Chapter 56 Refugees Heading North

[Recite the URL three times silently. Do you remember it? If not, I will ask again in the next chapter. It is best to share it on Facebook for me]

Autumn of the seventh year of Tianqi.

All affairs in San Salvador came to an end after leaving some guards.

The second day after the end, Qin Hao rode from Keelung and headed south to Hsinchu territory.

This is a new route. It is not fast along the way, but it took half the time than the first time. It only took three days and arrived in sight.

After crossing the first few hills, you can see the village.

Qin Hao's mood at this time is also like the poem "I am more timid when I am close to my hometown!", so he slowly dismounted, handed the reins to the guards, and wanted to walk back and take a look at the situation nearby.

Not long after, he saw that the road to the village not far away was now a bamboo fence about 2 meters high and about 400 to 500 meters long, crossing the two hills on the side of the road, blocking the road to the village.

At this time, a large group of people gathered outside the bamboo fence. From a distance, they were densely packed, at least 100 or 200 people, and their clothes were tattered. They seemed to be the people who had fled here and wanted to enter the village, but were blocked outside.

"Sir, please be kind and give us a chance." A young man with a sallow face outside the fence kept begging the soldiers inside. They had finally arrived here, and they didn't know how many people had starved to death along the way.

"Yes, you are kind-hearted, just let us pass. Look, the child is really hungry."

A middle-aged woman handed the child in her arms to the soldiers, and only saw a 4 or 5-year-old girl with empty eyes and smacking her lips.

"Please be merciful, sir."

For a while, the refugees outside the fence began to lose control of their emotions and kept hitting the bamboo fence in front of them.

"Shut up." A soldier in bamboo armor glared at the refugees and scolded them.

This was not the first time he had encountered such a thing. In the past half month since he came here to work, there would be such a group of refugees coming to enter the village every two days. He was also a refugee. If it were not for the relief of Lord Chen Hu, he would have starved to death on the roadside.

He also sympathized with these people, but Lord Chen Hu ordered that they should not be allowed to enter from here. In case there were any scoundrels among them who deliberately caused damage under the guise of refugees.

"Didn't I tell you to go to the east? There is a porridge shed there. There is food there. Don't make noise here. Go quickly. Otherwise, it will be gone if you go too late. Don't blame me for not reminding you." After saying that, he raised the bamboo spear in his hand and stabbed the refugees in a demonstrative manner to stop them from tearing the fence.

The refugees looked at the sharp bamboo spears in the soldiers' hands and did not dare to make any more troubles. They all stepped back a few steps and began to mutter in a low voice.

"Why don't we listen to them and try to go east."

"I think these yamen runners have bad intentions. If we go east and they ask us to go south, what should we do?"

"That's right. We've been eating wild grass and tree bark every day along the way. We're all hungry and dying."

These refugees communicated in different dialects. They probably understood each other's meaning and kept complaining.

At this moment, Qin Hao also led the team to walk behind these refugees, and their complaints fell into his ears word for word.

It's just that he didn't know where so many refugees came from. He remembered that when he first went out, not many people fled here.

Could something big have happened recently!

At this time, the refugees also saw the soldiers behind them, and they were immediately frightened and panicked. Some ran away, and some knelt on the ground and shouted for mercy.

Qin Hao ignored them and only asked the soldiers to drive them away. He also heard what the soldiers said before. Was this the place for refugees to enter? He didn't let them waste time here. The sooner they went, the sooner they could get food.

After driving away the refugees, Qin Hao took Han Xian and Zhao Chang to ask questions.

The soldiers inside the bamboo fence looked at the elite troops that suddenly appeared. Seeing them wearing iron armor and looking mighty, they were so scared that their legs trembled, thinking that they were coming to attack.

"Captain, what should we do?"

One of the soldiers walked to the captain who had just scolded the refugees and asked in a low voice, "How about we run away?"

The captain glanced at him, then gave him a dunk and cursed: "What are you thinking about? Why don't you go and ask for help? Why are you standing here stupidly?"

"Oh, oh"

The soldier responded twice and ran away. When he left, he did not forget to say: Captain, wait for me to come back.

The captain was also terrified at this time. He didn't know what the team that appeared was going to do. He could only muster up the courage to ask questions, but before he could open his mouth, the other side asked questions.

"What's going on? How did they build a roadblock here?"

This sentence seemed to have magic power, and the captain subconsciously answered: "This was arranged by Lord Chen Hu."

After saying this, he realized his mistake and quickly changed his words and asked: "Who are you? Don't you know that you can't pass here? Leave quickly."

He didn't know how he said it. He wanted to be more tactful, but he didn't expect it to be so direct. Suddenly, a chill surged in his heart: It seems that he will die here today.

"Are you new here?" Han Xian asked coldly standing aside.

"Yes, what's wrong."

After saying this, the captain slapped himself again and cursed, "Why are you always so talkative today?"

His action made Qin Hao smile slightly, and he didn't want to argue with him, saying: "Okay, I won't talk to you, you call Chen Hu."

After hearing this, the captain was shocked at first, and then calmed down a little.

Just not the enemy.

Now that I know Mr. Chen Hu, I am not afraid of their attack, which is a good thing.

Just like that, about ten minutes later, two people hurriedly ran from a distance, one was Chen Hu, and the other was a soldier who had just ran to ask for help.

Chen Hu walked quickly and saw a familiar figure. He immediately ordered the defending soldiers to open the fence and walked outside to salute.

"Sir, you are back."

"Um"

Qin Hao nodded in response, pulled him up, and asked, "How is the village lately?"

"Thanks to my lord's blessing, everything is fine."

"Since everything is fine, what's going on?" Qin Hao pointed to the bamboo fence in front of him and asked in a cold tone.

Chen Hu felt a chill in his back. He knew that these soldiers might have acted out of line, so he immediately apologized. When the defensive soldiers saw this scene, they also knelt down to apologize.

There was silence for a moment.

Qin Hao was secretly satisfied. He just wanted to test Chen Hu's attitude, not that he thought they were doing something wrong.

"Get up and tell me all these things in detail."

"promise!"

After getting up, Chen Hu glared at the soldiers behind him, and then led Qin Hao and others into the village.

"After you left, a few days later, a large number of refugees suddenly came from the south, numbering 4 to 500 people. Lord Zhuge accepted this group of people according to the planned plan, but within a few days, another group came After that, 2,300 people came one after another every day. I was afraid that they would be in trouble if they entered the village, so I had people build a fence to block them."

Chen Hu looked at Qin Hao's face as he spoke, fearing that he would think he was taking human life lightly, so he added: "We have set up a temporary settlement in the east. There are porridge shacks there to provide food for these refugees. We also built shacks to ensure that There’s a place for everyone.”

There will be heavy rains from time to time in the autumn of Taiwan. If there is no place to live, these refugees will probably get sick if they get caught in the rain. Chen Hu deserves praise for what he did.

"Isn't the south the territory of Zheng Zhilong? I remember he was recruiting refugees. How could he let so many people go north?" Qin Hao asked curiously.

"Sir, I heard from the refugees that Zheng Zhilong was fighting with the Dutch."

"I see."

Historically, Zheng Zhilong and the Dutch have always had conflicts, and it is not surprising that a conflict occurred at this time.

On the contrary, they gave themselves a lot of people when they fought, which was a good thing.

Qin Hao really wanted to give them a thumbs up for supporting his career so much.

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