Chapter 106: Prisoners
The captured officers and soldiers were detained in several places, the wounded were all sent to the 6th Naval Hospital in Ma Niao, and the selected civil and military officials were also detained in the special concentration camp in Ma Niao. As for the vast number of soldiers and prisoners, most of them are waiting for disposal in the temporary prisoner of war camp in Chengmai.
The prisoner-of-war camp was crowded with each other. The prisoners had their heads shaved and were initially purified. All the armor and uniforms on their bodies were stripped off, and now they are all wearing "purification suits". These so-called purification suits are made of "recycled cloth", the quality is very poor, and the appearance of the "purification suits" is even more simple. In the extreme, it's almost like opening three holes in a pocket to expose the arms and head. Of course, there are no shoes or socks, just a pair of straw sandals per person. There are personal numbers composed of English and Arabic numerals on the chest and back.
Fortunately, it's summer in Hainan now, so you won't get cold even if you're naked.
Not to mention escaping in such an outfit, even if you leave a little further, you will be spotted immediately.
The commander of the prisoner of war camp was Yuan Qiushi. This person had been serving as Wu De's guard and deputy earlier, and he had seen and heard a lot about how Wu De dealt with prisoners and captive laborers. Although his position in the labor camp was later replaced by Yang He, he was still considered a veteran. And because they are young and strong, newborn calves have nothing to fear or taboo about. He is a type of person who is particularly cruel and ruthless to his enemies.
Wu De specially appointed this person to be the commander of the prisoner of war camp, and he also wanted to kill Bing Youzi's majesty. Once the purification was complete, he had a gallows erected in the middle of the camp and posted the regulations.
Although the building materials of the prisoner-of-war camp were only straw and bamboo poles, the straw huts were neatly arranged and all facilities were available. The strictest control is implemented here. Prisoners must completely obey all instructions of the prisoner of war camp guards. Any disobedience will result in hanging. In the first few days, more than ten people were hanged every day. Then suddenly no one was executed, and the entire prison camp ran completely according to the system.
The food at the beginning was very poor. It was porridge with more water than rice. The purpose was to prevent the prisoners from overeating, prevent them from causing trouble, and at the same time weaken their will to resist.
At this time, the prisoners, who were obviously weak, were lining up in more than ten long lines and entering a wooden house one by one for interrogation.
The interrogation was carried out by personnel sent by the General Administration of Political Security. After several days of living, the prisoners had been trained to be honest and tell everything.
The content of the interrogation is nothing more than basic information such as name, age, place of origin, family status, education level, who is a subordinate, when he joined the army, what soldier he served as, and what kind of weapons he used. Then there are the specific skills that the soldiers mastered: what they did for a living before joining the army: whether they were carpenters, blacksmiths, or handicrafts.
Soldiers who mastered handicraft skills were gathered separately. They could avoid the hard work of road construction and formed special labor camps to engage in professional production. Yi Longwen proposed a plan, believing that it would be a waste to rush prisoners who have certain skills to build roads. It would be better to organize them into specialized prisoner labor camps and engage in professional labor in prisoner of war camps.
Through interrogation, Yilongwen also cleared out all the people from Hainan Island among the prisoners. According to policy, local prisoners were released on the spot. The other prisoners were jealous when they saw that the Xiangyong and Caojun soldiers from Qiongzhou Prefecture were gathered together alone, and then they received their personal belongings. Each local soldier and brave also received one or two silver severance expenses. Then they left freely one by one.
Many prisoners contacted the local Xiangyong and Caojun who were unwilling to contribute during the war, and were the first to collapse during the retreat, making them increasingly suspicious of internal and external collusion. Although Tang Yunwen's troops were camp soldiers, most of his troops were locals, so his subordinates benefited a lot and were all released. This gave many prisoners the idea that "Tang Yunwen and the bandits were in collusion."
This sentiment was reported by spies scattered among the prisoners. Zhao Manxiong decided to take advantage of the situation and use some alienation tactics. At least Tang Yunwen and his men will not be trusted by the government in the future.
After Lu Yizhong was captured during the breakout, he was recognized by the Ming army prisoners, and was then placed as an important prisoner in a temporary prisoner camp in Chengmai to await the first batch of transfers. In addition to him, there are captured staff. In addition to the staff who were captured in the final breakout battle, some others were captured and killed in the camp and elsewhere. In the end, there were about 20 civilian prisoners sent to Ma Niao.
The more than twenty prisoners were frightened and ran wildly for another day. Their legs and feet were so weak that they could not move around, and many of them suffered minor injuries. Yi Longwen, who was in charge of escorting the prisoners, felt that if he forced them to walk, someone might die on the road. The officers who were about to be escorted to the Ma Niao concentration camp selected dozens of strong men and asked them to carry sedans for the staff - sedan chairs. They were also captured - carrying people all the way to Ma Niao. This immediately aroused great disgust among the captured officers, and some people immediately claimed that they would throw the "sour ones" to death when carrying the sedan chair.
Of course, no one dares to do this. The sword players armed with ghost-headed swords and ready to cut people at any time are obviously happy to serve their new master immediately. Just the day before they left, several officers were immediately pulled out and beheaded for "baring and being disrespectful." The warriors seemed reckless and rude, but in fact they were not rough-minded at all, and they immediately became honest.
The staff and officers were placed in the shed in groups of ten. After Lu Yizhong and others were "purified", they returned to the house in a panic. Everyone looked at each other with big eyes and small eyes. Lu Yizhong was originally He was a captain, had been an official, and was an aide sent by the Governor. His status was higher than the others. Even after being captured and in a state of embarrassment, everyone still maintained a certain respect for him. Suddenly, like everyone else, he had a shaved head, his hair and a majestic beard were all gone. He seemed ten years younger and had a bag on his body. Although everyone didn't laugh out loud, they still couldn't stop laughing.
Only Qian Taichong said angrily: "Sweep the floor politely, sweep the floor politely"
Qian Taichong was also captured during the breakout. He could have escaped originally, but Chang Qingyun's horse was shot and fell to death. Qian Taichong happened to be passing by and dismounted to rescue. As a result, the horse was ridden away by others. He and Chang Qingyun Both were taken prisoner.
The moment he faced the bright bayonet of the Kun thief, Qian Taichong drew his sword and wanted to kill himself. Several soldiers who wanted to arrest him saw that he was about to kill himself, and for a moment they sheathed their bayonets, as if to help him. However, Qian Taichong raised his sword several times, and every time he raised it to his throat, he thought of his parents, wife and children at home, and finally he did not die.
Several soldiers saw that he was still alive after being lifted several times, so they cursed and knocked off his sword, tied him up and took him away.
Qian Taichong was so ashamed and angry that he wanted to die - before retreating, he had thought that if he failed to break through, he would commit suicide immediately without being humiliated. But when he was really about to die, he didn't succeed and was scolded several times by a few vulgar soldiers. This shameful humiliation made his lips tremble. Looking along the road, there were corpses of men and horses everywhere, discarded armor and weapons, and officers and soldiers who abandoned their helmets and armor were being driven away in strings. Qian Taichong suddenly rushed forward and fled eastward. He knew that he couldn't run away. The place was full of soldiers of Kun Thief. He just hoped that Kun Thief would kill him and achieve a death knot.
Sure enough, he was captured. After running for more than ten steps, he lost his balance because his arms were tied and fell to the ground. When the soldiers tried to pull him up, Qian Taichong scolded Dayi sternly and just wanted to die.
But what he was waiting for was not the sword and gun that could lead to martyrdom, but a riding crop. After being whipped seven or eight times by the riding whip, the pain became unbearable, and he was finally forced to stand up and return to the prisoner team. . This time he was tied up with other prisoners and driven more than ten miles back to Chengmai with horsewhips and bayonets.
They didn't stay in Chengmai for many days and were transferred to Ma Niao.
"This is Ma Niao of Lingao County," the Kun thief who came to accept the prisoners said arrogantly to all of them, "You are here in Lingao - you are only here as prisoners."
This kind of humiliation is nothing compared to the "purification" process encountered later. Qian Taichong, Lu Yizhong, and other staff members originally had an imagination that Kun Thief still had certain preferential treatment for them, the staff scholars - sending them here in a sedan chair was proof. They originally thought that when they arrived at the place of detention, they would be treated with courtesy, take a shower and change clothes, and then have a simple but comfortable residence - probably a small courtyard of a local wealthy family, or if not, they would be placed in a temple. Some people even think that the thief will not only give them a good living treatment, but also maybe have beautiful girls to entertain them. They know that there are not many scholars here in Kunthi. If they catch so many scholars at once, how can they not treat them politely and write an article about their thirst for talents?
As a result, not only was he not treated politely, but he was greatly humiliated. When Qian Taichong was rushed to the barracks staggeringly, his heart felt like it was falling into an ice cellar.
There was no "small courtyard of local rich people" or "temple house" at all, but a rectangular house with a wooden structure. The house was very empty, with ten bunk beds arranged in a row, and the beds were covered with straw mats. Apart from this there is not a single piece of other furniture.
In such a simple house, plus everything that happened to me, how could the other party show any signs of preferential treatment to me?
The captured staff sat on the bed with sad faces. Their heads were all shaved and they wore pocket-like clothes. Everyone was extremely depressed, and they didn't even bother to be polite. Although Lu Yizhong's strange appearance caused a burst of laughter, everyone was soon enveloped in sadness.
"It's already a good thing to survive now, so why talk about being polite?" Chang Qingyun said in frustration. His original heroic words were instantly wiped out.
"The thief Kun is humiliating us scholars like this," Qian Taichong said angrily, "I'm waiting..." For a moment, he was speechless again. What else can they do now? If he wanted to die, he would have committed suicide in Chengmai. Now he is his prisoner and can only be at the mercy of the other party.
Lu Yizhong couldn't even speak at this moment. He was older and could only breathe after the torment of purification. Lying on the bed, he secretly regretted what he had done to come up with the idea of "suppressing Kun", and what he had done to covet the general's gifts and post-war spoils and promised Wang Zunde to be a "staff supervisor". I'm afraid even my life will be lost.
Compared to others, Lu Yizhong knew that his prospects were bleaker. He is the mastermind behind the deal with Guangzhou Station, and I'm afraid Kun Thief already knew this. Needless to say, the thief Kun hated himself to the core for having such a large amount of property destroyed. Now if it falls into their hands, it will be cut into pieces.
Thinking of this, his teeth were chattering and they kept chattering.
"Mr. Lu, are you feeling cold?" Although Qian Taichong looked down upon him, he was kind enough to ask.
"No... the student is just slightly unwell. Just rest and rest." Lu Yizhong finally answered.
"I wonder what the thief Kun wants to do to us?" someone wondered.
"Probably they don't want us to pretend to be in office - otherwise there is no need to humiliate us like this; they probably don't want us to die, otherwise they can kill us all in Chengmai. The students thought that the thieves wanted to use us as hostages. , negotiate peace with the royal army."
"Sir, what you said makes sense." Chang Qingyun heard the truth and felt much better. "Wang Zhijun will definitely not ignore it..."
"I don't think so," Qian Taichong said proudly, "He Zhentai's entire army was defeated in Chengmai. I'm afraid Wang Zhijun will not be able to explain to the court, so how can he take care of us?"
This time, everyone's hearts fell to the bottom again. The food and accommodation here are poor, and they are handed over to the gathering point every day. How do they live like this? What makes them even more unhappy is that as scholars, no matter how poor they were in the past, they still received some respect from the people around them. But here, Kun Thief only regarded them as the same as other prisoners. This makes them very unhappy.
"It's time to eat," someone shouted outside. According to the system, each barrack must have someone on duty, responsible for such things as receiving meals and maintaining hygiene. Once when it was Qian Taichong's turn, he regretted his cowardice and deliberately refused to do the work on duty, planning to "swear the thief and die" if the thief pursued him.
However, Kun Thief did not pursue the case. As a result, Qian Taichong refused to perform his duty. As a result, no one went to receive the meal, and everyone was hungry for the whole day. Qian Taichong did not "die for scolding a thief". Instead, he was complained by his fellow barracks all night long.
They had also resisted cleaning the house, which was the responsibility of servants. But the result of not maintaining hygiene was a stink. The thieves obviously didn't care what the smell was in the barracks until they were so overwhelmed by the smell of excrement and urine that they took the initiative to clean it.
"Please correct your attitude. You are prisoners, not old masters," the officer in charge of the camp said fiercely. "I don't think I'm sending you away to build roads, so that's preferential treatment."
Sure enough, within a few days, they saw the officers in the barracks being driven out in groups early in the morning, and returning one by one in the evening exhausted and with faces covered with dirt and dirt.
Qian Taichong was not afraid - he came from a so-called farming and studying family, and his family also worked in the fields, so he was able to endure hardships, but the others were frightened by this threat. Most people think that the other party has not done anything too extreme and there is no need to have a confrontation with Kun Thief.
"What's the point of being in prison now? The government prison is even worse than here." A staff member who knew the name of the prisoner said, "It was pitch black, bottomless."
Chang Qingyun said: "I don't think the Kun thieves don't treat the prisoners preferentially."
He was talking about a certain house in this prisoner-of-war camp. The officers here had never been driven out to build roads, and the food and drink seemed to be good - you could always smell the aroma of meat and fish.
"All the people living here are Tang Yunwen's subordinates." A staff member whispered.
This is part of Zhao Manxiong's alienation plan: under his arrangement, the officers captured in Tangbu were isolated separately in the officer concentration camp, and they received better accommodation and food - the officers were poorly fed, and they were only guaranteed Just to survive, after all, these people will be released in the future. The guards were also very polite to them, and sometimes interrogated them alone for several hours. When I came back, the people around me didn't look like they were being interrogated, but rather like they were going to eat, drink and have fun.
"The Kun thief has been in Lingao for three years, and Tang Yunwen turned a blind eye to this. There must be a hidden secret," Chang Qingyun gritted his teeth and said, "If he could have suppressed the thief in time, the Kun thief had not yet matured, how could he be defeated today?"
Everyone felt the same and became suspicious of Tang Yunwen - some even suspected that Tang Yunwen's ability to escape before the entire army retreated was a trick.
Lu Yizhong also became more energetic: "He Zhen ordered the entire army to retreat that day, with Tangbu and Qiongzhou local troops as the vanguard. This army collapsed in one battle, and there was something fishy about it."
"The Kun thieves are overseas barbarians. I am the master and he is the guest. When we fight, the host and guest change positions. Our soldiers are passive everywhere. Without the guidance of the traitors, how can the Kun thieves be so successful?"
"Yes, they are all traitors and do bad things."
…
The impassioned discussion here once again confirmed the truth that "enemies are not to be feared, and those who do bad things are always traitors." As for Tang Yunwen's betrayal of the country, it seems to be a certainty.
Some of them felt that something was unreasonable, but at this moment, everyone wanted to find a reason for this defeat that had nothing to do with them. No one raised any doubts, but instead searched for suspicious signs that Tang Yunwen was "traitorous". .
Qian Taichong didn't doubt it, but he didn't agree either. He felt that Tang Yunwen's traitorous theory was not so strong. It is possible that Tang Yunwen was an economic general and that he accepted bribes from thieves and deliberately refused to suppress them. It is very unlikely that he ordered his men to deliberately defeat and disrupt the army. Even if Tang Yunwen was greedy for money, he would never dare to sacrifice his own army in exchange for money. As for him joining the bandits, it would be even more impossible - if the military generals of the imperial court were not properly trained, how could he become an official of an overseas barbarian? It makes no sense from common sense! ~!
