Ma Cheng left Nanjing on the third day of the first lunar month and took three days to come to Longtan Town.

Longtan Town is more than 40 miles away from Nanjing. In the early Ming Dynasty, it was the location of Longtan Iron Factory, responsible for making artillery for Zheng He's ocean-going fleet. However, as Renzong stopped voyage to the West, the Longtan Iron Factory gradually became abandoned.

During the Nanjing Defense War a year ago, because the Qing army was going to besiege Nanjing, more than 40 camps were established along the outskirts of Nanjing. Longtan Town is located on the Yangtze River and is very close to Zhenjiang, the shipping center of Nanzhili, so Longtan is the Qing army's logistics base.

When Ma Cheng counterattacked, Longtan Town was burned all over by Ma Cheng. In addition to burning tens of thousands of Qing troops to death, thousands of residents in Longtan Town were also buried in the fire.

Now Longtan Town is re-opened by Zhang Guozhu, and a new camp was built on the original site of the Qing army camp.

As the pioneer, Zhang Guozhu rushed to Longtan Town yesterday. When Ma Cheng arrived today, Zhang Guozhu had already brought a group of military generals to welcome him at the gate of the camp.

Zhang Guozhu now has 35,000 troops under his command, and there are fifty or sixty officers above guerrillas, so Zhang Guozhu can be regarded as a spirit.

When Ma Cheng arrived at the camp gate, Zhang Guozhu and his generals came forward and knelt on one knee to say that he would welcome the general!

"Uncle Zhang, please get up quickly. The climate is cold now and the ground is cold!"

Zhang Guozhu and Ma Shiying are peers, and they can be regarded as Ma Cheng's uncles, but only official positions and relatives are discussed in the army. When Zhang Guozhu heard Ma Cheng say this, he quickly said: "Master General, just call the last general in the army!"

Ma Cheng heard Zhang Guozhu say this and holds his hand and says, "Can this be like this? Uncle is uncle, and Ma Cheng dares not mess up his seniority!"

There is a reason why Ma Cheng is so enthusiastic about Zhang Guozhu. Zhang Guozhu’s relationship with him is not very good, but Zhang Guozhu is now a general under Ma Cheng, and one-third of Ma Cheng’s new army is in the hands of Zhang Guozhu. Both Yu and Ma Cheng should treat Zhang Guozhu well.

When Zhang Guozhu heard Ma Cheng say this, he stopped talking and turned around to introduce his six generals to Ma Cheng.

According to the organization of Ma Cheng's new army, the generals belonged to the level of the commander of the military region, and each of them was a member of the party. Zhang Guozhu had only 15,000 new army under his command, and with the 20,000 ordinary soldiers assigned to him by Ma Cheng, it was enough to have a general command.

However, Ma Cheng's subordinates were not all new troops formed independently. There were many military generals from the old army in the army. These guys also made military achievements in the defense of Nanjing. In order to reward them, Ma Cheng had to promote them all as generals.

Although they are all generals, the generals of the old army are very different from those of the new army. Zhang Guozhu's 15,000 new army is managed by one general, and this guy is also one of Ma Cheng's confidants, that is, Gu Xing of the Twelve Kings.

The other 20,000 ordinary troops were managed by five generals, each managing 4,000 people, which was in line with the Ming Dynasty military system, but the combat effectiveness was different. Gu Xing's new army completely defeated the ordinary army, and daily supplies and training were far ahead of ordinary troops.

Ma Cheng came to Gu Xing and smiled and said, "Gu Xing, you are also a member of the country now!"

Gu Xing was originally a personal soldier of the Gu family and was Ma Cheng's absolute direct line. He heard Ma Cheng say this and quickly said, "Thanks to the cultivation of the general!"

Ma Cheng nodded and cordially visited the other five generals, but Ma Cheng was just a formality to them.

Behind the general are eight deputy generals,

A Ma Cheng looked familiar, but forgot to see him there.

Ma Cheng asked Zhang Guozhu: "Uncle, who is this person? Why do I look familiar with me?"

The deputy general quickly knelt down on his knees and said, "Master General, Zhang Guoyi, Zhang Junmen is the brother of the last general!"

After hearing this guy say this, Ma Cheng remembered that this guy was the cavalry commander who killed Wang Xian's whole family back then. Unexpectedly, he has become the deputy general now. Fortunately, Wang Xian did not come today, otherwise the enemy would have to fight.

Zhang Guozhu was also afraid that Ma Cheng would be cautious in taking revenge, so he hurried to Ma Cheng and said, "Master General, Zhang Guoyi killed fifty in the Battle of Nandu, including two guerrillas and one garrison. He was promoted to deputy general because of his merits!"

Ma Cheng is now a prince, and he is still so cautious. In addition, Ma Cheng is now very careful to win people's hearts, and talent like Zhang Guoyi is the target Ma Cheng bought.

"Okay, what is Zhang Guoyi's current position?"

Zhang Guoyi quickly clasped his fists and said, "The general, the last general, temporarily, is the deputy general of the vanguard left army!"

It turned out to be the deputy general of the miscellaneous army. Ma Cheng said generously: "How can such a brave general be used? Admiral Zhang transferred Zhang Guoyi into the new army and served as Gu Xing's deputy general!"

Although the position is not changed, the power in his hands is different. Everyone knows that the new army is Ma Cheng's direct descendant and has always been promoted quickly. This time he went to Zhejiang to fight a war, and he will definitely make a lot of military achievements. In the future, the general general will be able to be regarded as the general.

When Zhang Guoyi heard Ma Cheng say this, he quickly knelt down again and thanked Ma Cheng for his support. Ma Cheng patted Zhang Guoyi on the shoulder and said, "Get up, you and I are both a family, why are you and I still divided each other?"

Next, Ma Cheng met with the remaining deputy generals and participating generals, and praised all of these subordinates. Some generals with special contributions were promoted in public. As a result, the entire Pioneer Camp was very happy and everyone was very happy.

After the welcoming ceremony, Zhang Guozhu said to Ma Cheng: "Master, please enter the camp. The weather is cold now. We will prepare light wine and thin dishes for the Master!"

"There is no hurry to drink wine. Now I want to see how Longtan Artillery Factory is preparing. Zhang Guozhu, please lead the way."

This is the real purpose of Ma Cheng's visit to Longtan Camp. According to Ma Cheng's strategic plan, the first step is to occupy Zhenjiang, a major transportation route, whether to come or not. But now Ma Cheng has had a quarrel with Zhu Lunkui, and according to Ma Cheng's character, he is willing to place his logistics in Nanjing. So as early as August last year, Ma Cheng began to move the weapons bureaus in Nanjing out of the city in batches, and at the same time choose a new location in Longtan Town.

Longtan Town is forty miles away from Nanjing and fifty miles away from Zhenjiang, and it is also right on the edge of the Yangtze River. It has a water transport population, and it is only three days away from Daxiaochang Daying outside Nanjing City, so it has become the new site of the Weapon Bureau.

When he left Nanjing three days ago, Ma Cheng brought all the last batch of equipment and personnel, leaving only an empty shell weapon bureau for Zhu Lunkui. At the same time, all the craftsmen's equipment from Longjiang Shipyard were taken away by Ma Cheng.

The Longtan Cannon Plant was abandoned in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, but the Longjiang Shipyard has been building new ships. Because of the new Longqing policy and the Ming Dynasty liberalized the ocean trade, the Longjiang Shipyard accumulated a lot of experience in manufacturing ocean merchant ships and a large number of experienced ship workers. These are a huge fortune. How could Ma Cheng give up? So Ma Cheng left.

In front, it was robbed openly or secretly, and the Longjiang Shipyard was moved into a clearing space.

Ma Cheng's plan was to reopen the Longjiang Shipyard here in Longtan. After all, Ma Cheng's goal was to the sea of ​​stars. If the problems on the road were solved, the problems at sea must be solved in the future. There are a lot of resources that China does not have. Now the old empire in Europe, Spain is declining, and the emerging business empires of the Netherlands and Britain are emerging. In order to compete for hegemony, European countries are tying their brains into dogs. If Ma Cheng doesn't take advantage of this opportunity, it will be Ma Cheng.

When Zhang Guozhu heard Ma Cheng say this, he didn't dare to say anything else. He quickly took Ma Cheng to the construction site of Longtan Cannon Factory three miles away from Daying.

It is now the first month of the year, and the weather is cold and the construction is not possible on a large scale. Only hundreds of shacks have been built on the construction site of the artillery factory to accommodate the workers who have just moved.

Ma Cheng randomly visited several shacks, and about three to five houses lived in one shack. Zhang Guozhu executed Ma Cheng's orders thoroughly. Except for the crowded residence, he ensured that daily water and food were completely free.

Ma Cheng was very satisfied and took a few foremen to visit the new site of Longjiang Shipyard. The new site was chosen on a mudflat one mile from the Yangtze River Waterway. There was a small river connected to the Yangtze River. Several foremen said that as long as they were given one year, they could build a new Longjiang Shipyard here, but if they wanted to enter the water, they would have to wait until three years later.

Ocean ships have very strict requirements on ship materials, and the wood has to dry for three years before it can be used for ship construction. In the past, Longjiang Shipyard had a large number of qualified ship materials, but in order to defend the city, Ma Cheng transported all these expensive ship materials to the city to strengthen the city walls. Now it is not so easy to start production of the Longjiang Shipyard immediately.

Ma Cheng had no choice but to hear the craftsmen say this. His life was gone at that time, and he could take care of the future. Now he had no choice but to take it slowly. Ma Cheng asked those foremen to rest assured and would spare no effort to support them and let them give birth with peace of mind.

After returning from the Longjiang Shipyard, Ma Cheng returned to the camp to rest. After repairing here in Longtan Town for two days, Ma Cheng led the army to leave again, and the destination this time was Zhenjiang.

Zhenjiang in the Ming Dynasty was not an ordinary prefecture-level city on the Yangtze River in later generations. It was in the middle of the prefecture-level city rankings in Jiangsu Province, and it looked like it was not as mountains or watery as it was. Zhenjiang in the Ming Dynasty was the intermediate node of the Grand Canal of the North and South. The canal system spread throughout the Taihu Lake Basin gathered here in Zhenjiang. The grain transported from various places to the north enters the Yangtze River from Zhenjiang, and then passed through Yangzhou from the opposite Dantu and transported to the north.

Because of the busy canal transportation, Zhenjiang port was very prosperous, and Zhenjiang's geographical location was very important and was on the main artery of north-south transportation. Therefore, the prefect of Zhenjiang in the Ming Dynasty was from the third rank, and was at the same level as the governor. According to later generations, it was a sub-provincial city.

However, because Zhenjiang's geographical location is very important, Duoduo established Zhenjiang as the logistics supply base for the Qing army after crossing the river. In addition to a large number of food and supplies, a garrison force of 30,000 people was stationed here.
Chapter completed!