The 10-month Battle of Nanjing was over, and although Nanjing avoided the massacre of Yangzhou like the city, Nanjing also paid the price of more than 100,000 casualties in this battle. In addition to the soldiers who died on the battlefield, a large number of people died on the battlefield, and more than 20,000 ordinary residents in the city were starved to death because of Ma Cheng's surplus grain collection system.

Although people died, life went on, and after the siege of Nanjing was lifted, merchants who trafficked grain from the surrounding prefectures and counties re-entered Nanjing. The big grain merchants in the city were basically cleaned up by Ma Cheng, and such a large blank market was a great temptation. So in less than a month, the grain market in Nanjing was re-divided, and Nanjing City also resumed its usual singing and dancing.

Nanjing slowly turned into the right track, but Ma Cheng was idle. Ma Cheng had already estimated that he had made such a great contribution, he must be jealous, and the emperor must be wary of himself, but what Ma Cheng didn't expect was that the gang of-stirring sticks of the Lin Party in the Middle East of the DPRK were so shameless, and under the leadership of Qian Qianyi, they blamed themselves, regardless of the huge disparity in strength with the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and went out of the city to fight, fortunately, God blessed the victory of this battle, or where would the emperor's safety be?

Emperor Zhu Lunkui also stood on the side of the Donglin Party, and in the end, the result of the court meeting was to directly remove Ma Cheng from military power.

Of course, Ma Cheng's credit is there, and the emperor will not directly order him to go home, but euphemistically said that Ma Cheng has been physically and mentally exhausted in order to defend the southern capital this year, so he gave Ma Cheng two months off to let him recuperate at home, and at the same time handed over the most critical position of the commander of the southern capital to Lu Siye, and also handed over the position of the soldiers and horses in the city to Mei Chun, the commander of Xiaolingwei, who had made great contributions.

In this way, although Ma Cheng still holds the position of the town guard of the southern capital, the rights of his subordinates are basically vacated by Lu Siye and Mei Chun. So Ma Cheng has been very depressed in the past month, and today he took advantage of the good weather to take his wife and children to the other courtyard by Xuanwu Lake to relax.

Although the weather in March is still a little cold, the willow trees by the lake have already sprouted and drifted with the spring breeze. The number of painting boats on the lake began to increase, although many people died here in the Taiping Gate during the defense of Nanjing, but this could not delay those dignitaries in the city to swim in the lake to relax.

Ma Cheng's courtyard is the original Wei State Mansion, and the painting boat is naturally a first-class luxury. Ma Cheng's family sat on the painting boat and traveled through Xuanwu Lake, and several wives and concubines stood by the boat looking at the scenery, but Ma Cheng did not have this leisure, he was sitting in the cabin and looking outside in a daze. Ma Cheng's women knew that their master was in a bad mood, so no one dared to come over and talk to Ma Cheng.

Kou Baimen was an alternative among Ma Cheng's wives and concubines, and she was not accepted by others because of her background, so Kou Baimen accompanied his wife Gu Miaoyin to stand for a while and then returned to the cabin.

Kou Baimen saw Ma Cheng sitting there in a daze, knowing why his master was depressed. Ma Cheng's wife and concubine are either young and don't know what it feels like, or they are too old to see through the red dust, and although Kou Baimen was born in a prostitute family, he has always been concerned about the world, so he understands the master's suffering very well.

Kou Baimen came to Ma Cheng's side and asked in a low voice, "Master, the weather is good today, why don't you go out and watch the scenery with Mrs.?" ”

Ma Cheng sighed, pulled Kou Baimen over and sat on his lap, then touched Kou Baimen's little hand and asked, "Kou everyone, do you say master, am I Han Shizhong or Yue Fei?" ”

Bai Men pursed his lips and smiled when he heard Ma Cheng say this: "Master, you are not Han Shizhong or Yue Fei, and the current saint is not Zhao Gou!" If you are Yue Fei, then wouldn't the old lady become Qin Hui? ”

Ma Cheng smiled when he heard Kou Baimen say this, although he was now idle by the emperor, his situation was much stronger than Han Shizhong and Yue Fei. Needless to say, Yue Fei's ending, Han Shizhong was also dismissed from all official positions and went home to retire. But now the emperor only let Ma Cheng go home to recuperate, and the power in his hands has not been reduced at all, of course, the promotion of Lu Siye and Mei Chun is just the emperor protecting himself. After all, he trusts you Ma Cheng, and the emperor will never put his safety on Ma Cheng alone.

"Don't worry, sir, the threat of the northern captives is still very big now, as long as the emperor still wants to restore the Ming Dynasty, he will definitely reactivate the master, maybe the emperor really wants the master to rest?"

Ma Cheng listened to Kou Baimen's persuasion and relaxed a lot, and there was no pressure in his heart, Ma Cheng's hands began to be dishonest, and he was about to put his hand into Kou Baimen's dirty pants and caress it, when he knew that the door curtain was raised, Ma Cheng's eldest wife Gu Miaoyin walked in.

Gu Miaoyin was watching the scenery outside just now, he was from the mountainous area of Guizhou, and he had never seen such a beautiful scenery in the south of the Yangtze River, so he was in a very good mood. According to etiquette, all the wives and concubines of the eldest lady must accompany her outside, so Ma Cheng's other concubines all stood beside Gu Miaoyin and waited, and after a long time, Gu Miaoyin found that Kou Baimen was gone.

Gu Miaoyin originally looked down on Kou Baimen, who was born in a prostitute family, and thought that this kind of bad woman would only seduce her man, so she was very wary of Kou Baimen, and now she was stunned Kou Baimen was gone, do you still need to think about it? must have taken advantage of his inattention to enter the warehouse to seduce the master.

With a jealous mind, Gu Miaoyin still had the heart to look at the scenery, turned around and got down from the viewing platform and entered the cabin.

After entering the warehouse, he saw Ma Cheng making moves on Kou Baimen, and Kou Baimen looked like he wanted to refuse and welcome, and Gu Miaoyin was very moved, not to mention the pervert master. Gu Miaoyin was angry when she saw Ma Cheng's shameless appearance, and she glared at Kou Baimen when she entered the warehouse, and then asked, "Aunt Kou is so thoughtful, I waited outside to watch the scenery, but you came in to seduce the master?" ”

Kou Baimen saw Gu Miaoyin come in, quickly stood up and tidied up his clothes, and then stood behind Ma Cheng without saying a word. Kou Baimen knew that it was useless to say anything on such an occasion, and it was better not to say a word.

Sure enough, Kou Baimen's silence shifted Gu Miaoyin's attention to Ma Cheng, and Gu Miaoyin sneered: "Didn't the master say that he was in a bad mood? Didn't you say you wanted to swim in the lake? Why do you still have the heart to laugh with your concubine? ”

It's a good thing that he was bumped into by his eldest wife, and Ma Cheng was not embarrassed, so he coughed and said: "It's nothing, Kou Mei was not feeling well just now, master, I'll check her body!" ”

Ma Cheng's big and small wives have all been checked and know what this represents, and for a while, several women were blushing and speechless.

In order to alleviate the embarrassing atmosphere, Ma Cheng had to stand up and hug his eldest son Ma Yuan, now Ma Cheng's eldest son has turned one year old, and according to the rules of the Ming Dynasty, he is already three years old, Ma Cheng hugged his son and kissed him on the face, and then asked: "Baby, is the scenery outside?" ”

Ma Yuan just turned one year old, and he knew what scenery was not beautiful, but he was still very happy to hug himself, and he hugged Ma Cheng's face and gnawed it, making Ma Cheng's face full of saliva.

Ma Cheng

This action made the concubine Yun Niang jealous, Yun Niang gave birth to Ma Cheng's second son Ma Ying three months ago, although he is also Ma Cheng's biological son, but his status is too far from that of his eldest son Ma Yuan.

When Ma Yuan was born, Ma Shiying worshiped his ancestors and personally named Ma Yuan, and at the same time, the old lady Gu also visited Gu Xiying in person. But Ma Ying was born without these, at that time the siege of Nanjing was in the most difficult time, and the status of the concubine could not be compared with the eldest son, so the old lady did not visit the house, and even the name was born two months later, Ma Shiying gave the name Ma Ying when he was free.

At the same time, from the name, it can be seen that Ma Shiying is different from these two grandsons, and the source character of Ma Yuan represents the origin, which shows that Ma Shiying attaches great importance to this eldest grandson and hopes that this eldest grandson will carry forward the Ma family in the future. But Ma Ying is different, Ying represents the clarity, Ma Shiying just hopes that this grandson will be a pure and inactive good person in the future.

"The master only knows how to be close to Brother Yuan, and forgets Brother Ying!" Yun Niang originally had the same temper as Little Pepper, but now seeing that Ma Cheng was eccentric, she naturally wanted to say a few fair words for her son.

Seeing that the concubine was unhappy, Ma Cheng glared and scolded: "What do you know? Brother Yuan and Brother Ying are both my sons, so naturally they should be treated equally! Brother Yuan is now a lieutenant of the light car, and in the future, I will wait for the master to make meritorious contributions, and I will also ask for a knighthood for Brother Ying! ”

Yun Niang was relieved when she heard Ma Cheng say this, and hurriedly said: "Master, Brother Ying hasn't seen the master for many days, and he has been crying a lot these days, do you want to ask the master to go back to the house to see Brother Ying?" "I didn't take Ma Ying with me when I went out to swim in the lake today, because the wind on the lake is strong, and there are no antibiotics in this era, so it's not good if you catch a cold.

Ma Cheng nodded when he heard Yun Niang say this: "Okay, it just so happens that I have nothing to do in the past few months, so I will go to Yun Niang's yard to live for half a month tonight!" ”

Yun Niang was overjoyed to hear Ma Cheng say this, and the other wives and concubines were jealous, if their eyes could kill, Yun Niang would have died ten thousand times.

Just when Ma Cheng's wife and concubine were jealous, Chen Qi, the housekeeper outside the door, said: "Master, Master Xu of the Ministry of Industry asks to see you!" ”

Xu Zhenye was originally a squire of the Ministry of Works, mainly responsible for the production of weapons, and this time he made great contributions to ensuring the supply of weapons in the defense of Nanjing, so after the war, Xu Gong was promoted to Taichang Siqing.

Although Taichang Siqing has no rights in his hands, after all, he is one of Xiao Jiuqing, and he is properly from the second grade, so Xu Zhenye is still quite satisfied.

Now the biggest civil official under Ma Cheng is Xu Zhenye, and Ma Cheng's teacher Song Yingxing should also be promoted, but Lao Song has already seen through the officialdom. So don't talk about promotion, even the previous squire of the Ministry of Engineering resigned, and devoted himself to his heavy artillery in the Ordnance Bureau, so now there is only Xu Zhenye who is close to Ma Cheng.

As for several other civil officials who had a relationship with Ma Cheng, Wu Jiazhou, the prefect of Yingtianfu, went to the Imperial Procuratorate as the imperial historian, and Xu Zhan, the former magistrate of Lishui County, succeeded Wu Jiazhou as the prefect of Yingtian, although the prefect of Yingtian was also regarded as a third-grade official, but after all, he was a magistrate, and some rumors in the court could not be heard.

Ma Cheng knew that Xu Zhenye must have something important at this time, so he hurriedly said to Chen Qi: "Please!" ”

The wives and concubines in the cabin saw that Ma Cheng had guests coming, so they had no choice but to enter the back warehouse under the leadership of Gu Miaoyin.