Ma Cheng stood on a hill by the river, watching the Qing army being taken back to Dasheng Pass by the Ming army in an orderly manner. Now the Qing army has given up its resistance. The next step is to select the strong and eliminate the weak, and choose the young and strong to fill the new army. Of course, the remaining old and weak are also useful. Ma Cheng is preparing to incorporate these old and weak into the military camp and start planting corn and potatoes around Nanjing.

Although Ma Cheng had no doubts about his final victory, this process would be difficult. According to Ma Cheng's estimate, all parts of the country will be affected by war in the next ten years. At that time, whoever has food in his hands will occupy an invincible place.

Therefore, Ma Cheng has made up his mind to vigorously promote the cultivation of corn and potatoes. The climate here in Nanzhili is warm and crops can be planted for two seasons a year. In this way, corn and potatoes can mature in May. After Ma Cheng's full promotion, large-scale production can be formed in about two years.

This great victory brought countless benefits to Ma Cheng. In addition to countless labor, there were also tens of thousands of war horses in the Qing army camp. The Qing army brought cavalry from the north, and two horses and even three horses were the basic configurations of these elite cavalry, and Ma Cheng currently lacked the most war horses.

Although the cavalry's role as the firearms is developing is getting smaller and smaller, cavalry still plays a significant role in mobile warfare before the emergence of automatic firearms. Although Napoleon had no power to fight back in Europe with his cannons and well-trained grassroots officers, the cavalry of the French army was also an important force that cannot be ignored.

There were seven or eight thousand war horses in the Dasheng Pass camp in front of him. In addition to other camps and those who fled in various places, Ma Cheng was probably not a small number. Each war horse is now worth more than fifty taels of silver, but these war horses are enough for Ma Cheng's losses this year.

Ma Cheng started fighting last night and had not had a break for two consecutive days. Now that the battle is over, Ma Cheng can't help but feel tired from mentally to physically. Seeing Ma Cheng's red eyes, Ma Bao quickly said: "Mr. Junmen, there is nothing wrong here now, and it's only the last general can handle it. Please go back to the city to rest!"

Ma Cheng looked around. Because it was dark, it was impossible to see clearly in the distance. However, the battle here at Dashengguan Camp was indeed over. Ma Cheng looked at it and saw that nothing important was happening. Then he said to Ma Bao: "Uncle Six, although the circumference of Nandu has been lifted, all the surrounding prefectures and counties are in the hands of Beilu. Uncle Six, you will take your subordinates along the Yangtze River tomorrow and recover Taiping Prefecture!"

Taiping Prefecture is the Wuhu City of later generations, which was the last line of defense in Nanjing. At this time, the Yangtze River was all in the hands of the Qing army, and Ma Cheng must occupy Taiping Prefecture in order to protect Nanjing.

Seeing Ma Bao nodded and agreed, Ma Cheng said, "There are also the need to send soldiers to gather the horses that ran away in the four towns. This is the key to our formation of a cavalry team!"

When Ma Bao's guerrilla Tian Boguang heard Ma Cheng say he wanted to form a cavalry team, he asked with his eyes lit up: "Mr. Military Sect, do you really want to form a cavalry?"

Tian Boguang was a military household in Guiyang and was taken to Nanzhili by Ma Shiying as his model, and was considered the direct line of the Ma family.

Ma Cheng smiled and said, "This is natural. When the Northern Expedition is in the future, the cavalry will be the main force!"

"Mr. Military Sect, can you let the last general join the cavalry?"

Ma Cheng was stunned when he heard Tian Boguang say this. This guy is not from Guiyang, so why can he ride a horse? You must know that ancient cavalry was a technical group of soldiers, which were exactly the same as the armored soldiers of later generations.

It can be done by just finding a farmer.

When Ma Bao saw Ma Cheng suspicious, he quickly explained to the side: "Mr. Junmen, this kid is the nephew of the last general. At that time, the last general came to Nanzhili with the master, so he brought this nephew, wanting to experience it. This kid has learned riding at home, but he knows that Guiyang is full of mountains and what kind of cavalry can be formed there, so this kid's wish has never been realized."

It turned out to be Ma Bao's nephew, no wonder he had money in his family to learn riding horses. Ma Bao's distant ancestor was a concubine of the Ma family. Although he had been in a long history of blood, he was still considered his own. In addition, Ma Bao and Ma Cheng cooperated well in this year's battle, and Ma Cheng was the most trusted of Ma Cheng among the four generals. Tian Boguang was one of the first twelve people to follow Ma Cheng, so Ma Cheng designated this guy as his cavalry commander.

"Okay, since you have this idea, I will leave it to you to collect the war horses. As for the manpower, please transfer a thousand people from your uncle first, and be a general in the official position first!"

Tian Boguang was overjoyed when he heard Ma Cheng say this. He knelt on the ground and kowtowed, stood up, and took his men to collect war horses everywhere.

After all the arrangements were completed, General Ma Cheng handed over the matter to Ma Bao, and then he brought more than 300 personal soldiers back to Jubao Gate.

Yesterday, tens of thousands of people died in Jubaomen. Now there are dead and wounded soldiers. In the past, the defenders in the city had to send people to clean the battlefield after the war, but now all the defenders in the city have sent out to clear the Qing army, and no one manages the dead bodies under the city.

Now, Jubao's sect is like a ghost realm, with wounded soldiers screaming everywhere. After a day, the wounded soldiers died almost, otherwise the screams would be even louder.

After this year's war, Ma Cheng was used to life and death, and no longer cared about the blood of dead people. Ma Cheng rode his horse to Jubao's gate. The soldiers guarding the city at the gate saw that the people from the city were coming and shouted: "Who is under the city? You are about to shoot arrows when you get close!"

Ma Cheng's personal soldiers, Gu Yong, urged him to come forward and shouted loudly: "Master guarding back to the city, let you generals guarding the city come out to welcome you!"

Now the general guarding the city at Jubao Gate is the general An Zhennan. When he heard that Ma Cheng was back, he quickly went down to the city gate and then knelt on the ground to welcome Ma Cheng into the city.

Ma Cheng came to Anzhennan and looked at the guy, dismounted and helped Anzhennan and said, "Zhennan, your brother died in Dongcheng, you must mourn!"

An Zhennan had already received news of his brother's death. Now when Ma Cheng said it, he said sadly and angryly: "Axi is loyal to the country!"

This time, the New Army suffered heavy losses in the bloody battle in Dongcheng. Three of the twelve people who followed Ma Cheng at the earliest that year were killed, namely the general Anzhenxi, the guerrilla Xue Gui, and the guerrilla Dong Ba. As for the new army soldiers, more than 7,000 were killed in battle. It can be said that Ma Cheng's most serious loss since the formation of the new army.

The losses in Dongcheng this time should be counted on Ma Xi's head. If he did not escape after the city was broken, the new army would not have to pay such a heavy price at all. So Ma Cheng went home this time and made up his mind to deal with this younger brother to pay tribute to the dead new army soldiers.

Ma Cheng patted An Zhennan on the shoulder: "Don't worry, Zhennan, I will definitely give your brother justice and all the dead brothers!"

After appeaseing An Zhennan, Ma Cheng got on his horse and returned to his home. It was the former Duke of Wei’s Mansion. However, now the plaque in front of the door has been changed and it has become the Mansion of Guiyang Marquis.

The new butler Chen Qi hurried out to greet him after receiving the news

When he saw Ma Cheng's body was covered in blood, Chen Qi was so scared that he knelt down and kowtowed.

Ma Cheng handed the horse to Gu Yong and asked, "Chen Qi, is the wife at home at home?"

Chen Qi said tremblingly: "Go back to the master, news came from the old master's mansion, asking his wife and all the concubines who gave birth to children to go to the old master's mansion. Now he has not come back, and there are only a few other concubines at home at home!"

Has they all gone to Ma's mansion? Ma Cheng didn't know what he was doing. Do you think the city was broken and it would be enough to gather the family and run away?

However, Ma Cheng didn't think much about it. He was so sleepy that he just wanted to have a good sleep.

"Okay, let's take my governor to Kou Mei's yard!"

After Kou Baimen was taken into the harem by Ma Cheng, he had an independent yard. However, Kou Baimen was too low and had no status among Ma Cheng's concubines, so Kou Baimen's yard was far away from the backyard and was a unique yard.

Chen Qi brought Ma Cheng to Kou Baimen Courtyard and asked, "Do you need food?"

Ma Cheng was so sleepy that he was not hungry at all. He shook his head and pushed the door and entered the yard.

It was already midnight, and Kou Baimen had already turned off the lights to rest. Hearing the sound of the door outside, the lights on the room were lit again, and a young woman asked, "Who is in the courtyard?"

Ma Cheng came to the door and whispered: "It's me!"

The maid in the room heard Ma Cheng's voice, and quickly opened the door and knelt on the ground and said, "The Marquis is back!"

The maid didn't expect that Ma Cheng at the door was covered in blood. Under the illumination of the moon, she was so scared that she fell off the candlestick, and sat on the ground and shouted, "There are ghosts!"

Kou Baimen inside the house heard the screams of the maid outside and came out wearing a coat. He was frightened to death when he saw Ma Cheng's appearance. She knew that the bloody battle in Dongcheng last night, Ma Cheng took the army to rescue, but she didn't know how Dongcheng fought. Now that she saw Ma Cheng appearing in front of the door, she thought Ma Cheng had died in battle. This was Ma Cheng's soul coming home.

"Master, I know that the master is loyal to the country. I will definitely burn more paper horse incense and candles for the master in the future. Please don't come back and scare me!"

Seeing Kou Baimen being so scared, Ma Cheng was very funny and cursed: "What nonsense is it? The master is a human being! A living person! If you don't believe me, please touch me!"

After hearing what the evil ghost at the door said, Kou Baimen stepped forward tremblingly and touched Ma Cheng's hands. Although his hands were covered with blood, they were indeed warm.

Seeing that Ma Cheng was not dead, Kou Baimen breathed a sigh of relief and asked quickly: "Master, why do you look like this?" After Kou Baimen said that, he asked the maid to boil water to clean Ma Cheng.

After two days of fighting, Ma Cheng's body had scabbed, and the belt buckle of the armor could not be untied at all, so he had to cut it with scissors.

After washing, Ma Cheng finally returned to its original state. Kou Baimen asked: "Master, I heard that Dongcheng was broken last night. Master led his troops to support him. I wonder how it is going on in Dongcheng?"

Ma Cheng spoke in a tone and said, "The Beilu was defeated by the master!"

After hearing this, Kou Baimen breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Just retreat!"
Chapter completed!