OBS Chapter 118 Poison, it's just too damn poisonous!
Chapter 118 Poison, it's just too damn poisonous!
Ningyang County is a small county, so the county government's prison only has three or four rooms, unlike the dozens of prisons depicted in movies and TV dramas, which simply cannot hold many prisoners.
Besides, if all these criminals were put in jail and had to eat prison food every day, Magistrate Yang wouldn't feel comfortable with it.
After all, the people of Ningyang County are busy farming, and these prisoners who have been exiled here want to stay in the cell and be waited on?
If this were to happen, what would the people of Ningyang County think? What would the chickens, ducks, geese, and dogs in the county town think? And if the paparazzi spread this story, what would the people of the world think?
Therefore, any prisoners sent to Ningyang County had to obediently work on road repairs. Anyway, Limpy Five and his gang had plenty of ways to persuade prisoners to willingly live in shacks and do hard labor.
The so-called hut is a simple thatched hut with a wooden frame, walls made of sorghum stalks, and topped with wheat straw or thatch for shelter from the wind and rain. The conditions are certainly extremely harsh, but it is barely habitable and can provide shelter from the wind and rain.
Moreover, ordinary people would also build such sheds when drying grain in open fields or by the roadside, and sleep in the sheds at night to prevent their grain from being stolen.
If ordinary people can live here, why can't exiled prisoners? There's no such logic in the world.
Unfortunately, living in a shack is fine in the summer and early autumn, but it can easily cause serious problems after the autumn planting season.
An old saying goes: Early autumn brings losses, late autumn brings harvests, and Mid-Autumn Festival is so hot that even cattle die.
The term "early autumn loss" refers to the fact that if the Beginning of Autumn solar term falls in the latter half of the sixth lunar month, the year will cool down very quickly. At this time, crops are still in their growth period, and the temperature difference between day and night and the premature drop in temperature will lead to reduced yields.
In contrast, late autumn, which occurs in mid-July, means that crops have more time to adapt to the autumn climate and thus have a better harvest.
Mid-Autumn Festival refers to the time when the beginning of autumn falls in early July, when the weather is still very hot. However, the crops cannot be left unharvested after they ripen, so farmers have to take their oxen to work in the fields, hence the saying "the oxen die from the heat."
What's really annoying is that the start of autumn in the first year of the Hongwu reign was in late June, which is a typical early autumn, and the temperature dropped significantly after that.
Before the start of autumn, those prisoners who were exiled to Ningyang County could still live in shacks.
However, after the start of autumn, due to the large temperature difference between day and night and the significant drop in temperature, it was no longer appropriate to let those prisoners continue to live in the shacks.
It wasn't that Magistrate Yang was being overly compassionate; rather, these people's crimes didn't warrant death. If a few of them fell ill or even died due to the drop in temperature, it would greatly slow down the road construction.
In addition, Zhu Biao sent another three hundred prisoners to Ningyang County—you should know that these three hundred prisoners had not even repaired a single zhang of road. If they fell ill from living in shacks, wouldn't that be a complete loss?
Wang Qiong was naturally unaware that Magistrate Yang was secretly plotting how to exploit the prisoners' labor, and even if he had known, he wouldn't have cared.
Now Wang Qiong only cares about one thing: how long it will take to build the brick kiln in Ningyang County, and how long it will take to make the kind of thing that Magistrate Yang just described, which involves mixing mud and pressing brick blanks.
If it can be done in three to five days, then I can stay in Ningyang County for a few more days so that I can report to His Highness the Crown Prince when I return to the capital. But if it takes too long, I won't be able to stay any longer.
Faced with Wang Qiong's question, Yang Shaofeng only thought for a moment before giving his answer: "According to Wang Laowai and the others, it will take about half a month to build the brick kiln."
"As for the brick blanks, before the brick pressing machine is made, we'll have people make them by hand. I estimate that once the brick kiln is ready, we can produce around 20,000 brick blanks."
Wang Qiong immediately shook his head with regret and sighed, "What a pity, what a pity that I can't stay and see the magnificent scene of Brother Yang's brick kiln producing bricks."
Yang Shaofeng smiled and said, "It is indeed a pity, but Brother Wang can come to Ningyang County when he has time in the future. It's not too late to see him then. It's just that there's still the matter of the prisoners and prisoners of war..."
Wang Qiong nodded directly and replied, "Brother Yang, rest assured, I will inform His Highness the Crown Prince as soon as I return, but..."
After a slight hesitation, Wang Qiong tentatively asked, "Three to five hundred prisoners are manageable, but what if Minister Xu and Chang Pingzhang send several thousand or even tens of thousands of prisoners of war? How will Brother Yang manage these people? Besides, can Ningyang County's grain supply support the daily food and horse feed for these people?"
Yang Shaofeng pondered for a moment, then smiled and said, "Brother Wang, please rest assured. They are only a few thousand or tens of thousands of prisoners. Even if there were ten times that number, they wouldn't be able to cause any trouble."
"As for food..." Yang Shaofeng glanced around and said in a low voice, "As long as they can eat their fill and work, that's enough. Do you think Brother Wang would care whether they eat well or not?"
Seeing the bewildered look on Wang Qiong's face, Yang Shaofeng couldn't help but say, "A pound of wheat flour can be exchanged for more than ten pounds of bran. If it were wheat chaff, it could probably be exchanged for dozens of pounds?"
"Bran, wheat bran, and some flour, soybean cake and other stuff are cooked into a porridge, and then served with pickled vegetables and dumplings. That should be enough for them to eat."
Wang Qiong was truly dumbfounded this time, muttering repeatedly, "This, this, this..."
Yang Shaofeng said, "What are you talking about? Brother Wang, have you ever seen people die from eating clay? As for how to control these people..."
Yang Shaofeng chuckled and said, "When the prisoners of war arrive in Ningyang County, I will first hold a grievance meeting with them, so that those captured Yuan soldiers can recall how they were oppressed by Yan He and his gang. Then, I will select some of the most miserable ones to be supervisors and make them watch over the other captured Yuan soldiers as they work."
"In addition, we will implement collective punishment, grouping the prisoners of war into groups. If a captured Yuan soldier escapes, all the prisoners in his group will be punished, so that they will supervise each other."
"Even food and lodging are categorized. The supervisors are treated slightly better, while the ordinary captured Yuan soldiers are treated one grade worse. The original Nayan and noble lords eat the worst food, live in the most cramped rooms, and do the hardest work."
"In the end, these prisoners will be released sooner or later anyway, so I'll give them a little something extra—I'll score their performance on the construction site every month and reduce the sentences of the best-performing prisoners. Even if it's just a month off, it will give them hope of going home sooner."
"With multiple approaches combined, what kind of trouble do you think these prisoners of war can cause, Brother Wang?"
As Yang Shaofeng finished speaking, Wang Qiong's forehead was already covered in cold sweat, and her clothes on her back were soaked through.
That's incredibly poisonous!
Wang Qiong suspected that Yang Shaofeng's identity was fake, and that he might not even have the surname Yang.
To come up with such a vicious scheme, Magistrate Yang should change his surname to Jia!