Chapter 333

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Protagonist:

Chen Yi

Even Shi Nengren couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

Since slaves are slaves, no matter how well you treat them, they always stand on the opposite side of the slave owner. This opposition is far more intense than that between employees and bosses.

Slaves innately possess rebellious emotions, especially these war slaves who, upon learning they were purchased rather than hired — meaning they wouldn't be returned — employed increasingly diverse methods of resistance.

Whether it was delusions of escape or scrambling for more food, the massive outburst of negative emotions among the slaves and their attempts to evade heavy physical labor all required the overseers to handle appropriately.

On the fifth day of work on the highway, soldiers on tree sentries like Lie Qi shot dead 2 slaves attempting to flee — this was almost inevitable. The highway construction stretch was very long, and on both sides of the highway lay vast forests; in the slaves' view, as long as they took advantage of the managers' inattention and ran two or three hundred meters, they could escape completely.

Their survival ability in the jungle might not be weak, but it was obviously not as strong as the Hunter Villagers who held automatic rifles, compasses, and other special equipment.

After 2 corpses were hung on both sides of the newly built road and the slaves were made to view them, the slaves only then quietly settled down. Then came the midday food scramble, followed by the evening sleeping spot scramble...

Dai Adi, nicknamed Red Wolf, busily carried out various judgments and suppressions, breaking four Killing Intent Sticks, but the energetic and strong slaves attempted to continue escaping at night...

As war slaves who had gone through the cruel Temple War, simple beatings could not make them submit, especially since Shi Nengren strongly required Dai Adi to control the severity of punishment, hoping to let more slaves perform normal work the next day.

General practitioner Jin Mian, though using the slaves to hone his medical skills, also disliked having so many identical trauma patients, and thus also protested.

But the slaves' instances of breaking rules never seemed to decrease.

Dai Adi finally fell into a busy routine, much like Li Duo's repair team, running between construction sites daily; the latter repaired vehicles, he repaired slaves.

"I finally understand how slave society collapses." Dai Adi said this to She Lei while ordering thirty slaves to be beaten simultaneously. The charge was hoarding food and tools; obviously, these were the prelude to another escape attempt.

She Lei, having gone through brief ups and downs, had finally smoothed his rough edges, nodding with a stern expression. He approved of corporal punishment but did not participate in it.

"I see only killing can deter these bastards." Dai Adi was cruel by nature; the reason Chen Yi brought him from the Martial Arts Hall to the West Continent was precisely to let him wield punishment and serve as a deterrent.

This handling method determined by personality was still very effective when there were no clear rules.

"If it really doesn't work, just send them back to the slave camp, let them go to the battlefield as cannon fodder, and exchange for a batch that's more docile." She Lei suggested again.

"Not cost-effective. The road is that far, and it has to pass through Ma La... the slaves would know this." Dai Adi pursed his lips and said: "Don't underestimate these slaves; they're all professional soldiers. As long as they don't rebel on a large scale, no matter who you swap in, you can't stop the desire to escape. You can only keep killing, showing them something even more terrifying. Besides, who doesn't like debt slaves — obedient and clever."

"Debt slaves are high-end slaves; if some are literate, they can even help the master organize the study and such." Shi Nengren did not mention the Water Fortress slaves' handling method.

Doing is more important than speaking, especially when the other party doesn't affect one's own plans. Essentially, slaves actually belong to the Basic Construction Group's property — so it counts as departmental interest; therefore Shi Nengren still hoped to solve the problem peacefully, especially without affecting further slave purchases.

He had already learned from Dajingkou that the slave camp had over 100,000 surplus slaves; if he could buy them all, no matter what Ma La wanted to build — the manpower issue would never be a constraint.

At the same time, if he had 100,000 subordinates, no, even just 10,000 subordinates, his own identity and status would be different, right — Shi Nengren thought of the Diamond Office at the West River Water Fortress, where Yu Weichao and other Water Fortress upper echelons discussed affairs. Currently, only Yu Weichao, She Lei, Li Changning, and Li Feng could frequently appear there. He and Qin Dajiang and others could only serve as the second batch, but if the Basic Construction Group expanded massively... he had completely forgotten the city wall that had stopped being remodeled, and turned his gaze toward the highway.

The Ma La-State covers at least the area of two or three prefecture-level cities; in other words, if the entire highway network were remodeled, there would be endless basic construction and infinitely expanding authority.

All of this is premised on the slaves being able to practically exert their effect.

The next day, Shi Nengren rose very early and went to oversee the Shichang Erqi construction site, currently with the largest workload.

The slaves got up to work before dawn; driving them was a Native Squad, entirely from the Submitted Village, with Level 2 Spearmen and Level 3 Non-commissioned Officers holding automatic rifles numbering a full 30 people — nearly reaching one-seventh of the slave count; at other road sections, at least one infantry squad was arranged.

She Lei and Li Changning were both not very happy about this; Yu Weichao gave Shi Nengren only one month to return to normal.

After one month, the supervisory force had to be reduced to one-tenth of the slave count, then one-twentieth.

While Shi Nengren was pondering this, a new accident occurred at the Shichang Erqi construction site — deliberate sabotage of tools.

When historians criticize late-stage slave society, the "sabotage of tools" through passive sabotage frequently appears in texts. This should count as an early form of violent non-cooperation; whether farm tools or artisans' implements, once tools were destroyed, work usually couldn't proceed. The slave owner either had to expend more effort strengthening management or switch to heavier tools... the former increased costs, the latter reduced work efficiency.

But at the Shichang Erqi construction site, the clever slaves didn't destroy the tools in their own hands; they destroyed the crane in operation and punctured the fuel tanks and tires of three automobiles, fortunately without igniting them.

It seems even without modern education, they can see through the weaknesses of mechanical vehicles.

Dai Adi rushed over, glanced at the two hundred slaves hugging their heads and squatting, and the 8 "involved slaves," and couldn't help but say quietly: "Might as well do it ourselves. Kill them all?"

"Sabotaging tools can't be punished by death, or there will be even more violent resistance methods."

"They've already tried brawling, escape, and attacking native soldiers; what else do they want?"

"Attacking native soldiers?" Shi Nengren still didn't know about this.

Dai Adi exhaled and said: "It happened this morning at the quarry. A slave attacked a native soldier with a sharp stone, severely injuring him. Then the slaves clamored, the soldiers fired, shooting dead 6. We should still kill one to warn a hundred."

Shi Nengren looked at Dai Adi with dissatisfaction. He didn't like this young man who believed in severe laws, especially when he overstepped his bounds and interfered in Shi Nengren's own duties.

None of the Basic Construction Group colleagues liked carrying cement sandbags and mixing concrete under the scorching sun... they'd rather be overseers... moreover, although 1,000 slaves are troublesome, they still do the simplest manual labor far more than hired workers, and the West River Water Fortress currently also finds it hard to absorb over a thousand hired workers.

"Let me think of a way." Shi Nengren said, instructing the Level 3 Indigenous Clerk following him with two sentences, who then ran off hurriedly.

Dai Adi, seeing Shi Nengren wasn't preparing severe punishment, grew anxious: "I can pick the one with the most serious crime from these slaves and give him a lesson; we can't just let them off, right?"

"They won't be let off." After Shi Nengren answered, he stepped out and addressed the group of slaves: "Starting today, we're implementing a new policy: group responsibility. Now, soldiers, divide every 15 slaves into a group, immediately."

He had eaten the universal language Konjac, so his words could be understood by the slaves.

The clerk who had just run out found some towels of different colors and distributed them down; according to different groups, there would be different towels.

"Record all the people." Shi Nengren said quietly, then added: "Now, as for the 8 groups that participated in sabotaging tools, you have no lunch today. Everyone else, start eating."

"Why do we have no food?" A slave immediately roared out.

Without Shi Nengren answering, a spearman's stick whipped up.

Bucket after bucket of thick soup mixed with meat fragrance and mushy sweet potatoes was brought up; compared to life in the slave camp, this food was much better. Although not fragrant enough to make one drool, being able to fill one's stomach was always good.

And among the pile of large buckets, a full tray of Blue Ox Meat was most eye-catching, and beside it, snow-white steamed buns made the former soldiers drool. Grain was a good thing only nobles could eat; during victorious battles they occasionally got to share some, but now they had almost forgotten its taste.

"Who arrived at the construction site earliest today?"

A slave with brown skin stood up.

"Your name."

"Du Ke."

"Pocket Ke? Good, Pocket Ke, from today you are the Red Towel Group's Group Leader. Your team has the right to enjoy this tray of meat and buns."

Du Ke looked doubtfully at himself and his teammates whom he didn't recognize.

Shi Nengren made a gesture of invitation.

Du Ke's doubts did not defeat his appetite; he finally rushed up and wolfed down the food. Two seconds later, his 14 teammates also pounced up.

The meat soup was definitely boiled from these meats. Since the meat soup was so delicious, the meat, which he hadn't tasted in a long time, would definitely taste even better...

"Du Ke, he only entered the Construction Site first because he was in first place when queuing." Someone finally raised an objection, and moreover did so in a relatively standard manner.

Shi Nengren shook his head and said: "We don't talk about fairness, only loyalty. From now on, every day there will be one slave who, because of some behavior beneficial to the Construction Site, gets promoted; his team shares the fruits of his victory. And there will always be a last place who, because of some behavior detrimental to the Construction Site, causes the whole group to receive punishment... Hard work does not necessarily earn reward, but anyone's slacking off will be punished, and it might be punishment for the whole group."

After finishing speaking, he said to the trainee responsible for supervision: "From today on, as long as no serious injury or death occurs inside the Slave Dormitory, don't restrain their... excessive behavior."

"They'll definitely fight; right now they fight even over who gets to use the toilet first."

"Give them a space to release pressure; from today on, this batch of people will follow the new rules as a pilot program."

... (Unfinished. If you like this work, welcome to Qidian (qidian. com) to cast Recommendation Tickets and Monthly Tickets; your support is my greatest motivation.)