On the north bank of the Santai River, a group of people were swinging hoes and shovels, and many people carrying baskets came to them, and when the baskets were filled with soil, they picked them up, and walked up to the embankment under construction with heavy sweat.

There are only two kinds of people who have been haircut since ancient times, one is the person who has been tortured, and the other is the monk after Buddhism entered the Central Plains, and the one who is busy by the river is the first kind of person.

They were all Chen soldiers who had been captured since April this year, and when they arrived on the north shore, they were shaved off and turned bald, and the Zhou army did this to highlight their 'difference' and prevent them from escaping.

Filial piety has clouds: the body is skinned, and the parents who receive it dare not destroy it, and the beginning of filial piety is also. Unless you are a monk, no one wants your hair to be shaved if you have a choice, but if you are defeated and taken prisoner, you can't help yourself.

By the time the soldiers were captured last month, all the Chen army captives had their heads shaved, of course, the earlier ones had already grown stubble, and the length varied according to the length of the month, and from a distance it looked like a group of monks who had just returned to the world.

A few more overseers were scattered among them, each followed by a small group of soldiers, dressed in armor and with swords in their hands, their eyes constantly roaming the working captives.

There is a camp more than 50 steps from the shore, in which many soldiers are stationed, the archers on the watchtower check the movement of the river from time to time, and on the embankment on the other side of the river, there are patrols from time to time, some of them carry bows and arrows, some hold spears, and their eyes also look at the prisoners who are working on the north bank from time to time.

The Zhou army was not allowed to take precautions, these prisoners who were busy repairing the river embankment were not ordinary people, many people had seen bloody killings, once the riot broke out, it was terrible, and at the beginning they all started with small-scale conflicts.

Pretending to be a few people fighting, when the overseer came, he suddenly broke out, and several companions who had already been connected together attacked together, snatched the weapons of the overseer and the soldiers, and called on others to resist together, in order to rush to the river and flee back to the south bank of the Chen country.

Then they were all pressed by the bullets without exception, and the lucky ones who did not die were hung up and dried for public display, and after tossing a few times, the Chen army captured and killed hundreds of people, and even the Zhou soldiers with the overseers also suffered casualties.

There were also those who were planning to escape, and the captives were mainly repairing the embankment of the Santai River, and they ran not far on the shore so they plunged into the Santai River, but they could not escape far and were either shot and killed, or they were waited for by the sailors squatting downstream.

Riots and escapes continued to occur, so the vigilance began to increase, and brutal sittings began to be carried out.

The captives were divided into ten people, and the chief was chosen from out of the ten, and if anyone made trouble, the chief was put to order, and those who did not obey were dragged by the overseer and whipped fifty lashes, and if one of them escaped, they were all seated.

After beating a stick, you have to give a sweet date, there are good performance captives can be rewarded, dinner can be added to the dinner that day, if it is a good performance, you can add meat slices, and the captives start to be honest under a hard and soft one.

Then some of the Chen army captives took revenge frantically, especially those who worked hard to supervise the work, and those who worked hard to make up their lives, either died inexplicably after one night, or were killed by various 'accidents'.

And Zhou Jun's revenge was even more cruel, if one person was killed overnight, the others would be beheaded together with the suspect regardless of the reason, and if they were killed 'accidentally' on the construction site, the rest of the people would be beheaded along with the suspect without asking the reason.

After killing more than a hundred people, looking at the shocking head, the captives did not dare to resist anymore, everyone was like a thief guarding against others, plus eating and resting were strictly separated according to the ti, and the various thoughts that had been hidden in their hearts gradually dissipated.

Of course, the soldiers of the Chen army are homesick, but sometimes they feel that it is not bad here, because at least the prison meal is still a human food, much better than the bibimbap eaten in the army, and there will even be a piece of meat from time to time.

It's not bad to wear, at least the fabric won't tear so easily, compared to the low-quality military uniforms issued by the officers and soldiers, the plain prison uniforms worn on the body now can be called clothes.

Of course, the place to live is not as good as at home, but it is much better than you think, the cell can at least be kept clean, and it is not allowed to defecate at will, and the wooden barrels are cleaned every day, although the smell is there, but it is not like a pigsty.

was called up on time every day, and there was actually a bowl of porridge for breakfast, although it was not thick, it had surprised many people, but thinking about Zhou Jun having to do his own coolies, so that people could eat enough to work, this is much stronger than in the army.

In the army, there are two meals a day, and if you are unlucky, it is still salbimbap, and compared with the treatment on both sides, some people even have a strange illusion: they are now serving as soldiers. Before, he was just a slave to the generals.

Many of them were conscripted civilians, whose families were destitute, or they were long-lived military households, who worked as tenant farmers for large families when they were not fighting, and as military slaves for generals when they were not fighting.

Now in this Zhou country as a coolie, although it is a little harder, but the food is no worse than in the army, the most important thing is that as long as you are obedient, you will not be whipped, every day you are so tired that you fall asleep, but your stomach can be full, and even from time to time you can eat salty porridge, many people began to feel that it was better to be here and not go back.

Of course, it is limited to a bachelor who eats enough for the whole family, everyone is old or young, and even mother-in-law with good luck, as the end of the year gradually approaches, homesickness is becoming more and more deep.

At one construction site, one captive stopped with an empty basket and another shoveled soil into the two baskets.

"Okay over there, how are you doing here?" The basket-carrying captive whispered, he had a beard, and the strong man beside him who was shoveling dirt into his basket did not squeak.

The beard didn't speak again, because Zhou Jun only had his hair and didn't shave his beard, so he could keep this beard, and he was not in a hurry when he saw that the other party didn't answer, because the supervisor was very strict and was not allowed to talk to each other at will.

The basket was quickly filled, and just as the beard picked up the basket with a flat pole, the strong man whispered "I know", and the beard nodded lightly and quietly picked up the basket and left.

The whole process was undisturbed, and several of his companions who were shoveling the soil together pretended not to see it, and the strong man secretly glanced left and right, making sure that he was not being stared at by the overseer, and continued to shovel the soil quietly.

"It's set, just according to the time I said last time." The strong man whispered, the man was silent and did not look at him, the two sides were like passers-by, waiting until the basket was full of soil, he whispered "I know" and left with the soil.

After another half an hour, the sun was sinking in the west, and a hurried gong sounded in the camp, and the supervisors shouted "call it a day" when they heard the voice......

At dinner time, the captives stood in the open space in the camp with their meals in their hands, and even when they were eating, they lined up according to the tithe, and the distance between the tithes was five paces.

The Zhou army stipulated this in order to prevent the prisoners from connecting with each other, and they were not allowed to talk to each other except for the chief, and it was clear who had small movements in the open space, and after eating, they went back to the prison to rest, and continued to work the next morning.

In order to facilitate the construction of the river embankment, a camp was specially set up on the north bank, firstly, so that the prisoners who served as laborers could rest nearby, and secondly, so that the soldiers guarding them had a stronghold.

"Lao Liu, have you decided?" The strong man asked in a low voice, and his chief stood on the left, while his companions who slipped past on the right were all buried in their meals, and no one seemed to hear him.

"Is that reliable? It can't be Zhou Jun's eyes and ears, right? Zhang Shun, what do you think? Shi Chang asked, and the strong man whispered that it shouldn't be, his name is Zhang Shun, he knows the beard, and his family is old and young, and he wants to go home for sure.

"I'll think again." After Shi Chang finished speaking, he continued to eat, and Zhang Shun didn't have any expression when he heard this, he was also eating.

He was a big soldier in the Chen army, and he had been promoted to the head of the team, but he was beaten back to his original form by the evil Shangguan, and then in May, he marched west with the army, and as a result, Wuchang was broken by the Zhou army for the second time, and he was caught in Jiangbei to work as a coolie without dying.

There were unwilling colleagues who organized several riots, and in line with the idea of carefully sailing the ship for ten thousand years, Zhang Shun did not dare to participate, so he was not hung up and dried, nor did he lose his life.

The Zhou army was very well guarded, but the soldiers of the Chen army were not far behind, although hundreds of people were killed for various reasons, but there were still bold private conspirators, and they were even one of them.

A tithe, ten people, are already comrades in the army, everyone has a family and a room, so they all want to escape back to reunite with their families, Zhou Jun thought that he could force the captives to submit by sitting in a row, maybe others would give in, but this was of no use to them.

However, the Zhou army bribed the unconscionable eyes and ears among the captives, and the reason why the tandem was detected by the other party many times was because these ears and eyes leaked the news, so it was reasonable for them to be cautious.

Zhang Shun recognized that the beard was a general's subordinate, the general was captured on the day of the destruction of Wuchang City, and the other generals were generally held in solitary confinement, and they ordinary soldiers were naturally used as coolies, and there was nothing abnormal about the beard's performance.

didn't steal the limelight, didn't gossip, and after avoiding Zhou Jun's killing of chickens and monkeys several times, the bearded beard found Zhang Shun's chief, saying that he was planning to escape, and after observing them for a long time, he was sure that he had a heart, so he wanted to invite them to join the gang and escape together.

But how to escape is particular, from here to the river to pass through Xiyang City, if you jump into the Santai River to go downstream, to Bakou or can not escape the search of the Bazhou navy, the only possible way is to fish in troubled waters.

Gathering like-minded companions and attacking directly at the camp, they had privately prepared some rudimentary weapons, attacked the defenders to try to open the camp gates, and then called on the others to flee with them.

Break the camp and immediately run into the mountains to the northwest, so that the other people who are running for their lives will attract the Zhou army to chase them, and they will hide in the mountains for a few days and then go west, and from there swim to the south bank of the river.

The Zhou army wanted to prevent escapes, the south of the river is the middle of the heavy, and then the lower reaches of the Santai River into the Ba Shui and the Ba Kou are guarded, the west of the Santai River is said to be guarded by the local Otoda clan, but the northwest direction of the mountain to run successfully is more hopeful.

So the problem is, if you want to suddenly attack the defenders to open the camp gate, then there can't be too few people involved, but if there are too many people to talk about it, it will be over if the news leaks, so Zhang Shun knows that he is struggling.

"What do you think?" Shi Chang suddenly asked, he and the others in Shiri couldn't choose, but this one had always had opinions, so everyone wanted to hear his opinion.

"Sooner or later, you will die of exhaustion as a coolie here, or you will fight hard, maybe you will die, but if you fight right, you can go home!" (To be continued.) )