The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 548 Landing on Sakhalin Island

The Ningguta incident came to an end, serfdom was still serfdom, and one country, three systems was still one country, three systems. In short, everything remained the same.

Emperor Wu Ding had no plans to leave the important northern city for the time being. Wu Xiao still lived in the best inn in the north of the city as before. He got up every morning, climbed up the city wall, and observed the death row prisoners escorted from all over the country.

In May, the weather warmed up and the cabinet issued an edict from Emperor Taichu, which said that rebels were rampant in various provinces recently and spies were everywhere, so it was necessary to launch a new round of salt campaign.

The Ministry of Justice issued arrest quotas to the governors of seven provinces, prefectures, and counties, requiring them to complete the task with guaranteed quality and quantity.

As a result, from Liaodong to Henan, from Lelang to Huguang, officials from all over the country worked hard and ordered the yamen runners and pacification soldiers under their jurisdiction to go out into the streets to arrest people.

The reasons for arresting people ranged from urinating and defecating in public to criticizing the government. In a short period of time, a large number of "troublemakers" were arrested, and the goal was truly to "arrest all those who should be arrested, punish those who need to be punished, and leave no one behind."

Against this backdrop, a large number of young and middle-aged people who violated the ban were exiled to Ningguta. Most of them would spend the rest of their miserable lives in the northern border, contributing their own meager efforts to building the northern border of the empire.

With the arrival of a large number of prisoners, the Ningguta model is also quietly changing.

First of all, the twenty killing sticks for new recruits were cancelled. The empire's decision-makers were far smarter than slave masters like Qian Sanruo. Human resources were the scarcest and most important resource in this era. There was nothing more stupid than beating people to death or crippling them for a few taels of silver.

Not only was the killing stick abolished, but the living environment of the prisoners also improved greatly.

Originally, prisoners here lived amidst piles of garbage, with dead rats strewn about their feet, and they often had to fight with them for food. At night, all the prisoners were crammed into a small cell, sleeping together like pigs, chest to chest. If hell really existed, then Ningguta Prison would definitely be at the bottom of it.

In the past, new prisoners could not even get a bed and had to sleep on a piece of ground less than a foot square. Unless a prisoner died or was released from prison, there would never be a vacant bed. The prisoners ate worm-infested steamed corn bread, and even this kind of corn bread required them to pay a high price...

Now, each cell only holds twelve prisoners, which is more than enough compared to the previous eighty-one.

In addition, the steamed corn bread was now freshly cooked, and they could occasionally eat fragrant white rice. The most important thing was that all of this was free, and the prisoners did not have to spend any extra money - in fact, most of them had no money at all.

This is not because the emperor was kind-hearted or had a change of heart.

The reason for improving the living environment of prisoners is that living people are more valuable than dead people.

Not long ago, Li Sanguang and the surveyors from his Geological Bureau discovered a large coal mine in a valley less than 20 miles away from Ningguta. According to Li Sanguang's analysis, the mine has a considerable amount of coal reserves, enough to power all the steam engines in the empire for a year.

Therefore, the Ministry of Industry urgently needed a large number of coal workers to participate in the development of the Ningguta coal mine.

Before this, no mineable minerals had been found within hundreds of miles of Ningguta, let alone coal mines, not even an iron mine had been found. For slave owners like Qian Sanruo, instead of spending money to send those prisoners to mines hundreds of miles away, it would be better to kill them directly after draining their marrow from their bones, because this was obviously less expensive.

With this large coal mine, at least tens of thousands of Ningguta residents could be fed, and those condemned prisoners, now facing nowhere else to go, would naturally become miners, engaging in the most dangerous tunnel work. Those prisoners who had previously been tortured to death for failing to pay the fines now saw new hope.

~~~~~
Emperor Wu Ding stayed in Ningguta for ten days. After instructing Jiang Liuer to guard this important town in the north, he immediately rushed to Sakhalin Island further north to inspect the battle taking place on the front line in the north.

The Qi army fought back and forth with the Cossacks on Sakhalin Island, which attracted the attention of Liu Zhaosun. Based on his understanding of the Kaiyuan soldiers, he knew that in the fight against the Russian demons, the Qi army was basically crushing them.

Sometimes, things are not as simple as we think.

In early May, Liu Zhaosun and his entourage finally arrived at this island, which is larger than Taiwan Island, after more than ten days of arduous journey.

Jiang Liuer's subordinate, a battalion officer of the 11th Corps, was at Taikoo Port in the far west, welcoming the retired emperor and others.

Emperor Wu Ding stepped on a sampan and jumped onto the shore in two steps. This was the first time for the time traveler to set foot on the land of Sakhalin Island. Everything he saw was new to him. There was a clear sky above his head, wild beasts were running in the mountains and forests, and the strong sea breeze blew through the sails on the mast, making a whistling sound. Everywhere was a scene of wild growth.

According to the report from the Qi camp officer, there are still hundreds of Cossack remnants on the island. They landed sporadically from the north, fled after fighting with the Qi army, hid in the dense forest and dared not show their heads. It is estimated that there are few survivors now.

When the retired emperor heard that there were still Cossacks alive, he immediately became very interested. He instructed the defenders to organize new recruits to hunt them down. A small group of enemies was nothing to be afraid of, and it was a good opportunity for the new recruits to gain some experience.

"The Maozi are small groups, ranging from three to five people to dozens of people. They have no contact with each other. Before landing on the island, they had already killed many Saurons."

After listening to the introduction of the Qiying officer, Liu Zhaosun followed the general to inspect the soldiers' station.

On the way to the base, the emperor ran into two defenders who had just returned from the battle. Both of them were carrying chickens and ducks, and had treasures such as Dongzhu jewelry around their necks. It was like a cabinet entering a village.

Pei Dahu could tell at a glance that the two men had bad intentions, so he stepped forward to interrogate them, asking them why they were taking the people's property. The two men had a bad attitude and said that they were all captured from the Rakshasa ghosts, so they didn't want to be confiscated and no one could take it away.

Liu Zhaosun waved his hand to interrupt Pei Dahu and reminded the head servant that this was the northern part of the northern border, not in Liaodong, let alone in the interior of the country, and that when in Rome, one must follow the local customs. In the interior of the country, people would not take a single needle or thread from the people, but here, apart from a needle and thread, everything else must be taken.

The two soldiers only then realized that they had run into an important official. They were worried about their lives when they heard Liu Zhaosun ask:
"There are only two of you? How dare you go out and chase the enemy?"

"In reply to this gentleman, why wouldn't we dare? The last time we fought the Russians, they acted like they saw ghosts when they saw us and fled overnight. We didn't even have time to take away the many things they had looted from all over the place!"

"I went too late, and the good stuff has been snatched away by others!"

Liu Zhaosun took a deep breath. He didn't expect that the elite soldiers under his command had fallen to the level of security warfare after only three years in Sakhalin.

(End of this chapter)