Ma Cheng took off his armor and changed into a light military uniform, and then left the nest shop and returned to the city, at this time the Qing army outside the city had completely retreated, and in order to avoid the ultra-long-range artillery of the Ming army, he retreated to five miles away, and camped outside the range of the Ming army's artillery.

The city was bustling with corpses and bloodstains on the ground, and a large group of people were cleaning up the corpses and repairing the walls damaged by Qing artillery. However, because the heavy artillery of the Qing army was destroyed, the damage was all ancillary facilities such as battlements, watchtowers, corner towers, nests, etc., and the main body of the city wall was not damaged.

Jubaomen belongs to the three-story urn city, Ma Cheng is now standing on the outermost city wall, there are two city gates and the urn city behind Ma Cheng, and now the city is full of wounded soldiers. Although the Qing army's attack was repelled this time, Ma Cheng's new army suffered very few losses, but the Weisuo army, which was used as a reserve force, suffered great losses.

Ma Cheng glanced at the city, the city was full of wounded soldiers, and it was initially estimated that there were more than 1,000 people, and if you count the dead, it was about 2,000.

At this time, Ma Bao, the guard of the southern city, found Ma Cheng, clasped his fists with both hands and said: "My lord, the northern captives have retreated, and the brothers have suffered heavy losses, one hundred and seventy-six people have died, and three hundred and twenty-five people have been injured, of which sixty-four are seriously injured!" ”

Today, the last group of Qing troops to come up is elite, it is estimated that they are Liu Liangzuo's personal soldiers and other cronies, and Ma Cheng's gang of newcomers who have just entered the battlefield can play a 1-4 record, which is already very good.

"Okay, sixth uncle, we must arrange the rescue work of the injured brothers, the dead brothers will be buried well, each of them will be given a bereavement pension of one hundred taels of silver, and their names will be remembered, and the governor will ask for merit for them in the future!"

The silver of the Ming Dynasty was very valuable, one hundred taels was enough to buy seven or eight acres of good land, and the soldiers of the new army around Ma Cheng heard Ma Cheng say this, and they all thanked Ma Cheng for their dead brothers.

Ma Cheng looked at the city and asked, "Sixth Uncle, how are those guards?" ”

Hearing Ma Cheng ask Ma Cheng like this, Ma Bao sighed: "Hey, these guys are miserable, they don't have any combat experience, just now when the Qing army went to the city, these guys were in a mess, and they didn't retreat to the nest shop according to the military order, and as a result, hundreds of people were hacked to death by the Qing army, plus those who were injured by the Qing army's artillery, a total of more than 3,000 people were lost!" ”

No way! Ma Cheng was very shocked when he heard what Ma Bao said, you must know that there are only 23,000 guards in the entire southern city to assist the new army in defense, and they lost one-seventh of the first battle, how can they fight in the future?

Although the combat effectiveness of these guards is not very good, they are the main force of defending the city, and all kinds of defense equipment need to be operated by them, and if they are all dead, they will defend a fart city.

This problem needs to be solved, Ma Cheng lowered his head and thought about it and said to Ma Bao: "Sixth uncle, this governor will go back to the yamen first, and you will also return to the yamen after you arrange it, and we will meet for a meeting!" ”

Ma Bao nodded and agreed when he heard Ma Cheng say this, Ma Cheng looked at the city, and went down to the city to respond to the Tianfu Yamen if there was nothing to do, and at the same time sent his own soldiers to find several main officials guarding the city to discuss what to do.

Ma Cheng returned to the yamen with his own soldiers, placed Qian Yuhe in the rest room of Santang, and then went to change his clothes and freshen up. Soon Ma Cheng's personal soldiers entered the house to report, and the officials and generals all came and waited in the second hall.

Ma Cheng packed up his clothes and came to the second hall, at this time there were already a few people in the second hall, and the first one sitting on the left hand was Xu Zhan, the commander of Lishui County, who was the person in charge of the defense of the city this time. Xu Zhan was the first to sit down with Xu Zhenye of Langzhong of the Ministry of Industry and Wang Xian, the grain transportation officer, and as for Zhang Guozhu, Ma Bao and other generals, there were no seats to stand aside.

In fact, what Ma Cheng didn't know was that there had been some argument in the room before he came, and it was about the seat. According to the rank, of course, Zhang Guozhu and Ma Bao are the largest, and they are already the chief soldiers with the rank of commander of the first rank. However, there was a strange rule in the Ming Dynasty, that is, no matter how big the rank of civil officials is, they are bigger than military generals, so there are no Zhang Guozhu and others in these seats in the house, they are all civil officials.

Ma Cheng's official rank is the largest Xu Zhenye, but Lao Xu was just a lifter back then, and he couldn't compare with Xu Zhan, who was born in Jinshi, so Lao Xu could only be willing to live in the back and give the first place to Xu Zhan, who was younger than his official position. As for Wang Xian, he is just a showman, although he is stronger than those Qiu Ba, but he doesn't dare to compete with these two.

Everyone in the house found Ma Cheng entering the house and stood up and saluted. Ma Cheng found that there were obviously a lot of chairs in the house, why didn't Zhang Guozhu sit on them?

Ma Cheng came to the middle seat and sat down, and then said, "Zhang Guozhu Ma Bao, you also sit!" ”

Zhang Guozhu was honestly and polite, and was about to sit down, but Xu Zhan said: "Lord Zhenshou, according to the laws of the country, there is no seat for the military generals in front of the civil officials!" ”

Ma Cheng glared at Xu Zhan when he heard this, and scolded: "What? What does the law provide? Did Emperor Taizu Gao stipulate it? ”

Xu Zhan listened to Ma Cheng's unreasonable and was about to explain, this is a tradition, not a law, so he knew that Ma Cheng didn't listen to his explanation at all, but said directly to the general: "A few of you are working very hard today, defending the city and killing countless enemies, and you have made the first contribution, so you can sit down in the governor's office later!" ”

Xu Zhan listened to what Ma Cheng said categorically, and he had no choice but to dismiss the plan to advise, anyway, he was just a Qipin Zhi County, and after the siege of Nanjing was lifted, he would return to Lishui as his own magistrate, what should this Ma Cheng do!

Ma Cheng waited for Zhang Guozhu, Ma Bao, Luo Bingran, Ma Xi, Lu Siye and others to sit down, and then asked, "Zhang Guozhu, how are you fighting over there?" What's to lose? "Every day

Zhang Guozhu stood up and replied: "Lord Hui, Zhengyangmen repelled three attacks by the Beiyu, killing and wounding thousands of Beiyu, and the new army killed eighty-six people and injured one hundred and ten!" However, the casualties of the guards were very large, and the final general initially estimated that more than 2,000 people lost their combat effectiveness! ”

It seems that the offensive of the Qing army on the Zhengyangmen side is not strong, and the losses are much lighter than those on the Jubaomen side, but the losses of the Weisuo army are too large. All the troops in Ma Cheng's hands are only 100,000 people, and today he lost five or six thousand people in one day, how will he fight in the future?

Ma Cheng waited for Zhang Guozhu to finish speaking, and asked Luo Bingran and Ma Xi, "What about you over there?" Is there anything unusual? ”

"Back to my lord, there is no movement on our side, and there are no suspicious ships on the river!"

"My lord, there is no movement here at Taipingmen, but for the safety of Tianbao Mountain, the last general has sent a thousand strong men to Mei Chun, I hope it will help them!"

Ma Cheng nodded, and motioned to Xu Zhan to say that it was the first time for Xu Zhan to participate in this kind of meeting, and he would be very curious about this kind of meeting. ”

Xu Zhenye saw that Xu Zhan finished speaking and then said: "My lord, the Ordnance Bureau is in full production, because a large number of displaced people from outside the city have entered the city, so there are enough people, and now all production lines are working in three shifts, which can definitely ensure the use of the front line!" ”

Ma Cheng is most worried about weapons, the only thing he can rely on now is the sharpness of firearms, if there is any problem in the production of weapons, it will be over.

"What about gunpowder production? Do you have sufficient reserves of raw materials? ”

"Lord Hui, hundreds of thousands of catties of soil nitrate have been stored before the siege of the Beiyu, and at the same time, the lower officials have sent people to control all the toilets in the city, and private excavation is absolutely not allowed!"

Ma Cheng nodded when he heard Xu Zhenye say this, as long as the gunpowder can ensure the supply, it is easy to say.

The next one is Wang Xian, Wang Xian is a grain transportation officer, responsible for food logistics, Wang Xian saw that it was his turn and hurriedly said: "My lord, there is basically no problem at present, but the current food is only enough for our army to eat for a month, please collect more food!" ”

No way! How can you only have a month's worth of food left? Ma Chengke knew that food was the first priority in the army, and he had no combat effectiveness if he didn't eat.

"What? With only one month's food left, how can such an important thing be said now? ”

Wang Xian quickly explained when he heard Ma Cheng say this: "My lord, Nanzhili is originally a grain-producing area, so there is no habit of storing grain in the army. However, the food of the military department was not allocated last month, and now the January grain stock in the army is still prepared in advance because the subordinate officers are afraid of what will happen! ”

Ma Cheng sighed when he heard Wang Xian say this, a month ago, it happened to be Zuo Liangyu's soldiers pressing the border, and the people in the court were panicked at that time, so do you have the heart to care about the food problem of your gang of Qiu Ba?

Although the lack of food is quite scary, Ma Cheng is not very worried, because Ma Cheng has been prepared for a long time, and when he moved Lishui County, Ma Cheng ordered Xu Zhan to move all the Yicang in the county to the city.

"Xu Zhi County, how much grain can be stored in Yicang in Lishui County?"

"Lord Hui, there are a total of 15,000 stones of grain stored in the righteous warehouse, enough for 10,000 people to eat for a year!"

10,000 people eat for a year, so say that your 25,000 people are enough to eat for four months. Ma Cheng nodded when he heard Xu Zhan say this: "Lord Xu is really a capable person, and now there are not many counties that can do so much grain in the county!" ”

Yicang is an ancient grain storage warehouse, which is used for natural disaster prevention and relief. However, the wind and rain here in Nanzhili have been smooth for many years, so there are few full warehouses in various counties, and most of them are empty or half-empty. But Lishui is full here, and it can only be said that Xu Zhan's county order is very qualified.

Although the problem has been solved, the food problem is still a big problem. Because in addition to Ma Cheng's 25,000 people in the city, there are nearly a million citizens, and these people also have to eat, although there are many grain depots in the city and hundreds of grain stations, but Ma Cheng is afraid that if there is a problem, it will be over.

Thinking of this, Ma Cheng said to Xu Zhan: "Lord Xu, it is estimated that the siege of the city will not be short, in order to ensure the supply of food, should all the private grain stations in the city be sealed and not allowed to buy and sell freely?" ”

"My lord, this is absolutely unacceptable! The forces behind the grain station in the city are intertwined, and many of them are connected with the bigwigs of the imperial court, and if their interests are moved, it will definitely be detrimental to the adults! In addition, if the grain station is ordered to be closed in the name of the imperial court, it will definitely cause a run on the frenzy, and then the northern captives will attack it, and the city will be in chaos, and the city will not be able to defend it! ”