Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 27 Soldiers
1645/ 5/ 13

More than half a month had passed since the fall of Yangzhou City, but from time to time a few swollen corpses would float on the river, and there were even more piles of corpses in places like the river bank where the water was slow.

If the corpse is soaked in water for a long time, it will not only breed disease, but also be unsightly.

Therefore, after the Qing army occupied the small town of Zhenjiang, they sent people to patrol the riverside to ensure that all the corpses were washed away by the river.

Of course, this kind of thing could not be done by the Manchu nobles themselves, so the newly surrendered Zhenjiang garrison became the only choice.

"Liu Qi, I think that guy looks like your father."

"Qi Lao Er, I'm your mother!"

Military households have made a living as soldiers for generations. Apart from military settlements, they are not allowed to engage in other industries, so they think literacy is useless. They often use numbers to distinguish their names and their speech is even more vulgar.

Qi Lao Er was not angry either. He just used the pole to hook the corpse closer to him and then shouted to Liu Qi, "Really? Look."

"Look at you!" Liu Qi cursed, but he still moved forward.

His father was a small flag officer in the army of Guangchang Earl Liu Liangzuo, and Lord Liu had surrendered long ago, so how could his father appear here?
Although he was thinking this in his mind, Liu Qi was still stunned when the floating corpse appeared in his sight.

The floating corpse had been swollen by being soaked, and there was some distance between them, so Liu Qi couldn't make out anything from its appearance.

But looking at the floating corpse, he was indeed wearing a small flag and seemed to be about the same size.

It’s okay, it’s okay. Uncle Liu surrendered long ago, so how could Dad be here?

While comforting himself in his heart, Liu Qi picked up the pole and worked with the soldier to hook the floating corpse to the shore, but the closer they got, the more uneasy he felt.

When the floating corpse reached the shore, Qi Laoer stopped talking.

His family was familiar with the Liu family. Even though the facial features of the floating corpse were somewhat damaged, he could still tell from the remaining eyebrows and eyes that this was the eldest uncle of the Liu family.

What else could he say at this moment? If he could tell, how could Liu Qi not see whether this was his own father?

Liu Qi tremblingly lifted up a piece of the floating corpse's armor and stared blankly at the black mark on the corpse's belly. After a long while, he let out a howl.

"father!"

"Stop howling. If the Tartars hear you, how can you protect your father's body?"

I don’t know whether it was because Qi Laoer’s words were weighty or because Liu Qi was afraid of the Tartars, but as soon as this sound reached Liu Qi’s ears, his howling stopped immediately.

But it was already too late.

At this moment, footsteps were heard, and then a man with a rat tail came running over, cursing.

"Are you courting death? The army has just set out and you are already crying here. Are you cursing the Qing Dynasty?!"

"General, you misunderstood. He just couldn't bear the grief in his heart because he saw his father."

"Father? Is that the thing?"

The man pointed at the floating corpse on the shore and asked, then he seemed to have thought of something and shouted without waiting for the other party to reply: "Push that thing over!"

"General, please have mercy on me! General, please have mercy on me!"

Liu Qiben was like a walking corpse, only caring about tidying up the floating corpse's clothes. But when the man's shout came, he ignored the gravel on the shore and crawled towards the man's feet.

"roll!"

The man took a few steps back, drew his sword from his waist and was about to chop down.

When he was fighting in the north, he had seen an entire battalion of enemy soldiers die from the disease. How could he dare to let Liu Qi touch him now? "General, calm down, General, calm down, I will push the bodies into the water right now."

Qi Lao Er begged for mercy a few times, then turned around, grabbed Liu Qi and cursed: "Is everyone in your family dead?!"

After this sound, Liu Qi really stopped making a fuss. He was stunned for a moment and then dared to just pound the rocks on the shore.

Seeing that he listened to the advice, Qi Laoer stood up and trotted to the shore, then picked up the pole and carefully pushed the corpse back into the river.

Looking at the floating corpse that was gradually drifting away, Qi Laoer didn't know what to feel. But before he could sort out his thoughts, he heard a noise behind him.

He quickly turned his head and saw that Liu Qi's head had rolled somewhere else.

"You didn't touch that thing?"

"No, no, I just used the pickaxe to pick it up a few times."

"It's good that you didn't touch me. If you spread the disease in the army, even if I kill your whole family, it won't be enough. Do you understand?"

"I understand, I understand."

"Well, push it down."

After a while, Qi Laoer was the only one left by the river. Apart from the stones stained red with blood, there was no sign of what had happened here.

After a while, even Qi Lao Er disappeared, but occasionally a floating corpse would be washed to the shore by the rising and falling river water.

I think when there are enough corpses, Qi Laoer and his people will come back here with poles.

Yingtian Camp
At this time, the militiamen had only trained for an hour or so, but the meals had already been delivered to the training ground.

"Sir, what's the point of practicing all this?" Zhou Xiancai picked up a piece of meat from the wooden barrel, put it into his mouth with rice, and asked in a mumbling manner.

"Your Highness said that you won't be able to learn anything in such a short time, so why don't you practice more? How to follow orders and obey them? Anyway, you should go wherever you are told to go. Why ask so many questions?"

The new flag bearer recalled Zhu Cilang's original words while also complaining a few more.

Before dawn today, these small flags were called to the parade ground to listen to His Highness's lecture.

Although he did not quite understand what His Highness meant by honor and responsibility, he could understand the increase in salary and severe punishment.

In addition, he was grateful for His Highness's selection among so many people, so he worked particularly hard in the more than one hour of training after getting up.

"Boss, have you ever seen a Tartar?"

"No," the flag was about to tell the truth, but suddenly he reacted, "Haven't you seen how to be your flag? We were chosen by His Highness himself."

"Personally selected?" The militiamen suddenly felt that their own small flag was not an ordinary person.

"Of course," Xiaoqi replied proudly, then he pulled back the chopsticks that were stretched into the bucket and said, "Your Highness is indeed the son of a true dragon. He can tell at a glance that I am the best."

"So amazing?" Everyone exclaimed, all amazed at His Highness's magic, but no one considered whether their own flag was the best.

"Your Highness selected twelve people from our centurion. Although the others are not as good as me, they are still much better than the rest."

At this point, Xiaoqi paused, as if recalling the specialties of the others before continuing: "Like the fat guy next door, although his martial arts skills are a bit inferior, his cannons are very accurate."

With Xiaoqi's mysterious explanation, Zhu Cilang's image in the hearts of these militiamen became increasingly lofty, and their awe of him also grew stronger.

Zhu Cilang himself naturally didn’t know this, but even if he did, he probably wouldn’t be able to take care of it, because at the moment he was having a headache over a simple elementary school arithmetic problem.

(End of this chapter)