Gathering troops is the most direct means of testing whether an army is qualified. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the military law was harsh, and there was a military law that the general could not be beheaded with a three-way drum. However, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the court was corrupt and the military law was abolished, and this military law was useless, except for the border army that still retained this military law, the troops in the interior had already abandoned this military law for many years.

The first governor of the university was Zhu Yuanzhang's nephew Zhu Wenzheng, and the rule he set was to gather every five days and drill every ten days, but this rule has been stopped for hundreds of years during the Chongzhen period. The previous admiral Liu Zhaoji was just a formality, meeting with his commanders and generals every half a month, and everyone drank and chatted, which was just a matter of meaning.

Now Zhu Tong heard that the new Admiral Ma Cheng was going to gather generals, and hurriedly reminded in a low voice on the side: "Lord Junmen, we haven't gathered generals for more than a hundred years, and many of our brothers are living in the city, I'm afraid it's too late for a while!" ”

Ma Cheng gave people the impression that he was very kind just now, so Zhu Tong dared to say this, but he didn't expect Ma Cheng to turn his face and say in a deep voice: "What? Have the rules set by Wen Zhenggong been abolished? Is there a letter from the Ministry of War or a decree from His Majesty? ”

Ma Cheng said this purely because he had nothing to do, the military department could write this kind of language, Zhu Tong heard Ma Cheng say this and quickly explained: "Lord Junmen, the former Admiral Liu... "Zhu Tong means that Liu Zhaoji has never engaged in a gathering of generals, what can you do.

Ma Cheng didn't wait for Zhu Tong to finish speaking, interrupted him and said: "I don't care, now Lao Tzu is the admiral, Lao Tzu said that he wants to gather generals, Zhu Tong, don't you agree?" ”

Zhu Tong heard Ma Cheng say this, he dared to object, Ma Cheng was ordered to be a commander, and if he did not obey the general's order in the army, he could be beheaded, and Zhu Tong had no choice but to organize his subordinates to prepare the general for the standard of the town.

The Admiral was already the highest military general in the Ming Dynasty army, and the big drums used for communication in the army had a total of eight sides, second only to the ten sides of the prince's expedition. These eight-sided drums are made of whole raw cowhide, and each drum requires six drummers to sound, and the earth-shattering drum can be transmitted to five miles away.

These drums were still made during the Chenghua period, and it is estimated that they have not been used at all in the past 100 years, and they are covered with dust. Seeing this, Zhu Tong hurriedly ordered someone to bring a rag to wipe off the dust on the drum surface.

This rub only found that two of the eight cowhide drums have been damaged, I don't know if the weather is dry or insects eat rats, anyway, it can't be used.

Zhu Tong saw that Ma Cheng, who was standing on the side, looked worse and worse, and hurriedly ordered someone to clean up the remaining six-sided drums, and then began to beat the drums to gather the generals.

The sound of the cowhide drum was deafening, and Ma Cheng stood on the side and felt that his heart was about to jump out, so Ma Cheng walked into the Admiral's Yamen with his subordinates, and sat down on the seat in the middle of the White Tiger Hall to wait.

The first drum beat is five minutes, and the three drums are fifteen minutes, that is, if Ma Cheng doesn't report here for fifteen minutes, then Ma Cheng has a reason to clean up these generals, which is also Ma Cheng's preparation to use the power in his hands to give these slacking guys a dismount.

When the first drum was finished and the second drum sounded, Zhang Guozhu and others had already arrived, and these guys had Ma Cheng's advance notice, so they were already prepared, so they could come in a short time.

When the second drum was finished and the third drum sounded, the guerrillas of several battalions around the school yard rushed in.

After the third drum was finished, the Chinese officer Zhu Tong walked in and knelt down on one knee and said: "Lord of the Military Gate, after the three drums are finished, please give me instructions!" ”

Looking at the dozen or so people in the room, Ma Cheng said, "Wait a little longer!" ”

In this way, Ma Cheng waited in the White Tiger Hall with all the senior generals for half an hour, except for five more commanders, the other guards commanders and garrisons did not come. Seeing this situation, Ma Cheng smiled and asked, "Zhang Guozhu, you are the deputy general of the governor, what do you say you should do now?" ”

Zhang Guozhu knew that this was Ma Cheng who wanted to stand up, so he quickly stood up and arched his hand and said: "Lord Huijunmen, you should not call your name, and if you don't get the time, the offender will be beheaded!" ”

Ma Cheng nodded and asked Zhu Tong: "You are a Chinese officer, you said that no one came today?" ”

Zhu Tong didn't know that Ma Cheng was going to stand up at this time, although Zhu Tong had a good relationship with those commanders, but who cares about who at this critical juncture, it's better to take care of yourself!

"Lord Huijunmen, there are a total of twenty-four guards under the jurisdiction of the headquarters, and now the chief officers of the Jinwu Left Guard, the Jinwu Right Guard, the Jianghuai Guard, the Jichuan Guard, the Xiaoling Guard, the Chihe Battalion, the Zhenwu Battalion, and the Shenji Battalion have arrived, and the other sixteen guards such as Ying Tianwei, the Left-behind Guard, and the Left-behind Guard, have not arrived!"

Sixteen commanders haven't arrived, okay! Ma Cheng said to Zhang Guozhu: "Zhang Guozhu, you lead the three hundred pacesetters of this governor to arrest all the commanders who have not come!" ”

Zhang Guozhu arched over to receive the order, and with his three hundred wolf-like pacesetters, he began to arrest people inside and outside the city of Nanjing, which made the entire Nancheng jump for a while.

After Zhang Guozhu took people away, Ma Cheng didn't move, he was still sitting on the seat in the lobby, and the other generals didn't dare to move when they saw that the chief officer didn't move, but in private, they were communicating with their eyes, didn't they say that the new admiral was the second ancestor, why did he just come and get off the horse?

Ma Cheng sat in the lobby without saying a word, and after waiting for a full hour, Zhang Guozhu finally came back with the sixteen commanders he had captured. Beautiful book bar

These sixteen people have different images, some wear foreign clothes, some wear military uniforms, and a fat guy is naked and wears a woman's clothes to cover his shame, probably because he was arrested by Zhang Guozhu when he didn't do anything good.

Zhang Guozhu walked into the lobby with these guys, bowed down and said, "Lord Junmen, the last general will give the order!" All sixteen of them are here! ”

"Chinese officer Zhu Tong!"

Zhu Tong heard Ma Cheng tell him to quickly stand up and say, "The end will be!" ”

"Zhu Tong, you are a Chinese military officer, what should you do if you don't say it in time?"

Zhu Tong looked at the sixteen people, and silently thought in his heart: Brothers, it's not that brothers are not interesting enough, but the new official has taken office three times, don't blame your brothers for your bad luck this time!

"Lord Huijunmen, it's not too late, slash!"

Ma Cheng nodded: "Okay, come on, take these sixteen guys out and cut off their heads!" ”

As soon as Ma Cheng's words came out, the entire hall was like a pot, and the sixteen guys shouted: "Why kill us?" How old are you? ”

"The army has been virtuous since a hundred years ago, why did they kill us?"

Someone else begged for mercy: "Lord Junmen, the last general will not dare in the future, please spare the last general!" ”

The other generals in the big tent who were on time also hurriedly knelt down to intercede for these guys, and the generals of the Shenji Battalion who belonged to Ma Cheng's family in the lobby, as well as Zhang Guozhu, Ma Bao and others looked around, feeling that it was not good for them to stand, and they also knelt down to plead with the crowd.

If it is replaced by other admirals, today is originally Liwei, and now that people are soft, they will get off the donkey, hello, I'm good, everyone's done. But Ma Cheng is different, he needs to train this army in a short time, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty is coming in more than half a year, and there is no time to use Huairou means, so today Ma Cheng is really murderous.

Seeing that all the generals in the hall were pleading for these sixteen people, Ma Cheng shouted loudly to the door: "Gu Zhong, you come in!" ”

Although Gu Zhong has become a hundred households, a low-level officer like him is not qualified to enter the lobby, so he stood outside the hall with a group of hundreds of households and thousands of households, and now listening to the call of the Lord of the Military Gate, Gu Zhong hurriedly walked into the lobby and bowed down and asked: "Lord of the Military Gate, the end is coming!" ”

Ma Cheng pointed to the sixteen people kneeling on the ground and said, "Gu Zhong, you take someone to pull out these sixteen guys who violated the military order and behead them!" Then pass the head of the guards! ”

Gu Zhong is Ma Cheng's descendant, plus Gu Zhong was born in Guizhou, and he has nothing to do with these guys in Nanjing, so naturally he doesn't care about that, he waved outside the door, and more than 100 pacesetters came in, and escorted 16 people down.

Sixteen people were escorted to the gate of the Admiral's Yamen, lined up in a row, and began to cut off their heads one by one. At this time, these guys already knew that Ma Cheng really wanted to kill them, and they scolded one by one: "Ma Cheng, do you know who we are?" If you dare to kill us, you wait! ”

Although these guys scolded fiercely, it was just a return to the light, and soon sixteen people were killed, and sixteen heads were sent to Ma Cheng for the military gate to inspect.

Seeing sixteen grinning heads in front of him, Ma Cheng endured his nausea and said, "See? In the future, if you don't obey the general's orders and don't abide by military law, this is the end! After speaking, Ma Cheng waved his hand and asked Gu Zhong to take down the sixteen heads and pass them on to the guards.

The effect of killing sixteen people is obvious, Ma Cheng saw that the other generals were looking at him with shock and fear in their eyes, Ma Cheng needed this effect, and now the time is pressing, and it is too late to use any gentle means, so he can only use severe punishment to sort out this gang of ruffians.

Ma Cheng looked at the general in the room and said loudly: "In the past, you didn't care what Lao Tzu was, but now that Lao Tzu is the commander, you have to do what Lao Tzu decides!" Lao Tzu doesn't matter what your background is, what duke or earl, as long as you violate military law, you will be treated equally! ”

After Ma Cheng finished speaking, he pointed to Ma Xi among the four general soldiers and said: "Ma Xi, the chief soldier, is Lao Tzu's own brother, but if he makes a mistake, Lao Tzu will cut off his head!" So you don't have any other fantasies, if you want to be a soldier under Lao Tzu, there is only one way, and that is to train and train in training! Starting today, the five-day gathering will be changed to three days, and the ten-day parade will be changed to five days! Zhang Guozhu, Ma Bao, Luo Bingran, and Ma Xi, the four of you, selected strong and honest people from each guard to form four battalions, each battalion has 5,000 people, and the four of you serve as battalion officers! ”

Zhang Guozhu and the four of them didn't expect Ma Cheng to be so ruthless, sixteen people said they would kill them, and now they heard Ma Cheng let the four of them select soldiers to form four battalions, and quickly stood up and bowed down to receive the order.

After all the arrangements were made, Ma Cheng said to the generals in the hall: "From today on, Lao Tzu will nail you to death, as the saying goes, civil officials do not love money, military generals are not afraid of death, and those who are afraid of death had better leave Lao Tzu's team immediately!" ”