Chapter 489: How to Treat Prisoners

That afternoon, the right-wing army also received good news.

Xu Sanzhong's troops cut off a Yazhou army that wanted to join the main central army more than 120 miles northwest of Anshen.

Xu Youji ordered a thousand-man army to take a fast boat to penetrate the side of this army and form a pincer attack with the frontal attacking troops. Seeing that the flank was surrounded and there was no camp fortifications to rely on, the Yazhou army almost did not hold on for long before it turned into a rout. Commander Xu immediately led the army to chase and kill, chasing all the way for 50 miles, annihilating more than 3,000 enemies, and capturing 2,500 prisoners, and then returned to Anshen City.

Because it was a mobile operation, although it did not achieve the effect of fixed-point annihilation like Ning Wanjun, the Yazhou army lost more than half of its troops and was killed and scattered like ducks along the way. It can basically be regarded as the elimination of the organization and is unlikely to threaten the town of Shenzhou again.

…

On the way back to Jinxia, ​​Qian saw a large number of flat ice boats transporting personnel. They were connected head to head, and there was almost no end in sight.

The people on the boat sat on the straw mats with numb faces, shivering from the cold, obviously not like ordinary passengers.

But if they are prisoners... there are hundreds of people on each boat, and it is estimated that there are tens of thousands of them. Unless there are severe punishments, how can there be so many prisoners in Shenzhou?

He reluctantly found Qianyan and asked what these people had done, but the answer he got made him dumbfounded.

"You ask them... they are all prisoners sent back from the front line." Qianyan spread his hands.

"Prisoners? From the Privy Council Army?"

"What else? No one else invaded Shenzhou." Qianyan shrugged - others might care about Yuyi's identity, but she didn't care at all. Over the past hundred years, she has seen many people like Qian, some of whom are her friends and some are her enemies.

But now, she is the only one alive.

"The moment you failed to dissuade the Privy Council, Jinxia City launched a counterattack against the enemy. With the temper of the third princess, it was not easy for her to wait until the enemy crossed the border." She looked at the flat boats on the river and said, "By the way, these boats were originally used to transport seafood, and transporting people is not the main business of the Fang family. But I heard that the Privy Council on the front line was defeated too quickly, and there were so many captives that they could not be properly resettled, so we had to urgently call for ice boats to transport them back to Jinxia."

The battle has begun.

Defeated too quickly.

All captives.

Three pieces of information swayed in Qian's mind in turn, making him wonder whether he should be happy or sad for a while.

Or both.

The sad thing is that his last attempt still ended in failure, and many people must have lost their lives in this war that did not need to break out. The happy part is that there are so many captives, which means that the number of casualties will be reduced accordingly, and the overall loss will not be so heavy.

It's just that he has fought for the Privy Council for half his life, but now he has to be happy because the Privy Council's army was defeated too quickly. This extremely contradictory feeling made Qian a little difficult to adapt to. It was under the impact of this complex emotion that he couldn't help but have a new confusion.

Is everything he saw true?

When did the Privy Council become so vulnerable?

And before... This little girl who seemed to be underage, holding a square magic weapon, killed the Taoist priests who were chasing her one by one. One of them was a Gen magician, who had wrapped his body with rocks and soil before his death, but his end was no different from others. Qian asked himself, even if he was the pursuer, it would be impossible to avoid this attack that could not be detected by the naked eye. Even if he didn't kill him in one blow, there was no way to counter it.

As for what the magic weapon was, he didn't ask along the way.

Because Qian knew that this was not just a problem of a magic weapon.

——It involves more advanced principles of magic.

If he couldn't think of any kind of magic that could achieve such an effect, it would prove that the Privy Council was missing more than a little bit of relevant knowledge, and it was likely that it was a whole branch.

This conclusion made Qian bitter.

After all, just half a year ago, the core members of the Privy Council believed that the Capital General Government was the most powerful and advanced force in Qi State. Compared with the government, they were more flexible in recruiting talents, and compared with the aristocratic families, their ideas were more touching, and the results of the struggle with the two also proved this point. The court had no power to resist since the battle of Wanjing Tower, and the Qi-sensing people in the aristocratic families turned against them and became the backbone of the Privy Council.

At that time, everyone was full of ambition, thinking that they could establish a new dynasty that surpassed the Yong Dynasty, but they didn't expect that half a year later, they would become the lagging party.

Everything that the Privy Council did to the court and the aristocratic families now seemed to be replayed on the Privy Council itself.

It is impossible to say that there is no loss at all in such a huge gap.

After a long silence, Qian spoke again, "How will Jinxia City treat these prisoners?"

"According to the previous practices of the Affairs Bureau, it probably depends on their own choice."

"What are the general choices?"

"If there is no special crime, they can settle down, work, join the army, or go home. These are basically the options."

This answer made Qian stunned again.

Wait...did he ask the right question? What is the situation of choosing to go home? Does Jinxia let these people go as long as they say they want to leave?

With unbelievable thoughts, Qian asked this question carefully-no matter what, this method of handling is too abstract, he really can't imagine it.

As a result, the other party's answer was not ambiguous at all, "Yes, it means literally. The Affairs Bureau will also give severance pay, usually two or three taels of silver."

"..." Qian didn't know what to say next. Among the four options, only joining the army was within his understanding. After all, in addition to conscription, another major means of expansion for the army is to reorganize prisoners, which is often the best place for the defeated. Other methods such as hard labor, land reclamation, slavery, and even execution are common methods of disposal. He knew that Jinxia City was different, and Ning Wanjun's temperament was far from tyrannical, but he still didn't expect to hear such an answer.

"Then why did the princess spend energy to transport them back to Jinxia City?" Qian felt that his brain was a little confused, "This expense is not too necessary, right?"

Since there is the option of returning home, it must be the first choice of most soldiers. Spending money and manpower to pull the prisoners back to Jinxia is just changing a place for them to leave, and they have to pay for several days of food and money. It is really hard to understand. If Qianyan's words are true, then dismissing them on the spot is the most convenient way.

"You don't think that returning home is the best choice, do you?" Qianyan glanced at Yuyi, revealing an expression that said, "I knew you would think so." "In fact, among the captives I met in the past, few would choose the last option."

"How is that possible?" Qian was surprised.

"You will understand when you get to Jinxia." Her words were full of sighs, "I have met countless people in my life, but when it comes to the ability to read people's hearts, Xia Fan is the most terrifying one among them."