Ma Cheng stood on a hill by the river, watching the Qing army being escorted back to the Dashengguan camp by the Ming army in an orderly manner. Now that the Qing army has given up resistance, the next step is to select the strong and the weak of these guys, and pick out the young and strong ones to fill in the new army. Of course, the remaining old and weak are also useful, and Ma Cheng is ready to organize these old and weak into the military cantonment and start planting corn and potatoes around Nanjing.

Although Ma Cheng had no doubts about his final victory, the process must have been difficult. According to Ma Cheng's estimates, in the next ten years, all parts of the country will be affected by the war, and whoever has food in his hands will be invincible.

Therefore, Ma Cheng has made up his mind to vigorously promote the planting of corn and potatoes, the climate here in Nanzhili is warm, and two crops can be planted a year, so that the corn and potatoes can mature in May.

This great victory brought countless benefits to Ma Cheng, in addition to countless laborers, as well as the tens of thousands of war horses in the Qing army camp. The Qing army brought cavalry from the north, and two horses and even three horses were the basic configuration of these elite cavalry, and what Ma Cheng lacked most here was war horses.

Although with the development of firearms, the role of cavalry became smaller and smaller, but before the advent of automatic burst firearms, cavalry still played a significant role in sports warfare. Although Napoleon was unable to fight back all of Europe with his artillery and well-trained junior officers, the French cavalry was also an important force to be reckoned with.

There were seven or eight thousand war horses in the big camp of Dashengguan in front of him, plus those from other big battalions, who fled in all directions, Ma Cheng estimated that it was definitely not a small number. Each war horse is now worth more than fifty taels of silver, but these war horses are enough for Ma Cheng's losses in the past year.

Ma Cheng has been engaged in the battle since last night, and has not rested for two consecutive days, and now that the battle is over, Ma Cheng is inevitably very tired mentally and physically. Ma Bao saw Ma Cheng's red eyes, and hurriedly said: "Lord Junmen, there is nothing here now, the last general can deal with it, please go back to the city to rest!" ”

Ma Cheng looked around, because it was dark, the situation in the distance was not clear, but the battle here in the camp of Dashengguan was indeed over, Ma Cheng looked at it and saw that there was really nothing important, and then said to Ma Bao: "Sixth uncle, although the siege of the southern capital has been lifted, but the surrounding prefectures and counties are in the hands of the northern captives, sixth uncle, you will take your subordinates along the Yangtze River tomorrow to recover the Taiping Mansion!" ”

Taiping Mansion is the city of Wuhu in later generations, which is the last line of defense in Nanjing. At this time, the Yangtze River was in the hands of the Qing army, and Ma Cheng must occupy the Taiping Mansion in order to protect Nanjing.

Ma Cheng saw Ma Bao nodding in agreement, and said: "There are also soldiers to be sent to collect the scattered war horses in the four towns, this is the key to our formation of a cavalry team!" ”

Ma Bao's guerrilla Tian Boguang heard Ma Cheng say that he wanted to form a cavalry team, and his eyes lit up and asked, "Lord Junmen, do you really want to form cavalry?" ”

Tian Boguang is a military household in Guiyang, and was brought to Nanzhili by Ma Shiying to serve as his pacesetter, which can be regarded as the descendant of the Ma family.

Ma Cheng smiled and said: "This is natural, when the Northern Expedition is in the future, the cavalry will be the main force!" ”

"Lord Junmen, can you let the last general join the cavalry?"

Ma Cheng was stunned when he heard Tian Boguang say this, this guy is not from Guiyang, how can he ride a horse? You must know that the ancient cavalry was a technical weapon, completely similar to the armored soldiers of later generations, no

You can just find a farmer.

Ma Bao saw that Ma Cheng was suspicious, and hurriedly explained on the side: "Lord Junmen, this kid is the nephew of the last general, and he will follow the master to Nanzhili at the end of that year, so he brought this nephew with him, and I want to experience it." This kid learned to ride a horse at home, but adults know that Guiyang is all mountainous, and what cavalry can be formed there, so this kid's wish has never been realized. ”

It turned out to be Ma Bao's nephew, no wonder the family had money to learn to ride a horse. Ma Bao's distant ancestor is the son of the Ma family, although the blood relationship has been far away after several generations, but after all, he is also his own person. In addition, Ma Bao and Ma Cheng cooperated seamlessly in this year's battle, and he was the most trusted of the four general soldiers, and Tian Boguang was one of the first twelve people to follow Ma Cheng, so Ma Cheng also designated this guy as his cavalry commander.

"Okay, since your kid has this thought, then the matter of collecting the war horse will be handed over to you, as for the manpower, first transfer a thousand people from your uncle's hands, and the official position will be a general first!"

Tian Boguang was overjoyed when he heard Ma Cheng say this, knelt on the ground and kowtowed, stood up, and began to collect war horses with his subordinates.

After all the arrangements were made, General Ma Cheng handed over the matter to Ma Bao, and then returned to Jubaomen with more than 300 personal soldiers.

Yesterday, tens of thousands of people died here in the First World War, and now there are dead and wounded soldiers all over the place, and the defenders in the city had to send people to clean up the battlefield after the war, but now the defenders in the city have been sent out to clear the Qing army, and the dead bodies under the city are no one to manage.

Now under the treasure gate, it is like a ghost domain, there are wounded soldiers screaming everywhere, and after a day, the wounded soldiers are almost dead, or the screams will be even louder.

Ma Cheng is accustomed to life and death after this year's war, and he no longer cares about the blood of dead people. Ma Cheng rode to the foot of the Jubao Gate, and the soldiers guarding the city saw that there were people from the city, and shouted: "Who is under the city?" When you get closer, you will release the arrows! ”

Ma Cheng's personal commander Gu Yong urged the horse to step forward and shouted: "The town guard is back to the city, let you guard the city and the generals come out to greet you!" ”

Now the general guarding the city of Jubaomen is the general An Zhennan, who heard that Ma Cheng was back, and hurriedly went down to the city to open the city gate, and then knelt on the ground to welcome Ma Cheng into the city.

Ma Cheng came to An Zhennan and looked at this guy, got off the horse and helped An Zhennan up and said, "Zhennan, your brother died in Dongcheng, you have to mourn!" ”

An Zhennan had already received the news of his brother's death, and now when he heard Ma Cheng talk about it, he said sadly and angrily: "Axi is loyal to the country!" ”

The new army suffered heavy losses in the bloody battle in Dongcheng, and three of the twelve people who followed Ma Cheng at the earliest time died, namely the general An Zhenxi, the guerrilla Xue Gui, and the guerrilla Dong Ba, and the soldiers of the new army were killed more than 7,000 people, which can be said to be the most serious loss for Ma Cheng since the formation of the new army.

If he didn't escape after the city was broken, the new army would not have to pay such a heavy price, so Ma Cheng went home this time and made up his mind to clean up this younger brother so as to pay tribute to the dead new army soldiers.

Ma Cheng patted An Zhennan on the shoulder: "Zhennan, don't worry, this governor will definitely give justice to your brother and all the brothers who died!" ”

After pacifying An Zhennan, Ma Cheng got on the horse and returned to his home, which was the former Wei State Mansion. However, now the plaque in front of the door has been changed and has become the Marquis of Guiyang's mansion.

The new housekeeper Chen Qi received the news and hurriedly went out to greet him

Then, seeing Ma Cheng covered in blood, the frightened Chen Qi quickly knelt on the ground and kowtowed.

Ma Cheng handed the horse to Gu Yong, and then asked, "Chen Qi, is the lady at home?" ”

Chen Qizhan said tremblingly: "Back to the old lady, there is a news from the old lady's mansion that the lady and all the aunts who have children will go to the old lady's mansion, but now they have not come back, only a few other aunts are at home!" ”

All went to Mafu? Ma Cheng didn't know what he was doing, did he think that the city was broken, so that he could gather his family together and run away?

But Ma Cheng didn't think much about it, he was so sleepy now that he just wanted to sleep.

"Okay, let's take Bendu to Kou Mei's courtyard!"

After Kou Baimen was included in the harem by Ma Cheng, he had an independent courtyard, but because Kou Baimen was too low, he did not have any status among Ma Cheng's concubines, so Kou Baimen's courtyard was far away from the backyard and was a separate courtyard.

Chen Qi took Ma Cheng to the front of Kou Baimen Courtyard and asked, "Master, do you need to eat?" ”

Ma Cheng was so sleepy that he was not hungry at all, shook his head and pushed the door into the small courtyard.

At this time, it was already the second half of the night, and Kou Baimen had already turned off the lights and rested. Hearing a sound outside the door, the lights in the house were turned on again, and a young woman asked, "Who is in the courtyard?" ”

Ma Cheng came to the door and whispered, "It's me!" ”

The maid ring in the house heard Ma Cheng's voice, and quickly opened the door and knelt on the ground and said, "Master Hou is back!" ”

The girl didn't expect that Ma Cheng at the door was covered in blood, and under the light of the moon like a hungry ghost, he fell the candlestick in fright, sat on the ground and shouted: "There are ghosts!" ”

Kou Baimen in the house heard the screams of the maid ring outside, and came out wearing a coat, and his face was as frightened as death when he saw Ma Cheng's appearance. She knew that there was a bloody battle in Dongcheng last night, and Ma Cheng led the army to the rescue, but she didn't know how Dongcheng was fighting. Now seeing Ma Cheng appear in front of the door like this, I thought that Ma Cheng had died in battle, and this was Ma Cheng's soul coming home.

"Master, the concubine knows that the lord is loyal to the country, and she will definitely burn more paper horse incense candles for the lord in the future, please don't come back to scare the concubine!"

Seeing Kou Baimen frightened like this, Ma Cheng was very funny, and scolded: "What nonsense, the master is a human!" Living people! Don't believe you're touching! ”

Hearing what the evil ghost at the door said, Kou Baimen stepped forward tremblingly and touched Ma Cheng's hands, although their hands were stained with blood, they were indeed warm.

Finding that Ma Cheng was not dead, Kou Baimen breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly asked, "Master, why do you look like this?" After Kou Baimen finished speaking, he hurriedly asked Yahuan to boil water to freshen up Ma Cheng.

After two days of fighting, the blood stains on Ma Cheng's body have scabbed, and the belt buckle of the armor can't be untied at all, so he has no choice but to cut it with scissors.

After grooming, Ma Cheng finally returned to his original state, and Kou Baimen asked at this time: "Master, I heard that Dongcheng was broken last night, and the master led troops to support, I don't know what happened to Dongcheng?" ”

Ma Cheng talked and said, "The northern captives were repelled by the master!" ”

Kou Baimen let out a sigh of relief after hearing this, and then said, "Just retreat!" ”

Kou Baimen thought that it was just the Qing army being driven out of the city, and Ma Cheng continued: "Master, I took 15,000 people out of the city to fight a bloody battle with the northern captives, and defeated 400,000 northern captives in one day, and now the northern captives have retreated to the north of the Yangtze River!" ”