There is a saying in China that husband and wife are birds of the same forest, and they fly separately when disaster comes. As the closest husband and wife, they have to flee for their lives when the situation is unavoidable, not to mention the small group of Hongguang Junchen who are connected by interests.

Zhu Yousong thought carefully about escaping for his life, and Ma Shiying and other courtiers were the same, just now Ma Shiying asked for orders to let his son enter the city in the main hall, just with the intention of escaping. The other ministers of the DPRK and China were similar, and after coming out of the Qianqing Palace, they came to Ma Shiying's side one after another and asked Shoufu what to do next.

Yang Weiyuan, the political envoy, is a native of Wendeng, Shandong, a proper eunuch, and now he has taken refuge in Ruan Dacheng. However, now Ruan Dacheng is still in the Taiping Mansion Huang Degong's army and has not returned, so Ruan Dacheng's group is looking at Yang Weiyuan.

"Yuanfu, now that Your Majesty is going to move the capital, what do you think?" Although Yang Weiyuan was born in the eunuch party, his official reputation in history is not bad, and after the city of Nanjing was broken, this guy also died in the whole family, which is better than those righteous people in Donglin.

Ma Shiying looked at Yang Weiyuan and said with a smile: "Doushu, the emperor just listened to the bewitchment of outsiders, now there are more than 100,000 troops in the southern capital, and the southern capital is strong, so we can defend it for half a year." The northern captives are all Liaodong people, and when the rainy season arrives in a few months, they must return to the north to escape the summer, and then the siege of the southern capital will be solved! ”

Yang Weiyuan looked at Ma Shiying here and didn't say anything practical, and asked: "Yuanfu, what you said is very right, but what should I do now?"

It's okay for Ma Shiying to deceive the ignorant officialdom newcomers that Ma Shiying just said, but Yang Weiyuan has been in officialdom for a long time, and it is not clear what Ma Shiying's idea is! Now there are nearly 100,000 troops in Nanjing, but don't you look at who they are? Either they are too young or too old, or they are also newly recruited, and the only 50,000 sturdy soldiers were sent by Ma Shiying to the Taiping Mansion to resist Zuo Liangyu, and it is too late to recall them urgently.

Before Ma Shiying could speak, Zhang Jie on the side said: "Brother Dou, now that the northern captives are still in Yangzhou, we can secretly order Huang Degong to return to the southern capital, and there are still seventy or eighty thousand troops in Songjiang and other places, and we can order Yang Wencong, the governor of Songjiang, to lead these troops to the southern capital Qinwang." As for the river, I have to ask for sincerity! ”

After Zhang Jie finished speaking, he looked at Liu Kongzhao beside him: "Sincerity Uncle is the governor of Caojiang, Zheng Hongkui and they blew the mountain sound, now is the time to see their real kung fu!"

Now Zheng Hongkui is in charge of the defense of the Yangtze River waterway in Nanjing, and he has brought hundreds of warships from Fujian.

Liu Kongzhao heard Zhang Jie say this, and hurriedly promised: "Please rest assured, this governor promises that he will never let a boat from the north cross the river!"

Liu Kongzhao is a military general, he said so, what else can everyone do, there is no way for everyone to hope for Zheng Hongkui, after all, the Zheng family is playing the sailor, I hope they can block the north captives on the north bank of the Yangtze River!

Now that the city of Nanjing is in chaos, Ma Shiying has no heart to go to the cabinet office, and there is no official business to do. Ma Shiying left the imperial city and got into a sedan chair, preparing to go home under the protection of the family.

When Ma Shiying's official sedan chair passed through Shengping Bridge, he found that a large number of displaced people from outside the city had entered the city, at first Ma Shiying thought that the soldiers guarding the gate had fled, and this group of displaced people was ready to enter the city to loot, but after looking at it for a while, he found that these displaced people were in good order, and there were more than a dozen soldiers on the side to maintain order.

Ma Shiying said to Ma Gui, the housekeeper on the side of the sedan chair: "Ma Gui, go and ask which part it is?" Who ordered the outcasts to enter the city? ”

Ma Gui bowed down and went out, and after waiting for a while, he came back and reported: "Master, the old slave has made it clear, they are the subordinates of the second young master, and now the second young master has brought the troops into the city and taken over all the city gates, so as to prevent anyone from taking the opportunity to make trouble!"

Ma Shiying nodded when he heard that it was his son's team, it seems that Ma Cheng still has some vision, and knows that he is now sending troops into the city to guard the traffic arteries.

"Ma Gui, you go to Ma Cheng, hand over the emperor's will to him, and then let him go home once this afternoon, the old man has something important to look for him!" After Ma Shiying finished speaking, he handed over the emperor's decree to Ma Gui, put down the sedan curtain and went home.

After Ma Gui bowed and sent Ma Shiying away, he inquired about Ma Cheng's location from the soldiers, and then turned around and went to Zhengyangmen.

Ma Cheng has been really busy in the past two days, more than 200,000 displaced people outside the city have to be resettled in the city, tens of thousands of people in Lishui County have to be relocated, and law and order in Nanjing has to be maintained, and the more than 20,000 people under his command are really not enough. But fortunately, Ma Shiying's reputation is very good, and it is Xincheng Bozhao Zhilong who manages the security and defense of the city, which can be regarded as Ma Shiying's party, so the twelve guards in the city are quite obedient.

In the early years of Hongwu, there were 48 guards outside the city with a total of more than 200,000 soldiers, and in addition to the guards in Songjiang, Yangzhou and other places, there were more than 500,000 troops to guard the security of the capital. However, with the relocation of the capital of Yongle Emperor Zhu Di, the elite troops around Nanjing were gradually transferred to Beijing to garrison, so there were still 36 guards left outside the city of Nanjing during the Chongzhen period.

These 36 guards are under the management of Ma Cheng, there are 24 guards, and the remaining 12 guards are called internal guards, which are under the management of the small school field commander in the city, and the large and small school field commanders are under the jurisdiction of Nanjing town guard.

If we calculate the number of 5,600 people per guard, there should be 200,000 people inside and outside the city of Nanjing, but the actual situation is that these 36 guards can't even get together 100,000 people. Even in these seriously understaffed armies, they are all composed of old men over 50 years old and minors under 15 years old.

Most of the 24 guards outside the city were peasants, numbering only about 30,000 people, and half of them were women. The twelve guards in the city are better, after all, there are some small transactions in the city, and there are more than 20,000 people in the twelve guards in the city, of which only 2,000 are in the prime of life between the ages of eighteen and thirty.

Ma Cheng took the preliminary statistical results from Wang Xian's hands and smiled bitterly in his heart, he had already estimated the virtue of the soldiers defending the city of Nanjing, but when he really faced it, he found that it was not as good as he thought, according to Wang Xian's estimation, the guards outside the city could only reduce 10,000 men, which was the result of relaxing the age to sixty years old.

Ma Cheng looked at the number of soldiers counted by Wang Xian and wanted to give up Nanjing City, although Nanjing City is strong, but how can more than 30,000 people defend it? You must know that the Nanjing city wall has a circumference of more than 70 miles, and 30,000 soldiers are arranged on the 70-mile city wall, and a soldier of one meter cannot guarantee it.

Ma Cheng sighed and asked, "Wang Xian, this city can't be defended, what other good ideas do you have?"

Wang Xian was very rigorous, and when he heard Ma Cheng ask himself, he hurriedly bowed down and replied: "Lord Junmen, the lower officials have already had a countermeasure, although there are only 30,000 soldiers, but there are still many noble families in the city, if these families are gathered, they can still get together more than 5,000 people, plus the families of wealthy families, the officials of one government and two counties, Kuaishou, tax collectors, etc., as well as Jinyi Guard, Bannerman Guard, Han General, etc., it is estimated that there will be 20,000 people, so that there are more than 60,000 people, supplemented by some strong men, it should be enough!"

Ma Cheng didn't expect Wang Xian to have such a clever strategy, so that he could gather enough sixty or seventy thousand people, and he would have the strength to fight with the Manchus.

Ma Cheng nodded with satisfaction: "Okay, Wang Xian, you are now the deputy general, in addition to the supply of grain and grass, the matter of training and integrating strong men will also be handed over to you!"

Wang Xian used to be just a thousand households, but now he has become a deputy general, which is second only to the four major generals in the Ma Cheng army, Wang Xian hurriedly bowed down and thanked him.

At this time, Ma Cheng's personal soldiers outside the city tower came in and reported: "Lord Junmen, there is your housekeeper Ma Gui asking to see!"

Why did Ma Gui come? Ma Cheng hurriedly asked his own soldiers to lead him in. Ma Gui was already in his sixties, rushed from Nancheng to Zhengyangmen, and then climbed the city wall more than 20 meters high, so tired that he was really out of breath.

Ma Cheng didn't dare to slack off on this father's old scholar, so he quickly stood up and helped Ma Gui sit down on the chair, and then asked, "Uncle Gui, why are you here?" But what's going on at home? ”

Ma Guijiang gasped and said, "Second young master, the master asked the old slave to send you the emperor's holy decree!"

The Emperor's Decree? Isn't it supposed to be conveyed by eunuchs? Why did you use your own housekeeper to send it?

Ma Cheng took the holy decree and opened it, and what it said was very simple, that is, Ma Cheng was ordered to guard the southern capital and be responsible for all the defense and security of the thirteen gates of the southern capital!

This is a good thing, with this thing Ma Cheng can justifiably order all the guards and inspection departments in Nanjing City, of course, he can't command the Jinyi Guard and the forbidden army in the palace, but this also solves Ma Cheng's urgent need.

Ma Gui stood up at this time and said, "Second Young Master, the master also said, you must let the second young master go home in the afternoon, the master has something important to discuss!"

"Okay, please go back first, General Ma Cheng will go back after explaining the affairs!" After speaking, Ma Cheng arranged for his own soldiers to escort Ma Gui back.

When there was no one in the city tower, Wang Xian stood beside Ma Cheng and whispered: "Lord Junmen, there must be something wrong in the court!"

Ma Cheng was stunned for a moment and asked, "How do you know?"

"Lord Junmen, this holy decree is not trivial, in the past, the guards of Nanjing were all honorables, but now this important position is handed over to Lord Junmen, so the lower officials speculate that this holy decree is likely to be fake, and it must be the edict of Lord Shoufu!"

False transmission of the holy decree is a big crime of the Nine Clans, although Wang Xian was saved by Ma Cheng, but this year, the father and son can turn against each other, let alone save a life. Ma Cheng was afraid that Wang Xian would go out and talk nonsense about this matter, so he frowned and asked, "How did you know?"

Wang Xian saw Ma Cheng slowly holding his hand on his waist knife while speaking, and knew that Ma Cheng was beginning to guard himself.

Wang Xian hurriedly knelt down on one knee and said: "Lord Junmen, the lower official was saved by the adult, and the lower official will definitely be loyal to the lord!"

Wang Xian said it very well, but Ma Cheng was able to be fooled by Wang Xian's words, Ma Cheng smiled and said: "Wang Xian, don't say these useless things, can the life-saving benefactor be eaten as food these days?" If you don't give Ben Du a satisfactory reason today, then don't complain about Ben Du's cruelty! ”