Gao Changhe was one of the commissioners of the Shenwu Army stationed in the Qarlu Department, and today's inventory work made him very busy, and the inventory and statistics of thousands of prisoners were cumbersome and complicated.

With a long stretch of his arms, he lowered the hard pen in his hand, a modified pen, distinguished from the soft bristles of the brush, whose tip was made of a half-hard and half-soft capillary.

Although the words written by this kind of hard pen are far less majestic than the brush, it is easy to carry and easy to use, so it was quickly popularized in the army.

The counting of the captives did not go well, and many of them told false information, but there was no solid evidence to identify, so they had to let it go.

Under such circumstances, the amount of information counted can be imagined, and he decided to randomly check some of the captives and interrogate them himself.

Unfortunately, Ibn was among those who were spot-checked.

Ibn looked calm, but his heart was already in turmoil, he kept thinking about where he had accidentally exposed his feet and was detected, but after thinking about it for a while, he didn't feel anything inappropriate, and he could only take one step at a time.

Fortunately, there was more than one person who was spot-checked, and there were dozens of others with Ibn.

Many did not recognize Ibn at first, but when they were singled out and circled together, Ibn quickly caught the attention of the captives.

Only then did they discover that their own commander had actually been taken prisoner, and he was still hiding among them ordinary captives.

This made Ibn very anxious, and his generals and cronies naturally would not betray themselves, but ordinary Praetorian Guard soldiers were afraid that they could not guarantee it.

After all, Ibn was a strict enforcer in the army, and it was difficult to guarantee that those would not hold a grudge when they were punished.

Gao Changhe looked at the captives from a distance, and a strange phenomenon caught his attention, it seemed that many people were consciously or unintentionally avoiding the inconspicuous bearded man in the corner.

And the bearded man only lowered his head, completely ignoring the people around him.

"Go get that bearded man here!"

Gao Changhe decided to take the beard first and see what useful information could be asked about him.

The interpreter, a Sogdian who was proficient in the language of the Great Eat, unceremoniously kicked the bearded man twice when he followed the soldiers to deliver orders to him.

The bearded man was furious, but he just glared angrily and immediately lowered his head.

The captives who had been encircled were also enraged and let out a riotous cry, but this action soon drew a whip from Groro's guards, and they fell silent.

Ibn was very depressed, and the more he tried to keep a low profile, the more he attracted the attention of the Tang people, and although the actions of those soldiers seemed to be unfair to themselves, the actual effect would only be more and more unfavorable to themselves.

"What's your name, and what tribe are you from?"

Gao Changhe's questions are all common questions, but the more times this kind of question is repeated, the more likely it is that it will be true or false.

"Muhammad, from Ctesiphon......"

Many captives lied to disguise their true identities, often casually, and after a while they may not even remember what they said. However, all of this information fabricated with false words was recorded in the book, and after several interrogations, it was naturally possible to distinguish the truth from the falsehood by comparing it with the information recorded in the booklet.

Fortunately, Ibn memorized all the information he had fabricated, for fear of being exposed under repeated interrogation.

Muhammad is the most commonly used name among the Great Cannibals, so there is no need to worry about getting too much attention.

"Why are they afraid of you?"

Without warning, Gao Changhe asked.

"What?"

Ibn suddenly felt a little confused, and he didn't know why this Tang Dynasty man asked this.

The interpreter naturally will not miss any opportunity to embarrass the big cannibal, and takes advantage of the momentum of the long river to loudly reprimand:

"Answer the captain's question, do you want to eat a whip!

In order to disguise his identity, Ibn deliberately pretended to be very humble, and hurriedly nodded his head and bowed his head to the Sogdian interpreter to show weakness and goodwill.

"No, no, no, I don't want to eat the whip, I will answer everything the general has to say, don't dare, don't dare to hide!"

Seeing that the bearded man was so timid and deferential, the Sogdian interpreter snorted in satisfaction, and then said to Gao Changhe:

"This guy is not honest, there must be something to hide from the captain, he should be whipped a few times!"

Gao Changhe was also very helpless about these interpreters' self-made suggestions, although he couldn't understand the big food, but judging from the performance of this bearded man, he wouldn't say anything against him.

Most of the Sogdian interpreters have a deep blood feud with the Great Cannibals, so naturally they will not easily let go of any opportunity to teach the Great Cannibals a lesson.

"Okay, I know, pick the important question, just whip it, they are all good laborers, and there is no medicine to cure them if they are broken!"

As for the disposal of the captives, the disposal strategy has just been sent from Syrvan, and they are not allowed to be released or killed on the spot, and they are all sent to Sylvan and other places, and they are filled with coolie camps to fill up manpower for all kinds of infrastructure construction.

For the escort of coolies, the Shenwu Army also has a whole set of processes.

At first, the captives were not fed, and generally speaking, a shallow bowl of water was provided every day, and half a hard naan was distributed the next day.

Food and water were barely enough to sustain life, and it would not take more than a few days for the captives to be hungry and weak, let alone cause trouble.

Often, only a small number of soldiers could be sent to escort more than a dozen times the number of prisoners.

Gao Changhe glanced at the number scribbled in black paint on the beard's chest again, it was written for ease of management, and all the captives had a different number.

"You can go back!"

Ibn suddenly came up impulsively, and before leaving, he asked:

"Excuse me, what will you do with us?"

The Sogdian interpreters were enraged by the impudence of the bearded man, and here only they could interrogate, where was the right to ask questions from the great food captives?

"You stupid donkey, do you really want to eat whips?"

But he only scolded ruthlessly, and didn't dare to make too many mistakes around Gao Changhe.

Gao Changhe stopped the interpreter's scolding and asked him to translate what the bearded man said.

The interpreter had no choice but to say truthfully:

"This stupid donkey is asking the captain what he will do with them!"

Gao Changhe's face suddenly turned cold.

"Don't ask what you shouldn't ask, don't you have the consciousness to be a captive?"

After a pause, he asked rhetorically:

"Do you think Ctesiphon will redeem you with gold, and how much is each of you worth?"

When the interpreter told Ibn these words, hope swelled up in Ibn's heart.

It is indeed the practice of all countries here to ransom prisoners, and if you are lucky enough to return to Ctesiphon alive in this life, even if you are willing to be a civilian!