Yi Haoran followed him to the Sanhezui school grounds and saw Australian iron barbed fences erected densely outside the school grounds. Several wooden towers were also built. Lanterns were hung, and above them were sentries with guns and ammunition. Yi Haoran couldn't help but sigh secretly.
There is a watchtower and a guard horse at the entrance, but the inspection is not rigorous. Chang Qingyun showed his identity card, showed it, and said to the sentry: "This is a bookkeeper friend of mine in the city. I have some accounts to collect in the camp." The sentry did not question him, but just nodded. Then he put them in.
Let your guard down! Yi Haoran thought to himself, so there is an opportunity here!
Entering the camp felt like entering a small town. The original barracks were naturally used as dormitories to house prisoners. Even longhouses made of wood and straw were built on the school grounds to house prisoners. These longhouses were built using waste materials from the post-war cleanup of ruins in Wuzhou, and are very crude. But the floor area ratio is very large.
The longhouses and barracks are divided into groups of different sizes, and each group is separated by a bamboo fence as high as one person, with the tops sharpened and baked hard. Each group has its own gate and watchtower. Groups are connected by paths. The layout is well organized.
Entering from the entrance, there is a straight road, paved with river sand, with bamboo fences and doors grouped on both sides. There is a water sign hanging at the door of each group, with the number of the group and the number of people admitted.
There is a guard box at the door, with several young men sitting or standing, all wearing the uniforms of officers and soldiers in the past - except that the ink characters on the front and back cloth have been changed from "brave" to "security". Some of these people carry iron rulers or waist knives, and there are long contradiction signs in the post box, but they look very relaxed. They are just idle, gossiping, playing leaf cards, and dozing on the table. And enough.
The doors to all the group groups were open, and people were seen coming in and out, but no one was questioning them. However, a few strong men guarding the gate recognized Yi Haoran and greeted him as he passed by.
Yi Haoran was secretly happy. He saw that there were only a few people in each group, and there were even fewer pedestrians on the road, and some were in a hurry. Then he asked: "Where have everyone gone?"
"Now during the day, everyone goes out to work." Chang Qingyun said, "Australians don't let others eat for free..."
"What kind of work do you do?"
"Didn't you see it all? It was us who built the city wall and cleaned up the ruins. Now we still ask them to cut trees, dig trenches, load and unload goods..."
"Wait, what are you talking about loading and unloading?" Yi Haoran suddenly interrupted him.
"Loading and unloading cargo." Chang Qingyun said impatiently, "What's so strange about this?"
“What cargo is being loaded and unloaded?”
"Of course it's Australian goods." Chang Qingyun said that Australians have been sending fleets to Wuzhou every day recently, bringing in a lot of goods, which are now stored in the Third General Office.
"Old friend, what do you think the Australians are doing transporting all these goods to Wuzhou?"
"Needless to say, it is naturally used for fighting on the front line."
"But in this Wuzhou city, even though the Kun bandits have increased their troops, they only have a few hundred people. Do you need to transport such a large amount of goods for a few hundred people?"
Chang Qingyun never thought about this problem. He thought about it and said, "It's probably for the purpose of attacking Guangxi."
Yi Haoran nodded. Now that Wuzhou is blocked for business travel, the Australians are suddenly transporting a large amount of goods. This can only be to stock up for the war. It seems that Governor Xiong is in danger.
Along the way, I saw a crossroads ahead. It turns out that the camp was vertically connected by two roads from the north to the south, serving as main roads. This place is obviously a prisoner camp, but there are actually more than a dozen stalls at the intersection, some selling snacks, some selling tea and wine, and some ghostwriting letters and fortune telling... At first glance, it looks like a market town in the countryside.
"There are still people doing business here?!" Yi Haoran was really surprised now - he had heard for a long time that Australians were the best at businessmanship, but he didn't expect that they could do business to this extent!
"Aren't Australians best at doing business?" Chang Qingyun was not surprised. "These stalls were opened with the permission of Australians, and the goods sold were also provided by Australians..."
"But aren't these all prisoners? How can we get the money?"
"When you go out to work, the Australians will score you points." Chang Qingyun is entering the palace for the second time and is very familiar with the Australians. "Then they will give you a kind of ticket that can be used as money in the camp..." He said He took out a piece of paper from his pocket.
Yi Haoran took it and looked at it, but it was a blank piece of paper with the word "coupon" in Song font on the top and "one point" in regular script at the bottom.
"The sesame cakes sold at the sesame cake stalls here only cost three cents." Chang Qingyun said, "You can buy a bowl of plain rice noodles for two cents. Although the camp is in charge of food, it doesn't care whether it's full or good. The more you work, the faster you get hungry. With this, you can buy some food and replenish as much as you like. If you accumulate a lot, it will not be difficult to ask a woman to do business.
"Is there a woman with fireworks here?!" Yi Haoran could hardly close his mouth at this moment.
"It doesn't count as someone who has crossed the open road." Chang Qingyun said, "It is considered a secret trap, but the Australians don't question it even if they know about it."
Yi Haoran couldn't laugh or cry. In his opinion, since he was a prisoner, it was only natural that he was driven to work - if he went to work, he would have a bowl of food to eat, and at least he would not starve to death.
Unexpectedly, there is not only food and drink here, but also prostitutes. This is still a prison camp! No wonder there were thousands of people in this prisoner camp, but they were so peaceful.
"The thief is hypocritical and hypocritical."
"That's wrong," Chang Qingyun shook his head. "Australians are not fake benevolence, but are actually shrewd in calculations. Driven by whips, everyone is good at slacking off work. How many supervisors do you need to make people work hard now? He has this plan for remuneration. If you want to eat more and enjoy more, you will naturally work harder. Even if you use fewer supervisors and don't make the workers resentful, wouldn't it be wise?"
"Old friend, it seems that you have done a good job of capturing the thieves." Yi Haoran said with sarcasm.
Chang Qingyun also felt that he was speechless, coughed a few times and said: "Just a little experience."
After walking through the "market" at the crossroads, Chang Qingyun took him into the gate of a group. There are five longhouses in this group, as well as several independent cabins. Although if you look closely, it is built with very simple scrap materials plus bamboo poles and thatch, the appearance is still neat.
There are more people here than before, and there are also old people, women, and children, which is different from the group we saw earlier, which was mainly young men.
As soon as Chang Qingyun came in, someone greeted him. Chang Qingyun greeted all the way.
Yi Haoran felt that the houses here seemed better than the houses in the group he had seen before.
"That's right. The people detained here are officials and their families who were captured from various places. The Australians value them more and rarely ask them to work. The houses are also better."
"Which building does my old friend live in?"
"It's right here." Chang Qingyun pointed to an independent hut next to it, "Since we are all here, let's sit under the hut."
The building where Chang Qingyun lives is divided into east and west parts. He lives in a room on the west side. The door is made of bamboo and the walls are made of reed mats. When you push the door in, there is only a bamboo couch, a desk and an old chair on the dirt floor. It can be said to be extremely simple, but the inside is clean, whether it is the old blanket on the bamboo couch, the four treasures of the study on the desk, or the bamboo hat and raincoat hanging on the wall... they are all neatly placed.
What surprised Yi Haoran the most was that there was a huge painting table in the middle of the room, with various painting tools and papers on it, which was very elegant.
"I didn't expect your place to be so neat!" Yi Haoran never dreamed that the Australian "prison camp" looked like this! Although he has never been in prison, he has been in prison for many years and has seen a lot. He has seen various prison cells. All are dark, damp, and smelly and unbearable. I didn’t expect there to be such a clean and tidy cell!
"I can't tell that my old friend is a clean and tidy person..." Yi Haoran praised, "And he is also elegant!"
"Haha," Chang Qingyun smiled bitterly and gestured for him to sit down, "I'm really clean, so how can I tidy up? In the past, I was served by servants - now, although Chang Qing is also in the camp, he can't serve me all the time. Australians are the most hygienic people. If they find out that you are 'undue', you will have your pants taken off at the intersection and be whipped - I can't afford to shame this person, so I can only do it myself."
Yi Haoran nodded. He was very interested in the painting table in Chang Qingyun's cabin. He walked around the painting table and saw several scrolls on the table, and an unfinished painting of flowers and birds spread flat on the table.
Chang Qingyun is good at calligraphy and painting, which Yi Haoran knows. At that time, there were many people in the shogunate who sang and wrote poems and paintings with him. But now that he is in jail, even if the Australians give him preferential treatment, they will not get him paint and paper.
"Old friend, you are very happy. You are enjoying the hardships." Yi Haoran said with a smile, picking up a scroll on the side and about to open it.
"Be careful! Be careful!" Seeing that he was about to open the scroll, Chang Qingyun stood up and said.
"What?" Yi Haoran was confused.
"You have to be careful." Chang Qingyun took off the scroll in his hand and carefully spread it on the painting table. "The thief Kun values these paintings very much. If they are defaced, it will kill me..."
Yi Haoran was shocked. Chang Qingyun said this. Obviously this painting belonged to a certain thief, otherwise he wouldn't be so careful. And the painting tools for this painting table are probably related to this painting!
He looked carefully and saw that it was a small-sized freehand painting of flowers and birds. The painting is of orchids.
To be honest, even from Yi Haoran's perspective, the quality of this painting is not high. It won't be Chang Qingyun's handiwork. Moreover, the brushwork is delicate and feeble, and seems to be written by a woman.
Because there is no inscription, postscript, or poetry on the painting, there is no clue to its originality.
"This..." Yi Haoran looked at Chang Qingyun with searching eyes.
"I don't know who painted it," Chang Qingyun shook his head. As he spoke, he recounted what he had experienced the past few days, "I just took it back yesterday and sent new ones. I looked at them and they were all orchids. I was a little confused." As he spoke, he opened another one. Several scrolls.
