From Chief to Ball

"That's the deal. It doesn't count as rain, and it will be done in ten days. If you are overdue by one day, you will owe me two hundred catties of salt. If you work slowly, you may not pay me back the salt after you finish the work. I owe a lot. Do you agree?"

Ze Xin said: "I have to agree if I don't agree!" Nodding helplessly, Chen Jian said with a smile: "Well, let's forget about today. Tomorrow I will go to Sucheng to transport grain. You should also prepare. The day after tomorrow is the beginning of July. Three, I’ll come and see on July [-]th. Remember, if you’re lazy now, you’ll have to do more work in the future. Unless you find other places to get salt, food, and herbs, but that’s impossible, dare you If I sell it to you, I will kill them immediately. Please don’t think otherwise, it’s unrealistic.”

Chen Jian thought for a while, and asked someone to take down Xiacheng's black and white bear flag and wheat ear logo and put them on the island: "Someone saw you and mentioned my name. They saw Xiacheng's flag and wheat ears, I dare not embarrass you."

Ze Chang sighed, accepted it helplessly, followed Chen Jian onto the boat and said, "Let's go, it's already like this anyway, go to the island to rest?"

"Right on my mind."

After returning to the island where the fugitive slaves lived, Yu Qian'er and Hong Yu were talking to a group of women. The children next to them were much more polite than yesterday, and they didn't have much fear. During the few months Ji Bai was here, they had already become familiar with Xia. The city people have a strong nasal accent and wheat ear logo, and they have heard too many stories about Ji Xia, so they are kind and familiar, and not afraid.

"Brother, have you found the island?"

"I found it. Tomorrow you and Hongyu will stay here, and I will keep some more people. When Xiacheng was built before, you took care of building houses, and Hongyu took care of building stables. You two are capable, so I will leave this matter to you. It’s done, and it’s done as soon as possible. I frightened them, and gave them ten days for seven days’ work, and they still don’t know the difference between boiling the water first and washing the mutton first.”

Yu Qian'er thought of the story his elder brother told when he ordered everyone to build a house for the first time a few years ago, smiled knowingly, nodded and said: "Then Hong Yu and I will take care of it, you go to Sucheng?"

"Well, let them get the grain first. Sucheng still owes us three shipments of bronze ingots. I want to see this group of people on the island. You two continue to chat with them."

After walking a few steps, he turned back and whispered in the ears of the two of them: "I've figured out the name of that city. The wood on the left is elm, and the fish on the right is red fish. It sounds the same as the elm in Yuqianer. Meteorite 20 years ago Falling to the ground is the season of fire in July, since Hongyu was born in these few days, it will be counted as my birthday gift to you. When the opportunity comes in the future, I will seal this city to Yuqianer."

There was a burst of sweetness in Hong Yu's heart, and he walked over to give Chen Jian a hug, thinking about the rumors about Chen Jian and Yue Mei that he had heard before, his heart warmed even more.

Kissed the red fish lightly, then walked away with a brush, loose ink and silk.

……

Outside the underground cellar on the island, Ze and a few prestigious people among the fugitive slaves gathered together. He didn't tell everyone what Chen Jian said, but only talked to these few people.

Three or five people said angrily: "This Ji Xia is not as good as the previous master. Sometimes the master has to show some face when doing something. He has no face at all, and he speaks so blatantly."

"That's right, he said he's not a good person, and I just took it as self-effacing. From this point of view, he's really not a good person."

Ze spread his hands and said: "Is there any way? I can't say whether he is a good person or not. I would rather talk to this kind of bad guy. He looked at him with a smile, but I ask you, are there still villages on the shore? "

"No, they all moved out this spring."

"That's it. He said that whoever makes a deal with us in the future will exterminate the family. He can do it. I heard Ji Bo said that he led people to kill on the grassland for a month. No woman or child was left. He even captured slaves." If I didn’t catch them, I tied the Xirong slaves in the Acropolis to their gunpowder and they were blown to powder.”

Ze stretched out his hand to touch the burn marks left on his face when he was a slave, and said, "We are slaves when we leave Onozawa, and we even have to die. In Onozawa, even though Ji Xia is a bad person, he made it clear that we are still He is human, he is free, he can quit if he doesn’t want to, it is reasonable for him to do it. Besides being in Onozawa, where else can we go?”

"You have also seen that boat, and you have also seen his soldiers. We can't beat it. Even if we can beat it, what will we do in the future? Ji Xia told me yesterday that he doesn't care about our island, there are lotus root land fish Shrimp, I can always survive without starving to death, but there are more and more children when they grow up, what should I do? This island is obviously given to me, but in fact it belongs to everyone. I beg him to give it to all the people on the island. He disagrees, so I can only accept it. Once I die one day, this island won’t be able to support so many people, will it be the same as the outside world, where some people are full and others are slaves?”

A group of people had no idea, and finally whispered: "Well, didn't he give us ten days' work? Let's do it. If we can finish it within ten days, we will do it. If we can't finish it, the more we owe, the more we owe." Many, why not fight him! If it takes less than ten days to finish, it will actually be easier than before, and it is not unacceptable."

"Ten days? Even with that tool, how can such a large forest be finished?"

"Try it, is there another way?"

Ze smiled bitterly and said, "I agree. How about you?"

Everyone couldn't think of any ideas, so they had to agree. When they were about to get up, they heard a sharp Taoist whistle outside. They stretched their heads out to have a look, and saw the children on the island playing around Chen Jian, seeming to be laughing. Noisily lined up to get some snacks.

Faintly heard Chen Jian say outside: "Yes, just line up like this, don't be chaotic, one by one, I will give you candy every day in the future. It will also be like this in the future. You must understand the whistle and know that it is work? Rest? To eat? Or to receive corn goods. Here, this piece of candy is yours, is it sweet or not?"

"sweet."

"Do you know what to do when you receive candy next time?"

"Yes, line up and listen to the whistle."

Smiling, Chen Jian knelt down and touched the yellow-haired weak boy's head. He saw the group of Ze and gave the candy to the people beside him. He waved at Ze and said, "I'm looking for you."

Ze squeezed out a smile, watching the group of children lined up listening to the whistle to receive candy, suddenly a little scared.

"Ten years later... These children will no longer receive candy, but will listen to the whistle and line up... Go to work, kill the enemy?"

Chapter 55 Armed Intervention ([-])

On a hot day, men and women on the island gathered together, and Xiacheng people ran around, counting the number of people.Most people have the marks of slavery on their faces and arms, except for some children born on the island.

After counting for a long time, he went to the nearby sandbar swamp to look for escaped slaves elsewhere, and Chen Jian made a summary.

A total of more than 8000 people, most of them are light and strong laborers, emaciated.There are very few old people and children. One is that they didn’t live long when they were slaves, and the other is that most of the old slaves have already died, and the rest survived under extremely difficult circumstances.

Some flat land on the island is planted with corn and the like, but as the planting time is too long, the fertility of the land is exhausted, and there is no new farming method, so the food production is not enough.

Most of the time, they need to eat fish, shrimp and thatch. Many people are skinny but have bulging stomachs. They must be suffering from schistosomiasis, and they probably won't live long. For these people, snails can also be eaten.

Even if Xiacheng intervenes now to provide them with a normal diet and stop the spread of snails and other schistosomiasis, after three years, the newborns will not be counted, and the 8000 people will be left with [-] at most.

The 3000 sick people will die sooner or later, and they will not be able to do any heavy physical work. In the future, after the establishment of the workshop, these people will not be able to do work. Once the clan distribution system in Onozawa becomes private ownership, the death of these people may be earlier. Two years—here is the biggest difference between humans and animals. Humans are the survival of the fittest, while animals are the strongest.

Yu Qian'er and others first heard Chen Jian's terrible story about snails in Xiacheng, and later they knew that eating this food would cause illness and also knew the symptoms, so they quietly ran to Chen Jianjian and said, "Brother, why are there so many sick people? Do it?"

"That's not easy? They are not our slaves, we only want their strength. We will give food and drink to those who can work, and we will not use them if they can't. It happens that after two or three years, those who can work and those who cannot work If they want to help them, they can only ask us, not those who still listen to him now."

"On the contrary, when you instruct them to build Yucheng, you should pay attention to digging toilets first, drinking boiled water, and telling stories about the flesh of snails being transformed from the souls of dead people. In the early days of building the city, these people can still do some work. Just don’t hire them when division of labor is needed for a while.”

Yu Qian'er shook his head and said: "You have also seen that Zezhen and others are still very prestigious among the crowd, I am afraid that if we do this, the workshop will not be stable in the future."

"I'll talk about it at that time. I don't want to use slaves on a large scale in Xiacheng, just to prevent someone from leading a rebellion. Slaves rebelling, and we will never die, because there are only two ways to be slaves or not to be slaves. But the people in the workshop Even if it is used intensively, even if it resists, it will not be endless. For example, if you only give two catties of corn and a handful of salt for a day's work, when they resist, we will add half a catty of corn, just like an exchange, just talk. We have nothing, so how can we not talk about it?"

Yu Qian'er was still a little worried, and finally asked: "Then there are so many people, can the things in our workshop be sold?"

"The workshop is only second. What I value is the people here. Even if the workshop can't support it, then the land will be reclaimed, but they will be hired to do the work, listening to the whistle, distinguishing between east, west, north, south, left, and right, front and back, and knowing how to line up when eating. Wait, think of farming as a kind of big workshop. What I want is a few thousand workshop workers in a few years, not thousands of slave farmers farming alone."

Yuqian may not understand it, but he knows that in Xia City, most of the slaves that Chen Jian gave wolf skins to expand westward were originally miners and loggers. Perhaps they are easier to understand and obey the whistle than others. And the rules.

She thought about all kinds of possible crises, but since her brother said it was fine, she no longer worried, and only thought about doing what she should do.

Chen Jian walked up to Heze and the others with a pen in his hand, and asked, "Among you, who has worked in Taotang, quarry, forest logging and other places before?"

"There are a lot. I used to dig pottery mud in Taotang."

"How about this, the few of you are familiar with this place, find out all those who have been slaves in Taotang, Shichang and other places, and those who have done the same thing, gather together, and I will see how many people there are."

Ze asked puzzledly, "What is this for?"

"Good thing. Those who have done this will be given half a catty more corn every day than those who have not. Even if I want to kill you, I won't be interested in killing you in batches according to what you did before you were alive. Just do it."

Several people were puzzled in their hearts, but they were not more vigilant. They knew who did what they did in the past, and they were quickly grouped into several piles.

The work of slaves in the past was not necessarily skilled and dedicated. It is common to plow the fields today and log trees tomorrow, but there are also a small number of jobs that have been done for a long time.

A total of more than a thousand were distributed according to Chen Jian's request, and Chen Jian did not interfere with their internal affairs, but only said to choose a few trustworthy and familiar ones, and talk to him in the future in order to receive corn and salt.

Originally, several prestigious people on the island were naturally elected by the crowd, and asked them to make friends with Chen Jian. Chen Jian asked them, "Do you all know the names of the people below?"