Andingmen is also called Anzhen Gate in the Yuan Dynasty, it is the east gate of the north wall of the inner city, and the reason for its name lies in the words of the Kun hexagram of the Book of Changes, "Anzhen Zhiji, should be boundless". The Ming general Xu Da pushed the city wall in the north of the Yuan capital to the south for five miles to rebuild, and built a new city gate in the place corresponding to the Anzhen Gate, called Anding Gate, which means "the world is stable".

Andingmen is also the gate of the army when the army returns victoriously, just with the Desheng Gate of the west gate of the north wall of the inner city, the capital sends troops to go is the Desheng Gate, take a troop to win the interest. Because of this, unlike the Guandi Temple built in the urn city of other capitals, only the Zhenwu Temple was built in Andingmen.

While waiting for the guards to return to the city, Zhu Youzhen took several close ministers to tour the Zhenwu Temple. This Zhenwu temple is not big, but there are many people who come to worship on weekdays, and a huge copper incense burner in the courtyard has been piled with incense ashes.

Cui Chengxiu, who accompanied him, knew a lot about the origin of this Zhenwu Temple, and in front of the statue of the Zhenwu Emperor, he introduced to Chongzhen.

“… Emperor Yongle regarded himself as the reincarnation of Emperor Zhenwu, so the statue in this Zhenwu Temple was originally shaped according to the appearance of Emperor Yongle. It is said that the bronze statue on Wudang Mountain was made by the same craftsman as this statue, and the Yongle Emperor first saw this statue before ordering the construction of the one on Wudang Mountain..."

Stopping in front of the Zhenwu statue and looking at it for a long time, Zhu Youzhen said with a smile: "It turns out that Emperor Yongle looks like this, and he is really powerful..."

Just as Chongzhen was commenting on the real martial arts statue, Lian Shanxiang, who was guarding outside, ran in to report that the guards had arrived outside Andingmen and were doing the last time to form a team. Naturally, the Guards did not just come back from Tianjin, but repaired in the camp in the northern suburbs for two days, and only today came to complete the final procedures for collecting troops.

After hearing Lian Shanxiang's report, Chongzhen suddenly restrained his smile, sorted out the clothes on his body, and then led everyone out of the Zhenwu Temple. Originally, Chongzhen did not need to meet the guards in the urn city, and after demolishing the palace walls on both sides of the imperial road, the front of Chengtian Gate has become an extremely empty imperial road square.

When the guards set out on the expedition, Zhu Youzhen inspected the troops on the Chengtian Gate, and then watched them leave. According to the will of the General Staff, when the Guards return, they should do the same. However, Chongzhen insisted on his opinion, saying that he would be the first to welcome the guards back to the capital, so in the end, the emperor watched the guards enter the city in the urn city, and then did a final review at the Chengtian Gate to complete the ceremony of the army's return to the city.

Chongzhen and his entourage stood on the west side of the urn city, and when Sun Chuanting and other generals who walked in front of the team entered the urn city, they saw the yellow umbrella cover representing the emperor's identity at first sight, and then saw the emperor and other court officials standing below.

Sun Chuanting, Huang Degong and other generals in the army subconsciously stopped, ready to step forward to salute Chongzhen. However, to their surprise, Chongzhen shook off the officials around him and walked towards them first.

"Don't stop saluting, don't disrupt the pace of the soldiers. I now command you: the Guards continue to advance and prepare to be inspected by the people. Show the momentum of your charge to the enemy's position, and let the people of the Ming Dynasty know what kind of mighty army is defending their lives. Glory, Guards! ”

Chongzhen, who was standing straight, shouted the last sentence hoarsely in the face of the soldiers, which made the soldiers of the Guards suddenly high-spirited. On such an occasion, the emperor's public praise made them feel more satisfied than any reward, and a kind of pride that had never existed before suddenly appeared on these soldiers.

Just as these guards officers and soldiers were holding their heads high and preparing to continue to advance towards the city, a young officer, under the excitement of worship, couldn't help but shout back to the emperor: "Long live the emperor, defend the motherland..."

The young officer's casual shouting of the slogan in response soon became a call for the Guards officers passing in front of the emperor to pay tribute to the emperor. And Chongzhen reciprocated every time: "Glory, Guards! Between this question and answer, the most unbreakable bond between the Guards and the Emperor was finally established, and some people's worries about whether Sun Chuanting would control the Guards by virtue of this expedition also disappeared in an instant.

Obviously, the connection between the Guards and the Emperor was much stronger than they thought. Even Sun Chuanting, who led them on the expedition, could not let such an army completely obey his orders.

Although the vicinity of Beijing was covered with snow a few days ago, the streets of the city were extremely clean, and there was not a single accumulated ice slag or snow slag in sight. On both sides of the wide street, it was crowded with people from the capital who had come to watch the ceremony of the Guards' return to the city.

Under the continuous public opinion propaganda of the imperial court, this guard who returned safely from the camp naturally gained the greatest favor of the people in the capital. The beautiful black and red uniforms and cloaks of the Guards, coupled with the spirit and spirit shaped by long-term military training, made everyone in this army look heroic and impressed, and the people of the capital were also greatly admired.

Amid the cheers of the onlookers, the morale of the Guards was even higher, a treatment they had never enjoyed before. After all, in the past, under the situation of military and civilian partition, ordinary people were either afraid or disgusted with the army, because it was almost impossible for them to become soldiers, and these soldiers were no different from bandits once they left the camp, and they were even more vicious than bandits.

In addition, the common people paid heavy taxes to support these soldiers, but these soldiers always left civilians to the enemy before they arrived, and never did their duty to protect them. Occasionally, a few dared to engage the enemy, mostly for their own promotion and wealth, rather than for the sake of defending the land and the people.

Ming army generals like Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou who are willing to protect the people are a minority even in the Ming army. Most of the generals of the Ming army were mostly good people who killed good people and risked merit or raised their own respect. For such an army, the people of the Ming Dynasty are naturally not willing to get close.

Yoshinobu Kobayashi and Naoken Inatomi were standing in the midst of these fanatical Ming people, watching the high-spirited Ming guards pass by the street in front of them. Yoshinobu Kobayashi was recommended by Osaka University to study astronomical sciences at Yenching University, while Naoken Inatomi was a military attache sent by the Edo shogunate to study at the Daming Army Military Academy.

With the continuous rise of the Ming Dynasty, from natural sciences to humanities, from the art of army command to the art of naval command, East Asian countries have once again bowed down to the feet of the Ming Dynasty. As in the past, once the Central Plains Dynasty became strong, the East Asian states tried to draw nutrients from Chinese civilization to solve the problems they faced. Only this time they didn't need to send any more envoys to the Tang Dynasty, but only needed to send foreign students.

As far as Korea and Japan, two students of Chinese civilization, are concerned, it is clear that the Japanese are more knowledgeable about current affairs than Koreans. For example, Korean scholars relied on their own early enlightenment and studied Confucius and Mencius more thoroughly, so they were quite unimpressed with the political and academic reforms of the Ming Dynasty, believing that Emperor Chongzhen was heavy on art and light on Taoism, far away from the teachings of the sages, and sooner or later he would cause disaster.

Of course, they can't control the political reform of the Ming Dynasty, and they don't dare to manage it. However, he vigorously resisted the internal reform of North Korea presided over by Shen Qiyuan, and naturally had a negative attitude towards the affairs sent to study in the Ming Dynasty. Even those students who were sent to study most of them studied Confucius and Mencius, and few chose natural sciences and military academies.

Although Japan was still in a state of feudal separation, it spared no effort to send students to the Ming Dynasty from the local feudal lords and the shogunates of Edo and Osaka. By the twelfth year of Chongzhen, there were more than 1,000 Japanese students, three times as many as North Korean students.

These Japanese students want to learn all the knowledge and systems of the Ming Dynasty, and they do not limit themselves to the scope like the Koreans. As a result, although Japan is still in a state of feudal separation, its economic and cultural openness and tolerance have begun to leave Korea behind.

Facing the Ming Guards in front of them, the two Japanese students immediately showed envy, but soon they turned the topic back to China.

Inatomi Naoxian said unabashedly to his friends: "I don't know when my country will be able to establish a mighty and majestic army like the Guards, so as to unify the whole country, abolish the feudal politics, and establish a court system like the Ming Dynasty, and then we can recover the rights that have been taken by foreign countries." ”

Kobayashi Yoshinobu did not seem to agree with this friend's proposition, and he looked thoughtfully at the residents of the capital who were cheering for the guards nearby, and then said slowly: "I think that the most important thing in Japan at present is not to build a strong army like the Guards, but to awaken the national consciousness of the Japanese people first. Without such loyal and patriotic people, there would be no army like the Guards..."

Methwold and Wilson, Robert. Blake and others were also watching the Guards' return to the city, but these British people did not choose to stand on the side of the street, but chose a restaurant facing the street and booked a private room to watch.

After admiring the heroic posture of the Ming Guard, Methwald returned to the wine table from the window, and he took the hot rice wine on the charcoal stove and poured himself a cup to warm up before facing Robert. Blake asked: "You should have seen the performance of this Ming army when you followed the Ming army this time, are they really as brave and fearless and powerful as the newspaper says?" ”

Robert. Blake thought for a moment before replying, "You know, I'm just a naval officer, and I'm not very good at warfare on land. If I were to judge it, this army was disciplined on the battlefield, they were extremely skilled in their weapons, and the generals who commanded them were able to grasp the fighters well. As for the rest, to be honest, the Battle of Yingkou was not as heroic as the newspapers portrayed, and I think some of the descriptions are too artistic. ”

Wilson on the side said with a somewhat strange expression: "An army can obey discipline on the battlefield, the soldiers are familiar with their weapons, and the generals can seize the fighters in time, this is already an army above the level, right?" ”

Robert. Blake has just woken up to the fact that he has been in the Ming army for too long, and he has taken some habitual phenomena for granted. In fact, the three points he just mentioned can only be done by a few powerful generals in Europe.

The three of them were silent for a moment, and after a while, Meswold changed the topic and asked, "Mr. Black, is your contract with the Daming Navy Staff Headquarters expire in April next year?" Do you plan to renew your contract with them? ”

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