Although she left them behind, Zhu Ci truly has no use for idle people.
As for the younger ones, they are not mentioned, for they will surely contribute their own strength once they grow up; moreover, these children are more sensible than the next, they also do what they can in their daily lives.
As for these rescued women, they were responsible for two things: making clothes and cooking.
Don't be fooled by the fact that there aren't many people in the military camp right now; the consumption of clothing and fabric is actually quite large. Even though Zhu Ci has already purchased a lot of durable cloth, the consumption from daily training is still very high.
Previously, I had to rely on the embroiderers or women in the village to make the clothes, but as the weather warms up, everyone has to work in the fields, so the clothes are being made slower and slower. It looks like we won't be able to keep up, so it turns out it's quite good to hand these matters over to the young ladies now.
After Zhu Ci arrived, those retainers immediately became much more well-behaved.
The ladies immediately bowed to him. Zhu Ci smiled slightly, looked around, said, "There is a rule in our Great Ming law against harassment. If you truly like someone, I won't object, but if you are just being irresponsible, don't blame me for punishing you."
Ah?
A rogue?
Is that even a crime?
The retainers were all somewhat bewildered, but Zhu Ci remained calm.
He said if there is, there is, if there isn't, there isn't!
In any case, even he didn't know what the Great Ming Code actually said, so these illiterates certainly wouldn't know.
If it were mutual affection, he certainly wouldn't object, but the retainers knew exactly what these girls had gone through; in the current climate, no one knew whether they were accepting them sincerely or with a disrespectful attitude.
In times like these, one could only use the law and punishment to suppress them. As for those girls.. for the time being, they could only survive by depending on others, would subconsciously seek out a protector.
It has nothing to do with gender; even a man would do the same in this situation.
Once they have enough money to support themselves in the future, they will naturally have more choices.
Zhu Ci had already decided how much the monthly allowance would be and was preparing to have Fu Qiulu communicate it to them.
Although he was the master of the house, he was a man after all, spending too much time communicating with them could easily lead to gossip.
After the ladies left, Zhu Ci looked around and asked with a very serious expression, "Has the casualty count been tallied?"
Jiang Quan took a step forward and said in a low voice, "Reporting to Young Master, this operation resulted in two light injuries, one serious injury, one death."
After hearing this, Zhu Ci asked, "How is the one with severe injuries?"
Jiang Quan replied immediately, "They have improved much thanks to the medicine the Young Master provided."
And we're still lacking a military physician.
Unfortunately, military doctors might truly be harder to find than giant pandas.
Zhu Ci pondered for a long while before saying, "I'll arrange for someone to come and take care of him later."
This was his oversight. After all, the gangs had their own cooperating hospitals back then, so there was no need to consider finding someone with medical skills, which caused him to forget this aspect—not just medical skills, but also logistics personnel.
There is far too much lacking; this really must be taken one step at a time.
After Zhu Ci finished instructing this retainer about that fallen retainer, he sighed and said, "I have already ordered a coffin; bury him. In the future, build a separate ancestral hall specifically to house the memorial tablets of the fallen.. the fallen retainers, go to offer sacrifices during festivals and holidays."
As soon as he spoke these words, the gazes of those retainers changed.
Since ancient times, the people on this land have placed great importance on what happens after death; anyone with even a modicum of status or position would seek to ensure they have a tomb and ancestral sacrifices.
These retainers had no family and no descendants, living day by day; they had even less desire to think about what would happen after their deaths. Now, Zhu Ci told them, "Follow me, you need not worry about your affairs after death."
Even if they die, there will be someone to collect their bodies and bury them, during festivals, there will be someone to provide them with food and a bit of money.
Zhu Ci took in all of their expressions and continued, "Next.."
After saying those three words, he suddenly gave a slight smile: "Distribute the money!"
Eh?
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Author's Note: Zhu Ci: Don't worry, as long as there's a piece of meat for me, there will be soup for you—oh, no, there will be meat for you too. A cat hugging a pork leg and nibbling, nibbling, nibbling. jpg
The next nutrition liquid update will be at midnight. Little cuties who like to sleep early can read it tomorrow morning~ Chu~
Chapter 56
This sudden turn of events caught everyone off guard.
Just a moment ago, everyone had been immersed in the sorrow of their fallen brothers, but then he immediately started shouting about distributing money, completely disrupting everyone's emotions.
In an instant, the expressions on many people's faces became distorted; they wanted to laugh but felt it was inappropriate, given that the atmosphere just now had been quite solemn.
Zhu Ci waved his hand directly, signaling the boys to carry up a chest.
He stepped directly onto the chest and said, "Inside this are twenty percent of the treasures seized from the bandit camp this time. The method of distribution is simple: everyone receives a fixed base salary, in addition to that, rewards will be issued according to merit."
Zhu Ci explained the rules for the rewards in detail, but seeing the expressions on the faces of those below, he knew they hadn't understood a single thing.
He clicked his tongue and decided not to say anything more, simply waving his hand and saying, "Xi Zhenliu, you preside over this."
Xi Zhenliu's eyes immediately lit up, he nodded vigorously.
The other few boys who studied with him and were also quite capable clearly felt somewhat dissatisfied; they also wanted to show off.
Zhu Ci pretended not to notice; sometimes, a bit of healthy competition was actually quite good.
After distributing the money, Zhu Ci looked at everyone's jubilant expressions and suddenly said, "From now on, we will have extra training for a period every night."
Huh? Extra training?
The retainers looked at him and then at the silver in their hands, appearing quite conflicted.
On the contrary, Li Cheng was very clever and said, "I await your orders. May I ask which part of the training the Young Master wishes to intensify?"
The other retainers cast him an indignant glance: What a sly dog!
Li Cheng remained unmoved; the silver in his hand was what truly mattered!
Setting everything else aside, from this single trip alone, he earned twenty taels of silver.
That was twenty taels!
An ordinary family would need to go without food and drink for three or four years to save up that much.
As long as he is given silver, the Young Master will say whatever he is told; if he is told to go east, he will never go west, if he is told to risk his life, he will do it, let alone extra training.
To the poor, money truly is life.
Zhu Ci waved his hand and said, "Literacy and arithmetic!"
Huh?
Everyone froze on the spot, not expecting that the extra training would be this.
Li Cheng scratched his head and said, "Young Master.. we are all so old.. why are we learning this?"
Zhu Ci glanced at him and snorted, "If you don't learn, do you expect me to personally handle every headcount of prisoners, spoils, casualties in the future? A group of people who can't even count properly—as you receive more and more money in the future, who do you expect to manage your accounts? You have the nerve to ask me why you should learn this."
The Retainers all smiled sheepishly after hearing this.
Someone said boldly, "Young Master, I'm just stupid, what if I can't learn?"
Upon hearing the Northern accent, Zhu Ci put his hands on his hips and said, "It's not like I'm asking you to become top scholars. Just knowing a few characters and being able to do basic math is enough. As the numbers grow, we will certainly need to select more Xiaoji and Zongji, if you can't even recognize characters or understand orders, you won't be able to command anyone even if you are appointed."
Huh? Xiaoji and Zongji?
This.. isn't this a rank used in the regular army?
The crowd looked at one another in confusion, but no one said anything.
Zhu Ci said to Xi Zhenliu, "Go back and tell everyone that Teacher Qiu should conduct monthly exams, the ones who score the best in mathematics and classics each month should come to the camp to teach!"
Xialiang was not far from his camp, otherwise it would have been impossible to have the girls come to deliver meals every day.
The young boys' eyes lit up instantly upon hearing this. They could teach people too?
Why not? Zhu Ci was merely having the retainers learn to read and write; these boys already knew quite a few characters. Teaching others would be more than enough, they could even reinforce their own knowledge while teaching, achieving two things at once!
Xi Zhenliu asked with some confusion, "Young Master, do they have time to read?"
Zhu Ci patted Xi Zhenliu's small head and smiled, "Why wouldn't they have time?"
Speaking of which, training, suppressing bandits, learning to read all at once sounded somewhat impossible, but someone had already set an example for him, proving it was entirely feasible.
Anyway, people are very motivated when they are full of hope for the future.
Zhu Ci glanced at the retainers, who were holding money with excited and agitated expressions, felt that this matter was not actually difficult.
It was indeed not difficult, because no one required these retainers to learn a certain number of characters or to be particularly good at mathematics; without supervision, naturally, some would not study diligently.
Zhu Ci didn't care; after several consecutive bandit suppression campaigns, he rapidly promoted several people to become squad leaders and promoted Li Cheng to a squad leader. He had originally intended to set official positions according to the current military system, but on one hand, he was worried about others overhearing and reporting him to the authorities, on the other hand, he did not know much about the Ming military system, so he found it better to follow what he was familiar with.
Li Cheng was a very flexible and clever person; he was the fastest learner, a true talent who had been held back by class solidification and the monopoly on knowledge.
With a model to follow, the retainers finally began to take studying seriously. Setting aside everything else, the practical benefit was that the base monthly salary for a squad leader or a team leader was higher!
The squad leaders and team leaders were not fixed positions; those who performed poorly would be penalized and demoted, while those who performed well would be promoted.
Zhu Ci initially set the term at three months, which meant a rotation once every quarter.
So, aside from those who had completely given up, everyone was working very hard.
Zhu Ci was very satisfied with this and began planning to renovate the camp.
Because time was short and there was no money back then, the buildings in the camp were very crude. Even now, dozens of people are still crowded onto a single large bunk. As the number of people continues to grow, the bunk is becoming too cramped; renovation is definitely necessary.
There was no need to find others for the renovations; the retainers all came from humble backgrounds and knew a bit about construction, they naturally had the motivation to build houses for themselves.
After assigning the tasks, Li Cheng said with some hesitation, "Young Master, this construction cannot be easily stopped once it begins. It won't be finished in three to five months, so how will we handle the missions then?"
Zhu Ci lost his laughter: "Missions? What missions? Do you truly think Jiading is covered in bandits?"
In just one month, the bandits in Jiading had been almost entirely wiped out by them. It was no exaggeration to say that the atmosphere throughout the entire county had been cleansed; not to mention the mountain bandits, even the small-time thieves who committed robberies and plunders had decreased significantly, for they were terrified of being accidentally exterminated. That group was incredibly fierce, even fiercer than the mountain bandits!
Li Cheng scratched his head. "Jiading doesn't have any other places like that, does it? I heard.."
“Don't listen to rumors, get to work right now!” Zhu Ci drove him away before he could even finish speaking.
He knew there were also bandits not far from them, but that was Kunshan County's territory!
Zhu Ci dared to conduct sweeps in Jiading because he had already "colluded" with the Magistrate; he had no relationship with the Kunshan Magistrate, if he rashly entered the man's territory, the Magistrate could turn around and treat him like a bandit to be suppressed!