Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 279, The Power of Aquaculture

Fang Yong eventually agreed to the matter.

One reason is that Fang Yong needs Song Yun to act as bait.

Another aspect was Baochai's plea for mercy.

However, Fang Yong was still very dissatisfied with Song Yun.

After investigation, Fang Yong also learned about Song Yun's background and experiences.

Da Xi had done him no favors, and he had no grudge against him. In fact, if he hadn't been released, Da Xi would still be locked up in death row!
How could such a person not only fail to give back, but also constantly think about overthrowing himself?

Fang Yong felt he had to be punished.

After thinking for a moment, he ordered someone to tell Xue Pan.

It is possible to let Song Yun enter the palace, but he must first be castrated in the eunuch's chamber.

This is also a fairly reasonable approach.

When the message was sent back, Song Yun agreed without hesitation.

For the sake of dreams, a mere inch or two is nothing at all.

Moreover, he had been bitten by the Rat King before, and had been unable to function since then, so castration would not affect him!
Song Yun firmly believed that with his talent, he would surely gain the attention of the Longqing Emperor!

He wanted to assist a wise ruler, eliminate traitors, and create a prosperous and thriving era!
His name will be recorded in history!
And so, Song Yun resolutely walked into the purification room.

With a scream, Song Yun was shoved into a small, airtight room.

He will have to endure immense pain here and recuperate for a long time before he can regain his mobility.

At that time, on the grassland.

Then they saw a large cart loaded with stones and sand, with a group of monks pushing it from behind, sweating profusely. "Heave-ho, heave-ho, Namo Mighty King Bodhisattva, Namo Cundi Bodhisattva!"

Ahead was a group of Taoist priests, pulling with all their might, equally exhausted, chanting repeatedly, "Infinite Heavenly Venerable, Infinite Heavenly Venerable!"

There were two supervisors on either side.

One had a missing arm, the other was lame.

Both men were soldiers in the Huaiyin Army. Due to injuries sustained, they were unable to fight on the front lines and thus came to the rear to supervise the fortifications.

At this moment, the Huaiyin soldier with the missing arm saw a monk inside who was shouting slogans but not putting in any effort, slacking off and just going through the motions. So he immediately lashed out with his whip.

"How dare you slack off!"

The monk let out a scream, and a long trail of blood appeared on his back.

That wasn't the end of it. The Huaiyin soldier stepped forward and pierced the monk's head with an ink dot.

This is a rule set by Fang Yong: if anyone is lazy, he will have an ink dot tattooed on their face as a mark. This ink dot, like a tattoo, cannot be washed off with water. After accumulating three, they will be considered "fake monks".

A so-called fake monk is someone whose faith in Buddhism is not firm.

They had their ordination certificate confiscated and their Buddhist name taken away. They were forced to work as laborers for the rest of their lives, and even after the city's construction was completed, they couldn't go back.

Therefore, none of the monks dared to slack off in the slightest. In particular, those who had already been marked with two ink dots worked even harder, fearing that they would be marked with a third ink dot and become fake monks or false Taoists.

Of course, since there are fake monks and Taoist priests among them, there are also genuine monks and Taoist priests.

Each month, one out of a hundred people is selected as the most obedient and diligent, and is given the title of "True Monk" or "True Taoist," recorded in the register, and officially recognized as a true cultivator. This person can manage others and receives double the benefits.

Not far away, a monk and a Taoist priest secretly watched this scene, and both said:

"You're not a human being! You're not a human being!"

After this catastrophe, if Buddhism and Taoism continue, the remaining people in both traditions will all be "true monks and true Taoists" who obey Fang Yong's rule.

By then, even if Fang Yong wanted to change the doctrine, it would probably only be a matter of a single word...

Between Datong and Yinshan, there is a large lake called Daihai.

Fang Yong named this area Hezhou, and the city of Hezhou was built next to Daihai Lake.

Jia Lian is now experiencing mixed feelings of joy and worry.

To his delight, he was promoted again. His promotion was extremely rapid; he rose from a fourth-rank Shanxi grain commissioner to a third-rank Protector-General of Hezhou, overseeing all affairs related to construction, commerce, and people's livelihood in Hezhou.

In terms of rank, he was almost on par with Jia She, and far surpassed Jia Zheng by a wide margin.

In terms of power, he was second only to Zhou Shuan.

Jia Lian was even somewhat apprehensive, wondering why he had been promoted so quickly.

The only thing that slightly displeased him was that the facilities here were too outdated, there was nothing to enjoy, and the environment was far less comfortable than in China.

However, compared to the chances of promotion, this minor flaw is nothing.

Moreover, the beauties of the grasslands have a unique charm, and after getting used to it, Jia Lian was quite satisfied.

Aside from enjoying himself, Jia Lian's most important task at present is to complete the construction of the city.

Fang Yong assigned him three tasks.

The first project was to build an official road from Datong to Yinshan.

The second task is to build a city, similar in scale to Datong, with strong defensive capabilities!

Jia Lian is currently working diligently on these two tasks.

He was capable, and although he was somewhat pleasure-seeking, no one is perfect and some desires are normal. Despite indulging in pleasure, Jia Lian did not neglect the completion of these two important tasks.

He took it very seriously and personally oversaw the construction progress.

The laborers currently used to build these two projects are mainly monks, Taoist priests, and grassland people.

There are currently about 60,000 monks and Taoist priests among them, all of whom are registered, and more are still being transported over.

As for the grassland people, they adopted the method of voluntary labor.

There are two main sources.

One type consists of prisoners captured during Zhou Shuan's campaigns.

Zhou Shuan is now fighting desperately for the cause of Dorei Khan's unification of the grasslands, constantly conquering the lands of other tribes, and naturally taking many prisoners in the process.

It was impossible to incorporate all of these prisoners into the army, as this would put too much pressure on food supplies. Therefore, Zhou Shuan maintained his army at 60,000, and the extra men volunteered to become laborers.

They chose this voluntarily.

Either dig a hole and bury yourself, or work as a laborer.

Few people choose the former, which shows that the grassland people are a people who are naturally fond of labor.

Secondly, the land conquered by Zhou Shuan had many indigenous people from the grasslands.

They naturally became the subjects of Dorei Khan.

Now that Zhou Shuan and Tuo Lei are locked in fierce fighting on the front lines, Dorei Khan has no choice but to confiscate the cattle, sheep, money, and grain from the homes of these grassland people in order to support Zhou Shuan's war and convert them into military rations for the army.

Although these grassland natives no longer had cattle and sheep as food, they gained the right to become laborers and exchange their labor for food.

Ninety-nine percent of the people responded very positively, which shows that they are very satisfied with it.

These are the current sources of labor for the state.

There are about 60,000 monks and Taoist priests, and about 40,000 grassland people, totaling more than 100,000 people, and this number is still increasing.

As mentioned before, Fang Yong gave Jia Lian three tasks.

Jia Lian performed well in the first two tasks, but he was somewhat puzzled by the third task.

During his previous campaign to defend the emperor in the north, Fang Yong captured a portion of the grassland army. He then recruited these troops into his own ranks and trained some traitors.

Now, Fang Yong has brought these traitors to Hezhou to select those who are obedient and hardworking from among the grassland laborers, and to train new traitors.

Then these new herdsmen were allowed to raise cattle, sheep and horses on the fertile grasslands near Hezhou.

Did Jia Lian have absolutely no idea what the point of doing this was?
If cattle and sheep need to be raised, why not just force those grassland people to raise them?

Why go to such great lengths to cultivate traitors?
Moreover, they are only allowed to be raised within the territory of Hezhou, which is really puzzling.

　973311696群聊
　
(End of this chapter)