On the third day of the first lunar month of the third year of Shaowu in the Ming Dynasty, that is, in 1647 AD. In this year of disasters and difficulties in history, the Qing Dynasty occupied the entire Taihu River Basin. The regimes of King Lu and King Tang had been destroyed. The one who took over the anti-Qing banner was the Shaowu regime in Guangdong. Of course, this Shaowu regime was not a regime established by Zhu Lunkui, but a small court established by the younger brother of King Zhu Youjian of the Tang Dynasty and the tenth generation of King Zhu Yu of the Tang Dynasty.

In history, the Shaowu regime was just established, and he fought a battle with the Yongli regime in Guangxi for orthodoxy, which gave the Qing army in Fujian the opportunity to go straight in and occupied Guangdong with little effort. Zhu Youlang, the Emperor of Yongli in Guangxi, ran hundreds of miles and retreated to Guilin, Guangxi.

The current Shaowu regime in Nanjing is similar. Just as he had ensured his own safety, he immediately sent Ma Cheng to deal with King Lu of Hangzhou and King Lu of East Zhejiang, and his attitude of eliminating dissidents was really obvious.

Ma Cheng stood in the large colony yard ten miles outside the south city. It became a mass grave during the Nanjing defense battle, buried tens of thousands of Qing soldiers who died at the city. However, the army was the main killer and did not care about the dead at all, and such a flat place outside the Nanjing city could not be found. So after Ma Cheng ordered the large colony yard last year, the large colony yard was leveled again into a school ground, and once again became the most important military camp outside the Nanjing city.

Ma Cheng stood on the platform and looked at the 150,000 troops below. These troops were elites selected by Ma Cheng from the Qing army prisoners of war. In addition, the elites of the Ming army were all the grassroots officers. Therefore, Ma Cheng had complete control over this army.

The 150,000 troops looked at Ma Cheng silently. Ma Cheng was very satisfied and said loudly: "His Majesty the Emperor Xuan!"

Although Ma Cheng and Zhu Lunkui have actually broken apart, this banner cannot be thrown away at the moment. Ma Cheng also wants to use Zhu Lunkui's name to expand territory. Therefore, Ma Cheng now respects Zhu Lunkui more than anyone else on the surface, and no matter what he does, he will talk about His Majesty the Emperor.

Ma Cheng ordered, and hundreds of soldiers standing under the high platform shouted Zhu Lunkui's imperial edict: "I ordered Hou Ma Cheng, the governor of the Central Army to be the chief commander of the Central Army, to manage military affairs and government affairs in southern Zhili, Fujian, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Guangxi, Jiangxi and other places, and to fight against the unrest in all directions on my behalf! I admire this!"

Fifty thousand people heard the emperor's imperial edict clearly, and quickly knelt down on their knees and shouted loudly: "Abide by the order! Finally, we will pay homage to the Grand Commander!"

After the imperial edict was read, Ma Cheng's big tent stood up high on the platform, with a big character horse on it, and four characters with small numbers on the side, to fight against the heavens!

The character "Dai" in Zhu Lunkui's imperial edict is very unusual. If you go to war with the emperor's order, you can only write the character "Feng", but the character "Dai" is a substitute for the emperor. Zhu Lunkui's actions were helpless.

With the emperor's imperial edict and this big banner, Ma Cheng has the name of legally punishing rebellion. From now on, no matter who it is, as long as he offends Ma Cheng, he can be labeled as a big hat against the emperor and the Ming Dynasty, and then cleaned up by Ma Cheng's army.

After reading the imperial edict, Ma Cheng and other soldiers knelt on their knees in the direction of the palace and said loudly: "I obey the edict! I am willing to eliminate some rebellion for Your Majesty!"

After Ma Cheng said that, he stood up and faced the 150,000 troops again. Ma Cheng looked at his soldiers with satisfaction, and then said loudly: "I am the governor of the heavens to fight against all sides. Are you willing to share life and death with me?"

"willing!"

The tidy shouts of 150,000 people resounded through the sky, and Ma Cheng nodded with satisfaction

, and said again: "Okay! I will not treat my brother badly! Zhang Guozhu!"

Zhang Guozhu, who had returned from Longtan Camp, had already stood under the platform. After Ma Cheng called his name, Zhang Guozhu quickly ran to the platform, knelt down on his knees and shouted: "I will obey the order!"

"I ordered you to be the admiral of Zhejiang and lead 35,000 people to be the vanguard of the army!"

Zhang Guozhu was originally appointed as the rank of admiral, but his position was still the general. Now he is naturally happy to go from virtual to real, not to mention that Ma Cheng handed him the most important vanguard mission. Zhang Guozhu quickly took the token and golden seal from Ma Cheng, and then said loudly: "The last general will receive the order!"

Zhang Guozhu stood up and stood behind Ma Cheng, who continued shouting: "Ma Bao!"

Ma Bao also ran up from the high platform, knelt in front of Ma Cheng and shouted loudly: "I will obey Ma Bao!"

"Uncle Six, you have a great responsibility this time. I will hand over 40,000 troops to you. In addition, the 20,000 new troops in your hands, you must seize the important city of Anqing within half a year. Do you know?"

"Please rest assured, the man will ensure that he will complete the task!"

Ma Cheng nodded, picked up the token seal from behind, and then said, "Ma Bao, I ordered you to be the governor of Jiangxi and lead 60,000 Hu Ben to guard Anqing!"

Anqing was under the jurisdiction of Nanzhili at this time, but Ma Cheng gave Ma Bao the position of Jiangxi Admiral. Naturally, he hoped that he would take down the entire Jiangxi instead of being limited to Anqing.

Ma Bao also knew what Ma Cheng meant. After taking Ma Cheng's token seal with both hands, he whispered: "Please rest assured, the coach will definitely take Jiangxi within half a year!"

There was still a piece of golden seal left behind Ma Cheng. Zhang Guozhu and Ma Bao were very curious about who the third person was. In the past, Luo Bingran must have belonged to him when he was still alive, but Luo Bingran was so desperate that he hugged the wrong thigh, and now he was killed and destroyed. Thinking of this, Zhang Guozhu and Ma Bao thought to himself that no matter what happens in the future, they must follow Ma Cheng firmly and must not learn from the unlucky Luo Bingran.

No matter how Zhang Guozhu and Ma Bao guessed in their hearts, Ma Cheng hesitated for a moment and announced the order to choose the third admiral.

"Ma Xi came forward to obey the order!"

When Zhang Guozhu and Ma Bao heard that the third person was Ma Xi, they were relieved. Although Ma Xi performed poorly in the battle in Nanjing, they were brothers with Ma Cheng after all. Can outsiders be used without Ma Xi at this critical moment?

Ma Xi, dressed in a commoner under the platform, heard his name calling, and quickly ran up to the platform with small swaggers, kneeled in front of Ma Cheng and shouted loudly: "Master Ma Xi, pay homage to the general!"

"Third brother, although you have made a big mistake before, my father has already made a guarantee in front of His Emperor to restore your post. This time, my father asked you to hold this important position, and you may be competent?"

After hearing Ma Cheng's words, Ma Xi kowtowed and said, "Please rest assured, Ma Xi will definitely not disappoint his father and brother!"

Although Ma Xi said this, Ma Cheng was half-believing and half-doubted about him. This guy was not very capable and was very afraid of death. He really didn't know whether it was right or wrong to hand over the family to him. But now no one under Ma Cheng's subordinates were available, so Ma Cheng had no choice but to believe in his own waste second brother for the time being.

"Ma Xi, I ordered you to be the admiral of the university and command 50,000 elite troops to guard Nandu. Do you know that the safety of Nandu is sure to ensure that Nandu is safe?"

Ma Cheng has something to say, protect the safety of Nandu

To protect the safety of the Ma family, Ma Xi, as Ma Shiying's son, had already received news from his father, so he quickly promised: "Please rest assured, the general is in Nandu!"

Ma Cheng nodded and handed Ma Xi the token and golden seal of the admiral in his hand to Ma Xi.

After the appointment of the three senior officers is completed, the next step is to appoint the general. Admiral’s first-level officers also need to report to the Ministry of War for filing, and then the emperor will personally approve it, but Ma Cheng, an officer on the first-level officer, can be appointed directly.

Ma Cheng now holds great power, so naturally he cannot treat his subordinates unfairly. He has won twenty-one generals on the spot. In addition to the ten remaining ten of the Twelve Kings, there are also eleven intermediate officers who have made great contributions in the defense of Nanjing. This time he was promoted to general.

In addition to the general, there are 34 deputy generals, and this time Ma Cheng was appointed personally. The remaining generals and guerrillas were not under Ma Cheng's control. There are hundreds of intermediate officers, and all of them will be appointed by Ma Cheng. Today, there will be no need to do anything else. Their appointment will be the responsibility of the admiral.

Until now, the expedition ceremony ended. Ma Cheng led three admirals and twenty-one generals to worship the military flag and order the flag. After slaughtering three more animals, the army officially came out.

In addition to the 11,000 guards and 40,000 new troops, Ma Cheng's central army also had 30,000 subordinate transporters, followed Zhang Guozhu's 20,000 troops, a total of 110,000 troops, leaving Nanjing for the camp in Longtan Town.

Ma Cheng's first goal this time was Zhenjiang. Although Zhang Guozhu had abandoned this place, Lu Wang's army did not occupy Zhenjiang, but Changzhou Prefecture, which was a hundred miles away, which was Changzhou City in later generations. This was not because Lu Wang's army did not want to fight, but now the road was blocked with heavy snow, and the official roads between Changzhou Prefecture and Zhenjiang Prefecture were closed by heavy snow, so Lu Wang's army planned to spend the winter in Changzhou and had to wait until the snow melted in March before marching.

Ma Cheng also made this idea. The Ming Dynasty was different from later generations, and there was no highway connection in the Taihu Lake Basin. Ma Cheng planned to take a month to arrive in Zhenjiang to spend the winter here, and officially began to attack Changzhou occupied by King Lu after the beginning of spring.

Longtan Town is more than 40 miles away from Nanjing, and can reach it in one day with a fast horse, but Ma Cheng’s army of 100,000 is not so easy. In addition to soldiers, there are also 50,000 or 60,000 livestock, pulling thousands of carts and more than 200 artillery pieces. It would be great if this large-scale march can travel more than ten miles a day.

The fastest marching army in history was the volunteer army during the Korean War. During the Sanyuanli battle, the 38th Army set a record of marching 14 hours, 72.5 kilometers, with an average marching 7.2 kilometers per hour.

This record was broken by the US Seventh Army decades later in the Gulf War. During the left hook operation, the Seventh Army unexpectedly broke into the heart of Iraq from weak flanks on the flanks of the Iraqi army. It took 89 hours and a mobile marching of about 260 kilometers, creating a miracle in military history, but its marching rate per unit time was still not as good as that of the 38th Army.

Of course, the Chinese have another record, that is, the record of retreat. On September 23, 1937, the second army of Liu Zhi retreated from Baoding, running more than 200 miles a day and night. On the 24th, they arrived in Shijiazhuang. The Japanese army could not catch up with them even in a car.
Chapter completed!