Chapter 461: Let Them Go
Chapter 456 of "The Great Ming in the Box" starts revealing surprises: Chen Ergou said, âYes, Brother Liu Liu was killed by the Provincial Governor of Yansui... Read on!
Chen Ergou said, âYes, Brother Liu Liu was killed by the Provincial Governor of Yansui Hong Chengchou, and I was just⌠What did you just say? What is labor reform? Werenât we resettled here to farm the land and start anew?âQi Cheng shook his head. âThe sins of burning, killing, and plundering havenât been repaid; how could we just farm the land and start anew so easily? We all committed serious mistakes before; now we must atone through labor, long life and great blessings.â
Chen Ergou was a bit bewildered. In his memory, Qi Cheng was a fierce bandit who always fought bravely at the front against officials. Why did he sound like this now? And what the hell was that âlong life and great blessingsâ added at the end? Was he pretending to be a Taoist to fool people?
But he caught one meaning from Qi Chengâs chaotic equipment speech. âWe were deceived; officials didnât resettle us but locked us up here? Is this a massive prison?â
Qi Cheng said, âYes!â
Chen Ergou felt a bit furious and lowered his voice. âOfficials tricked and killed our brother Liu Liu with a feast while using appeasement as an excuse to disarm us. Not only did they not settle us, but they threw us in prison. Thatâs despicable!â
Qi Cheng said, âLong life and great blessings! Brother Ergou, donât be angry. Being imprisoned here is actually more comfortable than being resettled.â
Chen Ergou: â???â
Qi Cheng said, âIf we were resettled, weâd have to farm ourselves. You know how tough that is during this drought, donât you? If farming was easy, why would we have rebelled at all?â
Chen Ergou said, âNo matter how hard, could it be worse than being locked in prison?â
In his view, being in prison meant staying in a cramped, smelly cell daily, going hungry, getting beaten by guards constantly, and living worse than a dog.
Qi Cheng said, âBeing imprisoned here, though not as free and happy as outside, at least we get food and donât starve. Besides, as long as you work hard to cleanse your sins, you can start anew eventually, long life and great blessings.â
Hearing this divine being talk irritated Chen Ergou.
âForget it, forget it. I wonât ask anymore. Youâve been here long, right? Show me around; I want to see for myself whatâs really going on here.â
Conversations like Chen Ergou and Qi Chengâs occurred throughout the labor camp. Bandits had strong âmobility,â gathering and scattering over time, so many subordinates of Liu Liu and Wang Zuogua knew each other.
Using old hands to guide the new, the seven thousand old labor offenders quickly calmed the three thousand newcomers.
Crazy He stood on the labor campâs watchtower and saw the three thousand causing no trouble, peacefully settled by seven thousand old âprisoners.â He found it quite surprising. âYour place is truly odd. With over three thousand surrendering bandits arriving, this general thought youâd struggle for a long time. Unexpectedly, just dumping them in prison without care, and they were restrained by the old prisoners.â
Zhong Gaoliang emerged from the side and smiled. âNot exactly without care, but thereâs no need to rush. Let them settle into the environment first. Next, weâll assign work to them and arrange classes.â
Crazy He saw the work assignments firsthand. A group of female workers came out of a large building, holding newly woven cloth, and took it into another room nearby. From that room, women walked out with cloth that had been dyed.
Crazy He understood: the first room was for weaving cloth, and the second was for dyeing cloth. These female surrendering bandits were doing such tasks.
Nearby, another building existed. Some elderly people dragged bamboo inside, while others came out holding freshly made bamboo baskets.
Clearly, that building was for elderly to weave bamboo products.
Crazy He mostly guessed the big prisonâs purpose, but he still didnât understand something. âWhat about these classes?â
Zhong Gaoliang said, âIt teaches them how to behave, the retribution for wrongdoing, and the rewards for good deeds.â
Crazy He: ââŚâ
Such things sounded complicated; Crazy He disliked meddling in them and didnât even wish to see more. He nodded and said, âFine, do as you want in Chengcheng County. After all, these surrendering bandits are a headache in Yansui. No matter how you handle them, even kill them all, itâs out of this generalâs hands now. Iâm heading back to Yanâan to report to the Provincial Governor.â
Crazy He led his troops back. The journey here, guarding three thousand surrendering bandits, was slow; the return was swift. They crossed Huanglong Mountain in days, reached Yanâan Prefecture, and hurried to report to Hong Chengchou. âProvincial Governor, this general delivered three thousand surrendering bandits to Chengcheng County. Out of curiosity, I followed to observe how they dealt with these bandits. Unexpectedly, Chengcheng County carved out a large valley in Huanglong Mountain and already held seven thousand surrendering bandits there. Our three thousand were locked up with them, imprisoning ten thousand bandits total.â
Hong Chengchou paused briefly on hearing that. âWere they imprisoned?â
The Ming Dynasty rarely locked up prisoners in bulk because holding them required food and incurred costs. Ordinary prisons mainly held criminals sentenced to death, who werenât detained long before execution.
Hong Chengchou couldnât resist asking. âHow do they feed so many people imprisoned?â
Crazy He said, âThis general saw the female surrendering bandits weaving cloth, dyeing it, and others, while the elderly were weaving bamboo basketsâŚâ
Hong Chengchou understood then. âI see! Free laborers? Hah, thatâs trulyâŚâ
At that time in the Jiangnan Region of the Ming Dynasty, capitalism had started emerging. Various handicraft workshops like silk spinning, yarn spinning, and weaving cloth were rising. Those workshops had begun hiring female workers to exploit their labor value.
Hong Chengchou, born in Quanzhou, Fujian, knew well about practices in the Jiangnan Region.
He gave a faint, odd smile at the corner of his mouth. âThereâs a clever person in Chengcheng County. He takes the surrendering bandits we captured with great effort, costs him nothing, and turns them into free workers weaving and spinning cloth for him. These free workers get no wages; he only needs to feed them enough to avoid starvation, and they endlessly weave cloth to earn him profits.â
Crazy He said, âAh! So thatâs it! Detestable.â
Hong Chengchou said, âNot necessarily so. These surrendering bandits troubled us here, and we didnât know how to settle them. Since someone could take them, let him do it. He earns his money; fine with us. As long as he resolves the bandit problem for us, he can profit however much he likes.â
He then shifted his tone. âAfter we kill bandit chiefs in future, weâll send all troublesome remaining bandits to Chengcheng County. Let them weave cloth there. Iâll see how many remaining bandits Chengcheng County can handle.â