The celebration banquet was held with great joy by all the guests. The Zhejiang army had fought for a whole day, first breaking out of the camp, then seizing the gate, then ambushing, and finally chasing the Japanese pirates. At the end of the day, they were already starving.
Suzhou is a wealthy city, and although the venue is a bit simple, the food is definitely super luxurious.
All kinds of meat and delicacies were served one after another, on table after table, more than thirty dishes in total, and almost every one of them was a staple.
The wine was also served. Zhu Ping'an allowed each person to drink one bowl, but only one bowl, as they still had to clean up the battlefield later.
Of course, because they had to clean up the battlefield, the Zhejiang Army soldiers ate quickly and wolfed down the battle banquet.
"Please deliver this handwritten letter to your house and give it to my wife." Zhu Ping'an wrote a handwritten letter and asked someone to take it to Li Shu's house.
The general meaning is that I have to go clean up the battlefield and return home later. Don't worry, go to sleep first, I will return in the moonlight.
"Sir, the young lady has been waiting for you for a long time. Please go back to the mansion. We will be able to clean up the battlefield."
Liu Mu, Liu Dadao and others persuaded Zhu Ping'an to return home.
"It's okay. It won't matter a moment. The damage to the surrounding area caused by this battlefield is quite serious. I won't feel at ease if I don't keep an eye on it personally. The fire in the forest must be put out thoroughly. It is related to the safety of the surrounding villages. We can't be careless at all. The river channel must be cleaned. It is related to the drinking water downstream. We can't be careless..." Zhu Ping'an waved his hand and insisted.
In winter, the days are short and the nights are long. It was sunset when we entered the city. We quickly finished the celebratory banquet and it was already dark outside.
"Prefect Shang, it's getting late. We should set out now to clean up the battlefield. Prefect Shang can select a few dozen personal soldiers to go with us. They can send messages to the city every half an hour. Then Prefect Shang will know the situation outside the city."
Before leaving, Zhu Ping'an made a proposal to Prefect Shang.
The reason why Zhu Ping'an proposed this was that he didn't want to come back from cleaning up the battlefield and be locked outside the city gate for verification and identification.
It's okay during the day, but let's not do it this late at night. It's hard enough for everyone to clean up the battlefield. It's cold, and we're sleepy and tired. And being locked outside the city for verification and identification is just too painful to think about.
Before, facing the siege of Japanese pirates, Suzhou City could not spare any manpower to follow him to ambush the Japanese pirates. Now that the Japanese pirates have been defeated, there are enough manpower in Suzhou City to follow him.
"Well, Zihou's words make sense. I will let Deputy General Zhang bring 500 people to go with you to clean up the battlefield."
Prefect Shang nodded, accepted Zhu Ping'an's suggestion, called Deputy General Zhang, and asked him to select 500 soldiers to accompany Zhu Ping'an. At the same time, he instructed him to send ten people back to the city every two quarters to report on the situation of cleaning up the battlefield.
After Shang Zhifu finished instructing Deputy General Zhang, he said with some regret, "If I hadn't been stationed in Suzhou City, I would really like to go with Zihou and the others to clean up the battlefield, see it, and learn a thing or two."
"With Lord Shang as the pillar of support in Suzhou City, we can rest assured to clean up the battlefield outside."
Zhu Pingan said with a smile.
It was already late, so after some polite exchanges, Zhu Ping'an asked for his leave from Governor Shang and went to clean up the battlefield.
All the Zhejiang Army soldiers, plus the 500 people led by Lieutenant General Zhang, and 4,000 young and strong people recruited and selected from the city.
In fact, there were as many as 30,000 to 40,000 young and strong people in the city who signed up for the recruitment. However, so many young and strong people were not needed to clean up the battlefield. Zhu Ping'an asked Lieutenant General Zhang to help select 4,000 young and strong people from them.
"Hahahaha, Zhang Laosan, I'm sorry. This time, Lord Zhu chose me to clean the battlefield, and you were not selected. But don't be dejected. I will give you a detailed description of the battlefield cleaning situation when I come back, hahahaha..."
"Thanks to the blessing of our ancestors, Tiedan, you were chosen this time to help our benefactors clean up the battlefield. You must do a good job. I will burn incense to our ancestors when I get home and tell them the good news."
"Mom, don't worry. I will help my benefactors clean up the battlefield this time, and I will definitely use all my strength."
The young and strong people who were selected were very proud and confident, as if they had won a great honor. Their relatives and friends were also proud of them.
The young and strong people who were not selected were dejected, as if the million-dollar prize had passed them by.
"Hey, this time I had diarrhea last night and didn't have enough strength, so I wasn't chosen, and Tiedan got the advantage. If it were before, I would have let Tiedan use both hands with one hand, but he wouldn't be chosen."
"You little bastard, I told you to exercise more often, but you just wouldn't listen. Now you failed the election. You really bring shame to our ancestors."
"Hey, Dad, please stop hitting me. I didn't get chosen this time, but I've learned my lesson. I'll train hard when I get home. Don't worry, I'll definitely get chosen next time."
The young and strong people who lost the election were dejected, and said with envy and dissatisfaction, comforting their disappointed family members.
Zhu Ping'an selected a part of the Zhejiang Army to lead the young and strong civilians. Every ten young and strong civilians formed a small team, led by a Zhejiang Army soldier, who served as the temporary team leader, responsible for command and maintaining order.
In order to facilitate the cleaning of the battlefield, Zhu Ping'an asked the prefect Shang for help and requisitioned dozens of ships and hundreds of carriages from Suzhou City. He also took thousands of torches, shovels, long-handled iron hooks and other tools from the Suzhou treasury and distributed them.
Zhu Pingan divided the troops into two groups: one group went by boat to clean up the river, and the other group went on foot on mules and horses to clean up the woods. Zhu Pingan also evenly divided the Zhejiang Army soldiers into the two groups.
Everything is ready, let's set off.
"Zihou, fellow soldiers, fellow villagers, I wish you all the best. I will be waiting for your return in Suzhou City."
Prefect Shang led the officials of Suzhou City to see them off at the gate.
"Thank you, Lord Shang/Mr. Prefect." Zhu Ping'an and a group of soldiers and villagers returned the greeting and turned to set off.
"Hehe, this time we are awesome. We can actually help Lord Zhu and the Zhejiang Army soldiers clean up the battlefield. Let me tell you, this battle is the most meritorious one in our defense of Suzhou City, even greater than the last Fengqiao Camp blocking battle. I heard that Lord Zhu and the Zhejiang Army soldiers killed more than 20,000 Japanese pirates in this battle."
On the way to clean up the battlefield, the young and strong people couldn't help their excitement and laughed and talked to their companions.
"More than 20,000, I heard there were 50,000 or 60,000. This time only two Japanese chieftains escaped, the rest were killed."
The person traveling with him corrected him seriously.
"What 50,000 or 60,000? I heard it was 100,000." I don't know how it got spread, but it turned out to be 100,000 later.
"How could there be so many Japanese pirates? The total number of Japanese pirates who came to attack Suzhou this time was only 50,000 to 60,000."
Someone questioned.
"What do you know? It's true that there were 50,000 to 60,000 Japanese pirates who attacked Suzhou at the beginning, but they also had reinforcements. Another 50,000 to 60,000 reinforcements came later."
Someone answered the question quickly.
"So that's how it is."
Everyone around me actually believed it.