Chapter 100 Zheng Cai's Prisoner of War Experience
Mid July.
Harbor City, prisoner of war camp.
This temporary camp, which covers an area of hundreds of acres, accommodated more than 47,000 prisoners of war at most, and was very lively.
However, after more than half a month of processing, more than 40,000 ordinary prisoners of war were sent to Shandong to work after signing an "Employment Contract" - actually going to mines to mine, but in order to avoid causing their anger
Collective resistance, the "Employment Contract" stipulates that each of these prisoners of war owes Xujiazhuang 100 taels of 'ransom silver'. As long as they go to Shandong to mine and work harder, they can earn 5 taels a month. They can do it in two or three years.
They are free again. Of course, if they can directly come up with 100 taels of ransom silver, they can be released directly without being sent to Shandong.
There were almost no ordinary prisoners of war with more than a hundred taels. After all, if they were not too poor to do anything, they would not have joined the Jiangnan army. However, they did not expect to lose so miserably, so on the way to Shandong, they were sent to Shandong.
They thought they were unlucky, so they had no choice but to accept their fate, and the monthly salary was 5 taels. If they had known that mining wages were so high, they would have just gone to work in the Shandong mines. What kind of cannon fodder would they be? They just hoped to save enough money to redeem themselves.
Then, work a few more years to achieve a turnaround.
This is the characteristic of ordinary people in China. As long as they can survive and see a little hope, they will not resist. They are the most tolerant group.
Of course, it was the high-ranking prisoners who surprised Xujiazhuang's senior officials.
In more than half a month, the family members of 117 of the nearly 1,000 high-level captives paid 10,000 taels of gold to redeem them.
Xujiazhuang received 1.17 million taels of gold.
Xu Yuan secretly laughed. You must know that 1 tael of gold is equal to 37.5 grams. Multiplied by 1.17 million, it is a full 43.875 million grams, or the weight of 43.875 tons. However, the purity of ancient gold is generally only about 80%, which is actually only about the same.
35 tons of pure gold.
even so.
This batch of gold has also greatly improved Xu Yuan's economic situation in real society and reversed the problem of making ends meet. At least this year, he no longer has to worry about running out of money.
It's just that apart from these more than a hundred high-level prisoners, there are not many family members who come to redeem people, and the ransoms they can get are getting less and less. There are even some high-level prisoners of war, and I am afraid no one will come to ransom them. Either the family has no money, or
I think it's not worth the money, so I might as well give it up.
However, the three-month period has not yet expired. Before the deadline, these high-level prisoners of war will still receive appropriate treatment and will not be sent to Shandong to mine. But when the deadline arrives and the ransom has not arrived, haha, that can only be done.
Congratulations to them for changing jobs and becoming a glorious miner.
In addition, as a prisoner of war, you naturally don’t have a place to eat and sleep. You don’t have to do anything at ordinary times. This is a beautiful thought. But in a prisoner of war camp, whether they are ordinary prisoners of war or senior prisoners of war, they all have to work.
It requires physical labor, and the arrangements are all dirty and hard work.
For example, go to the brick kiln to move bricks.
For example, use a feces truck to transport feces to the filling port of the biogas tank.
For example, when building a road, a group of prisoners of war pushed large rocks weighing more than ten tons back and forth to compact the road surface.
Wait wait wait.
Among the high-level prisoners of war, Zheng Cai, a young man in his early twenties, is a special one.
He is the deputy general of the Zheng Family Firearms Army, the nephew of Zheng Zhilong, the commander-in-chief of Quanzhou, Fujian Province and a maritime merchant. He is valued and cultivated in the Zheng Family Navy, which now dominates the southeastern coast. He is a young man with a very bright future.
However, his car overturned under Yangzhou City, and his goal of building a good relationship with Jiangnan officials and gentry was not achieved. Instead, he became a prisoner of Xujiazhuang. Life and death were no longer in his hands, and he suffered a major setback in life.
But Zheng Cai is not worried that the Zheng family will not be able to come up with money to redeem him. The Zheng family, which is as rich as a country, can easily come up with a mere ten thousand taels of gold. Uncle (Zheng Zhilong) will definitely send someone to bring money to redeem him.
It's just that Fujian is far away, and it takes more than a month to get back and forth. If you want to wait for the ransom, it will have to be the end of July at the earliest.
In short, Zheng Cai has no worries about the ransom issue.
The more than half a month of his life as a prisoner of war was both a setback and a kind of tempering for a young man like him who was young, held a high position and originally had unlimited prospects.
He is not afraid of hardship. As a person who boarded a ship at the age of ten and began to make a living at sea, he has endured as much hardship as anyone on land! He has experienced dozens or hundreds of fights, fighting against God every day.
, fighting against other pirates, fighting against the imperial navy! That’s how everything happened today, all achieved by one’s own swords and guns!
Mere hard labor is nothing to him.
During this time, Zheng Cai also observed everything in Xujiazhuang from the perspective of a prisoner of war, and discovered many unique features, which made him secretly surprised.
I was surprised by the wealth of Xujiazhuang.
Shocked by Xu Jiajun's strength.
And through Xujiazhuang's management of prisoners of war, we realized that Xujiazhuang's organizational management was powerful, not only far beyond the government, but also far beyond the Zheng family in Fujian.
Why did he say that?
For example, a few days ago, the manager of the prisoner-of-war camp took more than 3,000 prisoners to build a road. This kind of work requires a lot of hard work, and the enthusiasm of the prisoners will definitely not be very high. However, the manager organized senior prisoners of war into
They formed a team, and the most tiring work of pushing rocks and grinding them was given to senior prisoners of war; the moderately tiring work of breaking stones was given to ordinary prisoners of war, and the easier tasks were given to criminals and hard laborers in Xujiazhuang.
In this way, when working, criminals and hard laborers see the treatment of prisoners of war, and then compare themselves, they will feel that even if they are criminals who have been punished with hard labor, they are much better than foreign prisoners. Not only will they work harder, but also
You will have the idea of reforming your past, never committing a crime again, and decide to be a good, law-abiding citizen.
As for the ordinary prisoners of war, although they are very tired and hard-working, seeing the treatment of the senior prisoners of war and seeing the high officials, nobles and gentry of the court, they are not only reduced to working with them, but also bear the most painful and tiring tasks.
As a result, my mentality has become much more balanced, my negative complaints have decreased a lot, and I will even sarcastically laugh at these once-high-ranking men.
As for the senior prisoners of war, they were naturally complaining, protesting and sabotaging their work. However, the hemp ropes soaked in water were whipped down hard, and earth-shattering screams were heard, which immediately reduced the inactivity and sabotage.
"I'm not convinced, you can't treat me like this!"
Zhang Shijun, the magistrate of Yangzhou, who had been whipped, said to the steward who whipped him: "I am Zhang Shijun, the magistrate of Yangzhou. I am the official above your head, an official of the imperial court, and a scholar! If you beat me, it is treason and treason, and you will be punished."
Execute the Nine Tribes! If you let me go immediately, I may let this matter go."
"Zhang Shijun, did your family send 10,000 taels of gold?"
The steward asked mockingly: "Have you forgotten your identity and regarded this place as your prefect's office?"
"The gold will be delivered, it will be delivered immediately, it's only a mere ten thousand taels, why bother to rush it?"
Zhang Shijun immediately said: "I will write a letter tonight and ask my family to send the money."
"Yangzhou City is so close. If you can, I'll give it to you as soon as possible. Don't be lazy and work hard for me, or I'll beat you to death!"
The steward's whip whipped out in the air and made a loud bang. Zhang Shijun was so frightened that his face turned pale. Originally, his family was definitely rich, but after Yangzhou City was captured by the Xu family's army, his family property was confiscated, and the property loss exceeded 500,000 taels.
, so in terms of ransom, we can only hope that Wei Guogong Xu Hongji will pay him to rescue him, but more than ten days have passed, Xu Wenjue has been ransomed, and Wei Guogong seems to have forgotten him, or in other words, he
Has become an abandoned child.
Thinking of this, Zhang Shijun's face was full of frustration and despair, but in order not to be whipped, he had to risk his life to work.
Zheng Cai, who was observing all this, naturally understood that this Zhang Shijun must be dead, otherwise the whip would not always fall on people like him whose families could not afford the ransom. And those who did not have to worry about the ransom, such as himself,
He never received a whipping, and the steward was quite polite to him, and even looked after him several times.
From this we can see that Xujiazhuang is very smart in its management methods and does a very good job of treating people differently.
Another incident left a deep impression on Zheng Cai and was a huge shock.
Just yesterday, he followed a group of prisoners on the sea embankment outside Harbor City, carrying thick fan blades on his shoulders. Then, under the operation of an engineering crane, the large blades were assembled one by one.
A complete 30kw fan is assembled on a large white pillar. Finally, in the strong sea breeze of level 5 or 6, it continuously emits electric energy, which is used to drive the water pump to extract seawater, drive the water pump to speed up the evaporation of seawater, and provide electricity to the electric heater.
The power supply allows the salt production plant to produce nearly 10,000 tons of snow salt per day.
It was this experience of assisting in the installation of wind turbines as a coolie that allowed Zheng Cai to see technology that was like a miracle in his eyes for the first time, and to see the power of industrialized mass production. He received an unimaginable impact and shock, and made him
I tossed and turned all night and couldn't sleep. I wanted to grab something, but I just couldn't.
The next morning.
Zheng Cai was not assigned to continue working. Cai, the manager of the prisoner of war camp, sent someone to call him over and told him the news: "Zheng Zhilong in Fujian already knows about your capture, but he doesn't seem to have offered gold to redeem you."
It means that he is preparing to lead the Zheng family fleet to attack Harbor City."
"Attack Harbor City?"
Zheng Cai was shocked, his face changed drastically, and he blurted out: "No, this is absolutely not allowed!"