The third day of the first month of the third year of Shaowu in the Ming Dynasty, that is, in 1647 AD. This year in the history of many disasters and hardships, the Manchu Qing Dynasty occupied the entire Taihu Lake Basin, the Lu King and the Tang Dynasty regime have been destroyed, and the banner of resistance to the Qing Dynasty was taken up by the Guangdong Shaowu regime, of course, this Shaowu regime is not the regime established by Zhu Lunkui, but by the younger brother of the Tang King Zhu Yujian, the tenth Tang King Zhu Yu established a small court.

In history, as soon as the Shaowu regime was established, it fought a battle with the Yongli regime in Guangxi for orthodoxy, thus giving the Qing army in Fujian the opportunity to drive straight into Guangdong and occupy Guangdong with very little effort, while Zhu Youlang, the Yongli Emperor of Guangxi, ran hundreds of miles and retreated to Guilin, Guangxi.

The current Shaowu regime in Nanjing is similar, and as soon as he ensured his own safety, he immediately sent Ma Cheng to clean up King Lu in Hangzhou and King Lu in eastern Zhejiang, and the attitude of eradicating dissidents is really obvious.

Ma Cheng stood in the Daxiao Field, ten miles outside the southern city, which became a mass grave in the defense of Nanjing, burying tens of thousands of Qing soldiers who died under the city. However, the army was the main killer, and they didn't care about the dead or anything at all, and they couldn't find such a flat place outside Nanjing. Therefore, under Ma Cheng's order last year, the school field was reorganized into a school field, and once again became the most important military camp outside Nanjing.

Ma Cheng stood on the high platform and looked at the 150,000 troops below, these troops were the elites selected by Ma Cheng from the prisoners of war of the Qing army, plus the elite composition of the Ming army, all the grassroots officers were Ma Cheng's cronies, so Ma Cheng had complete control over this army.

The 150,000 troops looked at Ma Cheng silently, Ma Cheng was very satisfied, and said loudly: "Announce the holy decree of His Majesty the Emperor!" ”

Although Ma Cheng and Zhu Lunkui have de facto broken, this banner cannot be thrown at present, and Ma Cheng still has to use Zhu Lunkui's name to expand the territory. Therefore, Ma Cheng now respects Zhu Lunkui more than anyone else on the surface, and he will talk about His Majesty the Emperor no matter what he does.

As soon as Ma Cheng gave his order, hundreds of loud sergeants standing under the high platform shouted Zhu Lunkui's holy decree: "I ordered Hou Ma Cheng of Guiyang, Zhenguo, to be the governor of the Chinese army, and to serve as the military and administrative affairs of Nanzhili, Fujian, Zhejiang, Liangguang, Jiangxi and other places, and to crusade against the Quartet on behalf of me!" Chin this! ”

The 150,000 people heard the emperor's decree clearly, and quickly fell to their knees and shouted: "Obey the decree!" The last general will wait to meet the Grand Governor! ”

After the holy decree was read, Ma Cheng's big sword stood high on the high platform, with a big horse character on it, and four small words on the side, on behalf of the heavens!

If you go to war on the orders of the emperor, you can only write the word Feng, but the code is instead of the emperor, and Zhu Lunkui is helpless to do so.

With the emperor's decree and this banner, Ma Cheng has the name of legally cleaning up the rebellion. From now on, no matter who it is, as long as they offend Ma Cheng, they can be pressed into a big hat against the emperor and against the Ming Dynasty, and then they will be swept away by Ma Cheng's army.

After Ma Cheng and the other soldiers finished reading the holy decree, they knelt on their knees in the direction of the palace and said loudly: "Obey the decree!" I would like to sweep away some rebellion for Your Majesty! ”

After Ma Cheng finished speaking, he stood up and faced the 150,000 army again, Ma Cheng looked at his soldiers with satisfaction, and then said loudly: "This governor is on behalf of the heavens to crusade against the Quartet, are you willing to live and die with this governor?" ”

"Yes!"

The neat shouts of 150,000 people really resounded in the sky, and Ma Cheng nodded with satisfaction

, and said, "Good! Ben Governor will not treat his brother badly! Zhang Guozhu! ”

Zhang Guozhu, who came back from the Longtan camp, had already stood under the high platform, and after Ma Cheng pointed out his name, Zhang Guozhu hurriedly ran to the high platform, knelt down on both knees and shouted: "The last general Zhang Guozhu listens to the order!" ”

"This governor ordered you to be the governor of Zhejiang, and lead 35,000 people as the vanguard officer of the army!"

Zhang Guozhu originally hung the rank of commander, but his position was still the chief soldier, and now he was naturally happy to change from virtual to real, not to mention that Ma Cheng handed over the most important vanguard task to him, Zhang Guozhu hurriedly took the token and the golden seal from Ma Cheng's hand, and then said loudly: "The last general will take the order!" ”

Zhang Guozhu got up and stood behind Ma Cheng, and Ma Cheng then shouted: "Ma Bao! ”

Ma Bao also ran up from under the high platform, knelt in front of Ma Cheng and shouted: "The last general Ma Bao listens to the order!" ”

"Sixth uncle, you have a great responsibility this time, this governor will hand over 40,000 troops to you, plus the 20,000 new troops in your hands, you must capture the important town of Anqing within half a year, you know?"

"Please rest assured, the last general will ensure that the task will be completed!"

Ma Cheng nodded, picked up the token gold seal from behind him, and then said: "Ma Bao, this governor has ordered you to be the governor of Jiangxi, and lead 60,000 tigers to guard Anqing!" ”

Anqing was under the jurisdiction of Nanzhili at this time, but Ma Cheng gave Ma Bao the position of governor of Jiangxi, so he naturally hoped that he would take down the entire Jiangxi, rather than being limited to one Anqing.

Ma Bao also knew what Ma Cheng meant, and after receiving Ma Cheng's token gold seal with both hands, he said loudly: "Please rest assured, the last general will definitely take Jiangxi within half a year!" ”

There was still a piece of the golden seal of the admiral behind Ma Cheng, and Zhang Guozhu and Ma Bao were very curious about who this third person was. In the past, when Luo Bingran was still alive, this must have been his, but Luo Bingran hugged the wrong thigh so that he couldn't die, and now he is dead. Thinking of this, Zhang Guozhu and Ma Bao thought in their hearts that no matter what happens in the future, they must follow Ma Cheng firmly, and they must not learn from the unlucky Luo Bingran.

No matter how Zhang Guozhu and Ma Bao guessed in their hearts, Ma Cheng hesitated for a moment and announced the order for the third commander.

"Ma Xi stepped forward to listen to the order!"

Zhang Guozhu and Ma Bao were relieved when they heard that this third person was Ma Xi, although Ma Xi did not perform well in the Battle of Nanjing, but after all, he and Ma Cheng are brothers, can they still use outsiders without Ma Xi at this critical moment?

Ma Xi, who was dressed in cloth under the high platform, heard his name called, and hurriedly ran up to the high platform in small steps, knelt in front of Ma Cheng and shouted: "Grass people Ma Xi, meet the handsome!" ”

"Third brother, although you have made big mistakes before, your father has made a guarantee in front of His Majesty the Emperor and reinstated you as an official. This time it was also my father who asked you to take on this important position, and you might be competent for it? ”

After Ma Xi heard what Ma Cheng said, he quickly kowtowed and said: "Please rest assured, Ma Xi will not disappoint his father and brother!" ”

Although Ma Xi said this, Ma Cheng was suspicious of him, this guy was not very capable and was very afraid of death, and he really didn't know whether it was right or wrong to hand over his home to him. But now that Ma Cheng's subordinates are available, there is no way for Ma Cheng to temporarily believe in his second brother.

"Ma Xi, this governor ordered you to be the commander of the school, and lead 50,000 elite soldiers to guard the southern capital, and you must ensure the safety of the southern capital, do you know?"

Ma Cheng has something to say to protect the safety of Nandu

is to protect the safety of the Ma family, Ma Xi, as Ma Shiying's son, has already received the news from his father, so when he heard Ma Cheng say this, he hurriedly promised: "Please rest assured, the last general is here in Nandu!" ”

Ma Cheng nodded, and handed the token and gold seal of the Admiral of the Great School Field in his hand to Ma Xi.

With the appointment of the three senior officers, the next step is to appoint the chief soldier. The first level of the admiral also needs to be reported to the Ministry of War for the record, and then the emperor can approve it in person, but Ma Cheng, an officer on the first floor of the general army, can be directly appointed.

Ma Cheng now holds great power, naturally he can't treat his subordinates badly, and twenty-one general soldiers were sealed on the spot, in addition to the remaining ten people of the twelve King Kongs, there are also eleven middle-level officers who have made great contributions in the defense of Nanjing, and this time they were also promoted to the general soldiers.

In addition to the general army, there are also thirty-four adjutant generals, this time they are also appointed by Ma Cheng himself, and the rest of the generals and guerrillas are not under Ma Cheng's control, there are hundreds of these middle-level officers, all of whom are appointed by Ma Cheng, and there is no need to do anything else today, their appointment is in charge of the admiral.

By now, after the departure ceremony was over, Ma Cheng led three commanders and 21 general soldiers to worship the military flag and order, and after slaughtering three animals, the army officially set off.

In addition to the 11,000 guards and escorts of Ma Cheng's Chinese army, there were also 40,000 new troops, plus 30,000 attached transport people, and 20,000 people following Zhang Guozhu, a total of 110,000 troops, left Nanjing for the camp in Longtan Town.

Ma Cheng's first target of this expedition was in Zhenjiang, although it had been abandoned by Zhang Guozhu, but King Lu's army did not occupy Zhenjiang, but was far away in Changzhou Mansion, which was later Changzhou City. It's not that King Lu's army doesn't want to fight, but now that the road is closed by heavy snow, the official road between Changzhou and Zhenjiang is closed by heavy snow, so King Lu's army plans to spend the winter in Changzhou and will not be able to march until the snow melts in March.

Ma Cheng also hit this idea, the Ming Dynasty and later generations are different, the Taihu Lake basin and there is no highway connection, Ma Cheng is ready to spend a month to Zhenjiang, spend the winter here, and officially start attacking Changzhou occupied by King Lu after the beginning of spring.

Longtan Town is more than forty miles away from Nanjing, and it can be reached in one day by fast horses, but Ma Cheng's 100,000 army is not so easy. In addition to the soldiers, there were 50,000 or 60,000 livestock, thousands of carts and more than 200 artillery pieces in the army, and it was not bad that this kind of large-scale march could travel more than 10 miles a day.

The fastest marching army in history was the Volunteer Army during the Korean War, and in the battle of Samwonri, the 38th Army set a record of 14 hours and 72.5 kilometers of rapid marching, with an average of 7.2 kilometers per hour.

This record was broken by the US Seventh Army in the Gulf War decades later, and the Seventh Army broke into the hinterland of Iraq by surprise from the weak part of the Iraqi army's flank defense during the left hook operation, which took 89 hours and marched about 260 kilometers, creating a miracle in military history, but the speed of the march per unit of time was still not as fast as that of the 38th Army.

Of course, the Chinese also keep another record, that is, the record of retreat. On September 23, 1937, Liu Zhi's Second Army retreated from Baoding, ran more than 200 miles in a day and night, and arrived in Shijiazhuang on the 24th, and the Japanese army could not catch up with it in a car.

The Ming Dynasty did not have the cars of later generations, nor did they have a perfect guarantee mechanism for later generations, so Ma Cheng and his 100,000 army walked for three days before walking from Nanjing to Longtan Daying.