In the fifteenth year of Yongli, the first day of the eighth month, the summer solstice, this day is the day with the highest noon sun height in the year, and it is also the longest day of the day. In the early morning of this day, a horse-drawn carriage, escorted by several riders, quietly drove out of the old city of Qinghe and drove northwest along the official road.

In the afternoon, the carriage came to Suqian, but the carriage did not drive into Suqian City, but went directly to the "Martyrs' Shrine" located outside the city.

Suqian Martyrs' Shrine was built to commemorate the soldiers who died in the Battle of Suqian, initially, this is the cemetery after the war, burying more than 20,000 soldiers of the Loyal and Righteous Army who died in this battle, that is, on the day of their burial, looking at the continuous, one by one tombs, Zhu Mingzhong made a decision to build a Martyrs' Shrine here to pay tribute to the fallen soldiers.

The land of the martyrs' shrine was built on the 10,000 acres of land set aside in Suqian County, all the villages and graves on the ground were moved out at one rate, of course, it was mandatory, and then began to build a lot of construction here, the cypress wood transported from Taiwan, the white marble of Haizhou and the locally fired bricks, in the efforts of thousands of craftsmen, after two years of intense construction, a large-scale martyrs' shrine and Suqian were built, and officially put into use in Qingming this year.

The carriage stops in front of the archway of the Martyrs' Shrine, although it is still two miles away from the main shrine, but anyone needs to get off here, the next road can only walk, on both sides of the stone trail, the newly planted pines and cypresses are only only people high, although they are separated by two miles, they are placed in the archway, when they look at the main hall of the Martyrs' Shrine, they will still be shocked by their grand scale.

"Even hundreds of years from now, people will be amazed when they think about it!"

Looking at the Martyrs' Shrine built on a three-story platform, Zhu Mingzhong secretly thought to himself, and his heart was even a little proud.

Because the designer of the Martyrs' Shrine is not someone else, it is himself, when he was in college, he was amazed by the Hanyuan Hall in the Tang Dynasty, and carefully studied its restoration drawings many times, and even used software to make a model of the Hanyuan Palace, and when designing the Martyrs' Shrine, Zhu Mingzhong always felt that it was a little too "childish" for them to give the style, and finally he chose the Hanyuan Hall as a model.

The main body of the Martyrs' Shrine is the same as the Hanyuan Palace, the front of the left and right sides of the two pavilions, the two sides of the hall are the second floor of the bell and drum, there is a flying corridor between the hall, the pavilion and the floor, the whole Martyrs' Shrine becomes the "concave" shape, the high pavilion of the main hall is combined on the plane of the "concave" shape, echoes each other, the outline is undulating, the volume is huge, the momentum is magnificent, cheerful and brilliant, it is extremely rich in spiritual deterrence. It can be said that since its completion, all those who have witnessed the martyr's shrine have been amazed by its magnificence, and some people have described its spirit as "like the rising sun" and "like in the sky".

Not to mention the ancients, even Zhu Mingzhong, who is accustomed to seeing high-rise buildings in the city, has been amazed by the magnificence of the martyrs' shrine more than once.

"Chengren, this martyr's shrine, someone once said that you exceeded the system!"

On the way to the Martyrs' Shrine, Zhu Daxian's tone was a little joking.

"Overdue? Whose system is it over? ”

Zhu Mingzhong asked rhetorically.

"Is it beyond that family's system? The sky is high and the earth is thick, not in the past dynasties, the emperor is not big but loyal to the martyrs, since it is not as big as the heroes, and the sub-system is more than that? ”

Sometimes, some people in this era are always full of food and support, idle and have nothing to do, even if there is no official on the Qinghe side, the Ming court is not here, and it does not prevent some so-called Shilin elites from talking about the government there, from the day the martyr's shrine was built, some people said irresponsible opinions, especially when they saw that the scale of its main hall was so grand, far more than the Taihe Hall and other royal palaces, for a time the sound of overtaking the system was endless.

"If it weren't for those soldiers who desperately defended my Ming Dynasty, they would all be shaved and braided, and future generations would be slaves of the Manchurians, singing praises for the Manchurians, what is overreach? This is overstepping! The soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the country, let alone give them a martyr's shrine, it is a matter of course that the whole country is cultivating the martyrs' shrine! ”

With such affirmation, Zhu Mingzhong's eyes fell on the Martyrs' Shrine and said in a rather excited tone.

"When the world is peaceful in the future, Lone will suggest to the emperor that the four sacrifices once a year must not be missing, and at the time of the big festival every year, even if the emperor does not come in person, the prince must come, not only to offer incense, but also to kneel, they can afford it!"

After this sound was worthy, Zhu Mingzhong's gaze passed through the tall pine and cypress, and said in a heavy tone.

"Look at it, look at these tombstones, more than 23,700 people, in the battle of Suqian, so many people died, who remembers them? What will those people remember when they are put in the history books? In the fourteenth year of Yongli, Zhu Mingzhong led 70,000 troops to fight with Suqian and destroyed nearly 100,000 enemies. They are all big living people with names and surnames, families and mouths, but now? ”

Looking at the tombstones made of white marble, Zhu Mingzhong thought of the corpses buried under the tombstones, and he thought of the salts who tried to get rid of the salts with their lives when he recruited them in the salt farm, and he couldn't help but feel a tingling in his heart.

These people gave their lives for the country and the nation, but what kind of reward did they get?

In the history books, they are stingy to describe them in a few words, and in people's word of mouth, only the generals are like gods, and there has never been a soldier. Who remembers those little people? The little people are sad, but it is these thousands of little people who have supported this nation and supported this nation from ancient times to the present.

"To evaluate the character of a country, we must not only look at what kind of people it has cultivated, but also look at what kind of people its people choose to pay tribute to and cherish what kind of people."

After saying such a sentence, Zhu Mingzhong didn't notice Zhu Daxian beside him, he had fallen silent at this time, he knew that this era could not understand why he would value these ordinary soldiers and treat them so well.

"The king, the soldiers of the loyal and righteous army can be treated so favorably by the king, even if they die, they will not be shaken."

Looking at this cemetery, Zhu Daxian thought of how Zhu Mingzhong guarded the souls of the fallen soldiers and saw them off at that time in Nanjing, in Tongjimen, and how to see them off.

And respect is exactly what kind of kindness is in front of you!

"I'm afraid that when the time comes, there will be people who call Yu Li discordant!"

Zhu Daxian secretly thought in his heart, maybe in the future, such as the Qilin Pavilion of the Western Han Dynasty, the Yuntai of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Lingyan Pavilion of the Tang Dynasty or the Zhaoxun Pavilion of the Song Dynasty, or the meritorious heroes will be invited into the Meritorious Pavilion, which is still acceptable, but this is dedicated to the martyrs' shrine of all the fallen officers and soldiers, and in the future, the emperor or the prince will be invited to worship in person every year, which will definitely cause a storm.

Even when the martyrs' shrine was being repaired, some people had already said that the scripture was a favoritism. It's to buy people's hearts.

However, in this regard, King Huai has always laughed, and even laughed.

"If they think I'm buying people's hearts, they can buy people's hearts like I did."

But of course Zhu Daxian will not mention these things, when he accompanied King Huai to the Martyrs' Shrine, looking at the white tombstones that stretched for several miles, Zhu Daxian's mind was also a little heavy, more than 30,000 officers and soldiers have been buried here, and after the Northern Expedition, I don't know how many loyal soldiers will be buried.

While his mind was floating, Zhu Daxian remembered that he had discussed with Qian Lei and others a few days ago, so he said tentatively.

"King, now my Ming soldiers are unstoppable, and the momentum of the Qing Dynasty is far less than yesterday. The day of smashing the Yellow Dragon can be said to be just around the corner, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty is just a few barbarians. There is a way that it is the best policy to bend people's soldiers without fighting. In the opinion of the ministers, when the Japanese army went on a northern expedition to Zhili, he could also give him a favor and power to force the Qing captives to return to Beijing and withdraw from the Guanwai. In this way, it can not only reduce the casualties of our army, but also allow the Beijing division to return to the Ming Dynasty intact, and also allow the people of the Central Plains to suffer less from the swords and soldiers, and live a peaceful life as soon as possible. ”

When they first discussed this issue, their position was very simple, for the sake of the people of the world, in order to end the war as soon as possible, so they advocated "grace and power" to keep the Jingshi.

Zhu Daxian's suggestion made Zhu Mingzhong wave his hand directly and said.

"Pingchen's words are wrong, not to mention that the Manchus have not sent envoys now, even if they send envoys over, it is impossible for this king to negotiate peace with them. What the Emperor didn't allow back then, how could this king allow it? ”

Zhu Mingzhong's answer can be said to be very direct, and there is even no room for recovery at all, after all, he has lifted the Lie Emperor out.

"Don't say that the power to negotiate peace is not in the hands of this king now, even if the court negotiates peace with it in the future, this king will also oppose it, how many people will be killed by Qing captives?"

In addition to the rhetorical question, Zhu Mingzhong looked in the direction of Pizhou, although he had seen countless massacres after the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs in the history books, but what he experienced was only the "Pizhou Massacre", until now, the tragic situation of the massacre is still vivid, and it is precisely because of this, in order to remind the world not to forget this matter, he will set up a monument in every city and village in Jiangbei that has been slaughtered, and the inscription on the tablet reminds people that when the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, there was something that was suffered. And what is even more shocking is that there is almost no city without being slaughtered by the Qing captives and slaughtering hundreds of millions of people, how can Zhu Mingzhong forget? How could he be allowed to return to Liaodong safely.

"If they kill me trillions of Han people, or let them return to Liaodong, what will the barbarians in the world regard me in the future? They will regard us as fish and meat, they will be encouraged by the safe return of the Manchu Dynasty, and since then, they will try to bite off a piece of meat on our body, and from then on the nine sides will no longer have peace and repay grievances with virtue, how to repay virtue, repay grievances with straightforwardness, repay virtue with virtue! In the future, no matter how the Manchus sued for peace, this king would never allow it, and anyone who was sued for peace by the Manchus would be a traitor, a traitor...... Punish the Nine Clans! ”