The city was devastated and wrecked. I wonder how many innocent souls were crying in the streets of Taiping.
Looking at the Taiping County City that was ravaged by Japanese pirates, Zhu Ping'an stood on the street and sighed for a long time. He felt bad and uncomfortable and couldn't calm down for a long time.
The dead are gone, and the living are like this; the past cannot be changed, but the future can still be pursued! There must be survivors in Taiping County, and they are in urgent need of rescue. Thinking of this, Zhu Pingan regained his spirits.
"Brothers, form groups of twenty and patrol the streets of the county. First, check if there are any Japanese pirates who have escaped. If any are found, kill them without asking for permission. Second, search and rescue the surviving civilians. Daqiang, I will assign fifty men to you. You will arrange them to bring the food and fodder we brought to the field in front of the Taiping County Government Office. Cook porridge and food there for the surviving civilians in Taiping County."
Zhu Ping'an turned around and arranged for groups of 20 young and strong men to patrol the streets, and also arranged for Liu Daqiang to distribute porridge at the county government office.
Following Zhu Ping'an's instructions, twenty young and strong men formed a team and dispersed to patrol the streets and alleys.
Liu Daqiang selected fifty young and strong men with cooking experience and drove fifty carts of food and fodder to the county government office.
Zhu Ping'an took Liu Dadao and fifty others to Taiping County Yamen and took command at the Yamen.
"Help, help..."
On the way to Taiping County Government Office, Zhu Ping'an heard a group of women and children crying for help. The voices were unclear, as if their mouths were blocked. Zhu Ping'an hurriedly took Liu Dadao and others to the rescue.
The cry for help came from a large and magnificent house with tall walls.
It can be imagined that before the fall of Taiping County, this wealthy family's mansion must have been very prosperous.
However, its glory is gone now. The vermilion gate has many traces of being chopped by knives and axes, five or six corpses are lying at the door, the steps are covered with blood, and the stone lions in front of the gate have been overturned.
Zhu Ping'an and his men broke open the gate and walked in. The yard was in a mess. The first thing that caught his eye was five corpses lying in the courtyard, including an old woman in disheveled clothes. It was obvious that she had been raped and tortured to death by the Japanese pirates.
"The Japanese pirates deserve to be cut into pieces. They are such beasts that they even spared an old lady of this age!"
Seeing the old woman being killed by the Japanese pirates, the young and strong men could not help but curse the Japanese pirates with gnashing teeth.
"well... ... "
Zhu Ping'an sighed, took off his official robe, and covered the disheveled old woman with it.
"Rest in peace, old man. I, Zhu Ping'an, swear that one day I will avenge you."
Zhu Ping'an stood up and bowed deeply.
Behind the five bodies was a group of tied-up women, about a hundred of them, with their hands and feet tied and rags stuffed in their mouths, so their cries for help were not so clear. They were all young women in their teens to 30s, all of them were pretty.
"Wuwuwuwu, help, help..."
Seeing Zhu Pingan and the others coming in, the tied-up woman became even more agitated. She burst into tears and sobbed for help.
"Go and save them."
Zhu Ping'an spoke to Liu Dadao and others, asking them to rescue the tied-up woman.
Liu Dadao and other young and strong men came forward, took the cloth balls from their mouths, and helped them untie the ropes.
"Wow... Thank you, thank you benefactor. I don't know your name, but we want to repay you." After the women were rescued by everyone and regained their freedom, they all cried for joy and knelt down to thank Zhu Pingan and others.
"That's our Jing'an County magistrate - Lord Zhu. Lord Zhu led us all to rescue your Taiping County and drove away the Japanese pirates. We just killed dozens of Japanese pirates on the city wall, so we can be considered as a small revenge for you." The young and strong men spoke in unison.
"Thank you, Lord Zhu. Thank you, Lord Zhu, for saving us sisters from suffering. Wuwuwuwu... You are our reborn parents. We sisters will repay you for giving us a new life." The woman knelt in front of Zhu Ping'an, kowtowed and thanked him endlessly.
After being captured by the Japanese pirates, they lived in a nightmare hell. They were tortured and ravaged. It was too horrible to look back. During the day, they were forced to weave, wash, and mend clothes by the Japanese pirates. At night, they were raped and ravaged by the Japanese pirates. If they did not obey, they would be brutally beaten to death by the Japanese pirates. Over the past few days, more than a dozen sisters have been brutally killed by the Japanese pirates.
Early this morning, they were tied up by a group of Japanese pirates. The pirates threatened to drive them to Taizhou Prefecture at noon to meet up with two other groups of pirates. By then, they would be the best dishes to entertain the party.
They had lost hope, thinking that their lives would end in a nightmare where they would be tortured and die in humiliation.
They never dreamed that God sent the magistrate of Jingnan County to rescue them from hell. Now that they thought about it, the reason why the Japanese pirates who were guarding them rushed out was because Lord Zhu came and drove the Japanese pirates away.
"Please stand up, please stand up quickly. I am incompetent and failed to rescue you earlier. I don't deserve your thanks."
Zhu Ping'an quickly helped everyone up, feeling very guilty for not being able to rescue them from the sea of suffering sooner.
"You are the magistrate of Jingnan. You have come all the way to our Taiping County to rescue us, regardless of the danger."
"Master Magistrate, I, Liu, would like to thank you for rescuing me. Thank you for protecting my grandmother's last bit of dignity. On behalf of the entire Liu family, I kowtow to you, Master Magistrate."
A young woman in her twenties in the crowd couldn't get up no matter how hard she tried, so she knelt down and kowtowed to Zhu Ping'an to express her gratitude.
Behind her, two girls who looked like maids were kneeling down and could not get up.
After asking, Zhu Pingan learned that this young woman, Xiao Liu, was the eldest daughter of this wealthy family and now the only survivor of the Liu family. On the day when the Japanese pirates broke through Taiping County, Xiao Liu happened to come to her parents' home to visit her relatives. A small group of Japanese pirates robbed the Liu residence. Because the Liu residence resisted, the small group of Japanese pirates attracted a large group of Japanese pirates, who killed everyone in the Liu residence. Only because Xiao Liu was beautiful, the Japanese pirates spared her life.
The two maids behind her were the surviving maids in Liu's house.
After pacifying Xiao Liu, Zhu Ping'an left five people to help Xiao Liu and her family clean up the Liu residence and bury Liu's family members. Zhu Ping'an took the other rescued women to Taiping County Government Office. Liu Daqiang was preparing porridge there, so he let them fill their stomachs first, and then sent people to escort them home one by one.
All the way to Taiping County Government Office, Zhu Ping'an's team rescued more than a hundred people. I think other teams should have rescued a lot of people too. Thinking of so many people being rescued, Zhu Ping'an felt much better.
"Sir, the Japanese pirates piled up a lot of firewood outside the county government office and poured a lot of oil into the ditch, pouring it all the way across two streets. These damn bastards wanted to set fire to Taiping County. If we hadn't driven the Japanese pirates away in advance, they would have fled in a hurry, fearing that they would set fire and we would have discovered them, so they ran away. Taiping County would now be a sea of fire. I had people take the firewood away and bury the oil with soil."
As soon as Zhu Ping'an led everyone to the Taiping County Government Office, Liu Daqiang reported to Zhu Ping'an with a look of fear on his face.
"Big gun, well done."
After hearing what Liu Daqiang said, Zhu Ping'an couldn't help but feel scared. Fortunately, he brought people with him, otherwise Taiping County would have been burned down by the Japanese pirates, and the surviving people in the county would have been buried in the sea of fire.
That's really unimaginable!