The city wall Ma Xi is responsible for guarding starts from the imperial wall of Xiaoling, passes through Taiping Gate, Shence Gate, Jinchuan Gate, and to Zhongfu Gate near the Yangtze River. The most important of these city gates are Taiping Gate and Shence Gate. Although outside the East City, there are mountains and lakes, the Taiping Gate and Shence Gate are indeed very flat.

Outside Taiping Gate is the Tianzhuo of the Ministry of Justice, outside Shence Gate is the official road leading to Zhenjiang, so these two places are the key points of defense in Dongcheng. Ma Xi also knew that these two city gates were important, so he set up heavy troops to defend the two places, and at the same time set up the command center in Taiping Gate and the yamen of Nanjing Censorate.

Now all the officials in the Censorate have been withdrawn, and the entire Censorate has become a large military camp. In addition to the 5,000 new troops under Ma Xi, there are also 10,000 guard troops stationed here.

When Ma Cheng arrived at the Censorate, Ma Xi was listening to the scout's report. It turned out that at noon, Mei Chun, who was stationed on Tianbao Mountain, found that there was movement in the direction of Xiaoling Mausoleum. Mei Chun was the commander of Xiaoling Mausoleum. More than 300 soldiers under him were locals in Xiaoling Mausoleum and were very familiar with the surrounding environment, so he soon learned that the Qing army was gathering in Xiaoling Mausoleum.

By the time Ma Cheng arrived, the Qing army had already gathered tens of thousands of people and a large number of horses. I don’t know what the Qing army wanted to do.

Ma Cheng led all the generals in the East City to the Taiping Gate. There was a ruin outside the city. The Ministry of Justice Prison and the official offices of Dali Temple have been demolished, and a large area of ​​rubble was buried in the snow. Outside the Taiping Gate is Xuanwu Lake on the left. Although the lake is frozen now, its strength cannot be left, so there is no problem with Xuanwu Lake.

On the right side of Taiping Gate is Zhongshan, which is only five miles away from Zhu Yuanzhang's Xiaoling Mausoleum. At the same time, the Taiping Gate city wall has a sharp turn here, covering Longguang Mountain, a small hilltop, more than 20 meters high at the foot of Zhongshan, within the city. At the same time, the city wall forms an acute angle of only 30 degrees, which is completely prominent. This is a good target for the Qing army to attack.

Ma Cheng brought people to Longguang Mountain more than 20 meters away and looked around. The terrain here is wide and it is easy to see the movement of the palace not far away when standing on the mountain. Ma Cheng turned his eyes outside the city and asked, "Where is the location of Xiaoling Mausoleum?"

Ma Xi said on the side, "Mr. Junmen, there is Xiaoling Mausoleum five miles away, this is the tomb of King Chang Yuchun of Kaiping and Qiu Cheng of the Duke of Anhui Kingdom. The high mountain in the distance is Tianbao Mountain!"

Ma Cheng looked at Tianbao Mountain three miles away. There was no pollution in the Ming Dynasty. It was easy to see people swaying on Tianbao Mountain when standing in the city. Maybe Mei Chun and the others were preparing to defend.

Seeing this, Ma Cheng knew what the Qing army wanted to do. Tianbao Mountain was only three miles away from Taiping Gate. As long as you occupy Tianbao Mountain and put the Red Yi cannons on Tianbao Mountain, you can completely bombard Taiping Gate. On the other hand, because the heavy artillery has not been produced, the range of the cannons at hand is only more than two miles, and it is completely impossible to reach Tianbao Mountain. The Qing army's cannons can hit the city from a high point.

Ma Cheng, who knew the intention of the Qing army, secretly scolded him for being confused. Why didn’t he put heavy artillery into production earlier? Now, the Qing army cannons will be placed above his head, and he has no power to fight back. What should I do?

Most of the generals under Ma Cheng were illiterate. As a scholar, Ma Xi was considered to have a high degree of education. When he saw Ma Cheng staring at Tianbao Mountain in a daze, he immediately knew what his brother had thought of.

Ma Xi asked in a low voice, "Second brother, but I am afraid that after the Beilu occupied Tianbao Mountain, he would stand on the mountain and bombard it.

Inside the city?”

Ma Cheng nodded and said, "Yes, the range of the Beilu cannon is half a pound of ours, but the Beilu occupied Tianbao Mountain and was condescending. It just happened to hit the city wall. If the Beilu did not bombard day and night, it would probably not last for half a month!"

"This is easy to deal with. Second brother, what do you think of me? I have visited Tianbao Mountain. The terrain is rugged and the road is difficult to walk. There is only one small road leading to the top of the mountain. Not to mention the heavy artillery of the Beilu, it is very difficult to climb up by one person. So I think that as long as you give Mei Chun's elite soldiers, there is no problem relying on natural danger!"

What Ma Xi said was similar to what Ma Cheng thought. Heavy artillery with a long range could not be made in one or two days. At present, this method can only be used.

"Okay, Maxi, you can choose a thousand elite soldiers and give them to Mei Chun's leadership. At the same time, tell him that if Tianbao Mountain is lost, he won't have to live!"

After Ma Cheng's order was issued, Ma Xi immediately selected the most elite new army and handed it to a thousand households to lead it. At the same time, he brought enough gunpowder weapons and immediately left the city and followed the path to Tianbao Mountain to support Mei Chun who was stationed on the top of the mountain. At the same time, in order to better support Mei Chun, Ma Cheng transferred thirty of the 100 artillery pieces from the East City and arranged it on Longguang Mountain. Xiaoling cannot be attacked here, but it is enough to fight the Qing army's rear team.

Ma Cheng was the defender of the city and had the advantage of mobilizing the inside. Although the Qing army took action first, the Qing army was still gathering teams after Ma Cheng was ready. Finally, on the third day of the first lunar month, after three days of preparation, the Qing army, led by a general, divided three thousand people and launched an attack on Tianbao Mountain for the first time.

The Tianbao Mountain is in a dangerous terrain, and the Ming army is well prepared, so the Qing army has made no progress in the past few days, except for the hundreds of people who died at the foot of the mountain, they returned completely ineffectively.

Although the Qing army failed in the first battle, it persevered and organized the army to attack again the next day. In this way, the Ming army defended the Qing army's attack, from the third day of the first lunar month to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. In the past ten days, the Qing army suffered thousands of casualties at the foot of the mountain, and the Ming army on Tianbao Mountain only suffered less than a hundred casualties.

The Qing army's fierce attack without regard for casualties made Ma Cheng not know what the Qing army intends. It is not worth dying so many people for a small mountain. However, although Ma Cheng couldn't understand the intentions of the Qing army, he had the mentality of covering the water and soil. I would do whatever you did. Ma Cheng ordered other city gates to be strictly guarded and could not give the Qing army an opportunity to take advantage of it. At the same time, the shelling of the Qing army's rear team was increased in Longguangshan to increase the difficulty of the Qing army's attack.

In this way, they fought with the Qing army for more than a month. Although the Qing army's early offensive was quite strong, they began to slow down their offensive in February and only sent people to attack every five or six days. The Ming army was already accustomed to the situation of the Qing army and used the gaps in the Qing army's attack to start supplying the defenders on Tianbao Mountain.

As the war delayed, the Qing army's troops in Zhongshan area increased and entered February, and the Qing army exceeded 50,000 in the entire Xiaoling area. However, because these Qing troops were stationed outside the Ming army's artillery range, and except for the attacking Qing army, the other Qing army did not do anything, so Ma Cheng did not take it seriously, but told Ma Xi to be careful and never let the Qing army take advantage of the loopholes.

In February, the weather in southern Zhili became warmer. In addition to being responsible for defense, Ma Cheng also had to organize the people in the city to plow the spring plow. After all, Ma Cheng had limited food, but the time for the Qing army to lift the siege was unlimited. All the things were done well.

It is still necessary to prepare thoroughly.

Most of the northern city of Nanjing City is open space, and a large area of ​​this place is full of fertile fields except for the barracks and workshops, so Ma Cheng regarded the northern city as an experimental field for a new crop. This new crop is corn and potatoes that Ma Cheng accidentally discovered in the city.

Corn and potatoes are native to the Americas. They came to Asia with the great voyage of globalization and spread to China during the Longqing period of the Ming Dynasty. However, corn and potatoes are not suitable for the eating habits of the Chinese, so both of these things are feed for pigs in Guangdong, and people do not eat this kind of thing.

When Ma Cheng first traveled through time, he sent people to find these two kinds of killing weapons. Ma Cheng knew that the yield of corn and potatoes was extremely large. In the Qianlong era a hundred years later, it was the support of these two crops that China's population reached 200 million for the first time.

But what surprised Ma Cheng was that people in the Ming Dynasty did not know what corn and potatoes were, and they had never heard of it. Ma Cheng sent many people to the south to search for it without success. There was no way that the matter was delayed like this.

In October last year, because the grain rationing system was implemented in Nanjing, Ma Cheng discovered that some residents in the city were eating something strange. After Ma Cheng found it, he realized that this was the corn and potatoes he was looking for!

It was not surprising that Ma Cheng was not found before, because at this time, corn and potatoes were very different from later generations, regardless of their names or appearances. Corn was called Fanmai at this time, and the fruits they bear were not as big as those of later generations. At this time, the corn cob was only two inches long, far less than the size of the corn cobs that were modified by hybrids in later generations.

As for the name of potatoes, Ma Cheng has heard of it, it is sweet potatoes. However, Ma Cheng is from the north. Potatoes in the north are called didou and dian, and they are not called sweet potatoes at all, so Ma Cheng easily forgot the name.

The appearance of potatoes in the Ming Dynasty was different from that in later generations. The sweet potatoes in the Ming Dynasty were very similar to peanuts in later generations. The fruits were very small, completely different from the big potatoes in later generations, so Ma Cheng followed the map and was naturally useless.

This time, Ma Cheng discovered that these two crops were collected by local officials in the city as food. When Wang Xian taught the local officials a lesson, Ma Cheng accidentally discovered this kind of killing weapon.

After asking Ma Cheng, he found out that this kind of thing was planted in Nanzhili during the Tianqi period. However, because it did not meet the eating habits of the Ming Dynasty, these two crops were not picky about the land, and they could be planted in front of and behind the house, and the yield was large, so this kind of thing was used to feed livestock.

Ma Cheng was ecstatic when he saw the corn and potatoes, and praised the low-level officials who discovered these two things. At the same time, he saved the few seeds and prepared to experiment and plant them in the city in the early spring of the next year.

After the beginning of spring, Ma Cheng selected a good piece of land in Beicheng, with more than 20 acres, and then planted these corn and potatoes.

Ma Cheng's subordinates were very puzzled by what Ma Cheng did. They were all fed to pigs. Can people eat it?

When Ma Cheng heard them ask, he scolded, "Fuck you, you have to eat shit if you don't have enough food. It's good to have something to eat. Why don't you feed the pigs or not?"
Chapter completed!