039. Go and kill the
The next morning, Dick woke up from the soft embrace of Shizuka Marikawa.
Since the naive and innocent female doctor established a super-friendly relationship with Dick on New Year's Eve, she has gradually begun to relax and will take the initiative to find Dick every now and then to have in-depth exchanges on the subject of physical health.
However, what made Dick a little speechless was that Shizuka didn't seem to treat him as her boyfriend, and didn't even necessarily treat him as an adult male. This made Dick, who had lived two lives, somewhat hurt his self-esteem.
When the two were alone, Shizuka always liked to call him "Dick-kun", and her tone and actions had a sense of intimacy, like an older sister doting on her younger brother. To be honest, the feeling of being coaxed like a baby by an older woman was not bad, and there was even a subtle sense of "sister-brother relationship".
Dick struggled hard and reluctantly to free himself from the majestic arms, got out of bed and covered Teacher Shizuka with the quilt again.
The female doctor is on leave today, and Dick wants her to rest for a while.
Although he had never disliked this naive female doctor, when Dick was first summoned, he did feel a sense of "not meeting expectations" when he saw her and recognized her identity for the first time.
But this winter, Shizuka Marikawa has proved with her real talents and skills that she is by no means a beautiful but useless vase.
While Natasha was in charge of researching cold syndrome, Shizuka Marikawa took over the formalization process of the clinic.
It was she who established the clinic's modern rules and regulations.
She personally trained several batches of medical staff.
Even many common patients were treated and cured by her personally.
So in the clinic alone, most of the medical staff respect Shizuka Marikawa more, and will take the initiative to address her as "Teacher Marikawa" or "Chief Medical Officer" when they meet her.
Dick saw all of this and felt sincerely sorry for his previous contempt.
He put on his clothes and left the room quietly.
Because it was the weekend, Dick specifically told Rita and Befa the night before that he might sleep in a little, so they could just leave their clothes at the door and there was no need to wake him up.
So in fact, it was almost noon and Dick didn't get up early at all.
As he passed the castle corridor, Dick stood at the window and looked outside. He could just see the prisoner camp that was just beginning to take shape in the distance. The captured bandits were building the barracks they were going to live in under the supervision of the guards.
Dick, who had sharp eyes, noticed that there was something hanging on the rack on the east side of the camp. He cast an eagle eye spell on himself and immediately saw that it was five prisoners who were hung up. However, they were hung by their hands instead of their necks, so the five people were still alive and were being whipped severely.
Dick was not surprised or shocked to see this scene. After all, he had explained this in advance.
On the first day the prisoners were brought back, Dick read out in public the plan for their disposal.
Since most of the bandit leaders and small and medium-sized leaders have been executed, these gang members, as accomplices, will not be executed but will need to undergo labor reform.
The Governor's Office will make the fairest possible judgment on them in the later trials, sentencing individuals to sentences ranging from a minimum of ten years to a maximum of thirty years!
Many prisoners breathed a sigh of relief when they heard that they would not have to die, but some looked as pale as death, thinking that they had become slaves, with the title of "labor camp prisoners" and would definitely be tortured to death.
But then Dick said that his collective farm had clear rewards and punishments, and that those prisoners who sincerely repented and worked hard would have their sentences reduced, and starting from the fifth year, there would be a number of amnesty quotas every year. But if someone was dishonest, sneaky, and wanted to escape, he also had a complete set of regulations on how to increase the sentence and punishment.
Commutation of sentence and amnesty, increase of sentence and punishment.
Dick took out the carrot and the stick at the same time, and the prisoners in the audience had different expressions for a moment.
Dick had previously held a special meeting to discuss how to deal with the captured bandits.
Some officers felt that these bandits had done so many evil things that they did not deserve any sympathy at all, and that they should all be demoted to slaves and thrown into mines to work themselves to death!
There were also those who had blood feuds with the bandits, and they directly suggested killing them all and building a Jingguan to deter all nearby.
But Dick felt that such a simple and crude way of handling things could not fully utilize the surplus value of the thousands of prisoners and could easily cause security risks. They could use a more effective way.
As for killing them all... you're a bit too
The first thing is to make sure there is a clear sentence and sentence reduction system, so that these prisoners feel they have a purpose and hope to persevere, and they will not slack off at work or try to escape.
But it is certain that this alone cannot make the prisoners work honestly. In the early stage, there will inevitably be "unstable elements" who want to escape or even incite riots. There is no need to be lenient with those who take the initiative to jump out and become examples. They must be severely punished to form a deterrent effect.
I, Laguge, don't keep idle people. I don't kill them because it's unnecessary, not because I dare not!
At this time, outside the castle, there was also a group of idle common people watching.
Among the crowd of onlookers, there were a few pairs of prying eyes. After standing and watching for a while, they left the scene one after another and quietly went west...
"Boss! We saw it with our own eyes! All our counterparts in the east are dead. Several guys who had done business with us before had their heads hung up."
"A lot of people have been arrested. It looks like there are thousands of them (exaggerated)!"
In the mountainous area west of Laguge, Blood Wolf Gang boss Woluf listened to the report from his spies. His expression became more and more solemn, and the expressions of several of his lesser leaders also changed.
"Damn it, this is serious!"
A leader muttered quietly that they had received a lot of bad news in the past month or two.
First, at the beginning of the year, I was shocked to hear that the Vulture Gang was completely wiped out.
There were more than 300 vicious bandits guarding such a strategic location as Ghost Crying Peak, but they were destroyed silently. In addition, the mountain was covered with snow at that time, so by the time they received the news, it was already more than half a month after the Vulture Gang was wiped out.
At that time, everyone in their Blood Wolf Gang was excited for a while. The two gangs had conflicts more than once over territory, and their Blood Wolf Gang was slightly inferior to the other side in strength, so they were always the losing side.
So when they learned that their mortal enemy had been killed, they naturally laughed out loud "sadly".
But after the excitement, as the younger brothers sent by the Blood Wolf Gang boss continued to collect intelligence and bring back, everyone soon lost their initial excitement and turned it into fear.
Because the demise of the Vulture Gang was so fucking weird!
Their people went to Ghost Crying Peak for an on-site investigation and found that the earthen fort in front of the mountain stronghold was intact, with no traces of battle left by the siege, and the situation in the cave was similar.
The Vulture Gang of more than 300 people were captured without any resistance!
This discovery really gave a great shock to the Blood Wolf Gang, and the boss Woluf immediately gave up the plan to occupy Ghost Crying Peak.
Because his intuition told him that there might be a trap there.
In fact, Woluf's instinct was correct.
After Dick inspected the cave terrain of Devil's Cry Peak on site, he felt that this place was indeed great. He wished that the other two large gangs in the western mountains could move here.
This cave is quite big. You can fall asleep directly after taking two puffs of poison gas.
Unfortunately, the leaders of the other two big gangs were also very cautious and did not fall for it.
The mysterious demise of the Vulture Gang served as a wake-up call to the other two gangs.
As they gathered intelligence, they soon confirmed that it was the new governor who led his men to do this. Although the other party claimed that they had only wiped out some low-ranking bandits, they knew whether those unfortunate people who were sent to the mines were bandits or members of the Vulture Gang.
This discovery made the two major gangs instantly put aside their previous contempt.
You know, at the beginning of the year, the town merchants who were secretly colluding with them sent people to deliver intelligence, saying that the new governor intended to send troops into the mountains to suppress bandits in late spring.
At that time, they didn't know that the Vulture Gang was finished. They were all laughing at the new governor, who was said to be still a child, for overestimating his own abilities. He probably wanted to make money by using their reputation.
Then the slaps in the face followed.
The private army under the Governor's command did not plan to suppress the bandits in late spring. This group of regular troops with no martial ethics took action before the beginning of spring!
According to the intelligence brought back by the younger brothers, the bandits in the forest area east of Laguge have been basically eliminated by the other side, and the action was frighteningly fast, taking only five days!
There were dozens of gangs, nearly two thousand people, scattered across thousands of square kilometers of forest.
But those private armies seemed to know where they were hiding in advance and captured them as soon as they entered.
This shows that the governor had done sufficient intelligence gathering in advance. He knew exactly where these bandits were hiding, and he also chose the right time to take action.
Woruf pondered for a moment and said with a frown.
"It seems that our partners have already defected to the new governor. The news about the bandit suppression in late spring is most likely false information deliberately sent to paralyze us."
"Damn it! I knew these profiteers were unreliable!"
After hearing the boss's advice, the bandits immediately became "alert". They remembered the information sent by the merchant at the beginning of the year, and concluded that the other party must have betrayed them.
But he didn't know that he had actually wrongly blamed the bad guys. Those unscrupulous businessmen are really not good people!
Woluf was not clear about the new governor's specific anti-bandit plan, but he did not think that the other party would let him go. This young master of the Duke's family was different from the previous governors, so he had to prepare early.
"Boss, should we join forces with the people in the south..."
"No! There are few sane people among those lunatics. Instead of joining forces with them, we might as well go north and join those 'water monkeys' doing business on the sea. This is a bad idea."
When he heard his men mention the words "in the south", Woluf waved his hands and told them to stop.
The so-called "Southern" refers to the third largest bandit group in the western mountainous area - the "Deer Head Gang".
Unlike ordinary bandits like Vulture and Blood Wolf who only want to rob and do "legitimate business", the Deer Head Gang is a violent group with cult characteristics, which is half cult and half gang.
Their boss, Kareem, is a half-orc. It is said that his father is the great shaman of the snowy orc tribe in the northern part of the continent. All the gang members believe in an evil spirit called the "Deer-Headed God".
Although the Deer Head Gang would go down the mountain to rob on weekdays, they actually preferred to preach to the wild village in the mountain and expand the number of their followers. They had taken the initiative to contact the Blood Wolf Gang before, but Woluf had a strong resistance to this abnormal evil god, so he declined the offer from this group of crazy cult members.
At this time, a younger brother suddenly thought of something, and came to Woluf excitedly and said.
"Boss, why don't we strike first?"
"what!?"
"Strike first! Why don't we send an assassin to kill the governor?"
The younger brother said this and made a gesture of wiping his neck with a beaming look on his face.
Woluf pondered for a moment, and suddenly realized that this idea seemed to be feasible!
Although killing the governor would easily arouse the lord's anger, he heard that the new governor was the duke's son. However, as long as he could put the blame on someone else, it might be possible to kill two birds with one stone.
The more Woluf thought about it, the more he felt that this was a good idea, so he patted the younger brother on the shoulder and said.
"Good boy, that's a good idea."
"Thank you for the compliment, Boss!"
"Then I'll leave this matter to you."
"..."
As soon as Woluf finished speaking, the smile on the younger brother's face froze visibly.
Seeing his expression, Woluf couldn't help but roll his eyes.
On the one hand, he despised his younger brother for his cowardice, who talked big but failed when it came to practical actions. On the other hand, he had no expectations of this guy's intelligence, as he had actually thought that he had a brain.
"Idiot! What are you thinking? What are you capable of? Don't you know that I'm the boss? When I said I'd leave it to you, I meant for you to find a suitable assassin. Did you think I was asking you to kill the governor?"
"Ah? Didn't you let me go?"
Seeing the younger brother's dazed face, Woluf, whose good mood was ruined, slapped him and made him stand aside. He did not mention the task he was going to assign to him and turned to look at the other people present.
At this time, a small leader who had been silent before took the initiative to stand up.
"Boss! Leave this to me."
"Do you know anyone good at this?"
"I'm good at this!"
040. If you don’t give up…
In the town of Laguge, since this winter is not very cold and there are obvious signs that it will end earlier, the residents have begun to recover earlier. The town is bustling with people these days, and residents from surrounding towns have come to the town to purchase goods in preparation for the upcoming spring ploughing.
Before the winter of last year, the governor, who had just taken office, directly laid off tens of thousands of miners and paid them one year's wages as compensation and severance pay that were withheld by the previous governor.
Most of these laid-off workers were "re-employed" back as farmers, and they happened to have some cash on hand as start-up capital for spring ploughing.
Many small villages with smaller populations could not afford to hire blacksmiths or carpenters. In addition, during David's time, young men were forced to work in the mines, resulting in a large amount of land being abandoned. Many farmers who returned did not even have the right farm tools or even the seeds for spring ploughing.
It happened to be winter, and the liaison officers traveling between various places told them many things about the "Agricultural and Pastoral Cooperative Association" established under the leadership of the Governor.
At first, everyone didn’t understand what this guild was.
Does it mean that in the future, to be a farmer, I have to register for an identity card like a mercenary, and then accept missions from the guild before I can farm?
But everyone soon heard the key points they were interested in: the guild would sell cheap and easy-to-use farm tools and high-quality seeds, and would even introduce some new crops that were more profitable. Therefore, even if the farmers still had doubts in their hearts, they would come and take a look with the mentality of "taking a look first".
After all, the new governor’s reputation since he took office is much better than those previous valuables!
