Chapter 3295
Hearing that Haihan was going to parade the prisoners of war repatriated from Nanjing to the public, Wang Chengen could not sit still, so he quickly got out of the car and squeezed into the crowd of spectators.
Fortunately, he also brought a few followers, who surrounded him and slowly squeezed to the front.
On both sides of the official road leading to Hangzhou City from the north via Victory Square, Haihan troops were already entering to maintain order. It seemed that the prisoner of war team was about to arrive.
There are more and more people watching, and they are all talking about the current battle situation on the front line.
Wang Chengen tried hard to collect some useful information from the conversations of the people around him, but unfortunately most of these people spoke with strong Jiangsu and Zhejiang accents. Wang Chengen, a person who has lived in the north all year round, could only understand three out of ten sentences no matter how hard he tried. Four sentences.
Fortunately, Wang Chengen's entourage included personnel stationed in Hangzhou, who could inform him of some valuable conversation content in time. As for the credibility of this information, it can only be judged by Wang Chengen himself.
Some people claim that these prisoners of war escorted back were not the Nanjing defenders, but Ming army troops captured by the Haihan Army in Zhenjiang. Some people also claimed that some prisoners of war came from Moling Pass in the south of Nanjing, and even the troops they belonged to said they had noses and eyes.
But no matter which theory is used, the original residence of these prisoners of war is not far from Nanjing. They were escorted on foot from the local area to Hangzhou. They were on the road for at least ten days. If the Haihan Army continued to advance during this period, they should have arrived in Nanjing by this time.
Nanjing may not have been captured by the Haihan Army, but the situation at this time is not much better.
Wang Chengen shook his head repeatedly after hearing this. He did not expect that the war situation in the south was also so miserable. Although he was not a soldier, he had been with Chongzhen all year round. He had seen many memorials and knew the strategic significance of Nanjing.
If Nanjing is lost, it means that Ming Dynasty has basically completely lost control of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Haihan can use the Yangtze River waterway to transport troops and launch the next offensive against various coastal cities in the upper reaches.
Now he can only hope that Nanjing can hold on for a while longer. When the Ming Dynasty and Haihan reach a formal armistice agreement, the crisis in Nanjing may be resolved.
But Wang Chengen never expected that Haihan's idea for Nanjing was not just to capture Nanjing, but also to occupy it for a long time. Even if Nanjing is not captured for a while, this city will become one of the conditions for the armistice agreement between the two countries.
Not long after, I heard someone in the distance shouting "Coming, coming". It seemed that the team escorting the prisoners of war had arrived.
At the head was a group of Haihan cavalry that was marching slowly. Judging from the banner with the word "stone" they were holding, they should be members of Shi Diwen's troops.
Immediately after, the Ming army's prisoners of war team appeared. These prisoners of war were divided into teams of twenty people, and the shackles on each person's body were tied together with iron ropes.
At a glance, this long line of prisoners of war stretches all the way to the end of the official road, probably numbering in the thousands.
The onlookers seemed very calm, most of them watched silently, and very few people cheered and celebrated at this time.
After all, Hangzhou was the territory of the Ming Dynasty a few years ago, and the locals were no strangers to the Ming army. Most of these Ming troops stationed near Nanjing must have come from the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas, and maybe they were related to some of the onlookers.
Before this, some people may still secretly have hope that the Ming Dynasty would regain its lost territory, but the appearance of a large number of Ming army prisoners of war in Hangzhou was undoubtedly a bucket of cold water poured on the heads of these people.
Wang Chengen initially wondered whether Haihan's move was aimed at him. He had just finished talking about the truce and made such a move, which was clearly intended to intimidate him. But then he thought about it, his identity did not require Haihan to mobilize troops like this, it just happened to happen.
Moreover, this activity of parading prisoners of war in the streets was not only for me, but also for all the onlookers, as well as the diplomats from various countries who tried to stand up to support the Ming Dynasty in the past few days.
Those diplomats must have gotten the news at this time and were silently watching the parade of prisoners of war somewhere in Hangzhou City.
Ming Dynasty's performance on the battlefield was so passive that it was difficult to conceal its defeat. Even if these countries wanted to support it, they might not dare to stand up again after seeing such a situation.
The queue of prisoners of war was longer than Wang Chengen imagined. It took them a full cup of tea and there was no sign of it ending. Later, whether due to insufficient iron ropes or other reasons, the prisoner-of-war team no longer maintained the standard of a team of twenty people. Teams of ten or even six or seven people appeared from time to time.
Some prisoners of war who were seriously injured and unable to move on their own were placed on flatbed carts and dragged along by other prisoners of war.
Walking at the end of the team were several Ming army officers who had taken off their armor. Judging from their disgraced looks, they must have put up some resistance before being captured.
Wang Chengen can roughly guess where these prisoners of war will go next.
According to Haihan's usual practice, prisoners of war are basically sent to remote frontiers or overseas colonies to engage in heavy manual labor for several years. Among them, some people who have been transformed well will be lucky enough to receive the treatment of naturalized Haihan.
For these Ming troops captured in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Wang Chengen guessed that they were either sent to the north for mining or to the South China Sea to reclaim wasteland. In short, what awaited them was not a good place. But at least they could save their lives for the time being, which was a great blessing among the misfortunes for these prisoners of war who fell into Haihan's hands.
At this time, his entourage came over and whispered something in his ear. After Wang Chengen listened, the expression on his face became even more bitter.
The entourage heard someone nearby commenting that these prisoners of war paraded in the streets today were just the first batch of prisoners of war to arrive in Hangzhou recently. After this, approximately tens of thousands of prisoners of war will arrive in Hangzhou in batches, and similar parades are likely to be held several times.
Having lost so many combat-ready soldiers at once, it will be difficult to replenish them in the short term. Even if they could recruit troops from the rear, the cost of purchasing the equipment needed for so many people and training them into an army would be unbearable for the Ming Dynasty.
After a long time, the procession of prisoners of war finally ended, and the official road gradually returned to normal traffic.
Wang Chengen returned to the car in a daze, with one thought running through his mind: Could it be that my Ming Dynasty has really run out of energy and will be completely replaced by this Haihan?
He had served Emperor Chongzhen for decades, and he always regarded the Ming Dynasty as the only orthodox one. The Haihan were strong, but they were just barbarians after all, and could not replace the Ming Dynasty.
But on his trip south, what he saw and heard broke many of his inherent perceptions, and even his belief in the Ming imperial power seemed to be wavering.
(End of chapter)