The Ming army had no intention of attacking Wang Xincheng's troops, which made the captives of the Shanxi Green Camp even more angry, and I don't know who was the first to run to the side of the ship and curse at the Qing troops on the shore, and soon Mo Huaizhong and other officers on the deck also took advantage of this privilege and vented their anger on the army of Adjutant General Wang with all their might. Under the influence of these officers, the soldiers of the Shanxi Green Battalion who were locked up below the deck, although they could not go up to the deck, also scolded angrily in the cabin.

"Wang Xincheng, who has no children and grandchildren!"

"Bunny!"

"A thief with a thousand cuts!"

The invectives of thousands of people finally rang out like thunder, rolling towards the shore.

The Ganshan Green Battalion was a little inexplicable at first, but soon they heard the Shanxi accent in it, and realized that the Ming fleet that passed by was probably filled with prisoners of the Shanxi Green Battalion.

"Is that the Shanxi Yankees?" Wang Xincheng's standard battalion commander was beside the benefactor and asked with a smile.

"Definitely." Wang Xincheng was a little spittle, although he was pointed out by Qianfu, but he was not angry at all: "It must be those piglets." ”

"Piglet?" The commander of the standard battalion asked with some confusion.

"Well, that's what Admiral Deng said."

After reaching an agreement with Wang Xincheng, Deng Ming, who was in a happy mood, casually called Wang Xincheng a pig seller, but immediately realized that it was the history of blood and tears of the Chinese, and while reflecting on his inappropriate use of words, he never mentioned this word again. But Wang Xincheng heard it clearly and firmly remembered the word. At first, he felt that it seemed more appropriate to call these sold Shanxi Yankees as cowboys, after all, they were all converted into cattle and paid to the Ming army, but after tasting it carefully, Wang Xincheng felt that this word was indeed very good.

"Haha, it's indeed a bunch of fat pigs." The commander of the standard battalion laughed.

After the transaction, Deng Ming wanted to pay Wang Xincheng kickbacks according to the custom, and Wang Xincheng also realized that he sold all the auxiliaries in one go and would affect the march of the soldiers, so he asked Deng Ming for some Shaanxi people and a few boats. Now that Wang Xincheng's soldiers put their baggage on the boat, not only did they march at an easy pace, but they also did not have to worry at all, and they did not have to fear that the sailors of the Ming army would rush out and snatch their armor.

After completing the transaction, Wang Xincheng did not monopolize all the benefits, and all the officers and more than 100 veterans each received a certificate of release. Deng Ming promised to release people when he saw the coupon, and as long as the Qing army did not kill the prisoners of the Ming army (whether they belonged to Deng Ming's department or not), then this release coupon would not be ignored; Theoretically, inflicting losses on the Ming army in battle would not invalidate the release coupon. But Deng Ming had said that this thing would only have a chance to be recognized after the prisoner entered his prisoner of war camp, and if the angry Ming soldiers refused to surrender because of the fierce resistance, Deng Ming would certainly not hold his men accountable.

Every Qing soldier who received the release ticket carefully treasured it. After having this thing, their lives are guaranteed, and the prerequisites are also kept in mind, and they will not kill the prisoners of the Ming army in the future, because this is basically equivalent to suicide; It's easier to go to the battlefield, and you won't lose your life if you defeat it anyway, so why resist desperately?

The more than 400 recruits of the Green Battalion who did not receive the release coupons were very greedy, but they had not yet made military contributions to Deputy General Wang, and their friendship obviously had not arrived. However, the officers assured the recruits that if they fought bravely on the battlefield in the future, they would be rewarded with release vouchers -- and they would be relieved that they would not have to fight bravely.

"Those who curse people on the boat are the Shanxi Yankees who don't have a ticket to avoid death." Many clever officers also took the opportunity to educate their soldiers: "Do you know what happened to them? They will all be sent to Tibet, and Admiral Deng will exchange them and cannibals for yaks. Some of those fans are yaks, so they are good for eating personal meat. So you remember, in the future, you will contribute to General Wang, otherwise you will wait to feed the shengfan. ”

The Ming fleet escorting the captives sailed past the city of Chongqing, and after the experience of the previous time, the Ming officers and men on the captured transport ships were all like facing a great enemy, for fear that the captured officers would once again start the action of "committing suicide by jumping into the river en masse." Because all the captives were converted into ploughing cattle according to the head and Wang Xincheng, the Ming army also counted the numbers before sending the captives on the ship, and Deng Ming explained to the escorted officers: these captives are precious laborers, who can create wealth for the Chengdu government, and will be a source of soldiers and taxes after paying taxes in the future, so it is not allowed to abuse the prisoners. If there is a serious attrition in the transport of prisoners, the escorting officer is reprimanded and the commander may face punishment.

Therefore, the Ming officers and soldiers were quite polite to these prisoners, and when they saw someone falling into the water, their first thought was to save people instead of firing arrows, and even the bodies of those who unfortunately died were recovered as much as possible in order to prove to Deng Ming that these people had "committed suicide" and not been "tortured to death".

Mo Huaizhong naturally didn't know anything about these policies, and looking at the mountain city of Chongqing, which was gradually left behind, he was full of sadness and melancholy; And when the soldiers in the cabin learned that they had sailed through Chongqing, there were also low whimpering. Based on their past experience, these Shanxi men knew that as soldiers, nine out of ten people would die of exhaustion in the military camp, and they would never have the opportunity to seek justice from Sun Sike and Wang Xincheng, and their despair of fate made them cry.

The battle of Wanxian-Chongqing continued, and hundreds of thousands of Ming and Qing officers and soldiers were still fighting hard, but for these prisoners who crossed Chongqing, this battle had nothing to do with them.

A few days later, while Li Guoying was still trying to break through and Deng Ming was trying to stop it, the Ming fleet arrived in Xuzhou, where they lowered the prisoners ashore and handed them over to Yuan Xiang for counting. After crossing Chongqing, the escorted Ming officers even allowed the soldiers to go up to the deck in batches to let off steam, so as not to cause problems in the cabin.

To the surprise of the escort officers, Yuan Xiang, the prefect of Xuzhou, personally came to the shore to meet the prisoners, and after learning that tens of thousands of prisoners would be sent here and then transferred to Chengdu, the whole of Xuzhou became a sensation.

"Brothers, let's be hungry." After Yuan Xiang counted the number of people, he invited the thousand presidents and the general managers of the green camp to the big tent that was urgently set up, and the food to entertain them was very rich, not only fresh river fish, egg drop soup, but even a small pot of freshly brewed wine for each officer: "Eat quickly." ”

Mo Huaizhong looked at the snow-white rice in the bowl in front of him in a daze, this was obviously the new rice that had just been harvested, and then he took a small pot of wine that was distributed to him, it was full, and it was full of two or two. Everyone else around was also stunned. Mo Huaizhong slapped his cheek fiercely while others were not paying attention, it was very painful, not a dream. The officers around Mo Huaizhong also pumped their faces, pinched their thighs, and were very busy. The Xuzhou prefect of the Ming army came to greet them in person, not to mention the food provided, which was simply the treatment of returning from the previous great victories - that is, the Ming army wanted to recruit them as cannon fodder, and it seemed that there was no need for this, right?

Since Yuan Xiang arrived in Xuzhou, he has been bent on showing his strength and building Xuzhou into a prosperous state. However, even if Liu Jinge was his brother, it was impossible to send a large number of residents to Xuzhou when Chengdu was still in urgent need of labor - most of the Tong Xiucai were unwilling to leave Chengdu, which had gradually improved, and ran to Xuzhou, after all, most of Xuzhou's supplies still depended on Chengdu for supplies

Yuan Xiang simply calculated that in order to make the salt industry and shipbuilding industry in Xuzhou develop greatly, he needed more than 100,000 workers, and in order to feed these workers, he also needed at least this number of peasants, and in order to meet the needs of the peasants and workers, and in order to make the low-tax peasants willing to trade their surplus grain, Yuan Xiang also needed a large number of fishermen, weavers, blacksmiths, and fish farmers -- these personnel were not enough in Chengdu at present, and it was impossible to provide them to Xuzhou in large quantities.

It is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice, and the labor shortage makes the Yuan prefect, who wants to make a big difference, so worried that he has several white hairs - the old Yuan family does not have a tradition of having less white heads, and the few gray hairs on the head of the Yuan prefect are really against family common sense.

When Deng Ming lived temporarily in Xuzhou this time, Yuan Xiang would raise the issue of relocating the population almost every time they met, but Deng Ming couldn't help him much. Chengdu's population is now less than 300,000, and Liu Jinge has been shouting that Chengdu needs at least one million laborers to meet the basic requirements, even five million is not too much -- and now Liu Zhifu is eager for Deng Ming to go to Wuchang tomorrow to empty Hubei.

Therefore, as soon as he heard that tens of thousands of captives were about to cross the border, Yuan Xiang made up his mind to intercept them with all his might. These Green Battalion officers were apparently the backbone of the captives, and the Yuan Governor left all mundane affairs behind to entertain them—because there was no population, and there were not many mundane affairs.

"Meat steamed buns, eat them all!" Outside the camp of Governor Yuan's mansion, Ye Tianming led his shopkeeper to knock the gong loudly, and the steamed buns were steaming hot, forming a hill in front of the captives. Like the prefect of Yuan, the salt merchants in Xuzhou also sensed a rare opportunity, and had been waiting on the shore for a long time, and when the captives got off the boat, they met them, trying their best to get them to stay in Xuzhou voluntarily.

"Boss Ye, you're too disrespectful, aren't you?" Several big men rushed into the ranks of the salt merchants, led by the owner of a Xuzhou boat company, and brought his men to rob people. Although he, like Ye Tianming, is Liu Yao's auxiliary, it is a matter of life and death for the business bank, and the comradeship of the Sichuan army has to be let go backwards.

"Come on," said the shipowner, and slapped a man from Shanxi on the shoulder, as heavy as the keel of his new boat, which had to be placed on the river because of the lack of men, and the blow almost knocked the captives to the ground: "Three meals a day, twenty yuan a month for the apprenticeship, and a bonus for learning quickly!" ”