"Good heavens! Why is it so cold?"

  "I'm freezing to death, freezing to death."

  The prisoners kept rubbing their hands and arms, their faces turning purple from the cold.

  Zhang Hu handed them over to the local soldiers at the exile site.

  "Yo, it seems you didn't suffer much on this exile journey. Your complexions look good!" Zhao Junyi said with a smile. "I remember the last time you came, your complexion wasn't much better than the prisoners'."

  Zhang Hu nodded. Not only had they had a relatively good journey, but the number of surviving prisoners was also the highest ever. In the past, less than half of them survived, but this time, over eighty percent did. They owed it all to Shang Ruoyi.

  "Where are the people from the Dingguo Prince's Mansion?"

  Zhang Hu pointed in the direction where Shang Ruoyi was. Zhao Junyi's eyes narrowed slightly. Thinking about the successive imperial decrees from above, he couldn't help but feel a headache.

  "For the sake of our good relationship, brother, I'll give you a piece of advice." Zhang Hu said in a low voice. "Except for the second - branch of the Dingguo Prince's Mansion, don't mess with anyone."

  "Oh? Why is that?" Zhao Junyi was just worried about how to deal with this group of people and which imperial decree to follow.

  "The heir of the Dingguo Prince's Mansion is renowned for his bravery and military prowess. There's no need for me to elaborate. Even three - year - old children in Tian Shun know about this general."

  "That's for sure." Zhao Junyi sighed. "Back then, I served under him for over a month. Although it was just a short time, he was still my former master."

  Hearing this, Zhang Hu quickly said, "He was your master before, and you should still treat him as such now."

  After hearing this, Zhao Junyi had an idea in mind.

  "And that Shang Ruoyi, although she's a concubine - born daughter of the prime minister's mansion, she's even more resourceful than the legitimate daughter." He made a gesture indicating money and said in a low voice. "I don't think she's a useless pawn of Prime Minister Shang. On the day of the exile, Prime Minister Shang even went to the city gate in person."

  Zhao Junyi's face showed a slight shock. This was different from the information he had received.

  However, thinking about what the Crown Prince's confidant had said about Shang Ruoyi, he said in a deep voice, "It seems that none of them can be touched."

  "You don't need to pay attention to the second - branch. They've already been separated from the He family."

  Zhao Junyi looked at the second - branch of the He family, who were almost huddled together from the cold, and then at the He family members, whose servants were all wearing cotton - padded clothes. Even a fool could tell the difference.

  Everyone looked at the extremely desolate exile site, feeling extremely frustrated.

  "Ah, with this kind of soil, what can grow here? Not even cacti can survive."

  Among the exiled prisoners, there were experienced farmers. Since even they said so, the others became even more disheartened.

  Just then, two people dressed in rags walked by, holding an old pickaxe in one hand and two tiny potatoes in the other. They were sighing as they said, "We're lucky today. We found two potatoes. We have to be frugal. They can last us a few more days."

  The other person nodded. "Alas, if we can't pay the taxes by the end of the year, we'll probably get a severe beating again."

  Taxes for this piece of land? What could they pay with?

  The sand here?

  Just then, Zhao Junyi walked over and said in a deep voice, "Presumably, during this exile journey, you should have realized that for those who come here, going back is absolutely..." He paused, looked at He Jingheng, and his tone softened a bit. "Well, it's probably impossible. So, just serve your sentence honestly here and work. If you can't pay the taxes by the end of the year, you'll be in for a tough time!"

  People looked at the whip in his hand and were too scared to say anything. The man just now had said they'd get a severe beating!

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  Next came the allocation of residences.

  These were all earthen - built houses, and most of them were on the verge of collapse. The remaining part had already collapsed.

  "Goodness, how can people live here? The lowest - ranking servants in our mansion lived in better places!" Zhang pinched her nose, her eyes wide open.

  She never expected that the residences in this exile site would be so shabby.

  Not just her, everyone felt that the future looked bleak.

  No food, no drink, and no proper place to live. What was the difference between this and death?

  Zhao Junyi pointed at the houses on the verge of collapse. "You can choose from these. They're all about the same size."

  Seeing this, Zhang immediately ran towards one of the houses, and He Jinghe followed closely behind.

  After all, it hadn't collapsed yet, right? They could make do for now.

  There were fences separating the courtyards, and the yards were not big, only suitable for growing a small amount of vegetables.

  But the soil here was so poor that not only vegetables, which had high requirements for soil quality, but even sweet potatoes were extremely difficult to grow. So, the size of the courtyard didn't really matter.

  However, these houses were too small for the He family. Zhao Junyi thought for a while and said, "Well, you can either split into several families, or there's a huge courtyard at the east end of the village. But the houses there are thatched cottages, not even earthen - built ones. Now that the weather is getting colder, you'd better think carefully."

  "Sir, how big is that house? Could you take us to have a look?" As she spoke, she secretly put a silver ingot in his hand. "Sorry to trouble you, sir."

  Zhao Junyi weighed the silver. It was at least ten taels.

  He smiled in satisfaction. "Let's go!"

  When they arrived at the courtyard, Shang Ruoyi was startled. What courtyard was this? It was clearly a manor. There was even a small hill in the courtyard.

  This was exactly what she wanted.

  Shang Ruoyi smiled and said, "We'll take this one!"

  The He family members looked at the thatched cottages swaying in the wind, and a chill ran down their spines.

  The so - called exile meant coming here to be farmers, but they were different from ordinary farmers. Their status was even lower.

  Ordinary farmers could participate in the imperial examinations held by the court. Many scholars from humble families changed the fate of their families through these examinations. But exiled people couldn't. They were criminals, and criminals didn't have the qualification to take the imperial examinations. If they weren't pardoned, their descendants for generations would be criminals. They wouldn't even have the chance to be servants in wealthy families and could only engage in farming.

  In addition, without permission, they couldn't leave the exile site. The place where they were exiled was a village under a border town in Qingzhou. Basically, everyone here was an exiled criminal.

  Moreover, they didn't have land and had to reclaim it themselves. In the autumn of the following year, they had to pay taxes. Shang Ruoyi specifically asked what kind of taxes they had to pay.

  "Usually, some potatoes are planted here. If the weather is favorable, some corn can also be planted."

  Zhao Junyi advised her not to plant vegetables as they simply wouldn't survive.

  "Sir, can we hire people to build houses?" Shang Ruoyi's words gave the people of the Dingguo Prince's Mansion a glimmer of hope. Right! They could hire people to build houses instead of living in thatched cottages.

  "Of course, but building a house requires a lot of money." However, seeing how generous they were, he thought they must have quite a bit of money.

  When it came to money, they became dejected again.

  With such a hasty confiscation of their property, where did they get the money?

  "Sir, as long as we don't leave Qingzhou, going to the town is allowed, right?"

  Zhao Junyi nodded. "Normally, only one person from each household can go to the town within a day. Since your family has more people, the maximum number shouldn't exceed four."

  "Thank you, sir."