Three hundred coffins plus three hundred urns, the queue of these six hundred heroes is so long that the head cannot be seen. The first memorial tablet of the heroes has already begun to enter the temple, and the last urn has just entered the winding mountain road.
Xiao Letian and other Chinese officials knelt on the ground to welcome the heroes into the temple. Although Xiao Letian canceled the daily kneeling ceremony, in this kind of sacrificial place where humans and gods are separated and separated from each other, the deceased deserve everyone to kneel down.
It would take at least four hours for the six hundred heroes to kneel from the beginning to the end. Wang Huaiyuan felt sorry for the Prime Minister but did not dare to persuade him, so he had to wink at King Shangtai. King Shangtai, who was kneeling behind Xiao Letian, could only walk quietly. Go forward.
"Prime Minister, you have already paid your respects. Please stand up! We will kneel behind you...it will take a long time..."
"Back off!" Xiao Letian scolded, "These heroic spirits even risked their lives for the sake of the Chinese people. Aren't they worthy of me kneeling down? The deceased have become gods. Do you understand that the death of a human being is respected?"
King Shangtai retreated in disgrace after being scolded, and then turned to give Sima Yun and others a helpless expression. At this time, the team carrying the coffin had speeded up, and the atmosphere became more and more solemn.
No one dared to make any extra trouble. The heroic spirit tablets passed slowly in front of everyone with the momentum of a mountain. The cries of hundreds of thousands of people gathered were earth-shattering. All the temples and Taoist temples in the entire Naha City bells and drums rang and chanted sutras. The sound continued.
Even the newly built churches began to hold mass and pray for the dead.
The entire city has come to a standstill. All workers stopped what they were doing, all merchants stopped trading, and those people who were unable to go up the mountain in person due to restrictions on the number of people spontaneously stood on the street to observe silence.
The foreigners in the whole city were shocked. The captains and sailors on the ships did not dare to urge the stevedores to stop what they were doing. The European businessmen who had traveled across the ocean looked blankly at the Chinese businessmen who were negotiating and gave up their calculations. Walk out of the street and observe a moment of silence in the direction of the Oriental War Temple.
Seeing this scene, these foreign businessmen were all moved and took off their hats to show respect. This touching scene was recorded in the diaries of many returnees.
"The color of the whole city suddenly turned dark. Naha originally had a tropical maritime climate. There are flowers blooming all year round, green trees that never fade all year round, and various colorful buildings decorated with fuel."
“But on that day, the whole city changed... People spontaneously covered the brightly colored flowers with newspapers and cloths, and the red decorations in the houses were temporarily put away. The people on the streets gave up bright clothes and wore more clothes. Wear more black, white and gray..."
"Everyone is praying for the souls of the war dead. I even saw babbled children putting prayer flowers in front of the temple shrine..."
“This is an official-led sacrificial event but people voluntarily participate in it. This is a festival with no laughter and only crying. I have never seen such a spontaneous public sacrificial event by the people anywhere in Asia... The martial spirit of the Chinese people is evident. !”
"It's really terrible. The Chinese race seems to be a curse. All the Asians who have joined it, whether they are Han Chinese, Fusang people, Nanyang people, or Koreans... they all suddenly abandoned the weak side of the past and became They are extremely aggressive, and the light in their eyes is really terrifying..."
"I have only seen such eyes in the Prussian recruit camp. It is a spirit solidified by the martial arts of the whole people. It is a momentum of a nation that has reduced its head and is ready to pierce the oppression of other countries..."
"The Chinese race has accumulated countless bursts of power since the day it was born. Perhaps that power has always existed in the hearts of the people in Asia, and Xiao Letian is just a good leader!"
This public memorial event not only shocked countless foreigners in Naha City, but also shocked many Western dignitaries who watched the ceremony in the memorial hall.
As the status of the Chinese ethnic group increases, countries around the world are paying more and more attention to Ryukyu. At this moment, the major Western powers have established offices in Naha.
Among them, the offices in Prussia and the United States are the most luxurious. It may be that the level of the offices will be upgraded to embassies in a while.
Currently, various countries do not send ambassadors to Ryukyu, but there are many diplomats at the counselor level, and they were also invited to this public memorial meeting.
The counselor of Tsarist Russia angrily rejected the invitation of the Prime Minister's Office. The French counselor only attended without making any speech. As for diplomats from other countries, they published commemorative articles in Chinese daily newspapers to show their respect.
Prussia and the United States directly sent people to speak at the public memorial meeting and praised these dead soldiers, which made the French and British ministers look at them with suspicion.
When the public memorial ceremony actually started, these bored spectators couldn't sit still. They thought it was just a formal performance, but they didn't expect that what came up was an astonishing scene of 100,000 people crying in mourning and millions of people mourning together.
This is not a drama, nor is it a deliberately arranged performance. This is the heartfelt cry of millions of Chinese people. Their tributes to heroes are all the most real emotions.
The sky full of white paper money has covered the green of the valley, the cigarettes being offered are steaming like clouds, and the sound of crying is shaking everyone's eyes. What's more terrible is that Xiao Letian's kneeling directly detonated the atmosphere of the memorial ceremony.
All the European spectators could not sit still. Even the French counselor had to take off his hat and stand in awe on this occasion, no matter how much he hated the Chinese.
These European diplomats lowered their heads. In such a sad atmosphere, any trace of disrespect may trigger a huge diplomatic conflict.
What's even more frightening is that they seem to really feel that there are countless heroic spirits in the air looking at them, staring at them, making them sit on pins and needles and have to stand still.
The atmosphere was already explosive, and it was not just the diplomats who were sitting on pins and needles. In a corner of the memorial hall, behind the window lattice of a house, two pairs of frightened eyes were looking at everything in front of them.
Exxon and Molière, these two prisoners were held here by CIA soldiers, with their hands tied in heavy chains.
The position of the window is very good, with a wide view, you can see the whole public memorial meeting. The coffins, urns, spiritual tablets, flags... flashed in front of the two of them. The mountain wind howled like a ghost crying, and their backs were soaked with cold sweat. .
"Molière...can you guess what Xiao Letian asked us to do? Will he judge us in front of all the people? Will he shoot us in public..."
"Molière... you are smarter than me, please think of a way! I don't want to die, I don't want to die..."
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