In July of the first year of Shaowu in the Ming Dynasty, the plum rain season that started in May finally passed, and God finally revealed a trace of sunshine. However, the plum rain did not mean that the good days of the Qing army had come. Then the plum rain was the scorching heat.

East Asia entered the Little Ice Age from the end of Wanli. At the coldest time, it also snowed in Hainan Island. However, in July of the first year of Shaowu, the climate was particularly abnormal. The plum rain stopped and the highest temperature in the southern Zhili area had reached 30 degrees. Not to mention the Eight Banners of Manchuria that came from the bitter and cold places in Liaodong, even some locals in Nanjing could not stand it.

All activities of the Qing army outside the city had stopped. Except for the newly affiliated troops who continued to attack the surrounding prefectures and counties under the leadership of the surrendered generals, all the Eight Manchu and Mongolian Banners hid in tents to escape the summer heat.

The plague came with the high temperature. Although both sides of the war had planned to bury the bodies, 50,000 people died outside Nanjing. From Yuhuatai outside Nanjing to Xiaoling, both sides dug hundreds of large pits to bury the bodies.

But that's it, the plague began to spread among the troops on both sides. Ma Cheng came from later generations and knew that the source of the plague was parasites and mice and other small animals, so he was isolated in the city as soon as possible. At the same time, he strictly ordered that raw water be not allowed to be consumed in the city, and all water must be boiled before it can be cited. At the same time, the sick soldiers and civilians were isolated, and the dead were dug holes and buried deep, so that the plague in the city was controlled.

Ma Cheng, a time traveler, helped him control the plague, but it was not possible outside the city. Because the Qing army did not pay attention to hygiene, they directly drank river water and well water, and a large number of soldiers suffered from the plague. So far, among the 400,000 troops in the Qing Dynasty, there have been 50,000 or 60,000 people who have lost their combat effectiveness due to various reasons. This situation made the wise and courageous Duoduo at a loss and even had the idea of ​​withdrawing the army.

But Duoduo wanted to retreat, but Dorgon refused. The grain transportation had just been completed, and Beijing had just gained a breath of breath. It was so easy to retreat there, so Dorgon issued several orders to strictly order Duoduo to persist until the last moment. Duoduo, who received the imperial edict, had no choice but to lead his troops to continue to persevere, but he could only siege the city, and it was completely impossible to attack the city.

The Qing Dynasty gave Ma Cheng a chance to breathe if he didn't attack the city. He took this opportunity to start rectifying military affairs. In addition to training those incompetent guards, Ma Cheng recruited 20,000 new troops to supplement his strength.

Now the number of new troops in Ma Cheng's hands has reached 45,000, which is the limit. If you pass this number, you must appropriately reduce the quality of life. After all, these 45,000 people consume too much.

These new troops are Ma Cheng's absolute main force. They have to eat three dry meals every day and also have to supply pork and other side food. Ma Cheng stipulated that the people in the city supply one kilogram of grain every day, which is still a civilian who has to work hard. However, the new soldiers need two and a half kilograms of grain every day, not counting vegetables, pork and other side food. Therefore, Ma Cheng's 45,000 new troops are more expensive than the 100,000 troops in the army.

There has been no war these days, so Ma Cheng has been staying in the Beicheng Military Camp and ate and lived with these newly recruited new troops. The grassroots officers of these new troops were selected from the old and new troops. The soldiers who killed more and made more contributions were selected as grassroots officers such as the Xiaoqi General Banner. As for the middle-level officers such as the Baihu and Qianhu, they were all Ma Cheng's personal soldiers, so that Ma Cheng's absolute command over the new army can be guaranteed.

This Tianma Cheng

While watching the new army training, an officer on duty came to report: "Report to the military gate! Outside the gate, there is the governor of Yingtian Prefecture Wu Jiazhou, who is the governor of Yingtian Prefecture, and asks for a meeting!"

Wu Jiazhou was here, and Ma Cheng frowned. It seemed that there was a problem with the surplus grain collection system implemented in the city. This was a big deal. Ma Cheng did not dare to delay and handed over the training to the central officer Zhu Tong, and then took a few personal soldiers to meet Wu Jiazhou.

Wu Jiazhou was in a hurry outside the camp. He lost a lot of weight these days. The collection of surplus grains was a job that offensive. Other ordinary people were easy to talk about, but those nobles and officials were not easy to mess with. Wu Jiazhou lost a lot of heads in the past few days.

When Wu Jiazhou saw the military camp gate open and Ma Cheng rode out on his horse, Wu Jiazhou hurried forward and bowed and said, "Mr. Military, something big happened!"

"Say, what's the matter? Is anyone dared to resist the order?" Ma Cheng knew that it was difficult to collect yu grain, and the nobles in the city would definitely take the opportunity to cause trouble.

When Wu family Zhou heard Ma Cheng say this, he nodded and said, "That's right. In the morning, Xu Zhan and his people took their people to count the granary in the North City. A group of servants who claimed to be Duke of Wei stood up to stop Xu Zhan from entering and injured the yamen runners of Shangyuan County brought by Xu Zhan! This matter involved Duke of Wei, and the officials did not dare to be self-dedicated, so they came to ask the military officers for instructions!"

Duke of Wei? It turned out to be Xu Da’s remnant. Ma Cheng originally thought that after the death of the old Duke of Wei Xu Hongji, the newly-announced Duke of Wei Xu Wenjue did not dare to do anything. But now it seems that these nobles are all ordinary people. If you don’t let go of your mother, you won’t call your father!

Ma Cheng turned around and said to Gu Yong, "Gu Yong, go to the military camp to transfer a hundred households to follow me!" Gu Yong agreed and left. After a while, the armor inside the military camp sounded. A hundred households came out with one hundred and twenty new soldiers and stood neatly in front of Ma Cheng.

He knelt down on one knee for the hundred households and said loudly: "Military Master, the last general Deng Da, obey the orders of the military officer!"

When Ma Cheng saw that Deng Da recognized this guy, he was originally named Deng Da, a refugee he had collected outside Fengyang City. After several months of fighting, he had achieved success and achieved hundreds of households. At the same time, his name was changed to Deng Da by Ma Cheng.

"Okay, Deng Da, bring the soldiers with me, your mission today is to protect me!" Deng Da stood neatly behind Ma Cheng after receiving the order.

Ma Cheng rode on his horse and said to Wu Jiazhou: "Master Wu, please lead the way. Today I will see what the Duke of Wei is domineering!"

Wu Jiazhou quickly led the way. On the way, Wu Jiazhou told Ma Cheng about the detailed passage. It turned out that the granary in Beicheng was not the private warehouse of the Wei government, but the granary of Yongxing Grain Store in the city. This morning, Xu Zhan and his men seized Yongxing Grain Store. When they learned that the warehouse of the grain store was in Beicheng, they brought people to Beicheng to seize the granary.

Unexpectedly, when they arrived in Beicheng, they met Duke Wei's family. They said that Yongxing Grain Store was the property of Duke Wei, and hoped that Xu Zhan would let him go. However, Xu Zhan had the emperor's imperial edict in his hand, so the two sides started to take action when they were frozen. The servants of Duke Wei were all Jianjiazi, and Xu Zhan's yamen runners were no match for them at all, so they suffered a loss.

Ma Cheng's military camp is also in Beicheng, not far from the granary, and arrived soon. It is located on the inner street of Jinchuanmen, and outside the city is the Jinchuanmen Wharf, so this place is full of various warehouses, such as granaries, salt warehouses, and cloth warehouses, which can be seen at a glance.

Ma Cheng saw two gangs of people through several alleys

There was a confrontation, on one side was the yamen runners of Shangyuan County led by Xu Zhan, and on the other side, there were fewer people, probably the servants of Duke Wei.

The Duke of Wei was a middle-aged man in his thirties and was short-sized, and he looked like a trainer. When he saw reinforcements coming from his official uniform, he quickly brought the man to retreat and firmly guarded the gate of the granary.

Ma Cheng rode a horse and separated the crowd to the front, looked at the middle-aged man and cursed: "You bastard, do you know what I am doing? Don't you get out of here when I see you come?"

Ma Cheng had just come out of the military camp and was not wearing official uniforms, but just wearing off-white training uniforms. But seeing Ma Cheng's arrogant expression and the large number of people behind him, the man also knew that there was a tough situation.

"Sir, this is my father-in-law's property. According to the Ming Dynasty, my father-in-law does not have to pay taxes. Why do these yamen runners come to force my granary?"

This man looked vulgar, but his speech was quite clever. However, Ma Cheng was not going to say anything to him and said to Deng Da behind him: "Deng Da, you see, the servants of Duke Wei were in the first place to fight against him, intending to attack this marquis later. He had committed the crime of treason, and now they are all killed!"

The leading man didn't expect that this marquis was so cruel and wanted to kill him without even asking a question. The man was about to argue, but Deng Da and the others had already taken action. Although the servants of these Duke of Wei were good at fighting alone should be better than the new army, the new army was fully armed and had more people than the servants. At the same time, the new army was fighting in teams. Soon, more than 20 Duke of Wei were hacked to death in front of the warehouse.

Seeing that these guys were hacked to death, Ma Cheng waved impatiently, and Deng Da led his men into the granary and handed all the friends on the spot. Ma Cheng's ruthless methods scared Wu Jiazhou silly. He thought that Ma Cheng could argue with the Duke of Wei when he came, but he didn't expect that Ma Cheng would just play ruthlessly and kill all the things.

After all the killings, Ma Cheng said to Xu Zhan: "Mr. Xu, do you know if you encounter someone who resists the imperial edict like this in the future? "

Xu Zhan was also frightened by Ma Cheng. After hearing Ma Cheng say that, he nodded and agreed.

"Okay, let it be left to you here!" After Ma Cheng said that, he took his men out of the granary. Of course, Ma Cheng was not planning to return to the camp. This time he came out and wanted to kill the chicken to scare the monkey. The Duke of Wei jumped out and settled the new and old accounts together, so he took the Duke of Wei, the big rooster.

Ma Cheng brought more than 100 new troops to Nancheng through the city. The Duke of Wei's house was near Confucius Temple. The Duke of Wei's servants saw a group of soldiers who were like wolves and tigers coming to the door. They were about to come forward to ask questions, but they knew that these guys were quite far away and there was a musket, and the four Duke of Wei at the door were killed at the door.

The fire of the musket alarmed the Duke of Wei's Mansion. More than a dozen servants with sharp blades came out from it. They originally thought that there were bad people making trouble at the door, but they knew that the person who was committing the murder at the door was a regular army. As soon as they went out, they happened to meet Ma Cheng's new army. These more than a dozen servants also became the souls of the new army's sword.
Chapter completed!