The composition of the prisoners in the Haihan Forced Labor Camp is very complex, including prisoners from Yazhou Prison, criminals from naturalized people, bandits and pirates captured in the mainland last year, and South Vietnamese prisoners of war from Annam. The sentences of these people vary from one month to life, and there is probably hope for a short sentence, but some people who have no hope of leaving the camp alive will inevitably have some desperate thoughts.

This is not the first time that escaping through the regulatory loopholes of working in the field has happened in a hard labor camp, and it happens almost every month. However, since the formation of the camp, there has never been a person who has actually managed to escape. Because most of the places where these laborers worked were in the Haihan-controlled district, they had neither identity plates, nor any supplies or negotiable coupons to buy supplies, and even if they were able to escape from the construction site, it was often difficult for them to hide their tracks for a long time. And the consequence of the fugitive's capture, if the crime does not lead to death, is often to be sent to the distant port of black earth to engage in the work of refining coal tar, which is extremely dangerous to the human body.

However, for the first time in history, the laborers fled directly from the construction site to the city under the control of the Ming government. But no matter where they fled, it was impossible for Qiao Zhiya to let these bold and reckless laborers become the first pioneers to successfully escape, so even if he took a more tough attitude, Qiao Zhiya must let the militia enter the city to arrest these prisoners.

In such a small city, it was difficult for outsiders to find suitable shelter, so the militia who entered the city soon found several slaves under the walls. Some of them immediately ran away when they saw that the situation was not good, and some of them knelt on the ground and did not dare to look up again when they saw the shadow of the militia soldiers—they probably also knew that it was basically impossible to escape from under the hands of these evil stars again.

The militia were not in a hurry to hunt down the prisoners who had fled again, because Xiao Laosan had already ordered the city gate to be closed an hour before these prisoners fled into Changhua County, so no matter how they fled, they could not leave this small county town.

Almost all of the militiamen who were sent to Changhua had participated in the battles in Annam, and they were also veterans with formal combat experience. Then someone brought a string of shackles and locked them up one by one. These fine iron shackles are generally only used in the process of transporting hard labor, and ten or even twenty people wear them in a string, and they must act in a group, and there is no escape, but these shackles are generally removed during work to increase labor efficiency.

The arrest went smoothly at the beginning, and within ten minutes of the militia entering the city, nearly half of the fugitives had already been caught. Xiao Laosan also supervised the arrest process with Qiao Zhiya at the city gate, after all, this group of militiamen entered the city in the name of "assisting the government in apprehending fugitives", and each militia also sent several guards to follow the action to avoid a situation that got out of control.

Xiao Laosan saw the fugitives who were shackled in a string slowly walking towards the city gate under the escort of the militia, and seemed to say unintentionally: "The Haihan militia is really well-trained, it seems that in the past two years, Yazhou has been stable and the bandits have disappeared, which is also reasonable." ”

When Qiao Zhiya heard this, his mind immediately moved, and Xiao Laosan's words did not seem to be untargeted, but with some kind of extraneous sound. He replied tentatively: "Over there in Yazhou, the government has a lot of trust in our militia group, and now the people of several inspection departments are all replaced by militia members. In this way, it can save a lot of personnel expenses for the government, and secondly, there are a large number of Li and Miao youths in the militia group, and it can also help these mountain people solve some of their livelihood problems. ”

Xiao Laosan responded: "This method is not bad, my Changhua County is vast and sparsely populated, and the number of garrisons is small, and in previous years, it was often harassed by Nanyang pirates, and the people were miserable...... As an official of the imperial court, I often can't sleep at night because of this, and I don't know how to solve it!"

Speaking of which, even if Qiao Zhiya is an ABC who grew up in the West, he doesn't know much about these twists and turns in Eastern culture, and he already understands the meaning that Xiao Laosan wants to convey - this is to take the initiative to take refuge and hug his thighs!

Qiao Zhiya coughed dryly and said: "Since the people of Changhua have this need, then we are also willing to contribute money and people to help the local people solve this hidden danger." Xiao will always look at how this is, people, weapons, supplies, we will pay for ourselves, and in addition, we will donate an office fund to the Changhua garrison every year, on the condition that the Haihan militia can have a name for legal activities in the local area. ”

Xiao Laosan knows that the Haihan people want money and money, and their strength is far above the local government, since they have extended their hands to Changhua, this place will sooner or later become their territory like Yazhou, rather than sit idly by, it is better to take this opportunity to make a profit for themselves. But he is a military position, and the scope of authority he can use is relatively limited, and if he wants to make Haihan people pay money and bribes, the methods he can use must probably be linked to the power in his hands. Xiao Laosan thought about it and finally came up with such a method, and today's Haihan militia entering the city to arrest fugitives is undoubtedly the best time to communicate with the Haihan people. Xiao Laosan has heard of the word "office funds", and the people in the Yamen in Yacheng can now lie at home and eat idle meals, all because of the so-called "office funds" paid by the Haihan people to the yamen on schedule, as for whether this fund is used in the office or elsewhere, everyone knows it. Since Qiao Zhiya said all this thing, Xiao Laosan naturally understood it.

"How can this be done!" Xiao Laosan pretended to excuse himself.

"Xiao General doesn't have to excuse himself, when this thing is done today, someone will come to discuss the details of cooperation with you, you just have to wait. Qiao Zhiya didn't give Xiao Laosan time to hesitate at all, and hurried to finalize the matter in a few words. As for the follow-up details, due to the financial issues involved, Qiao Zhiya has no authority to make a commitment alone.

There have been many operations like this form of cooperation before, not only in Yacheng, but also in Thanksgiving County between Changhua and Yazhou, as well as Lingshui and Wanning in the northeast of Sanya. The garrisons in these places were weak, and the leaders of the soldiers had limited knowledge, thinking that since the Haihan people were willing to contribute money and efforts, they would be happy to be at ease, and it was better to be able to collect money by sitting at home anyway than to be exposed to the wind and sun outside.

Whether it is the Executive Committee or the Military Commission, this form of "cooperation" is very welcome, which can not only avoid direct armed conflict with the Ming Dynasty, but also achieve the goal of actual control, as for the money spent on bribing Ming officials in the process, the relevant departments are not particularly concerned, after all, this amount is really only a drop in the bucket compared with the military expenditure required to start the war.

Qiao Zhiya and Xiao Laosan were chatting with great interest, when they suddenly heard the sound of muskets shooting from inside the city, and there was more than one. Both of them changed their faces, and Qiao Zhiya immediately said, "I'll go and see what's going on!"

"Let's go!" Xiao Laosan was also afraid that there would be some out-of-control situation, so he immediately ran in the direction where the gunshots came from with Qiao Zhiya.

The incident took place only two blocks away from the city gate, and the two quickly arrived at the scene. A group of militiamen blocked the mouth of an alley, and the naturalized civilian officer who led the team saw that Qiao Zhiya was coming in person, and hurriedly reported the current situation to him.

It turned out that the five fugitives fled here under the siege of the militia, and in a panic, they grabbed a mother and son who passed by and used them as shields. However, the fugitives were unfamiliar with the roads in the city and retreated to a cul-de-sac, and the pursuing militia opened fire, killing two of the slower fugitives. At present, the remaining three fugitives still have a mother and son who have been held hostage, and they are still in the alley.

"Hostage-taking!" Qiao Zhiya nodded, then removed the rifle from his back and began to move his hands and feet. This kind of thing is probably not solved by ordinary militiamen, Qiao Zhiya decided to do it himself, and by the way, let Xiao Laosan see what a powerful soldier is.

"Please Xiao will always sweep the battle for me!" After finishing speaking, Qiao Zhiya didn't wait for Xiao Laosan to agree or not, and walked into the alley with a gun.

This alley is not long, Qiao Zhiya should only be about twenty meters by eyesight, and there are courtyard walls about two meters high on both sides and at the other end of the alley. When Qiao Zhiya walked into the alley, he saw three fugitives planning to climb over the wall by a human ladder, while the mother and son who were held hostage were huddled in the corner of the wall and shivering.

Seeing that the target was in an unobstructed situation, Qiao Zhiya did not issue a warning in order to avoid missing the opportunity, but directly took aim with the gun, and then pulled the trigger, firing at a rate of two bursts per step while firing forward. The three fugitives were almost caught off guard by the bullets, and the tremendous movement at close range caused the bullets to thrust their bodies against the wall, making them live targets with no ability to resist.

Qiao Zhiya ran out of magazines with a steady rate of fire, and at this time he was less than ten meters away from the position of the three fugitives. Jochia pulled his rifle behind him, then pulled out the Mk23 pistol in his chest and drew three more shots from each of the three fugitives who had slowly drawn against the wall, using the standard "Mozambique shooting method" - two for the torso and one for the head - to ensure that the three men could not die again.

In fact, when Qiao Zhiya shot with a rifle, these three people had already been shot several times, and there was basically no chance of survival, Qiao Zhiya's re-gun was not so much to ensure the killing of the enemy, but rather to say that a large part of it was to show off force - especially to show off to Xiao Laosan, who was already stunned.

When Xiao Laosan saw Qiao Zhiya single-handedly carrying the strange-looking firearm into the alley just now, he couldn't help but wonder how he could use a firearm to eliminate the three fugitives. But from the moment Qiao Zhiya fired, Xiao Laosan was already stunned, the fire gun in Qiao Zhiya's hand could be fired continuously without loading ammunition, and it seemed to be extremely powerful, and the bullet almost nailed the three fugitives to the wall like nails. And then Qiao Zhiya shot again with a pistol at close range, and Xiao Laosan was already so shocked that he was numb - even the handcuffs could be fired in bursts!

Qiao Zhiya closed the pistol safe, inserted it back into the holster, and then beckoned to the mouth of the alley, and the militia rushed in. These militiamen are all veterans, and they have seen the leaders of the Haihan Dynasty use these sharp and strange weapons to kill the enemy on the battlefield of Annan, so they are not as shocked as Xiao Laosan.

Qiao Zhiya ordered: "Send these two hostages out first and let them go home." Find a car, pull the bodies of these three guys back, and show the itchy prisoners what the end of the run is for!

Qiao Zhiya returned to the mouth of the alley and asked Xiao Laosan, who was still in an out-of-body state, "How do you think Xiao always thought I was in the same position just now?"

Xiao Laosan muttered, "Okay...... It's amazing......"

"Look, what I just said can be regarded as proof that we have full ability to protect the safety of the local people, do you say Mr. Xiao?" Qiao Zhiya continued to ask very proudly.

"Yes, yes, yes!" Xiao Laosan finally came back to his senses at this time, and his head nodded like a chicken pecking rice: "What Major Qiao said is extremely true, and I admire it very much." ”

Qiao Zhiya saw that his eyes kept wandering back and forth between the two guns on his body when he spoke, so he asked with a smile: "Xiao always wants to play with my two weapons?"

Xiao Laosan hurriedly shook his hand and said, "No, no, no, I didn't mean that, but I saw that Major Qiao was very powerful when he used it just now, so I took two more looks." Dare to ask Major Qiao, this kind of weapon is also produced by Haihan?"

"Of course, but the process of making this weapon is very complicated, and it can only be equipped by high-ranking officers. Qiao Zhiya said unashamedly. Whether it's HK416 or MK23, these high-level weapons are not something that can be made in ten or twenty years in this time and space, but in his mouth, Haihan already has the ability to produce such weapons.

In his opinion, the two weapons used by Qiao Zhiya, an officer of the Haihan Dynasty, can be called invincible, one person can be a team of musketeers, if this weapon is equipped with 35,000 people, then I am afraid that it can fight all over the world. And in this small county town of Changhua, the garrison together may not even be able to do it by Qiao Zhiya alone, so it seems that it is a wise move for him to choose to cooperate with the Haihan people instead of confronting them.

Because Qiao Zhiya set off a burst of gunfire just now, the sound of gunfire was almost transparent in the small county town, and the people ran home to hide, and at this time there were no people on the street. However, in this way, it cleared the way for the arrest of the remaining prisoners.