In the past few days, Zhu Yulu has felt a little anxious, because he personally killed the Qing general Chu Ku in Xiaoling (although he did not kill him), he suddenly became the focus of public opinion, and all kinds of discussions poured in, some applauded, and more disagreed, thinking that he did not conform to the identity of the Tang King and lost the imperial court system.

If you change someone, most of them will ignore it, and when this excitement passes, the situation will naturally gradually subside, but Zhu Yulu is a more serious person, and he must fight for the merits, but those gossips are hiding in the shadows, so he can't do it, and he feels even more depressed in his heart, no matter who he sees, he has to sigh with emotion, and scold those insidious villains.

This time, it was bitter for Tang Laihe and Wan Yuanji, the two of them originally wanted to pull Zhu Yulu over and fight against Wang Kefan together, but before they could open their mouths, they had to listen to Zhu Yulu pour bitter water, and after tossing back and forth a few times, they also lost patience with Zhu Yulu and simply gave up their efforts against him.

The three-day period is coming in a blink of an eye, and this day is the day when the Chu army pays tribute to the fallen soldiers, and representatives from all parties come to watch the ceremony.

The Chu army won such an unprecedented victory in the Battle of Ningzhen, and the imperial court could not fail to express that although the poor jingle sounded, they also tightened their belts and made up a reward of silver, which was brought to Nanjing by Yang Tinglin's envoys, but Yang Tinglin left in a bad mood, and this matter was handled by Zhu Yulu, the king of Tang.

Yang Tinglin left, Tang Laihe and Wan Yuan Ji couldn't go, and that morning, the two came to the Memorial Cemetery on the shore of the former lake.

Qianhu is backed by the Purple Mountain, the terrain is open, the cemetery of the fallen soldiers of the Chu army is located on a hill on the east bank of the Qianhu Lake, standing on a high place and overlooking it, you can see the Nanjing city wall, and the cemetery is so close to the front line, Wan Yuanji does not understand.

"Did Wang Kefan really think that Nanjing was in his pocket? Aren't you afraid that the Tartars will come and destroy the cemetery? ”

"If it were me, I would probably have built a cemetery here." Tang Laihe said lightly: "This cemetery is guarded on the edge of the filial piety tomb, next to Nanjing City, so that everyone in the world can see it, if it is really built in the deep mountains and old forests, who will Wang Kefan boast to?" ”

There are too many rules for worshiping filial piety, people with a certain status can participate, but today there is no such restriction, the military and civilians can come to watch the ceremony, Tang Laihe and Wan Yuan Ji arrived in front of the mountain, and they were immediately startled by the black crowd one after another, you must know that it is dozens of miles away from Jurong County, and there are only a few villages nearby, how can tens of thousands of people come to watch the ceremony?

Only after asking people did I know that Jurong County was empty today, and the people of the nearby ten miles and eight townships had all come, and all the families were bringing the old and the young, and they came with great efforts early in the morning to put a stick of incense on the tombs of the fallen soldiers of the Chu army, kowtow, and send them on their last journey...... There are waves of people everywhere in front of and behind the mountain, everyone is wearing their most solemn clothes, no one speaks loudly, the naughty doll has long been repeatedly strictly ordered by the adults, and the rules and regulations do not dare to play and play, although it is a big scene of tens of thousands of people, a qiē is orderly, many Chu soldiers maintain order on the mountain and down the mountain, guide the people who watch the ceremony to the designated position, and a special person is responsible for explaining the relevant etiquette requirements.

At the foot of the hillside, by the lake in front of the lake, more than 2,000 soldiers of the Chu army stood in armor, like a piece of upright pine and cypress lines, without moving, swords and guns like a forest, flags like the sea, nine captured red-coated cannons were placed in a row by the lake, and the muzzles of the cannons were facing the direction of Nanjing City.

Several officers of the Chu army stepped forward to greet each other, led Tang Laihe and Wan Yuan Ji up the hillside, bypassed a forest, and a towering rectangular stone tablet appeared in the sight, the monument was two feet six feet high, and there was a seven-foot base at the bottom, rising to the sky, and the momentum was majestic.

"This ...... This is a clear violation! Wan Yuan Ji muttered quietly.

Tang Laihe didn't say a word, ignored him, and looked at this huge stone monument by himself, there are more illegal buildings in the world, and this kind of trivial matter can't bring down Wang Kefan at all, no matter how much he says, it's nonsense.

It's too big! Although there is still some distance, this huge stele still brings a great visual impact to people, and the huge size and weight are the best protection, even if the Qing army hits here, if there is no special purpose, they will not bother to destroy this stele...... The question is, it only took half a month for the Chu army to build such a large stone monument, which seems to exceed the possibility of manpower, how did they do it?

Behind the stele, is a huge tomb, the radius is more than ten zhang, come closer and take a closer look, the surface of this huge tomb is paved with bluestone, the tomb door is empty, it has not been completely closed, there is a small lying tablet in front of it, there is no word on it, I asked the Chu army officer next to it, only to know that this is a tomb of an unknown martyr, and the ashes of hundreds of fallen soldiers will be buried.

Wan Yuan Ji came over again, lowered his voice and muttered: "Wang Kefan really spared no expense in order to win the hearts of the army!" This, this is clearly a demonstration to the imperial court......"

Tang Laihe suddenly interrupted him.

"The deceased is great, Ji Gong (10,000 Yuan Ji No. Ji people) still need to be cautious in front of the spirit, these hundreds of soldiers have died in the king's affairs, we must not be disrespectful." He ignored Wan Yuanji's stunned and slightly annoyed look, paused and said: "His Royal Highness King Tang is there, I'll wait and go over, and please remember that under today's momentum, don't provoke Wang Kefan lightly......"

Under the high monument, Zhu Yuyi's head was tilted vigorously, the back of his head was almost touching his neck, and he looked at this huge stone monument with curious eyes: "This monument is so big, it should weigh tens of thousands of catties, right?" How do you put it up on the cornerstone? ”

Jingliang, who was standing next to him, replied: "Back to the prince's words, this stele weighs 79,000 catties, and the sappers spent ten days to erect it, first burying the cornerstone with sand and gravel solid soil, and then transporting the stele up the hillside, and then removing the sand and gravel solid soil after standing on the cornerstone, and finally building this huge monument." ”

Zhu Yulu praised loudly: "Good! Good way! Only such a monument can be worthy of the exploits of the soldiers of the Chu army, Tang Laihe, don't you say? ”

Tang Laihe stepped forward and saluted, smiled and echoed two sentences, and did not forget to say hello to Jingliang in his busy schedule, but Wan Yuan Ji followed behind with a black face, and there was a burst of anger in his heart, he was an old qualified feudal official, and he was taught a lesson by Tang Laihe, a junior, who was tolerable?

I can't bear it, I have to endure it, I can't turn my face with Tang Laihe on this occasion, and Tang Laihe is the leader of the imperial party, Emperor Longwu's confidant, and I can't turn my face with him, inexplicably, he turned his anger to Wang Kefan, if Wang Kefan didn't make trouble everywhere, where did he get so much trouble?

In the final analysis, the root cause of the contradiction comes from the power struggle in the three provinces south of the Yangtze River.

At the beginning, he thought that no matter how big Wang Kefan's appetite was, it would be impossible to swallow all the three provinces in the south of the Yangtze River in one gulp, and to break the sky was to seize Zhejiang, and Fujian was still safe, so he put Yang Tinglin in front, and didn't want to have a direct conflict with Wang Kefan.

There are so many governors in the Ming Dynasty, probably only he, the governor of Fujian and Jiangxi, is the most nesty, has always only been a piece of land the size of the palm of Ganzhou Mansion, less than one-third of Jiangxi, to the north is Jin Shenghuan and Fu Dingquan, to the west is Wang Kefan's Ji'an Mansion, Yuanzhou Mansion, the four forces are crowded in one province, Wan Yuan Ji is nominally the governor, in fact is the work of the prefect...... It was easy to launch an Eastern Crusade, seeing that the recovery of Fujian was in sight, Wan Yuan Ji had a feeling that he had finally come out, and began to think about whether to move the Governor's Yamen to Fujian, but Wang Kefan wanted to be the Governor of the Northern Expedition, and he would have to ride on his neck to in the future, Wan Yuan Ji was completely enraged.

The Son of Heaven was angry, ambushed millions of corpses, was angry, bled five steps, and Wan Yuan Ji was angry, but he was helpless to take Wang Kefan, Wen Wu, soft and hard, he couldn't fight Wang Kefan, these days I was holding my stomach in my heart, and I was stimulated by Tang Laihe, and I was already on the verge of breaking out.

Although Tang Laihe reminded him not to provoke lightly, Wan Yuan Ji was unwilling, "the major affairs of the country, in the worship and Rong", the sacrifice is a national event on a par with the war, all dynasties have strict etiquette regulations, Wang Kefan so fanfare to pay tribute to the fallen soldiers of the Chu army, there are too many places that exceed the system, if it is placed in the Taiping period, so it is light to be beheaded by the raid, Wan Yuan Ji did not expect to knock Wang Kefan down at once, but he didn't want to let go of this opportunity, he had to find some trouble for him, extinguish his arrogance......

With Wang Kefan, Wang Sheng and other senior generals of the Chu army in place, the memorial ceremony officially began.

The nine red-clothed cannons on the shore of the front lake roared together, thousands of Chu soldiers sang a long war song in unison, the question of "go to the water and fire, dare to stay late" echoed repeatedly on the surface of the valley lake, and the onlookers echoed in unison, when the soldiers of the Gongyi battalion walked up the hillside with hundreds of ashes, the common gentry, Chu officers and soldiers, civil and military officials, and even Zhu Yulu, the king of the Tang Dynasty, countless people had tears in their eyes.

In the face of the butcher's knife of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, they are all lambs to be slaughtered, there is no distinction between high and low, and when facing the ashes of hundreds of fallen soldiers, they also forget their identity, they are all ordinary Han people, the sacrifice and sacrifice of the martyrs will inspire the living, Wan Yuan Ji even temporarily forgot the grievances with Wang Kefan, and in the face of the long funeral procession, standing on the side of the road could not afford it.

But this was only temporary, when the ashes of the martyrs were sent to the tomb for burial, when Wang Kefan's voice sounded, Wan Yuan Ji was like being pricked by a needle, and his eyes became sharp as knives again.

Hundreds of columbariums were properly placed in the tomb, the salute was fired again, and the soldiers of the engineer battalion blocked the tomb door and the tomb passage with huge bluestones, and then sealed them permanently with bricks and stones, so that the martyrs could rest in peace. R1152