On the opposite side of the river, patrol boats of the Qing army shuttled back and forth, scanning the river with searchlights. Once they caught a person fleeing south, if the distance was far, the machine gun on the patrol boat would directly hit him and kill him in the water.
If the distance is close, the patrol boat will turn around and speed over, trying to catch as many people as possible alive.
Xiang Xiaoqiang was in the observation fort on the east bank, looking through the gun scope at the cruel scene happening on the river eight to nine hundred meters away.
A man fleeing south waved his arms desperately and swam desperately in his own direction. A few meters behind him, a Qing army patrol boat rolled over the waves and followed him slowly. The large searchlight on the boat firmly illuminated him.
.The few soldiers on the boat were cold
Looking at him indifferently, there were two Qing soldiers standing on the bow of the boat, both shirtless. One was holding an iron anchor claw in his hand, and the other was holding a large roll of wire. The two leaned forward and looked at the people in the water.
While constantly looking back, let the helmsman adjust the direction.
No matter how hard the people in the water beat the water or change directions, they can never swim out of the large circle of the searchlight. And the black, huge patrol boat behind them is like a tiger leisurely playing with its prey, one meter by one.
He was approaching slowly. With the speed of the patrol boat, he could catch up with him in no time, run over his head, and let the propeller mince him into a pulp. But the soldiers on the boat were more willing to capture him alive.
For every Qing soldier who captures a southbound refugee alive, the Qing soldiers on board the boat will receive a piece of ocean reward. Therefore, every Qing soldier stationed on the border between the Ming and Qing Dynasties will actively capture southbound refugees. During the few years of being a soldier, if
If you are lucky enough to catch a dozen of those who fled south, you will be able to improve your family's poverty situation after returning home.
The Qing government was also more willing to capture those who fled south alive. They would tie them up in bloody strings with iron wires and lead them back to their respective places of origin. Then they would gather their neighbors and fellow villagers to see their miserable condition, humiliate them, and then execute them in public. This has the effect of
It's much better than being killed directly in the Yangtze River. This way
Not only can it intimidate more people who have the idea of fleeing south, but it can also give everyone the impression that it is useless to flee south, and they will definitely be captured. Making capture even worse. As long as there is still a way to survive,
Just endure it. Don’t we all endure it like this? Why not for the rest of our lives?
The bow of the patrol boat almost cut down the fugitive in the water. The man was still waving his arms desperately, but his expression was desperate. The Qing soldier standing on the bow raised his iron anchor, like a fisherman
Aiming at the water again, he swung the anchor out violently.
A splash of water arose next to the fleeing man in the water, and this time the hook was empty. The Qing soldiers pulled the rope up and pulled the anchor up, took another look, and swung it out again.
Xiang Xiaoqiang pressed against the gun scope and felt a tremor all over his body. Although he couldn't see whether there was blood in the water, he knew by feeling that he was hooked.
Sure enough, the Qing soldiers at the bow of the boat began to pull up hard, and the people in the water struggled desperately. Now I could see clearly, the splashing water was all red. But it seemed that it was just hooked on the shoulders, and the people in the water were
He actually grabbed the anchor and pulled it out from his shoulder. He took away a large piece of flesh and blood. He struggled in the water with one arm, turned around, shouted something towards the boat, and pointed again.
own brain.
At the observation fort on the east coast, Xiang Xiaoqiang understood clearly that he was asking the Qing soldiers on the ship to beat him to death rather than capture him alive. He knew that once he was captured alive, it would be more terrifying than death.
But how could the Qing soldiers on the ship refuse a piece of ocean? They ignored him and still raised the anchor claw and hooked it with force.
The man in the water struggled miserably for two times, gave up completely, and accepted his fate. The two soldiers on the bow happily pulled the rope and hooked a bloody man onto the boat. Then the searchlight on the boat turned to another direction.
Soon it caught another man who was struggling to swim. The patrol boat turned its bow and rushed towards him with waves.
The patrol boat turned sideways, and now Xiang Xiaoqiang could see clearly. There were already four bloody people on the boat. They were all forced to stand on the side of the boat. A thick wire passed through their shoulders and one end was wrapped around the railing.
One Qing soldier was holding the other end of the wire. The other two Qing soldiers were holding the steel wire.
The man who was hooked up, a Qing soldier took a long awl-like tool and pierced his shoulder. The fugitive struggled desperately, but his strength was exhausted. In the blink of an eye, a wire "walked away" from his shoulder.
"He went over and put him in a string with the previous four people.
…
But this was just one of the many tragedies on the opposite side of the river. But more people were luckier than him and were not "hooked back" alive like this. Instead, they were shot in the back and sank directly into the river.
So far, there are dozens of people fleeing south on the river that can be seen from the east bank. They are all swimming desperately. The people who have swam the farthest have almost reached the center of the river. But in
Behind him, most of the people were caught up by bullets or iron claws, and the Yangtze River was stained with blood.
What’s even more shocking is that those who escaped were not all young and strong men, but at least 20 to 30 percent were women!
Many fugitives fled south with their families because they knew what fate would be left to their wives and children even if they succeeded in escaping.
The men not only swam desperately on their own, but also pushed the women holding the board. The women hugged the board tightly, raised their pale faces with all their strength, spit out the water, sucked in the air, and flapped their feet behind, fighting for their own.
The man increased his thrust. There were also two adults, a man and a woman. They seemed to be a young couple, and they seemed to be good at swimming. They pushed a large wooden basin and swam desperately southward.
What was in the wooden basin, although it could not be seen from the east bank, anyone could figure it out... It was their child.
But it is obvious that such fugitives almost never escape the fate of death because they are too "encumbrance". Patrol boats also seem to particularly like chasing such "family fugitives" because they can't swim fast with their families in tow.
It's easy to chase after you find it, and once you catch up, you can usually capture the whole family alive. A man will not leave his wife and children and wander alone...
For the same poor Qing soldiers on the boat, this was enough to get several pieces of ocean at a time. They smiled from ear to ear every time, like fishermen with a good harvest, and happily threaded their prey like fish.
, fixed on the side of the boat.
…
In the darkness, Zhu Yourong could only be heard crying muffledly. However, the entire ministers and generals in the observation fort were also caught in a shocking scene they had never seen with their own eyes, and no one even opened their mouths to comfort His Majesty.
Xiang Xiaoqiang has never seen such a human tragedy. He felt that the blood in his body was going cold.
He was so uncomfortable that he moved and felt that his toes touched the person next to him. But the person's feet immediately retracted as if they were electrocuted. He put down the telescope and turned around to look. The black figure next to him was the 14th Gege.
.
Shi Shigege was also holding a telescope, looking stiffly at the scene in the distance. Her upper body was shaking slightly, as if she was about to fall.
Xiang Xiaoqiang couldn't help but wonder whether in the past few years, when Shi Shigege was in charge of the Niangan Department, her Niangan Department had also participated in "detecting" such "collective smuggling cases" and "crushed" such "human smuggler groups"
"...
The answer may be self-evident...
Xiang Xiaoqiang looked at the weak Fourteen Gege and wanted to stretch out his hand to her and let her lean against him. But he sighed in his heart and did not do so. He turned his head and continued to pick up the telescope.
...Let's wait until the mood calms down before talking...
…
The first few escapees had swam across the center of the river. But their movements had obviously slowed down, and their extreme fear and exhaustion had brought them to the edge of collapse.
Suddenly, several lights lit up on the nearby river, illuminating more than a dozen Ming Dynasty flags.
That's a Ming army patrol boat! They have been waiting here for a long time. Once the fugitives swim across the dividing line in the middle of the river, they will immediately turn on their lights and move in to respond.
The exhausted escapees instantly saw hope and swam hard towards the illuminated Ming Dynasty flag. More than a dozen patrol boats were brightly lit, shining on the Ming Dynasty navy flag on the boats. They rolled through the waves and took the initiative to swim towards the escapees.
The sailors on the boat were holding lifebuoys and throwing them at the people in the water one after another.
But the people in the water were about to collapse, and several lifebuoys were not caught. But the boat was full of lifebuoys. On the way closer, the sailors kept throwing them, as if Ming Dynasty's lifebuoys were free... Of course, this
Compared with time and human life, lifebuoys are of course free of charge.
Tens of seconds later, a Ming army patrol boat approached a fugitive. Two sailors on the boat jumped into the river one after another and swam quickly towards the exhausted man. Soon, the two sailors caught him and threw him
He was rescued. Immediately afterwards, the patrol boat rushed towards another person who swam across the river center line...
Each Ming army patrol boat had several large characters written in white paint on its body. The characters were large and crooked, as if they were written by the sailors themselves.
The distance was very far, and the waves were undulating. Xiang Xiaoqiang looked through the telescope for a long time, but he still didn't recognize what those words were.
…
After discovering that there was a Ming Army patrol boat on the opposite side, the searchlights of the Qing Army patrol boats to the west shone over and wandered around the Ming Army patrol boats. They knew that the escapees would gather in the direction of the Ming Army patrol boats, and this was the best time to do so.
Easy to fight.
Sure enough, several heads were illuminated by the beam of light, and then the machine guns of the Qing army on the opposite side flashed, and water splashed up in clusters. Those few people were only one step away from being reborn, and then they stopped motionless in the bloody water and sank.
.
This is also the reason why Ming army patrol boats did not dare to appear too early. Although this would attract more escapees to find their way, it would also attract more bullets to harvest their lives.
The Qing army's bullets had hit the central line of the river and had reached the Nanming side. Therefore, several Nanming patrol boats also spurted out tongues of flame, and larger water columns jumped up in series around the Qing army patrol boats.
This is a warning shot, warning the Qing army not to shoot bullets here. The Ming army's flames are louder and louder, and can be heard in the observation fort. Because the Ming army's patrol boats are much more advanced than the Qing army, not only are they
machine guns, as well as the newly equipped "Oerlikon" 20mm cannon.
Sure enough, after a warning shot, the Qing patrol boats restrained themselves a lot and no longer dared to fire machine guns to the east. However, they still shuttled across the river to the west, and carefully lowered the muzzles of their guns to prevent bullets from "crossing the boundary."
As the weather favored, the wind speed on the river weakened a bit. The smoke bombs fired on the Yangtze River defense line took effect, and clouds of smoke began to spread one after another. Although it could not form an effect like heavy fog, at least it saved the lives of several more people.
life.
One after another, the escapees swam alive to the Nanming side of the river. Now there were more than twenty people swimming across the middle of the river.
But behind them, there were at least sixty or seventy people who were killed by Qing machine guns and hooked onto the ship by the anchor claws.
Despite this, in the darkness and smoke, every once in a while, a man would be seen emerging from the water, exhausted and bobbing on the water. At this time, the Ming army patrol boat would speed past, and the sailors would jump into the water to rescue him.
At this time, the nearest patrol boat turned around and ran towards another person swimming over. Xiang Xiaoqiang suddenly saw the large white letters on the boat. It turned out to be:
Brother, come on!!!
…
Xiang Xiaoqiang, a grown-up man, was so moved that his nose sore.
Ah, these sailors... they are simply... so... so loving.
As for the sailors of the Qing army on the opposite side... Alas, the young people trained by the same ethnic group with the same culture and race have such a huge gap in their attitude towards life...