Chapter 891 Captives

Chapter 891: Captives Chapter 891: Captives Editor: Atlas Studios Qi Haoran walked around the Westerners with an ugly expression and asked, “Did they all surrender?” Zhou Zhou lowered his head.

“Yes.” Qi Haoran snorted coldly.

“Are all Westerners so immoral?

Since they didn’t die in battle, why didn’t they commit suicide?” He did want to capture the pirates alive, but he was thinking more like three or four, not 300 to 400.

When he fought with West Xia of the Jin Kingdom, there had to be at least 50,000 of them for there to be as many as 400 captives.

Wasn’t this too cowardly and shameless?

Mu Yangling asked, “If it were you, would you commit suicide if you didn’t die in battle?” Qi Haoran glared at him and said, “Who can capture me?” “Didn’t I say ‘if’?” “There are no such ifs.” Qi Haoran said solemnly, “I will never be captured.” Even if he couldn’t win, he could at least flee, right?

It wasn’t as if he was stupid!

Qi Haoran called Zhou Zhou over and said, “Hurry up and interrogate them.

Find out how many people are left in their nest.” “Your Highness, since this place is close to their nest, why don’t we go back first?” They had suffered a lot of casualties this time.

What if more pirates showed up to surround them here?

Qi Haoran glared at him and asked, “How confident are you in defeating the pirates at sea?” In response to Zhou Zhou’s silence, Qi Haoran snorted and said, “You’re not confident, and I’m not adept at fighting a naval battle.

If we’re really surrounded by them at sea, will we all be thrown into the sea to feed the turtles?

If we stay on land, I can at least save your lives.” Zhou Zhou was extremely ashamed.

Qi Haoran held Mu Yangling’s hand as they headed up the mountain to see Fan Zijin.

Before he left, he instructed Zhou Zhou, “Ask them about their nest, number of people, and weapons first.” Zhou Zhou quickly agreed.

As he arranged for the injured, he took a pirate away for questioning.

Qi Haoran’s eyes widened when he saw Fan Zijin’s disheveled hair, unshaven beard, and dirty face.

He had never seen the fellow in such a sorry state in his life.

Seeing his wide-eyed look, Fan Zijin asked, “How much longer are you going to stare?” Qi Haoran pursed his lips and squatted beside him.

“If I see you on the streets, I would definitely think you’re a beggar.

Tell me, how did you end up like this?” Fan Zijin rolled his eyes and kicked him to the side.

He asked, “Where are the pirates?” “More than half of them are dead and more than 400 people were captured.

Some of them with black hair like us ran away.

I didn’t send my men to chase after them.” “You’re right in not doing so.” Fan Zijin said, “Those are the local natives and they were forced to join the Western pirates.

Now that they’ve escaped, they definitely won’t return to the bandits’ nest.

Instead, they will return to their own stockade village.

Perhaps they might even fight the Westerners.” Qi Haoran could not help but sit up straight and ask, “Are there many more people in the pirates’ nest?” Fan Zijin shook his head.

“I don’t know exactly how many people there are, but there must be others.” He glanced at the Zhou family in the distance and said, “The Zhou family has always wanted to go out to sea again, so they have never stopped asking about the sea in the past 20 years.

According to their sources, this group of Westerners has been here for seven to eight years.

Considering they have been here for at least eight years, it’s impossible that there are only so few of them.” “Then why didn’t they ask for help when they couldn’t defeat you after surrounding you for so long?” After all, it would be in their best interest to end it quickly.

Fan Zijin shook his head.

“How would I know?

You should ask the pirates.” Qi Haoran asked curiously, “I haven’t asked how you guys came to the pirates’ nest.

Didn’t you say that you were going to test the ship?

Why did you come here?

Did you get lost?” Fan Zijin’s expression darkened.

He did not want to talk to Qi Haoran.

Qi Haoran shuddered and became even more curious.

“How did you guys end up in this situation?

Even if you refuse to tell me, I can always ask someone else.” Fan Zijin snapped, “Are you very free?

You haven’t dealt with those captives yet.

Also, when can we go back?” Qi Haoran also became vexed.

“I still have to feed them when I bring them back.

How would I know what to do?” The key was that there was no precedent.

In the past, they had caught pirates, but they were all Han Chinese.

They were either sent to prison, executed, or returned to their hometowns to become civilians.

However, the ones they caught now were all Westerners.

None of those methods was appropriate.

Fan Zijin sneered.

“Just kill them all after the interrogation.” “This won’t do.” Qi Haoran said solemnly, “Although I also look down on the fact that they surrendered so easily, since they surrendered, we can’t kill them.” It was not that Qi Haoran had the intention to treat the captives well, but this would go against his principles.

It was not that Qi Haoran had never captured enemies before.

In the past, when he fought with the Jin Kingdom and West Xia, he’d caught as many as 5,000 captives.

Qi Haoran never killed them.

Of course, he did not have money or food to feed them tither.

Most of the time, he used them to exchange with the other party for their captives and Han slaves.

But did these Westerners have Great Qi soldiers and Han Chinese slaves in captivity?

Therefore, they could not deal with it according to the usual rules.

Fan Zijin looked at Qi Haoran’s vexed expression and continued to urge him to kill them all.

He said, “Since there are many pirates on the coast of Great Qi, you should take this opportunity to warn them.

These Westerners are really despicable and have so much blood on their hands.

It’s not wrong to kill them.

Don’t tell me you’re going to transport them back to the government office to be sentenced and then drag them to the market to be beheaded?

Wouldn’t that dirty the territory of Great Qi?” Fan Zijin said, “I’m the magistrate.

Anyway, if I’m judging the case, I will definitely sentence them to death.” “Still, we’ll have to wait until the verdict is out.” Qi Haoran insisted on his principles.

While the two of them were bickering, the soldiers had already moved grains from the ship and buried them in a pot to make rice.

Yanmo personally cooked a pot of porridge for Fan Zijin not far away.

As soon as the fragrance wafted out, Fan Zijin’s stomach rumbled.

Qi Haoran looked at his stomach in surprise.

This was the sort of thing that typically happened to him instead!

Fan Zijin also blushed a little.

Qi Haoran said considerately, “You should have told me earlier if you were hungry.

Yanmo, quickly bring the porridge over.” Fan Zijin had just picked up the bowl when Zhou Zhou came up to report, “Your Highness, the pirates said that their nest isn’t here.

It’s on another island, a day’s journey away from here.

This is just a foothold for them.

Although there’s a stockade on the island, it’s not big.” “How many people are left in their lair?” “There are 5,000 of them remaining, but about 3,000 are local natives who were hired by them to work.

Only 2,000 are from the same country as them.

Although they claimed to have hired those natives, they’re actually slaves who were abducted.

Those natives are very pitiful.

They’re always sent to the frontline and barely fed enough to stay alive.” “They didn’t go back and notify their people to come and help?” Zhou Zhou shook his head.

“They don’t dare.

They said that it’s because the natives and Western pirates are roughly equal in numbers, and they’ve been up to no good recently.

Hence every time, they didn’t dare to bring too many natives out, nor did they dare to leave too many behind.

If they lose more people, the balance will be lost.

Also, they’re confident that they can capture Magistrate Fan and the others, so…”

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