Riding a horse in the Forbidden City represents an honor, but it doesn't mean you can ride a horse through the palace.

Ma Cheng rode a horse and came to Qianqingmen under the leadership of the little eunuch, and here is the harem, but you can't ride a horse to enter.

Ma Cheng dismounted and followed the little eunuch to the gate of the Qianqing Palace, and the little eunuch at the door sang loudly: "The Marquis of Guiyang, the town guard of Nandu, and the governor of Jiangnan Ma Cheng have come to see you!" ”

Soon an order came from the palace to let Ma Cheng in. Ma Cheng lowered his head and walked quickly, of course, this is not Ma Cheng's feet are small and he can't take a step, this is the etiquette of the minister to meet the emperor, small steps and fast steps. After Cao Cao was crowned the Duke of Wei, there was a treatment that was not to enter the court, to praise and worship without a name, that is, to meet the emperor without calling his name, and without walking with small steps.

Of course, now that Ma Cheng does not have Cao Cao's status, he naturally has to abide by the etiquette and law, and be a good courtier, at least on the surface, he has to do something like that.

Entering the hall of the Qianqing Palace, Ma Cheng didn't dare to raise his head, knelt down on his knees and shouted: "Minister Ma Cheng to see you, long live my emperor!" ”

Zhu Lunkui was in a very good mood today, and when he saw Ma Cheng coming in, he laughed loudly: "My great hero is here, someone is coming!" Give Ma Qing a seat! ”

A little eunuch moved to the embroidery pier, Ma Cheng stood up and sat on the embroidery pier, and then Ma Cheng could look at the emperor Zhu Lunkui. The emperor seems to have had a good rest these days, and his face is full of red light. But Ma Cheng thought about it, it should be the same, this guy was originally just a vassal king's grandson, if it weren't for himself, this guy would have been a prisoner of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, where could there be five people and six people?

Zhu Lunkui didn't know the dirty thoughts in Ma Cheng's heart, and said with a smile: "Ma Aiqing, this time the siege of Nandu is all due to Ma Qing!" ”

Ma Cheng heard Zhu Lunkui say this, and hurriedly said modestly: "Back to Your Majesty, the minister is only the work of commanding in the middle, and he also needs the soldiers to use their lives, God bless Your Majesty, Taizu blesses, in order to complete his work in one battle and relieve the siege of Nandu!" ”

Ma Cheng is now half an official, and he is no longer the stunned young man who didn't understand anything back then, knowing that on this occasion, the leader should be put in place, and the leader will take the lion's share of the credit, and he is just a secondary merit.

Zhu Lunkui was very satisfied with Ma Cheng's answer, stood up and said as he walked: "What Ma Qing said is very right, but this merit is Ma Qing's, I said a few years ago that I would reward Ma Qing heavily, but Qian Qianyi said that it is not easy to reward too much!" Now that Ma Qing has achieved such a feat, I think I should give you a suitable reward! ”

After Zhu Lunkui finished speaking, he nodded to Lu Jiude behind him, Lu Jiude took out the holy decree, opened it and began to read it aloud.

When Ma Cheng saw the reading of the holy decree, he quickly got up from the embroidery pier and knelt down on both knees. I only heard Lu Jiude's duck-like voice echoing in the hall, and as for what he said, Ma Cheng didn't understand a word.

The first half of the holy decree is still Zhu Lunkui's explanation of his legitimacy, as well as the inevitability of this victory, of course, this is the official language, and it is nothing that Ma Cheng does not understand.

The second half of the holy decree is Ma Cheng's credit, from Ma Cheng's support of Zhu Lunkui by the will of heaven, to Ma Cheng's desperate fight against the Manchus, and finally Ma Cheng's leadership to defeat the Manchu army's 400,000 army, all the credits are clearly recorded above.

Ma Cheng didn't expect that he had made so many contributions in more than a year, and just when Ma Cheng was smug, Lu Jiude read again: "Ma Cheng has immortal achievements, and I am very relieved, and I named Ma Cheng the marquis of Zhenguo and the Chinese army."

Grand Governor! Chin this! ”

Ma Cheng was full of displeasure when he heard that he was the Marquis of Zhenguo, but he didn't expect this emperor to be very stingy, and he gave him a useless title for his desperate work. The Chinese military governor is similar, the Ming Dynasty divided the army into five military governors, some like the later military regions, but this Chinese military governor has great power, in addition to being responsible for the local guards, but also responsible for the promotion of generals in the whole ** team, soldier training and other heavy responsibilities, so the Chinese military governor's office and the general staff of later generations are almost the same, this Chinese military governor is the chief of staff of later generations.

However, this was the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Yuanzhang was now the governor of the Chinese army in the later period, so he deliberately reduced the power of the governor of the Chinese army, and when Zhu Di took the throne, he put the right to promote the generals into the hands of the emperor himself.

In the Xuanzong period, the civil class grew, and the right to train soldiers was also separated from the military governor's office and handed over to the military department.

Of course, the emperor's reward is not a dry goods at all, and this town and country marquis is this dry goods.

According to the regulations of the early Ming Dynasty, the title of the Ming Dynasty was divided into three levels, and there was no title of Duke of Zhenguo. However, in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, there was a wonderful emperor Zhu Houzhao, that is, Emperor Zhengde. This emperor likes to fight very much, but those ministers in the court did not let him lead the troops to the battle, and there was no way for Zhu Houzhao to know an official position, which was the prince of Zhenguo.

Zhu Houzhao gave himself a name called Zhu Shou, and then issued a holy decree saying that Zhu Shou was ordered to be the prince of Zhenguo and the generalissimo of the world's soldiers and horses, and led the army to fight in Mongolia. Although Zhu Houzhao was all joking, the position of Zhenguo Gong was retained. However, it was the emperor who held this position, so no general dared to hold this position.

Zhu Lunkui has been thinking carefully about how to reward Ma Cheng in the palace these days, according to Ma Cheng's merits, it is okay to be crowned king, but there is no living king with a different surname in the Ming Dynasty, if Ma Cheng dies outside the city, Zhu Lunkui is very willing to seal Ma Cheng a prince, even if it is a first-class king.

But Ma Cheng came back alive, and this reward should be very cautious, neither heavy nor light. What should I do if the reward is too heavy? Could it be that he will directly give up the throne to Ma Cheng? The reward is light and I am afraid that Ma Cheng will be unhappy, after all, now the Manchu Qing Dynasty still occupies half of the land of the Ming Dynasty, and a military general like Ma Cheng is still needed to go to the Central Plains for the Northern Expedition, so Zhu Lunkui really has a lot of brain cells for this suitable reward.

However, there are always more ways than difficulties, and after thinking about it, Zhu Lunkui finally thought of a suitable position, that is, the word Zhenguo.

The title of Duke of Zhenguo was held by Zhu Houzhao back then, of course, it can't be given to Ma Cheng, but isn't it okay to be demoted to a marquis? Therefore, Ma Cheng's current title has become the Marquis of Guiyang, the Governor of the Chinese Army, the Governor of the Southern Capital, and the Governor of Jiangnan!

At the same time, the word Zhenguo also has an invisible benefit, when Zhu Houzhao was the Duke of Zhenguo, he opened the mansion, and there were also three guards and pro-army, which were all configured according to the prince's standards. However, Ma Cheng's Zhenguo Marquis was one level lower, and the three guards were changed to two guards, but the function of opening the mansion was still retained.

Kaifu was the establishment of a palace by high-ranking officials who were favored by the emperor

In the Han Dynasty, this was a real power, but in the Tang Dynasty, it was somewhat reduced, because Li Shimin relied on his own Tiance Mansion to ascend to the throne, so he naturally didn't want future generations to follow suit.

When Zhu Yuanzhang's founding hero had the right to open the mansion, only Xu Da was the only one who had the right to open the mansion, but the subordinates also became the symbolic department of the Department of Honor and Guard, and the Department of Honor.

Zhu Lunkui did this painstakingly, not only appeasing generals like Ma Cheng, but also making the anti-Ma forces in the DPRK and China less disagreeable. However, Zhu Lunkui's actions became completely useless in Ma Cheng's eyes, because Ma Cheng didn't know what the meaning of the word Zhenguo was.

Ma Cheng came from later generations, and those ordinary official positions in the Ming Dynasty still knew some, such as what governor, admiral, commander-in-chief, governor, etc., but the rare title of Zhenguo Marquis was completely unknown. Therefore, Ma Cheng's expression did not change after listening to the holy decree, but knelt down very stylized to thank him, and then said some official words such as thanking the emperor for his trust, and he will definitely kill the enemy desperately in the future.

Zhu Lunkui was a little displeased when he saw Ma Cheng like this, but Zhu Lunkui didn't say anything, but said with a smile: "Ma Qing, don't think the title is low, after all, your father is a duke, and you are a son of man but you are at the same level as your father, which is really a bit bad!" ”

Ma Cheng heard the emperor say this before he reacted that he had just passed a little, and quickly explained: "Your Majesty, the thunder, rain and dew are all the grace of the king, and the ministers dare to think about anything wrong, but just now the ministers thought that they had been rewarded, but there are still so many meritorious soldiers in the city who have not been rewarded!" ”

Speaking of this, Ma Cheng's tone couldn't help choking: "Your Majesty, since the siege of the city on May 18 last year, after a year of bloody battles, the defenders of the southern capital have lost one general soldier, three commanders, twelve commanders, six deputy generals, twenty-five generals, more than 300 generals at other levels, and more than 100,000 ordinary soldiers have been killed!" Chen thought of these dead comrades, so. That's why ... Woooooo ”

Ma Cheng's crying had the element of diverting his attention, but he really wanted the emperor to reward those dead soldiers in his heart. These people are Ma Cheng's comrades-in-arms, and many of them died next to Ma Cheng, and it is really unreasonable for him not to fight for the honor of his subordinates as the commander-in-chief.

Although the siege of Nanjing was won in the end, Ma Cheng defeated 400,000 Manchus with 15,000 people, but behind this were more than 100,000 ordinary soldiers in the city, as well as the bloody lives of tens of thousands of people.

The overall number of the Ming army is not much worse than that of the Qing army, and after Ma Cheng has expanded the number of troops many times in the past year, a total of 2560,000 Ming troops have participated in the battle, but most of these Ming troops are not strong in combat effectiveness of the guards, or farmers who have just put down their hoes.

How could such an army be able to defeat the wolf-like Manchu Eight Banners? Therefore, the casualties of Ma Cheng's 25,000 new army are not large, but counting the entire Ming army, the casualty figure is very considerable.

This is still the number of casualties of the army, if you count the residents killed in the melee in Dongcheng, plus the people of the prefectures and counties around Nancheng, the casualties are hundreds of thousands.

Zhu Lunkui was also very sad when he heard Ma Cheng, Zhu Lunkui slowed down and said: "Ma Qing rest assured, I will never forget those soldiers who threw their heads and spilled their blood, Ma Qing, you go back and compile all the meritorious people into a book, and then report to the Ministry of War, I want to reward these soldiers!" Never let their blood go in vain! ”