Now it's finally time to talk about the captives.

After Maoyang Town was captured, a total of 113 people were captured by the officers and soldiers who were brought back to Mengshan, and the largest official was Liang Huada, an officer of the baggage team. In the past two months, Liang Huada has experienced a complicated mental journey.

At first, Liang Huada thought that he was going to die.

Officers and soldiers would generally kill the bandits captured in battle, and then incorporate or release the ordinary congregation.

This gang of bandits did the same. The first thing they did when they returned to the mountain was to make a detailed screening of the captured officers and soldiers, with the aim of finding the officers. With indignation, he did not deny his identity, and in fact, he did not need to deny his identity anymore. He had already recognized his position in Maoyang Town.

Liang Huada shouted to the bandit leader who interrogated him, the man who had almost cut off his neck, "I am the only officer in the captured New Army, and I have disgraced Lord Yuan." Do whatever you want, but please don't embarrass my soldiers. ”

"Why should Team Officer Liang be alarmed? Since I didn't kill you then, I won't kill you now. The young bearded bandit spoke standard Beijing official dialect, "My name is Long Qian, the former officer of the Eighth Team of Mengshanzhai, and now I am the commander of the Mengshan Army." ”

"A group of bandits, and a face called Mengshan Army. You let me and my soldiers go, I can plead with Lord Cao and spare you from death, otherwise ......" Liang Huada didn't believe the words of the bandit leader, but showed a heroic spirit, at least in words he did not admit defeat.

"Officer Liang, since ancient times, he has become a king and defeated a martyr, how do you know that my Mengshan Army will not achieve a foundation? Besides, don't mention your Lord Cao, Cao Kun is already a defeated soldier under me, and it's not worth mentioning. Besides, he may not dare to invade Mengshan again. The bearded bandit who claimed to be called Long Qian grinned, "Now that he is afraid that he will not be able to take care of Mengshanzhai and eliminate the majority of Mengshanzhai, your Lord Cao is probably thinking about how to report the results of the battle to Yuan Shikai, so as to ask for merit and reward." If it is admitted that Mengshan is still occupied by bandits, Lord Cao's results will be greatly discounted. You 100 people may be automatically ignored by Lord Cao? ”

Liang Huada snorted, "Don't deceive yourself, within two or three days, Lord Cao's elite soldiers will climb the mountain again, and you will wait for the day of death!" ”

"Ha Luha, it's easy to wait for two or three days. However, as you said, when your Lord Cao goes up the mountain, it will be your time of death. Privately, I don't think you should expect him to ......"

"Despicable! A bunch of dastardly bandits! ”

"Since you are called a bandit, of course it will not be so noble...... Ha Lu Ha. ”

"Since ancient times, it is ominous to kill prisoners, and I am willing to exchange my death for the lives of my subordinates!" Liang Huada was very afraid that this ruthless bandit leader would really kill the prisoner. The terrifying scene in Maoyang Town still lingers in my heart and lingers. Thinking of this, Liang Huada couldn't help but touch his neck wrapped in gauze.

"I've already said that I won't kill the prisoners, why don't you believe it?"

"And what are you going to do with us?"

"Don't worry, I won't kill the prisoners." Long Qian smiled faintly, "The killing of prisoners is unknown, and the ancient and modern famous generals do not do it, how can I not understand?" But I can't let you go so casually......"

"What do you want?" Listening to Long Qian's arrogant words, Liang Huada couldn't help but be full of disdain, a bandit who was just lucky, and compared himself with famous generals in ancient and modern times. However, Liang Huada was reluctant to provoke this person anymore, because he had already said ominous words about killing prisoners.

"Officer Liang, if I release you from the mountain, are you going to return to your hometown and live your life in agriculture and business?"

Liang Huada was speechless for a while, of course he would not take off this military uniform. The defeat of Maoyang Town is not in his own hands, and Cao Kun will not be very blamed, and Lord Yuan, who is far away in Jinan, is even more sorry......

"So, I'm not going to do anything stupid." Long Qian stood up, "Since you are the highest commander of the captured officer army, I will appoint you as the deputy battalion officer of the prisoner of war camp, and I will send the battalion officer, you will do what I order, your life will be fine, you will not be hungry, and someone will treat you if you are sick." But," Long Qian lowered his face coldly, "If you plot to make trouble, I will not be polite, and I will be shot on the spot!" There are also penalties for violating the battalion officer's orders, and you go back and tell your soldiers that if you want to be safely reunited with your family, don't make a bad decision. ”

Liang Huada certainly didn't want to die. He considered himself a professional soldier of his time, and the notoriously strict German instructors did not have a clause on the self-punishment of being captured.

The battalion officer was soon sent, a middle-aged man named Du Sanli, who had been injured in the leg and was lame. Du Sanli introduced himself as Long Qian's old subordinate, who was originally the commander of the eighth team, and now he is the battalion officer of your group of defeated generals. followed Du Sanli to the prisoner of war camp to manage 100 prisoners of war, as well as more than a dozen heavily armed minions, all of whom were injured and sick who had initially recovered, and their bodies could not withstand a large dose of military training, so they were sent by Long Qian to take prisoners of war.

Their outfits made Liang Huada angry, as they were all dressed in New Army uniforms. At first glance, I thought I was my comrade-in-arms.

Du Sanli gathered more than 100 prisoners of war to "train" a conversation, he had no experience of speaking in front of the crowd, so he stammered, plus a mouthful of Yizhou dialect, half of the prisoners did not hear what he said clearly, but Liang Huada heard clearly, Du Sanli meant that your dog-day officers and soldiers have now become prisoners of Lao Tzu, and they are only allowed to listen to Lao Tzu's orders honestly, and they are not allowed to talk nonsense. Hmph, our captain explained, who dares to resist or escape by force, the knives and guns in the hands of Lao Tzu are not vegetarian!

Du Sanli was followed by two staff officers of the staff group, who registered the names, places of origin, troops, positions and ages of the prisoners of war one by one, and divided them into five squads, designated the team leader, and the guards were also divided into groups, each squad was guarded by four bandits. Every morning, before getting up, before eating at noon, and before going to bed at night, they are called by name, and those who are called stand on the other side, and it is impossible to impersonate someone if they want to. Du Sanli fiercely announced that if someone in any team resisted or fled, the whole team would be punished.

This one is more vicious. Liang found that a few days later, the guards had all recognized the prisoners they were responsible for, which made it more difficult to escape.

Getting rid of these obviously wounded guards, a dozen sturdy bandits came over every day to act as temporary guards, and that group did not divide into groups, but occupied the high ground around Dongzhai, in a word, the bandits were very strict in formulating detention measures to prevent the captives from resisting or escaping.

Liang Huada calmly observed the situation, during the day, they worked under the supervision of nearly 30 gun-wielding guards, and at night the brothers were locked up in several rooms without windows and open roofs, and there were armed bandits guarding the door.

Soon, the bandits made the doors and windows, and although they were rude, once they were locked back in the house and locked the doors, the difficulty of escape increased. There was a chance during the day, but the dozen or so steel guns crouching around made him discourage.

Liang Huada thought that to escape, he needed to find out the terrain and the loopholes of the bandits. So he took advantage of the opportunity to eat to consult with several leaders among the captives, and explained the current situation and his own plans, "We can't escape now, because the conditions don't allow it. We can only pretend to cooperate with them, let them relax their vigilance, and at the same time pay attention to the terrain, and when we have the opportunity, we will take the gun and kill them. ”

Several of the leaders expressed their willingness to listen to him.

However, not everyone is willing to listen to Liang Huada's orders. On the night of the fourth day of being imprisoned in Dongzhai, three soldiers of Li Fubu's team escaped in the early hours of the morning, and they managed to evade the surveillance of the guards and escape from Dongzhai. Liang Huada, who was asleep, was awakened by the sudden sound of gunfire outside, and his first reaction was that Lord Cao's troops had gone up the mountain. Seeing a large number of armed bandits outside, I realized that someone had escaped. He immediately called a few officers and asked them to inquire about how many had run? Who are they? The situation was quickly ascertained, and a total of three ran, all of them were soldiers of Li Fubu's team, and one of them was a shed mesh.

He didn't care about the punishment he and his companions were about to be punished, and hoped that the three fellows would escape smoothly from the mountain. In that case, the news will reach the ears of Lord Cao or the nearby government, and he will be saved.

But Liang Huada's hopes were dashed. Of course, breakfast was not eaten for them, and a full hundred people rushed to the bandit to surround Dongzhai and repeatedly named them to verify the number of people. He was then held in solitary confinement with a dozen officers identified by the bandits. In the middle of the morning, three of the escaped companions were captured, one of whom was already dead, and was carried back by the other two companions with bruised noses and swollen faces. Then they were escorted out of the house one by one and lined up to a clearing in the west of Dongzhai, where the bearded bandit leader Long Qian said to them with a cold face, "You can't blame me for being ruthless, you broke my rules first." Ignoring the cries and begs of the two unfortunate men, he ordered the two captured soldiers to be hacked to death with knives in front of one hundred and ten prisoners of war who had not escaped!

"Captain Liang, as I said, disobeying orders must be punished! All the members of the squad you and those three people are wearing twenty sticks each, and they are not allowed to eat for a day. If something like this happens again, kill them all! ”

The two living people were separated in an instant. The bloody scene scared several timid soldiers into peeing their pants.

"You guessed it, I have limited bullets, so I have to use a knife." Long Qian stared at Liang Huada coldly, "I hope there won't be any more such problems." Captain Liang, don't test me if my words count. ”

Long Qian waved his hand, and the bandits swarmed up, dragged Liang Huada and the prisoners of the squad out, and crushed them down in front of everyone, crackling and beating the military sticks.

The guards on duty who neglected their duties last night were also punished, each of them was severely beaten with 20 military sticks, and Du Sanli, the prisoner of the battalion, was temporarily recorded for this beating because of a leg injury.

﹍﹍

The prisoners of war were all held in the eastern fortress of Mengdong, and the military house was burned down by Cao Kun and left in ruins. Soon after the escape, Du Sanli began to use prisoners of war. His first order to the prisoners of war was to repair Dongzhai, and he brought some tools, so the prisoners of war cut down trees and mud walls under Du Sanli's order, and became people's husbands. Including Liang Huada and the dozen or so captives who had not yet recovered from the batons.

It's not an easy job, because the lack of tools makes everyone's workload even greater. The prisoners of war had to make mud bricks, burn adobe bricks, cut down trees to make beams and pillars, and rebuild their houses on the site of the burned houses in the original Dongzhai. The only thing that saves you is that you don't need to dig the foundation. The captives had to work for nearly ten hours a day, and they were tired to death. Talking about masturbation is that the meal is basically full.

After the escape, the captives were so frightened that they dared to flee at the risk of being beheaded. At least for the time being, the thought of fleeing was suppressed.

Time slipped away slowly, and Liang Huada gradually discovered the unusualness of this gang of bandits.

Liang Huada was surprised to find that this group of bandits managed the prisoners of war very skillfully, and in terms of labor, each squad had a clear quota every day, and until the work was completed, even in advance, no additional work would be assigned. Moreover, Du Sanli also announced that the entire restoration project of Dongzhai must be completed on time, and if it is advanced, there will be a reward, and if it is delayed, it will be punished. The progress is checked every day, and the team that can't finish it won't be fed until it's done. Since the start of the project, a total of three squads have suffered from starvation.

Every day they sent people to the big room of the Guangming Temple to carry back the food with a wooden barrel, this matter Liang Huada did not do it himself, and the soldiers who listened to the meal said that the big leader of the bandits also ate the same as us, at first Liang Huada did not believe it, and then he believed it, and he couldn't help but feel a little strange in his heart.

At first, there were two cases of guards beating prisoners, one was discovered by Long Qian, who was on patrol, and the other was reported. In both cases, the bandits who beat the captives for no reason were punished, the bandits who wounded one captive in the jaw with the butt of a rifle were beaten ten times in public, and the other bandit who punched and kicked the captives was locked up in confinement.

Later, this kind of thing was basically eliminated.

"The surname is Liang," Du Sanli, who is dark-skinned and short, and fierce-looking, is a very important soldier for Long Qian. He was seriously injured in the leg in the Tianmen Blockade Battle, so he stayed in the Aggressive Village and did not participate in Long Qian's "expedition", he thought he was going to die, but he magically escaped the search of the official army (in fact, it was a hasty walk), and when Long Qian returned to the mountain in victory, Du Sanli's injury was half better, but the injury to the leg bone eventually caused him to lame a leg. This was the main reason why Du Sanli was sent to be the head of the prisoner of war camp.

Of course, Du Sanli would not call Liang Huada any deputy battalion officer, but Long Qian told him that he must play the role of Liang Huada, manage those prisoners, and give orders to the prisoners must go through Liang Huada, at least not hide it from him, so Du Sanli first shouted loudly to Liang Huada, "Our captain has an order, finish it one day in advance, and reward a meal of meat." Postponed the completion of the day, punished for starving a meal. You go tell those bear soldiers, they all fucking sell some strength to Lao Tzu! Fuck, don't you understand it's for yourselves? Don't you understand that this is our captain taking care of you not to suffer in the rain? According to Lao Tzu's temperament, one person will be rewarded with a bullet, which will save trouble! ”

At that time, the weather was still cold, and they were curled in a dilapidated house at night and froze to death. This is clear from Liang Huada to the following. Most of these captives were sappers, repairing houses and building houses, and they really used the right people.

"Officer Du Ying, when did the quota not be completed?" Liang Huada put down the work in his hand and said, "But you owe us at least two meals of meat." Liang Huada knew that according to the time given by the bandit leader surnamed Long, they could complete the renovation project of Dongzhai at least two days in advance. In fact, because the Dongzhai project entered the final stage, more than ten days ago, two teams led by Liang Huada to do hard labor in the village, and dozens of people were taken to the village every morning and brought back after dinner.

"The surname is Liang, don't worry. Our captain counts when he speaks, and what he promises you will definitely keep. ”

Unexpectedly, after the Dongzhai project was completed ahead of schedule, the bandits really fulfilled their promise, Du Sanli brought a pot of fragrant braised horse meat, everyone can share a small half bowl, Liang Huada, who has not smelled meat for a long time, ate his share in a few bites, and almost bit off his tongue.