The city wall that Ma Xi was responsible for guarding started from the imperial wall of Xiaoling, passed through the Taiping Gate, the Shence Gate, the Jinchuan Gate, and ended near the Zhongfu Gate on the edge of the Yangtze River. Although there is a lake outside the east city except for the mountain, the Taiping Gate and the Shence Gate are indeed very flat.

Outside the Taiping Gate is the prison of the Criminal Department, and outside the Shence Gate is the official road leading to Zhenjiang, so these two places are the key points of defense in Dongcheng. Ma Xi also knew the importance of these two city gates, and set up heavy defenses in these two places, and at the same time set up the headquarters in the Taiping Gate, in the yamen of the Nanjing Metropolitan Procuratorate.

Now that the officials of the Metropolitan Procuratorate have been evacuated, the entire Metropolitan Procuratorate has become a large military camp, and in addition to the 5,000 new troops under the command of Ma Xi, there are 10,000 guards stationed here.

When Ma Cheng arrived at the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Ma Xi was listening to the report of the scouts, and it turned out that at noon, Mei Chun, who was stationed on Tianbao Mountain, found that there was movement in the direction of Xiaoling. Mei Chun was the commander of Xiaolingwei, and the more than 300 soldiers under his command were all locals of Xiaolingwei and were very familiar with the surrounding environment, so they soon learned that the Qing army was assembling in Xiaoling.

By the time Ma Cheng arrived, the Qing army had gathered tens of thousands of people, and there were still a large number of horses, and I didn't know what the Qing army wanted to do.

Ma Cheng led all the generals of Dongcheng to the Taiping Gate, where outside the city was a ruin, the prison of the Criminal Department and the official office of the Dali Temple had been demolished, and a large area of rubble was buried in the snow. On the left outside the Taiping Gate is Xuanwu Lake, although the lake is frozen now, but the strength can not leave, so there is no problem on this side of Xuanwu Lake.

Outside the Taiping Gate on the right is Zhong Mountain, only five miles away from Zhu Yuanzhang's filial piety mausoleum, and at the same time the Taiping Gate city wall has a sharp turn here, a small hill of more than 20 meters high at the foot of Zhong Mountain, Long Guangshan is wrapped in the city, and at the same time, the city wall forms an acute angle of only 30 degrees here, completely protruding outside, and it is a good target for the Qing army to attack here.

Ma Cheng led people to Longguang Mountain, which was more than 20 meters away, and looked around, the terrain here was open, and it was easy to see the movement of the palace not far away from standing on the mountain. Ma Cheng turned his gaze to the outside of the city and asked, "Where is Xiaoling?" ”

Ma Xi said on the side: "Lord Junmen, five miles away is the Tomb of Xiaoling, here is the tomb of King Chang Yuchun of Kaiping and Qiu Cheng of Wanguo, and the high mountain in the distance is Tianbao Mountain!" ”

Ma Cheng looked at Tianbao Mountain three miles away, there was no pollution in the Ming Dynasty, and it was easy to see the figures on Tianbao Mountain shaking when standing in the city, probably Meichun They were preparing to defend.

Seeing this Ma Cheng, he knew what the Qing army wanted to do, Tianbao Mountain was only three miles away from Taipingmen, as long as Tianbao Mountain was occupied and Hongyi cannons were erected on Tianbao Mountain, it was completely possible to bombard Taipingmen. On the other hand, on his side, because the heavy artillery has not yet been produced, the range of the cannon at hand is only more than two miles, which is completely out of reach Tianbao Mountain, while the artillery of the Qing army can reach the city condescendingly.

Ma Cheng, who figured out the intentions of the Qing army, secretly scolded himself for being confused, why didn't he put the heavy artillery into production earlier, now it's okay, the Qing army's artillery is about to be placed overhead, and he has no power to fight back, what can I do?

Most of Ma Cheng's generals are illiterate, Ma Xi is highly educated as a showman, he saw Ma Cheng looking at Tianbao Mountain in a daze, and immediately knew what his brother had in mind.

Ma Xi asked in a low voice: "Second brother, but I am afraid that after the northern captives occupy Tianbao Mountain, they will stand heavy artillery on the mountain and bombard

Inside the city? ”

Ma Cheng nodded and said: "Yes, the range of the Beiyu cannon is half a catty and eight taels from us, but it is different for the Beiyu to occupy Tianbao Mountain, just enough to hit the city wall, if the Beiyu does not bombard day and night, it is estimated that the city wall will not last for half a month!" ”

"This is easy to do, second brother, what do you think of the younger brother's idea? The little brother of Tianbao Mountain has been to see it, the terrain is rugged and the road is difficult to walk, there is only one path leading to the top of the mountain, not to mention the kind of 10,000-pound heavy artillery in the north, it is very difficult for a person to climb up, so the little brother thinks that as long as it is given to Meichun's elite soldiers, there is no problem at all to rely on natural danger! ”

What Ma Xi said was similar to what Ma Cheng thought, a long-range heavy artillery can't be built in a day or two, and this method can only be used at present.

"Okay, Ma Xi, you select a thousand elite soldiers and hand them over to Mei Chun to lead, and at the same time tell him that if Tianbao Mountain is lost, he won't have to live!"

Ma Cheng's order was issued, and Ma Xi immediately selected 1,000 of the most elite new army, handed it over to a thousand households to lead, and at the same time brought enough gunpowder weapons, and immediately went out of the city along the path to Tianbao Mountain to support Mei Chun, who was stationed at the top of the mountain. At the same time, in order to better support Mei Chun, Ma Cheng transferred 30 of the 100 artillery pieces in Dongcheng and arranged them on Longguang Mountain, where Xiaoling could not be hit, but it was okay to fight a dozen Qing army rear troops.

Ma Cheng is the defender of the city, with the advantage of internal mobilization, although the Qing army made the first move, but after Ma Cheng is ready, the Qing army is still assembling the team. Finally, on the third day of the first lunar month, after three days of preparation, the Qing army, under the leadership of a general army, divided 3,000 people and launched an attack on Tianbao Mountain for the first time.

The terrain of Tianbao Mountain is dangerous, coupled with the full preparation of the Ming army, the Qing army has not made any progress at all in the past few days, except for the hundreds of people who died at the foot of the mountain, completely in vain.

Although the Qing army lost the initial battle, but perseverance, and organized the army to attack again the next day, so the Ming army defended the Qing army attack, from the third day of the first month to the fifteenth day of the first month, the Qing army suffered thousands of casualties under the mountain in more than ten days, and the Ming army on Tianbao Mountain only suffered less than 100 casualties.

The Qing army's onslaught regardless of casualties, Ma Cheng didn't know what the Qing army's intentions were, and it was really not worth dying so many people for a small mountain. However, although Ma Cheng couldn't figure out the intentions of the Qing army, he had the mentality of covering up the land with water, and I would deal with it as you do. Ma Cheng ordered the other city gates to be strictly guarded, and absolutely not to give the Qing army a chance, and at the same time increase the artillery bombardment of the Qing army's rear here in Longguang Mountain, increasing the difficulty of the Qing army's attack.

In this way, the battle with the Qing army has been fought for more than a month, although the Qing army has been attacking fiercely in the early stage, but in February it began to slow down the offensive, and only sent people to attack every five or six days. The Ming army was also accustomed to the situation of the Qing army, and took advantage of the gap in the Qing army's attack to start supplying the defenders on Tianbao Mountain.

As the war dragged on, the Qing army had more and more troops in the Zhongshan area, and in February, the Qing army in the entire Xiaoling area exceeded 50,000. However, because these Qing troops were stationed outside the range of the Ming army's artillery, and at the same time, except for the attacking Qing army, the other Qing troops did not take any action, so Ma Cheng did not take it to heart, but just told Ma Xi to pay attention to it, and not to be careless and let the Qing army take advantage of the loophole.

In February, the weather in Nanzhili became warmer, and Ma Cheng was not only responsible for defense, but also organized the spring ploughing of the people in the city. After all, the food in Ma Cheng's hands is limited, but the time for the Qing army to lift the siege is unlimited, and everything is done

It is necessary to be prepared.

Most of the northern city of Nanjing City is open land, and in addition to the barracks and workshops, a large area of land is fertile land, so Ma Cheng used Beicheng as an experimental field for new crops, and this new crop is the corn and potatoes that Ma Cheng stumbled upon in the city.

Corn and potatoes are native to the Americas, came to Asia with the great voyages of globalization, and reached China during the Longqing period of the Ming Dynasty. However, corn and potatoes are not suitable for the diet of Chinese, so in Guangdong, these two things are feed to pigs, and people do not eat this kind of thing.

Ma Cheng also sent people to find these two big killers when he first crossed, and Ma Cheng knew that the yield of corn and potatoes was extremely large, and in the Qianlong era a hundred years later, it was the support of these two crops that the Chinese population reached 200 million for the first time.

But to Ma Cheng's surprise, the people of the Ming Dynasty didn't know what corn and potatoes were, and they hadn't even heard of it, and Ma Cheng sent many people to the south to find it to no avail, so there was no way to delay this matter.

It wasn't until October last year, because of the implementation of the food rationing system in Nanjing, that Ma Cheng found that some residents in the city were eating a strange thing, and Ma Cheng found it only after finding that this was the corn and potatoes he was looking for!

It was not surprising that Ma Cheng was not found before, because at this time, the corn and potatoes were very different from later generations regardless of their names and appearances. At this time, the corn cob was only two inches long, far less than the corn cob that had been hybridized and improved in later generations.

As for the name of the potato, Ma Cheng has heard of it, that is, sweet potato, but Ma Cheng is a northerner, and the northern potatoes are called ground beans and ground eggs, not sweet potatoes at all, so Ma Cheng easily forgot this name.

The appearance of potatoes in the Ming Dynasty is also different from that of later generations, the sweet potatoes of the Ming Dynasty are very similar to the peanuts of later generations, the fruit is very small, and the big potatoes of more than half a catty in later generations are completely different, so Ma Cheng is naturally useless according to the map.

This time, Ma Cheng found that these two crops were collected by the magistrates in the city as food, and when Wang Xian taught the magistrate, Ma Cheng stumbled upon this kind of big killing weapon.

After asking Ma Cheng, he learned that this kind of thing was planted in Nanzhili during the Apocalypse, but because it did not conform to the dietary habits of the Ming Dynasty, and at the same time, these two crops did not pick the ground, and they could be planted in front of and behind the house, and the yield was very large, so this kind of thing was used to feed livestock.

Ma Cheng was overjoyed to see the corn and potatoes, and rewarded the low-ranking officials who found these two things, and at the same time Haosheng saved the few seeds and prepared to experiment in the city in the spring of the next year.

After the beginning of spring, Ma Cheng selected a good piece of land in Beicheng, which was more than 20 acres, and then planted these corn potatoes.

Ma Cheng's subordinates were very puzzled by what Ma Cheng did, this kind of thing is fed to pigs, can people eat it?

Ma Cheng heard them ask and scolded: "Fart, if you don't have enough food, you have to eat shit, it's good to have something to eat, and what do you say about feeding pigs or not!" ”

Ma Cheng came from the countryside of later generations, and was very familiar with farm work, and his planting methods were much better than those of the Ming Dynasty, at least he knew how to cut potatoes into pieces according to the germ, and then plant them separately. Ma Cheng handed over this planting method to several farmers and asked them to plant all the more than 20 acres of land with corn and potatoes according to what he had taught.