Chapter 68: Widow Village and Widow Town 1
Seeing this, Zhou Shuai said, "Enough! Stop the killing! Let the brothers stop!"
Mao Jiu then greeted the 20 men, and they finally stopped. The escorts untied the belts of those kneeling on the ground and tied them up. At this time, Zhao Xiaofei and Li Deliang also came up. Zhao Xiaofei saw this scene and immediately said, "Fuck!"
The scene grew larger and bloodier. Zhao Xiaofei frowned and asked Mao Jiu, "Who are these people?"
Mao Jiu stepped forward and said, "Your Highness! They are just a bunch of peasants who came out to look for food and wanted to attack us. In the end, we took care of them all! Your Highness, should we kill all the remaining people?"
Before Zhao Xiaofei could reply, Zhou Shuai said, "We can't kill them! They're just desperate peasants with nowhere to eat. Let them go and let them fend for themselves!"
Li Deliang said at this time: "Your Majesty! No! If they collude with the bandits nearby, we will be in big trouble. I think we have to go to their village. Their village is nearby. We have to uproot the weeds!"
At this time, Zhou Shuai came over and whispered to Zhao Xiaofei: "If you kill them, you will still massacre the whole village. What's the difference between you and the devils?"
"I didn't say I wanted to kill them! Don't make a big deal out of it! They must have done this kind of thing a lot here. So, tie these people together with a rope, and let them go after we pass the safe area!" said Zhao Xiaofei.
"Okay! I'll do as you say!" Zhou Shuai really didn't want to hear Zhao Xiaofei ordering everyone to be killed. He couldn't bear the thought of doing that; after all, they were from the civilized world. He could be ruthless on the battlefield, but seeing this situation, he couldn't bring himself to do it.
Dozens of people were tied up in a line and dragged forward like dogs. After about ten miles, they saw a village ahead. A crowd seemed to be blocking the road at the entrance. There were about a dozen men and some children. The rest were women. Some glared at them, some seemed to be pleading, and some were completely indifferent.
After the previous battle, the Daxing and Jingying troops had realized the strength of the Zhenyuan Escort Agency. Seeing the villagers blocking the road, each one seemed possessed by a murderous spirit and stepped forward. A leader in the Daxing team raised his whip and struck a villager who was blocking the road, leaving a deep blood mark on the villager's face.
"What? You don't accept it, right? I recognize you. You are the guy who ran away just now!" said the leader of the group.
The villager dropped his hoe, knelt on the ground, and kowtowed to them, saying, "Please have mercy, sir! Let them go!"
The other villagers also knelt down, begging for mercy regardless of whether they were sincere or not. At this time, Zhao Xiaofei rode up to the villager who was leading the kneeling and asked, "Why do you want me to spare them? Tell me your reason!"
"Sir! If they are sent to the government, they will surely lose their heads. They will be treated as bandits and be sought for reward by the officers and soldiers. If they all die, our village will become a village of widows! Please show mercy, sir!" The villagers kowtowed hard again, and their heads bled.
"Then why did you block us?" Zhao Xiaofei asked.
"We have been hit by natural disasters for years and have been oppressed by landlords and government officials. We have no other options. We can only rob some merchants to survive. Please have mercy on us, sir!" The villagers kowtowed again.
"Get out of the way! We will let them go after we leave here!" Mao Jiu came over and said.
"Really?" the villagers looked at Zhao Xiaofei and asked.
"Sure! I also know that life is not easy for the people, and I don't want to see the existence of any widow village. Get out of the way!" Zhao Xiaofei said helplessly.
"Thank you for sparing my life!" the villager kowtowed. Other villagers followed suit, saying, "Thank you for not killing me! Thank you for not killing me!"
The villagers made way for Zhao Xiaofei's team to pass through the village. The villagers followed them all the way to a wide open area. Zhou Shuai had the dozens of villagers released, and they knelt and kowtowed. No one in the team paid any attention, simply moving forward silently.
"Your Highness is too merciful! Don't do this next time! If these villagers collude with bandits, it will be even more dangerous when we come back! We are lucky today that no one died. But if more people come, we may not be able to handle it!" said Li Deliang.
Zhao Xiaofei thought for a moment and said, "Alright! If they dare to attack us again next time, I promise you'll kill them without a single piece of armor left!"
After Fang Xinyu and the other Ming people left, he came to Zhao Xiaofei and said, "Boss! We don't feel any burden about killing people on the battlefield. But killing those unarmed villagers is something we feel a little uncomfortable with."
"Brother Fang! Go back and think about it. The entire Ming Dynasty was destroyed by this group of people under the leadership of Li Zicheng, and it also gave the Jianlu an opportunity to rule the Central Plains. You said that now we have no power and no food, how can we save them? I have also shown you the history books. The population at the end of the Ming Dynasty was about 200 million, less than 300 million. But after the Qing Dynasty entered the pass, the population was less than 100 million. It was these tens of millions of refugees who first hollowed out the foundation of the Ming Dynasty, which led to the three massacres in Yangzhou in ten days and Jiading. Do you think it is better to die these tens of millions and save the hundreds of millions of people in the south? Or should you bear the pain and kill nine out of ten houses in the north first, and then save them from the water and fire?" Zhao Xiaofei asked.
"When you get to Nanjing and have power, you can transport more food from modern society to save them! Why kill them all?" Fang Xinyu said.
"There are tens of millions of people in the north, close to hundreds of millions! Which country in modern society do you think has enough food to feed so many people? Our country still imports food from abroad! Besides, even if I go bankrupt, I can't buy so much food! And if I buy so much, won't others suspect me?" Zhao Xiaofei said.
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