The incident happened suddenly. No one in the group expected that Ru Taisu, an old man with gray beard and hair, would suddenly attack like this.
The middle-aged Japanese girl screamed, turned around and wanted to run away, but she was still a step too slow. After all, Ru Taisu was just an old Confucian. His grip was insufficient and the blade lost its accuracy, but he still slashed the woman on the back.
The woman was chopped to the ground, but she was not dead for a moment. She screamed in pain at the top of her lungs, which made Zhu Su and the others suffer from toothache. Cao Yuan took two steps forward, drew his sword and touched the woman's neck, which silenced her.
"Old man Ru, you have such a violent temper..." Zhu Xi looked at Ru Taisu, who was holding a knife and panting. Thinking of the way he just wanted to choose someone to devour, he felt the hairs on his back stand up. "What happened to him suddenly? Didn't you just say that killing a woman is too cruel?"
"We think it is cruel to kill a woman, but this woman did nothing." Zhu Di stared at the body of the Japanese girl on the ground with extremely disgusted eyes. "This woman is a prison keeper. Don't forget that the key to the cellar is in this woman's possession."
"...Oh." Even though Zhu Ping's brain was slow, he understood at this time. Since this woman holds the key, the miserable plight of the women in the cellar must be due to this Japanese girl.
Thinking of those miserable women in the cellar, Zhu Xi couldn't help but become angry. "Old man Ru, you killed well! It was time for me to stab you too!"
We are both women, but we help the Japanese pirates abuse women. What a beastly heart they have...
"Ru Yushi killed the thief out of anger, which is the style of Han Confucianism." Zhu Su stretched out his hand to support Ru Taisu, who was gasping for breath and losing strength, and calmly took the knife away and handed it back to the king guard. This old man also had a violent temper. I had heard people say that on New Year's Eve, he personally ran ahead with a knife and chased the fleeing Zhang Li for several streets. At that time, I still didn't believe it. Now seeing him draw his sword and kill people without saying a word, it seems that the rumor that he chased and killed Zhang Li in the past is true.
"Oh, how difficult it is for the people. I thought that now that we have conquered the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty in the north, the world will be at peace. But who knows..." Ru Taisu finally took a breath and began to sigh.
"Old man Ru, you claim to have read poetry and books, but you don't understand." But it was Zhu Di who stood up. "So what if we chase the Meng Yuan from the north? Aren't the remnants of the Meng Yuan still violating the border every year and torturing our people in the Ming Dynasty?"
"Only by wiping out all these Japanese captives like Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty annihilated the Xiongnu, can the people of Ming Dynasty have real peace!"
Ru Taisu remained silent. On a normal day, he would definitely have raised his eyebrows and pointed out to Zhu Di: It is not advisable for Emperor Wu to march north to empty the treasury, and it is against benevolence and righteousness to create a gap, which is something a wise man would not do... But today, looking at the dark cellar entrance, Ru Taisu was unable to say a word.
A group of people all took off their cotton robes. Gou'er was worried that Zhu Su and others would catch cold, so he quickly had a bonfire set up. Zhu Su asked people to take off some more cotton robes, and the eunuch dog sent them to the cellar.
After a while, women wrapped in robes came up one after another from the cellar. The first woman, with an ordinary face but bruises at the corners of her eyes, was tightly wrapped in a mandarin duck coat, but holding the three royal robes of Zhu Su, Zhu Xi, and Zhu Di in both hands, she walked to Zhu Su and knelt down on her knees. : "Thank you, young noble, for the robe. However, this robe is not something that we and other common people's girls can wear, and civilian girls do not dare to overstep it. Please, young noble, take the robe back."
"...Sister, do you know this robe?" Zhu Su was a little surprised. If you are an ordinary civilian, even if you can see that this robe is extraordinary, you will not think of the level of "transgression". In addition, this woman's speech and behavior are very decent, and she has a ladylike style...
"Sister, could it be that... she comes from an official family? Can you tell me your name?"
After hearing this question, the woman trembled violently and quickly avoided Zhu Su's eyes. "Young nobleman, don't ask any more questions... With a dirty body, how dare you mention your ancestor's name and bring shame to your ancestors? My young nobleman... you can just call the daughter of the people your third wife."
"...Sanniang." Sanniang looked ashamed and huddled into her robe. Zhu Su wanted to tell her that having such an experience was not an insult to his ancestors, but seeing that she had tears in her eyes and disgust in her eyes, he sighed and said nothing.
"Young lady, can you spare a room and find some cloth for my sisters and me?" the third lady plucked up her courage. "...I'd like to help you all, but it's cold in February. If any of you get cold, my sisters and I will die."
"If you can get some cloth and give us some time, we will be able to sew suitable clothes..."
Among the materials the Japanese plundered on the island, there was a lot of cloth. After all, their families also have to live on the island, so there will naturally be no shortage of daily necessities such as grain, oil and cloth. Zhu Su marveled at the ingenuity of these women and waved his hand: "It's okay. Sister Sanniangzi."
"We are all men, we have strong yang energy, and we have built a bonfire, so we will not be afraid of the cold. But you women are weak and have encountered disasters, so you need these cotton clothes to maintain your body temperature."
"But..." Sanniangzi still wanted to insist.
"Sister Sanniangzi, don't say too much!" Zhu Su cut her off without waiting for her to speak. "We are all Chinese compatriots, and we should be in the same boat...Besides, improvised clothes cannot protect us from the cold. Just ask these soldiers, who among them is so thick-skinned that he is willing to wear the clothes you gave us? Cotton clothes?"
As soon as these words came out, the voices of "unwillingness" suddenly started to rise one after another, with Zhu Xi and Zhu Di shouting the loudest. There were also some people who did not take off their cotton-padded clothes because they had enough clothes. At this time, they were also blushing and hurriedly took off their cotton-padded clothes to give to these poor women, as if wearing these clothes was embarrassing.
"...Thank you, noble man and all the heroes..." In this chaotic scene, many women headed by Sanniangzi burst into tears. What's more, he fell to the ground and started crying. Dai Sigong reminded from the side: "These women have encountered a great disaster. They should take a rest at this time. It is not appropriate to be overjoyed or sad!"
Zhu Su was also suddenly alert. He helped the women up with others and gave them kind words. It was difficult to calm down the emotions of the girls. "Dr. Dai, although there is a shortage of doctors and medicines here, I still ask you to diagnose and treat these women... I will thank you very much afterwards!"
Dai Sigong glanced at Zhu Su approvingly. "This is my duty, why do you need to thank me so much, Your Highness?" After saying that, he carried the medicine box and went to treat the poor women one by one.
"Lao Wu, why do you look so ugly?" Zhu Di noticed something was wrong with Zhu Su and approached him and asked.
"Fourth brother." Zhu Su looked ashamed. "They...are actually thanking me."
"They are the people of our Ming Dynasty. It should be our Zhu family's responsibility to protect them."
"But they thanked us..."
"Obviously we should have rescued them from the sea of misery earlier. We should have protected these clever women from the Japanese captives earlier. We should have apologized."
"...Yes." Zhu Di frowned. He was somewhat proud of being able to save these women. But hearing what Zhu Su said, Zhu Di's heart became heavy again.
"Fourth brother."
"Our Ming Dynasty needs to be even stronger."
Zhu Su looked at the women whose eyes were gradually getting brighter and said to Zhu Di word by word.
(End of chapter)
