Chapter 664: Starve Them for Three Days

The instructors continued walking toward the other tents, but the reality was quite grim; out of ten tents, five could barely scrape together a midday meal, and another two had absolutely nothing left for midday, with only the remaining few tents able to barely make it through the day. Such a high ratio was something even the instructors, who had prepared for the worst, found hard to look at.

On the contrary, those few tents that were punished first, namely 0001 to 0004, actually still had food to eat for this midday meal, which showed that these people really had not stolen food again after that punishment; this finally gave the instructors a little bit of psychological comfort.

After they synthesized the news and reported it to the Company Commander, the Company Commander did not intend to carry out physical punishment on them. After all, there were too many people who had committed errors; if every tent were beaten, it was feared that nothing would get done this afternoon, as all the time would be spent just beating people. Moreover, the temperature was dropping rapidly now, and the camp had to consider the issue of firewood.

Huaxia indeed had enough coal, but it mainly had to be supplied to factories, schools, and the homes of various Nobles, so the consumption was very large.

However, the Coal Mine was still relatively far from the Huaxia City Urban Area, and if they wanted to guarantee the demand for these places, they would have to spend a great deal of transport capacity; they really did not have the ability to let everyone in all of Huaxia burn coal.

Furthermore, it was not just Huaxia City; Lema City also had a huge demand. Mining coal was not an easy task. The Huaxia people at the Coal Mine were no longer working on the front lines but were performing management work. Those doing the most dangerous mining work were the Slaves who had been sent there and were already considered to have been sentenced to death.

Except for some people from the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue, as well as Baifeng, no one knew how many Slaves were there, nor did they know how many accidents had occurred there or how many people had died. It was just that although open-pit coal mining was relatively easy and safe, accidents were still unavoidable.

Therefore, documents were frequently sent from the Coal Mine requesting that more Slaves be sent over; otherwise, they would find it very difficult to complete the mining tasks for each quarter. Baifeng could only tell them not to be anxious; from this batch of Slaves, some would always be screened to go to the Coal Mine to work.

It was under these circumstances that most people in Huaxia could only use firewood to keep warm and live. In other seasons, when they did not need to light stoves for warmth, they would use stalks for daily cooking and boiling water. Various dried stalks were piled into haystacks for anyone to take and use, and those stalks were not necessarily burned up every year.

As for Winter, they needed to use firewood to keep warm. Under the great development, the timber transported over was countless, and even more was discarded in the wilderness. High-quality timber could be used for construction or crafting things, while slightly inferior timber would be treated as firewood to burn.

The firewood in the Slave camp did not have much left either, and since the temperature had already started to drop, the issue of keeping warm had to be considered with emphasis. These matters were within the duties of the Company Commander, so he contacted the city in advance to have some large logs sent over.

The good news was that the Ministry of Works happened to have a logging team in the mountains and forests. They could throw the unnecessary wood from the banks into the river and send it down via the waterway. It was estimated that it would arrive near Huaxia City by tomorrow morning, but the Slaves would need to transport it to the location themselves. The Ministry of Works also indicated that they could provide tools, but the subsequent breaking and splitting of the wood would have to be done by the Slaves themselves; they would not care about that.

And this was exactly what the Company Commander wanted. He wanted the Slaves to do some work as well, and splitting wood was just right. At the same time, he would, in accordance with the regulations, cut off the food for these Slaves who no longer had food for three days; this was the punishment for them. Be obedient, and you can have food to eat; Huaxia is not short of food, but if you are not obedient, why should it be given to you? You are just a Slave, and your status is not as important as a dog in Huaxia.

Transporting wood was a very dangerous task, but Huaxia had long had ways to deal with it. After all, Huaxia's demand for wood was too high. Carrying it down from the mountains was both dangerous and laborious, but taking the waterway was much easier.

When the Dahe reached the vicinity of Huaxia City, there were several places where the water flow was relatively gentle and the speed was very slow. They had specifically built a Matou, which allowed the wood, which was moving very slowly and had minimal impact force, to be pulled ashore at this location, and then transported back to Huaxia City by people pulling or carrying it.

However, when salvaging the wood, the Company Commander still felt that he had to let the people from the Ministry of Works help. After all, if inexperienced Slaves did the work of salvaging wood, one careless slip and they would be crushed into meat patties by the log rafts.

Once dragged ashore, the Slaves would then be made to move the wood. After this period of recuperation, most Slaves already had some strength. Although compared to the Workers of Huaxia, it could be said that they could be directly ignored, the Slaves were numerous, and it was time to let them suffer a little, otherwise, they would really think they had come to Huaxia to enjoy life.

The lunch break ended, and the Company Commander ordered the Soldiers to go and announce the results just discussed, and also let the Slaves take a nap. Regardless of whether they had eaten or not, the afternoon training would continue.

The Soldiers immediately ran toward the areas they managed and then said to all the Slaves: "I am now announcing one thing: starting tomorrow, we are going to the bank to carry wood because the weather has turned bad, and you need firewood to keep warm. This is working for yourselves."

"Another thing is the punishment for you Slaves who stole food."

The crowd of kneeling Slaves instantly shrank their bodies, closed their eyes tightly, and breathed rapidly, imagining the whips that were about to fall on them.

"The punishment is that your next food supply will be deducted for three days. That is to say, for the next three days, you will not get a single grain of food. Just go hungry, and let you know the consequences of not being obedient; stealing food means going hungry. Only by being obedient can you have food to eat. You tents that did not steal, everything will remain as usual, and you will be able to receive your subsequent food tomorrow."

"Now, those tents that no longer have food, bring out all your food jars and place them outside the tents. You are not allowed to touch them again. Afterward, I will see if you are full from drinking water or full from drinking wind."

The kneeling Slaves were extremely surprised in their hearts. This was the punishment? It was just not eating for three days; it was not as if they had not experienced it before. As long as they were not killed or beaten, what did it matter if they went hungry for a few days? Since the other tents were given food, they should have some too after three days passed.

The Slaves, feeling settled in their hearts, obediently stood up from the ground and then placed their empty jars outside the tents. After the instructors finished their patrol, they issued the order to go back and rest, and then they went back and lay down with some excitement. But they still did not understand that after having become accustomed to having stable food to eat, how painful it would be to suddenly go hungry; it was completely different from the hunger they felt when they were hungry every day and their eating was irregular.