The terrain of Jinjiang Island and Jiangdao Prison, Lin Xian had reviewed detailed documents from the Inspector's Office. The prison was built within the flood peak line during the flood season, surrounded by a 160-zhang long and 2-zhang high brick wall. On the outside of the solid and high brick wall, there were three low earth walls on the east, west, and north sides. Between the earth wall and the brick wall, a narrow space was left as a patrol path for the guards to pass through.

  The walls and foundations were all covered with thorns, making the entire Jiang Island Prison look like a fortress.

  Apart from the watch house, the prison hall was also built within the high walls, which would also be Lin's daily place for handling official duties and living on the island after his imprisonment.

  Located within the high walls, at the southern end of the prison, the Jailhouse is a building complex consisting of four courtyards. The front yard is the formal office area, with three main halls in the front yard, and four side rooms. Lin Xie will work here daily after taking office. Unlike the large prisons in the city, although there are no written regulations for the jail officials and guards of Jiang Island Prison, they have to stay on duty in the prison for a long time due to the inconvenience of traveling back and forth to the city. The middle yard and backyard are the residences of the jail officials and guards. Lin Xie occupies one room in the middle yard alone, while other clerks, guards, and squad leaders live together in the backyard. The last courtyard is the Martial Arts Institute, which houses the prison guards and miscellaneous personnel.

  Between the prison hall and the monitoring room, there is a high wall separating them. Behind the wall is the main building of Jiang Island Prison, the monitoring room. Inside the monitoring room, there are a temple for the god of prisons, a worship hall, a kitchen, two external monitoring rooms, three internal monitoring rooms, and also a lower court, which is where family members of prisoners who have been sentenced come to visit.

  Generally speaking, the inner prison is specially set up to detain serious criminals and evil case offenders, which is convenient for doubling the curfew. There is also a wall surrounding the inner prison in the deepest layer. However, after the proposal of the prison city was vetoed, Jiangdao Prison only detained ordinary prisoners who could not afford to redeem their crimes. Moreover, the entire Jiangdao Prison was designed and built according to the standard of 2,000 prisoners at full capacity, but currently there are only more than 200 prisoners being detained, so the inner prison has been empty and unused all along.

  Lin Zhan walked into the high wall, not to the front yard where he would handle official business, but directly to the middle yard where he would move in. Because the former prison officer Ge Zuixin left in a hurry, the middle yard was a bit messy at this time. Under the courtyard, two old plum trees were planted, and it was the season when the plum blossoms were in full bloom. The plum blossoms on the branches had all fallen to the ground, and they had been trampled by dozens of feet, looking very vicious.

  Lin tied up in the prison hall turned around and came back to the middle yard, smiling and said to Zhao Hu beside him: "It seems that someone is not happy about our arrival..." He also asked a clerk who followed them into the courtyard, "It's a pity, there aren't many scenic spots within the high walls anyway. Zhou Shu Ban, don't you think so?"

  Other prison officers and squad leaders followed Lin's orders to attend to their duties, but the handover with Ge Zuxin was too simple. They were also afraid of offending the new superior, so they asked Zhou Shide to come over and carefully serve him, introducing and explaining some more detailed situations in Jiangdao Prison to the new superior at any time.

  Apart from the prisoners, there were more than 200 officials and miscellaneous personnel in Jiangdao Prison, including two bookkeepers, five wardens, one miscellaneous personnel leader, and two guards. Due to the inconvenience of sending sick prisoners to see a doctor or summoning a doctor on the island, a medical officer was also appointed.

  Shu Banzhou Shide was a Xiucai by origin, and after much difficulty, he obtained this minor official position that was not even considered a mainstream post. For seven or eight years, he had been diligent in his duties and was the most familiar with prison affairs among all the people on the island, which is why he was pushed forward to interact with the new superior.

  Zhou Shide saw Lin Xiangru enter the courtyard and immediately pointed out the flaws of the front prison officer, saying: "Director Lin has thought too much, last night was a bit windy, knowing that Director Lin would come over today, Ge Daren specially ordered someone to clean up this middle courtyard, many people ran around... My subordinate will immediately sweep this courtyard again."

  "No need to trouble others," Lin Tie interrupted Zhou Shide's words, "Before the prison opens for dinner, you follow me in to inspect the prison..."

  Zhou Shide saw Lin Fu just now wanting everyone to be busy with their own affairs, but this time he suddenly brought up the idea of entering the prison for inspection. He thought that this young superior seemed difficult to serve, anyway these days everyone would not slack off and was not afraid of Lin Fu's surprise attack being able to find any major problems, so he said: "Wait for me to go get the prisoner roster and then lead you in for a spot check..."

  When Zhou Shide brought the prison roll over, another clerk Long Sun Geng followed along with today's off-duty jailer Xiao Jiang Jin and prison doctor Sun Cun Si. Lin Fu didn't say anything; this was his first time inspecting the prison cells. If they hadn't followed him in, it would have been a slight to their new superior.

  Before coming over, the list of people including Zhou Shide, Changsun Gong, Jiang Jin, etc. had been seen by Lin Fu. Changsun Gong was also a scholar from a good family background, and Jiang Jin and another prison guard Wu Cong Cao Shang were both ninth-grade military officials. The Great Viet court valued literature over martial arts, not to mention that Lin Fu, as a ninth-grade prison officer, could easily suppress two ninth-grade military officers Jiang Jin and Cao Shang. Even if Lin Fu was not on the island, it would be the two clerks Zhou Shide and Changsun Gong who took turns being in charge, and it wouldn't be Jiang Jin's or Cao Shang's turn.

  Zhao Hu was a house servant brought by Lin Xie, not an official soldier of Jiang Island Prison, and according to the rules, he was strictly forbidden from entering the second wall.

  Lin tied up the people in Jiang Island's big prison without fully settling them down, so naturally he couldn't let Zhao Hu leave first and tidy up their place for tonight. He led Zhou Shide, Changsun Gong, and Jiang Jin straight to the detention house. Cao Shuang was waiting at the second door of the detention house, and except for the miscellaneous role class head, all five detention house class heads were waiting in the detention house. Regardless of what they thought in their hearts, their faces were very respectful and gentle.

  Due to the fact that there were far fewer prisoners than capacity, and no serious offenders, only one of the five buildings was actually used. In the A-shaped prison building, iron doors separated the male and female cells. Walking along the long corridor of the prison building, despite it being winter, the stench from inside still wafted out. Each cell held either 5 or 6 people, or sometimes 7 or 8, not fixed. Although it was winter, the prisoners' beds were only covered with straw mats and used grass sacks as quilts. The winter clothes worn by most of the prisoners were tattered and filthy.

  It's not that the former prison officer and other prison officers were corrupt, but all prisons in the Great Viet court are like this.

  The prisoners in the cells were indifferent to the arrival of the new warden, and only stood up at the cell door when their names were called. Zhou Shide and Zhang Song pointed to the name list and explained to Lin Xie what crimes each prisoner had committed, how many years they should be imprisoned, and how many more years until their release.

  More than two hundred prisoners had been interrogated one by one, and it was time for dinner in the prison. Lin Xie stood in front of the women's ward, watching the guards serving food to the prisoners inside.

  The cost of prisoners' rations was a major expense for the Jiang Island Prison, with an annual allocation made to the Proclamation Office as needed. Two meals were served daily using copper spoons with a fixed capacity of half a liter. Based on 200 inmates, approximately over 400 dan (a unit of measurement) of rice were needed per year. The labor and food expenses for the prison guards were calculated separately. It is said that prisoners' rations should be the largest expense for the Jiang Island Prison, but due to the fact that the number of inmates was far from full capacity, the labor and food expenses for the prison guards actually exceeded those for the prisoners.

  Zhou Shide's books, the head of each class, can exchange for about 12-13 taels of silver per year, while ordinary prison guards and miscellaneous workers can get about 5-6 taels of silver per year. Even Lin Xian's official salary can only be exchanged for 18 taels of silver per year.

  Lin Xie took a sip of the prisoner's rice, which was steamed with old grain and miscellaneous grains, making it difficult to swallow. In addition to the meal, each meal also provided a ladle of soup for the prisoners. Lin Xie scooped up the soup with a spoon and drank two mouthfuls, but the two large wooden buckets brought into the cell only had a few leaves floating on top, without even a hint of oil or saltiness. After tasting it, Lin Xie didn't make any noise, and handed the copper spoon back to the guard, letting him serve the female prisoners in the women's cell.

  These are old rules, Lin Xie learned from Zhao Shuhan about the prison affairs of this world quite thoroughly. Zhou Shide and Changsun Gong, these jailers at least wouldn't dare to deduct food rations in various ways on his first day in office.

  Lin tied up and looked at the female prisoners in the cell through the iron door, compared to the indifference of the male prisoners in the men's prison, the 40 or 50 female prisoners in the women's prison were even more dull and expressionless, with disheveled hair and dirty faces, wearing tattered clothes.

  According to the Dai Viet law, women who committed crimes, except for capital punishment and adultery, were taken back by their husbands or relatives for supervision, mainly to avoid humiliation in prison.

  The Jiang Island Prison does not hold death row inmates, and most of the women held in the women's prison were sent there by government officials for committing adultery. In addition to the head of each cellblock, six matrons are also used to supervise the female prisoners.

  Lin Xie glanced over the prison cells, not saying much. He confirmed that the number of prisoners matched the roster and left the prison cell. The leader of the miscellaneous workers followed him to ask if he wanted to have a meal immediately. Lin Xie nodded in agreement. As a superior officer, he naturally had to enjoy some special privileges; otherwise, his subordinates would also feel uneasy.

  Zhao Hu was sweeping the fallen plum blossoms in the courtyard into a bamboo dustpan when he saw Lin Xie walking back with his hands behind his back. He asked, "Have you finished inspecting?"

  "The prisons in the world are all like this, and it's not easy to come up with a way out for the time being. We need to observe for another two days," Lin Fu nodded his head. As a newcomer, he wanted to get a clear understanding of the situation, but it was difficult. He pointed at the plum blossoms in the bamboo basket and said, "Don't throw these fallen plums outside, just pile them up by the wall. Maybe they have some lingering fragrance... Tomorrow morning, there will be a boat coming to the island. You can return to the city and let Lin Jingzhong allocate some silver to hire a boatman and prepare a boat at the mouth of the Jin River."

  To prevent prisoners from escaping by boat, the dock on the island was not allowed to prepare boats. Lin Xie knew that this rule was useless. Prisoners could escape from the high wall and swim over a mile away to reach the south bank of the river. Why did they need to use a boat to escape? However, in order to change this rule, it was necessary to submit a document to the Procuratorate for approval first.

  The Jin River estuary has no dock, and the island needs to use a boat to reach the Jiuyong Bridge dock 17 or 18 miles away. If Lin Xie is in a hurry on the island, he cannot notify the Jiuyong Bridge dock in time to send a boat. Lin Xie thinks of letting Lin Jingzhong prepare a boat at the river mouth one mile away, so that even if he needs to use a boat at night, he can light a torch and wave it a few times to bring the boat over.

  At this moment, footsteps came from outside the gate of the courtyard. Lin Xie remembered that the head of the miscellaneous labor class had said earlier that he would send meals to the yard, but he felt that the footsteps were light and didn't seem like a man's movement. He looked back in doubt, only to see two beautiful young women carrying lacquer boxes walking in, with the aroma of food wafting from the lacquer boxes.

  "Master Lin..." Two young women bowed to Lin, saying, "Du Ban has sent someone to deliver lunch for Master Lin." Without needing further instructions from Lin, they carried the meal boxes into the western wing of the dining hall to set out the food.

  "Come in," Lin furrowed his brow slightly, watching the two beautiful young women walk into the west wing, and called out to the gatekeeper, "Summon all the clerks and squad leaders who are not on duty to come to my courtyard!"

  Zhou Shide, Changsun Gong and others rushed over in the blink of an eye. Lin Xie looked at them with a gloomy face, pointing to the two beautiful young women and asked: "What's going on with them? Inside the high wall and outside the female prison, can they be used as maids?"

  "Sir, you misunderstood, they are not invited maidservants..." Zhou Shide hastily explained.

  "Who are they?" Lin Xie's eyes stared at Zhou Shide.

  "They are... " Zhou Shide's eyes were fixed on Lin, his voice somewhat hollow as he said stiffly, "Female prisoners serving their sentence, hard labor to make them repent. These two are female inmates who have been ordered to serve the master as part of their hard labor."

  "Is that so? It seems I was overthinking, the high walls can't be broken after all. Let the women in to keep you company, if anyone wants to take leave and return to the city to visit their relatives, just let me know...” Lin Xie's eyes swept across Zhou Shide, Chang Sun Gong and the other squad leaders, then asked, "Then have any of you used female prisoners as laborers?"

  "How dare we? This is all thanks to your good fortune, sir." Seeing that Lin Xie was no longer pursuing the matter, Zhou Shide put his mind at ease and said, "Then I won't disturb you while you're eating, sir."

  "Oh, right, the prisoner's food and clothing are handled by Zhangsun Shu. You stay behind to have a meal with me, I have something to ask you." Lin Xie ordered Zhangsun Gong to stay behind, had two young female servants prepare an extra set of bowls and chopsticks for Zhangsun Gong, and then followed everyone else out.

  After everyone else left the yard, Lin Tie gave Zhao Hu a signal and said: "You go to the yard and watch, don't let anyone else approach this house." He put his chopsticks on the table and stared at Zhang Sun Gong, saying: "Zhang Sun Bookkeeper, I saw your expression earlier, it seemed like you had something to say to me. I've sent everyone away, what do you want to say to me?"

  Chang Sun Geng's face still looked hesitant, and he said: "Those two female prisoners who came to serve as laborers are also young and beautiful. If they were treated as maidservants, wouldn't it be a waste of precious things?"