Just when these officials in Nanjing were preparing to welcome King Fu, King Fu and his entourage had already arrived in Fengyang from Huai'an.

The main purpose of Zhu Yousong's visit to Fengyang is to worship the emperor's ancestral mausoleum, although Zhu Yuanzhang is not buried here, but Zhu Yuanzhang's father and mother are buried here, so the political purpose of worshipping the ancestral mausoleum is very important.

Fengyang Imperial Mausoleum is seven miles outside Fengyang City, the original Imperial Ancestral Mausoleum and Nanjing Xiaoling have a specification, there are three city walls, the innermost is the Imperial City, there are also facilities such as Shinto, Imperial Bridge, Imperial Hall, etc., there are two rows of stone statues on both sides of the Shinto, the Imperial Tomb Tablet and the wordless tablet, the East and the West Tower, the East Ming Building and the West Ming Building, etc.

Zhu Yuanzhang was very concerned about his ancestral tomb after he was developed, and it took 22 years to complete it from the 26th year of Yuan to the 12th year of Hongwu. Later emperors of the Ming Dynasty also repaired many times, and the entire imperial ancestral mausoleum became an extremely large building complex during the Chongzhen period.

But in the first month of the eighth year of Chongzhen, Zhang Xianzhong, Li Zicheng and other rogues occupied Fengyang, and these mud legs didn't care whether your ancestral tomb was or not, and burned all the ground buildings. When Emperor Chongzhen found out, he immediately killed the governor of Fengyang and the eunuchs guarding the town, and also issued an edict for his own crimes.

So in front of Zhu Yousong was a piece of ruins and broken tiles, Zhu Yousong saw that his ancestor's grave had become like this, his heart was very sad, and he knelt in front of the broken temple and cried bitterly.

Ma Cheng has been very popular with Zhu Yousong these days, and Zhu Yousong is also very good to Ma Cheng, so he chats with this young man when he has time.

Through chatting, Ma Cheng found that Zhu Yousong was completely different from the toad Tianzi described by later generations, although Zhu Yousong was not smart but not stupid at all, although he had not read any books, he did not understand the current situation at all, Ma Cheng really couldn't understand how such an ordinary person was hacked like that by later generations, probably offended the stinky old nine of the Donglin Party.

Ma Cheng saw Zhu Yousong kneeling on the ground and crying bitterly, Ma Cheng's heart moved, when will he show loyalty if he doesn't show loyalty at this time?

Ma Cheng took advantage of the fact that the ministers kneeling beside him were not paying attention, and pinched the root of his thigh with his hand, and immediately the painful feeling made tears flow down, Ma Cheng cried loudly with this strength: "Emperor Ancestor! The minister hates that he was born late! If the minister was born twenty years earlier, he would definitely lead millions of elite soldiers to exterminate those damn rogues, where can Zhang Li and his ilk run rampant? Hate! Woo woo ”

Ma Cheng knelt on the ground and cried loudly after screaming, he cried louder than Zhu Yousong cried, which frightened all the ministers around him. When those ministers reacted, they cast contemptuous glances one after another, and quietly stayed away from the Ma family's father and son, so as to avoid being tainted with the bad luck of the ministers.

Ma Shiying couldn't get off the stage when he heard Ma Cheng crying, originally today's worship of the emperor's ancestral tomb was a ceremonial scene, used to prove the legitimacy of Zhu Yousong's accession to the throne, but why did you know that your son was so embarrassed, why did you cry so hard from your ancestral tomb?

But in front of Zhu Yousong, it was hard to say anything, Ma Shiying had to think in his heart that he would wait for his home to educate this kid, and what did he say that he hoped to be born twenty years early? If Lao Tzu hadn't shot you on the wall back then, you wouldn't know where to be reincarnated now!

Ma Cheng made such a fuss that Zhu Yousong couldn't cry anymore, although Zhu Yousong was really heartbroken to see his ancestral grave like this, but it was just tears, but he didn't expect Ma Cheng to cry more sadly than him.

Seeing Ma Cheng crying so hard, Zhu Yousong was very moved, stepped forward to help Ma Cheng and said, "Zhonghe, get up quickly!" ”

The emperor generally calls the minister by his name, and if he is closer to the minister, he will add the word Aiqing, which is the emperor Laozi, and he only calls Mr. so-and-so. Now that Zhu Yousong calls Ma Cheng, this is already taking Ma Cheng as a friend.

If he was replaced by another courtier, perhaps borrowing the slope to get off the donkey, the emperor would know that he was loyal, and there was no need to pretend. But Ma Cheng has to play a full set of acts, and vows to go further and further on the road of Shechen. Just when Zhu Yousong was supporting Ma Cheng, suddenly Ma Cheng trembled, and his body was foaming at the mouth and fainted. Ma Cheng can't even stand his son Ma Shiying when he does this, you just have to pretend to cry, so you know that you still have to cry and faint, why don't you just cry to death?

Zhu Yousong saw that his cronies were crying and fainted, and hurriedly asked the surrounding eunuchs to come and beat Ma Cheng's back, and it took a long time for Ma Cheng to wake up. When he saw Zhu Yousong's concerned eyes, Ma Cheng knew that he didn't cry in vain today and made a fortune.

Zhu Yousong saw Ma Cheng wake up, and said with admiration: "Zhonghe is really a loyal minister of the royal family!" Someone came, and awarded Ma Cheng Jinyi Wei the position of commander of Tongzhi, the chief soldier of the Beijing battalion, and was in charge of the Shenji battalion! ”

The commander of the Jinyi Guard is an honorary title, which is equivalent to the inspector of a certain bureau in later generations, with a rank but not responsible for specific affairs, but the general army of the Beijing camp is different.

The Ming Dynasty did not have the Qing Dynasty's Jiumen Admiral, and the main official responsible for managing the capital garrison was the Beijing Commander, a position that was held by eunuchs since Zhu Di. However, there are three general soldiers under the commander, who are responsible for assisting the commander in managing the three battalions, which is a top priority, and only the emperor's absolute cronies can hold important official positions. As for the Shenji Battalion, it is even more amazing, the Shenji Battalion was founded in the Yongle period, and it is an elite unit with all firearms, and it was the capital of Zhu Di in the north of the desert.

Today, Ma Cheng just cried and fainted to get such an important official position, and those civil and military generals around him were jealous to death, if the eyes could kill, Ma Cheng had now been cut by a thousand knives.

Ma Cheng was overjoyed when he heard that Zhu Yousong had sealed him with an official position, and hurriedly pretended to be weak and pushed the eunuch away, then knelt on the ground and said, "Thank you, Lord Longen!" ”

After Ma Cheng finished the trouble, he was going to start the formal memorial, this time Zhu Yousong came mainly for his own legitimacy, so he naturally wanted to add the importance of his own supervision of the country in the sacrificial text, Zhu Yousong did not recognize the words, and Ma Shiying would do it on behalf of Ma Shiying.

Ma Cheng stood behind Zhu Yousong and listened to Ma Shiying read out the sacrificial text, and the entire sacrificial text was written in classical Chinese for hundreds of words. Ma Cheng, a semi-literate person, could understand, so he was drowsy.

Zhu Yousong didn't understand either, but as the emperor, he dared to sleep, so he had to insist on fighting spirit. At this time, Zhu Yousong saw Ma Cheng next to him with his eyes closed and his body shaking, and thought that Ma Cheng's body was weak when he was crying just now, but he was still gritting his teeth and insisting for the sake of the country's system.

Seeing that Ma Cheng was so weak and insisted on listening, Zhu Yousong was very moved in his heart, of course, if Zhu Yousong knew that Ma Cheng was about to fall asleep, he would definitely pull this guy who bullied the king out and cut off his head.

The memorial was read quickly, and until now Zhu Yousong has officially become a prisoner in law, and of course, he has to go to Nanjing to pay homage to Zhu Yuanzhang's filial piety, and only after that step can he finally claim the emperor.

Ma Cheng was really refreshed after a sleep, and after the ceremony, he followed Zhu Yousong back to the imperial city of Fengyang. The Imperial City of Fengyang has been burned down by Liukou, and the country has no money to repair it in recent years, so Zhu Yousong had no choice but to set up a tent in the Imperial City, anyway, he will only stay for one night, and he will leave Fengyang for Nanjing tomorrow.

Ma Cheng became the chief soldier of the Shenji Battalion, and his subordinates naturally came up to congratulate, Ma Cheng looked at the guys under him and smiled: "Lao Tzu is now the chief soldier, and you will be promoted!" Gu Changwei, you are now a guerrilla! Xu Dahu, you are also a guerrilla! Tian Boguang and Xu Dingguo, the two of you have been promoted to 1,000 households, and the rest are 100 households! ”

Ma Cheng's twelve King Kongs were overjoyed when they heard Ma Cheng say this, what did they do as soldiers? Isn't it just to get promoted and get rich! Now it's so simple to follow the second young master's promotion, and in less than half a month, these people have been promoted from a big soldier to a hundred or a thousand households, so these twelve people have knelt down to thank the second young master for his promotion.

Of course, the establishment of the Shenji Battalion is only 5,600 people, and Ma Cheng has now sealed so many officers and has been overnumbered, but Ma Cheng has a backbone in the back of his head, where can a Shenji battalion satisfy his appetite? The whole Ming Dynasty is Ma Cheng's dish!

These twelve guys didn't know that they had gotten on Ma Cheng's rebellious chariot, and left after happily thanking him one by one, but Ma Cheng fell into deep thought.

Today, Ma Cheng was promoted too quickly, from a thousand households to the general army, which is like a battalion commander being mentioned to the army commander in later generations, and it is inevitable that some people will be red. In addition, when Ma Cheng was crying just now, some people around him had begun to be jealous of Ma Cheng, and now although they didn't dare to say anything, it was hard to guarantee that one day in the future they would find an opportunity to wear small shoes for Ma Cheng.

Ma Cheng became the chief soldier because of the trust of Zhu Yousong, but what if he doesn't trust him in the future? You must know that accompanying the king is like accompanying the tiger, who knew that the emperor would be unhappy that day and asked for Ma Cheng's head. Thinking of this, Ma Cheng felt that it was not enough to rely only on the emperor's trust, and he had to be tied to the emperor.

In the past few days, Ma Cheng has been following Zhu Yousong, the prison state, and knows the emperor very well. Zhu Yousong fled from Henan to Huai'an, and no one else followed him except for a few little eunuchs. Ma Cheng also asked You Er, many people who escaped with Zhu Yousong at that time, including Zhu Yousong's mother-in-law Zou and step-concubine Huang, but these people were scattered halfway and didn't know where they were now.

Ma Cheng thought of this, Zhu Yousong had no women around him except for a few rough envoys, and later history records that this toad Tianzi liked women the most? Even Shi Kefa's "Seven Can'ts" has been mentioned, it seems that it is not bad to find a woman for Zhu Yousong, and it is okay to have his own eyeliner to follow Zhu Yousong, and he can pass on some gossip to himself.

Thinking of this, Ma Cheng went out of the tent to find his new second brother You Er, this dead eunuch has been by Zhu Yousong's side for a long time, and he must know Zhu Yousong's hobbies.

You Er has now become the eunuch of the prison country, and his identity has naturally risen, and he lives in a tent alone. Ma Cheng came to the tent and asked, "Is the second brother here?" The little brother Ma Cheng is here! ”

It's not You Er on duty now, just in the tent, when he heard Ma Cheng coming, he hurriedly came out and smiled: "It turns out that the chief soldier is here, our family congratulates the chief soldier!" ”

Hearing You Er claim that he had changed, from a slave to our family, Ma Cheng scolded in his heart: You dead shemale really treat yourself as a character?

Ma Cheng scolded in his heart, but said with a smile: "Second brother, the younger brother is the governor of the five armies and the younger brother of the second brother, so dare to hold it up in front of the second brother?" ”

You Er was very satisfied when he heard Ma Cheng say this, and took Ma Cheng's hand and entered the tent.