Outside the Dongyang Gate of Yiwu County, when the familiar melody sounded, the representatives of Yiwu County who came to greet Chen Wen fell into a state of stupidity, looking at the Ming army in front of them who were still marching, silent. It wasn't until the Ming army marched close that suddenly, an old voice suddenly sounded, breaking the silence here.

"Grandpa Qi's soldiers are back, and they are really back!"

Looking back at the starting point of the voice, an old man was still looking in the direction of the Ming army with the support of the children of the clan, but his face was already full of tears of excitement and emotion. Everyone present knew this long-lived old man in Yiwu County, even if they didn't know him before, in the past few days in the process of planning to lead the Ming army to receive Yiwu's secret talks, the old man's old man's old spiciness has also been completely reflected in their hearts.

Grandpa Qi's soldiers, killed back?

Everyone knows that this old man not only had an ancestor who had followed Qi Jiguang, but even he had seen Qi Jiguang and the Qi family army of that era with his own eyes, and it can be said that he was the most familiar with that army among these local people. Since he can find the feeling of the Qi family army from this Ming army, and it should still be a very strong feeling, then this Ming army is very likely to be the Qi family army that was resurrected in the last days of the Ming Dynasty.

Moreover, even like them, they also found the figures of the Qi family soldiers who were familiar in their childhood memories from the aura and weapon configuration of these Ming troops, as well as the catchy melodies that were once among their ancestors and fathers. So, is there still a need to be uncertain about this?

Grandpa Qi's soldiers are really back!

The words of the old patriarch of the Jin family touched the heartstrings, but it completely ignited the atmosphere of the entire welcoming crowd. Completely oblivious to their purpose, they rushed to the front, gazing greedily at the armor and weapons of the soldiers. Their eyes were full of thoughts, as if they could return to the era when the victorious army once roamed the world.

Seeing that those people were rushing up, the Ming army also stopped and stood on the official road. Standing in the queue, Chen Wen looked at these people, but his mind surged to the threshing floor in the small village at the foot of Dalan Mountain last year. He threatened to rebuild the scene of the Zhejiang men vying for support when the Qi family's army.

Chen Wen knew very well that this was the fifth year of Yongli, and it was 1651 A.D., which was less than a hundred years from the era when Qi Jiguang was in the world. If it is counted from the year when the last Qi army under the command of General Qi Jin to aid Liao was collectively martyred on the banks of the Hunhe River - 1618 AD, it is only thirty-three years ago!

Thirty-three years is a long time, and a lot can happen, at least compared to thirty-three years ago, this land of Jinhua has fallen from a paradise of wealth and glory to a purgatory where people are swordsmen and I am fish and meat.

But for these parents who are in their fifties and sixties, 33 years ago was their most exciting youth. It is also the time when I have the heroic dream of sealing my wife and son, driving out the barbarians, and saving the people from fire and water.

In the most enthusiastic period of their lives, what lingered in their ears was the heroic deeds of their ancestors who followed Qi Jiguang to pacify the Japanese invaders, and what they saw was that some outstanding people in the countryside and neighbors went to the battlefield in Liaodong under the leadership of Qi Jiguang's nephew, General Qi Jin, and finally died there in the tragedy of state affairs, which left a too deep impression in their minds, even to the point of never forgetting.

And at this moment, this force was formed under the slogan of rebuilding the Qi family's army. Growing up with Chen Wen's unremitting efforts to lead by example, the final quenching was carried out in last year's war to cover the evacuation of the people. Isn't the Nantang Battalion, which has finally completed the reconstruction work, the Qi family army that these people have been longing for for a long time?

Moreover, in view of today's entry into the city, Chen Wenwen focused on the sales instinct of the work behind the propaganda in place to get twice the result with half the effort, and even took out this military song of the Qi family army as a foil to awaken the memories hidden in their hearts.

Looking at these excited crowds, Chen Wen knew. This will be the biggest help he has received by borrowing Qi Jiguang's prestige, and perhaps the last, after all, this road of expelling the Tartars will still be walked by him personally.

It's just that this borrowing is far from over. Chen Wen doesn't just want this county town without city walls, what he needs most is the Han people in this land!

The people had already rushed to the front, and after waving to them, Chen Wen turned over and dismounted, surrounded by officers and personal soldiers, and walked towards the people.

Seeing Chen Wen coming, the representatives of those people also put away their covetousness for the armor and blades of the Ming army, and the old patriarch of the Jin family, who was also the oldest person here, took the lead in saluting Chen Wen.

"Chen Dashuai has recovered this county, and the merit is in the community, please accept the old decay and wait for a bow."

Although if he hadn't captured Dongyang, it would have been impossible for these people to connect Yiwu to the Ming army, but this county town was clearly given away by them, and even sent to his mouth, and the people in front of him saluted a group of old people who were old enough to be his grandfather, which made Chen Wen dare to accept this big gift.

"Fathers and elders, please get up quickly, and learn at the end of the next late life, you can't afford to be a great gift from the princes." As he spoke, Chen Wen stretched out his hand to help the old patriarch of the Jin family up, and along the way, he also helped the others up one by one.

"We are all children of the imperial court, day and night looking forward to the king to be able to rescue the county from the iron hooves of the Tartars, today Meng Chen Dashuai personally mentioned the king to come, and we and other small people are grateful."

Before he could finish speaking, a young man beside the old man brought a tray, but in the tray was a pot of water and wine. I saw that after another representative of the people filled the wine cup next to him with a pot, the old man bowed down and handed it over. And Chen Wen had no choice but to bow down and thank him, then picked up the wine glass and drank it all, and then gestured to everyone with the mouth of the wine cup and put it back on the plate.

The welcoming ceremony of the people outside the city had come to an end, and Chen Wen and some veterans of the Nantang battalion followed these representatives of the people into the city on foot, while the remaining entourage bypassed the county seat under the leadership of Yin Yue and went to the west of the city to build a camp outside the Jinhua Gate for defense and training.

After crossing the Dongyang Gate, the road leading to the county government was already full of people who heard that the Ming army was coming, and after seeing that the teams were holding the set of mandarin duck array weapons that many people were familiar with, these people showed no less enthusiasm than those representatives of the people, and there were bursts of tears of emotion during the period.

In addition to sighing at the availability of people's hearts, Chen Wen had to move slowly surrounded by officers and representatives of the people, but even so, the onlookers along the way still crowded the road to the brim, so that it took him a long time to reach the gate of the county office.

After arriving at the county office, Chen Wen once again took out the letter to Jinhua's father and read it out in public. In fact, the letter to Jinhua's father has been transmitted from Dongyang County to nearby Yiwu in the past few days, but after these words were spoken by Chen Wen himself, they still ushered in the thunderous cheers of the onlookers.

After the frenzy of cheering had passed, Chen Wen took advantage of the situation and announced that he would recruit troops in the Qi Mansion at the west gate of the county seat the day after tomorrow, so as to gather a larger army to recover the entire Jinhua Mansion. Then he looked around and saluted, and entered the county office with a group of accompanying officers and officials, and began to check the materials.

After nightfall, the work of the county government core continued, and Chen Wen hosted a banquet for the representatives of the local gentry and common people who instigated the work of Yiwu County anyway.

After an afternoon of interrogating captured Manchu officials, Chen Wen also got to know some about the locals involved in the anyway work. If you count from the composition, these people are mainly divided into two parts: the gentry of the county town and the patriarchs and village elders of each village and town.

Most of the gentry in the county town have mining, commerce, handicrafts and other livelihoods, and the more powerful ones belong to the kind of gentry whose children have fame. However, these families are not pure merchant families, they almost all have a lot of land and industry outside the county, so they are also inextricably linked with various villages and towns.

Comparatively speaking, the patriarchs and village elders of each village and town are different. Almost all the families connected this time have joined the former Qi family army, and some families have even produced senior generals such as general soldiers, deputy generals, and staff generals. If you calculate it carefully, it is mainly divided into two branches: northwest and southwest.

The part of the family in the northwest is mainly dominated by the Xia Yanlou family, the Wu family of Wukantou and the Ye family of Ye Zhai. Xia Yanlou's family is more famous in the Qi family's army, and the two branches of the clan have produced more than 30 officers above the general level, such as Lou Zizheng, Lou Dayou, and Lou Nan, the ancestor of Lou Jiye, the subordinate general of Chen Wen, has also sat in the high position of deputy general soldier in Yunnan. In addition, such as Wu Weizhong of the Wu family, Ye Dazheng and Ye Bangrong of the Ye family, are also more famous.

The part of the family in the southwest is led by the Beilei Chen family, and there are also the Tianxin Wang family, the East Zhu Ding family, the Qingcun Jin family, the Yang family of Wangchou, the Chi'an Feng family, and the two Zhang families of the West and Longpi.

In the era of Qi Jiguang, there were more than 800 people from the Chen family in the army, and there were 52 officers above the general level, among which Chen Wen was more impressed, such as the Chen clan leader at that time, Chen Dacheng, who took the local people of Yiwu and the people from Chuzhou who came to mine for several months, and Chen Silkworm, who later sent troops to North Korea during the Wanli Dynasty.

In contrast, several other families such as Tianxin Wang Rulong, Chi'an Feng Ziming, Dongzhu Dingmao and Ding Bangyan, Yang Wentong of Wangchou, Qingcun Jinfu, and Zhang Xiqing of the Western Zhang family, as for the Longpi Zhang family, most of them were officers such as Qian Zong and Jiang Zong.

These families were once prosperous under Qi Jiguang's command, and gradually declined as that generation grew old and withered, and they were already dissatisfied with the Manchu Qing's harsh taxes and Ma Jinbao's crazy looting, so they were naturally very active in welcoming the replica of the Qi family army under Chen Wen's department to Yiwu.

During the banquet, Chen Wen took out the skill of pulling relationships on the wine table back then, and frequently toasted to these representatives of the people, and even attracted a child of the Ye family in the army to show up and tell the story of the Ming army in just one year since its establishment and the family patriarchs of these villages and towns.

After the banquet, Chen Wen personally sent them out of the gate, and praised Wu Dengke and Lou Jiye's martial bravery, loyalty and merits to the patriarch of the Wu family and the Lou family, so that the first half of the plan could be regarded as completing the sales work, and the second half would have to wait until tomorrow. (To be continued.) )