"Master Hou, Ma Bao is responsible for guarding the Taiping Town, wouldn't it be cheaper to evacuate the Beiyu?"

Wang Xian was very worried, Ma Cheng said this, it was easy to set himself on fire, don't let King Lu not solve it, it will be troublesome to attract the attack of the Qing army.

"Mr. Wang, rest assured, although there are 30,000 people in Wuhu's northern captives, most of them are the defeated soldiers of the Battle of Nandu, and they have been frightened, and they dare not act rashly without clear information!"

After Ma Cheng finished speaking, he thought about it and said: "But you can't be unguarded, let Ma Bao keep a close eye on the northern captives, if the northern captives occupy the Taiping Mansion and don't stop, then beat him up!" ”

Wang Xian nodded in agreement, and then asked: "Master Hou, now that Luo Bingran has fallen to the emperor, what will happen to the southern capital here after the lord goes on the expedition?" ”

This is a problem, in the past, Ma Cheng's arrangement was to take 100,000 horses outside the city, as well as Zhang Guozhu from Zhenjiang, to go on the expedition, and the battlefield on the Western Front was handed over to Ma Bao, and the base camp of Nanjing, Ma Cheng originally wanted to hand it over to Luo Bingran to manage. Although Luo Bingran is not a material for war, he has a lively mind, and staying here in Nanjing to cooperate with Ma Shiying is also considered to be the best use. But I didn't expect Luo Bingran to be so energetic that he thought that Ma Cheng had no development and directly took refuge in Emperor Zhu Lunkui, which made Ma Cheng lack effective manpower here.

Ma Cheng thought for a long time and had to say: "No, let Ma Xi be in charge here in Nandu." ”

This is also Ma Cheng's help, although Ma Xi is greedy for life and afraid of death, but after all, he is Ma Shiying's son, and he has no problem with loyalty, leaving Ma Xi at home and Ma Shiying can cooperate seamlessly, at least he can't pull Ma Cheng's hind legs.

Wang Xian heard Ma Cheng say this, nodded and wrote it down, and then Wang Xian and Gu Yong bowed down and retreated, and went out to start preparing.

On August 27, the second year of Shaowu in the Ming Dynasty, the Nancheng Jubao Gate had just been opened, and the ambassadors and soldiers guarding the gate were not ready, so they saw the dust in the distance, and they saw that a large number of people were hurrying away.

The ambassador guarding the gate didn't know what was going on, but the city guards at the head of the city noticed the problem, and a group of cavalry two miles away was hurrying towards Jubaomen, and it seemed that there were thousands of people.

This is a big deal, the city guards have received the news from the governor of the southern capital, asking them to be careful of the new army outside the city, and now seeing the cavalry coming, the general of the Jubaomen guard hurriedly asked his subordinates to close the city gate.

But where is the city gate so easy to close, there are already hundreds of ordinary people who are ready to enter the city at the city gate, plus the soldiers guarding the gate, and the Jubaomen is in chaos here for a while.

The cavalry outside the city, which was only two miles away, quickly arrived at the gate, and one of the officers who led the team beckoned his men to control the Jubao Gate so that the soldiers in the rear could enter the city.

The ambassador and soldiers of the Jubaomen were driven aside by this gang of killers, and the ambassador had no choice but to step forward and ask, "How many military masters, what part of you are?" ”

One of the thousand households led by him stepped forward and slapped the ambassador twice, and then scolded: "You are fucking blind! Didn't you see what was written on your coat? Zhenguo Hou Yiwei Division! Lao Tzu is the protector of the Marquis of Zhenguo! ”

There is only one Marquis of Zhenguo, that is Guiyang Marquis Ma Cheng, that ambassador didn't dare to offend Guiyang Hou's guards, so he had no choice but to cover his face and run into the city, go to the general guarding the door to report, Guiyang Hou's army has entered the city.

The ambassador didn't go far when he saw the general of Jubaomen Wang Counselor hurrying with a bunch of people

rushed to the city, and the admiral yamen had a military order to let him strictly guard the new army outside the city, but now the new army occupied the city gate, and it was passed to Lu Siye, the governor of the southern capital, who committed a big crime.

General Wang Shen took more than 200 soldiers to the Jubao Gate, and saw the thousand households of the Honor Guard Division, who were making a gesture and directing his soldiers to occupy the Jubao Gate gate. General Wang Counselor hurriedly stepped forward and asked, "What are you doing?" Do you want to rebel? Without the military department, without the instructions of the Jiangnan Governor's Yamen, who let you enter the city? ”

The thousand households saw that it was a staff general, and they stepped forward unhurriedly and said: "Since our Honor and Guard Division has been under the jurisdiction of the Luo General System, we have not paid any money for three consecutive months, and the brothers have to eat and support their families!" I had no choice but to go into the city to ask Mr. Luo for it! ”

Luo Bingran was taken home by the soldiers of the New Army half a month ago, and there was no one to manage the New Army outside the city, so naturally the military salary or something stopped. However, the imperial court still allocated rice and noodles for the new army, and it was not to the point where they could not eat.

"This official doesn't care what you want to do, our military lord has an order, and you are not allowed to enter the city!" After General Wang finished speaking, he led his soldiers to drive out the guards at the door. At this time, the brigade of the Honor and Guard Division outside the city arrived, and the two people led by them rode high-headed horses, which were the two generals of the Honor and Guard Division, An Zhennan and Tian Boguang.

General Wang Shen didn't recognize Tian Boguang, but he could recognize An Zhennan, when An Zhennan was the deputy chief soldier in Sanshanmen before, General Wang Shen was only a thousand households under him, and now when he saw the old chief coming, General Wang Shen broke out in a cold sweat on his head.

An Zhennan came to Jubaomen, and was seeing his subordinates confronting the city guards, An Zhennan saw that it was the old subordinate Wang Counselor on the other side, and couldn't help laughing: "Lao Wang, now that he is also mixed with the generals, how can you see the old chief pretending not to know?" ”

An Zhennan's identity is much higher than that of General Wang, although An Zhennan is also a general now, but An Zhennan is still a general because of his meritorious service in the Battle of Nanjing, but Ma Cheng's Honor Guard Division does not have so many soldiers and horses, so An Zhennan is acting as an official.

General Wang saw that An Zhennan didn't dare to pretend to be big, so he hurriedly stepped forward and bowed, and then said: "Xiaguan Wang Jie, meet Lord Zongzhen!" Please forgive the lower officials, it's not that the brothers won't be allowed to enter the city, it's just their duty, please don't make the lower officials embarrassed! ”

"Haha, I didn't expect Wang Jie to be an official! You probably also know that our general system of Luo has run away, and now we have no one to take care of, no money to receive and no food, can you take care of a mutiny? Now you let us into the city to ask for military pay, and we will naturally go out of the city when we are done!" ”

After An Zhennan finished speaking, he pointed to the back and said: "You also saw it, I brought a total of less than a thousand people, and there are no weapons, so you can rest assured!" ”

An Zhennan was indeed not wrong, there were probably more than 1,000 people behind him, most of them on horseback, but they did not bring knives, guns and armor. But these more than 1,000 people can't enter the city casually, and General Wang has to stop it, but An Zhennan said angrily: "It's really damn good, someone has tied up this guy, and we will release them when we ask for military salaries!" ”

After An Zhennan finished speaking, a group of people came up behind him, tied up General Wang and his men, and took them to the Tibetan Soldier Cave in the Jubaomen Urn City to be detained.

After solving the defenders of Jubaomen, the next step is for the men and horses of the Honor Guard Division to start entering the city. An Zhennan said that he only brought a thousand people, but he actually followed him

The last one was a thousand men, but the brigade was two miles away, and now they got the news and began to enter the city through the Jubao Gate.

After these guys entered the city, they did not go to the military department directly under their control, or the household department to ask for military salaries, but went to the Yamen of the Fusi Division and the Yamen of the Criminal Department of Jinyiwei Town, and looted these two places, and the small treasury in the two yamen was also emptied by the rebels, losing thousands of taels of silver.

The next step after the government organs robbed the officials' homes was to rob the officials' homes, Jinyiwei and the senior officials of the Criminal Department were unlucky, and the Shangshu Xie Xuelong of the Criminal Department had no money at home, but he was beaten by the rebels. Feng Kezong, the governor of Jinyi Weidu, was miserable, his home was looted by these rebels, the gold and silver treasures were robbed, the precious calligraphy and paintings collected by Feng Kezong were destroyed, and the last fire of the rebel army also burned Feng Kezong's home.

The actions of the rebels attracted the attention of the Soldiers and Horses Division in the city, and soon the Soldiers and Horses Division, under the leadership of Lu Siye, the governor of the southern capital, gathered 5,000 men and prepared to bring these rebels to justice. However, these chaotic troops were not easy to provoke, and under the leadership of the grassroots officers, they fought with the soldiers and horses in the city of Nanjing.

At first, the two sides were still a little restrained to avoid bloodshed, but they fought to fight the real fire, and they didn't know that it was the firearm that the party started to use first.

The two sides fought in one place, the security in the city was out of control, some hooligans and ruffians began to take advantage of the fire to loot, and the southern and western cities began to burn everywhere. Seeing that this was the case, Lu Siye had no choice but to increase his troops, increasing the city guards to 30,000, and preparing to use the numerical advantage to eliminate these chaotic troops as soon as possible.

However, the combat effectiveness of the city guards was as powerful as the Honor Guard, and for a while, the two sides were deadlocked in the south city and the west city. As the commander, Gu Yong saw that there was a situation that he couldn't control, so he had no choice but to ask Ma Cheng what to do next.

Ma Cheng's original intention was to create chaos and put pressure on Zhu Lunkui, not to make it like this, but what else can he do now? Ma Cheng had no choice but to transfer 20,000 new troops outside the city to quickly eliminate Lu Siye's resistance.

In this way, the battle, which was supposed to end quickly, lasted until noon the next day, and the entire southern and western cities were reduced to ruins, and the citizens of Nanjing suffered more than 100,000 casualties, causing greater losses than last year's battle of Taipingmen.

In the end, Lu Siye's side couldn't hold on, so he had to retreat to the Beicheng military camp to hold on. After getting the news of his defeat, Emperor Zhu Lunkui also knew that the general trend had gone, and now it was not a question of how he would clean up Ma Cheng, but whether Ma Cheng wanted him as an emperor.

Zhu Lunkui looked at the panicked Qian Qianyi and the contemplative Ruan Dacheng, and asked, "How are the two Aiqing doing now?" Lu Siye has been defeated, will Ma Cheng enter the palace to force me to abdicate? ”

Ruan Dacheng looked at Zhu Lunkui's panicked expression, and secretly scolded in his heart What did you do earlier? Wouldn't it be okay to agree to Ma Cheng's request half a month ago?

Zhu Lunkui saw that the two cabinet ministers did not speak, and he was afraid in his heart, and he couldn't help crying: "What should I do now?" As long as Ma Cheng can promise not to let me abdicate, I will promise him any conditions! ”

Ruan Dacheng looked at Qian Qianyi and knew that this guy had no idea at all at this time, so he had no choice but to stand up and say in person: "Your Majesty, please rest assured, the minister can guarantee that Ma Cheng has no intention of usurping the throne!" ”