On June 21, at the head of the Jubaomen City in Nanjing, Ma Cheng stood at the head of the city and watched the Qing army that had been repulsed again.

From the first contact with the Qing army on 18 May to today's defeat of the Qing army, this siege battle has been fought for a month. In this month, Ma Cheng repelled hundreds of attacks by the Qing army, and the most dangerous one was that the Qing army had occupied hundreds of meters of city walls.

Ma Cheng didn't know why the Qing army was so crazy, it stands to reason that the siege of the city is a new annex army, and according to the combat effectiveness of Liu Liangzuo and Liu Zeqing's gang, they can't fight so hard at all. Ma Cheng remembered that in the history of later generations, after joining the Qing army, these waste-like new annexed troops immediately changed and became the absolute main force, is there really any good way for the Qing army to turn waste into treasure?

Seeing the Qing army retreating like a tide, Ma Cheng breathed a sigh of relief, and persevered again this day. Ma Cheng looked at the wounded soldiers of the New Army around him, the guards in charge of guarding the city, and the people who cleaned up the corpses, these people had completely become old soldiers after a month of fierce fighting, and they would no longer panic as they did a month ago.

Ma Cheng remembered that there was a saying in later generations that war is the most cruel, no matter who enters this melting pot, they can be tempered into steel in the end. In the past month, Ma Cheng sent 25,000 new troops under his command to the battlefield in turn, and each of them has been tempered by the war. Ma Cheng can now guarantee that his subordinates have completely become an elite division that is not inferior to the Manchu Eight Banners.

Ma Cheng remembered that a month ago, the soldiers of the New Army went to the battlefield for the first time, and they lost nearly 300 people in one day, not counting the wounded. However, after a month of hard fighting, the soldiers of the new army have become more and more proficient in combat, and now the casualties in each battle can be controlled to between the dozens.

Of course, such a low casualty rate was achieved on the premise of perfect weapons and equipment, and Ma Cheng can be said to have exhausted his efforts for this new army, and each soldier was like an iron can, completely covered from head to toe with steel armor. Ma Cheng set up a total of five steel-making workshops in the city, producing 100,000 catties of steel per month, most of which were used for protective armor, which made the artillery workshop complain constantly.

Song Yingxing also came to Ma Cheng, hoping that he would tilt the steel production capacity to the artillery workshop, and now the artillery workshop can only get a quota of 10,000 catties of stainless steel every month, and according to 800 catties per artillery, only 12 artillery pieces can be produced per month. Song Yingxing has always wanted to study heavy artillery, which is the kind of cannon with a range of more than five miles, but because the amount of steel is not enough, it has not been able to produce it.

Ma Cheng also has no choice, now his new army has a total of 25,000 people, all equipped with new armor will cost a million catties of steel, now the heavy artillery of the Qing army has been destroyed, the natural fire threat is not so great, the most important thing at present is the armor, as for Song Yingxing's heavy artillery, we can only wait and talk.

After Ma Cheng's investment regardless of the cost, the combat effectiveness of the new army has risen sharply, and Ma Cheng saw that the number of deaths in previous battles was gradually decreasing, and he knew the value of his investment. These soldiers of the new army have been trained by the fire of war, and they are all qualified veterans, what is the most important thing in an army? Isn't it just the grassroots commander? Now that he has 20,000 qualified grassroots officers, the next step is to be a rioter.

A month ago, Ma Cheng had already arranged for people to go to the city to recruit troops again, originally set at 10,000 people, but Ma Cheng saw that the war continued, so he changed the number to 20,000 with a stroke of the pen, so that the number of the four general soldiers under Ma Cheng doubled to 10,000. However, as Ma Cheng's direct subordinate troops, the Shenji Battalion is still 5,000 people.

It's not that Ma Cheng doesn't want to expand the scale of the Shenji Battalion, it's just that he can't afford to equip it. The production capacity of the steelmaking workshop is limited every month, and the artillery has to give way to the armor, not to mention the Shenji Battalion, so the number of Ma Cheng's Shenji Battalion is still the same. However, after these battles, the combat effectiveness of the Shenji Battalion has risen sharply, and the combat effectiveness of those newly annexed troops is not strong, and it has become the whetstone of the Shenji Battalion.

Ma Cheng stood at the head of the city and looked at the corpses under the city in a daze, this time the Qing army lost another four or five thousand people, plus the results of the battle at Zhengyangmen, it is estimated that there are 10,000 people. In this month, there were hundreds of small battles, and the Qing army lost a total of 50,000 or 60,000 people under the two city gates.

However, although the Qing army lost 50,000 or 60,000 people, according to the banner of the Qing army, the most elite Manchurian Eight Banners have not yet been dispatched, and even the Han Army Banner, a second-class army, has not been dispatched.

At this time, Ma Bao, the guard of Jubaomen, came to Ma Cheng's side, and Ma Bao also participated in the battle this time, covered in blood, but it seemed that he was not injured.

Ma Bao came to Ma Cheng's side and arched his hand and said, "Lord Junmen, it seems that the northern captives have retreated again this time!" ”

Ma Cheng nodded: "Yes, but the offensive of the northern captives has become more and more sharp, why is this so?" ”

Ma Bao looked at the Han army flag in the rear of the Qing army, thought for a while and said: "My lord, it is probably because the northern captives want to consume those surrendered Ming troops!" ”

Ma Cheng thought about it and there was only such a reasonable explanation, but Ma Cheng didn't want to spend more brain cells on this kind of thing, Ma Cheng asked, "Sixth uncle, how about our casualties?" ”

"More than thirty of the New Army were killed and more than a hundred wounded. But those guards were miserable, and this time these guys suffered more than a thousand casualties! ”

When it comes to this group of unsuccessful guards, Ma Cheng is angry, these guys are very objective every time they are killed or wounded, there are a total of 24,000 guards here in Jubaomen, and in this month, almost half of them have died, plus the injured, almost 20,000 people can't participate in the battle. Coupled with the losses on the Zhengyangmen side, Ma Cheng's loss of manpower was not much less than that of the Qing army outside the city. Teenage Classmates Network

However, Ma Cheng still needs this group of guards very much, after all, the defense of the city cannot only rely on the new army, and those defensive equipment need to be operated.

Seeing this, Ma Cheng sighed and said to Ma Bao: "In this way, give an order to Luo Bingran and Ma Xi, and ask them to each transfer 10,000 guards to help, and select some people from the people to join the guards!" ”

In the past month, Jubaomen and Zhengyangmen have been playing vigorously, and several other city gates are completely lively. Of course, it's not that the Qing army is in a good mood and doesn't attack those gates, but the other city gates are really not suitable for the deployment of large armies.

Half a month ago, the Qing army also sent a force to bypass the Jubao Gate, to attack the Sanshan Gate, but the Sanshan Gate had to pass through the Jubao Gate, and at the same time, the Sanshan Gate was close to the Yangtze River waterway, there were rivers everywhere, and the front of the Sanshan Gate was still Mochou Lake, this kind of place made the Qing army that bypass the road suffer heavy losses, and most of the troops were consumed on the road.

Because of the strange terrain of Nanjing, the Qing army found that it could not be done after testing, so it decided to continue to storm Jubaomen and Zhengyangmen.

Ma Bao heard Ma Cheng say this and said happily: "This is good, with reinforcements, the next step will be easier to defend!" ”

Ma Cheng nodded and said: "Okay, the Qing army has retreated, it is estimated that this is the case today, sixth uncle, you pay more attention, and the governor will go back to the city to have a look!" ”

This month the battle has been fierce, Ma Cheng has not been home for half a month, and now that the fighters are resting, Ma Cheng wants to go home to rest, at least take a shower and change clothes.

Ma Cheng took his own soldiers down from the city, after a month of hard fighting, the south city here is no longer a month ago prosperous, relying on the Jubaomen flower market street is a mess, the shops on both sides of the original street were requisitioned by Ma Cheng, either the wounded soldiers or the pile of materials to defend the city.

Along the hexagonal well lane under the city wall, it was widened into a 100-meter-wide fire road, and the defenders were most afraid of fire attacks, so no buildings were allowed to be built under all the city walls. It's just that Nanjing has been peaceful for a long time, and the population in the city has increased, and in order to solve the housing problem, the original 100-meter-wide fire road has been built in hundreds of years.

Ma Cheng went down to the city to look at the fire road, there are sentry posts every fifty meters, and it is strictly forbidden for idle people to approach. But at this time, no one ran here to watch the excitement, and it was not too late to hide, and there were those who went up to die.

Along the fire path is a row of caves, which are also attached to the city wall. There are three urn cities in Jubaomen, there are 13 hidden soldier holes up and down, and 14 hidden soldier holes are set up under the left and right horse roads, which can store military supplies and ambush soldiers in wartime, and can accommodate 3,000 soldiers.

Ma Cheng went to the various Tibetan soldiers caves to take a look, the military supplies were very sufficient, and now that the Qing army had retreated, the cooking soldiers were cooking, making the whole urn city waft with bursts of aroma.

Seeing that all the materials were prepared, Ma Cheng was very satisfied, got on the horse at the city gate, and returned to Yingtianfuya.

As soon as he arrived at the gate of the yamen, a guard guarding the door stepped forward and reported: "Lord Junmen, Lord Song has been here for a long time and is waiting in the second hall!" ”

Lord Song is Song Yingxing, this time the new emperor Zhu Lunkui ascended the throne and gave Song Yingxing a position as a squire in the Ministry of Works, the old Song used to say that he didn't care about the official position, but he was still very happy after receiving the holy decree, which made Ma Cheng very contemptuous in his heart.

In the past half month, Song Yingxing always came to Ma Cheng, not for anything else, but to ask Ma Cheng to give him more steel quotas so that he could continue to complete his heavy artillery plan.

Ma Cheng heard that this old guy was coming again, and he was very reluctant to see him, but after all, this old guy was his own teacher, and if he didn't respect the teacher in this era, he would die a miserable death, so Ma Cheng had no choice but to hand over the reins to the guards at the door and go in to see his teacher.

Song Yingxing has been here for a long time, and he rushed to the city immediately when he learned that the Qing army had retreated. Song Yingxing is still quite satisfied with this white disciple Ma Cheng, if he can know more about it, Song Yingxing will be more satisfied.

Although Ma Cheng is a bit of a bastard, he is very good to the teacher Song Yingxing (pretended), especially in the manufacture of organs, Ma Cheng completely trusts the teacher and hands over the entire Weapons Bureau to the teacher to manage (happy to be idle). Therefore, Song Yingxing's attitude towards this disciple slowly changed from disgust at the beginning to appreciation, and now it has completely become satisfaction.