"What's going on, stand up and speak." Lin Xie secretly warned the five people who were intercepted in front of the post house to stand up and speak. The guards at the post house glanced over for a moment but ultimately did not come over to investigate.

  "Thank... thank you, sir, for the copper coins. My little brother bought a pound of rice and came back, my mother asked me to come over and kowtow again!" The three burly men behind them pushed forward the young boy and the little girl to speak up front. The boy's face was pale and thin, stuttering when speaking in front of strangers, then knelt down and knocked his head three times before getting up with a dusty body and said, "I really have the strength to work, I don't want that much money, my sister and I will work for you, sir, just pay us one person's wages, no need to give us food or anything... just please take us in, if not, my mother and sister will starve..." The boy said this and wiped away tears with his dirty and tattered sleeve. The little girl looked like she was 13 or 14 years old, her eyebrows and eyes were pretty, but too thin, her small face looked a bit scary, she was even more timid, holding onto the boy's clothes, staring at Lin Xie, not daring to say a word, her eyes welled up with tears.

  Listening to the young man's tone, they had also gone to the tea house to sign up, but were screened out. Now they came to beg for shelter. Today, there are almost a thousand people passing by, and even if Lin Xuan's memory is good, he can't remember all of them.

  "Good sirs, please have mercy on us and take us in. My poor wife has been bedridden with illness for several days and hasn't the strength to get up. Otherwise, she would have crawled here to kowtow to you...". Just then, one of the three sturdy men finally spoke up to Lin Fu, "If you're willing to take us in, please also bring along my poor wife. She's weak and can't do much work, but we'll make it up by doing more chores. If not, our family of three will truly starve to death on this road."

  Lin Tie had no impression of the young man, but looking at him didn't seem to be pretending either. However, these three men absolutely hadn't seen them in the tea house before. The refugees came all the way to ask for a living, and it was extremely bitter. Even if Cao Zi'ang wanted to squeeze in those individuals, they would all have faces with wind, frost, and cold colors. In the severe cold weather, after traveling thousands of miles, even if one had eaten wind and slept under the dew, even the lead mule would lose dozens of pounds of flesh, let alone humans? These three sturdy men, even though they were wearing tattered clothes under the lamp, still had a full spirit.

  Lin Xie thought to herself, who exactly was trying to set her up? It couldn't be that Xi Fei Hu wouldn't willingly give up the land by the river without a fight. Were these three people undercover agents sent by Qing Feng Hang?

  Lin tied up and looked at Chen Shuban, the household registration officer of Mailing County, saying: "The number of recruits has already been filled..."

  Chen Shuban only smiled when he saw the three strong men in front of him, and his heart was delighted. The Ji Yun Society could recruit 40 armed guards with knives to protect the merchant group and shops from thieves, and even carry ten bows. Such strong and healthy men were exactly what the Ji Yun Society wanted to recruit. He said with a smile: "It's not that I'm talking nonsense, but there are really few people in the world who follow the law like Lord Lin. If County Magistrate Lin recruits 100 people, Lord Lin will just recruit a few more, and we can still walk on the street and shout to go? It's just a matter of adding two more strokes."

  "Hahaha……" Lin Lang burst out laughing, pulled out a name card from his body and handed it to the leader of the group, saying, "You take my name card tomorrow and wait directly in front of the tea house to get on the boat." He then pulled out dozens of copper coins from his body and gave them to the young man, "Take this to see if you can find a doctor tonight to treat your mother, and buy some good food."

  The five of them knelt down to thank him and left, Lin Tie and Zhou Pu invited Chen Shu Ban and the two yamen runners to have a meal in the post house, Chen Shu Ban and the two yamen runners from Yunling County did not notice that Wu Qi had been following them all along and did not follow them into the post house.

  Lin tied up Chen Shu to handle the three people in the post house, he did not stay overnight, but went with Zhou Pu across the river all night, and went to the tea house to talk to Lin Jingzhong, but did not tell him about the secret matter, fearing that he was inexperienced and would reveal his traces. The four guards left for him to serve, and the guards also dared not to have any dissenting opinions. It has become a normal phenomenon for officials to make soldiers under their command do miscellaneous tasks, which is also one of the reasons why the military power of the garrison and local troops in the world is weak.

  Lin Tie didn't have much time to delay, tomorrow Lin Jingzhong would take these recruits across the river and stay in Miling County for a day or two before heading directly to Jin Chuan River. Currently, there wasn't even a thatched hut set up at Jin Chuan River. Although Lin Mengde was helping on the south bank, and Xiao Wu was running errands, there were many things to do and more manpower was needed. Cao Zikang and his men would follow Lin Jingzhong across the river, but they wouldn't be able to help for these two days; besides, Xia Feihu and Du Rong definitely wouldn't willingly give up that stretch of riverside. If someone stayed on the south bank, if something happened on Prison Island, it was just a mile or two by waterway, and they could rush over in an instant; but if they stayed on the north bank, there were 40-50 miles of waterway, and if something happened on Prison Island, by the time they rushed over, the dishes would be cold. Currently, on Prison Island, neither Zhao Hu nor Chang Sun'geng nor Yang Shi could handle things alone.

  Lin tied up at this time can't easily spend the night on the north shore, even if it's late, still rush back to the south shore to feel at ease.

  Wu Qi arrived just as the Wupeng ship was leaving the dock.

  "That young man and the little girl are not a problem, they are refugees from Zhongzhou. The other three are suspicious, they brought the young man and the little girl here as cover, for now it's hard to tell whose family they belong to?" Wu Qi told Lin Xuan the news he had just inquired about, and also took over a piece of dried meat pancake from Zhou Pu, not caring that it was cold and hard, and started chewing on it.

  "What to do, should we let them in first and not alarm the enemy for the time being?" Zhou Pu asked. The secret they had to keep was the boat that would be arranged for Cao Zi'ang in the future, and that boat wouldn't use unreliable outsiders either. There wasn't any other place in Ji Yun Society that needed to be particularly guarded against others' espionage.

  "We can have so much fun?" Lin Xuan smiled and said, "There are so many empty cells on Prison Island, and there are over a hundred sets of shackles that are not being used for the time being. First, let's take those three people across the river and then talk about it later. Whoever comes to redeem them in the future will have to pay 100 taels of silver per person."

  Zhou Pu and Wu Qi smiled silently, said nothing more, and let the boat follow the current to Prison Island. The three of them slept soundly in the cabin, conserving their energy.

  ************

  They moored their boat at Prison Island, and it was already the next morning.

  Lin Mengde's actions were swift, from the mouth of the Jin River to the Jiuyong Bridge and then southeast for twelve or thirteen miles, it was on the northwest shore of Longxing Lake, which is one of the 24 towns outside Jiangning City, Quyang Town. Quyang Town was bustling with merchants and goods gathered from all over the world. Lin Mengde brought people to Quyang Town and purchased everything needed in just one day. Not long after Lin and others returned to Prison Island, Lin Mengde escorted a ship loaded with supplies to the island, and 20 prisoners on this side worked hard for a whole morning to unload the full load of supplies.

  The Jinjiang Prison Island, even if calculated with the water level of the autumn season, has an area of over 2,000 mu. The entire Jiangdao Prison, although built on a large scale, only occupies more than 800 mu. Outside the high walls, there is still 1,200-1,300 mu of open space, which can be considered as low and shallow river beach and tidal flats, with an area three to four times larger. The northwest part of the island has a higher terrain, with miscellaneous forests. When the prison was first built, soil was burned to make bricks and trees were cut down to make beams on the island. Now, although the old kilns have collapsed, more than half of them are still intact. There are still 300-400 mu of forest that can be used for beams, as well as large areas of bamboo forests. With tools, there is sufficient manpower on the island to make bricks, cut bamboo and wood, not only for the use of the prison island itself but also for the construction of warehouses at the mouth of the Jinjiang River.

  All things are difficult before they are easy; once you've begun, everything becomes simpler.

  Lin tied up ten prisoners and took them to the north beach of the prison island to fish. In the eyes of Changsun Gong and others, this had already exceeded the rules. On the one hand, Lin was a powerful and exclusive prison officer, and on the other hand, he ordered the guards to be vigilant and prevent escapes, so no one dared to say anything. When they could catch 300-400 kilograms of fat fish every day to supplement the prison's supplies, the officials, soldiers, and prisoners' food were all greatly improved, and there was no shortage. In these seven or eight days, Changsun Gong and others took it for granted that taking prisoners to the beach to fish was a normal thing.

  It's still about interest-driven behind this.

  Lin tied up the next step is to open a vegetable garden and a cattle shed outside the high wall.

  Outside the high walls of the island, there is a vast expanse of empty land. In addition, the Proclamation Office mixed a large amount of stale rice and rotten millet into the prisoners' rations. Lin Xian strictly forbade giving the rotten rice to the prisoners as food, but these stale grains, as well as the large quantities of water grass, small snails, and miscellaneous fish picked up from the riverbank, could be used to feed pigs and sheep. Lin Xian wanted to solve the problem of vegetable and meat supplies on the island before summer arrived.

  These things are to be done by the prisoners in the prison, with the previous fishing as a foundation. Lin Xian proposed to Zhang Sun'geng that he would build vegetable gardens and cattle sheds, and Zhang Sun'geng did not think it was particularly difficult to accept. The key is how to use the prisoners and prevent them from escaping.

  More than 200 prisoners were imprisoned within the high walls, and sixty soldiers plus more than twenty guards were enough to supervise them. Even if there were river pirates passing by, this side would close the prison gate tightly, and they were not afraid that the river pirates would come to the island to attack the prison. However, when more than 200 prisoners were all put outside the high walls for labor, sixty soldiers and more than twenty guards were somewhat insufficient. Once a prison break occurred, it would be a major accident for the prison officials.

  Whether it was Long Sun-geng's integrity, experience, knowledge, or prestige in the original class and difference, Lin Xie had to use him as his main assistant in governing the prison island and managing prisoners. Even after he left the prison island temporarily, he wanted Long Sun-geng to preside over the affairs of the prison island.

  After Qing Prison, Lin Xie took the time to explain the idea of governing prisons with imprisonment and differentiating crimes to Zhang Sun Gong in detail.

  According to the crime, prisoner's sentence, family situation and remaining sentence length, prisoners are classified and managed in different prisons. Prisoners with low risk of escape can be assigned to work outside the high walls; those with high risk of escape will be kept inside the high walls for labor; seriously dangerous prisoners will be locked up in solitary confinement under close surveillance, even wearing shackles while working.

  Eliminating prisoner abuse incidents, improving the sanitary conditions of prisoners' lives, and using some well-behaved minor offenders to manage the prison cells can all effectively prevent escape behaviors from happening.

  Of course, even if things are done more carefully, the prisoner's escape cannot be completely eliminated. Is there a large prison in Dai Viet that does not have an escape? Don't talk about escapes, every now and then there is a prison where prisoners mysteriously die of illness, this is the normal prison of Dai Viet, the island prison only needs to guard against large-scale escape behavior.

  Chang Sun-geng was also a knowledgeable person. Even though Lin Kuo's approach to governing the prison was vastly different from traditional methods, after Lin Kuo explained it in detail, Chang Sun-geng could still accept some new things and ideas. On one hand, there were benefits and practical advantages that guided him; on the other hand, the impact of clearing the prison was enormous for him. Even if Lin Kuo wasn't on Prison Island, Chang Sun-geng could still carry out Lin Kuo's approach to governing the prison very well.

  Apart from these things, Lin Xie also reminded Zhang Sun-geng to select prisoners with special skills. After all, there were many things to be done on the island prison, whether it was fishing, planting vegetables, feeding livestock or spinning, weaving, making clothes, ironing, sailing, and doing carpentry work. Prisoners with special skills could solve a lot of trouble for them.

  The prison island had not many prisoners, and Zhang Sun first spent two days thoroughly combing through all the prisoners. He even set up a special position of "warden" among the prisoners, using the initial ten prisoners selected by Lin Xie to be in charge of daily management inside the prison gates as well as monitoring any unusual movements among other prisoners, and even had the power to supervise the behavior of the prison guards inside the cells, severely suppressing the prison bullies who had been bullying others in the cells for a long time.

  In fact, after Lin Xiangru greatly improved the prison conditions with new rules and regulations, most of these prisoners who were in jail because they couldn't afford to pay their fines became much easier to manage.

  Lin Mengde transported materials and tools to the prison island, and Zhangsun Gong ordered about 40-50 male prisoners who were least likely to escape and all female prisoners to go outside the high wall to cut bamboo and wood, open up wasteland, build vegetable gardens and animal sheds.

  It wasn't until the fifth day that Lin Jingzhong brought over those refugees he had recruited, nearly four hundred people in total.

  Although these people were registered in Yiling County, Yiling County had no land to allocate to them, and their livelihoods had to rely on Jiyun Society to solve. It was originally thought that the matter could be resolved within two or three days, but after so many people brought their families with them, each household still had a lot of miscellaneous items, which would lead to many troubles. At Chao Tianyi Ferry, it took two days for everyone to gather; after arriving at Yiling County and entering the yellow book, they encountered a family member who did not survive due to illness in the county town, so they stayed in Yiling County for another day. Finally, they hired more than a dozen large carts from Yiling County to bring these hundreds of people with their families to the Jin River mouth. The deceased migrant's family member was also bought by Lin Jingzhong, who transported him to the Jin River mouth for burial using an ox cart, spending a lot of money, which can be considered as buying people's hearts.

  Lin Jingzhong and his group rushed to the mouth of the Jin River, where they saw that on the dozen or so acres of land they had previously purchased at the mouth of the Jin River, several simple thatched huts had already been set up. Behind the thatched huts, a large pile of bricks, stones, bamboo, and wood was neatly stacked in an empty space. Qian Xiaowu and Lin Mengde's four apprentices, who were borrowed from Ji Yun She, stood guard there, but they didn't see Lin Fu or Lin Mengde.

  "Hmm, you guys aren't slow either!" Lin Jingzhong looked at the building materials that were all ready and stopped Qian Xiaowu to ask, "Where are Master Meng and Uncle De?"

  "They're all on the island, Lin Ye has just sent a boat with piglets to the island," Qian Xiaowu said, "The young master instructed you to come over and lead those few vagrants who responded to his recruitment notice to take the boat to the island..."

  "Hmm..." Lin Jingzhong rubbed his forehead, thought for a moment, and then remembered that on the second morning after arriving at Chao Tian Yi Inn, five people came to sign up with Lin's name card. Chen Shuban from Youling County also said that it was Lin who agreed to take them in front of the inn. He didn't think much and brought them across the river directly. He was busy and confused, and if it wasn't for Qian Xiaowu mentioning it, he would have forgotten about these five people. He quickly ordered Lin's four bodyguards to go and call them over. He didn't understand why Lin wouldn't let Cao Zikang and others take a boat to meet, but instead wanted to bring these five people to the prison island.

  ********************

  P.S: Looking for red envelopes (with money).

  Thanks to book friend KuKu for providing a new book friend group 6429603 (recruiting). The group resources are limited, so book friends who have already joined the group should not enter the new group again.