“The little black room is a unique punishment method of the escort team. For some escorts who have made mistakes, the gentleman will lock them in a small dark room to face the wall and reflect on their actions, to self-examine.”
The Ninth Princess explained the little black room with a smile.
“Is this method effective?”
Qing Xinyao asked doubtfully, “Some rogue soldiers are hardened veterans. Even military flogging cannot deter them. Letting them face the wall and reflect is just giving them a place to slack off and sleep.”
“At first I thought the same, but later I found it seems not to be the case.”
The Ninth Princess shook her head. “I feel that compared to flogging, the escorts seem more afraid of the little black room.”
“Is it really that powerful?” Qing Xinyao became even more curious.
“Why not go and see for ourselves?” the Ninth Princess said with a smile.
The little black room at Great Python Slope was in a quiet corner with few people. By the time Jin Feng and the others arrived, the punished escorts and soldiers had already been brought out.
The escorts were alright. They had mentally prepared before going in, so they did not break down. They just sat aside with pale faces, talking to their companions.
The two soldiers from the Weisheng Army were much more pitiful. After being carried out, they slumped on the ground.
When others spoke to them, it was as if they heard nothing. They just muttered to themselves nonstop.
What they said was all gibberish. No one could understand it.
Many escorts stood by watching the spectacle, especially Monkey, whose face was full of schadenfreude.
He had been implicated and locked up for one day. He had been released yesterday.
When Meng Tianhai saw Jin Feng and the others approaching, he quickly came forward to salute.
Then, looking worriedly at Jin Feng, he said, “Gentleman, they haven’t gone mad, have they?”
“It’s fine. They just spent two days in a dark, confined space and cannot bear it psychologically for the moment,” Jin Feng explained. “In the next couple of days, find more people to talk with them. They will recover in a few days.”
“But the way they are now, when others speak to them, it’s as if they don’t hear…”
Meng Tianhai pointed awkwardly at the two. “Does the gentleman have a way?”
“Easy!”
Jin Feng gave Monkey a wink. Monkey grinned and stepped forward, slapping each of the two across the face.
“Hey! Get up for me right now, or I’ll lock you up for another three days!”
The two, who had been lost in their own world, finally came back to their senses.
They looked around. When they saw Jin Feng, both shakily got up and kowtowed to him. “Gentleman, we were wrong. We will never dare again. Please don’t lock us in the little black room anymore!”
Before entering the little black room, they truly thought it was just a place to sleep.
After going in, they did indeed sleep soundly the first night.
But when they woke the next day, they experienced the power of the little black room.
Zhang Liang’s military discipline was already strict. The cellar was far harsher than the confinement rooms Jin Feng remembered from his previous life.
Cramped and narrow, dark and damp, not to mention the lid on top was sealed tightly.
Not only was there almost no light, but not a single sound could be heard.
It was simply a grave.
For a living person to stay inside, the inner torment was imaginable.
A day felt like a year was no longer enough to describe it. Every minute and second dragged on endlessly.
Later they began talking to themselves.
If not for Monkey’s slaps, they might not have snapped out of it yet.
“Didn’t you think going to the little black room was just slacking off and sleeping?”
Monkey sneered. “Want to go back in and sleep another two days?”
“No! No!”
The two waved their hands frantically. “We really know our mistakes.”
“Alright, Monkey. Stop teasing them!”
Jin Feng winked at Meng Tianhai.
“Men, take these two disgraceful things away!”
Meng Tianhai barked coldly.
Several people had been confined together. The escorts could still keep their sanity, but the soldiers under him had cried rivers of tears. It made him, the Weisheng Army leader, feel very embarrassed.
“This little black room is quite interesting!”
Qing Xinyao glanced at the cellar, pondering whether to adopt it himself.
The soldiers were taken away. Jin Feng and the other two headed together to the main army tent.
On the way, Qing Xinyao said, “Gentleman, it will soon be time to execute the prisoners again. You should hurry and select people on your side, or they will be beheaded or sent away.”
Death row prisoners generally had two paths: execution after autumn, or sent to the front lines as cannon fodder.
It would be that time in a few more days.
The warden of Xichuan City prison had sent over the roster of death row prisoners yesterday.
Jin Feng could simply mark names and take the people.
But influenced by his previous life, Jin Feng respected life more and did not act so casually. He had the warden send the case files too, reviewing them personally.
Testing explosives was extremely dangerous. He had to confirm that every person selected truly deserved death.
And they could not be violent dangerous elements.
Otherwise, if explosives were made and Xihewan got blown up first, the loss would outweigh the gain.
This increased the workload greatly. Plus, with recruitment matters to attend these past two days, Jin Feng had not had time to visit the prison.
“Lord Qing, how many days left?”
Jin Feng asked helplessly.
He had already reduced his sleep by one hour, yet tasks kept piling up.
It gave him a real sense of being stretched thin.
This was even after delegating recruitment to Han Feng and Big Zhuang. If he handled it personally, he would probably work himself to death.
“Three days.” Qing Xinyao replied.
“I understand!” Jin Feng nodded, deciding to work overtime tonight and finish reviewing the files as soon as possible.
The three passed by the female escorts’ camp. Qing Xinyao stopped again.
On an open space in the camp, a group of voluptuous women were rehearsing a new dance.
“Gentleman, are these the dancing girls?” Qing Xinyao asked somewhat uncertainly.
Previously, with Danzhu’s army pressing the border, then busy with post-war resettlement, Qing Xinyao truly had not seen the dancing girls.
Moreover, the girls had now shed their colourful gauze skirts and all changed into female escorts’ fitted attire. Their hair was tied into long ponytails, giving them a valiant and heroic look, completely different from the soft and charming dancing girls before.
“Yes,” Jin Feng smiled. “They are really not suited to be escorts, so I plan to have them rehearse dances suitable for the army to watch, to boost the soldiers’ morale.”
“What kind of dances are suitable for the army?” the Ninth Princess asked curiously.
“Isn’t Qingyuan choreographing one right now?” Jin Feng said with a laugh.
On the open ground, the dancing girl named Qingyuan held an unsheathed long sword, dancing quite impressively.
“Quite interesting!” Qing Xinyao stroked his chin and smiled. “Once rehearsed, the gentleman must invite me to watch.”
“Everything that reaches here seems to become extraordinary.”
The Ninth Princess was also very surprised by Jin Feng’s arrangement for the dancing girls.
Jin Feng was truly too busy to idly chat with the Ninth Princess and Qing Xinyao.
After discussing proper matters, he had Zhang Liang accompany the two to watch the recruitment, while he returned to his tent at once, picking up the files again to select death row prisoners.
Great Kang’s case files were very simple, even perfunctory in some cases. Jin Feng knew there must be wrongful convictions among them, but he truly had no energy to investigate each one. He could only treat them as genuine.
Turning to a new page, Jin Feng did not pay much attention at first. But as he read on, his expression gradually grew solemn.
