Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 86

Everyone tremblingly came to the base of the earth, and saw that although the gate of the village was closed, there was no suspension bridge on the ditch, but the road was left undigged, and they were all surprised.In fact, it is because the suspension bridge does not have such a large bearing capacity, and the heavy machinery in the camp has to go in and out, so it is troublesome to build a suspension bridge.

In an arrow away, everyone who came came to a halt and sent someone to call for the door.The gate of the village seemed to know that they were coming, and when they shouted, someone agreed to speak.Because Zhang Youfu often deals with pirates from all walks of life, he can speak some Mandarin, Cantonese, and Southern Hokkien.The pirate at the gate of the village spoke a strange official language that was neither a donkey nor a horse.Fortunately, they can still communicate with each other.Zhang Youfu explained the purpose of his visit, and after a while, there was a commotion at the gate of the village, and the gate opened.More than a dozen people came out.

Zhang Youfu knew that no matter the great kings in the mountains or seas, they often like to put on some posture to frighten the people who talk about votes and extort a lot of property.He had seen this set a lot, but he saw that this group of pirates didn't have much ostentation, only a dozen or so people came out, all of them were ordinary people in green clothes and short coats, carrying blunderbusses with daggers on their backs.When I saw the leader in the middle, I was surprised: this man was wearing the same dark green short jacket and trousers as the other minions, a pair of gray short boots on his feet, and a belt around his waist. There is no difference between the minions.Judging from his appearance, air, speech, and behavior, he is also very gentle and refined, without any appearance of a reckless hero.

Unexpectedly, the leader of this gangster is so simple!Zhang Youfu couldn't help shouting in his stomach.

The visitor was very polite to them, calling him Xi Yazhou by his nickname, but he didn't invite them into the village.He ordered people to bring out many chairs and benches and put them on the river beach in front of the gate of the village for them to sit on.Someone brought out many wooden bowls and barrels from the stockade to ask the peasants to drink water.

The things brought to Zhang Youfu and the others made the eyes of these local rich men widen: they were all glass cups!Although they are on Hainan Island, they still understand the value of glass: two or three taels of white money can only buy a colored glass bowl, let alone such a crystal clear glass.

The contents in the cup were nothing good: it was a small white paper bag, which floated up and down in the water, and slowly dyed the water into light green. It smelled like tea, but it was very inferior.

What a big show!Zhang Youfu was happy and worried at the same time, he was happy because the thieves brought such high-end things out to entertain them, they must be very sincere, but worried because they had such a big show, when they negotiated the price, they might not be able to negotiate the price with a small number.

This Xi Yazhou can speak some Cantonese, and exchanged a few words of courtesy.Then there was another roar from inside the gate of the village, and a four-wheeled cart jolted over, which caused a commotion among the people on the river beach——it has been rumored that the thieves have carts that can move without horses or oxen. All over the city, some people say that there is sorcery in the car, which is driven by the power of ghosts and gods, and some people say that the thieves have obtained the magic of heaven and earth, and various theories emerge in endlessly.

Zhang Youfu knew from the spies and Xiangyong that the people riding in such a car with a shed were the big bosses among the thieves, so he knew that the people in the car were not small, so he hurriedly stood up trembling.

The few people who got out of the car were dressed in the same attire as the leader just now, and there was nothing special about them.I saw a few more people coming one after another. Although one of them had a shaved head, he was wearing local homespun clothes. He was probably a local captured thief.

The Lingao dialect of Xiong Buyou, who served as the translator, sounded a bit weird to Zhang Youfu, but the meaning was very clear.Xi Yazhou explained that they were not pirates, they were Chinese businessmen living overseas, and they were engaged in business. This time they came back to China to start a business—Xiao Zishan secretly laughed: When did we become "sea turtles".After arriving in Lingao, there has never been any incident of harassing the people or confronting the government.Then his tone became harsher again, accusing the local "evil gentry" of organizing a regiment of rural warriors to attack for no reason, which caused them losses. They were forced to defend themselves and reserved the freedom to take the next step.

Zhang Youfu was just obsequious, praising them for not disturbing the people, and then presented the gift list, which listed 100 taels of patterned silver, eight bolts of bright red satin, twenty bolts of variegated silk, twenty bolts of Songjiang cotton cloth, and ten grains in total. Shi, two pigs, four suckling pigs, one soup deer, and two hundred catties of wine.Xi Yazhou took the gift list and read it, then passed it on to the other people sitting behind.Feeling that everything is very useful, he smiled and said:

"We are building a city in this area, and we have harassed the local people so much, how dare we accept such a heavy gift. But if we don't accept it, we will disappoint the elegance of the gentry. Since this is the case, we have to accept them all. It is really disrespectful, and I am ashamed to accept it."

Seeing the gifts from his men, Zhang Youfu took the opportunity to raise several requests from the gentry: first, the autumn harvest is coming, and I hope they will not plunder the working peasants; second, to redeem those captured; The bodies of those who died in battle were returned to each family for burial.

Then he promised that if he could agree, the gentry in the county would be willing to "help with food and pay", and they would not suffer any disadvantage.As for the specific number, we can discuss it later.

Xi Yazhou just nodded politely and did not answer. The matter was of great importance. He looked at Wen Desi and the others behind him inquiringly, and after a few winks, they got up together and went to the duty room under the tower to discuss it.Everyone believes that this matter involves the future policy direction, and several people have decided that it is not appropriate.However, since the other party has the intention of easing, they have to give a positive response.

Therefore, when Xi Yazhou came back, he directly agreed that each village could send people and vehicles to dig up the corpses.They would send someone direct to where the body should be buried.In order to show their sincerity, they will also release a few disabled prisoners. As for the other two points, he said that they have to discuss it again and asked Zhang Youfu to come back the next day.

Zhang Youfu didn't intend to settle the matter in one go.Seeing that the other party was very happy, he agreed to dig up the corpse and released a few prisoners. Seeing that he was very face-saving, the rest of the things were mostly not embarrassing, it was nothing more than a matter of price.He didn't bother about this, anyway, it was all the gentry's burden, and after this negotiation was concluded, his remuneration would not be less.And he could also get in touch with this band of pirates—he already vaguely felt that this band of pirates was different from all the heroes he had ever seen.

Before leaving, Xi Yazhou gave back to Zhang Youfu a freshwater pearl necklace with an original price of 25 RMB according to Wen Desi's instructions, and gave each porter [-] Wen rewards. Everyone felt sorry for these strange people. satisfy.

The county magistrate Wu and the officials of Hecheng were anxiously waiting for Zhang Youfu's reply.Seeing him come back with his people in the afternoon, it was said that the thieves were willing to return the corpses and release some captives back.I also heard Zhang Youfu say that the bosses all seemed to be calm and simple people without the habit of gangsters at all.All beyond everyone's expectations.

In the past, even if the bandits were kidnapped and died, relatives would have to pay a considerable amount of ransom if they wanted to retrieve the body for burial.This time they agreed so readily, so the villages hurriedly recruited peasants to make thin-skinned coffins, and planned to collect the corpses together tomorrow.The county magistrate of Wu, who was exhausted, killed many people in all the villages. He also asked the Shantang in the county to collect the corpses together.

The next day, all the peasants from the villages set up carts, loaded coffins, reed mats and many lime bags, and went there together.Someone was arranged to lead the way here, and the cemetery was pointed out, so they quickly withdrew back.Only let people use high-powered binoculars to monitor from a distance.The sanitation team measured the wind direction and thought that the smell would not be blown over, but everyone still put on masks by coincidence.

Xi Yaya led a few people to watch from the sentry tower. Through the binoculars, the peasants with cloths wrapped around their faces and hands could be seen digging, moving the soil-stained objects aside from time to time.Every time a corpse was brought out, some women, children, and old people rushed forward to examine and identify the corpse. Some screamed, and some fainted. After watching for a while, he felt that he couldn't stand it any longer. He never thought it was a big deal to fight and kill people. But the tragic scene after the war really makes people panic.

"It was all cremated back then. Why did you bury it? It looks so miserable." Xi Yaya knew that those corpses had been buried for more than ten days, and when they were dug out, they were basically rotten and invisible except for their clothes. .

"People resent you for burning the corpse." Xiao Zishan has been refusing to put his eyes on the binoculars to look at it. "Isn't this turning into bones and ashes? Now the family members can still restrain the corpse and bury it in peace." It can feel better to some extent. This can be regarded as buying people's hearts."

In terms of how to clean up the corpses after the war, the sanitation team suggested that they should either be cremated in the wild, or transported to Bopu and thrown into the sea.Most people agreed with this opinion, but Yu Eshui opposed it. He pointed out: The ancients valued the dead body very much. "Restraining the bones" has always been a manifestation of benevolence and righteousness in history.If the body is just destroyed like this, it will greatly damage the image of the traversers - after all, this will be their base in the future.

So in the end, they were buried in a place far away from the camp. I thought that was just what I said, but I didn’t expect the people from the county to negotiate three conditions. , The remarks about why people who are good at making shocking words occupy a seat on the Executive Committee have all disappeared since then.

After a whole day of tossing, the villages collected and transported away the corpses. Some of the dead were sent to die because they were "trash" in the village. Let's go and bury him on the grave.

(End of this chapter)