Like wolves and tigers, the team members smashed the crowd apart with the butts of their guns. Be it men or women, they were all ordered to stand in a line. Seeing these fierce team members, these civilians who had only ever stood in line during militia training in their entire lives miraculously stood in a line. The width of the front and back of the line was exactly the same.
The team members holding the ladles were like judges with the power of life and death in their hands. They shouted loudly and picked up all kinds of big bowls from the baskets beside them. The iron spoon in their right hand scooped up a spoonful of porridge from the pot and poured it into the bowl in their left hand. They passed it to the survivor who stood in front of the pot and stared at the leftover porridge in the spoon.
The black pickled radish tumbled through the air and fell towards him. He wanted to catch it, but he was holding the big bowl in his hands. "Pfft …" The radish rolled on the dusty ground. He rushed forward and bent down to pick up the radish that had turned from black to grey. He then bowed to the team member who threw the radish. He wiped the radish on his clothes and put it into the bowl of porridge that was as white as snow.
The man holding the bowls of porridge carefully looked at the road under his feet, his hands tightly holding the sides of the two bowls. From time to time, he would scan his surroundings vigilantly to see if anyone would bump into him. Even though there was only half a bowl of porridge in the bowl, he was afraid that a drop would spill out. As he walked forward with his head lowered, a deep voice called out to him.
Seeing this, Zhang Xiaoqiang was speechless. The people of China …
The people waiting to be executed were either kneeling or lying on the ground. Behind them were the team members with rifles. Following Lu Xiaobu's orders, the black muzzles of the guns were aimed at the back of these people's heads …
The porridge had already been cooked, but Zhang Xiaoqiang did not order it to be distributed to the survivors. He wanted to give them some appetizers.
The men who did not dare to chop themselves were executed by Zhang Xiao Qiang, and those who supported the idea of cannibalism accompanied him. Not everyone had the courage to eat humans, and there were those who supported it, while there were those who opposed it. However, those who supported it were the strongest among them, and those who opposed were naturally silenced. Now, these strongest men had finally received their retribution.
The survivor hurriedly used both hands to take the bowl, which was still covered in ashes, and turned around to leave. The people standing behind him were afraid that someone would cut in line, so the moment he turned around, they stepped over to where he was originally standing. They didn't care how hot the fire under the cauldron was, and stared at the big iron ladle stirring in the cauldron with murky eyes.
"I'll give each of you a knife. Chop off one of your hands. I'll let you have a taste of what it's like to be separated from your flesh and blood. As long as you can do this, you can follow me back to the base. If you can't, you can choose to be exiled. In other words, you can go back to where you came from. How about that?"
Two military knives landed next to another man and woman. The woman looked at the knives in front of her and involuntarily shrunk her body. The man clenched his teeth and held the general knife. He raised it high and closed his eyes before swinging it down on his arm …
These sallow, skinny, and ragged survivors were all scattered from the surrounding villages. They didn't know what discipline was, and they didn't know how to maintain continuity. Now, they surrounded the pot in silence. No one whispered to each other, and no one looked around. They were waiting, waiting for Zhang Xiaoqiang to give the order to start eating.
He was so scared that he almost dropped the big bowl in his hand. After a moment of panic, he hugged the big bowl in front of his chest and looked at the person who shouted at him. A young team member with a rifle on his back was smiling at him heartlessly. The team member took out a piece of black pickled radish from the big bamboo basket beside him and threw it at him.
He didn't complain to the team member. Looking at the pickled radish in the bowl that still had mud on it, he was even a little excited. People who had never suffered hunger would not know that this kind of feeling was not something that humans could endure. Those who had truly tasted hunger that made people feel despair and had their stomachs burning like fire had no dignity. In their hearts and minds, there was only one word, 'food'. Regardless of whether it was clean or not, regardless of whether it was hygienic or not, there was only one thing in their minds, that was food, a treasure that could save their lives.
The man was the first to pick up the knife, but when the knife was halfway down, he chose to give up. Not everyone had the courage to cut themselves with a knife. The two women swung their knives one after another and cut their wrists. Bones were not that easy to cut. Even pork sellers had large knives that specialized in cutting bones. Two small military knives naturally couldn't cut the two women's hands. Although their hands were seriously injured, they kept their lives.
After a burst of gunfire, the crowd dispersed. The big iron pot of porridge was slowly surrounded by the people who came from the execution ground. They stood on their tiptoes and stretched their necks to look at the milky white porridge in the big pot. They kept swallowing their saliva as they smelled the fragrance of the porridge.
It wasn't that Zhang Xiaoqiang was being sexist. Zhang Xiaoqiang said he was giving them two choices, but in fact, there was only one real choice. The seemingly exiled option was just a trap, a trap that could help Zhang Xiaoqiang decide their fate. Zhang Xiaoqiang was also hesitating whether to kill them or not. After that, he used the method of self-mutilation to help him make the decision.
The team member who gave out the carrots seemed to enjoy this kind of fun. The survivors who were holding the porridge were holding half a bowl of white porridge as if they were holding a bomb. Seeing their cautious look, the team member wanted to make a scene. He was rescued from the warehouse and had never been hungry. Naturally, he didn't know what these people who dug grass roots and peeled barks thought of food. Seeing these people treat food more respectfully than they treated their ancestors' tablets, he thought it was fun.
Zhang Xiaoqiang coldly looked at the farce of these people before they died. Behind him stood the two women.
The man whose arms were tied knelt on the ground and cried loudly. Beside him were more than ten people who were also tied up. These people were either begging for mercy or crying out that they were wronged. There were also people who were crying bitterly like the man who was tied up.
Hundreds of emaciated survivors stood on the ground 20 meters away and stretched their necks to look at these unlucky people who were waiting to be executed. Although their stomachs were growling with hunger, it didn't affect their interest in watching people being killed. It was just like the market a hundred years ago. Today, after more than a hundred years, these people also loved to watch people being killed.