Back to the Beginning of Ming to do Charity

Chapter 52: Prisoners Of War

*Edited by LazyCat

When Lin Yuan saw the city gates slowly opening from inside Gaoyou, he himself was a little confused.

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After all, he did not arrange for people to go in to instigate rebellion, so this move was a choice made by Gaoyou soldiers themselves?

Not only Lin Yuan, but the people at his side were also stunned. Even the soldiers who were currently laying siege on the city did not expect such a situation.

Wasn't this opening the door yourself and waiting for them to enter?

They were practically saying: "Gaoyou welcomes you".

Lin Yuan shouted: "Enter the city!"

Regardless of whether this was the other partys strategy, they must seize the opprtunity and charge in now. Even if they had explosives, it was still not an easy thing to break open the city gates. Although the city gates was a wooden gate, but, the thickness did would not allow their explosives to easily penetrate it.

If they used the traditional method of hitting at the gates with a battering ram, the sacrifices would be even greater.

Lin Yuan raised his long sword up high, and the Lin family army with their conditioned reflexes reacted before they had even thought about it, charging through the opening where Lin Yuan's sword pointed.

Before the attack on Gaoyou, Lin Yuan had repeatedly ordered that they were not allowed to harm the people in Gaoyou or rob them of their property.

In fact, Lin Yuan could understand why in ancient times, most of the generals would not try to prevent the soldiers under their command from looting or vandalizing after winning battles. This was because the soldiers who had just experienced the bloodlust of war were still in a stage of extremely heightened adrenaline and needed to vent. In order to recruit more and win over these soldiers, the generals would not restrict them.

As for public grievances? That was something the Emperor had to consider. These generals were only responsible for fighting and winning. As for subduing the people, that was left to the officials sent by the court.

Lin Yuan's method for getting the soldiers out of this stagewas to loot and vandalize the government offices.

He also brought a large amount of food and meat, so that after the battle, the soldiers could vent through their appetite and smashing of the government offices.

Although he also knew that such a method might not work, but there was no better way at this stage.

If he wanted the soldiers to develop the habit of not looting and vandalizing, then he could only rely on subtle training to influence their habits.

It's just that the duration of their training was still too short.

Maybe when the time came he could organize the people of the city to thank them, which would arouse their sense of responsibility and heroism.

Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Baisong were the first to lead the soldiers into Gaoyou City.

The soldiers behind them followed closely.

At this time, Lin Yuan still couldn't support a cavalry, so he could only use infantry.

Fortunately, the current Yuan Dynasty army was mostly composed of Han people. During the late Yuan Dynasty, not much was left of the Yuan Dynasty's cavalry that had first conquered the world back then.

Chen Baisong's long knife swept up. On his horse, he leaned his head aside to avoid the opponent's long knife. He then flipped over and dismounted, wresting the opponent's weapon with his bare hands, and piercing the opponent through his chest.

Only then did he remount his horse and continued to charge forward.

In a battle of cold weapons depended only on who had more agile movements and sharper weapons.

Just behind Chen Baisong, the gunpowder team shouted: "Get down!"

All the people from the Lin family army heard the sound and got on the ground instantly. Only Gaoyou's soldiers did not understand, standing there stupidly with their weapons raised in mid-air.

They only saw a flash of fire in front of their eyes and a huge explosion sounding in their ears, as sharp metal pieces flew every which way. Only the Gaoyou soldiers in plain clothes had no time to react, standing right at the target position of the gunpowder explosives. Many of them were hit by the sharp metal pieces, with the lucky ones only getting scratched, and the unlucky ones directly pierced through by the metal pieces.

Lin Yuan brought a lot of gunpowder explosives this time, using them excessively as if they weren't as costly as they were.

When the gunpowder bags were all thrown out, the soldiers of Gaoyou were either killed or frightened into a daze. They had never experienced such a battle before. Everywhere they could see was fire and their ears were practically deafened by the huge explosions.

Taking advantage of their pause, Chen Baisong and Zhu Yuanzhang at this time caught them by surprise.

Compared with the soldiers in Gaoyou, the soldiers on Lin Yuan's side had more faithalthough this belief came from feudal superstition.

But this faith filled them with courage and the result was that they all became extremely courageous and valiant.

What's more, the low-level soldiers in Gaoyou could barely eat enough, and they rarely even see meat in a month.

The soldiers on Lin Yuan's side were different. Lin Yuan hadn't mistreated them at all, especially when it came to eating. In fact, Lin Yuan practically went broke to ensure that the soldiers all have good physiques.

Although in truth it did not get to the point of completely breaking his pockets.

Before setting off, he even played up the pitiful act to the soldiers, telling them that the reason why they didn't get as much meat as before was because they ate too much and they made him poor. So in order to be full, Gaoyou must be captured. This way, they could once again live a life where they could eat meat every three days.

"Kill!" Chen Baisong shouted in the front.

The soldiers behind echoed: "Kill!"

Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at Chen Baisong. Likely not wanting to lose to Chen Baisong, he also charged in the frontal position.

After two days and one night, Lin Yuan could finally breath a sigh of relief when they succeeded in winning Gaoyou. It would be detrimental to them to drag it any longer.

But Lin Yuan didn't have time to relax. He had to first record the number of people killed, then appease the ordinary people, and finally decide how to deal with the prisoners of war.

"Young master, take a break." Chen Baisong, who woke up from his nap and saw Lin Yuan still standing outside waiting for people to report the number of war casualties, couldn't help but persuade the other.

Lin Yuan rubbed his face and struggled to stay awake, saying to Chen Baisong, "I can't sleep unless I finish everything in one breath."

Chen Baisong was helpless: "It's not a day's work."

Lin Yuan smiled: "You actually know this expression."

Chen Baisong: "I heard it being said by the scholar from my original villa."

Regarding this scholar, Lin Yuan had also put him to good use, and was now working as a teacher in Taizhou. Lin Yuan did not miss a chance to find a use for all talents.

The main reason was that Lin Yuan discovered that this scholar was really just a scholar and did everything completely by the book. So Lin Yuan only had the man teach children to read and write. Other teachers would teach the students about other things.

Even the courses were drawn up by Lin Yuan.

In regards to his habit of considering too much, Lin Yuan himself couldn't do anything about it either.

So he was always appallingly busy.

Zhu Yuanzhang brought his men over at this time and bowed to Lin Yuan first before saying: "2,620 brothers died."

Although Lin Yuan was prepared, he couldn't help but inhale sharply when he heard this number.

"Bury them well, and give their families twenty taels as pensions."

Zhu Yuanzhang promised to do so.

Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Baisong stood next to Lin Yuan after their subordinates left.

"Boss." Zhu Yuanzhang still used the original title, "There are more than 4,300 prisoners of war."

Lin Yuan: "Keep them locked up first."

The families of these people may not all be in Gaoyou. What he needed to worry about now was that if they were pardoned, then someone among them might inform the court. That would become a problem.

Lin Yuan thought about it for a while and then said: "Starve them for a while."

Zhu Yuanzhang responded with an affirmative.

As for how to subdue them when the time came, after removing those who may have contact with the court it could be left to later consideration.

Zhao Xiaosi curled up in a corner of the prison. The first time he went to the battlefield, he became a prisoner of war before he could even react.

There were more than a dozen people in this small cell. They still had blood on their bodies, and some of them had stab wounds. They could not lie down as there was not so much space. They had to sit squeezed up next to each other. If they were really tired they could only lean on a comrade's shoulder to sleep for a while.

Zhao Xiaosi was the youngest among them, only thirteen years old. He was only half the height of his fellow comrades, and he did not take up much space when he curled up there.

Zhao Xiaosi whispered: "I'm so hungry."

His comrades did not speak, only the sound of gurgling bellies sounded in their ears.

It only made them hungrier.

Just when they were sitting there numbly, the jailers came in. These jailers were soldiers brought by Lin Yuan and took charge of the prison temporarily.

The jailers just received their own food outside, which they brought in to eat while also tormenting the prisoners of war a bit.

These meals were all placed on specially made plates made by the artisans collected by Lin Yuan. It was impossible to use iron so all was made with copper. There were copper mines in Taizhou, and not much of it was mined, which benefited Lin Yuan.

The plates were made according to Lin Yuan's drawings.

The style of the plates was the kind he used in the canteen when he was in college.

The scent of the food soon spread all over the prison.

The prisoners of war were even hungrier and looked at the jailers with hungry eyes.

A jailer spat at them: "What are you looking at? Careful that I don't dig out your eyes!"

After scolding them, he said triumphantly: "Did you have such meals when you were a soldier of the dog court?"

"Have you eaten so much rice?"

"How often do you eat meat?"

Among the prisoners of war one had the courage to say: "We eat meat once a month."

He swallowed: "I have never eaten white rice in my whole life."

The jailer laughed and said, "I have never eaten it before either. But since I signed up under the South Bodhisattva, I can eat meat once in three days, eat enough steamed buns every day, and eat white rice once every seven days."

The prisoner of war asked again: "I heard that you don't need to be beaten by the army supervisors?"

The jailer spat again: "No need for the supervisors to do anything. If a fellow doesn't know obedience, his squad mates would beat him up instead."

Otherwise, the excellent evaluation of a squad would be lost.

If a squad got an excellent evaluation, not only will it be named and praised by the entire military camp, but all the squad members will also get a pot of meat stew.

There was meat, vegetables, and sauce, enough for an adult man to eat for a day.

Not only that, but also white rice.

Everyone in the squad would get a share.

If someone dared to hold back his squad mates, there waa no need for the army supervisors to say anything, the others in the same squad would have already taught him a private lesson.

Because the military camp did not allow armed fighting and they were afraid of being reported, the way they taught troublemakers a lesson was just to speak reason. If reason didn't work, then they ostracized him. If that did not work, then they tell the supervisors to remove him from their squad and have him he sent to the labor reform squad.

The training intensity of the labor reform squad was greater than that of all the other regular squads. There was almost no break from morning to night, and they were always under surveillance. If one wanted to be lazy, then the intensity of training would be increased even more.

Now the military camp had the squad as the lowest unit, followed by the platoon.

They all gained a sense of collective honor in a short period of time.

The prisoners of war did not understand. They were all soldiers, but why was the gap so big?

He was a bachelor, with no family he needed to think for, so he shouted out: "Officer! I am willing to work for the South Bodhisattva!"

"Officer! Accept me!"

Zhao Xiaosi looked at that prisoner of war, and he also wanted to shout along with him, but he didn't dare.

He lowered his head and thought, if someone else also shouted, then he'll follow along?

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If so many people were together, then he would not be afraid.

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