The urn city of Shuyang Gate, like a ring, protrudes from the south gate to the city, enclosing a large empty field.

At this time, in this empty field, Yang Chao's soldiers, including those who are strong, are all lined up in a neat queue and stand here.

In front of them were the corpses of their comrades, wrapped in white cloth, lying on the door panel.

In front of the corpses of these comrades-in-arms, there was a coffin with the smell of wood.

In front of the coffin, groups of sad women were standing.

Yang Chao took two personal soldiers, and Song Lian, a group of old people from Haizhou, stood among the remains of these soldiers and martyrs.

The two of them faced these living warriors head-on, and walked slowly from the movement to the west.

Song Lian was followed by famous gentry from Haizhou, who followed Song Lian slowly in front of the soldiers, stopping every distance they walked, and then bowing to these warriors.

"We thank you for the 100,000 people of Haizhou! Thank you warriors for saving our city! Thank you warriors for saving our people! ”

Their thanks made the faces of these warriors flush like a sucking pin, which was an exuberance that was extremely affirmed and highly satisfied with self-knowledge!

Because they knew that their desperate fight had paid off, that they had saved 100,000 people and had saved the city.

They were confused before, they were afraid, they were confused because they didn't know the meaning of fighting here, they were afraid that they would die in vain, people are dignified, even if it was a humble military household, they didn't want to die quietly like a cockroach in a corner that no one knew.

Now they are desperate, it makes sense, and they are not dead, they are recognized. Having received the whole city, the gratitude of 100,000 people, a feeling that had never been felt before quietly rose in their hearts. Sudden but extremely intense, they have a kind of intoxicating enjoyment.

In fact, they don't have this concept in their minds. I didn't know that this feeling was called honor!

Obviously, this ceremonial thank-you procedure was designed by Yang Chao to stimulate the sense of honor in the hearts of the soldiers, and at the same time tell them what they are fighting for!

Of course, Yang Chao's own heart is actually full of a fierce sense of honor, and he also has self-awareness:

"Yes, I saved the city, saved 100,000 people in this city!"

In fact, there are not 100,000 people in Haizhou. Usually, the registered population here is only about 40,000, but in the Ming Dynasty, there was a serious hidden population, and the family members and servants of those large families may not all be registered on the lowly register, and even many people who work in the fields are not registered.

The reason is very simple, the Ming Dynasty paid taxes according to the acres of land and people, until the Manchu Dynasty adopted the policy of apportioning the acres into the mu, the poll tax was abolished, and the population registration skyrocketed on a large scale, and the population doubled in almost a few years. Later generations of experts and scholars put this situation on the hat of the prosperous age, and their dog brains should understand it after thinking about it, unless they have the fecundity of cockroaches. Otherwise, how can China's population double in a few years?

Therefore, the population of Haizhou City must be more than that on the Yellow Book of the Government, and after adding the captives in the vicinity, many nearby rural people have fled into the city, so the population here has skyrocketed to about 100,000 people.

However, Song Lian promised to bring Haizhou Qisu to thank these soldiers. Yang Chao was still a little surprised, worried that Song Lian would be hindered by the arrogance of the literati. refused to bow to these lowly military households, and now saw the look on Song Lian's face. Yang Chao felt that Song Lian seemed to enjoy this act of thanking the soldiers on behalf of the people.

If you think about it, you will find that even the Son of Heaven has a tradition of expressing gratitude to the soldiers who have returned from the expedition, and of course, the Son of Heaven will next comfort the heavens and sacrifice to the temple to report to his ancestors.

It's just that although Song Lian is now sincerely grateful to these soldiers, he still doesn't care too much about Yang Chao, except for the fact that he just came down from the city tower that day, after Song Lian saw Yang Chao again, he regained his superiority as a literati.

Yang Chao didn't quite understand Song Lian's feelings, but suddenly felt that Song Lian seemed to have a sense of self-preparedness in front of him, was it because of the inferiority of a cowardly literati to a brave general? Or rather, it is a man who is weak by nature, and he has low self-esteem towards another brave and strong man!

Yang Chao doesn't care much about Song Lian's mentality, anyway, there are literati in the Ming Dynasty who are both sensitive and inferior, and because of their sensitivity and inferiority, they are often extremely intense, which obviously proves that the mainstream culture of this society has given birth to extremely serious pathologies.

Yang Chao also followed Song Lian slowly from the front of the army, but he did not thank the soldiers on behalf of the people of Haizhou, he was not qualified to represent the people of Haizhou, Yang Chao just tied strips of white cloth to the heads of the soldiers one by one.

These fighters were cooperative, because they knew that soon they would have to mourn their dead comrades.

Yang Chao's 500 elite soldiers, as well as Haizhou's 3,000 people.

That's right, Yang Chao only has 500 people left, and the people in Haizhou have also died more than 2,000, and only 3,000 are left.

Most of them had been killed or wounded in the fierce battle the night before, and the martyrs lay quietly in front of the soldiers.

Thousands of people, it took two hours, Song Lian thanked them one by one, and Yang Chao also put filial piety belts on them one by one.

Then Yang Chao also brought a filial piety belt to himself.

Song Lian and those old people even put on filial piety shirts.

Yang Chao had already reached the other side of the military column at this time, and shouted loudly: "Soldiers, bury our brothers!" ”

Just after shouting, in front of the coffin, the sad women knelt down one by one and even collapsed to the ground immediately, in pain, and the sound of grief echoed in Weng City.

The soldiers, who were originally standing in a row, also immediately took action, walked forward to the brothers who were lying on the door panel one by one, and a group of people worked together to slowly lift the body of the brother, slowly walked to the coffin, put the body wrapped in a white cloth into it, and then lifted the door panel, to be precise, the coffin lid to cover the coffin, and nailed it up with the nails next to it.

The women's weeping continued, and the soldiers who had nailed the coffins stood beside the coffins one by one, their faces solemn.

Yang Chao also shouted in a mournful voice at this time: "Spirit! ”

As soon as he finished shouting, a group of musicians next to him blew the suona, the mournful music sounded, and the suona hands walked towards the closing door of the urn city one by one.

The soldiers immediately lifted the coffin and followed the musicians one by one to set out on the road to see off the martyrs.

From the Qiyang Gate, the musicians were in front, Yang Chao and Song Lian and other Haizhou elders followed behind, and behind were coffins carried by the soldiers.

The funeral procession formed a long line, passed through the Nanguan City Gate and entered the Nanzheng Street of Haizhou City, and walked along the street.

There are many people on both sides of the street following, they are all spontaneous, some are throwing white paper money in front of them, and some are quietly following the slow walking procession, all the time silently seeing them off.

In the end, Changlong was still those women, they followed in pain, but these women were not spontaneous, they were found by the government, but they were all family members who had relatives who died, and those who had no relatives died in the war were not qualified to come with them to mourn.

Yang Chao followed silently, and his heart was also sad for a while, but it was conceivable that the hearts of those soldiers carrying the coffin must be very heavy at this time.

Walking down the street, the musicians turned west toward another street.

I walked all the way to the west, almost to the west of the city, and finally stopped in front of a large temple.

Guandi Temple in the west of the city!

Yang Chao insisted that his brother who died in battle be placed in the temple of the loyal and righteous official master, Song Lian agreed, and Miao Zhu dared to object.

And it's just a temporary placement, when Yang Chao goes back, he still has to bring back these people he brought out, let them return to their roots, and bury them in the ancestral grave of their homeland.

If there is a temple, there is a temple market, so there is often a large open space in front of the temple in ancient times.

The funeral procession carried the coffins of the martyrs over the tall white marble archway with the three big characters of 'Guandi Temple', and then placed them in turn in the square behind.

The government had already invited a group of monks here, who recited sutras and played with Buddhist instruments with mysterious tones to perform rituals.

The soldiers stood quietly in front, silently waiting for the monks to finish their rituals.

At this time, Yang Chao ordered the gathering.

More than 500 people gathered together, all wearing iron armor, with red blood stains on them, and they never took off the coffin.

At this time, these five hundred people were very quiet, but just last night, some of them were still close to collapse.

After that night's bloody battle, it had a considerable impact on the psychology of many soldiers, some were baptized by the tragic battlefield, and their spiritual will was sublimated to the level of the ancient Qi family army and Yue family army, and some were frightened by blood, and deep terror erupted.

But now, after seeing off his brother, in front of the solemn Guandi Temple, everyone has calmed down.

Whoever is not afraid of death, the emperor is afraid of death, let alone these military families from poor backgrounds.

Yang Chao doesn't blame them, let alone blame them, living the hardest life in the world, being deeply discriminated against by the world, letting them kill the enemy and serve the country? Why! The country gave them them, and they were the group of people who had the least reason to serve the country, although they carried the word 'military household' on their backs, they were like slaves.

The nobles who should serve the country the most are the nobles who have been raised for hundreds of years in the glory and wealth of those countries, and the literati who are favored by those countries and respected by the people, but the nobles only know that they are drunk and dreaming of death, and the literati only know the wind and snow, and when the country's fortunes are declining, they only use a few long and short sighs and sighs of poetry, even if they repay the country's favor.

These magnates, these elites, all count on the people at the bottom to kill the enemy and fight for the country.

Power and duty are reciprocal, and Yang Chao knows that he has brought these soldiers to the battlefield for the sake of his ideals, and it is axiomatic and unfair to them.

So Yang Chao made a promise to his soldiers with a deep sense of regret. (To be continued).