The Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the time when the family gets together to eat glutinous rice balls, admire the moon, and watch the lanterns, but on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month of the fifth year of Chongzheng, there is such a group of people, far away from their hometowns and relatives, in the cold north, watching the enemy's every move, ready to sacrifice for the country at any time.

They are the Ming defenders from Zunhua to the front line of the capital, because the Manchu and Mongolian coalition forces in the northern grasslands have not dispersed, they have to stay on the city wall to prevent the enemy from sneaking attacks, not to mention the Lantern Festival, they are all on the city wall.

This morning, just as the soldiers on the city wall were shivering in the cold wind, buckets of hot rice balls were quietly carried up the city wall by the soldiers who changed the guard, and the hundred generals, banner generals and captains of each department carried pots of washed rice bowls and followed the thousands of generals, generals, generals or general soldiers to the city wall, and there were teams of brocade guards next to them, and they also carried things in their hands, but not basins for bowls but heavy wooden boxes.

Although the cities are different, and the leading officers are different, they all do the same thing: walk up to each soldier and greet them cordially: "Good work." Then each person was given a bulging envelope, and then the bowl was delivered to them, and he personally scooped a full bowl of rice balls for them.

Many soldiers were moved inexplicably, holding the rice balls and shedding tears, and some soldiers were curious to open the envelope to see what was inside, and the people who opened the envelope were stunned, it turned out to be a silver ingot, a full five taels of silver ingots!

What's going on, it's only fifteen, and it's not yet time to pay!

At that time, most of the soldiers were illiterate, so most people didn't read the rubbings on the envelopes, but there were always a few special ones who could recognize some words. Lu Renjia has a relative in his family who runs a private school, he used to go to study for a few years when he was a child, he looked at the words on the envelope, and suddenly said incoherently excitedly: "This, this, this ......"

The comrades next to him all looked at him curiously, everyone knew that he was literate, and one of his colleagues couldn't help but ask: "Brother A, what is written on this envelope, read it to everyone." ”

Everyone looked at other people's envelopes, well, they are all the same, they should have been written and then carved a wooden mold and rubbed out, so everyone looked up at Lu Renjia again, urging him to read it quickly.

Lu Renjia trembled and held the envelope, and read excitedly: "The soldiers have worked hard, and I thank you on behalf of the people of the Ming Dynasty." Cinnabar....... ”

When Lu Renjia read this, he paused, and when he didn't have any words, he was stunned and asked stupidly: "What is Zhu, why don't you read it?" ”

A veteran soldier next to him directly gave him a chestnut, and then warned in a low voice: "That's the emperor's name, you kid wants to die!" ”

The second stunned man touched his head and said excitedly: "Your Majesty? You say this silver is rewarded by the emperor? ”

Everyone ignored him, just trembling and flattening the envelope, and then cherished it into his arms, this is the emperor's ink treasure, although it is rubbing, but it is also quite rare, take it back to his hometown can definitely attract ten miles and eight villages to come to watch!

Of course, Zhu Cijiong didn't know that his chicken-paw-like handwriting would be collected by others, he just wrote an envelope for Cao Huachun to rub in line with the principle of leaving a name for good deeds, in order to let all the soldiers remember his goodness.

The more than 400,000 troops gathered in Shuntianfu, as well as the more than 200,000 troops in the ice and snow on the Liaodong side, each person gave five taels of silver as a subsidy for the New Year, which was planned by Zhu Cijiong years ago, and it was part of his plan to buy people's hearts. Although no one will complain about him if he doesn't pay a penny of subsidies, but the subsidies will definitely move them inexplicably, although he spent more than 2 million taels, but he can make more than 500,000 soldiers remember his good, and the money is worth it!

Today he has to go to Zunhua, so although there is no early dynasty today, he also got up early, he is wearing a grand dress under Qin Mingyue's service, Zheng Chenggong's goods came over again, he circled around Zhu Cijiong, and hypocritically praised: "Tsk, the emperor is really majestic wearing this dress!" ”

Liu Ru behind him hurriedly covered his mouth, not daring to laugh out loud, but Qin Mingyue chuckled without any scruples.

Zhu Cijiong rolled his eyes, and said angrily: "Nothing to be courteous, either a traitor or a thief, say, what do you want to do?" ”

Zheng Chenggong rubbed his hands and said, "I heard that the emperor is going to Zunhua to review the new army, can you bring my little brother with me?" ”

Zhu Cijiong stared at him up and down, and said in his heart: "This kid has also grown up, it's time to take him around, you can't take your little brother to lock people in the palace all day long, and if you don't take him out for a walk, how can he know how majestic his brother is." Well, take him to see my army, and worship idols, which must be cultivated from an early age. ”

Zheng Chenggong's palms were sweating when he was staring at, and he didn't dare to move nervously when he stood there, like a prisoner waiting for the verdict to be announced.

Finally, Zhu Cijiong opened his mouth and said slowly: "It's okay to take you there, but without my permission, you are not allowed to speak, otherwise I will never take you out next time." ”

Zheng Chenggong jumped up excitedly, and was about to cheer, Zhu Cijiong raised his eyes and glared, he quickly covered his mouth and looked around nervously, how cute and cute it was.

When the hour came, the army assembled outside the Anding Gate rose up and marched northward. In front is 20,000 elite Beijing battalions, steel guns like a forest, majestic; In the middle are 20,000 brocade guards, protecting the emperor's dragon chariot, with flags like the sea, covering the sky and the sun; Behind is the 30,000 elite of the Beijing camp, densely packed, and you can't see the edge at a glance.

The whole team was so magnificent, but there was one person who was very strange, I saw his high nose and big mouth, his whole face showing a sickly red, wearing a strange button-down suit, and a nondescript hat, how to look at it and how incongruous.

This is naturally the Portuguese envoy Svera, Zhu Cijiong originally prepared an eight-lift sedan chair for him, but he insisted on riding a horse, saying that he wanted to enjoy the scenery along the way. Zhu Cijiong can only go with him, you yourself are not afraid of being watched as a monster, I am afraid of a fart!

Zhu Cijiong's dragon chariot was surrounded by three layers inside and three layers outside, and he couldn't get close at all, so he had to follow Zheng Chenggong's sedan chair and talk to His Royal Highness the prince. Svera has never ridden a tall horse around the land of Daming, and everything he sees is novel; Zheng Chenggong is not much better, except for the beach in Hirarado, he has played the Forbidden City the longest, and he rarely has the opportunity to walk around, but the two have a lot of common language.

Zheng Chenggong lay on Liu Ruyi's shoulder, stretched his head out of the sedan chair, looked around, and chatted happily with Shi Weila. Liu Ru also wanted to see the scenery outside, but the foreign devil outside the car window was really scary, and she didn't dare to look back at the car window, so she could only turn her back to the car window and prick up her ears to listen to Zheng Chenggong's description.

The capital goes to Zunhua, the first city in the middle is Tongzhou, here is the defense area of Hou Shilu, the chief soldier of Xuanfu, Hou Shilu also got up early in the morning, he didn't want to accompany the emperor to Zunhua, but the emperor passed by your defense area and you didn't even react, wouldn't it be that you think your official is too big and your life is too long! So he got up early to prepare, first according to the emperor's wishes, he randomly selected a team of 100 people who were standing guard, personally distributed the subsidized silver to each soldier, and then gathered all the soldiers who did not stand guard, and lined up neatly beside the official road outside Tongzhou City, waiting quietly.

After about an hour, a small spot of black pressure finally appeared in the direction of the capital, and when they walked in, they saw a sun and moon dragon flag lined up high in front of the team, and behind it was a cloud-like banner, which was indeed the elite of the first legion of the Praetorian Guard, and it was indeed the emperor's patrol team.

Hou Shilu hurriedly turned over and dismounted, and shouted: "Salute." Then he took the lead in kneeling on one knee, and more than 5,000 soldiers also knelt down on one knee, and then, Hou Shilu took the lead and shouted: "Long live my emperor, long live, long live." “

The soldiers behind him shouted after the mountain, and slowly the soldiers on the city wall in the distance also shouted with the mountain, and their voices became more and more neat and louder.

Listening to such a loud mountain cry and looking at the soldiers kneeling on the ground in the distance, Shi Weila thought that he had reached the ground, and he said to Zheng Chenggong: "This voice is really loud, it is the first time I have heard so many people chanting together, this is Zunhua, right?" “

Zheng Chenggong said coaxingly: "It's still early, this is just a small city passing by, it would be good if Shen Shi could go to Zunhua." “

When Schvera heard this, he opened his mouth wide in surprise and panted heavily, this is just a small city, and I am afraid that there are not forty or fifty thousand people stationed in this voice! In fact, he misunderstood, these soldiers had just received Zhu Cijiong's subsidy, and they were grateful to the emperor in their hearts, so they were naturally desperately howling, so 10,000 people howled out the effect of 40,000 or 50,000 people, this was not Zhu Cijiong's intentional cheating, and he didn't expect the soldiers below to have such a big reaction.

After Tongzhou and then Sanhe, and then Jizhou, all the way, the sound of the mountain shouting long live became louder and louder, and Shi Weila mistakenly thought that at least more than 100,000 horses were stationed in the three cities he passed. There are more than 100,000 horses in Jinling, more than 100,000 horses in the capital, and more than 100,000 horses on the sea.

Sure enough, as Zheng Chenggong said, the army marched for more than four hours, and Shen arrived in Zunhua in a moment, and the scene that greeted him frightened Schvera almost fell off his horse. He wiped his eyes and looked to both sides in shock, he was really not mistaken, there were I don't know how many people and horses were gathered on both sides of the official road, and I couldn't see my head horizontally, and I couldn't see my head vertically!

When the advance of the Praetorian Guard was about a mile away from the welcoming procession, there was a sudden muffled sound of "boom" in front, and the whole earth trembled, which was the sound of more than 200,000 people kneeling down at the same time. Immediately after that, I remembered the voice of Shanhu Long live: "Long live my emperor, long live, long live." “

The sound grew louder and louder, like a tsunami of mountains and a tsunami of annihilation, and the whole earth trembled, and the whole sky shook!

Shi Weila was already speechless in shock, and at this time, he had only one thought: "This Ming Empire is too powerful, too powerful, too powerful!" “