Due to the need to build walls and houses, there are always a lot of people digging, soaking, and stirring the river embankment. This time, hundreds more people were added to make Mr. Zhu feel like he could take a breather.
However, due to the rain, the river surged and the work could not be started. The prisoners had rested for the first two days and only did work such as drying, cutting and splitting the bamboos that had been cut into bamboo strips.
Those who knew how to be bamboo craftsmen worked hard to weave bamboo mats. This thing can be used for everyone to sleep on, and it can also be used as a roof for roofing, and the usage is relatively large.
The remaining people, Song Xiaoniu, arranged for some to make wooden shields and bamboo rafts with supports that could stand on the ground. These were defensive items that could shield bows and arrows and block the enemy's sight. In short, try to give them something to do as much as possible.
Because the bamboo rafts had to be made from the parts cut off by the bamboo craftsman team, Sun Tiegang asked a few brothers to go to the bamboo craftsmen and bring back some bamboo.
He was carrying a large bundle of bamboo and bent down as he passed by the door of a house. When the people inside were walking out, Sun Tiegang shouted: "Be careful to get out of the way, don't bump into it!" The man stepped back half a step and told him to go first. Pass.
Sun Tiegan walked two steps and suddenly heard a voice from behind saying: "Hey, he is Sun Tiegan!"
He stopped, turned around, and saw the leader Xiao Song waving to him with a smile: "Old Liu, you put down your things and come here first."
Sun Tiegang took off the bamboo from his shoulders, strode over, wiped the sweat and rain off his face with his hands, and said, "Song Zhenfu, why are you standing outside in the rain? Come in quickly!"
"Aren't you guys outside too?"
"We are doing work, how can we not go outside?" Sun Tiegang said and turned to the tall young man next to him who was talking, and was stunned for a moment.
I saw this man wearing a bamboo hat and a raincoat, with blue double-breasted arrow sleeves underneath, and the word "auxiliary" written on the white moonlight on his chest.
Hanging from a green tie is an ordinary goose feather knife. He has a smile on his face and has a calm and majestic temperament, but his age is only about the same as Song Xiaoniu's.
"I, Yu Ganren, am Li Dan, Geyang regiment's defense envoy."
Sun Tiegang was shocked when he heard him introduce himself. He hurriedly knelt on the ground and said, "Sun She, the defeated general, has met your Excellency!"
When he just stood still, several young men following behind him also stopped. When they saw him bowing down, everyone also dropped the bamboos they were carrying and bowed down in the muddy water.
Li Dan hurriedly stepped forward to help him, and said with a smile: "Your Excellency leads the troops forward and retreat with good evidence. If Hua Jizhi was not defeated first, and I followed behind, the victory or defeat is uncertain. How can I tell the defeated general?"
As he spoke, he looked at the bundle of bamboo he had unloaded and praised: "What a strong effort, Liu Jun is really a strong man!" and asked:
"I have something to ask, Mr. Liu, can you lend me a moment to speak?" After speaking, he nodded to the kneeling people and went into the room first.
A moment later, Sun Tiegang followed and wanted to kneel again, but Li Dan reached out to stop him and said, "There is gold under my knees. Mr. Liu, please remember, you don't have to kneel if there is no big deal in the future!"
"Yes!" Sun Tiezhan crossed his hands and asked, "I wonder what you want to ask the common people?"
It turned out that this room was the secretary's office in the prisoner camp. Li Dan sat down and picked up a pamphlet, flipped through it, and said, "I would like to ask you why you surrendered in the first place?"
"If we lose control of the front and rear, it's not impossible for everyone to save me and rush out, but I can't bear the death or injury of many brothers."
"You can't bear them dying for you?"
"I brought them out to find a way to survive!" Sun She raised his head and glanced at Li Dan after saying: "We know they will die and die unjustly, so why let them die?"
"But you ordered them to fight."
"The people in front are Wei Douer's group, not my brothers. He wants to perform and take credit, so he is very active."
"Aren't you proactive?"
"I don't want to die for a fool like Hua Jishuo."
"You think he's stupid?"
"Not only stupid, but also shameless!" Sun She snorted:
"I have seen him rob other women with my own eyes. He said that the family was a powerful one and should be robbed. Then if you take his family's money, it will be over. What are you doing to ruin his women? Lou Shuai's three sons are the ones I despise the most. This third child!"
"Have you and Lou Zi been together for a long time?"
"I've known him for a long time, and I only started following him after the uprising. If we don't start a fight with him, my mountain will be sealed off by the officials, and no one will be able to survive!"
Li Dan really wanted to ask about this topic seriously, so he pointed to a bamboo chair and asked him to sit on it, and asked, "Why do officials want to close the mine?"
"There is little iron produced, the quality is not high, and the amount paid cannot always meet the standard." Sun She immediately added after saying: "But more than 70 households rely on this mine for food, and if it is closed, they can't even afford pickles!"
"I remember your mine was an iron ore? What's the annual output?"
“In the early years, we settled on iron ore, but later on there was less and less iron, and more lead or black lead was dug out.
I called everyone together to discuss digging in a different direction. Unexpectedly, this time there was no lead, but mica was found. well! What else can we do about this?
I had no choice but to bite the bullet and go back to dig the old hole, but the tax collector didn't care about this and still collected taxes according to the previous fixed amount. "
"Can't you tell him that the iron is exhausted?"
"They don't have time to care about this unless I stuff money!"
"Oh, I understand!" Hearing this, Li Dan already understood that this man probably didn't have that much money to manage, so the tax collector refused to reduce the amount or convey the petition to the higher authorities on his behalf, so he forced the miners to rebel.
He sighed and threw the book aside. It seemed that Sun She had raised an army because everyone had to follow Lou Zishi in the end. "Then, after you start the army, no one will come to you to collect taxes, you should be satisfied?"
“I was really satisfied at first that I could kill corrupt officials and divide big households, but then I felt...
When the army first started, Lou Shuai's concubine advised him not to kill people randomly and not to become king. As a result, Lou Shuai gave her poisoned wine and sent the fourth son to Chaoyang County to be placed under house arrest in the backyard of the county government office.
When I first heard about this, I thought this man was a hero who would go out of his way to save the world. But after Fengning was captured, Lou Shuai killed the county magistrate and took his concubine. I felt that something was wrong.
I feel that he is greedy for the beauty of the county magistrate's concubine, which is very disappointing. "Sun She didn't continue. He raised his eyes and glanced at Li Dan secretly: "Please defend yourself when speaking out and don't blame me. "
"It doesn't matter, just say it."
"Looking back, think about all the crows in the world... they are all of the same color. He has more soldiers and is more powerful. Who else would you follow? The common people don't know what to do, so they have to mess around for now and decide not to make a decision until they think it through."
"You come to surrender to me, don't you think I'm a white crow?" Li Dan said and looked at himself.
Sun She was amused by him: "The grassroots people surrendered to you not because of their color, but actually because they didn't want to work for Huajibao, and they didn't want their brothers to die in vain.
If you want to kill a prominent person, the common people can bear it alone! I just didn’t expect that not only did the adults not kill me, but they also asked me to wait for work in exchange for food rations. What a surprise! "
"I'm not that kind, am I? I killed everyone who deserved to be killed."
"The eyes of the grass-roots people looked at it, and they really killed everyone who deserved to be killed. So the grass-roots people felt that the master was different from the officials I had seen before!"
"Don't flatter me. Although I am young, I don't want this," Li Dan smiled and shook his head:
"Let's talk practical. Like, how do you and your brothers survive and live better?"
Sun She swallowed and felt that this little defense was indeed difficult to fool. He thought about it carefully before speaking:
"The most important thing at the moment in the confrontation between the adults and the flower arm is how to turn the entire Nanshan into a fortress and block the opponent's front line. Only in this way can the rebels...the rebels be unable to realize their plan to cut off the northern line and attack Geyang.
Having thousands of prisoners behind would make people feel uneasy. I dare you to come here just for this reason. Do you want the common people to contribute something to this? "
Oh, Li Dan applauded Sun She in his heart. It's hard to tell that such a tall and sturdy man has such a delicate heart.
"Why do they call you Sun Tiezhan?" Li Dan asked a question that caught him off guard.
Sun She was startled for a moment, then replied with a smile: "It's all nonsense, not serious.
In the past, when fighting enemies with weapons, grassroots people often used two iron drills, tied with hemp rope at the back and held in their hands, so people called them "iron rods". "33
"I think you are quite smart, and you will be very good at 'Tie Linglong' in the future." Li Dan deliberately teased him.
Unexpectedly, Sun She left his seat, crossed his hands, and said: "The common people thank you for giving me the name. From now on, I will be called 'Tie Linglong'. I will live and die for you without any worries!" After saying this, he went down.
"Liu Jun, please get up!" Li Danxu raised his hand and looked at him happily.
Since this man is the foreman of an iron ore mine, he must know the techniques of prospecting, identifying ore, and even mining. He is also friendly, observant, and has prestige and credibility among everyone. If he sincerely joins us, he will be a great helper in the future.
"Do you have any words?" Li Dan asked.
"She studied in a righteous school for three years. When my master was still alive, he gave me the name 'Yimin'. But later I inherited the mantle of my father and started this business. I was surrounded by rough people, so I never used it again." Sun She replied. .
Unexpectedly, he also read books, which is even better!
"Brother Yimin also mentioned the issue of prisoners just now, so let me ask you for advice on this topic. Brother, do you think everyone can feel at ease if I treat everyone like this now, and can I feel at ease?"
Li Dan said, waving to Song Xiaoniu who was standing at the door: "Brother Niu, don't stand there and behave yourself. Move a bamboo stool and sit down to listen."
After Mavericks sat down, they both looked at Sun She and saw him taking a deep breath, cupping his fists and saying:
"Since you are asking questions in defense, Sun She has made a fool of herself." After saying that, he rubbed his palms on his clothes, spread his palms upwards and said:
"You two, suppose that the things the prisoner wants most are in his left hand and the things he least wants are in his right hand. Do you think the left hand is more important or the right hand is more important?"
Li Dan didn't answer, but looked at Song Xiaoniu first. Maverick scratched the back of his neck: "We were given three meals and we were asked to build our own houses. How can anyone in the world treat prisoners like this? I think it's definitely because of the heavy left hand!"
"Isn't that true?" Li Dan asked inquiringly.
"What Song Zhenfu said makes sense. You are indeed very good to the prisoners. I heard that some of the officers and soldiers who caught our people even skinned them, chopped them into pieces, beheaded and strangled them were all happy ways to die.
In the past, in eastern Zhejiang, a leader named Jin Gua led two hundred people to surrender. However, they were dragged to the moat and hacked to death. It was because they surrendered themselves. "
"What's the point of killing someone after surrendering?" Maverick asked in surprise.
"Because if you report to be killed in formation, the superiors will come down to verify the number of heads and distribute rewards of silver per head.
If it's a surrender, at most the officials will only record a commendation or a military commander's meritorious service, but there won't be much benefit. "Li Dan told him.
"Just for money... two hundred lives?" Maverick was shocked.
"Alas! This merit award system... is too backward!" Li Dan didn't explain what backwardness meant. He raised his head and asked Sun She: "Brother, please continue."
"You must all think that treating everyone this way is good enough and righteous enough, and the prisoners should no longer have any thoughts of escaping or causing trouble, but you have forgotten the four words 'people's hearts are insufficient'.
Now that the days are short and the freshness has not worn off yet, as time passes, he will feel that the food is simple, the meat is too little, the house is simple, etc. If there are villains who instigate and cause trouble, a mutiny may occur. "
"This is exactly what I am concerned about." Li Dan nodded: "There must still be people who miss the days when they robbed families without any scruples, so we have eliminated those bad, evil, and important elements."
"This is not enough!" Sun She shook his head: "Those people have indeed been eliminated, which will help stabilize everyone temporarily, but it cannot last long.
For defense, you must know that most people are prisoners for the first time, and they will not cherish it without comparison. You can say something or I can say something, but the management team won’t be able to see it anyway.
A little adds up to a big thing, and complaints become a big thing. By the time it reaches your ears, you can no longer suppress it. Are those things that seem heavy to you really so important and weighty to the captives? "
Some people died, but not completely...
