Yi Haoran followed him to the Sanhezui school grounds, and saw Australian iron-barbed fences erected on the outside of the school grounds, densely layered. Several wooden structure towers were also built. Lanterns were hung, and sentries with loaded ammunition were hung above them. Yi Haoran
Haoran couldn't help but sigh secretly.
There was a guard tower at the entrance, but the interrogation was not rigorous. Chang Qingyun had a badge to show his entry and exit, and he showed it to the sentry: "This is a bookkeeper friend of mine in the city. When I go to the camp, there is someone there."
The account needs to be collected." The sentry did not question them, but just nodded and let them in.
The defense is lax! 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 the school grounds were built with wood and straw longhouses to house prisoners. These longhouses were all used by Wuzhou
It was built using waste materials from the ruins cleared after the war. It is very crude, but has a large floor area ratio.
The longhouse and barracks are divided into groups of different sizes. Each group is separated by a bamboo fence as high as one person, and the top is sharpened and baked hard. Each group has its own door and watchtower. The 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 for each group 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 sentry box at the door, with several 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 changed from "brave" to "security". These people either carry iron rulers or waist knives.
, there are also some contradictory cards in the post, but they look very relaxed, some are idle, gossiping, playing leaf cards, and dozing on the table, just to name a few.
The gates of each group group were open, and only people were seen coming in and out, and no one was questioning them. However, a few strong men guarding the gates recognized Yi Haoran and greeted him when 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. 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 ditches, 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 in frontline battles."
"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, Australians are suddenly transporting a large amount of goods. This can only be to stockpile goods in advance for the war. It seems that Governor Xiong is in danger.
Along the way, we saw a crossroads in front of us. It turned out that the camp was connected vertically by two roads, the north and the south, as main roads. This was obviously a prisoner camp, but there were more than a dozen stalls at the crossroads, some selling snacks and some selling tea and wine.
There are also ghostwriters who write letters and tell fortunes... At first glance, it looks like a rural market town.
"There are still people doing business here?!" Yi Haoran was really surprised - he had heard for a long time that Australians were the best at business, 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 in 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 about an inch from his pocket.
Yi Haoran took it and took a look, but it was a piece of white paper with the word "coupon" in Song font on the top and "one cent" in regular script at the bottom.
"The sesame cakes sold at the sesame cake stall here only cost three cents." Chang Qingyun said, "You can buy a bowl of vegetarian 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 hire a woman to do business.
"There is 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's a hidden secret, 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, not only is there food and drink here, but there are also prostitutes. This is a prisoner camp! No wonder there are thousands of people in this prisoner camp, and they can be so peaceful.
"Kun thieves are hypocritical and hypocritical."
"That's wrong," Chang Qingyun shook his head, "Australians are not fake benevolence, they 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? Nowadays,
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: "It's just a little experience."
After walking through the "market" at the crossroads, Chang Qingyun took him into the gate of a complex. There were five longhouses in this complex, as well as several independent huts. Although if you look closely, they are all very simple waste materials.
It is built with bamboo poles and thatch, but its 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 groups we saw earlier, which were mainly young men.
As soon as Chang Qingyun came in, someone greeted him. Chang Qingyun greeted him all the way.
Yi Haoran felt that the houses here seemed to be 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 seldom 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 everyone is here, let's sit under the hut."
The building that Chang Qingyun lives in is divided into two parts. He lives in the west one. The door is made of bamboo and the walls are made of reed mats. When you push the door and go in, there are only a bamboo couch, a desk, and an old wooden bed on the dirt floor.
It's just a chair. It's extremely simple, but it's clean inside. Whether it's 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're 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 tidy!" Yi Haoran never dreamed that the Australian "prison camp" would look like this! Although he has never been in prison, he has been in prison for many years and has seen a lot.
Prison cells are all dark, damp, and unbearably dirty. I didn't expect there to be such clean and tidy cells!
"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 a servant. 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.
Yi Haoran knew that Chang Qingyun was good at calligraphy and painting. There were many people in the shogunate who sang along with his poetry and painting. But now that he is in jail, even if the Australians give him preferential treatment, they will not get him paint and painting paper.
"Old friend, you are very happy. You are enjoying the hardships." Yi Haoran said with a smile, picked up a scroll on the side and started 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 belongs to a certain thief, otherwise he would not be so careful. And the painting tools are probably related to this painting!
He looked carefully and saw a small-sized freehand painting of flowers and birds. It was an orchid.
To be honest, even from Yi Haoran's point of view, the quality of this painting is not high. It cannot be the handiwork of Chang Qingyun. Moreover, the brushwork is weak and weak, and it seems to be the handiwork of 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 and said, recounting what he had experienced the past few days, "I just took it back yesterday and sent a new one. I looked at it and it was all orchids.
, I’m a little confused.” As he spoke, he opened another few scrolls.