Episode 153 Two camps

Beginning on August 3, another group of people gathered in front of the residence of the First Minister in Nanjing, and by August 4, the number of people had approached 10,000. Although only one-third of the number of "former Qing prisoners" was reached, the momentum and popularity of the rally far overshadowed them.

These are the families of those thousands of Ming prisoners of war. In the past two days, they organized themselves in various places and drove to Nanjing by train and car, crying blood and petitioning for their sons, brothers, husbands, and fathers.

These "groups of relatives and friends" were born and raised in Daming, and they were also very familiar with the rules of the game for public gatherings, so they first went to the police station to register as soon as they arrived. It's just that this registration is not for the police to approve, but once registered, the police will provide full protection for your assembly, and only your group can gather during the time period and lot you declare, and your opponents or other themed gatherings are not allowed. It would also prevent protesters from different factions from fighting in groups and triggering violence on the streets.

But those newcomers to the "new citizens" don't understand this, they are ready for everything, they just didn't think to go to the police station to register, but they came first, but the land was "preemptively registered" by others.

The policemen also apparently sided with the "Ming Soldiers' Relatives and Friends Group" and unceremoniously drove the "new citizens" aside, demanding that they give up at least half of their place and give up their seats to the "Ming Soldiers' Relatives and Friends Group." Those former Qing soldiers proudly straightened their necks, spoke vigorously, held the "Ming Constitution" in front of the police, and asked the policemen what they wanted to do, whether they understood the rules, and dared to trample on the sacred right of Ming citizens to assemble.

But the police directly took out a copy of the "Daming Citizens' Parade and Assembly Law" and told them: I should have driven you all away, but now I see that you came first, and it is good to let you vacate half of the space, and I don't understand and chirp.

In a few words, these thick soldiers choked and rolled their eyes. Many people who lost their temper wanted to fight at the time, but they were immediately held down by their companions. They know that now the Ming Dynasty is looking at them from top to bottom, and they must let everyone accept that they are Ming citizens, not ignorant and arrogant soldiers of the Northern Qing Dynasty. Now is the time to decide your own fate, if you don't take advantage of yourself, if you want to fight with the police again, it will be even more detrimental to yourself. Once the Ming Dynasty still regarded them as soldiers of the Northern Qing Dynasty, they would not hesitate to send them out and replace them with their own people.

More than 30,000 "new citizens" complained, lifted their butts and moved more than 100 meters to the east, sat more cramped, and moved farther away from the gate of the official residence of the first minister. The "Ming Soldiers' Relatives and Friends Group" on the opposite side drove over in an orderly manner and occupied the vacant place.

Because of the large numbers on both sides and the apparent opposition of emotions, more police officers were deployed. Hundreds of police officers armed with batons formed two human walls between the "new citizens" and the "family and friend groups", and ropes were drawn in between. Several water trucks from the Eastern District Fire Department were also fully watered and parked in the garage ready to go. If there is violence here and the police can't control it, these water trucks can immediately rush to the scene and use high-pressure water hoses to break through the crowd.

……

Those "new citizens" are all big men, and in addition to shouting slogans neatly during the rally, most of the time they sit together and laugh and chat, and many people are giggling. But the "group of relatives and friends" is completely different, most of them are women and children, the elderly, women and children. And they are all full of true feelings, crying and sad, and their appeal to onlookers is not comparable to those "former Qing soldiers" on the other side. As soon as they appeared, the scales of public sympathy immediately tipped in their favor.

Under the lens of the spotlight, a fourteen or fifteen-year-old girl cried into tears, choked up and said:

“…… My brother was captured to defend his family...... He was the only son of my parents, and I didn't have a cousin, so he was exempt from the military on terms, but my brother volunteered for the army...... At that time, my mother and I cried and asked him why, what he thought, and if he didn't plan to have this home...... My brother said that now the Qing captives, that is, a million troops, have been assembled on the opposite side of the Yangtze River defense line, and they will invade the south at any time, and our Ming troops are not enough......

"He said that there are many only sons like him in our Ming Dynasty, and everyone is eligible for exemption...... However, it is precisely because everyone does not serve that the strength of our Ming army is so tight...... He also said that if he went to join the army, even if he died, as long as the Qing captives couldn't beat him, the Ming government would take good care of our family...... But if the Qing captives come over, then everything will be done for our Daming, we will all be slaves, and it will be useless for him to live at that time...... If he goes to join the army, although his strength alone is very small, the possibility of Qinglu coming over will be a little smaller......"

The girl was crying as she spoke, and she was already crying breathlessly:

“…… Now, my brother's words have really come true...... Qing Yu was beaten back, Daming was saved, our home, and many people's homes were saved...... But my brother can't come back......"

The surrounding spotlights flickered one after another, and reporters were immersed in shorthand. There was also a photographer who came, carrying the camera and turning the crank "click". The surrounding citizens were all moved, and some ladies and ladies were also moved to wipe their tears.

An organizer of a civil society brought a microphone to her, stretched it out in front of her, and encouraged:

"Come, Miss, you can use this to say this, so that more people can hear it, and Shousuke-sama can hear it too."

The girl took the microphone, choked up, and said:

“…… Now I don't want anything else, I just hope that Shousuke-sama can save my brother...... Let him go home...... I, my mother, and my sister are all looking forward to him at home......"

The girl's mournful voice was released by a loudspeaker, echoing in the sky in front of the mansion. The sound of the horn was so loud that not only the people on both sides of the assembly heard it, but even Shen Rongxuan in the official residence heard it very clearly.

Immediately after, the microphone was in the hands of another young woman. The young woman was in her twenties, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, and her face was very dignified, as if she were a middle school teacher. Her husband, an army officer, was also taken prisoner to the Northern Qing Dynasty.

She looked very strong, but her face was very pale, and she said sadly:

"Emperor Guangwu of the puppet Qing Dynasty has already said when he met with foreign reporters that if the Ming Dynasty refuses to exchange prisoners, then all the prisoners of my Ming Dynasty will be sent to labor camps! Everyone also knows what the labor camp in the Northern Qing Dynasty is all about! That is to do coolies in mines, quarries, brick-kilns, etc.! It was not productive labor at all, but purely punitive torture! I don't even have clothes, and I am clothed in rags all year round, and a large number of people will freeze to death in winter! Eat like garbage, and only once a day!

"Hunger, sickness, beatings, overwork, bitter cold in winter, exposure to the sun in summer, and the mines' slump in and out of the mines...... The International Red Cross has long concluded that the Manchu labor camps were even more cruel than the Siberian labor camps in the Soviet Union! People are sent inside, and the average life span is less than five years! Women and children generally do not live for the first year, they are the healthiest men, and the life span is seven or eight years!

"I just want to ask Shen Rongxuan, those people on the other side were still captured a few months ago, and they still came to slaughter us and enslave us, and they may have served as defenders in those most miserable labor camps...... How did you become a citizen of the Ming Dynasty so quickly? Shen Rongxuan, is this the decision made by your government? Are you really going to leave these guys with the blood on their hands that haven't been washed clean, and let them tarnish the glory of the word 'Ming Citizen'? Or are you going to let those soldiers who really shed their blood to defend Chinese civilization die miserably in labor camps? Is your government going to do that? …… Well, if you do, we orphans and widows will not be able to do anything to you...... But you have to be careful, when the Qing invades the south again, there is still no one who is willing to shed blood and sacrifice to defend the sacred word 'Ming citizen'! ”

After the female teacher finished speaking, her originally pale face was already flushed with excitement. Tens of thousands of "relatives and friends of the Ming Army" and the surrounding onlookers broke out into warm cheers and applause.

The "New Citizens Phalanx" on the opposite side couldn't stand it, and the eyes of the surrounding citizens were not so friendly to them. Each of these former Beiqing soldiers felt a great pressure, and a sense of fear rose from behind, as if they were going to be escorted back to Beiqing tomorrow. Once you taste the taste of being a "citizen of the Ming Dynasty" with a straight chest and dignity, and then return to the Northern Qing Dynasty to be a "fart-people", it is really better to die than to die. What's more, how likely is it that those who voluntarily stayed in Daming and got Daming's "green card" will not enter the "labor camp" after returning to the Northern Qing Dynasty?

A former Qing soldier stood on the stool and waved his arms to speak. But his voice alone was too small to come out. So, immediately, another reporter with a very good eye dragged a microphone to him, gave him the microphone, and asked him to speak.

This former Qing soldier was twenty-five or sixteen years old, and his face was also flushed, and he took the microphone, and a Shandong accent immediately echoed over the official residence:

“…… I said that the eldest sister, you can't say that! We used to be against you, but at that time, we ...... At that time, we didn't know you were so good! At that time, I knew that the people on your side were so good, the officials were so good, and the people were so good, even if I ran away with my head open, I couldn't follow you to beat you! We also want to live in peace, and we don't want to fight, and I also know that fighting a war will kill people, right? Who wasn't raised by their parents! We're ...... If you don't fight, you don't know each other! Sister, you're right, no.

“…… Others don't say, just say me, I also came here to know how good Daming is here, used to be in the north, newspapers and broadcasts say how bad your side is not good, the common people don't do anything, all day long on the street to make trouble, chaos is like thatched nests...... I still think those people running south are stupid! I dare to come over and know that I have lived in vain in the past so many years in the north! Your soldiers still know why they are fighting, and we don't even know why we are fighting! Who do you say is pitiful? …… It's just that the chief tells me to fight as much as I want, and that's it, so many people run away all day long! If it weren't for the governors' wishes, saying that they would be able to rob money and rob their daughters-in-law if they entered Nanjing, there would be more people who ran away!

"Hey, look at me...... But then again, eldest sister, you said that we have your blood on our hands, so you really wronged us! Sister, touch your conscience, do we have your blood on our hands? Weren't we still on the north side of the river when you were captured? We haven't even seen what Nanjing has become, why do we have your blood on our hands? It's true that your plane whined, blew our brothers off their legs and broken their arms! Eldest sister, if you want to say that there is blood on your hands, it is all from those kings and eight fucks of the Eight Banner Divisions, don't talk about those turtle things, even we can't wait to give them to ......"

His shouting like this, his words were not rough, but it resonated with many people. The sparse applause rang out and soon spread, and the applause and applause on the side of the "new citizens" also shook the sky, no less than that of the "family and friend group."

……

At this time, several cars suddenly stopped on the side of the road, followed by a military vehicle. A dozen heavily armed soldiers jumped down and stood in a line.

Soon, the surrounding boiling sounds began to quiet down, and more and more people noticed the cars. And many people saw that these soldiers' brochures were all from the People's Guard.

One of the guards quickly ran to a car in the middle and bent down to pull the car door. The soldiers on both sides "snapped" and stood upright and saluted.

A young officer stepped out of the car, lifted his big-brimmed hat, and looked around with a smile.

Suddenly, the magnesium lights flickered densely, and countless clouds of white smoke rose into the sky.

The front of the official residence was boiling again.

This person is Xiang Xiaoqiang.

Xiang Xiaoqiang actually took the initiative to appear at the rally! The reporters who have been eager to interview Xiang Xiaoqiang for many days have finally found a place to vent, and countless reporters have stretched out their cameras and notebooks and squeezed towards Xiaoqiang. The two rows of soldiers immediately formed a circle in front of Xiang Xiaoqiang, firmly protecting him in the middle.

Xiang Xiaoqiang smiled, didn't say anything, turned around and climbed up with the top of the car, stood on the car, and let everyone see him first.

As soon as the "family and friend group" saw Xiang Xiaoqiang, many people immediately cheered. Especially the girls. Because General Xiang, the hero of the anti-Qing Dynasty in the defense of Nanjing, and the hero who captured those people on the other side with his own hands, finally came to support them. Now the weight on their side is much stronger.

Xiang Xiaoqiang took a microphone and shouted loudly in the most authentic Shandong dialect:

"Brethren——!!! Brothers and sisters, old and young, ——!!! Listen to me!! ”

……

Tens of thousands of "old and young men" on the side of the "new citizens" also immediately cheered, and the cheers were louder than the other side. Because they are the most powerful townsmen in Nanming, the northerners, Xiang Xiaoqiang. This time, the weight on their side is much stronger.