Lu Jiude slandered the emperor to kill Ma Cheng, and now Ma Cheng is in Jinyi Wei Prison, although he has three hundred guards, these three hundred people can indeed fight, but the number of people who can fight is limited. There are still 80,000 city guards in Nanjing, and the admiral is Lu Jiude's nephew Lu Siye, Lu Jiude's calculation is to take advantage of this opportunity to kill Ma Cheng in one fell swoop, and then report a punishment. Anyway, Ma Cheng died in the edict prison, and the edict prison was in the hands of Feng Kezong, and what happened had nothing to do with Lu Jiude.

Zhu Lunkui hated Ma Cheng so much that the roots of his teeth itched, but he hadn't reached the point of hating him to death, and now he couldn't help but hesitate a little when he heard Lu Jiude say this.

Lu Jiude saw Zhu Lunkui hesitate, and then said agitatedly: "Emperor, now is the best opportunity, if you don't kill Ma Cheng this time, there will be no such a good chance next time!" ”

Zhu Lunkui pondered for a moment, and then said categorically: "No, now the rebellious army is in Suzhou, I still need someone to command the army, Ma Cheng must not move!" After Zhu Lunkui finished speaking, he remembered Ma Cheng's non-cooperation, and said angrily: "You go and pass on the decree to Feng Kezong, let him give Ma Cheng some bitterness, so that this arrogant guy can have a long memory!" ”

Lu Jiude heard Zhu Lunkui say this, and knew that Ma Cheng had escaped another catastrophe, and it was likely to be the last catastrophe. Now Feng Kezong is afraid that Ma Cheng is going to die, and he dares to punish Ma Cheng. Lu Jiude sighed in his heart, and then bowed down to deliver the decree.

Zhu Lunkui hated Ma Cheng, but he hated Zhu Chang, the king of Lu, who raised troops, in Zhu Lunkui's heart, Ma Cheng and the Manchu Qing could only be regarded as elbow troubles at most, and it was really not possible Zhu Lunkui could flee south, after all, there was still a large area of land in the south. But Zhu Chang, the king of Lu, is a big trouble, as long as Zhu Lunkui is defeated this time, then Zhu Lunkui will lose the legitimacy of the emperor, and no one in the whole country will listen to Zhu Lunkui's orders, so that Zhu Lunkui will really go to the general trend.

Zhu Lunkui wanted to let Ma Cheng go, but Ma Cheng didn't want to let go of Zhu Lunkui. At the same time that Zhu Lunkui couldn't bear to clean up Ma Cheng, Ma Cheng discussed with a group of henchmen in the edict prison how to clean up Zhu Lunkui.

Ma Cheng, Wang Xian, and Gu Yong were full of wine and tea, and Feng Kezong was a dignified governor of brocade clothes, but he stood behind Ma Cheng with a smiling face.

Ma Cheng took a sip of the teacup, pouted and said: "Lao Feng's, the tea is average, Ben Hou likes Biluochun the most, you go get some tomorrow, let's do it today!" ”

Feng Kezong resisted the urge to scold his mother, and nodded again and again to reassure: "Please rest assured, tomorrow, no!" Tonight, the villain will go to buy this year's Biluochun! ”

Ma Cheng put down the teacup, then waved his hand and said, "Old Feng, you can go out, we have important things to discuss, you can't listen!" ”

After getting Ma Cheng's order, Feng Kezong hurriedly put down the teapot, and then went out and carefully closed the door. When he left the door, Feng Kezong's face immediately turned cloudy, and he whispered to a Jinyi guard captain outside the door: "You take a few people, hide outside the room, write down in detail what Ma Cheng discussed with his subordinates, and then report it to the governor to know!" ”

The lieutenant nodded and whispered, "Please rest assured, the villain will do a good job!" ”

Feng Kezong went to the front yard after all the arrangements, just now he was serving Ma Cheng to eat, but he didn't eat any water and rice, so he just took this opportunity to eat something.

The captain of the brocade guard went to find a few

As soon as the literate subordinates came to Ma Cheng's door, they saw a bunch of Guiyang Houfu guards standing at the door, and a tall guy glared and scolded: "What are you going to do?" Do you want to assassinate my lord? ”

The captain didn't look at dealing with ordinary people, but when he saw these wolf-like guards, he didn't dare to offend these killers, so he had no choice but to laugh and say: "My lord, my family is afraid that the Hou Ye has any orders, so let the villain come over and listen to the greeting!" ”

The guards at the door pushed the captain to his head, and then scolded: "You guys still want to serve my marquis? Don't get out of here! After saying that, the other guards stepped forward one after another and drove these unlucky brocade guards out. The lieutenant had no choice but to run away with his subordinates and go to the front yard to ask Feng Kezong what to do next.

Ma Cheng waited for Feng Kezong to go out and let his guards surround the courtyard, this is the edict of Jinyi Guard, there are many people, Ma Cheng doesn't want his arrangement to be heard by outsiders.

After the guards surrounded the courtyard, Ma Cheng whispered to Wang Xian: "Wang Xian, how are the preparations outside the city?" ”

"Please rest assured, the brothers outside the city are ready, just wait for three days to start acting! There are 10,000 people in the Honor and Guard Division in the advanced city, and if there are not enough people, they can still transfer people! After Wang Xian finished speaking, he groaned for a while, and then continued: "Master Hou, since you want to make a big fuss, why don't you set up a new monarch?" ”

Wang Xian has always been a staunch rebel, he has no good impression of the Ming Dynasty at all, and it is best for Ma Cheng to ascend the throne as emperor, so that it is most in line with Wang Xian's wishes.

Wang Xian's suggestion is indeed very tempting, Ma Cheng has been suppressed by Zhu Lunkui for more than half a year, and he is bound both politically and militarily. If according to Ma Cheng's arrangement, after winning the battle to defend Nanjing, he should send a large army to occupy Yangzhou, and then go up the Yangtze River to occupy the important town of Wuchang, ensure the safety of Nanjing, and then pour his hands to clean up the small imperial courts in various parts of the south.

However, Emperor Zhu Lunkui had no strategic vision, he only knew the immediate interests, and when he saw that King Lu was in charge of the country, he wanted to eradicate dissidents, and this kind of idiotic behavior disappointed Ma Cheng too much. However, Ma Cheng knew that this was all determined by Zhu Lunkui's identity, for an emperor like him who was not from a high background and had impure blood, the threat of the Ming Dynasty royal family such as King Lu and King Lu was far greater than that of the Manchu Dynasty, so it became inevitable to eliminate the internal threat first.

The power cannot be seized right in front of him, which makes Ma Cheng very uncomfortable. Now most of the army outside the city obey Ma Cheng's orders, although the 80,000 city guards in Nanjing are under the jurisdiction of Lu Siye, but where is the combat effectiveness of these 80,000 rabble that the new army can compare, according to Ma Cheng's estimate, as long as the new army is given half a day, it can occupy the entire Nanjing city.

But the battle is easy to fight, Zhu Lunkui is easy to kill, and the next thing is not easy to handle. Although Ma Cheng is now extremely beautiful and holds the title of a world-famous general, there are not many subordinates that Ma Cheng can really believe.

Ma Cheng's starting time is too short, from April of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen to the present, it will take two years and four months. Most of Ma Cheng's subordinates were either newly recruited soldiers or military households from Guizhou, and in the hearts of those newly recruited soldiers, the Ming Dynasty was orthodox. And the military households from Guizhou believe that Ma Shiying is their master. And Ma Cheng is just a relatively outstanding son of Ma Shiying.

Ma Cheng's current henchmen are only civil officials

Xu Zhenye and Wang Xian, and the generals only have ten henchmen such as Gu Changwei (two of the twelve King Kongs died in the Battle of Nanjing), in addition to these, there is also the upstart Gu Yong in front of him, this guy is the nephew of Ma Cheng's concubine Gu Xiying, and there is no problem with loyalty at all.

However, Ma Cheng's henchmen were too low, Gu Changwei and others were only low-level officers two years ago, and Gu Yong was a big soldier, and he had no influence in the army at all. Now the main generals of Ma Cheng's army are all military households from Guiyang Wei, such as Zhang Guozhu, Ma Bao and others, who are the backbone of the current army.

If Ma Cheng kills Zhu Lunkui and proclaims himself emperor, or supports Ma Shiying as emperor, the attitude of these backbone generals will become the key. Now Ma Shiying's attitude is very strange, neither supporting Ma Cheng's coup d'état, nor supporting Emperor Zhu Lunkui. This time Ma Cheng was picked up by Zhu Lunkui is an example, Ma Shiying took sick leave to hide at home a few days ago on the grounds of illness. Ma Shiying's attitude made Ma Cheng unclear whether Ma Shiying could support himself if he committed a mutiny.

Therefore, after thinking about it for a while, Ma Cheng decided that he would first rely on Zhu Lunkui to develop his personal strength, and after Gu Changwei, Xu Dahu and other henchmen really grew into independent generals, he was considering follow-up issues.

After listening to Wang Xian's suggestion, Ma Cheng shook his head and said: "It's not the time yet, now that the enemy is outside, we have to deal with the opposition forces such as King Lu first!" ”

Wang Xian also knew what Ma Cheng cared about, but what could he say, he had no choice but to nod and agree.

"Gu Yong, you go tell those guys in the Honor Guard Division, let them try not to kill people, and don't make any uncontrollable situation!"

Although Gu Yong is ostensibly the commander of the Honor and Guard Division, the two generals of the Honor and Guard Division are An Zhennan and Tian Boguang, and their status is far higher than Gu Yong. An Zhennan used to be the protector of Ma Cheng's side, and Gu Yong was still An Zhennan's subordinate. Not to mention Tian Boguang, he is the nephew of Ma Bao, the general under Ma Shiying, and he is related to Ma Cheng, and now let Gu Yong command them, Gu Yong is very worried that these two guys will not obey orders.

Ma Cheng saw Gu Yong frowning, knowing what this guy was thinking, and scolded: "What are you afraid of?" Tell these two guys that Lao Tzu said that if you kill people, you will have to kill the two of them! ”

With Ma Cheng's order, Gu Yong was a lot relieved, so he nodded and agreed.

"Mr. Wang, in addition to the city and Zhenjiang, where is King Lu's army?"

"Master Hou, King Lu's army is still repairing in Suzhou, probably because he doesn't want to leave, and is ready to stay in Suzhou for the New Year."

It's only the end of August now, and there are still more than three months before the Chinese New Year, and when they come, the cucumber dishes will be cold.

Ma Cheng said angrily: "Don't these guys know the truth of the speed of soldiers? When it was too late for King Lu to enter the army, let Zhang Guozhu give up Zhenjiang and retreat to the Longtan camp at the end of September! and Ma Bao, let him give up the Taiping Mansion and retreat to Dasheng Pass to station! ”

Ma Cheng has gone crazy in order to oppress Zhu Lunkui, Zhang Guozhu can say that after all, the army on King Lu's side is really not fighting well, and it doesn't matter if he gives up Zhenjiang. However, the Taiping Mansion was only more than 40 miles away from Wuhu occupied by the Qing army, and the Qing army stationed 30,000 troops in Wuhu in order to guard against Ma Bao of the Taiping Mansion.