flstandardbreds Chapter 125 Prisoner of War Camp
Chapter 125 Prisoner of War Camp
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"It's been ready for a long time, and it's incredibly powerful," Liang Xiaoming said proudly.
...............
Having witnessed the astonishing power of the siege mortar, the group returned to the South Garden.
Yan Guang asked, "We have the cannons to attack Guangzhou, but what about the government troops in Qiongshan? Should we let them go back?"
Liu Ye smiled slyly: "Of course we have to release them. This so-called 'encirclement and suppression' has mobilized all the government troops in the province. If the entire army is wiped out, and the court sees that Qiongzhou has produced such a capable rebel, they probably won't come to appease me, but will instead mobilize the entire army of Southern Zhili to besiege me. However, the timing of the release is crucial—if we, with our small force, go to the walls of Guangzhou to set fire to the city, the garrison inside the city certainly can't be too large. If they launch an attack and overwhelm us with numbers, we won't be in a good position."
Yan Guang understood: "Then let's wait until we finish fighting in Guangzhou before sending General He back home?"
"Exactly."
Qiongshan, the prefectural city.
Qin Bingyan eagerly awaited good news from Lingao, but instead received news that was neither good nor bad: the bandit leader Liu Ye was willing to surrender, but he felt that the authority of the general and prefect of Qiongshan was too low and wanted to go to Guangdong in person to discuss the surrender. In order to prevent misunderstandings and conflicts between the two sides, the army still needed to wait in Qiongshan for the results of the negotiations in Guangdong.
Upon receiving this news, He Rubin felt a mix of emotions: the bandits' offer of surrender wasn't necessarily a bad thing for him. If the surrender was successful, it could at least somewhat cover up his defeat. Even if he couldn't keep his position as commander-in-chief, he could at least have a dignified ending and return home to live a comfortable life as a wealthy man. However, for a commander-in-chief of a province, who had mobilized the entire province's forces and led a large army across the sea, to be reduced to a state where even retreating to Guangdong required him to be at the mercy of others, being manipulated like puppets, was a disgrace to any military man. He feared it would be difficult for him to hold his head high in Guangdong from now on.
But saving face is one thing, life is another. If he didn't want to be sunk at sea and fed to the fish, he could only obediently wait for the outcome of the surrender offer in Qiongshan. Little did he know that this was actually a ruse by the other side, a feint to one side while secretly advancing another.
Even if He Rubin saw through his scheme, Liu Ye didn't care—he ultimately dared not risk being sunk at sea to return and rescue Guangzhou. Having used a ruse to keep the government troops bogged down in Qiongshan, his next step was to bombard Guangzhou.
Before heading to Guangzhou, there was one more thing that had to be done: to deal with the more than 1,500 prisoners of war. The total number of prisoners of war had exceeded the number of the guards, and with the entire guards heading to Guangzhou, leaving these people behind in the rear posed a huge threat.
After the artillery battalion was captured, they were taken back to the barracks—a temporary prisoner-of-war camp was set up here.
When Li Mo, the deputy commander of the firearms battalion, entered the prisoner-of-war camp, he, like everyone else, was attracted by these cement buildings. These were houses that had never been seen in the interior of the Ming Dynasty before—they looked like stone but were not stone, they were neat and solid, as if they had been carved by a knife and axe, and they stood tall and majestic. After carefully counting, the tallest of them actually had four stories.
Wooden mannequins were scattered around the barracks—Li Mo guessed these were mostly training dummies for the bandits. The fearsome, indomitable bayonet fighting techniques used on the battlefield seemed to have been honed using this method. Passing by the barracks, the gates were open, and Li Mo peeked inside. Everywhere he looked were neatly arranged single beds, the bedding folded perfectly. Clearly, these weren't for the defeated soldiers; they were for the bandits' own use. Seeing this, without the bandits needing to utter a word, Li Mo's professional soldier's intuition told him this was the bandits' barracks.
He was deeply impressed. He had always thought that pirates and bandits were just chaotic mountain strongholds, eating large chunks of meat, drinking from large bowls, and dividing gold by the scale. He never expected that this small pirate would put so much effort into building such a well-organized barracks and training them every day; his ambitions were considerable. Thinking of the enemy's extremely powerful cannons and muskets, he felt a chill run down his spine—this was definitely not a pirate content to remain hidden on a remote island.
These prisoners of war naturally didn't have comfortable beds to sleep in; those beds belonged to the guards. Because the main force was engaged in battle with the government troops, the barracks were temporarily empty, and several three-story barracks were set aside specifically to house them. The beds had been moved, and everyone sat on the ground, spending the night lying there. Fortunately, Qiongzhou in June was already quite hot, so sleeping on the ground wouldn't make them cold. The barracks were also very spacious; each room holding dozens of people wasn't too crowded, and the three floors were enough to accommodate three or four hundred people.
Food and water were brought in at set times each day, and they were only allowed two meals a day, one dry and one liquid, probably to prevent them from having too much energy to cause trouble. Li Mo didn't think much of it, feeling that this was at least cleaner than the government's prison, and they could at least get half a meal—it seemed the thieves were treating them fairly well, and their lives were probably spared; perhaps they would see the light of day again someday.
If there were any problems with this kind of prisoner-of-war life, the only headache was going to the toilet.
There were no latrines inside the barracks. To relieve oneself, one had to ask permission from the guards, and no more than five people at a time could go to the latrines outside the barracks under their supervision. With hundreds of people in each barracks, the guards didn't care how many times you went out; there was a fixed limit to the number of times each person could go each day, and one or two times per person was enough. If you went too often, taking up someone else's quota, you would face ostracism from the officers and soldiers, or even beatings. Li Mo, being the acting commander of the firearms battalion, was surrounded by soldiers from the firearms battalion. Although they were all prisoners, the concept of hierarchy still existed, and as a superior, he wasn't worried about being beaten for going to the latrine a couple more times.
On the third day after entering the prisoner-of-war camp, Li Mo, as usual, asked the guards for permission to go to the toilet in the morning. This was his personal habit; he felt uncomfortable if he didn't squat in the latrine in the morning.
On his way to the latrine, he saw another group of prisoners approaching from another barracks, guarded by soldiers. The leader walked ahead of the other prisoners, seemingly of high status. He couldn't help but glance at him again, only to discover that it was his superior officer—the Left Guard of the Firearms Battalion! He had thought the officer had died at sea, but unexpectedly, he had encountered him here.
He stared at the other man in disbelief, ignoring the guards' urging. Zuo Wuwei, hearing the commotion, looked up and immediately spotted him, his mouth agape in surprise, and quickly walked over.
"General Manager Li, what brings you here?"
"Alas, it's a long story... Lord Zuo, I thought you had encountered some misfortune at sea."
Just as the two were about to talk, the guard pointed his bayonet at them and said, "No whispering allowed. If you need to use the restroom, go now, or you'll be sent back."
The two had no choice but to go into the outhouse. The outhouse was modeled after the old-fashioned public toilets of the past, with concrete stalls. Zuo Wuwei and Li Mo were both impressed by the neat and clean outhouse after entering the prisoner-of-war camp. However, this was not the time to admire the ingenuity of the bandits' outhouse. The two squatted down next to each other in the nearest stall and talked in hushed tones.
"Commander Li, you've come in too. Has the army suffered a defeat?"
After the naval attack, Zuo Wuwei knew that most of his army's strength had been preserved, and they would inevitably attack Bofu after landing. Although they were no match for the enemy at sea, they might still be able to win on land. However, even the artillery battalion, which didn't need to be on the front lines, had been captured, so the outcome of the battle was certainly not optimistic.
"It was more than just a defeat; the army was utterly routed." Li Mo briefly recounted the course of the battle: from the heavy casualties during the assault on the enemy's camp, to the complete suppression of his artillery battalion in the artillery battle, and finally, the cutting off of their supply lines, forcing the artillery battalion to cover the rear and resulting in the capture of the entire battalion.
Zuo Wuwei listened in silence for a long time. This news had a great impact on him, no less than the attack at sea. They couldn't win at sea, and they couldn't win on land either. Their proud Hongyi cannons were actually very weak. His concept of warfare had been completely overturned by these bandits.
After Li Mo finished speaking, he added, "Lord Zuo, if I may be so bold as to say this, this group of bandits is no ordinary pirates. Their cannons and muskets are too sharp, and even the imperial court's cannons and muskets cannot keep up with them."
"...They've only occupied a small area like Lingao, yet they're already so powerful. If they were to occupy the entire Qiongzhou Prefecture, even the combined forces of Guangdong and Guangxi wouldn't be enough to defeat them. Even if we brought in the wolf soldiers from Guangxi, it wouldn't make a difference," Zuo Wuwei replied in a muffled voice.
"That's a headache for the governor. I'm just a lowly captain, I'm not qualified to think about it. These past two days I've been thinking about how the bandits will treat us since we're locked up here." Li Mo was more concerned about his own fate.
"Don't worry about that. They won't chop off your head for no reason. If they wanted to, they would have done it already. Why would they be feeding and caring for you?" Zuo Wuwei composed himself. "They're probably trying to coerce us into joining the rebels..."
Upon hearing this, Li Mo became anxious and uncertain. Although his official rank was not high, he was still a military officer under the imperial court and an elite soldier of the Guangdong garrison. If the bandits coerced him, should he preserve his military honor or submit?
Before he could figure out this profound question, the guard at the door urged him loudly, so he had no choice but to hurriedly fasten his trousers and leave the latrine with Zuo Wuwei and the others.
Two days later, the choice was presented to him.
Liu Ye led the main force of his guard to the barracks, set up several 8-pound mountain guns, and had all his men fully armed and ready for battle. All the prisoners of war were brought to the open space in front of the barracks to hear Liu Ye announce their fate.
"Brothers, my name is Liu Ye, and I am the leader of your campaign to suppress the 'bandits.' You all know why you are here—it's because your army suffered a crushing defeat! Your commander-in-chief is currently holed up in Qiongshan County, neither daring to attack me nor retreating to Guangdong. Why?" Liu Ye glanced at the prisoners of war and raised his voice, "Because if we continue fighting, he can't defeat me; if we retreat, he fears punishment from the governor. Moreover, he's even more afraid of being sunk at sea by my warships and meeting the Dragon King!"
The prisoners of war stirred; they couldn't help but believe it. Zuo Wuwei and Li Mo exchanged a bitter glance: a mighty army of 15,000, having crossed the sea in a grand procession, had been utterly routed by a mere thousand or two. To be defeated was bad enough, but to be so humiliated, trapped in Qiongshan and afraid to return to the provincial capital. Many Ming armies had suffered defeats; those who couldn't win could always escape. But to be reduced to this state was probably unique.
"Now, you have two paths to choose from. One is to submit to me and become my subordinate; the other is to be loyal to the court and die for your country. If you choose the first path, stand on my right; if you choose the second path, stand on my left. You are all heroes of the firearms battalion, so I will send you off on your final journey with cannons."
The prisoners of war became even more agitated, whispering amongst themselves that if they had died on the battlefield, so be it; now that they had survived, there was no need to risk their lives to prove their loyalty to the court. It was just a matter of being a soldier and getting paid; they'd serve whoever paid them.
After a brief commotion, most people moved to the right in small groups. Those standing sparsely on the left were mostly officers, too ashamed to stoop to the level of thieves.
Li Mo was very hesitant. Looking at the calm Zuo Wuwei, he wanted to step over to the other side, but he couldn't take the first step. He was very conflicted.