Chapter 481: Work-for-Relief

The people from the Ministry of Justice also felt somewhat numb; they had searched out stolen Ironware, and what's more, it could be counted as Weaponry, which was a major case. To be safe, they directly called in the Soldiers assisting outside, and upon entering, they held Knives to everyone's necks, then controlled them using Wooden Cangues.

The Wooden Shackles were designed by Baifeng for the people of the Ministry of Justice; catching criminals requires means of control, but Baifeng did not have the ability to make handcuffs, so the Wooden Shackles were the most suitable.

The Ministry of Justice thought this was just a gang-related grain theft case, so they hadn't brought many Wooden Shackles. By the time they had controlled the people who stole the Ironware, there were no Wooden Shackles left for the people nearby who had stolen grain.

However, once compared, one could tell the urgency; when the people from the Ministry of Justice took out all the Ironware and placed it on the open ground as evidence, the others who were inspecting had to become even more serious. If the people they were checking were missed and had hidden something, then if the matter came to light, they would be finished.

After nearly a full day of thorough investigation, they caught four people who stole Ironware and three who stole grain. According to their confession, they stole the Ironware because they were collecting and transporting wood shavings and sawdust at the Carpenter's workshop. This was considered a very good job, but seeing the large quantity of carpenter's tools, they could not control their greed, thinking that with so many things in the carpenter's toolbox, they wouldn't notice if a few were missing, so they stole these things and quickly hid them in the sawdust to bring them out.

Those who stole the grain were purely like loafers; they didn't participate in any recruitment and just waited to live off that bit of thin gruel, but they liked to wander around every day, taking the opportunity to pilfer things, until they took advantage of the lack of supervision to slip into the residential area and, upon finding a household's door open, they snuck inside.

Although the things in that household were dazzling and were all things they had never seen before and were very covetous of, they were quite clear about what they should take, so they aimed clearly and laid their hands on the grain.

Everyone in their room knew about it, but out of fear, they did not tell the manager, and since the selected room leader was among those few people, they dared not say another word.

The few people stole the grain, and having no way to cook it, they just ate it raw; anyway, raw or cooked didn't make much difference to them.

This matter was eventually reported to Baifeng; after all, in Huaxia, this already counted as a very serious matter.

After hearing it, Baifeng first expressed dissatisfaction with the management work of the Ministry of Revenue, but considering the Ministry of Revenue's shortage of manpower, he did not punish them severely. All managers, as well as the Ministry of Revenue officials responsible for this matter, were fined half a month's salary and given one whipping each.

From now on, the public security of the tenant area would be jointly managed by the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue, until the thoughts and behaviors of these tenants gradually caught up with Huaxia, at which point the intensity of supervision over them would be relaxed.

From now on, room inspections must be conducted every morning and evening, room hygiene must be cleaned, and Night Soil Buckets can be arranged in the rooms, but if anyone dares to defecate or urinate anywhere, the punishment will be doubled; because almost everyone committed it this time, they are being let off once.

Those few criminals, because an example must be set, must be dealt with severely. The thieves will have their hands cut off and be paraded through the streets, then beheaded. After the hands are cut off, they must be sent to New City to be paraded around once more, so that the tenants of New City can also see clearly the end result of committing crimes.

Currently, they have not received reports of such serious criminal incidents from Lema City; this may be related to the fact that the infrastructure in Lema City is more complete, the number of public toilets is higher, and the tenants almost all have opportunities to work. As long as they have the ability to earn grain and have work to do all day long, by the time they return to their rooms, they are so tired they just want to sleep, and naturally, they won't think about causing trouble again.

After the tenants saw the public execution of the criminals, their view of Huaxia's benevolence diminished, and plus, after discovering that there were many more Soldiers patrolling in armor and carrying Weapons around them, they became even more well-behaved.

However, Baifeng also thought that this was not a solution; he couldn't let them just wait around like this, eating and sleeping every day—sooner or later, something would go wrong. So, he summoned the people from the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Agriculture and opened their map of Huaxia City.

Baifeng took a look at the markings on the map. Baifeng already knew the terrain and topography around Huaxia by heart, but he still had to take out the map to explain it so he could explain it more clearly.

Baifeng pointed to a piece of wasteland outside the city wall and said, "You go and arrange for those tenants to start reclaiming land here. Although it is outside our city, this is also arable land, and it is time for us to place arable land outside the city."

Geng looked at the place, recalled the soil quality, and then said to Baifeng, "King, this piece of land is most suitable for planting soybeans. I think we should designate this as soybean land. A portion of our soybean planting land inside the city can be rotated to wheat and such."

Baifeng agreed with Geng's suggestion, but also added, "In the middle of Winter, it is not a season for land reclamation, so I won't set any task requirements for you. The main thing is to find some work for those tenants; they cannot be left idle. Once they are idle, trouble will arise."

When reclaiming land here, do not use plow oxen; let the oxen rest well for the Winter. Wait for the Spring plowing. Just let the people pull the Plows, and let them use the hoes too. Anyway, my requirement is: it doesn't matter how much is reclaimed, but for the land that is reclaimed, I must ensure it can be used next year. Do you understand?"

The two nodded repeatedly, and the Ministry of Revenue official asked about the details: "Then how should their remuneration be given? Is it the same as the other tenants?"

Baifeng tapped his fingers on the table twice, pondered for a moment, and said, "Provide them with two meals a day; they don't need to be very good, just enough to keep them full, and then issue an extra day's worth of grain. I consider this welfare work for them; it's not something they earned themselves, so naturally, it won't be that good. And regardless of whether they are men, women, old, or young—it doesn't matter if it's few—as long as they are labor, whether they are willing or not, they must go and work for me."

"Don't be afraid that you won't be able to control them; let the people from the Ministry of War continue to cooperate with you. The army will supervise the whole process. When the farm tools are finished being used, they must be returned one by one. Whoever loses theirs, then... just send them directly to the Coal Mine."

Having obtained the solution, the Ministry of Revenue official breathed a sigh of relief, and with a relaxed face, went back to the office to start preparing. For the Ministry of Agriculture, it didn't have much of an impact; it was just providing some farm tools and sending a few people over to provide guidance to see if the reclaimed land met the standards for cultivation.

Another thing was to plan for more grain seeds and redistribute next year's planting plan; it didn't count as a major matter. Their focus was on the land reclamation policy that would be fully opened up next year, which had the greatest impact on them, because whether public or private, as long as it was related to agriculture, they had to manage it.