After a bloody battle with the Qing army, the Ming army occupied Zhenjiang, but at this time Zhenjiang was no longer the pearl city on the Grand Canal, and the not too strong city wall was bombarded by the Ming army artillery in several places, and there were corpses everywhere inside and outside the city, including the Qing army and the ordinary residents in the city.

After Zhang Guozhu occupied Zhenjiang, he immediately led his team to re-expedition, and lost the entire Zhenjiang affair to the later civil official, that is, Xie Qikun, the new prefect of Zhenjiang sent by the imperial court.

Xie Qikun is a native of Nankang, Jiangxi, and can be regarded as half of Jiang Yueguang's township party. When Jiang Yueguang was persecuted by Ruan Dacheng and lost his official position, he went home, and this Xie Qikun was implicated, and he changed from the fourth rank of the rite department to the head of the seventh grade.

However, Xie Qikun stood on the right side in supporting Zhu Lunkui, and after Zhu Lunkui took the throne, he reinstated Xie Qikun and transferred him from the Ministry of Rites to the Metropolitan Procuratorate to serve as the imperial history of the right capital. This time, Ma Cheng won a big victory, occupying a lot of territory, and it was very necessary for officials to govern the place. This Xie Qikun also changed from the imperial history of the Metropolitan Procuratorate to a magistrate, and served as the prefect of Zhenjiang from Sanpin.

Xie Qikun is a very capable person, and he has been working since he took office, while issuing notices to the people, he also arranged for people to collect the corpses inside and outside the city, and at the same time severely suppressed those hooligan ruffians who took advantage of the fire to rob and those local gentry who defected to the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

You must know that Zhenjiang is the territory of the Donglin Party, and in order to avoid the loss of property, many of these gentry shaved their hair to express their allegiance to the Manchus. But no one expected that Feng Shui would take turns, and Zhu Lunkui in Nanjing would be able to turn over and beat away the 400,000 Qing army.

At first, these gentry heard that Xie Qikun was coming to be the prefect and still had illusions, because Xie Qikun was Jiang Yueguang's township party, and he was the first half of the Donglin party, and his family was easy to talk about after all. But to the disappointment of these gentry, Xie Qikun was not soft on them at all, as long as they shaved their heads and were easy to obey, they did not discuss at all, and the whole family was arrested and waiting for the disposal of the imperial court.

Zhu Lunkui had just sat on the throne at this time, and he was about to use these unlucky guys to shake up the dynasty, so he ordered the heads to be killed, and more than 300 gentry who took refuge in the Manchu Qing Dynasty were killed.

Although Xie Qikun's methods were ruthless, after this iron-blooded suppression, Zhenjiang's atmosphere was clear, and his vitality slowly began to recover. However, the house leak happened to rain overnight, Zhenjiang was just a little stable, and King Lu of Hangzhou established himself as the emperor.

At the beginning, Xie Qikun didn't put King Lu Zhu Chang in his eyes, Ma Cheng can defeat the 400,000 Qing army, can he still be afraid of your 150,000 rabble? But the next military situation surprised Xie Qikun. The invincible Zhang Guozhu suffered defeats in a row, and finally lost Suzhou, an important town in the Taihu Lake Basin.

After Zhang Guozhu retreated to Zhenjiang, Xie Qikun found the horse's feet, and the new army led by Zhang Guozhu looked like they had lost a battle, and they were refreshed and raised their heads. Seeing this, Xie Qikun immediately knew what was going on, and with the news that Ma Cheng was dismissed from office in Nanjing, Xie Qikun knew that this was Ma Cheng raising his own respect.

Xie Qikun belongs to the Donglin Party and also hates Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng very much, but now the country's internal and external difficulties are really not suitable for Ma Cheng to be dismissed, so Xie Qikun gave Emperor Zhu Lunkui a fold, hoping that the emperor will not destroy the Great Wall, and now it is the right way to unify with the outside world.

But Xie Qikun's status is too low, he is a big man in the local area from Sanpin, and he is not even a fart in the center, his folds are like mud cows entering the sea

No news.

Xie Qikun cared about state affairs here, but Zhang Guozhu only stayed in Zhenjiang for five days before leading his troops to retreat to Longtan Town. This frightened Xie Qikun, Zhenjiang can be said to be the last line of defense in Nanjing, and Zhenjiang will have no danger to defend if it loses Nanjing.

But Zhang Guozhu has already obtained Ma Cheng's secret order, and he can listen to Xie Qikun there, Zhang Guozhu no matter how Xie Qikun stays, he still leaves with the army.

The withdrawal of the army made the originally stable Zhenjiang City panic again, and the Zhenjiang city wall has not been repaired yet, and it is completely unable to resist the army of King Lu. The residents of the city were deeply affected by the war and began to leave Zhenjiang one after another to hide in the countryside.

Xie Qikun sighed when he saw this, he had no soldiers in the hands of a civilian official, even if he wanted to kill the enemy for the country, how many could he kill alone? Thinking of the emperor's kindness to him, Xie Qikun decided to die for the country.

Just when Xie Qikun decided to commit suicide, news came from Suzhou that King Lu's army stopped attacking and wanted to celebrate the New Year in Suzhou. Xie Qikun, who got the news, was overjoyed, and hurriedly sent someone to send a letter to Zhang Guozhu, asking Zhang Junmen to return to Zhenjiang as soon as possible, and take advantage of this gap to renovate the city wall, so as to resist King Lu's army in the spring of the next year.

But Zhang Guozhu has already got the news of Ma Cheng, that is, he wants to give up Zhenjiang to put pressure on Zhu Lunkui, where can you manage Xie Qikun with an order? After Xie Qikun received the news that Zhang Guozhu was unable to send troops due to lack of food and grass, he completely lost his heart, and it seemed that he was going to die for the country after all.

Just when Xie Qikun was preparing to die for the second time, good news finally came from Nanjing, and the emperor wanted to reactivate Ma Cheng to deal with King Lu. After learning the news, Xie Qikun was already numb, and now regardless of which side of the force, Xie Qikun hoped to come earlier and not torture him like this.

On the third day of the first month after the New Year, Ma Cheng finally led the army to the expedition, and on the fourteenth day of the first month, Ma Cheng came to Zhenjiang to reoccupy this important town on the south bank of the Yangtze River.

Xie Qikun didn't know whether he was happy or worried after receiving the order, he was a member of the Donglin Party, and he was naturally disgusted with Ma Shiying, Ruan Dacheng and other eunuchs, but at present, only Ma Cheng can recover the Ming Dynasty, so Xie Qikun is very conflicted.

But no matter what Xie Qikun thinks, according to his identity, he will also go out of the city to greet Ma Cheng, after all, Ma Cheng's identity is to supervise Jiangnan, in charge of government and military affairs in various parts of Jiangnan, although Xie Qikun is not subject to Ma Cheng's control as a third-grade official, but being cleaned up by Ma Cheng is enough for him.

On the morning of the 14th day of the first lunar month, the prefect Xie Qikun and the magistrates of the four counties under the jurisdiction of Zhenjiang, Dantu, Jintan, Danyang, and Liyang, stood outside the broken gate of Zhenjiang City, waiting for the arrival of Ma Cheng, the governor of Jiangnan.

Xie Qikun and the others stood outside for a full hour, and it was not until noon that they saw Ma Cheng's army coming from afar. Xie Qikun was full of anger, but there was no way, Ma Cheng managed the government affairs of several provinces in Jiangnan and was Xie Qikun's direct superior.

Although Ma Cheng came late, he didn't have any bureaucratic style, so he dismounted from a distance and walked quickly, which made Xie Qikun, who was full of resentment, feel better.

"Xie Qikun, the governor of Zhenjiang Mansion, and the magistrates of the four counties under his jurisdiction, Dantu, Jintan, Danyang, and Liyang, met with the general system!"

Xie Qikun was about to kneel down and salute after speaking, but Ma Cheng was quick, and quickly helped Xie Qikun up and said, "Lord Xie, this gift is exempt from the cold, please get up quickly!" The four magistrates behind Xie Qikun saw it

In this way, he did not kneel, but stood respectfully with his hands down.

Ma Cheng looked Xie Qikun up and down, and then said: "Master Xie, this governor has heard of you for a long time, you are an honest official, neither humble nor arrogant, you are really a model for my generation!" ”

Xie Qikun originally had no good impression of the Ma family's father and son, although Ma Cheng was complimenting him, Xie Qikun still said: "There, Xia Guan just did his duty as a scholar!" ”

Xie Qikun's words were very polite, ridiculing Ma Cheng for not studying, and also satirizing Ma Shiying for not abiding by his duty as a scholar. The four magistrates behind Xie Qikun are all scholars, and the most important one is a lifter, so he can naturally understand what Xie Qikun meant, and their faces turned white with fright.

Zhenjiang is not far from Nanjing, everyone knows what kind of person this Ma Cheng is in front of him, that is a sinister and vicious villain with a honey sword, and it is really unwise to offend such a villain now.

Behind Ma Cheng is Wang Xian, the marquis of Zhenguo, although Wang Xian is just a talent, he also understands Xie Qikun's sarcasm. Wang Xian looked at this Xie Qikun, who didn't know how to die, and secretly laughed in his heart that this guy was going to be unlucky.

Everyone thought that Ma Cheng must be furious, but knowing that Ma Cheng was like no one, he smiled and said, "Okay, let's go into the city now!" Bendu's army is to stay here in Zhenjiang for two months, and wait until March when the snow melts before marching! ”

Xie Qikun didn't expect Ma Cheng to let himself go, originally he was in danger of being impeached and removed from office by Ma Cheng, and he also went to Ma Cheng to scold the father and son who brought disaster to the country and the people, but now seeing that Ma Cheng didn't react at all, Xie Qikun had no choice but to follow Ma Cheng into the city together.

The war a year ago caused great damage to Zhenjiang Mansion, and most of the prefect's yamen was burned down.

Standing in front of the dilapidated prefect's yamen, Ma Cheng sighed and said: "This governor remembers that there is a saying that the people are suffering when they prosper and the people are suffering when they die, and now the world is in turmoil, but the people are suffering!" After Ma Cheng finished speaking, he turned to the four magistrates and said: "The four of you must be diligent and love the people, don't let the governor know that there are any things that hurt the people and harm the people, or the governor will never spare you, you know?" ”

The four magistrates do not have Xie Qikun's true colors, and when they heard Ma Cheng say this, they hurriedly promised that they would do what the Inspector said and govern the people under their jurisdiction.

Xie Qikun didn't expect Ma Cheng to say this, in his impression, the Ma family's father and son did all kinds of evil, and they would only attack dissidents. But now I didn't expect Ma Cheng to be able to say the words of diligence and love for the people.

"Lord General, the whole house of Zhenjiang was destroyed by a military disaster last year, and now the whole house is short of food, please help solve it!"

Last year, the Manchu Qing Dynasty set up a logistics base in Zhenjiang, and in addition to collecting grain from various parts of Nanzhili, Zhenjiang Prefecture also collected clean grain. But I didn't expect that the grain that was harvested was burned by Ma Cheng in Longtan Town, and now not only Zhenjiang Mansion, but most of the prefectures around Nanjing are short of grain, and many people starve to death because of lack of food this winter.

Hearing Xie Qikun say this, Ma Cheng sighed and said, "Bendu is also short of food here!" Nandu has been besieged for nearly a year, and there is not much food in the city, but the governor has brought some grain, and the governor of Xie can arrange for people to sow seeds in March, and if the wind and rain are good this year, the food crisis can be solved by the end of the year! ”