"you!"

The woman's words hit Zhou Shixiang like a heavy punch, causing him to stagnate in his chest and his mind to be unstable.

The big green horse suddenly neighed and stood up with its hooves. Zhou Shixiang was caught off guard and almost fell off the horse, looking very embarrassed.

"Where did the tricky woman come from? Take her down!"

The blind Li was furious and ordered his personal guards to capture the poor woman. Several personal guards like wolves and tigers immediately stepped forward to lift the woman up like a chicken. Just as he was about to drag it down, Zhou Shixiang shouted: "Slow!"

Zhou Shixiang turned over and dismounted, threw the whip on the blind Li's hand, and walked towards the woman.

"Master?"

The blind Li quickly followed, thinking that the general was going to kill this nonsense woman.

Zhou Shixiang stopped in front of the woman and asked her: "What's wrong with me giving you a way out?"

"It's better to die than to live in such humiliation!"

The woman bit her lower lip tightly and was not afraid of Zhou Shixiang's official power. Judging from her appearance, she would rather die than be humiliated.

Zhou Shixiang stood silent for a while and sighed, "Why do you die if you can survive?"

The woman said sadly: "Because the general is not the general who lives in humiliation."

After another moment of silence, Zhou Shixiang shook his head and laughed at himself: "According to what you say, I should not save you, nor should I give you a way to live. Let you die, but be kind and virtuous?"

The woman didn't answer.

Zhou Shixiang didn't need her answer. He said to himself: "Actually, it's nothing wrong for me to save you. It's just that you can't blame me for some things. Let me ask you, why don't you blame your relatives who refuse to accept yourselves seriously, but blame me instead?"

The woman still bit her lower lip tightly and said nothing.

"I care about you because your relatives don't accept you. I don't want you to die of cold and starvation, or become a miserable woman in brothels, so I promise you to be surrendered to the soldiers as wives. I know it's hard for you to understand. You may think you should get better arrangements, at least you can have a family and have a meal. I also know that you have a hard heart, but all I can do is this. If you are not satisfied, I don't know how to arrange you."

After Zhou Shixiang finished speaking, he didn't look at the woman, pointed his hand at the large group of women not far away, and said, "Tell me, if they don't want to be the wife of surrendered soldiers, where will they go? How can they settle down? What to eat and drink? Or are you really making up your mind to die?"

The woman was stunned and did not answer.

In fact, they cried at the city gate without knowing where to go. Perhaps, in the end, there would be sisters who would choose to die, but more people would probably choose to go to the road of no return due to hunger. That road is no better than giving surrendered soldiers who insulted them as wives.

Zhou Shixiang put down his hand and looked at the woman again.

"You ask me, if the insulted is my wife and sister, will I do this too? Let me tell you, I will not treat my relatives the same as your relatives, because they are my relatives. Even if they suffer great suffering, I will not abandon them. So if you really want to blame me, you should blame the etiquette and law in this world."

Zhou Shixiang sighed, in addition to the Qing soldiers, the one who harmed these women was also the cannibalistic etiquette of this era. The former, he could control now, and he could prevent such misery from happening again; but the latter, he was really unable to interfere, and this was not something that could be changed overnight. Only by destroying the privileges of the gentry and clans and liberating the people from the clans and rituals can we talk about change. This is obviously something he cannot do at present. Before defeating the Shunzhi army in Jiangbei, what he wanted was stability in Jiangnan, and everything was as before, not chaos.

The woman finally spoke, and she said, "General, we don't want to die, we want to live, but we don't want to live humiliatingly, we don't want to be the wives of those beasts."

"This makes me very embarrassed."

The problem is back to the beginning. Zhou Shixiang thought the arrangement was the best, but the women thought it was hell and nightmare.

It is not that Zhou Shixiang could not let Suzhou Prefecture set up an institution to arrange these women, whether it is sewing or repairing them, or making some socks or cotton coats for the Taiping Army, they can always make them live. However, these women are not as good as widows. After all, they have families and have suffered the most unforgivable crime of losing their virginity in this era. Even if they are victims, they will be forced to kill them by secular eyes. A woman who loses her pride in this era will never be forgiven, without any reason for her.

If the government came forward to place them in a unified manner, Zhou Shixiang would be sure that the people of Suzhou City would have 100% determined that these women had just changed from the Qing army's camp prostitute to the Taiping army's camp prostitute. At that time, their relatives might have made trouble in the government and strongly demanded to take them home and then force them to death, just to fulfill the so-called etiquette and law and preserve their so-called family traditions.

The people will not believe in the government. They will only fear the authority of the government, but will not believe in the virtues of the government. Even if they see with their own eyes that these women are not as they imagined, they will still stick to their original views dirty and obediently. The more they do not believe in the government, the more they will think so. If this matter is used by those who are interested and lead to public opinion being detrimental to the Taiping Army, then will they be unwilling to let go?

Therefore, the government must not come forward, and the consequences of doing so are even more tragic to these women. They are different from the women and children in the old Taiping Army camp. They have families and are not people in the Taiping Army.

Giving people to surrender to soldiers as wives is the most practical way at the moment. Although it is unfair to these women, just like forcing the raped person to endure humiliation and marry the raped person, this would be cursed by everyone in Zhou Shixiang's previous life, but in this era, it is the best moral policy. No one will accuse Zhou Shixiang of making random matches, and even after these women get married, their parents and brothers will accept them again and be grateful to Marshal Zhou who dominates all this.

This is the pitifulness and helplessness of this era.

For those surrendered soldiers, **** his wife is the one who was raped. Is it a comedy, a tragedy, or a great ridicule.

A few words can make you awaken the world and always speak.

Zhou Shixiang will not give in, and will not do more unfavorable things because of his soft heart. He is ready to use force to force these women to accept this fate.

Liu Rushi came over with Qian Qianyi at some point. Both Zhou Shixiang and the woman heard what he said.

Qian Qianyi is a literary leader. He can marry Liu Rushi, who is a prostitute, and is called a good story. But he never dares to blame the people who force their daughters (wifes) to go out, because this is a moral concept that everyone agrees with and is the basic law that maintains this world. Even if he is not incompatible with human nature, even if he is evil, even if he is ugly, he dares not question it.

Liu Rushi couldn't bear it. She thought of her past, so she whispered to Qian Qianyi. Qian Qianyi was a little hesitant after hearing this, but seeing that Hedong Jun was so determined, he nodded in agreement. He stepped forward and said to Zhou Shi: "Duke of Guangdong, I discussed with Zhuojing, and I would like to become a monk and set up a weaving woven in Suzhou so that these women can support themselves. I wonder if the Duke of Guo thought it was okay?"

Qian Qianyi's proposal moved Zhou Shi. The people came forward and the government came forward, which was different in nature. Furthermore, Qian Qianyi was the leader of the gentry in Jiangnan, and his wife Hedong Jun was even more a hero among the girls praised by the people in Jiangnan. The people trusted them far more than Zhou Shixiang and the new Taiping Army. They could question the government but not the couple.

Zhou Shi agreed and asked Qiu Guoliang to arrange the matter, asking the women whether they were willing to marry surrendered soldiers as their wives, and they would settle the matter if they were willing. If they were unwilling, they would hand it over to the Qian couple. Considering that the Qian couple might not have much wealth, Zhou Shixiang asked Qiu Guogong to notify the Suzhou prefect Yan Shaoqing, and Kuku would allocate some money to secretly support the matter.

"I'm not grateful to Lao Zongbo and Hedongjun!"

Zhou Shixiang asked the woman to thank the Qian couple, so she didn't have to marry the surrendered soldiers who insulted her and could have a destiny in life. How could the woman not want to?

Liu Rushi, the king of Hedong, was worried that after she went to Nandu with her husband, she would delay these women, so she asked her husband to go to Nandu with Zhou Shi first, and she stayed in Suzhou to handle this matter. Since Liu Rushi married into the Qian family, she has taken care of all the affairs of the Qian family. Qian Qianyi himself did not know some things. The opening of a spinning factory involved too much and someone had to take care of it himself, so he agreed.

The woman went back and took the Qian and his wife in. After opening the spinning mill, the women agreed happily. Then Qiu Guoliang ordered the soldiers to take them back to the camp. The Qian family's spinning mill was not done in a day or two. They couldn't let these women get cold and hungry outside.

After hearing this, the onlookers all praised Qian Qianyi and his wife for their kindness, but no one said that the Taiping Army was good.

Zhou Shixiang smiled bitterly, and when the women were gone, they wanted to invite Qian Qianyi to get on the carriage and immediately leave the city and return to Nanjing. Unexpectedly, a young man jumped out of the onlookers and walked quickly towards Zhou Shixiang's direction.

This man's actions immediately attracted the attention of his personal guards. The blind Li Zuoshi wanted to intercept him, but Zhou Shixiang waved his hand to repel them. Many people around him watched. If the young man was driven away, they would inevitably have a bad reputation again. Besides, they were so nervous about a commoner. If they were spread, they would be a joke from Zhou Dashang.

"Blind, bring that person and ask him what's wrong. If he complains, ask him to go to the yamen to submit the complaint."

Zhou Shixiang only thought that this young man was studying on the stage, and when he saw that he was a high-ranking official, he wanted to complain. He was in a hurry to go back to Nanjing, but he didn't want to do anything, so he asked the blind man to persuade the man to leave. Unexpectedly, the young man suddenly knelt down ten feet away from him, and then bowed to him.

This sudden scene surprised Zhou Shixiang. Someone came to worship him in broad daylight, which really made him very curious. He walked forward a few steps in confusion and asked the young man kneeling on the ground: "What are you worshiping me?"
Chapter completed!