Priceless: A widow with a baby asks the prince to marry again

Chapter 251 Wage Observation

"Are we really going to give this meat to the prisoners? Our soldiers won't mind it! Add some minced ginger, sesame seeds, and more salt, they will love it!"

The cook who was in charge of distributing food to the prisoners looked at the plates of smelly meat with a look of regret on his face.

There were many injured or killed horses in the previous battle. Unlike humans, horses with injured legs were useless. After being bled and slaughtered, they would be distributed to the soldiers of Daxia to eat.

These were horses that died on the spot and had no time to be bled. There were only a few dozen of them. They were originally meant to be kept while the weather was still cold and cooked slowly to serve as a side dish for the soldiers - they were too salty, so they had to be eaten with the staple food as a snack on New Year's Eve.

The other soldiers were also a little reluctant, but they soon thought of a reason for the general's order and whispered, "Maybe it's the last meal before execution. Let them eat well before they die."

"That's it!"

The soldiers immediately understood, and some even said sympathetically, "Then we can cook it properly. It's our last meal, so it doesn't matter if we waste some seasoning."

"The general is coming..." someone reminded in a low voice.

All of a sudden, all the soldiers fell silent and stood straight.

A tall man in the armor of a commander walked closer with a petite woman who was wrapped up so tightly that only her eyes were exposed.

All the soldiers greeted him vigorously: "Greetings, General!"

Chu Shiyu nodded slightly, as if responding, and then he turned his head slightly to the side and rear, and instructed the two deputy generals in charge of the prisoners: "Later, ask the supervising soldiers to report the prisoners who are not working hard in coal mining but are paid more."

"Yes!"

Today is the seventh day of the first lunar month. In the northwest deserted city, everything has returned to normal except for those soldiers who are still recuperating from their injuries. However, the soldiers no longer have to work, but have begun daily training.

Chu Shiyu said that the deserted city was enough like this, and too much is as bad as too little. However, the prisoners of war from the two tribes could not be left idle, so they were sent out to dig coal.

Still paid by work, but only one cent for digging ten kilograms of coal!

Some lower-level soldiers are envious! If they work harder, they can earn forty or fifty yuan a day!

You know, their normal military pay is only five cents a month! Although they have benefits such as cloth, oil and salt in normal times, and their military pay will be doubled during wartime... But after a month of coal mining, it's more than one or two taels! How great would it be if I could get it together with the military pay?

Even the soldiers felt that the treatment was good, not to mention these prisoners of war! Especially the original prisoners of war who had worked before, they had a sense of trust in the transaction with the Daxia Army! Most of them were digging "flourishing"!

There were the sounds of busy footsteps and voices. It was a group of prisoners who had just finished their work. They came over under the supervision of the Daxia soldiers and began to settle their wages for today.

Groups of fifty people, led by responsible supervisors, walked to the table where money was distributed.

The soldier who was handing out the money asked the supervisor, "Which group?"

"One group."

The person distributing the money took out the printed list on the table and asked the prisoners in Mongolian: "What's your name?"

The prisoner of war answered.

The person distributing the money asked the supervisor in Chinese: "How much?"

"Forty-six."

The person handing out the money repeated “forty-six” in Mongolian while writing the numbers next to the corresponding names on the list.

This group of prisoners of war was the previous 8,000 people. They walked to the side very skillfully, waiting for another soldier to count out the copper coins. The prisoners took them happily, walked to the supervisor and waited for the people in the same group, and counted the copper coins again...

All fifty people took their wages happily, and followed the supervisor to the food distribution shed. People from Group 2 came up to receive their food.

When they saw the cooked meat on the table, many prisoners of war suddenly became agitated, showing incredible expressions and talking to each other!

The first prisoner stepped forward, pointed to the cooked meat on the table waiting to be cut, spoke a language the cook could not understand, and held out a handful of copper coins he had just earned.

The cook looked at him with pity, took one penny from his hand and threw it into the money jar on the stall.

The prisoner looked surprised as he watched the cook cut off a piece of meat and throw it on the scale beside him. It was a little more than one or two taels, but the cook did not cut it off. He just put it on a plate and handed the plate to the prisoner.

One or two ounces of meat was obviously too little for an adult male. The prisoner took out some copper coins and handed them to the cook, then drooled as he looked at the meat.

"Each person can only take one or two taels. If there are more, there won't be enough to share."

The prisoners did not understand the cook's explanation, but they understood what he meant by waving his hands.

The prisoners had to give up with regret, looked at the stacked pancakes and the hot rice bucket, walked to the pancake stand, showed the soldier in charge of selling pancakes the fifteen copper coins in his hand, threw them into the money jar of the pancake stand, and took three pancakes...

Chu Shiyu and Liu Rusi were both standing by, carefully observing the prisoners...

Chu Shiyu whispered to himself, "It's my fault. If I had carefully identified the prisoners right after they were captured, I wouldn't have had to go through so much trouble... Now that their armor and weapons have been stripped off, they're all covered in dust and dirt, and I can't even recognize who's who."

"It shouldn't be your problem. If he was a general or leader of the Oirat, our soldiers should have been able to recognize him when they surrendered, right? The higher the status and the more military merits, it is impossible to regard it as ordinary." Liu Rusi comforted.

Chu Shiyu nodded slowly and replied: "Generals will be given special protection. For example, the commander of the Wala this time was protected and escaped when surrounded by infantry, so there are so many who choose to surrender later."

Then Chu Shiyu was a little confused again: "Will there be people who are not in high positions but are important?"

Liu Rusi smiled and said, "I'm not sure either... But what if they are like Fang Qiu and Qin Tao? They are dressed like ordinary soldiers, but can we say they are unimportant?"

Chu Shiyu suddenly realized! If this is the case, everything makes perfect sense!

If Fang Qiu was in the hands of the enemy, he would not affect the main plan of the war. But if the enemy wanted to use Fang Qiu plus 7,999 ordinary Daxia soldiers to exchange for a useless person...

As long as anyone in Da Xia has a brain, no matter which faction they belong to, they will keep this in mind and try their best to complete this exchange!

In one group, almost all the prisoners had the same reaction. They were very happy when they got more money than before, and they were very greedy when buying meat. Some of them even started to eat meat as soon as they got it, and finished it without waiting for the bread or rice to be served, and they didn't care about the fishy smell at all!

After getting the food, the prisoners squatted on the open space nearby, took a penny to fill up their water bags with warm water, and began to wolf down the food. After eating, many people would leave one or two cakes and hide them directly in their clothes for the next meal - they only had one meal a day.

The second group is similar...

In the third group, the two observers looked at a young boy with a childish face. He only earned 27 cents and did not look very happy, nor did he count it again.

When they arrived at the food collection area, the middle-aged prisoner behind the boy took out a water bag and used the remaining water in it to wash the boy's hands.

Then, the boy looked at his hands, which were still a little dirty, and wanted to rub them on his clothes, but then he realized that his clothes were even dirtier, so he stopped... He simply shook off the water droplets on his hands before walking to the meat stall...

He also received meat, rice, bread, and hot water... But when he went to eat, he took two bites of the meat and couldn't eat it anymore. He handed the meat to the strong man who had just washed his hands...

Chu Shiyu and Liu Rusi looked at each other, both confirming their intentions.