Chapter 1504: Chapter 1421: Reward

At dusk, a man wearing the Tang Empire military uniform sat at a boy’s doorstep, with a cigarette between his fingers, exhaling a puff of smoke. He glanced at the boy sitting beside him: “Have you ever been to school?”

“No.” The boy, with his head down, was fiddling with the stone beneath his feet, answering without looking up.

“You should study.” The man took a drag of his cigarette and then said regretfully, “Missed a good time; sometimes you miss a lifetime.”

As he spoke, a truck wobbled to a stop on the road, and Tang Army soldiers jumped off, distributing portions of food rations to the queued Qin Country citizens.

This place was suffering from famine; all the grain had been requisitioned by the Qin Army. They didn’t plan to leave any food, yet left their own citizens to be cared for by the occupying Tang Army.

“You must be starving. I have candy here.” The man patted his pocket but was suddenly stunned. It was then he remembered he had given away the sugar from his rations to the frail children standing by the roadside.

The economic situation in Qin Country wasn’t good; two consecutive years of war had plunged this Empire into extreme poverty. Originally, they hoped to regain strength from this last war, but ended up with a thorough defeat.

Describing the natives as having starvation all over is not an exaggeration; there are hungry residents everywhere, pitiful straw huts everywhere.

If it were the Tang Empire, village officials who fooled the people with such straw huts would be executed directly. But here, building straw huts for the impoverished people was considered benevolent governance.

The Qin Army deliberately left the starving citizens behind, while also leaving them with masses of hand grenades, rifles, and other weapons. They hoped the people of Qin Territory could use their flesh and blood to stop the advance of the Tang Army.

Indeed, fierce battles had erupted in many places, and the local residents truly didn’t want to be occupied by the Tang people, picking up weapons to fiercely fight the Tang Army.

However, these battles didn’t inflict substantial casualties on the Tang Army; instead, they caused massive losses to the local civilians.

A bit embarrassed, the Tang Country officer retracted his hand, and again reached into his other pocket, finding only a lighter and cigarettes.

So, he felt even more awkward, instinctively taking another puff of his cigarette and then apologetically said: “I’m sorry, I gave the candy to other kids. Later, I’ll give you something else separately.”

The boy lowered his head, continuing to fiddle with the stones, separating the black stones to one side and stones of other colors to another.

It was evident he was orchestrating an extraordinary battle, the black army disciplined with orderly ranks, defeating the multicolored stones utterly.

The man fell silent, staring blankly at the Tang Army soldiers distributing food in the distance. The Qin Army indeed left a big burden for the Tang Army, forcing them to stay put to appease the refugees who were on the brink of starvation.

No choice but to obediently pacify and provide supplies. Extract the troublemakers to deal with them, then manage the rest of the people gradually according to the Tang Empire’s administrative methods.

The Tang Country had somewhat anticipated these tactics; neither Tang Mo nor Chu Muzhou prioritized governing Qin Territory over occupying it.

In other words, before entering Qin Territory, the Tang Army had already thoroughly considered the difficulties and drafted a series of countermeasures. However, Qin Country collapsed too quickly, disrupting these plans.

Yet, despite being inadequately prepared, the front-line Tang Army troops displayed their excellence: they engraved disciplined restraint deep within, and upheld the glorious tradition of benevolence.

The people of Qin Territory escalated the Tang Army’s resource loss to an unimaginable extent, losing possessions all the way until they were left with nothing but weapons, finally halting their advance.

Guangmian lay ahead, and the Tang Army had indeed advanced the frontline into Qin Territory. Simultaneously, the Tang Army initiated a grand landlord clearance campaign within the occupied areas of Qin Country.

They mobilized local inhabitants to judge the unscrupulous landlords oppressing the people, executed those heartless misers, and redistributed their lands to the local citizens who lost family due to war.

Everyone received their own land, and everyone was filled with hope for the coming spring, so the chaos the Qin Army hoped to see actually didn’t manifest on a large scale.

Except for some stubborn people of Qin engaging in guerrilla harassment around the mountainous and wild regions against the Tang Army, most Qin Country citizens surrendered their weapons.

“Won’t you reclaim the land?” After the black stones won triumphantly over the multicolored stones, the boy suddenly asked.

“No. What’s given to you is yours. But these lands can’t be sold, only farmed on.” Tang Country’s officer wasn’t evasive despite the question coming from a boy, but answered earnestly.

“My father died, a few months ago, killed by you.” The child raised his head and continued to ask the man beside him: “Can you bring him back to life?”

“No.” The Tang Country officer continued to answer; he didn’t know who the child’s father was, nor whether he was truly dead. In the Tang Empire’s occupied areas, there were millions of Qin Country captives; it was impossible to gather everyone’s information briefly and send them to their respective families.

Therefore, the citizens of Qin Country indeed believed their relatives were dead, yet many Qin Country prisoners were actually still alive.

“If I killed you, would you spare my mom?” The boy continued to ask, seemingly without any hatred in his tone.

“I don’t know, but I hope you’ll study well in the future, take care of your mom, find a decent job, and become an honorable man.” The man extinguished the cigarette butt on the ground and sighed.

The boy remained silent, merely staring at the man. After a moment, he pulled a hand grenade from his pocket and handed it to the man: “I picked this up.”

He lied; that hand grenade had been hidden in his pocket for two days. He had countless thoughts of dying together with the Tang Army soldiers but never mustered the courage.

Despite his hatred, he couldn’t resolve to die with a stranger.

“Good kid.” The Tang Country officer accepted the hand grenade, patted the boy’s head, and praised him as if he fully believed the child’s lie: “I’ll reward you.”