Episode 173 The truth comes out of the gun

"Sir, Princess!"

A voice suddenly erupted from the prisoners of war.

Xiang Xiaoqiang, Zheng Yuxiang, and all the officials and officers of the Qing Dynasty looked in that direction at once.

Among the dozen prisoners of war in front of the barracks, one of them was straight with his neck, his face flushed red, and he stared at Xiang Xiaoqiang intently. His chest was fluttering violently, his lips were trembling, and his expression was quite strange, or... tragic.

Xiang Xiaoqiang looked at him and said softly:

"how?"

"Sir Xiang, they are all in the mine labor camp!"

The young man shouted.

Xiang Xiaoqiang's heart sank-as sure! As expected, as he thought, the prisoners of war were sent to the labor camp as slaves!

At the same time, his heart was filled with a hot feeling - finally a brother shouted out the truth.

The young prisoner of war also shed tears and shouted in tears:

"Sir, our days are worse than pigs and dogs... They don't let us tell the truth. They say that when they see you, they have to tell us, otherwise..."

Before he could finish speaking, two Qing soldiers rushed over, twisted his arms back and forced him to the ground.

Zheng Yuchang pointed at the two Qing soldiers and turned to the Northern Qing officers and screamed:

"Let him go! Let him go! Did you hear it!!!"

Several officers and officials of the Northern and Qing dynasties looked at all this coldly, and several of them were smiling.

Another Qing soldier threw a rope over, held the prisoner of war and pulled it into his mouth. The young prisoner of war kept spitting out the rope and continued to shout intermittently:

"We were picked out... the others are not like adults... Bah! Many people are dead... Ah!!"

Xiang Xiaoqiang rushed over and hit a Qing soldier with his feet facing the sky, and he fell to the ground. The other Qing soldier was startled and confused. He was about to rush to Xiang Xiaoqiang with a stance, but he was a little hesitant, because Xiang Xiaoqiang had a special identity after all, and he heard it just now that the emperor's younger brother was still in Nanming. If Xiang Xiaoqiang had any mistakes...

But he was worried, Xiang Xiaoqiang had no scruples. He got up, then rushed towards him, swung his elbow, and used all his strength, and the Qing soldier fell to the ground.

The circle of people around were shocked. The two Beijing-Qing reporters reacted and immediately set up the camera and camera, and turned the camera towards Xiaoqiang. Several Qing soldiers next to him also pulled up the shelves to catch him.

Xiang Xiaoqiang reacted faster, picked up a Qing army's rifle, pulled the bolt "wow" and raised it to aim at the two reporters.

Two Beijing Qing reporters shouted, and the machines on their shoulders fell to the ground. They raised their hands without hesitation.

Xiang Xiaoqiang was gasping for breath, and a hint of pleasure flashed in his heart: after all, he was an official reporter "in the system", and he didn't have a slight sense of professionalism. Before he could do anything to them, they threw away the machine. Unfortunately, his barbaric behavior is such a good publicity material for the Peking and Qing dynasties! However, it is impossible to expect such "in the system reporter" to take a little bit of danger to take his life to take precious shots.

The prisoner on the ground pulled off the rope from his mouth, shivered with excitement, got up and shouted:

"Sir!"

"Continue!" Xiang Xiaoqiang held the rifle and looked around at the officers and Qing soldiers present, and said coldly, "Tell the truth!"

The officials and officers around the Beiqing officials were all dumbfounded at this moment. Looking at the situation in front of them, they could not believe their eyes. Zheng Yucong's face was pale, his hands covered his mouth, his eyes widened, staring at Xiang Xiaoqiang intently, and exuding admiration without any scruples.

The two Qing soldiers who were knocked down by Xiang Xiaoqiang on the ground were also covered their faces and slowly got up. Seeing this posture, they didn't need the command from the commander to fall directly into their own team, far away from Xiang Xiaoqiang.

The other dozen Qing soldiers were also stunned and looked at each other. Some reached their hands on the gun straps on their shoulders and hesitated, wondering whether they should take off the gun. They were also afraid that holding the gun in their hands would stimulate Xiaoqiang to shoot themselves.

Xiang Xiaoqiang was fearless. No matter how many soldiers and guns there were, he would not dare to touch a hair.

The young prisoner of war around him took his leave and said loudly in a crying voice:

"This copper mine is a slave camp. One person has to carry 3,500 kilograms of ore a day. If he doesn't carry enough, he will be sucked by the guard belt, kicked leather shoes, and burned cigarette butts... There are only two steamed buns at noon, and it's all porridge early and evening... When we first arrived, it was winter, and the brothers only had clothes on their bodies. This is Mongolia, which is several times colder than the Ming Dynasty. They can freeze their fingers, and they don't give us clothes... Hundreds of brothers have not survived the winter... They are all dead... I don't know how many frozen and disabled brothers are..."

Xiang Xiaoqiang's chest was trembling, still aiming at the short gun, and asked hoarsely:

"So, aren't 6312 brothers anymore?"

"Six thousand?" the prisoner cried and said, "It must not be six thousand... The brothers who surrendered at our army at that time counted less than eight thousand when they first arrived... I don't know... Anyway, after half a year, the brothers who were tortured to death and tortured and disabled were at least one thousand..."

"Eight thousand?!"

Zheng Yucong screamed in shock, stared at Xiang Xiaoqiang.

Xiang Xiaoqiang's mind exploded and was stunned for a long time. He breathed desperately before he restored his thinking function. So, at the beginning, it was not six thousand prisoners of war, but eight thousand prisoners of war! The statistics were wrong at the beginning!

After the Battle of the Southern Suburbs, after clearing the battlefield at the ambush site of the Eight Banners and Sixth Division, the statistics obtained by the Ming army were about 6,000 captured. A few months later, the numbers given by the Beiqing side were 6,312 prisoners of war, which happened to be similar to the statistics of the Ming army, so I recognized it!

Now it seems that the number of prisoners of war given to the Southern Ming Dynasty by the Northern and Qing Dynasties was the number of prisoners of war that died in winter!

Xiang Xiaoqiang's chest was fluctuating violently, and he was furious. He moved his gun to the highest-ranking officer, the commander of the prisoner-of-war camp, and said gloomyly:

"Is that true?"

The prisoner-in-war battalion commander faced the gun, and the sweat on his head suddenly came down. But he could still say with a stuttering voice:

"General Xiang... don't do anything nonsense, you must calm down..."

Growned Xiang Xiaoqiang:

"I'm very calm."

The prisoner-in-war battalion commander was calm and said with a strong smile:

"General Xiang, that's not the case at all... You have to listen to me... so many of us, the dignified Qing army lieutenant colonel, will he still lie to you?... General Xiang, I tell you that that person is dissatisfied with our prisoner-of-war battalion commander because he... He incited the prisoners of war to escape many times. When I criticized him, he became resentful to me and hatred for the officers and soldiers of the entire prisoner-of-war camp..."

"You fart!" The prisoner pointed at him and cursed in grief and anger, "I incited my brothers to escape? Many times? This is the hinterland of Beiqing, which is 108,000 miles from the Ming Dynasty. Where can I escape if I escape? We are not stupid! There are several big pits of dozens of people in the mine! They are all brothers who died at your hands!"

"Just!" The captain of the prisoner-of-war camp hugged his chest and shook his head and smiled, "You are not worth refuting at all, it sounds false! Oh, there are several dozen big pits, so wouldn't hundreds of people die? There are only a few thousand people in total. If hundreds of people die, wouldn't it be that every squad and every platoon die? Then you have rebelled long ago!... Everyone has eyes, and General Xiang and Princess also have eyes. No matter how good we are to you, they have seen it! No one else makes trouble, but you are just causing trouble. Is it the only one of these thousands of people that tells the truth? What everyone else tells lies?"

The prisoner shouted:

"You have picked us out a few days ago and asked us to cooperate with you in acting, just because we are not thin enough to be skinny and bone-skinned, and there are no scars on our faces and hands, and they look better! But among the thousands of brothers, there are still people like us, so you can only pick out hundreds! Otherwise, why hide those thousands of brothers and dare not let Lord Xiang and Princess see it?"

"Because our copper mine involves state secrets, we can't just read it!"

Zheng Yucong immediately grabbed his words and questioned:

"Listen, I've brought our brothers into the mine as hard laborers! Didn't you say there wasn't?"

The officer's face turned red and he couldn't speak for a while. Another official from the Beijing Qing Dynasty immediately said:

"Princess, General Xiang, we did not force them to work. They all work voluntarily when they go to the mine!"

"Ha, joke! Do you volunteer to work hard labor and show me?"

The official continued to say steadily:

"Let me explain... it's not hard labor, it's some very light labor, auxiliary labor... they are indeed voluntary... because we don't let them do it in vain. We pay our wages, each person every month... uh, ten yuan... they all want to make some money..."

The prisoner could no longer bear it. He took off his shirt with a "wow" and exposed his scarred back and chest to show everyone, saying:

"Look, do these scars grow from themselves? I also have the burns on the cigarette butts on my arm, which I also have done?"

Xiang Xiaoqiang glanced at the old wound on his body, and knew it in his heart, and then he coldly held the gun and aimed at them.

Several officials in the Qing Dynasty looked at each other and then another official said:

"So what if you take off your clothes? We didn't abuse it, it was not abused! Our Qing army has the reputation of the "Thousand Division Army". It is recognized by the world that the military discipline of our officers and soldiers is very strict... How could we beat people casually? The prisoners of war are not obeying discipline, and they have quarrels with our officers and soldiers, pushing each other, causing some physical contact. There are some... But our officers and soldiers never hit people... There are indeed some scars, each prisoner of war, but we have investigated in detail. They were all left by the prisoners of war fighting each other, and they have absolutely nothing to do with our officers and soldiers..."

Xiang Xiaoqiang interrupted him and asked with a sneer:

"Each person earns ten yuan a month? Not low, it earns more than our assembly line workers in Daming. Six thousand people, ten yuan a month each. Haha, okay, let them take out the 500,000 yuan a month!"

The official was stunned and was so choked that he couldn't speak, not knowing how to deal with it. He wanted to say, "The wages have not been paid yet, but have been saved for the prisoners of war, and will be paid in one go when they are deported." But he was afraid that his words would be made, so he asked for a debt of 500,000 yuan...

He licked his lips and stammered:

"General Xiang, if you have something to say, put down your gun first..."

A large group of officials around also echoed:

"Yes, General Xiang, put down the gun first, put down the gun first..."

Xiang Xiaoqiang looked at Zheng Yuxiang, then looked at the brave brother beside him, analyzing in his mind what consequences would be if he put down the gun.

It's getting late now, and my gun cannot be held forever. If I put down the gun, they can't do anything to themselves, nor can they do anything to Zheng Yuchang. I still have to entertain myself for dinner and to entertain my sleeping place. However, once I put down the gun, the situation here will be no longer under my control. They will immediately drive these prisoners away and no longer let themselves hear their words.

Xiang Xiaoqiang did not put down his gun, but pulled the bolt and said loudly:

"Brothers, what else is there? Let me tell you now! Say it boldly! You will be with me in two days! I will be here all the time. You have nothing to be afraid of!"

He shouted on both sides, but no one answered again.

The chief of the prisoner-of-war camp sneered:

"It's useless to incite. I told you a long time ago that he is nonsense, and you didn't pay attention to him for a long time."

The prisoner beside him said:

"Sir Xiang, it's not the brothers who have threatened us in advance. The repatriation of prisoners of war is divided into four groups. The last group of brothers who were selected to act can return to the Ming Dynasty! They said that if we don't cooperate well this time, we will be told to "death in illness" in the Peking and Qing dynasties during this period, and no one of them will want to go back! The brothers all want to go home, but they don't want to die in the Peking and Qing dynasties... Everyone wants to tell the truth after they go back, why bother to hurry?"

He nodded to Xiaoqiang and understood. No wonder the prisoners of war in this "model prisoner of war camp" cooperated so much, no wonder the only one who jumped out and shouted out the truth was that he was the only one.

"Brother, what's your name?"

He asked.

The young prisoner of war replied:

"Sir, the younger one is Zhang Liansheng!"
To be continued...