The day after receiving the official document from the state government, Sun Tu asked Yang Zhi and Lu Da to stay in the camp to continue training the rural soldiers. Intrigued, Huang Wenbing went to the prison camp next to the west gate of Jiangzhou to learn about the relevant situation.
It is said that Huang Yuanwai is also a wonderful person. After experiencing the previous turmoil in the field, he deliberately made friends with Sun Tu, and from time to time he would provide some free vegetables and meat to the army officers. Sun Tu had no intention of rejecting his repeated overtures, and simply had a frank and in-depth conversation with him. Only then did he realize that Huang Wenbing indeed had an ambition that ordinary landowners did not have to become an official in the court.
In fact, given the current chaos in the officialdom of the Song Dynasty, it would not be difficult for Huang Wenbing to buy an official position with money. But he just didn't want to be a lowly official who was looked down upon by his colleagues. Instead, he wanted to enter the court in an upright manner, but this was difficult. Although he has some talent and learning, he has failed to make the list after several exams. The road to the imperial examination is completely cut off, and with his weak body, it is a hundred times harder to get an official position in the army than to live in poverty for ten years.
Therefore, after all calculations, there are only two legitimate options: relying on the powerful or gaining credit. In fact, during this year, Huang Wenbing did try to please the prefect Cai Jiu. However, Cai Jiu made many good friends in the city. Although he could see the prefect in his humble capacity, he could not make him have a deeper impression of him. , at least for now, it seems that this road is not easy to follow.
In fact, it was for this reason that in the original story, Huang Wenbing, who was determined to commit meritorious deeds, deliberately reported to Cai Jiu that Song Jiang wrote an anti-poem while drunk on Xunyang Tower, which caused a turmoil and In the end, his own life was involved.
But now, because of Sun Tu's intervention, Huang Wenbing had a new idea. He began to deliberately make friends with Sun Tu, a team leader who was deeply appreciated by the prefect and had just made great achievements for Jiangzhou. He hoped to achieve his goals through him. The ultimate wish to become a court official.
If it were another person who claimed to be noble, he would be very disdainful after hearing his intention, and would even be able to drive Huang Wenbing away from him. But Sun Tu had his own opinions. Even if Huang Wenbing had selfish motives, as long as he truthfully told what he was thinking, he would be willing to give the other party some opportunities, especially in the previous contacts, he also found that the other party was indeed It has real materials, so it means cultivation. Because there is no shortage of warriors around Sun Tu, but there is a lack of staff and think tanks who can help him make suggestions.
Today, Sun Tu took Huang Wenbing to Laocheng Camp with him. He also wanted to take the exam for him. If he was satisfied, he would leave the daily affairs of Laocheng Camp to him. Huang Wenbing actually had a vague suspicion about this, so he seemed particularly excited at this time.
Sun Tu had passed by the Lao City Camp before, but this was the first time he had looked at the Jiangzhou Dalao City as carefully as he did today. Looking from a distance, I can see that the walls of this city-within-a-city are not much shorter than the Jiangzhou city wall, and the city bricks are all built on the rammed earth outer wall, which looks particularly strong. In addition, there were more than a dozen soldiers standing at the small city gate with swords and guns in hand, and a guard stood every ten or twenty steps on the city wall, which really gave people a feeling of impregnability. Come.
Of course, today's scene was obviously directed at his Sun Tu. It should be the officials in charge of the prison camp who guessed that he was like this.
A new immediate boss will be arriving in the next two days, so arrangements have been made accordingly.
Sure enough, when Sun Tu led the people to the camp gate where only two horses could pass side by side, and after revealing his identity, several officials in green shirts came out with flattering smiles on their faces. After the ceremony, the leader, a broad-faced, square-lipped official with a slender build, who claimed to be the prisoner of the two chambers of the state, named Dai Zong, smiled and said, "I have always heard people mention Sun Tuanlian's heroic martial arts in Xiangri. He is extraordinary, but he is of low status and cannot be seen in person. Today I am lucky enough to see his true appearance, but it is more admirable than we imagined."
"Haha, Dean Dai is too ridiculous. I just got a lucky victory. I don't deserve such praise from the officials and people in the city." Sun Tu was quite affectionate towards this future Liangshan hero and smiled. After replying, he chatted a few more words with the others, and then he was led by them to the prison camp.
Although the entrance of this prison camp is not large, it is just for better prevention. In fact, the area inside is not small. After all, there are thousands of prisoners, jailers and officials inside. Moreover, in addition to the cells located in the middle and back of the camp, there are also many detention rooms for officials in the front. They cannot be allowed to live in a small room with more than ten people like ordinary prisoners.
When Sun Tu was invited to sit down and serve tea in the hall directly in front of him, Dai Zong and the others sent over all the relevant books and account books that they had prepared, and then reported to him one by one the daily life in the prison camp. expenses and affairs to come. They also knew that Sun Tu was now a hero of Jiangzhou and a close confidant of the prefect, so they did not dare to deceive, so they told everything truthfully.
Sun Tu listened quietly, and would only ask a question when he encountered something he didn't understand. It wasn't until they explained all their official duties clearly that he asked with a smile: "In addition to a sum of salary from the state government, you probably also got a lot of benefits from these prisoners, right?"
As soon as these words came out, everyone in the hall was speechless and didn't know what to say. This Sun Tuanlian is really a martial artist, is he so straightforward? Even Huang Wenbing, who had been standing behind Sun Tu, smiled bitterly in his heart when he heard this. He couldn't help but leaned forward and whispered: "It's not easy to pursue the matter of group training. At least now is not the time for an in-depth investigation."
Sun Tu gave him a calm look, then continued to look at everyone and said with a smile: "I don't mean to blame you. The environment in this prison camp is not good, and there is no chance to get ahead. You Waiting here is actually not much different from those prisoners. If there are no additional benefits, I'm afraid no one will come here to work."
Seeing that everyone was slightly relieved, he continued: "But I also have my own rules. Some of the items I set before can continue to be used, but some methods that have to squeeze all the oil and water out of the prisoners are with me. It's better to exempt them. Although they are all guilty, they should still have some dignity."
"What the regiment coach said is that lower-ranking officials must act accordingly in the future." Dai Zong finally understood. The new Shangguan just wanted to establish his prestige. As long as he didn't go too far, he would naturally not be too harsh. .
After beating them for a while, Sun Tu asked them to lead him around the cells at the back to see what kind of prisoners were in them.
In fact, places like Jiangzhou
How could heinous prisoners be sent here in such a wealthy place? At most, some prisoners who had committed serious crimes but had extenuating circumstances, or whose families were relatively wealthy, were serving their sentences here. But even though there are many prisoners here who have good backgrounds, life in this prison camp is not easy. They all look depressed. When they see a lot of officials and jailers, they are like a mouse seeing a cat. It's extremely polite to salute and say hello there.
Some of the cells at the front, which only held one or two prisoners, were okay and looked quite clean. But as we go deeper, as the number of people detained in the cells increases, the environment inside becomes worse. Some of them are even more stinky. People are still some distance away, and the stench has already hit us. Come, Sun Tu frowned deeply.
After looking inside several cells and seeing no improvement, Sun Tu asked Dai Zong: "Dean Dai, this kind of prison will make prisoners get diseases. And if there is an epidemic, I'm afraid that all the prisoners in the prison camp will be affected." They will all be infected and even spread to the people of Jiangzhou City. Do you have any considerations in this regard?"
"This... I have never thought about this." Dai Zong lowered his head slightly uneasily.
"But we can't give them a better place to live just for this reason, right?" an official muttered from behind.
Sun Tu did not get angry because of these words, but just said: "Things can always be solved. I want to ask you, what kind of hard labor do these prisoners do on weekdays? Is it repairing the city wall, or dredging the Xunyang River waterway?"
"There are all of these, but these can only be done after the agricultural slack. After all, the hundreds of prisoners here cannot complete the corvee work, so the local people must be recruited together with the strong people. And in order to facilitate management, I am waiting for you I don't dare to let them all go out..." Dai Zong quickly explained.
Sun Tu nodded understandingly: "Don't these prisoners have nothing to do during the busy farming season? In that case, why can't you let them clean up the environment in the prison camp by themselves? I think this is It means that no one will object to something that is of great benefit to them, right?"
Several officials were dumbfounded when they heard this. They really had never thought about this, or they had never thought about the prisoners. Now that I think about it carefully, I really think Sun Tu's suggestion is good. Not only the dirty cells in the back, but also the front yard and other places can be cleaned by the prisoners.
Dai Zong immediately clasped his fists and said, "Sun Tuanlian is really wise. He only came to the prison camp for a while and solved this problem. I admire him."
"Haha, easy to say. I also know that you are still a little worried that this will give the prisoners a chance to escape. Let's do it. In two days, I will send some elite rural soldiers to help guard, so you don't have to worry. As long as they do things in shackles, everything will be safe."
The implication of Sun Tu's words was that he was going to place his own men in the prison camp, so Dai Zong and others naturally did not dare to disobey him.
So in an understatement, Sun Tu took all these subordinates in his hands, thus paving the way for Huang Wenbing to take over related matters. In this way, he would be able to focus more on training troops, instead of focusing on the prison camp.
It was not until a few months later that the arrival of a person made Sun Tu pay attention to the prison camp again.