On July 19, outside the Tongji Gate, an archway was erected with pine branches and white flowers, and on the archway tied up by wood and bamboo, four black characters in Song style were written - "Loyal Martyrs Qianqiu", and the left and right sides were respectively "Chengren" and "Take Righteousness". A few lamps are plain lamps made of white silk, and even the Tongji Gate is covered with white cloth strips. On the flagpole in front of the door, there is a long spirit flag, which is blown by the evening wind, and it floats up slowly for a while, and falls gently for a while.

The loyal officers and soldiers standing with guns on both sides of the city gate, although they are still wearing their special red military uniforms, but they are wearing a plain flower on their chests, the red clothes and white flowers are very eye-catching, and the soldiers standing with guns are all solemn, they stand on both sides of the city gate, and the garden is like pine and cypress.

Although the sun is in the sky, the atmosphere is a little bleak.

Today is the day of the fallen soldiers of the Loyal and Righteous Army. They will move to their hometown in Changzhou, instead of being hastily buried in a foreign land.

Because of the hot weather, after the bloody battle that day, the dead loyal soldiers had already been cremated, and unlike the direct burial of the armies at this time, the bodies of the fallen officers and soldiers were cremated and put into a carefully fired pottery urn. This pottery urn is customized with a pottery workshop near Nanjing, and the pottery urn is engraved with the words "Loyal Martyrs Thousand Autumns".

Two thousand four hundred and sixty-two pottery urns!

Two thousand four hundred and sixty-two loyal souls!

Zhu Mingzhong, who was dressed in a plain robe, read this sentence silently, I don't know if it is the cause of the sequelae of the crossing, the external injuries suffered during the siege of the city have healed for eight or nine points at this time, but despite this, because of excessive blood loss, his face is still pale. The pale face lined with this white robe, only to look even paler.

Two thousand four hundred and sixty-two!

This is the price of the Loyal and Righteous Army to take Nanjing!

Throughout history, no one has taken such a fortified city with so few casualties. That surprise attack, even in a few hundred years, will be admired by people, sighed by people, and will be amazed by their success.

But for the loyal army, the price is heavy, it can be said that in the next month or two, the loyal army will no longer have yesterday's combat effectiveness, although in Tongji Gate, in the Shence Gate seized dozens of Hongyi cannons from hundreds of catties to 4,000 catties, although in the arsenal of the city's eight banners is to capture tens of thousands of birds, tens of thousands of sets of armor, it can be said that this battle, with rich captures, the loyal army is almost a shotgun for artillery. However, such heavy casualties still make it impossible to recover its combat effectiveness in the short term, not to mention that there are still more than 1,000 wounded soldiers whose injuries have not yet healed.

At this time, this hall built with a cloth curtain is a solemn mourning hall. On the front is a white curtain that connects the sky to the ground, and two thousand four hundred and sixty-two pottery urns filled with ashes are placed on the spiritual frame, and when they are auspicious, they will be loaded into a carriage, and then sent to Jiangyin, the capital of Changzhou, by water, and hundreds of acres of land have been requisitioned outside Jiangyin City as the Yizhuang of the Loyal and Righteous Army, which is also a part of the Jiangyin Loyal Martyrs' Shrine.

Thousands of clay urns are set behind the curtains. On either side of the curtain hung a pair of couplets. On the left is "mourning the death of the country", and on the right is "becoming benevolent and taking righteousness". There are also four big characters on it: "Loyal martyrs".

A black lacquered wooden table with incense burners and fruit offerings. In the mourning hall, I saw cigarette smoke curling and did not hear a sound.

After a while, an elderly monk of Dabao'en Temple led dozens of monks into the mourning hall. They first stood in two rows, bowed to the souls of the faithful, and then parted, slowly entering the tent, and then sat down around them. After hearing only the sound of a heavy wooden fish, these dozens of monks snorted at the same time. Their chanting was deep and low, and the sound of the sutras coming from their voices, sometimes high and sometimes low. But no one could hear what they were humming: it was like reciting the scriptures and chanting.

Even so, the entire mourning hall was filled with a solemn and solemn atmosphere.

In this solemn atmosphere, Li Ziyuan, as the commander of the Left Wing Army, looked a little complicated, and in the past few days, in order to achieve that goal, he has made a lot of promises to his former brothers. In his opinion, if he wants to take away the military power, all he needs is the help of those old brothers. It's a no-brainer.

But he didn't expect that Zhu Mingzhong would actually use another method to win the hearts of those soldiers, when he used his promotion to make a fortune there and win over those old brothers.

What is Zhu Mingzhong doing?

He was treating the wounded in the bandage parlor, he was concerned about the aftermath of the fallen soldiers, he was concerned about the future life of the crippled soldiers.

In short, it's just doing some inconspicuous little things. In Li Ziyuan's view, it should not be what the commander in the army should do.

But Zhu Mingzhong is doing it there, including now, making such a big pomp for those soldiers. At first he couldn't understand and everyone couldn't.

But now, looking at the excited expressions of those ordinary soldiers, Li Ziyuan finally understood that when he tried to win over the old brother with his promotion. Zhu Mingzhong had easily pulled the hearts of all the soldiers

He knows!

He knows it all for sure!

Now, Li Ziyuan knew that he had no way out. Anyway, there were some things he had to do!

Regarding the thoughts of Li Ziyuan and others, Zhu Mingzhong, who is now the commander of the Loyal and Righteous Army, did not think about it at all, he just stood there, although his expression was solemn at this time, but there was a fire in his heart.

No one!

No one has come to his camp today to see off these loyal souls!

Whether it is for Zheng Chenggong or other generals in the army, or for the members of the DPRK and China, these people are just Qiu Ba who are not worth a row, but they are just "food" that comes when they are recruited.

Who would be willing to humiliate themselves and see off these low-status "grains"?

But without them, how could you enter the city of Nanjing!

Without them, this river and mountain can be recovered!

However, he couldn't say it, he couldn't say these words, because his previous experience told Zhu Mingzhong that now he was the target of the public, and at this time, he must be cautious.

Zhu Mingzhong, who was pressed with a fire in his heart, looked at the pottery urns, but what came to his mind was those soldiers who were alive and well on the training ground in Jiangyin, and now, they were just a handful of ashes in the urn!

"Someday, I must get justice for you......"

Just when Zhu Mingzhong secretly swore in his heart, there was a shout from there.

"There is a guest here, the soldier is ......"

Zhang Huangyan is here!

Surprised, Zhu Mingzhong hurriedly greeted him, Zhang Huangyan, who walked into the mourning hall, was wearing a filial piety robe that he didn't know where to change, and when he saw the filial piety robe on his body, he hurriedly knelt down and bowed.

"Ming Zhong is the fallen general in my battalion, Xie Shao Sima!"

When Zhu Mingzhong knelt down and kowtowed, Zhang Huangyan hurriedly helped him up.

"Mingzhong, please get up!"

As he spoke, Zhang Huangyan looked at the pottery urn behind the mourning hall and said.

"If there are no thousands of soldiers in the loyal battalion who are desperately killed, how can Nandu be recovered so easily, and how can the old man, as a soldier of the military department, not come!"

After saluting incense, bowing, and following the rules, Zhang Huangyan looked at Zhu Mingzhong and said,

"The general didn't come?"

"The general has a lot of affairs, and he also sent Shi to pay respects to ......"

Zhu Mingzhong's answer made Zhang Huangyan nod and said again.

"The general's military affairs are many, after the old man got off the boat at the dock, he heard that Chengren set up a funeral shed here to pay tribute to the fallen soldiers, so he ordered the boatman to come here directly, fortunately he didn't miss it......"

If it was any other time, Zhang Huangyan would not have come to this place, but now, he has expectations for Zhu Mingzhong, and he also has expectations for this loyal army, and it is precisely because of this that he temporarily decided to come here to sell his favor to Zhu Mingzhong, and of course, he also sold his favor to the soldiers in the loyal army.

In this regard, Zhu Mingzhong naturally didn't know, he just thought that Zhang Huangyan took the initiative to come here, and naturally he was moved and accepted this favor.

It's hard to repay the debt of favors!

But at this time, it is not the time to repay this favor, after a simple politeness, as soon as the hour comes, the cannon on the Tongji Gate sounds, sixty-eight Hongyi cannons, one after another, the cannon rumbles, echoing in front of the Tongji Gate, this is Zhu Mingzhong according to the rules of another time and space, for these soldiers to offer twenty-one salutes.

In the sound of the cannon, the pottery urn was held by the soldiers, with the chanting of the monks, towards the dock of the Qinhuai River, the atmosphere at this time only seemed extremely solemn, and in this solemn atmosphere, looking at the soldiers with tears in their eyes, and then looking at Zhu Mingzhong who held the urn with his own hands, Zhang Huangyan seemed to understand, understood why he was able to train an elite soldier in such a short period of time, the most fundamental reason is ...... Popularity! Looking at the big from the small, it can be seen from this incident that although this person is young, he is very good at manipulating people's hearts!

"If you have the heart of the army, how can you not win?"

In addition to such a sigh, Zhang Huangyan's brows frowned slightly, but another thought appeared in his heart.

"This son...... It's not easy! ”

When he had this feeling, Zhang Huangyan didn't notice the somewhat moved expressions of the soldiers around him, and there was even a kind of jealousy and envy hidden in that kind of emotion.

After all, in this era, for the generals in the army, the soldiers are nobodies, let alone sending their ashes back to their hometowns, and being able to do it without violent corpses in the wilderness is already benevolent and righteous. Who cares about nobodies like them again? It's just a bunch of little people who don't deserve to mention.

But what they witnessed today subverted everything they knew in the past, so that they were moved, looking at the scene in front of them, they all had a feeling in their hearts that the big husband was like this, and he died without regrets! Naturally, he was envious of the brothers of the loyal army.

"Only today did I know why Zhu Mingzhong was able to train such an elite soldier who won a hundred battles."

Looking at those soldiers of the loyal and righteous army, Zhang Huangyan secretly thought to himself that if Zhu Mingzhong could be included in the Eastern Expedition this time, why worry about the failure of the Eastern Expedition!