The meeting of the Jiangnan West Road Fuxing Association branch soon began in the Song Army's military camp.
Everyone began to discuss and study the current situation and discuss the next step for the peasant army.
According to initial statistics, the Song army lost more than 3,000 people due to cannibalism, more than 2,000 people died during the peasant army's attack, and about 5,000 to 6,000 people escaped, so the number of people captured by the Song army was about Around 43,000 people.
The peasant army achieved a very good casualty ratio and basically preserved the main force, and the soldiers made great achievements one after another. Many of them had seventy, eighty or ninety prisoners of Song soldiers. Not only did they make great achievements, they also increased their confidence and established The strategic advantage and superior mentality against the Song Army were revealed.
This is important.
This battle can be said to have completely reversed the strategic situation of the peasant army being passively beaten.
What also changed was the proportion of military power between the peasant army and the Song army.
In the entire Jiangnan West Road, it can be said that there are no organized Song Army troops. In other words, at the moment, the peasant army is free and can attack cities and territories at will and run wild in the Southern Song Dynasty.
But before that, there is one very important thing to discuss.
How to quickly increase the strength of the peasant army and how to deal with more than 40,000 Song army prisoners.
"For this matter, I recommend absorbing them."
Zhao Yucheng expressed his attitude and said: "First of all, we don't have enough troops now, and it will take a lot of time to reorganize and train. Although these Song soldiers are not very effective in combat, they have been trained at least.
Secondly, the Song army has too many prisoners and our soldiers are too few. If we divide our troops to attack the city and capture the territory at this time, there will not be enough manpower to guard the prisoners. And if we want to have enough guarding manpower, we will not be able to gather enough The army captured the city.
The current situation is that we have defeated this Song army and broken the encirclement. Outside the encirclement is Song Jiangnan West Road, which has no organized military force at all. If we can seize the opportunity, we can capture Longxing Mansion and occupy Jiangnan in one go. It is also unknown whether the West Road will serve as a base. "
Deputy Director Du Qi thought for a while and expressed his objection.
"Yucheng, I don't agree with your opinion. These Song soldiers have harmed many local people before, committed many evil deeds, and had many lives on their hands. Their recruitment would be a huge hidden danger for us.
What a bad impact would this have on us if we were recruited to work in the field, meet the common people face to face, and recognize each other at a glance? Therefore, I do not agree with this approach and cannot accept them casually. "
Zhao Yucheng sighed, thought about it, and decided to stick to his opinion.
"Lao Du, many times we have no choice. If we have a choice, I don't want to make such a choice, but the fact is that this is our best choice."
"Why is this the best choice? Including the bastards who harm the people?"
"Of course we have to screen them out first. The bastards must be screened out. The officers must also be screened out. But screening them all out is not enough. What do you want to do after screening them all out? Kill them all? This is more than 40,000 people. We It’s not like it’s all for nothing.”
Zhao Yucheng said slowly: "I won't talk about anything else. Let's just say that when the Liberation Army went on the Northern Expedition, they faced the same problem as we do now. There were few people in our army and many captured golden soldiers. How to deal with them was a huge problem. .
At that time, the Liberation Army made a decision to conduct a screening first. After the screening, they distinguished those who had committed many evil deeds from those who could still be saved, and put those who had committed many evil deeds to a public trial in front of those prisoners who could still be saved. This deeply touched them.
I thought that most of them were brutally oppressed by the officers, so many Jin soldiers joined the Liberation Army and fought as soldiers since then. Many of them later became officers and even joined the Renaissance Association. , very positive. "
Du Qi pursed his lips and remained silent.
When Zhao Yucheng saw that he was silent, he continued.
"There were some people who opposed this decision at the time. They thought that these prisoners had human lives on their hands and were dirty. They should all be executed to frighten the enemy and avenge the injured people. However, His Majesty went against all opinions and asked us to pay attention to the screening and treat the captured prisoners differently. of enemy troops.
Your Majesty believes that after screening and education, if handled properly, they can quickly transform into our fighting force. At the beginning of the Northern Expedition, the Liberation Army only had more than 100,000 people. After conquering Zhongdu, it took only a few months to increase the number of troops. Nearly half a million.
It can be said that at that time, the main force of the entire Jin Army and many local armed forces who followed us entered the Liberation Army. The Liberation Army became a hodgepodge. In terms of the complexity of the ingredients, it was far more serious than we are now, right?
Of course, the Liberation Army did not stop the education of soldiers. After Yanyun was settled, they conducted two or three screenings and re-education of the former captive soldiers in the army. After a period of screening and education, tens of thousands were eliminated. people, the total strength was limited to 400,000, which is today's Ming army. "
At the meeting of the Jiangnan West Road Renaissance Association branch, many people were listening to Zhao Yucheng tell the story of the expansion, reorganization, reorganization and final formation of the Liberation Army that year that they were not very clear about.
More than half of the people in today's Ming Army were reorganized from the original Jin Army. They once oppressed the people under the Jin Kingdom's system. They themselves were also oppressed by Shangguan. They were confused and didn't know when they were born and when they died.
If you ask them to tell the story that they were once Jin Jun, they will be very unhappy and angry. They feel that they don’t want to recall the past. They lived like ghosts at that time. What is there to say?
For them, the days after joining the Liberation Army are the days that people live, the days that are meaningful in their eyes. Only then will their lives be meaningful and valuable. The days when they were in the Jin Army cannot be looked back at. .
Du Qi still didn't speak, but his expression changed.
So Zhao Yucheng continued his efforts and launched his killing move.
"The reason why the Song army committed so many evil deeds is this oppressive old military system. The officers oppressed the soldiers on weekdays. When the soldiers felt it was unbearable, they would indulge them in burning, killing and looting to relieve their pressure, thereby controlling their spirits and putting them under pressure. Transformed into a tool for killing.
You must have heard about this evil old military system. Under this system, is there any individual who can survive alone? I think it is very difficult, so the real crime is not the individual, but the entire Song Army system.
Of course, those who have been completely corrupted by the system are hopeless. They must be screened out, publicly tried, and executed to seek justice for the victims. However, those who are not deeply poisoned and can still be saved must also be screened out and rescued. Let them start over.
This is the work of our revival members, and this is the meaning of the existence of the revival society within the army. The Song Army turned normal people into ghosts, and we must turn ghosts back into humans. We must always make the army full of humanity and make the army full of humanity. The army will not be reduced to a killing tool. What do you think, everyone? "
Zhao Yucheng's speech was very sincere and very reasonable, and received support from many people.
In the end, the opposition represented by Du Qi retained their opinions and did not oppose Zhao Yucheng's plan to transform the captive soldiers, but they did not support it either. They decided to wait and see how things develop.
Zhao Yucheng initiated a motion to vote, and the entire branch's Fuxing members voted. The voting numbers proved that Zhao Yucheng's suggestion was supported by the vast majority of people, and the rest did not object and basically chose to abstain.
That's it for now, there's nothing more to say.
The motion was passed and implementation began immediately.
The Peasant Army immediately dispatched all the manpower it could currently dispatch, a total of more than a thousand people, to begin the registration and screening of these captive soldiers, preparing for the first step of their collection.
Identify officers and soldiers who have done many evil things and enjoy this system, hold public trials against them, reprimand them for their criminal behavior, and conduct public executions as the first step in reforming captured soldiers.
While Su Yonglin launched a large-scale movement in Shandong, Zhao Yucheng and others also completed the first and second screening of more than 43,000 Song army prisoners through extremely strong execution and organization, which took nine and a half days.
Through two screenings, 2,769 officers and soldiers with definite records of killing innocent people were identified.
Subsequently, the peasant army began to organize the captured soldiers of the Song Army to launch a public trial against these scum.
Their crimes were read out, and their bullying of their colleagues and subordinates was also announced. Finally, the peasant army personnel responsible for the execution announced the results of these scum.
For ordinary captured soldiers of the Song Army, the experience of the past few days was really outrageous.
After the extreme chaos of the bombing of the camp, they became prisoners, and gradually recovered from the extreme panic of the bombing of the camp, and then began to lament the fate they were about to encounter.
Caught by this group of thieves, is there any way to survive?
Just waiting to die.
The only difference is that the way of death may be different, but everyone is the same, they all have to die.
They think so.
But they soon had their first meal as prisoners, which was vegetable porridge. It was very thick, with a lot of salt added, and it was full of flavor, and the aroma of the food was overflowing.
They almost all thought that this was the meal for the victors of the peasant army, but when the peasant army escorted them to queue up for the meal, they felt horrified.
Because such good food is quite rare for them. It is hard for them to eat it when officers can eat it. Thin porridge is the norm. Occasionally they can eat vegetable porridge. When they can eat dry rice, they basically have to eat it. It's time to fight hard.
So they also thought that this might be their farewell meal.
The thief army is quite conscientious. If you give him a meal before he dies, he won't be a starving ghost when he dies, and he will probably feel more comfortable when he gets down there.
With such emotions, the captured soldiers of the Song Army finished their [last supper].
The night passed and nothing happened. The next morning, an identical breakfast came.
The captive soldiers felt a little strange.
Do you still have to eat two meals after being decapitated?
But they don't care, they won't eat bastards if they have something to eat.
After finishing the meal, their stomachs were full. They waited quietly for death. Then, the peasant army personnel began to take their positions and began to ask them some strange questions.
For example, your family's place of origin, whether you have relatives at home, how long you have been in the army, what position you currently occupy, how you feel about the Song Army, what you think of your superiors, etc.
Then comes the more pointed question.
For example, whether you have killed people, whether you have killed innocent people indiscriminately, whether you have participated in massacres, how many lives you have taken, and whether you know whether your companions or superiors have any records of killing innocent people indiscriminately.
These questions sound very strange. Except for the handymen who have never been on the battlefield and the new recruits who have just joined the army, how many veterans who have been in the army for more than two years have no lives on their hands?
As for whether it belongs to the enemy or the common people, it is hard to say. It is normal for the Song army to kill good people and take credit.
As a result, the staff of the Peasant Army announced to them that as long as they did not do anything harmful to nature and answered honestly, they would be exempted from death once proven. Anyone who deceived them would be treated as indiscriminate killing of innocent people, even if they did not kill innocent people indiscriminately. Direct execution.
Now the prisoners of the Song Army were surprised.
Can you still avoid death?
Is there such a good thing?
So what's there to hesitate about?
As long as you can survive, I will say anything!
As a result, many inside stories about the Song Army that were unbelievable to the Peasant Army were revealed, and the Peasant Army cadres responsible for the screening frowned.
