When the first ray of sunlight in the morning had just illuminated the peaks of the towering cliffs around the valley where the prisoners of war camp were located, a series of rapid and sharp whistles rang out one after another outside the cave cell. Some guards wearing black military uniforms, light individual armor, and slightly rushing with lasers on their backs. With a clanging sound, they opened the gates and waved the electric rods and other things to the dizzy prisoners from the dark and humid cell like chickens and ducks.

Outside the rows of prison cells, they were lined up in a row of crooked and uneven teams. After waiting for the guards to finish their names, the prisoners of war with ragged and purple-red prison uniforms were escorted by the fully armed Marines, and slowly climbed out of the valley prisoner camp and advanced straight towards the depths of the barren mountainous areas.

They were going to the mining area more than ten kilometers away from the camp and began a mandatory "labor transformation" day after day. With some extremely simple tools, they endlessly dig out cheap ores that were far lower than their labor value. This meaningless physical labor is said to be to eliminate the "harmful" from these prisoners of war from the distant rebellious star zones, so that they can return to the "good people" nature that the federal people should have.

The long-term harsh living conditions, extremely poor food, and high-intensity and meaningless physical labor have turned these prisoners of war who were mostly strong men in the past into thin and delicate people. Many people died of illness and exhaustion in this foreign land that they didn't even know what the place name was, and they could never return to their homeland that they dreamed of.

"When we first came here, we had more than a thousand people, but now, alas..." Maire, who was walking in the middle of the team, sighed to Haoyi, who was supported by two prisoners of war behind him without looking back: "Even those guys who were sick and thrown into the cell, there would be no more than six hundred people."

"These dogs are clearly going to exhaust us to death and trap us in this ghost place." A slightly bald prisoner who was supporting Hao Yi's left arm almost jumped out of his teeth word by word.

"You guy, old man, want to die, just say a little bit." The short and thin prisoner on the other side whispered, then turned around and looked carefully at the Marines who were following the team with a stinging rifle not far away, as if afraid that the complaints of them would be heard by the Marines wrapped in thick CMC armor.

"Damn, how could this be the case?" Hearing the intermittent introductions of Maier and others along the way, Haoyi's mood became heavier. He never expected that in the eyes of the vast majority of federal people, the federal army, which was always the incarnation of justice, would treat rebel officers and soldiers who had already put down their weapons like this. Putting aside the so-called political stance, these soldiers from the distant star area were once members of the federal people, and they did not have much deep hatred with the federal soldiers who were also soldiers. As for letting them abuse prisoners of war to death like this?

"Hey, things are often not what people imagine." Hearing Haoyi's low voice muttering, Maire couldn't help but stop, turned back to Haoyi with a serious face and said a deep word with infinite meaning.

"Hey, why are you doing? Let's go quickly." At this moment, a Marine who walked over from behind viciously pushed the short and thin prisoner who was holding Haoyi with his big hand wrapped in thick armor, causing the poor guy who was already hungry and didn't have much strength to stagger and fell to the ground.

"Stop watching, go quickly." Haoyi was about to scold the Marine when he saw this, but Mail snatched him to support Haoyi for the prisoner of war, and whispered, then quickly pulled Haoyi and continued to walk forward.

"Damn it, I'm still lying on the ground and pretending to be dead." The Marine's arrogant insult came from the external loudspeaker of the CMC armor. After Haoyi, he watched the Marine lift the boots that were enough to kick a cow to death, and kicked heavily at the prisoner who was wailing on the ground.

At this moment, listening to the heart-wrenching wailing of the prisoner rolling on the ground, Hao Yi suddenly developed an indescribable disgust towards the army he had served.

"Old Mai, don't you go and save your men." Hao Yi asked in a low voice, suppressing the discomfort in his heart.

"It's useless. If he has a great life, he will not die. Otherwise, more brothers will be able to suffer together." Mail shook his head and sighed helplessly.

Perhaps to confirm what Mail said, another prisoner seemed to be unable to bear the companion being tragically destroyed, and rushed over like crazy to pull out the dying companion from under the Marine's feet.

"Dong." However, what awaited him was the cold buttstock of the Marine, and the prisoner who rushed over also fell to the ground and groaned.

The unexpected tragedy took place for a full minute or two. The two innocent prisoners, who were slapped and beaten by the Marines, were covered in blood and still moving. During the whole process, the other prisoners walked over like nothing had seen.

Perhaps after venting his anger, the powerful Marine left with satisfaction in holding the sting rifle. After he walked about ten meters away, two other prisoners rushed up in panic, carried the two seriously injured comrades and continued to stagger along with the team.

"These bastards." Hao Yi, who had turned his head awkwardly, saw this scene from the corner of his eyes, stared at the Marine with a vicious look, and subconsciously clenched his fists fixed on the torture instrument.

After about a whole morning, the prisoners arrived at the so-called "construction site". A broken and used mining area, several damaged and paralyzed SCV mechas were scattered in the open space in the center of the mining area camp. There were about a dozen huge dark and gloomy mine caves, which directly led to the depths of the tall mountains.

The prisoners who arrived here one after another were not rushed to the mine by the perverted guards, but lined up to take the guards who arrived here in advance by motorcycle, and received the first meal of today's food for breakfast or lunch. A piece of charred and hard black bread like stones and a cup of turbid white water soup with sporadic scallions of scallions.

"Give it, let's eat it." Due to mobility difficulties, Maier asked Haoyi to sit on a mountain rock first. He lined up with his subordinates to collect the food, and then hurried back and handed Haoyi the black bread.

"I'm not hungry, Lao Mai will share my food with my brothers." Hao Yi, who was tormented by anger in his heart, frowned and shook his head and said, seeing the black stone in Mai's hand.

"I'm not hungry. I'm not talking to you. Even if you are a god, you can't live here hungry." Maier was a little surprised, and slapped the food of Dian Haoyi, and suddenly said in a low voice: "If you still want to go out to save your wife, children, then you should listen to your advice and eat it. It's better than not."

"Thank you, Lao Mai, I'm really not hungry." Haoyi shook his head with a wry smile and rejected Mai's kindness.

"Okay, Lao Liu, go and give this to Lao Wang and the others, let them share it and don't rob it." Seeing Haoyi's determination, Maire pondered for a moment and turned around and handed Haoyi's rations to another older prisoner, and gave a deep command.

The old Wang in Miel's mouth was the prisoner who was tragically ravaged by the guards because he was holding Haoyi slowly. He and another innocent companion who was also beaten up were lying on a large rock, gasping for breath. It is hard to imagine how the two of them survived the Marine's extremely heavy punch. Perhaps it was the instinct of survival or perhaps the extremely slim hope of going home, which supported them to survive with difficulty.

"If you are not hungry, just rest here. You will have to go into the dog holes to dig out the stones." Maire struggled to stuff the black bread in his hand around, and said to Haoyi vaguely: "However, you can't help you like this. Forget it, you kid, let me help you take out more stones to recharge."

"Digging the stones." Haoyi was stunned when he heard this, and then asked in a daze: "Are you talking about digging those ores? What a mess of filling in numbers."

"That's right, it's just mine ore. Have you seen those old tools like manuscripts? Every day, each of us must take out at least twenty kilograms of ore from those dog holes. If we fail to complete the task, we will not have dinner. If we are more serious, we may be thrown into those dog holes and wait for death." Maier chewed hard pieces of bread in his mouth, pointing to the old tools that were obviously rusty and ragged at the entrance of the mine hole in the distance, explaining to Haoyi.

"Twenty kilograms." Haoyi gestured in the void with his hands fixed by the torture instrument, and asked in confusion: "It doesn't seem too much, is it that difficult to dig?"

"Hehe, boy, don't stand and talk without any pain. You will know if you follow us in and take a look." The prisoner who gave the food to the injured Lao Wang and the other two happened to return to the side of the few people. Hearing Haoyi's naive questions, he grinned and said.

"Those stones are difficult to make, and the time is limited. The task must be completed within two hours. Otherwise, those who are damn will leave us alone." Maier glared at the prisoner, took a sip of white water soup, and sighed and explained to Haoyi lightly: "A lot of our brothers have even dug out both hands, and sometimes they can't dig up enough tasks."

"Thank you, Lao Mai." After hearing Mai's explanation, Hao Yi was stunned for a while, and then came to his senses and said thank you in a low voice with great emotion.

"Life well, boy." Mail's old face, which was already thin and bloodless, suddenly cracked a very comfortable smile. He gently patted Haoyi's shoulder and said inadvertently: "Do you still remember the promise I made to you back then?"

"Promise." Haoyi was stunned again.

"Hehe, I don't remember better." Mail suddenly smiled sly and continued to eat on his own.

"Boy, you are Haoyi." Just as Haoyi wanted to continue asking about the promise Mail made to him back then, a sarcastic voice suddenly rang behind him.
Chapter completed!