Chapter 297: The Captive Issue
Outside the county town, it turned out that Molo's camp still existed. The dense shacks outside had already been swept away, and countless farmers were busy replanting on this blood-soaked land. Although the solar term had passed, the losses were always needed to be reduced. Most of these green seedlings came from Fengxian and Taiping City.
This has to be said that Wang Hou and Ge Qingsheng at that time both had extremely smart minds. They were sure that the Taiping Army would win. After the victory, those areas that were poisoned by the Shuntian Army would naturally reclaim their farming, and the green seedlings would become rare at that time. Under their leadership, farmers in Fengxian and Taiping City cultivated a large number of green seedlings.
Sure enough, after regaining Shayang County and expelling Molo, the green seedlings in Fengxian and Taiping City became popular goods. They transported out green seedlings from these two grounds every day and rushed to various places day and night. Of course, this is not free, and the price is naturally much more expensive, but the supply is still in short supply.
The people of Fengxian and Taiping City naturally made a small profit, and Fengxian and Taiping City also received an additional tax on this business.
Selling green seedlings is also a business, and of course you have to pay taxes. Commercial taxes are much higher in Fengxian and Taiping City than in other places in Shayang County, which is also one of Qin Feng’s pilot projects. He will start from these two places and gradually promote standardized taxes.
And beside these green green fields, Molo's camp was filled with a large number of prisoners of the Shuntian Army captured in this war.
In this camp alone, nearly 20,000 prisoners were locked up. In Shayang County, there are several such prisoner camps, and nearly 100,000 prisoners were dealt with. How to deal with them has become the biggest problem in Shayang County now.
Among the 100,000 people, less than 10% of the people in Shayang County were defeated. These people have long been identified and released home. The remaining 80,000 are all from Changyang County.
Let it go? No one wants to let the tiger go back to the mountain. Not to mention letting them be released, how can these people with nothing go back? I am afraid that once they are released, countless bandits will be created in Shayang County. Even if they return to Changyang County, they will only become the basis for Molo to gather strength again.
A row of twenty prisoners tied their left foot by a rope. No matter what they do, they must act together. Every day, they can only get a bowl of porridge and a steamed bun at noon. This little food can only ensure that they will not starve to death.
This prisoner camp borrowed the outer fence of the original Molo Camp, and the tent inside had been removed, and replaced by simple wooden houses with extremely thick and thin wooden boards. Standing outside the house, you can clearly see the situation inside through the gaps.
The camp was divided into two parts, one was the prisoner camp of men and the other was the prisoner camp of women.
In comparison, the men's prisoner camp was extremely strict. In addition to tying their feet, the soldiers also had three steps and one whistle every five steps. From time to time, patrol teams walked by the camp with bright swords. In addition to this prisoner camp, there was the Taiping Army's military camp. If there was any abnormal movement, the Taiping Army could pounce on it at any time to suppress it.
Rows of Shuntian Army prisoners were weak or sat on the ground or lying wherever they were, with dull eyes and pale faces and thin skin. No matter how strong a man was, he would be hungry for you for more than ten days, and you would not have the strength to think about anything else.
Despair, floating in the prisoner's camp.
Numbness makes them like walking zombies.
For them, every day's expectation is the bowl of porridge and a steamed bun that can be seen with the shadows when the sun rises into the sky.
The heavy door that had been tightly closed was suddenly opened today. Even the prisoner who had long been numb and had no expectations for life could not help but turn his head to look at the door that was the entrance to hell for them.
Two rows of black armored guards entered the first place. Among the soldiers, a young man in casual clothes walked into the prisoner camp accompanied by two officials in red robes.
It was already an amazing experience for the county magistrates in green robe. I thought that the lowest-level people who saw high-ranking officials were so low that they might not have a chance in their lifetime. But this time, they saw two at once. More importantly, the two red robe officials were actually cautiously behind the young man in white robe in the middle. Judging from the two of them, the young man was undoubtedly a more noble place.
Or, it is the person who can change their destiny.
This is what it says in the Romance and storytelling.
The eyes of an old man in the front row lit up. He stood up, let go of his voice, and shouted loudly: "It's unfair, it's unfair!"
While shouting, he tried to run forward, but he forgot that there was a rope tied around his ankles. Some of the people tied to him stood up and tried to follow him, while others were still sitting on the ground and just took two steps forward. The old man fell to the ground, and then, the people tied together fell into a bunch of them.
The guards rushed forward and whipped the whip in their hands, angrily scolding them.
Today, the boss of Shayang County brought the county magistrate and the deputy magistrate and others to inspect the prisoner camp. In order not to have any trouble today, he did not give out food yesterday. He thought that these guys were so hungry that they didn't even have the strength to speak, but he never expected that someone would jump up.
"Forget it!" Qin Feng said lightly.
The guards who were performing their crime immediately stopped and retreated tremblingly. However, Qin Feng did not stop in the old man's expectant eyes to perform the routine of questioning, but just glanced at him lightly and continued to walk forward.
In Qin Feng's opinion, no one is wronged. You only know that you are in pain now, but you forgot that on the way forward, more people have been destroyed by you.
"Why is the camp so smelly?" Frowning, Qin Feng turned his head to look at the head of the camp guard who was following behind him with a nervous look on his face.
"Sir, there are too many prisoners. We have not enough guards. We can only tie up dozens of them in a string, so it is inconvenient for them to move, but other things are naturally inconvenient. For example, if you stop at the cottage, you will find a gap to solve the problem with dozens of people." The guard said quietly.
Wang Hou glanced around and smiled and said, "You cleaned this big place today, otherwise why would you not see those yellow and white things? Other places are probably terrible, right?"
The guard leader lowered his head and the big men came to inspect, mostly just a quick look. This was originally a routine, and everyone knew it well, but most of them couldn't tell it. However, they didn't expect that the adult would say it directly.
"This is not possible." Qin Feng glanced at the guard, and the guard couldn't help but tremble.
"I'm not saying that it's wrong for you to tie them up like this. We are now seriously short of manpower. There are only a few hundred guards in this camp? Including the garrison outside, there are only two thousand people, but there are more than 20,000 prisoners in this camp, and nearly 30,000. It is necessary to take some measures." Qin Feng said.
The guard immediately relaxed and looked at the adult who could understand the feelings.
"What I said is that the camp is too dirty." Qin Feng continued: "What season is it now? This weather is the easiest way to spread plagues. The camp is so crowded and so close to the county town. Once the plague occurs, there will be a big mess."
"Sir, villain, villain doesn't think so much." The guard whispered.
"This is not your problem." Qin Feng turned to look at the county magistrate Quan and said, "County Lord Quan, I will send a group of doctors back to come. I am worried that there are some signs now. Even if there is not, we need to prevent it in advance. In addition, transfer more quicklime to come, and this camp needs to be completely purified."
"Yes, commander, I'll do it right away when I turn back." Quan Yun said.
"You go back and dig a row of ditches to get out where the prisoners go when they solve the problem, and then cover them with prepared quicklime, making sure there is no possibility of a plague."
"Yes, sir."
"Now, I only give them one meal a day?"
"Yes, sir, we make sure these guys don't have the energy to make trouble."
"Don't go too far, you have to grasp this position well. If they feel that they will starve to death, they may turn things around." Qin Feng reminded.
"The villain wakes up."
The group didn't say much, and walked around the camp for a while, and Qin Feng took Quan Yun and Wang Hou out.
"Two sirs, today I will take you to come and have a look, what do you think?"
"A big trouble!" Quan Yun shook his head and said, "You can't keep them like this, right? After this time, I'm afraid these prisoners won't live long. This prisoner camp is like this, I'm afraid the situation of the other battalions is worse than here."
"It is indeed a big trouble to kill if you kill, but it is hard to let go." Wang Hou shook his head and was speechless.
"Have you counted it? How many of these prisoners are there with their families?" Qin Feng asked suddenly.
Quan Yun was stunned. Now the entire Shayang County is in ruins. Who has the time to count these problems? "No, the leader, what are you doing?"
"Calculate it and bring up this group of people first." Qin Feng thought for a while, "This time, clearing the fields will inevitably lead to many unowned fields, and these fields will be collected into official fields. At that time, through replacement and other methods, these official fields will be gathered together, and then a military farming site will be set up to let these people who take their families to farm."
"This is a good idea!" Quan Yun's eyes lit up. "If you take your family with your family, you will definitely have to be less determined to resist. Give them a way out and they will be honest."
"Of course, in addition to a way to survive, we have to give them hope." Qin Feng said: "You county magistrate will discuss it yourself. Let's see how many years it is. If these people perform well, they can regain their freedom. I mean two to three years."
"yes."
"I have picked out a group of young, strong and strong people who are not easy to manage. I sent these people to the deep mountains of Taiping City. How could a large population be needed to mine?" Qin Feng snorted, "Yesterday, Ge Qingsheng from Taiping City sent a letter and discovered a large iron ore. Now he is in urgent need of labor force!"
Chapter completed!