"Your Majesty, what to do with the bones of these fallen soldiers?" Minister of Service Duan Zhixuan asked.

And Li Shimin said: "Ladies and gentlemen, what do you say should be done? ”

Jingwen said: "Your Majesty, you should collect these soldiers." After all, they are all the bones of our Han people, can they still be allowed to die here and the heroic souls cannot return to China? ”

And Duan Zhixuan also continued: "Your Majesty, the ministers also think that we should collect them. But the problem is that these have all turned into white bones, and they don't know their appearance or identity before they died. There is no way to find out their relatives and hometowns, so it is impossible for us to send them back to their hometowns, and we can't find their ancestral graves for them to bury! If this is the case, in the future, these fallen soldiers will not be able to enjoy the incense sacrifices of their descendants, isn't this also a lonely ghost? ”

And Li Shimin is also a little silent, because this is indeed a huge problem. In ancient times, it was important to pay attention to incense offerings, and it was important to enter the ancestral tomb to enjoy the incense offerings of your descendants. And sacrifice is a very important work in ancient times, if you ignore the sacrifice to your ancestors, it is a strict zhòng unfilial piety. But now these have turned into bones, so there is no way to know their appearance, let alone find their original origin and ancestral grave. In ancient times, there was no such method as a forensic medicine in later generations, and the appearance of the deceased could be seen clearly through the guò skull. Moreover, in ancient times, there was no household registration network in later generations, and a person's identity could be checked at any time. If you can't enjoy the sacrifice of future generations, then you are also a lonely ghost in Chinese culture, so this is also a very important issue.

"Also, Your Majesty, these bones have also decayed. Many of the heads and bodies had been separated, completely mixed with the other bones. In this way, we will not be able to tell who is whose corpse, and if such a bull's head is sent back to the horse's mouth, this will not be possible! Duan Zhixuan continued.

These fallen soldiers. It can be said that there is no corpse in the dead. In ancient times, there was no DNA that could tell the body of the body and the corpse of the body. So this can't be found out at all, and this is why they can't judge it anymore. If it is just a casual burial of the bull's head and the horse's mouth, this is not suitable. After all, doing so was also very disrespectful to corpses in ancient times, and this was not in line with ancient civilizations.

"Does anyone have any good ideas?" Li Shimin asked.

Jingwen thought for a while, and immediately said: "Your Majesty, the minister has a method, I don't know if it's feasible or not!" ”

"Say it!" Li Shimin said.

And Jingwen immediately said: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that these bones can be cremated." Since it was no longer possible to distinguish the bones, cremation was carried out. Let them be completely integrated. I think that those soldiers were able to fight Goguryeo together and die together on the land of Goguryeo, and they all had a deep friendship with each other. In this case, we can't tell them apart, so they are cremated and buried together, which is also in line with the tradition of the army. On the battlefield, it is impossible to find a burial in the hometown at any time, and burial in place is also a method. ”

"Cremation?" Li Shimin was a little surprised.

This cremation was indeed a good idea, since they couldn't distinguish the bones. Then simply cremate the wrong one, and maybe it's still a good way. After all, these fallen soldiers are not outsiders, they are all comrades-in-arms in the same barracks. Even if they had some contradictions in their lives, they were still comrades-in-arms after they died. Don't be so clear. Of course, this is also a compromise method to cremate together when it is impossible to judge the bones.

"What about the ashes of those soldiers? It's not easy to lose it casually, right? Duan Zhixuan said.

And Jingwen immediately said: "Your Majesty, it is better to put the ashes of these soldiers in the Loyal Soul Temple that we are just going to build in the Tang Dynasty, and allocate a special area for placement." Then in the future, you can enjoy the eternal incense of my Tang people. In this way, they are not without incense, they can not only enjoy the memorial of their own family, but also enjoy the mourning and memorial of hundreds of people in our Datang. It's not a lonely ghost anymore. ”

Jingwen's is actually wanting to open a cremation and the head of the public sacrifice. Cremation was rarely popular in ancient times, and most of them were burials. And the main thing is that it is popular to worship within the individual family, and it is not popular to pay tribute to public sacrifices. Therefore, Jingwen now wants to use the bones of these fallen soldiers of the Sui Dynasty to start proposing two new concepts, that is, cremation and public sacrifice. Although it is impossible to turn everyone's thinking around in a short period of time and let everyone accept cremation and public sacrifice, at least it has made a start, and then there will be support later. In ancient times, everything was precedent, and if Jingwen could set a precedent at this time, then those who supported cremation and public sacrifice in later generations would also be able to find a precedent, which is a very good thing.

"Let these soldiers of the Sui Dynasty enter my Tang Dynasty's Loyal Soul Temple?" Duan Zhixuan was a little puzzled.

"Old General Duan, in fact, there is nothing wrong with the soldiers of the Sui Dynasty entering our Tang Dynasty. Our Tang Dynasty is the inheritance of the former Sui Dynasty, so there is nothing wrong with accepting these Sui Dynasty soldiers. In addition, we are all Han Chinese, and they have all worked hard for us to recover the territory, and they have also paid with their lives. Isn't our Tang Dynasty now also inheriting their legacy, and then they all continue to conquer Goguryeo? Therefore, there is no problem for our Datang Loyal Soul Temple to accept them, after all, everyone is the army of our Central Plains Han people, and they all died for the sake of the country and the nation. In addition, they didn't die to resist the founding of our Datang Dynasty, and they have no hatred with our Datang, so there is no problem in letting them enter the Loyal Soul Temple! Jingwen said.

Duan Zhixuan still wanted to say something inappropriate, but Li Shimin said: "Okay, I have decided to let these soldiers of the former Sui Dynasty enter the Loyal Soul Temple of my Tang Dynasty, so that they can enjoy the incense sacrifice of my Tang people for eternity." They didn't die to obstruct the founding of my Datang country, so they have no hatred with me Datang. They can also be regarded as people who sacrificed for the recovery of my territory in the Central Plains, so they can naturally enter the Loyal Soul Temple of my Datang. Jingwen is right, Duan Aiqing, your thinking is a little narrow. ”

"Command!" Duan Zhixuan said.

Since Li Shimin has said so, if Duan Zhixuan still insists on it, isn't it because he is too "narrow-minded"? (To be continued......)