Chapter 439: County Town Microcosm 3
Old man Zhang and his fellow villagers happily returned to the village with the wives they bought.
Back home, the wrinkles on Zhang Lao Han's beautiful face had deepened. Looking at the beauty before him, he asked, "I don't even know your name yet? I haven't heard you say a word all the way here!"
"Will you be nice to me?" the woman finally spoke.
"Yes! I promise to worship you as a Bodhisattva, and I will never let you work in the fields! Marry a man and he will provide you with clothes and food!" said old man Zhang with a smile.
"My name is Wen Rao. My father surrendered to the Jianlu and became a fake official. Prince Li fought in Liaodong and my father was captured. I escaped with my mother and got separated and was captured by the Kenan Army. My mother fell ill and died before she was escorted to the interior. I was in better health, so I was escorted all the way here." Wen Rao said.
"Then you will be Zhang Wenshi from now on. If you give birth to a boy for me, you must teach him to read and write. Don't be like me, a blind man who can't even recognize a few big words." said the old man Zhang.
Wen Rao didn't say anything, just nodded. Old Man Zhang was so happy that he immediately rushed over to push the rich lady down.
"No! I'm on my period and can't serve you!" Wen Rao said in a low voice.
When Old Man Zhang heard this, he said happily, "Your period has come, so you should rest for a few days. When you're better, we can consummate the marriage!" In fact, he was very happy to hear Wen Rao said that her period had come. It was better than this woman being pregnant with someone else's bastard and having to raise someone else's son.
"Also, I'm not a virgin anymore. My father married me to the son of a wealthy businessman before. I was also raped by a soldier on the road. Don't you think I'm dirty?" Wen Rao said in a low voice.
"It's okay! It's a blessing to marry a beautiful woman like you. I don't care about this. As long as you live a good life with me in the future and give me a baby, I don't care about anything else!" said old man Zhang.
"By the way! Have you ever given birth to a baby before?" Old man Zhang suddenly asked.
"I did! I had a son, but he fell ill on the way being escorted." Wen Rao's eyes became even sadder after she said this.
"It's good that you've given birth before. If you give birth to a son for me next time, I guarantee a natural birth. And since you were able to give birth to a son before, you can give me one too!" Old man Zhang said with a smile.
That night, some were happy, others sad. Some women submitted, while others struggled fiercely.
The next day after the fierce resistance, most people had injuries on their faces and bodies and their hair was disheveled.
Although Old Man Zhang told Wen Rao not to work in the fields, Wen Rao still took the initiative to go to the fields to work with Old Man Zhang the next day.
She saw a traitor's family member who was with her being pulled by the hair and beaten by a farmer.
The farmer said fiercely: "I bought you to give birth to my baby and work in the fields when you have nothing to do! Do you still think you are a young lady?" After saying that, he slapped the woman twice in the face with his backhand, and the woman's face immediately swelled up.
Old man Zhang said with a smile, "Hey! You've become so capable, you're even beating your wife! Be careful, or you'll beat her to death. You'll have to pay for it later!"
"You coward, how was your last night? How did it feel to sleep with this former official's wife? Hahahaha!" Another fellow villager asked with a smile. The others also laughed.
At this moment, someone came towards the village, beating a gong. Everyone looked up and saw that it was the village headman, also the most learned man in the village.
"Captain Liao, what's the matter?" asked Old Man Zhang.
"The court won a victory and defeated the southern rebel fleet in Hangzhou Bay. The prince's two armies are attacking Nanjing from the east and west. I heard that Nanjing is about to be taken. The world will be completely peaceful. This is all thanks to the court and the prince! Now every village must take out the Ten Thousand People's Umbrella and submit a ten-thousand-word petition, asking the princess to take the throne and become emperor!" said Liao Baochang.
"We are illiterate and can't even write our names. How do we write this ten-thousand-word letter?" asked Old Man Zhang.
"Who asked you to write? I write and you just need to put your fingerprints on it! If you have wives at home, ask them to sew umbrellas for the people. Do you understand?" Captain Liao said loudly.
"Okay! As long as they don't sell us out! I think it's okay for a princess to be the emperor! But I don't know if we can still beat our wives when women are in charge of the Ming Dynasty in the future?" asked a farmer.
"You idiot, a wife is meant to be loved, not your punching bag! Besides, when a princess becomes an emperor, she still has to listen to the prince in bed when she goes home!" said Liao Baochang.
When Wen Rao heard what Liao Baozhang said, she suddenly felt that they were all women, but how could their fates be so different? Although she had accepted her fate and just wanted to survive, she still felt that ordinary women could not compare to her.
In Hangzhou Bay, Shi Lang led his fleet south and unexpectedly met Zheng Zhilong's fleet heading north.
Previously, at Chongming Island, the two sides had fought to a draw. Zheng Zhilong's fleet was not as large as Shi Lang's, and Shi Lang's fleet could directly attack Nanjing along the Yangtze River.
However, he could not enter the Yangtze River without Zheng Zhilong's fleet being destroyed. Otherwise, his fleet would be attacked from both the east and west by Nanjing and Zheng Zhilong, so he had to completely destroy Zheng Zhilong's fleet before he could enter the Yangtze River.
Zheng Zhilong stood on his flagship and looked at Shi Lang's fleet not far away.
"If I had known earlier, I should have killed Shi Lang with a single blow!" Zheng Zhilong said in great annoyance.
His younger brother Zheng Zhifeng said, "Now is not the time to talk about this. Whether to fight or make peace, big brother needs to decide immediately!"
"You want me to beg for mercy from Shi Lang? Don't dream on!" Zheng Zhilong said angrily.
"It's not about surrendering to Shi Lang, but surrendering to the imperial court. Or we can retreat to Xiaoliuqiu and accumulate strength to fight again in the future?" Zheng Zhifeng said.
Zheng Zhilong sneered, "We can't compare with the imperial court. If we retreat to Xiaoliuqiu to recuperate, and the imperial court also recuperates, we will be no match in terms of personnel or equipment. By then, the imperial court will have more warships and will have trained more naval forces."
Zheng Zhifeng understood that the imperial court had a vast territory under its rule, more people, and greater financial resources to build more warships. They would ultimately be annihilated, perhaps facing an even more disastrous fate than Wang Zhi. Even if they managed to escape, they would at best flee to Japan or Southeast Asia, never to return to the mainland.
Moreover, those foreigners might not support them. If Zhao ordered that his products no longer be exported, their income would immediately drop by more than half. The cosmetics, shampoos, bath lotions, and even sanitary napkins favored by European ladies were all their favorites.
There are also those superb medicines, penicillin, anthelmintics, hemostatics, quick-acting heart pills, and various vaccines, which are sold at sky-high prices all over the world.
Those white people would definitely obey the court's orders and join forces to eliminate them, just to export these products for the court.
"We must fight! We only have this one chance! Even if we surrender to the court, we must let the court see our strength!" Zheng Zhilong said.
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