Qi Biaojia, who is far away in Suzhou, is plotting against Ma Cheng, so Ma Cheng naturally needs to understand Qi Biaojia.

On the first day of the second month of the third year of Shaowu in the Ming Dynasty, Ma Cheng was stationed in a military camp five miles outside Zhenjiang Prefecture City. He was listening to the military situation report of Chief Wang Xian.

The power of the chief of the Ming Dynasty was very small, probably similar to that of the secretary of later generations. However, because Ma Cheng had great power, his identity as the chief of the chief of the chief, Wang Xian, was very important. Wang Xian has now replaced the central officer as the first aide to Ma Cheng. In addition to being responsible for the logistics of food and grass that he should have been in charge of before, Ma Cheng also asked Wang Xian to supervise the Military Intelligence Department this time.

After more than a year of integration, the Military Intelligence Department has regained its vitality with Zhang Erpei's efforts. There are military intelligence departments in all prefectures and counties in Nanzhili, and daily intelligence is continuously delivered to the Nanjing Military Intelligence Department.

This time, Ma Cheng did not bring Zhang Erpei with him, but kept him in Nanjing to cooperate with Ma Shiying, so the intelligence work around Ma Cheng was supervised by Wang Xian, the most trusted Wang Xian.

Wang Xian opened the document transferred by the Military Information Department with his only remaining hand, looked at it and said, "Marquis, according to the secret report from the Military Information Department, the leader of the Lu Wang army in Suzhou is not in harmony, and the Governor Qi Biaojia wants to attack Zhenjiang immediately, but Fang Guoan wants to wait for his leisure and rely on the Suzhou city wall to resist the Marquis' army!"

Ma Cheng thought about this Governor Qi Biaojia, but he had no impression. He was probably a bureaucrat with no ability. Ma Cheng didn't know much about history in the late Ming Dynasty, and except for those famous civil and military officials, he had no impression of anything else.

"Mr. Wang, what is the way Qi Biaojia?"

Wang Xian looked through the information and said, "Mr. Marquis, this Qi Biaojia is from Meishu Village, Shanyin County, Zhejiang Province. He was a Jinshi in the second year of Tianqi and was promoted to the right assistant censor in the fourth year of Chongzhen. Later, he was rejected by the auxiliary Zhou Yanru. He resigned and returned home for many years. He became the censor of Henan Dao from the 14th year of Chongzhen. In the first year of Hongguang, the governor of Jiangnan, and was impeached by the general Liu Zhaoji to rob the army and offend Gao Jie."

After Wang Xian finished speaking, he looked at Ma Cheng, and then continued, "Later, the old man ordered the censor Zhang Sunzhen to prevent Hongguang from ascending the throne, and he wanted to support King Lu, so Qi Biaojia was called a scattered person and resigned from office. In June of the first year of Shaowu, King Lu was appointed as the Minister of War in Hangzhou and appointed Qi Biaojia as the Minister of War and Governor Su Song."

When Ma Cheng heard this, he realized that he was a political loser who was persecuted by his own son. Ma Shiying's royal thug Zhang Sunzhen, Ma Cheng, had seen him, and was completely a cruel and ruthless old guy. Zhang Sunzhen was an inspector in Shanxi that year, and gave gifts to Yuan Jixian, who was then the inspector of Shanxi, in order to be promoted, hoping to speak good things for him, but Yuan Jixian refused him. Zhang Sunzhen began to resent Yuan Jixian and immediately submitted a memorial to the emperor for corruption.

But Zhang Sunzhen forgot that Yuan Jixian was the Donglin Party. How could you be better if you offend these gentlemen? Zhang Sunzhen immediately lost under the encirclement of the Donglin masters, lost all his official positions and went home to retire and wait for death.

When Zhu Yousong became emperor in Jiangnan, Zhang Sunzhen ran to Nanjing to surrender to Ma Shiying, transforming himself into a scum in the officialdom that everyone called for and became a typical honest official under Ma Shiying. Ma Cheng was also very disgusted with Zhang Sunzhen, but he could not do anything for Ma Shiying's face. Now he heard that the governor Qi Biaojia on the opposite side was framed by Zhang Sunzhen and he couldn't help but ask: "It seems that Qi Biaojia is a honest official?"

"I don't know if the subordinates of the honest officials are, but this Qi Biaojia's official voice is indeed good! Now Qi Biaojia has finally integrated all the generals.

, preparing to send troops to fight the Marquis after the beginning of March, the specific location of the Military Information Department has not yet been found."

Ma Cheng hummed twice: "Does this still need to be checked? The location must be between Changzhou Prefecture and Zhenjiang Prefecture!" After Ma Cheng said that, he pointed to the map in front of him and said, "It must be here, Lucheng Town!"

Lucheng Town is under the jurisdiction of Danyang County under Zhenjiang Prefecture. It is located at the junction of Zhenjiang and Changzhou. It is one of the important transportation nodes on the canal. Whether it is Ma Cheng or Qi Biaojia, marching in southern Zhili, it depends on the logistics supply of the Grand Canal for transportation, so this Lucheng Town became the key.

"The Marquis is right. The terrain around Lucheng is flat and suitable for the large army to unfold. If that is the case, should we prepare it?"

Ma Cheng thought for a while and said, "No, Fang Guoan is very cautious. If we are prepared, we may scare them off, so we should wait for Qi Biaojia to come to the door. However, the Military Information Department can spread the news of our shortage of food, so that Qi Biaojia will firmly fight to the decisive battle!"

Ma Cheng's military ration contains one-third of sweet potatoes and wheat. In the eyes of the people of Nanzhili, this kind of thing is fed to pigs. Now using this kind of thing as military ration can indeed be said that Ma Cheng's army is short of food.

Ma Cheng thought for a while and said, "Send a letter to Qi Biaojia in the tone of this governor, with a arrogant attitude, saying that this governor does not respect his 150,000 mobs at all, and this governor can destroy them if he only brings 10,000 guards! If Qi Biaojia is willing to kneel in front of this governor and beg for surrender, this governor can consider pleading for him in front of the emperor and give him a slight defeat!"

China has a history of five thousand years of war, and this method of angering the enemy has been used so much. Wang Xian is very optimistic about what Ma Cheng's strategy can play, but Ma Cheng is the Shangguan. Since he has decided on the strategy, Wang Xian can only implement it. Wang Xian wrote down what Ma Cheng said, and then bowed out to prepare.

After Wang Xian went out, his personal soldiers came in to deliver lunch. Today's lunch was a chicken stand with potatoes. The chicken was made into dishes, and this bone was naturally used as auxiliary ingredients. Other pork bones were similar to sheep bones, either stewed potatoes or stewed cabbage. Now there are few vegetables in the snow in Nanzhili, so stewed potatoes with various bones became the norm.

Ma Cheng looked at the potatoes in the bowl and the stomach was sour. He had been eating this kind of thing for half a month, either potatoes or radishes. Ma Cheng was really tired of it. But he had no choice but to eat it. Ma Cheng stipulated that no matter how high the generals in the army, they must eat the same food as ordinary soldiers. As the supreme commander, Ma Cheng must set an example.

Ma Cheng picked up a potato cube, sighed and put it in his mouth. In fact, the potato stewed chicken rack tasted good, and ordinary soldiers also liked it very much, but Ma Cheng was eating fine stewed stewed at home. It was okay to eat this kind of vulgar food for a few meals, but how could he bear it after eating it for half a month?

The personal soldiers beside him looked at Ma Cheng's frowning and said, "Mr. Marquis, why don't the villain go to the city to buy some delicious food?"

Dantu Town is less than five miles away from Zhenjiang City, so it’s good to buy some food, but Ma Cheng thought that this kind of example would not be opened. If the generals in the army followed suit, how would the army take care of the future?

"No, I can eat these!"

After Ma Cheng said that, he sighed, picked up his chopsticks and started eating. Just when Ma Cheng was about to have a meal, someone came in outside the tent. He was the only admiral under Ma Cheng, Zhang Guozhu.

Zhang Guozhu came in and saluted Ma Cheng first, and then smiled and said, "Is the General Manager having a meal?"

"Did you ask this without knowingly? Are you shitting if you are not eating?" Ma Cheng glared at Zhang Guozhu and asked, "Have you eaten? Is there anything wrong with me when I find this governor?"

"Hehe, the training is just completed today. Finally, I would like to invite the general manager to a meal. Then I know that the adults will have it first!"

Having a meal? This proposal was made, Ma Cheng put down the bowls and chopsticks and asked, "Zhang Guozhu, do you have something to ask for me? Otherwise, why would you like to invite me to dinner for no reason?"

Zhang Guozhu was told by Ma Cheng and smiled embarrassedly: "It's not a big deal. He is a group of local merchants in Zhenjiang. He wants to meet the general manager, but they have no way. So I'll ask for the final general to come here!"

Merchants? Zhenjiang is located on a major transportation road in the north and south. It has always been a gathering of merchants. Some merchants want to take the upper level route, so it is not surprising to find Ma Cheng here. However, Ma Cheng did not want to have any contact with these merchants. After Zhang Guozhu said that, Ma Cheng refused directly: "No, I don't want to see these merchants."

Zhang Guozhu has already taken the benefits of those merchants and promised them to invite Ma Cheng to attend today. Now, when Ma Cheng refused, he quickly persuaded: "Master General, these merchants are very rich, and their request is also very simple. They want to carry the food and grass of the army. May General General, please enjoy the food and grass!"

The Ministry of Revenue is responsible for the transfer of Ma Cheng's military rations, but 30% of the military rations transported are drifted each time. This is also impossible. Is the state-owned enterprise? The operating cost is naturally higher. Ma Cheng didn't care about the 30% of the food when the military rations were sufficient, but now it is not possible. Millions of people in the entire Zhenjiang Prefecture are hungry, and Ma Cheng's army has to use potatoes as military rations. Naturally, they don't want these food mice to embezzle their own food.

Although Ma Cheng wanted to cure corruption, the Minister of Revenue was Li Zhan, who was a die-hard player of Ma Shiying. The food mice of the Ministry of Revenue were also Li Zhan's followers. They were basically the same party as Ma Cheng. They were too cruel to deal with it. In addition, the Ministry of Revenue had already given Ma Cheng face, so they only embezzled 30%. You should know that these guys had to embezzle 70% of them in the past.

When Ma Cheng heard Zhang Guozhu say this, he became curious and asked, "They want to transport military rations? The army of this governor has 110,000 people, and they need 1,600 shi of military rations every day. This is not considered raw chickens, pigs and other meat. Can they take it?"

Ma Cheng's army had 110,000 people, and according to the daily needs of one and a half liters of grain per person, they needed 1,650 stones of grain per day. In addition, the benefits of killing from the Ministry of Revenue only cost 30%, so Ma Cheng needed 2,000 stones of grain per day, which is not a small amount.

"Please rest assured that these merchants are all from the grain ship gang, and they can still bear this little grain!"

Grain and Boat Gang? When Ma Cheng heard this term, he frowned. Grain and Boat Gang, also known as the boat gang, is a group of boatmen who make a living on the Grand Canal. Since the Song Dynasty, the Grand Canal has become a major artery of north-south transportation. The boat gangs traveling on the canal have formed a loose alliance after hundreds of years, which is somewhat similar to the trade unions in later generations. This is the boat gang.
Chapter completed!