Riding a horse in the Forbidden City represents an honor, but it does not mean that you can ride a horse and run wildly in the palace.

Ma Cheng rode down to Ganqing Gate under the leadership of the little eunuch. The harem is further inside, so you can't get rid of a horse in it.

Ma Cheng dismounted and followed the little eunuch to the front of the Ganqing Palace. The little eunuch at the door sang loudly: "Master of Guiyang, Nandu, the governor of Jiangnan, Ma Cheng, meets with him!"

Soon an order came from the palace to let Ma Cheng come in. Ma Cheng lowered his head and walked quickly. Of course, this is not Ma Cheng's small footsteps and cannot take steps. This is the etiquette of ministers to pay homage to the emperor, and he took steps quickly. After Cao Cao was appointed as Duke of Wei, he had a treatment for him to enter the court without going in favor of the court, and he did not praise him without going in the name of his name. He said that he did not need to call his name when he met the emperor, and he did not need to take steps quickly when he walked.

Of course, Ma Cheng does not have the status of Cao Cao now, so he naturally must be cautious in abide by etiquette and law. Being a good minister is at least what he should do on the surface.

Entering the hall of the Ganqing Palace, Ma Cheng did not dare to look up, and knelt down on his knees and shouted: "I, Ma Cheng, see me, long live my emperor!"

Zhu Lunkui was in a good mood today. When he saw Ma Cheng coming in, he laughed loudly and said, "My great hero is here, come here! Give Ma Qing a seat!"

A little eunuch brought the embroidery dormitory. Ma Cheng stood up and sat on the embroidery dormitory. At this time, Ma Cheng could only look at Emperor Zhu Lunkui. The emperor seemed to have a good rest these days, and his face was flushed. But Ma Cheng thought it should be the same. This guy was originally just a grandson of the vassal king. If he hadn't been a prisoner of the Qing Dynasty, would there be five or six people sitting here?

Zhu Lunkui didn't know the dirty thoughts in Ma Cheng's heart, and smiled and said, "Ma Aiqing, it was Ma Qing's credit for resolution of Nandu this time!"

When Ma Cheng heard Zhu Lunkui say this, he quickly said modestly: "Your Majesty, I am just a merit of command in the middle, and I also need the lives of the soldiers. God bless Your Majesty and Taizu's blessing, so that I can achieve my merits in one battle and lift the siege of the Southern Capital!"

Ma Cheng is now half an official, and he is no longer the young man who doesn't understand anything back then. He knows that he wants to put the leader in his position in this kind of occasion, and he will take the majority of all the credits, and he is just a secondary contribution.

Zhu Lunkui was very satisfied with Ma Cheng's answer, and stood up and walked, saying, "Ma Qing is right, but this merit is from Ma Qing. I said before the New Year that I would like to reward Ma Qing heavily, but Qian Qianyi said it is not easy to reward too much! Now that Ma Qing has achieved such military achievements, I think he should give you a suitable reward!"

After Zhu Lunkui finished speaking, nodded to Lu Jiude behind him. Lu Jiude took out the imperial edict, opened it and began to read it aloud.

When Ma Cheng saw the imperial edict read out, he quickly stood up from the embroidery pier and knelt down on his knees. He heard Lu Jiude's duck-like voice echoing in the hall. As for what he said, Ma Cheng didn't understand a word.

The first half of the imperial edict is Zhu Lunkui's explanation of his legitimacy and the inevitability of this victory. Of course, this is the official language, and it doesn't matter if Ma Cheng doesn't understand it.

The second half of the imperial edict was Ma Cheng's contribution, from Ma Cheng's support for Zhu Lunkui to Ma Cheng's desperate battle with the Qing Dynasty, and finally Ma Cheng led his troops to defeat the 400,000 troops of the Qing Dynasty, all the contributions were clearly recorded on it.

Ma Cheng didn't expect that he had made so many contributions over the past year. Just when Ma Cheng was proud of himself, Lu Jiude said again: "Ma Cheng has made unparalleled achievements. I feel so relieved that Ma Cheng was appointed as the Marquis of Zhenguo and the Central Army.

Grand Governor! I admire this!"

Ma Cheng was very unhappy when he heard that he was named the Marquis of Zhenguo. Unexpectedly, the emperor was very stingy. He fought hard for him and gave him a useless title. The Grand General of the Central Army was similar. In the Ming Dynasty, the army was divided into the governor of the Five Army, which was somewhat like the military region in later generations. However, the Grand General of the Central Army was very powerful. In addition to being responsible for the local garrison office, it was also responsible for the promotion of generals and soldiers training in the entire ** team. Therefore, the Grand General of the Central Army was similar to the general counsel of the later generations. This Grand General of the Central Army was the chief of staff of the later generations.

However, this was in the early Ming Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang later found that the Central Army's Grand Governor had too much power, so he intended to reduce the rights of the Central Army's General Office. When Zhu Di took office, he even took the right to promote the general to the emperor himself.

During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong, the civil servant class grew and the right to train soldiers was separated from the General Administration of the Central Army to the Ministry of War. Later, in the Zhengde period, the local garrisons under the Governor's Office of the Five Army were reduced. At this point, the Governor's Office of the Five Army, which was originally a military region, became a term completely, and the Governor's Office of the Central Army, who was appointed by Xu Da, became an honorary position.

Of course, the emperor's reward is not without any real information, this marquis of Zhenguo is this real information.

According to the provisions of the early Ming Dynasty, the titles of the Ming Dynasty were divided into three levels: Duke, Marquis and Bo, and there was no such title as Duke Zhenguo. However, in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, a strange emperor Zhu Houzhao, that is, Emperor Zhengde. This emperor liked war very much, but the ministers in the court did not allow him to lead troops to fight. Zhu Houzhao understood an official position, which was Duke Zhenguo.

Zhu Houzhao gave himself a name called Zhu Shou, and then issued an imperial edict saying that Zhu Shou was appointed Duke Zhenguo, the Grand Marshal of the World, and led the army to Mongolia to fight. Although Zhu Houzhao was just a joke, the position of Duke Zhenguo was retained. However, the emperor was the one who held this position, so no general dared to hold this position.

Zhu Lunkui has carefully thought about how to reward Ma Cheng in the palace these days. According to Ma Cheng's contribution, he can be even a king, but there were no kings of different surnames living in the Ming Dynasty. If Ma Cheng died outside the city, Zhu Lunkui was very willing to be named Ma Cheng as a king, even a first-class king with a single word.

But when Ma Cheng came back alive, the reward must be very cautious, neither heavy nor light. What should I do after the reward is too heavy? Should I give up the throne directly to Ma Cheng? If the reward is light, I am afraid that Ma Cheng will be unhappy. After all, the Qing Dynasty still accounts for half of the Ming Dynasty's territory, and generals like Ma Cheng are still needed to go to the northern expedition of the Central Plains, so Zhu Lunkui has really killed many brain cells for this suitable reward.

However, there are always more ways than difficulties. After Zhu Lunkui thought about it, he finally thought of a suitable position, which is the word "Terminating the Country".

The title of Duke of Zhenguo was once held by Zhu Houzhao, so of course he could not be granted to Ma Cheng, but it would be fine if he was demoted to become a marquis? So Ma Cheng's current title is Marquis of Guiyang, the Grand Governor of the Central Army, the Guardian of Nandu, and the Governor of Jiangnan!

At the same time, the word "Zhenguo" also has an invisible benefit. When Zhu Houzhao was appointed as Duke of Zhenguo, he was in the founding palace, and there were also three guards' personal army, which were all configured according to the prince's standards. However, because Ma Cheng's Zhenguo Hou was one lower, the three guards' personal army was changed to two guards, but the function of Kaiguo was still retained.

The founding of the palace is to let senior officials who are willing to establish the palace

He signed and selected his subordinates. This was a real great power in the Han Dynasty, but in the Tang Dynasty, some reductions were made because Li Shimin relied on his own Tiance Mansion to take office, so he naturally did not want people to follow suit later.

The founding of the Mansion was completely a ritual right in the Ming Dynasty. At that time, the founding heroes of Zhu Yuanzhang had the only one who had the right to establish the mansion, but his subordinates also became symbolic departments such as the Yiwei Department, the Fengshi Department.

Zhu Lunkui took great pains to do this, which not only appeased military generals like Ma Cheng, but also made the anti-Ma forces in the court less dissatisfied. However, Zhu Lunkui's actions became completely useless in Ma Cheng's eyes, because Ma Cheng didn't know what the meaning of the word "Shenguo".

Ma Cheng came from later generations, and he still knew some ordinary official positions in the Ming Dynasty, such as the governor, the general, the governor, etc., but he didn't understand the rare titles of Zhenguohou. So after listening to the imperial edict, Ma Cheng's expression did not change much, but he knelt down in a very procedural way and thanked the emperor for his trust, and he would definitely kill the enemy in the future, etc.

Zhu Lunkui was a little displeased when he saw Ma Cheng's appearance, but Zhu Lunkui didn't say anything, but smiled and said, "Ma Qing, don't think that the title is low. After all, your father is a duke. As a son, you are the same level as your father, which is really bad!"

After hearing the emperor said this, Ma Cheng realized that he had just passed by and quickly explained: "Your Majesty, thunder, rain and dew are all the kindness of the king. I dare to have any inappropriate thoughts. I just thought that I was rewarded, but there are so many meritorious soldiers in the city that have not received rewards!"

Speaking of this, Ma Cheng couldn't help but choke up: "Your Majesty, starting from the siege of the city on May 18 last year, after a year of bloody battle, one general, three commanders, twelve commanders, six deputy generals, twenty-five generals, more than three hundred other generals at all levels, and more than one hundred thousand ordinary soldiers were killed! I thought of these dead comrades, so... that's why...wuwuwu!"

Ma Cheng's crying was a sign of diverting attention, but he really wanted the emperor to reward the dead soldiers. These people were Ma Cheng's comrades-in-arms, and many of them died by Ma Cheng's side. As the commander-in-chief, it was unreasonable not to fight for honor for his subordinates.

Although the final victory of the siege of Nanjing was the last one, Ma Cheng defeated 400,000 Qing Dynasty with 15,000 people, but behind this were more than 100,000 ordinary soldiers in the city and tens of thousands of civilians.

The overall number of the Ming army is not much worse than that of the Qing army. Over the past year, Ma Cheng has expanded the number of troops many times, and a total of 250,000 or 60,000 Ming troops have participated in the battle. However, most of these Ming army are guards with weak combat power, or the farmers who have just put down their hoes.

How could such an army beat the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty like wolves and tigers? Therefore, Ma Cheng's 25,000 New Army was not very casualties, but including the entire Ming army, the casualties were quite considerable.

This is still the number of casualties for the army. If you include the residents killed in the melee in the East City and the people of the prefectures and counties around the South City, the number of casualties is hundreds of thousands.
Chapter completed!