang Degong to be the chief military officers of the four towns, and the ministers were also in the center to guard Yangzhou! ”

Shi Kefa's words laid the foreshadowing of the demise of the Southern Ming Dynasty, originally the four towns were just ordinary general soldiers, and there were more than 40 general soldiers like them in the Ming Dynasty, and these four people were nothing more than more soldiers. However, Shi Kefa asked them to be named the Four Towns, so that they would have greater rights and have the actual power to collect taxes and appoint officials in the local area, so that the Four Towns would become the actual warlords.

Ma Shiying originally didn't agree to give these town generals too many rights, but he relied on the town generals to take the position today, plus Shi Kefa had promised to leave the core of power, and it was really unreasonable not to give him some benefits, so Ma Shiying could only be silent when he heard Shi Kefa say this.

As for Zhang Shenyan and Jiang Yueguang of the Donglin Party, they wanted to win over the four towns, so naturally they would not oppose much, and Emperor Zhu Yousong saw that the cabinet had no objections, so he agreed to Shi Kefa's proposal with a stroke of the pen.

Zhu Yousong immediately issued an order to entitle Gao Jie as Xingpingbo, guarding Xuzhou and Sizhou; Liu Liangzuo was named Guangchangbo, guarding Fengyang and Shouzhou areas; Liu Zeqing sealed the East Pingbo, guarding Huai'an and Yangzhou areas; Jingnan Bohuang was crowned a marquis, guarding Chuzhou and Hezhou. Shi Kefa supervised Yangzhou and controlled the four towns, so far the four warlords in Jiangbei finally took shape. (The establishment of the four towns is clearly recorded in the history books and is the suggestion of Shi Kefa, but it is not the author's suggestion in the black Shi Kefa)

Shi Kefa can be seen in the incident of supporting King Fu to lack a sense of the overall situation, and he is not an excellent military strategist, and he almost does not lead the army to fight. In Shi Kefa's vision, there is defense and offense, which seems to be both safe and not too conservative, plus he invited himself to Yangzhou to supervise the division, such an arrangement seems to be flawless.

But Shi Kefa forgot that the four towns of Jiangbei were different from himself, those four people were not scholars, and they had not been brainwashed and educated by Confucianism for thousands of years, so they naturally didn't know what loyalty and patriotism were. After these four people were named the four towns, they only knew that they had their own troops, except for Gao Jie's intention to go north, the other three towns did not send a single soldier to the Qing Dynasty in the north, and the attack was the best defense, and they could only sit and wait for death if they did not attack.

Although Shi Kefa's request to seal the four towns of Jiangbei laid a hidden danger for the demise of the Southern Ming Dynasty in the future, no one is aware of the ministers of the court and the central government, and they are still immersed in the joy of the new emperor's accession to the throne. Probably in the entire city of Nanjing, only our protagonist Ma Cheng knows that it is the powerful Southern Ming Dynasty, which can only exist for one year.

Ma Cheng was tired enough these days, and he found a vacant lot in Nanjing's Jinshan Gate, which is full of sparsely populated farmland, and is close to the Yangtze River and Xuanwu Lake, which is a good place to build his own sugar workshop.

In Fengyang for more than half a month, the sugar workshop led by Ma Shun produced a total of more than 1,800 catties of sugar, half of which had been sold, and the funds had returned more than 2,000 taels. This time, Ma Shun has been asked to expand production again, striving to double the output of white sugar.

After taking care of his money bag, Ma Cheng will go to take over his Shenji Camp next.

The Ming Dynasty Shenji Battalion was an all-firearms unit, and it was also the only one in the world. The Shenji Battalion was founded in the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, when Zhu Di formed three battalions in the Beijing camp, including the five military battalions, the three thousand battalions and the Shenji battalion. When the three battalions were first established, they were quite combat-effective, but the main force was completely depleted in the civil and engineering changes. During the Jingtai period, Yu Qian, the secretary of the military department, reformed the establishment of the Beijing battalion and selected 100,000 elite battalions from the three major battalions. It is divided into ten battalions for regimental training in case of emergency call, and is called the ten-regiment battalion.

Later generations of emperors have reformed the regimental battalions, but basically continued the scale of the ten battalions, only in the 29th year of Jiajing, the regimental battalion and the two official halls were dismissed, and the old system of the three battalions in Yongle was restored, the difference is that the three thousand battalions were renamed the Shenshu battalion.

Of course, this is the Beijing camp in Beijing, and the Beijing camp in Nanjing is different from the Beijing camp in that there are no five military battalions and three thousand battalions, only the Shenji battalion remains, and at the same time it is responsible for training the officers and soldiers of the Nanjing Zhuwei Institute in the large and small teaching grounds.

The station of the Shenji Battalion is in the Daxiao Field outside the South City, that is, the area of Daming Road in the later generations, which was rebuilt as a military airport during the Republic of China, and became a civilian airport after the founding of the People's Republic of China until 2015.

Of course, there were no high-rise buildings in the Ming Dynasty, and less than five miles outside the Yuhua Gate was farmland. Ma Cheng came to receive the Shenji Battalion this time, and a director of the military department led the way. Although the principal is only Congliupin, he is also a civil official, and it is impossible for Ma Cheng to lead the way for a martial artist. However, Ma Cheng's Lao Tzu is very powerful, Ma Shiying succeeded Shi Kefa as the secretary of the Ministry of War, and the son of the chief officer and leader still dares to pretend to be forced when he comes to him?

Although the principal was full of reluctance, he could only smile and follow Ma Cheng out of the city, and when he arrived ten miles outside Yuhua Gate, the principal pointed to a row of houses not far away and said: "Master Ma, there is the big school field in front, and those houses are the station of the Shenji Battalion!" ”

Ma Cheng had seen what kind of virtue the guards were in Fengyang, so he was mentally prepared for today, but he was still stunned when he came to the barracks.

This fucking place is a barracks, it's a beggar's nest, a few grass sheds are built together, a few lazy people are idle and bored lying at the door basking in the sun, a few bare-bottomed children are playing in front of the door, and a few leper dogs are lying listlessly on the ground, if this is a village, it makes sense, but this is the station of the Ming Elite Shenji Battalion.

Ma Cheng frowned sideways and asked, "Director Liang, this is the Shenji Battalion?" ”

Director Liang nodded and confirmed: "Yes, this is the Divine Machine Battalion!" At the same time, Director Liang saw that Ma Cheng was a little unhappy, and hurriedly explained: "Master Ma, this is no way, the southern capital has been peaceful for a long time, and the military equipment is lax, and talents like Lord Ma are needed to rectify it!" ”

Ma Cheng's subordinate Xu Dahu is not surprised, and the entire army of the Ming Dynasty is so virtuous. Xu Dahu walked over and kicked the lazy men basking in the sun, and scolded: "Your mother, are you still considered Jingying?" What about your camp? Let him get out and see the new chief soldier and horse commander! ”

The battalion officer is a bit like the officer on duty in later generations, responsible for the security of the entire barracks, logistics, barracks management, etc., each battalion has different official positions, and the chief officer of the Shenji battalion is the chief soldier, so the battalion officer should be a thousand generals.

The lazy man looked up at Xu Dahu, squinted his eyes and scolded: "Grandma's, you are that part, didn't you see Lao Tzu sleeping?" This is the Shenji Battalion, Lao Tzu is the sentinel of the Shenji Battalion, not the guards of you bastards! ”

Ma Cheng heard this guy scolding himself in the back, and scolded angrily: "Big Tiger, give Lao Tzu a beating!" ”

With Ma Cheng's order, Xu Dahu took out his horsewhip and began to whip these lazy men, whipping them all over the ground.

There was a commotion at the door, and there was a quick reaction inside, and in less than ten minutes, a group of people rushed out, led by a hundred households in their forties, but his clothes were dirty, and he could only barely distinguish that it was a hundred households.

The hundred households thought that someone was coming to fight outside the door, but when they came out to take a look, they found that they were in charge of the superiors and the head of the military department.

Director Liang is inferior in front of Ma Cheng, but it doesn't mean that he is like this in front of others. When the hundred households saw the Liang principal, they quickly knelt down and saluted: "I don't know that Lord Liang is coming, and the villain didn't greet him, it's a capital crime!" ”

Director Liang doesn't like to deal with this kind of ruffian, he was only forced to follow Ma Cheng this time, and the idea in his heart was to hurry up and finish the matter and return to the city.

"Get up, where are you all generals?"

"If you go back to the adult, Qi Shen will be in the city, and the villain will send someone to find it!"

Director Liang could still wait for General Qi to come back, waved his hand and said: "That's it, this General Ma is the new commander of the Shenji Battalion personally appointed by His Majesty, you can see the new commander!" ”

After speaking, Director Liang smiled at Ma Cheng and said, "Master Ma, there are still some things in the lower official department, so I won't accompany you!" After Liang finished speaking, he got into the sedan chair and returned to the city.

After Ma Cheng sent Liang away, he asked the hundred households: "Who is the biggest officer in the battalion?" ”

When the hundred households heard the new chief soldier ask, Si Ai Ai said: "Now the biggest one is the last general!" ”