Chapter 169 Will the Truth Hurt People (Part 2)
Shandong Governor Chen Shiguan was worried that Huo Chong's spies might sneak into the army that surrendered to him and suddenly launch an attack on Jinan. However, Huo Chong's notice arrogantly stated that if the released surrendered soldiers harmed the people, Huo Chong would respond to the people's request and send troops to suppress the evil government troops.
Even for his own face, Chen Shiguan could not allow such a thing to happen. Naturally, he had to gather these surrendered soldiers. Under such legitimate thinking, the situation that Lao Shisan had expected happened. When the surrendered soldiers were taken in, they were plundered by the defenders of Jinan City.
Just a few hours before Old Thirteen discovered that something was wrong, a group of newly surrendered soldiers were thrown into a large courtyard. Huo Chong ordered that the prisoners must not be insulted. This was included in the daily songs of the Han army.
Before the battle, Huo Chong had already issued an order that since the government troops did not rob along the way, they were not allowed to rob the prisoners of their money. Therefore, when the prisoners were released, they all had a lot of money on them.
The prisoners were all shirtless, and almost everyone had fresh wounds, except for those they had received during the battle. The money was the prisoners' salary, and even though they had lost the battle, they had unexpectedly kept the money, and the prisoners, who had no idea what had happened in the previous battle, felt a little relieved.
In the Qing army, soldiers didn't have to expect to become officers, as that was something only the masters could do. At this point, they were still alive and had money. At least they didn't lose too much.
When they were thrown in here, the soldiers found that although they were still alive, they were beaten for refusing to hand over their wages. Some were beaten severely. At the same time, their money was gone. The only thing they had was their lives.
The officers and soldiers who were guarding the surrendered soldiers were guarding the door of the makeshift prison. The surrendered soldiers had nothing to eat or drink, and could only beg in a low voice for some food.
The soldiers guarding the city had received orders from their superiors not to give these surrendered soldiers food and water in order to prevent them from causing trouble. If they were hungry and thirsty, the surrendered soldiers would not have the energy to cause trouble.
Moreover, Chen Shiguan, the governor of Chen, had said long ago that these government troops who came from afar harassed the people in various ways and were all bad people. If they had not done anything wrong, they would not have ended up like this. Even if they were to uphold the local sentiments of the locals, the defenders were willing to watch the surrendered soldiers suffer more.
Although we had no shirts and were only wearing pants, it was only the beginning of August and not too cold, so we didn't freeze to death.
However, even with such frankness, the same tragic situation occurred again. Everyone quickly put aside their differences. The surrendered soldiers did not know that Huo Chong deliberately broke them up and mixed the green camps of Shandong, Jiangsu, and Henan together.
Although the accents of Shandong and Henan are different, there is no big problem in verbal communication. The accents of some places in northern Jiangsu are not much different from those of Shandong and Henan, so communication is not a problem.
One of the brothers from Henan asked timidly, "What will happen in the future? What will the master do to us?"
"What are you doing to us? They robbed us first!" the Shandong brothers responded angrily.
The brothers from Jiangsu were more thoughtful than those from Henan and Shandong. “Will you not drag us out and chop our heads off in the future?”
"It shouldn't happen." The brother from Henan tried to be optimistic.
After hearing this, Zhang Shiwu, a Shandong native who had sneaked in, spoke up, "That would be great. I saw that all the masters were captured! Did you see any commanders guarding the place?"
The surrendered soldiers recalled what they had seen after being captured, and only then did they discover from their confused memories that Huo Chong's men had ordered the surrendered soldiers to point out the officers and took them away. The rest were all ordinary soldiers.
Everyone confirmed the news, and many people instinctively felt the danger. As the saying goes, if the sky falls, there is someone taller to hold it up. In the military, the taller ones are of course officers.
Now the sky has fallen, and the tall ones have been captured. The only ones left are these little soldiers. With such a big thing, what can the little soldiers do?
Governor Chen Shiguan ordered a body search because he was worried that Huo Chong's spies might sneak in and launch a surprise attack on Jinan City. Chen Shiguan was right. Huo Chong would definitely sneak in a few spies. Zhang Shiwu was one of the very few spies. He loved listening to storytelling since he was a child, and he was very envious of the officials who loved the people like their own children and the generals who loved their soldiers like their own children as described by the storytellers.
But as Zhang Shiwu grew up, he never saw such a person in reality. Like the ordinary people who listened to the storytelling, Zhang Shiwu felt that the world was bad. Those good officials and good generals once existed, but they no longer existed in such a world.
Until Zhang Shiwu encountered the Zhongfu platform.
It was the disaster the year before last, when Zhang Shiwu's family had a very poor harvest and had to sell off their produce to get through the hard times.
When selling things, Zhang Shiwu was in a very low mood. He had to sell things at very low prices, but he had to smile to satisfy the rich buyers. This shame was really unforgettable. It was not that Zhang Shiwu didn't need to sell these things, but that he had to do it.
But the price paid by Huo Ye's platform for purchasing things was higher, and not long after, these people returned the things to the people who suffered from the disaster. The people didn't know why, but the reason given by the people of the platform really made Zhang Shiwu unable to believe his ears.
"Our Mr. Huo said that taking your things now is not helping you, but taking advantage of you. We did something wrong before, so we will return your things to you. If you haven't used the money before, you can return it if you want. If you don't want to return it, let's make a rule..."
All the people who sold things to Master Huo had already spent their money, so how could they pay it back? Everyone took the things back with trepidation and secret happiness. Some people even said privately that although Master Huo was a good person, he was a fool.
But these people still wanted to get more, so they cooperated with Huo Ye's platform. It turned out that Huo Ye was not only a good person, but also very capable. Although they suffered a disaster, not only did they not sell anything, but their lives were no worse than those in normal years. In fact, because they worked hard for many of Huo Ye's large workshops, they bought a lot of things at unimaginably low prices.
As the cooperation deepened, Zhang Shiwu went from being skeptical to believing. It turned out that it wasn't that there were no good people in the world, but that Zhang Shiwu had never met any before.
However, despite receiving so many favors from Master Huo, Zhang Shiwu's evaluation of Master Huo was also mixed with something that made him angry.
"Good things don't happen to good people."
"Kill people and set fires, and you'll get a gold belt. Build bridges and roads, and you'll get no corpses."
…
Every time he heard such words, Zhang Shiwu was extremely angry. Was the person who said this a wicked person, deliberately cursing Master Huo?
...Or could it be that those stories told by storytellers about good people being wrongly killed are actually true?
After that, the platform began to evacuate quickly. The reason was exactly as described in the storytelling. The emperor learned that Master Huo was kind and generous and did good things for the people. He was disliked by the emperor, and those corrupt officials were jealous and wanted to kill Master Huo.
Zhang Shiwu chose to follow the platform at that time. Even if he couldn't help much, at least he could do his part. Then Zhang Shiwu received a gun from Mr. Huo and joined Mr. Huo's team.
Zhang Shiwu applied for this trip himself. Mr. Huo's behavior was the same as before, repeatedly emphasizing that this operation was extremely dangerous. If anyone had any concerns, they should not go. It was not worth it for everyone to lose their lives for such a small matter.
Zhang Shiwu knew that what Master Huo said was the truth, but he did not feel dangerous. The lone heroes in those storytellings accomplished countless great things on their own. Zhang Shiwu had wanted to be such a hero since he was a child, and now he finally had the chance. How could he let it go at this time?
Hearing that the surrendered soldiers were getting more and more scared, Zhang Shiwu felt that the time had come. He said to everyone, "Brothers, those people are now robbing our silver, and I'm afraid they will chop off our heads next."
The surrendered soldiers already felt that something was wrong and were extremely worried. After hearing what Zhang Shiwu said, they became even more frightened. At this time, they heard the government soldiers outside shouting and cursing: "You guys, you didn't fight for your lives in the war, but now you have to fight to keep your money! If you do this again, we will chop off your heads!"
Zhang Shiwu was so angry that he shouted in the yard: "You guys outside, are you still human? We have already fought for our lives once! What do you want? Do you really want us to die?"
