Chapter 771

translation

Xu Zengyi had only just begun when he stopped, and immediately let out a heavy sigh.

Although he didn't explain, everyone actually understood the meaning from his tone.

This stall is terrible.

It's rotten to the point of being unable to take any action.

For a hundred li there's no smoke; the place with the most civilians now is Hu Bu Gui's prisoner camp.

There are nearly a hundred thousand there, but they're all addicts.

"Let the Qingzhou Garrison take over." Chen Wuji said in a low voice, "Military farming."

Xu Zengyi immediately said: "My lord, although this is good, it will surely cause chaos. These people are all native civilians of Songzhou; their homes are here. They want to undertake military farming on their own homeland's land; in the short term it could be suppressed, but over time chaos will inevitably arise."

"Then kill them!" Chen Wuji said with a stern face.

"I just want to force them to farm, force them to quit A Furong. Any troublemakers will not be spared; they'll be severely punished and forcibly suppressed. My military farming system treats civilians with special care; as long as they are diligent, they can have houses and fields."

"With their current wretched state, letting them go would only mean waiting to die! Worst of all, they'll harm the few civilians still unaffected; they must be restrained."

"Their fields have long been abandoned; with their current wretched state, don't expect them to farm honestly on their own."

This is Chen Wuji's first contact with addicts, but it could also be the largest concentration of them.

In that free state, if so many addicts gathered together, they'd probably have to reform every day.

Although this is Chen Wuji's first time seeing these people face to face.

But the harm of addicts, whether in news or in history books, he has already seen too much.

That group of rats with long tails on their heads almost dug up the roots of Huaxia using this thing.

"My lord, how many does the Qingzhou Garrison have?"

Xu Zengyi nodded: "General Wu Yin's concerns are indeed not to be ignored, but we don't need too many troops; adding another two or three thousand should be enough."

"First, send an order to ask Chen Yuan whether the New Soldier Camp can currently spare two or three thousand new troops. If so, have him send two thousand to the Qingzhou Garrison." Chen Wuji said.

He never even bothered to ask what size the New Soldier Camp is now.

Before the army set out for Songzhou, he was still worrying about having too many troops; who could have imagined things would change so quickly, and now he's immediately worried about troop sources.

Songzhou has seen many battles, each of enormous scale, with both sides routinely throwing in tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of troops; yet the prisoners so far are only Xi Leng and his nephew.

In dealing with the Qiang People, Chen Wuji's methods have always been brutal.

Either they're killed in pits, or they're used for a victory monument; Qiang prisoners have only these two options, no third.

But in the current war with Yu Ren, there are prisoners.

Yet Chen Wuji's worry about troop sources is precisely because of this group.

As for drawing from other units...

Unless absolutely necessary, Chen Wuji temporarily doesn't plan to do that.

These guys definitely aren't happy about it.

These people don't mind splitting off their subordinates to set up garrisons or forming another army, but they strongly object to merely becoming someone else's soldiers without any change in their status as troops.

Sometimes just borrowing a Xùhòu yíng takes a lot of haggling for days.

He never really looked into the reason behind this, but he knows about it.

After breakfast, Qian Fugui and Chen Wu Yin returned to Daying and began preparing to withdraw the troops.

Chen Wuji also went around the camp, mingling with the troops to become familiar.

After finishing all that, just as he returned to the city, Lu Chuan suddenly came to request an audience.

"My lord!"

"Please sit." Chen Wuji said casually, having just opened a military text to read.

No matter how busy his daily affairs are, practicing martial arts and reading military texts remain his unshakable habit.

Whether morning or night, these two things must be done.

"My lord, today many Rivers and Lakes people disguised as merchant caravans have entered the city. I sent someone to secretly contact them and obtained a bit of hidden information; they seem to be coming for you." Lu Chuan said.

Chen Wuji snorted, "These people still aren't giving up?"

"It seems so; some mentioned the bounty, others mentioned Bu Yi Alley. I spent some Silver and coaxed out some concrete details: we can confirm that part of them came for the bounty, while another part came because Bu Yi Alley summoned them." Lu Chuan replied.

Chen Wuji suddenly thought of Zhang Xiuer.

She really is a headache-inducing woman.

Upon first entering Zhuque City she made contact with Bu Yi Alley; in this assassination, what role is she playing? Is she the vanguard? The guiding light? Or the mastermind behind the scenes?

Actually, Chen Wuji has never wanted to suspect Zhang Xiuer; he really wants to believe her words.

But the deeper the contact, the more doubts Zhang Xiuer reveals.

Chen Wuji can't help but suspect.

"Did these people just suddenly enter the city today?" Chen Wuji asked.

"No, there have been Rivers and Lakes people trickling into the city continuously these days, but the scale has never been large—only a dozen or twenty or thirty per day. Today's number is relatively large, nearly a hundred." Lu Chuan said.

Chen Wuji pondered for a moment, then ordered: "Arrest them all, then question them face to face to clarify why they came, who ordered them, and which sect they belong to."

He couldn't be bothered to wrangle with them further, and there's no need to cooperate with their act.

He has a more direct way; why wait for them to make a move?

"Yes!" Lu Chuan replied in a low voice, "I take my leave!"

"Wait a moment." Chen Wuji called out to stop him.

I know your Lu family's business is huge; do what you should, you may also participate in the prefecture's business. But there's one thing: you need to make clear to your clansmen and those shopkeepers that honest business is fine—don't think of crooked ways, and certainly don't engage in using power for personal gain.

Otherwise, the face of you father and son might not be able to save the lives of the whole clan!

Lu Chuan's expression tightened, he hastily clasped his fists, "I will keep this in mind, not daring to overstep the line even half a step! If anyone dares to secretly use those crooked ways in private, I will personally deal with them."

"Songzhou has a hundred undertakings awaiting revival; I see your abilities." Chen Wuji stared fixedly at Lu Chuan, then slowly said, "Your vision and ambition surpass your father's by far, so look even farther ahead."

Lu Chuan quickly lifted his head to glance at Chen Wuji, then abruptly bowed his head, "Subordinate obeys the order!"

"Go on."

"Yes!"

Chen Wuji closed the military book, unfolded a sheet of paper, picked up his brush and wrote down some outlines.

This Rivers and Lakes of Nan Jun makes him very angry!