In the evening, a grand banquet began on the grass outside the castle.
Under the afterglow of the setting sun, dozens of banquet tables were laid out, and the aroma was fragrant. Not only were the dishes rich, but there were also a large number of fine wines, including hundreds of bottles of authentic wine produced by Folangji.
Everyone in the Franconian envoy was surprised. These wines were obviously fine wines produced in the Franconian country, and there was no trade between the two sides. How could they have so many wines from their own country? After asking later, they found out that they were produced in Guli.
Part of a large amount of alcohol seized from the city.
Although I am angry, there is no point in worrying about these things at this time. The port has been occupied by others, and the fleet has been wiped out. Why should I care about these wines?
After the food and wine were served, the soldiers took their seats. The envoys of the Franco Kingdom were also assigned a table, which was placed in the corner of the porch. It was not that the Ming Dynasty people deliberately neglected them, but Campbell took the initiative to sit in the corner because they did not want to be too over the top.
Being exposed in a high profile in front of all the Ming soldiers would make them feel uncomfortable. Because almost all the Ming soldiers looked at them with a strange feeling in their eyes. The eyes contained curiosity, ridicule, trouble-free, hostility, and even
There is pity.
Since the expansion of maritime hegemony, the Francois have stood tall and proud even among European countries, let alone in front of the people of the conquered colonies.
The two Earls Campbell and Atholl, together with the French noble council, go on a cruise to overseas colonies almost every year. To put it bluntly, they come to show off their power, inspect the lands they conquered, and have fun by the way.
.
Although life is rotten at home, they are concerned about publicity after all. But in overseas colonies, nobles can do whatever they want unscrupulously. Girls in the colonies can take whatever they want and have fun as they please. And recently, the French government has
A sea secretly popular among nobles
Outside hunting activities. In addition to the pleasure brought by hunting rare and exotic animals from the Eastern countries, which became a capital to show off when returning home, some nobles also participated in special hunting operations of hunting local indigenous people. To put it bluntly, they were openly killing people and killing local people.
Rush into the woods and hunt them like wild beasts.
This perverted and bloodthirsty killing behavior became popular as a secret entertainment activity among the nobles. It requires an expensive participation fee of fifty gold coins, and a strict confidentiality agreement must be signed before being allowed to participate.
Therefore, in the eyes of Campbell, Athol and others, in front of the people in the conquered lands, they are gods, and those Easterners are animals, who can be slaughtered at will.
Although the Ming Empire was not a colony they conquered, in the eyes of most Franco nobles, they were no different from people from other eastern countries. What's more, in recent years, a large number of Ming slaves and women were sold from the Ming Dynasty, which has become the norm.
In the eyes of many people, the Ming Empire will be conquered sooner or later.
Today, in front of these Ming Dynasty people who are usually despised by themselves and have never regarded them as human beings. They came to negotiate as defeated people and saw sarcasm and pity in their eyes. Even Campbell and Asuo
A person like you, who has a strong psychological quality and is thick-skinned and shameless, will also feel extremely humiliated and ashamed.
So they insisted on eating in a corner to avoid being humiliated by the eyes that made their bodies hurt like thorns. Of course, they also wanted to secretly listen to what these officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty said.
Learn something valuable from their words and actions.
After everyone sat down, Zhang Yanling, who was sitting at the top, stood up, holding a glass of wine in his hand, and walked to the temporary colorful shed with flying colorful flags.
"My fellow soldiers and brothers, today is the Lantern Festival, a day when the people of Ming Dynasty light up lanterns to pray for blessings and reunion. We should have spent the festival with our parents, wives, children and brothers at home and shared the joy of reunion. But we have no choice but to go overseas.
, tens of thousands of miles away from the Ming Dynasty
We are miles away and fighting loyally for our country. There is no going back. But the festival still has to be celebrated. Today we have prepared fine wine and food, cooked Lantern Festival, and brothers celebrating the festival together is also a kind of reunion. Don't you think so?"
Zhang Yanling said loudly and clearly.
"Yes, yes. It's the same for us brothers to celebrate the festival together." The soldiers shouted loudly.
Zhang Yanling nodded and smiled, and continued: "As the saying goes, loyalty and filial piety cannot have both worlds. In fact, I understand your mood and know that you miss your loved ones especially during the holidays. But there is a truth that I need to make clear to you. Loyalty and filial piety cannot have both worlds.
That is wrong. Why do you say that? When we go overseas and fight against the enemy, we are naturally loyal to the country. However, we also do this to protect the people of our Ming Dynasty, including our parents.
Elders, wives, children, relatives and friends. We have protected our parents and elders. Isn’t that filial piety? This is not only filial piety, but also great filial piety. It is more important than the filial piety of serving tea and water at Cheng Huan’s knees. Otherwise, the robbers will
Break into me
In the Ming Dynasty, we slaughtered our relatives and left them bleeding, injured, frightened, and frightened. That is how unfilial we are. Therefore, we are not only loyal to our country, but also filial to our parents. We are very loyal and filial people. Do you think so?"
The soldiers were filled with excitement and shouted: "Yes, yes!"
Zhang Yanling nodded with a smile and said: "I won't say more about the truth. Today is a festival and I don't want to spoil the scenery. We have prepared enough wine and delicacies today. Everyone can eat and drink to their heart's content and get drunk before resting. But I suggest you not to get drunk.
Because there are still lanterns to see after dark, and you have to go to the pier to put out sky lanterns to pray for blessings. If you are drunk, you will have no choice but to fall asleep. If you miss these fun and lively things, don’t blame me for not reminding you.
.”
"Hahaha, we don't want to miss these. Lord, don't worry." Everyone laughed.
Zhang Yanling nodded and said: "Of course that's great. Then, I announce that the lantern viewing feast on Shangyuan Night has officially begun. Everyone eat and drink with open stomachs, don't worry. However, I suggest that this first glass of wine be given to us all the way.
Brothers who died in battle. They cannot gather with us today, but they are watching us in the sky and want to have a drink. We offer this first glass of wine to them. Let’s celebrate the festival together in heaven and on earth.”
When all the soldiers heard this, they nodded one after another. Then they picked up the wine glasses, raised them to the sky, then bent down and poured them on the ground.
"Brother Feng Mazi, you're drinking." Liu Tan whispered.
"Brother Zhao Sigeng is drinking." Someone said.
"Brother Li Wanqian, it's time to drink and celebrate the festival," someone else said.
"Ma Laosan. It's time to drink. It's a holiday. You love drinking so much, so I'll give you an extra glass."
"Brother Dagen..."
"Brothers Erzhuli..."
"..."
The soldiers called the names of the familiar brothers who had been killed in battle one by one, and their hearts were full of nostalgia.
At a table in the audience, Helena sprinkled the red wine in her hand on the ground and silently said in her heart: Father, may you rest in peace! At the same time, she heard Catherine's low prayer next to her: Father, may you rest in peace in heaven.
!
Athol and Campbell looked at all this and thought: This Duke of Ming Dynasty is really no small matter. In just a few words, he incited the emotions of the soldiers. Their happiness and sadness are under his control, and he is very good at it.
Inspire soldiers. These soldiers of the Ming Dynasty
The officers and soldiers obviously love him very much, and his military discipline is also very good. This is different from the situation in the Franji Kingdom. If the Franji Kingdom held such a banquet, they would have been drunk by now, and no one would want to be at the banquet.
I heard their commander being verbose.
The banquet began, and the scene suddenly became lively. The atmosphere was lively as people drank and drank. The soldiers drank happily until their glasses were dry. Today there was not only wine, but also spirits from the Ming Dynasty brought with the army on the transport ship.
Naturally, everyone hopes to drink white wine, because wine was jokingly called fruit juice and sugar water by the Ming Dynasty soldiers, which is not satisfying at all. However, the number of spirits is limited, one jar per table, and it is served as soon as it is consumed. If you want to have a good drink, you can only make up the amount with wine.
.
But even so, everyone was still very happy to drink. Some soldiers were ingenious and added white wine to the wine. Although the taste of the strong wine was diluted, it finally gave the wine a taste of strong liquor, which is not a bad idea.
way.
Zhang Yanling frequently raised his glass to greet the soldiers who came to toast him, and also took the glass to drink elsewhere. He put his arms around the soldiers, talked and laughed across from each other, and did not look condescending at all. This made Athol and Campbell watching all this even more
It feels incredible.
If a superior does this, either his soldiers will have no respect for him at all, or these people are like brothers who are willing to die for him. Obviously, this Duke of Ming Dynasty is the latter.
As they drank wine, the sky gradually dimmed. After the sun's afterglow disappeared, night gradually enveloped the venue. In the sky, a bright moon hung on the treetops. It was a full moon.
"Huo Shijian, it's time to light the lamp." Zhang Yanling greeted loudly.
Huo Shijian poured a glass of wine into his mouth, swallowed it, and greeted loudly: "Come here, brothers, let's light the lamp together."
More than a dozen guards followed Huo Shijian out of the banquet. They held long fire sticks and began to light lanterns one by one along the surrounding lighting area. Those lanterns looked like nothing more than a bunch of colorful flowers at dawn.
The colored paper and shapes are not pretty. But when the lights are on, it suddenly feels like it has been completely transformed, becoming extremely magnificent and beautiful.
After each lamp was lit, everyone cheered. The soldiers clapped excitedly, looking forward to the next lamp being lit.
After all the lanterns along the lawn were lit up, hundreds of lanterns gathered into a long dragon of lights. Either red or green, big or small, crystal clear and beautiful. Even among the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty
Most of the hands are ordinary red lanterns, as well as the simplest lotus lanterns and carp lanterns. These simple lanterns, but in this foreign place, they also bring the atmosphere to a climax.
The octagonal palace lanterns hanging above the head are also lit up one after another. The octagonal palace lanterns are not difficult to make. The structure is not difficult, it just takes some effort. But tonight's meeting has been prepared for several days, so a lot of them have been made.
After all the palace lanterns inside and outside the castle were lit, the atmosphere became even more intense.
The soldiers at the banquet soon began to leave. The desire to watch the lanterns made the banquet boring. Everyone walked along the designated passages, as if walking in the streets of the Ming Dynasty, walking between the passages hung with lanterns.
Walked by.
The soldiers were rubbing shoulders, and the scene was as crowded as the streets of the Shangyuan Festival in the capital. Everyone pointed at the lanterns on both sides, and some recognized the lanterns they had made themselves, and they couldn't help but stop and brag. People next to them stopped to brag.
He was ridiculed and caused a lot of noise.
Zhang Yanling drank the wine sip by sip and looked at the scene with a smile, filled with emotion. Although it took some thought and time, it was worth it if he could make the soldiers so happy.
"Yanling, let's go enjoy the lanterns too. Haven't you had enough wine yet?" Zhu Qingyi said with a smile.
Zhang Yanling said with a smile: "No more drinking, it's more important to enjoy the lanterns. I want to appreciate your masterpieces. I heard that Qingyi made a revolving lantern, but it took a lot of effort. You have to take a look."
Zhu Qingyi smiled and said: "I guarantee it will look better than your broken carp lantern."
Zhang Yanling laughed, turned around and said: "Catherine, what kind of lanterns did you and Helena put up? I didn't even tell you if I asked you, and kept it a secret."
Catherine smiled and said: "You will know in a moment. Keep it secret for now. Helena, let's go and look at the lights."
Catherine took Helena's arm and pulled her to stand up. Helena was originally worried, but she had already integrated into the atmosphere. She stood up and left the table with a smile, and walked away quickly arm in arm with Catherine.
Zhang Yanling and Zhu Qingyi looked at each other and smiled. Zhang Yanling took Zhu Qingyi's waist and whispered: "Madam, please!"
Zhu Qingyi looked shy and leaned softly on Zhang Yanling's arm, and the two of them followed him slowly.