Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 2272 The Prisoner Camp
Yi Haoran followed him to the Sanhezui school grounds, and saw Australian iron thorn fences erected densely on the outside of the school grounds.Several wooden towers were also erected.Hanging lanterns, above are sentinels with live ammunition.Yi Haoran couldn't help sighing secretly.

There is a watchtower at the entrance and horses are rejected, but the interrogation is not rigorous.Chang Qingyun had a waist card with a discrepancy, took it out and flashed it, and said to the sentinel: "This is a friend of mine in the city, and I have a bill to collect when I go to the camp." The sentinel did not question him, but just nodded He put them in.

Let your guard down!Yi Haoran thought to himself, in this way, there is an opportunity here!

Entering the camp is like entering a small town.The original barracks were naturally allocated as dormitories to accommodate prisoners.Even on the school grounds, longhouses were built with wood and straw to accommodate prisoners.These longhouses are built with waste from the ruins cleared after the war in Wuzhou, and they are very simple.But the volume ratio is huge.

The longhouses and barracks are divided into groups of different sizes, and each group is separated by a bamboo fence that is more than one person high, and the top is sharpened and hardened.Each group has its own gate and watchtower.The groups are connected by paths.Well organized.

Entering from the entrance, there is a straight road, paved with river sand, and on both sides are groups of bamboo fence walls and gates.There is a water sign hanging at the door of each group, with the group number and the number of people accommodated in large letters.

There is a sentry box at the door, or a few strong men sitting or standing, all wearing the uniforms of officers and soldiers in the past-only the ink characters on the front and back cloth have changed from "courage" to "law and order".These people either carry iron rulers, or carry knives on their waists, and there are long and long swords in the sentry box, but judging from their appearance, they are very slack. They are all idle, gossiping, playing leaf cards, and dozing on the table. And feet.

The gates of the various groups were all open, and people were only seen coming in and out, and no one questioned them.On the contrary, several strong men guarding the gate recognized Yi Haoran and greeted him when he passed by.

Yi Haoran was secretly happy.He saw that there were very few people in each group, and there were even fewer pedestrians on the road, and some people were in a hurry.He asked, "Where did everyone go?"

"Now, during the day, I go out to work." Chang Qingyun said, "Australians don't give people free food..."

"What are you doing?"

"Didn't you see it all? We repaired the city wall and cleared the ruins. Now they are asked to cut wood, dig ditches, load and unload goods..."

"Wait, what do you mean loading and unloading?" Yi Haoran interrupted him suddenly.

"Loading and unloading the cargo." Chang Qingyun said impatiently, "What's so strange about this?"

"What cargo to load and unload?"

"Of course it's the goods of the Australians." Chang Qingyun said that recently the Australians have a fleet of ships coming to Wuzhou every day, bringing in a lot of goods, which are now stored in the San Zongfu.

"Old friend, what do you think the Australians transported all these goods to Wuzhou?"

"It goes without saying that it is naturally used for fighting on the front line."

"But in the city of Wuzhou, although the Kun bandits have increased their troops, they only have a few hundred people. For a few hundred people, is it necessary to transport such a large amount of goods?"

Chang Qingyun didn't think about this question, he thought for a while and said, "Probably for the purpose of fighting in Guangxi."

Yi Haoran nodded, now Wuzhou is blocked from business travel, the Australians suddenly transported a large number of goods, it could only be stockpiling in advance for the war - it seems that Xiong Du is more than auspicious.

Along the way, I saw a crossroads ahead.It turned out that the camp was vertically connected by two roads from the north to the south, serving as the main road.This is clearly a prison camp, but there are more than a dozen stalls at the crossroads, some selling snacks, some selling tea and wine, and some writing letters to tell fortune-tellers... At first glance, it looks like a market town in the countryside.

"There are still people doing business here?!" Yi Haoran was really surprised at this moment—I have heard for a long time that Australians are the best at businessmen, but I didn't expect to do business to this extent!
"Aren't Australians good at doing business?" Chang Qingyun was not surprised, "These stalls are all allowed by Australians, and the goods sold are also provided by Australians..."

"But aren't they all captives? Where do they get the money?"

"Go out to work, the Australians will give you points," said Chang Qingyun, who has been in the palace for the second time, and is very familiar with the Australians. "And then I will give you a kind of ticket, which can be used as money in the camp..." He said He took out a small piece of paper from his pocket.

Yi Haoran took it over and took a look, but it was a blank note with "coupon" in Song style on the top and "one point" in regular script on the bottom.

"The biscuits sold at the biscuit stand here cost three cents." Chang Qingyun said, "You can buy a bowl of plain rice noodles for two cents. Although food is provided in the camp, it doesn't matter whether you are full or good. If you work hard, you will get hungry quickly. If you have this, you can buy some food and supplement it. If you have accumulated a lot, it is not difficult to ask a woman to do business.

"There are fireworks girls here?!" Yi Haoran couldn't close his mouth now.

"It's not considered to have crossed the bright road." Chang Qingyun said, "It's a secret door, but Australians don't ask if they know about it."

Yi Haoran couldn't laugh or cry.In his opinion, since he was a prisoner, it was only natural to be driven to work—to work, at least he would have a bowl of food to eat, at least he would not starve to death.

Unexpectedly, there are not only food and drink here, but also prostitutes.This is still a prisoner camp!No wonder there are thousands of people in this prisoner camp, but they are so peaceful.

"The Kun thief is hypocritical, hypocritical and righteous."

"That's wrong," Chang Qingyun shook his head, "Australians are not hypocritical, they are actually calculating and shrewd. Driven by the whip, everyone is able to slow down their work. How many supervisors do you need to make people work hard? Nowadays He has such a plan to pay, if you want to eat more and enjoy more, you will naturally work hard. Wouldn’t it be wise to use less supervisors without causing resentment in the workers’ hearts?”

"Old friend, it seems that you, the prisoner of the gangster, have a lot of fun." Yi Haoran said sarcastically.

Chang Qingyun also felt a slip of the tongue, coughed a few times and said: "It's just a little experience."

After walking through the "bazaar" at the crossroads, Chang Qingyun led him into a group gate.There are five longhouses in this group, as well as several individual huts.Although if you look carefully, they are all made of extremely simple waste materials plus bamboo poles and thatch, but the appearance is still neat.

There are more people here than before, and there are old people, women and children, which is different from the groups seen earlier, which are dominated by young and strong men.

As soon as Chang Qingyun came in, someone greeted him.Chang Qingyun greeted all the way.

Yi Haoran felt that the houses here seemed to be better than the houses in the group he saw earlier.

"That's right. The officials and family members who were captured here are all detained here. The Australians value them more and rarely ask them to work, and the houses are better."

"Which building does my old friend live in?"

"It's right here." Chang Qingyun pointed to an independent hut next to him, "Since everyone is here, let's sit down in the hut."

The building Chang Qingyun lives in is divided into two parts.He lives in a room on the west side.The door is made of woven bamboo, and the walls are made of reed mats. Push the door and go in. There is only a bamboo couch, a desk, and an old chair on the mud floor.It can be described as extremely rudimentary, but the inside is clean, whether it is the old blanket on the bamboo couch, the four treasures of the study on the desk, or the bamboo hat and coir raincoat hanging on the wall... they are all neatly placed.

What surprised Yi Haoran the most was that there was actually a huge picture table in the middle of the room, with all kinds of painting tools and paper on it, which was very elegant.

"I didn't expect your place to be so tidy!" Yi Haoran never dreamed that the Australian "prison camp" would look like this!Although he has never been in a prison, he has been behind the scenes for many years, has seen a lot, and has seen all kinds of prison cells.It was dark, damp, and smelly.I didn't expect such a clean and tidy cell to exist!
"I can't tell that my old friend is a very clean and tidy person..." Yi Haoran exclaimed, "And he has a sense of elegance!"

"Hehe," Chang Qingyun smiled wryly and motioned him to sit down, "It's true that I'm so clean, how can I clean it up! In the past, I was served by servants——although Chang Qing is also in the camp now, he can't always serve me. Australians are the most hygienic, if they find out that they should not, they will have their pants stripped and whipped at the intersection—I can’t afford to lose this person, so I can only do it myself.”

Yi Haoran nodded, he was very interested in the painting table in Chang Qingyun's hut, he walked around the painting table, but saw several scrolls of scrolls on the table, and an unfinished picture of flowers and birds on the table.

Yi Haoran knows that Chang Qingyun is good at painting and calligraphy.At the beginning, many people in the shogunate sang poems and paintings with him.But now that he is in prison, even if the Australians treat him preferentially, they will not buy paint and paper for him.

"Old friend is very elegant, you can enjoy yourself while suffering." Yi Haoran said with a smile, he picked up a scroll beside him and opened it.

"Be careful! Be careful!" Seeing that he was about to open the scroll, Chang Qingyun hurriedly stood up and said.

"What?" Yi Haoran was puzzled.

"You have to be careful." Chang Qingyun took down the scroll in his hand, and spread it carefully on the painting table, "The thief attaches great importance to these paintings, if they are defaced, it will kill me..."

Yi Haoran's heart trembled, Chang Qingyun said so, obviously this painting belonged to a certain thief, otherwise he wouldn't be so careful.And this painting table and painting utensils are mostly related to this painting!
He looked over carefully, and it was a small-sized freehand painting of flowers and birds.It is painted with orchids.

To be honest, even from Yi Haoran's point of view, the standard of this painting is not high.It won't be Chang Qingyun's handwriting.Moreover, the strokes are weak and feeble, as if they were written by a woman.

Because there is neither an inscription, a postscript, nor a poem on the painting, so there is nothing famous about it.

"This..." Yi Haoran looked at Chang Qingyun with searching eyes.

"I don't know who painted it," Chang Qingyun shook his head.As he spoke, he recounted what happened to him a few days ago, "I just took it back yesterday, and a new one was delivered. I looked at it, and it was all orchids, so I was a little confused." He opened another Several scrolls.

(End of this chapter)