Ma Cheng left Nanjing on the third day of the first lunar month and spent three days in Longtan Town.

The town of Longtan is more than 40 miles from Nanjing, and in the early Ming Dynasty, it was the location of the Longtan Artillery Factory, which was responsible for manufacturing artillery for Zheng He's ocean-going fleet. However, as Renzong stopped going to the West, the Longtan Cannon Factory was slowly abandoned.

In the defense of Nanjing a year ago, because the Qing army wanted to besiege Nanjing, more than 40 companies and camps were established along the periphery of Nanjing.

When Ma Cheng counterattacked, Longtan Town was burned by Ma Cheng's fire, in addition to burning tens of thousands of Qing soldiers, thousands of residents of Longtan Town were also burned to death.

The current Longtan Town was re-opened by Zhang Guozhu, and a new camp was built on the site of the Qing army camp.

Zhang Guozhu rushed to Longtan Town yesterday as a pioneer, and when Ma Cheng came today, Zhang Guozhu had already taken a group of generals to greet him at the gate of the camp.

Zhang Guozhu now has an army of 35,000 under his command, and there are fifty or sixty officers above the guerrilla level.

Ma Cheng came to the gate of the camp, and Zhang Guozhu led his generals to step forward and kneel on one knee to greet the marshal!

"Uncle Zhang, please get up, the climate is cold now, and the ground is cold!"

Zhang Guozhu is the same generation as Ma Shiying, and it stands to reason that he can be regarded as Ma Cheng's uncle, but in the army, he only talks about official positions and does not care about relatives, Zhang Guozhu heard Ma Cheng say this and hurriedly said: "Marshal, you can call the name of the last general in the army!" ”

Ma Cheng heard Zhang Guozhu say this, took his hand and said, "Can that be so?" Uncle is uncle, Ma Cheng doesn't dare to mess with the generation! ”

There is also a reason why Ma Cheng is so enthusiastic about Zhang Guozhu, Zhang Guozhu's relationship with him is actually not very good, but Zhang Guozhu is now a general under Ma Cheng, and one-third of Ma Cheng's new army is in Zhang Guozhu's hands, and Ma Cheng must treat Zhang Guozhu well in public and private.

Zhang Guozhu didn't say anything anymore when he heard Ma Cheng say this, and turned around to introduce Ma Cheng to the six chief military officers under him.

According to the establishment of Ma Cheng's new army, the general army belongs to the level of the commander of the military region, and each of them is a member of one party. Zhang Guozhu only had 15,000 new troops under his command, plus the 20,000 ordinary soldiers that Ma Cheng had assigned to him, and it was enough to have a general commander.

However, Ma Cheng is not an independent new army, there are still many generals of the old army in the army, and these guys have also made meritorious achievements in the defense of Nanjing, so in order to reward them, Ma Cheng had to promote them to the general army.

Although they are both general soldiers, the general soldiers of the old army are very different from the general soldiers of the new army. Zhang Guozhu's fifteen thousand new troops are under the management of a general soldier, and this guy is also one of Ma Cheng's henchmen, that is, Gu Xing of the Twelve King Kongs.

The other 20,000 ordinary armies were managed by five general soldiers, each of whom managed 4,000 people, which was also in line with the military system of the Ming Dynasty, but this combat effectiveness was different. Gu Xing's new army completely beat ordinary troops, and its daily supply and training were far above ordinary armies.

Ma Cheng came to Gu Xing and said with a smile: "Gu Xing, you are also a member of the party now!" ”

Gu Xing was originally a personal soldier of the Gu family, and he was Ma Cheng's absolute descendant, and when he heard Ma Cheng say this, he hurriedly said: "Thanks to the cultivation of the handsome!" ”

Ma Cheng nodded, and cordially greeted the other five general soldiers, but Ma Cheng just went through the motions for them.

Behind the general soldier were eight deputy chief soldiers, and one of the leaders, Ma Cheng, looked familiar, but forgot to see it there.

Ma Cheng asked Zhang Guozhu, "Uncle, who is this?" How does this look familiar? ”

The adjutant general hurriedly knelt down on his knees and said: "Great marshal, the last general Zhang Guoyi, Zhang Junmen is the elder brother of the last general!" ”

Hearing this guy say this, Ma Cheng remembered, this guy was the cavalry commander who killed Wang Xian's family back then, but he didn't expect that now he was mixed with the deputy chief soldier. Fortunately, Wang Xian didn't come today, otherwise the enemies would have to fight.

Zhang Guozhu was also afraid that Ma Cheng would be careful and hold a grudge, so he hurriedly came to Ma Cheng's side and said: "Marshal, Zhang Guoyi beheaded fifty in the Battle of Nandu, including two guerrillas and one garrison, and was promoted to deputy chief soldier because of his merits!" ”

Ma Cheng is now a prince, and he can still be so cautious there, plus Ma Cheng is now very attentive to buying people's hearts, and a talent like Zhang Guoyi is the object of Ma Cheng's purchase.

"Okay, what position does Zhang Guoyi hold now?"

Zhang Guoyi hurriedly clenched his fists and said: "Marshal, the last general is temporarily in the position of deputy general of the vanguard left army!" ”

It turned out to be the deputy general of the miscellaneous army, Ma Cheng said very generously: "How can such a brave general not be used? Admiral Zhang, transfer Zhang Guoyi to the New Army and serve as Gu Xing's deputy general! ”

Transferred from a miscellaneous unit to the new army, although the position is not moving, the power in this hand is different. Everyone knows that the new army is Ma Cheng's descendant, and he has always been promoted quickly, and he will definitely be able to make a lot of military exploits when he goes to Zhejiang to fight in the war this time, and he can be the commander of the general army in the future.

Zhang Guoyi heard Ma Cheng say this, and quickly knelt down again to thank Ma Cheng for his support, Ma Cheng patted Zhang Guoyi's shoulder and said: "Get up, you and I are all family, what else do you share with each other?" ”

Next, Ma Cheng met with the remaining lieutenant generals and generals, and praised them one by one, and some generals with special merits were also promoted in public, so that the entire vanguard battalion was happy, and everyone was very happy.

After the welcome ceremony, Zhang Guozhu said to Ma Cheng: "Dashuai, please enter the camp, the weather is cold now, and the last general will prepare light wine and thin dishes!" ”

"Don't be in a hurry to drink the wine, now the governor is going to see how the Longtan Artillery Factory is prepared, Zhang Guozhu, you can lead the way."

This is the real purpose of Ma Cheng's coming to Longtan camp, according to Ma Cheng's strategic planning, the first step is to occupy Zhenjiang, the main transportation route, Longtan Town can come here or not. But now Ma Cheng has fallen out with Zhu Lunkui, and according to Ma Cheng's character, he is willing to put his logistics in Nanjing. Therefore, as early as August last year, Ma Cheng began to move the Weapons Bureau in Nanjing out of the city in batches, and at the same time chose a new site here in Longtan Town.

Longtan Town is 40 miles away from Nanjing, 50 miles away from Zhenjiang, and it is also on the edge of the Yangtze River. There is water transportation and population, and it is only three days away from the camp outside Nanjing, so it has become the new site of the Ordnance Bureau.

When he left Nanjing three days ago, Ma Cheng took the last batch of equipment and personnel with him, leaving only Zhu Lunkui with an empty shell weapons bureau, and at the same time, Ma Cheng took away all the craftsman equipment of the Longjiang Shipyard.

The Longtan Artillery Factory was abandoned in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, but the Longjiang Shipyard has been building new ships. Because of the Longqing New Deal and the Ming Dynasty's liberalization of ocean-going trade, Longjiang Shipyard has accumulated a lot of experience in manufacturing ocean-going merchant ships, and a large number of experienced shipwrights, these are all a huge wealth, how could Ma Cheng give up? Therefore, before Ma Cheng left, he either robbed or secretly robbed and moved the Longjiang Shipyard to a clear space.

Ma Cheng's calculation is to reopen the Longjiang Shipyard here in Longtan, after all, Ma Cheng's goal is the sea of stars, and the problem on the road is solved, and the problem at sea will be solved in the future. There are a lot of resources in the South Seas that China does not have, and now the old European empire of Spain is weakening, and the new business empires of the Netherlands and Britain are emerging. In order to compete for hegemony, European countries have beaten their brains into dog brains, and if Ma Cheng does not take advantage of this opportunity, it will not be Ma Cheng.

Zhang Guozhu heard Ma Cheng say this, but he didn't dare to say anything else, so he hurriedly took Ma Cheng to the Longtan Cannon Factory construction site three miles away from Daying.

Now it is the first month of the year, and the weather is too cold to carry out large-scale construction, and only a few hundred shacks have been built on the construction site of the artillery factory to house the workers who have just been relocated.

Ma Cheng randomly visited several shacks, and one shack lived in about three to five houses. Zhang Guozhu carried out Ma Cheng's order very thoroughly, except for the fact that the residence was a little crowded, and the daily water and food were completely guaranteed.

Ma Cheng was very satisfied, and took a few foremen to the new site of the Longjiang Shipyard to have a look, which was selected on a tidal flat one mile from the Yangtze River waterway, where a small river is connected to the Yangtze River. Several foremen said that if they were given a year, a new Longjiang shipyard could be built, but if they wanted the new ship to be in the water, it would have to wait until three years later.

Ocean-going vessels have strict requirements for materials, and the timber needs to be dried for three years before it can be used for ship construction. In the past, Longjiang Shipyard had a large number of qualified ship materials, but in order to defend the city, Ma Cheng transported these expensive ship materials to the city to strengthen the city wall, and now it is not so easy to want Longjiang Shipyard to be put into production immediately.

Ma Cheng couldn't help it when he heard those craftsmen say this, his life was going to be lost at that time, and he could take care of the future, so he had no choice but to take his time now. Ma Cheng reassured those foremen, and he would spare no effort to support them, so that they could produce with peace of mind.

After returning from the Longjiang Shipyard, Ma Cheng returned to the camp to rest. After two days of repairing here in Longtan Town, Ma Cheng led the army to leave again, this time to Zhenjiang.

Zhenjiang in the Ming Dynasty was not an ordinary prefecture-level city on the Yangtze River in later generations, and was in the middle of the ranking of prefecture-level cities in Jiangsu Province. Zhenjiang in the Ming Dynasty was the intermediate node of the North-South Grand Canal, and the canal system all over the Taihu Lake basin converged here in Zhenjiang, and the grain transported to the north from all over the country entered the Yangtze River here in Zhenjiang, and then passed through Yangzhou from the opposite Dantu and transported to the north.

Because of the busyness of Cao Yun, Zhenjiang port is very prosperous, and the geographical location of Zhenjiang is very important, it is located in the main artery of north-south traffic, so the official position of Zhenjiang prefect in the Ming Dynasty is from the third grade, and the same level as the political envoy, according to the later generations is the sub-provincial city.

However, because of the very importance of Zhenjiang's geographical location, Duoduo set up Zhenjiang as the logistics supply base of the Qing army after crossing the river, in addition to a large number of grain and grass baggage, a garrison of 30,000 people was also stationed here.

When Duoduo died in battle under the city of Nanjing, Zhenjiang did not receive news here, and it was not until Zhang Guozhu led the new army to fight in front of him that these Qing troops knew the true situation on the front line. This Qing army rebelled against the normal state of fleeing, and had a big battle with Zhang Guozhu outside Zhenjiang City, and the result was naturally not to think, Zhang Guozhu's new army finished the Qing army regardless of combat effectiveness or morale, 30,000 Qing troops were killed 10,000, and the rest surrendered to the Ming army.