Chapter 753 Post-War Situation
The Missouri Penitentiary was officially opened in 1835. The entire exterior looks like a medieval castle and covers an area of 47 acres. It was once the largest prison in the United States, holding more than 5,000 prisoners. Among the prison trusts, it is also the largest prison after the slave owners established the prison trust. It now holds nearly 10,000 prisoners.
The entire prison is strictly allocated according to the area of one prisoner per square meter, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack! After getting off the bus in St. Louis, the huge convoy sped on the road, and Jesla, wearing a mask, came to the outside of the prison.
"Director, you came here in person." Berzin looked at Jesla nervously. The head of the bodyguards was inseparable from the boss. His appearance here meant that the boss already knew what was happening here.
"Don't be nervous! What's the situation now?" Jesla waved back. The Black Gold employees in the convoy behind him were unloading their guns and ammunition. Their eyes were fixed on the ancient castle in the distance, thinking that if the boss wanted to make a ghost movie or something, this would be a good location for filming.
"The criminals have taken control of the entire prison. Our guards are either dead or have retreated. There may be some people being held hostage. I just arrived yesterday, and I heard that the prisoners inside want to talk to the government?" When Berzin heard that Jesla had no intention of blaming him, he immediately introduced the situation in the prison.
Missouri Prison was built very early and was originally a base for the westward expansion. The living conditions inside are terrible. Once the prisoners leave their cells, they are forbidden to talk or look up at people, and they have to do heavy physical work every day. The reason for such a bad environment is to make the prisoners never want to come back after they get out. However, for many people, there is no chance to even think about it. The ten-year sentence back then was no different from life imprisonment, and it was even more like a suspended death sentence with a real death sentence. Many people were tortured to death or died of exhaustion in less than ten years.
The prison is filled with huge underground cells made of marble, which are used to punish prisoners by putting them in solitary confinement. There are no windows inside. There are ten similar underground cells in total, which are usually used to hold criminals who want to escape from prison.
"The prison was renovated before and steel cells were built, but a riot was still successful? What's the job of the warden here?" Jesla didn't have time to hear the whole process of the riot. He only knew his boss, and what he absolutely didn't want to hear was that the prisoners in the prison negotiated with the state government, let alone the federal government.
"The warden seems to be dead." Berzin couldn't help but speak in a lower voice when he saw Director Heijin's rage.
"It's better if they die!" Jesla said after a pause, "Now that they have occupied the prison, it is impossible to completely hide it from the state police, but every criminal inside is a virus carrier, so we can't let them out. Most of our manpower will take two or three days. Let's negotiate first to buy time until our artillery is delivered and we can flatten this prison."
"I will immediately find someone to go in and negotiate, and find out the situation inside." Berzin held back his shock. It's not that he didn't know the Black Gold Company's working style, but it was usually done abroad. Could they do the same in China?
Taking advantage of the gap of two or three days, Sheffield leaked information to the outside world through the Associated Press, saying that prisons everywhere were places where the influenza pandemic was rampant, and that the police department was arresting people without distinction, and throwing virus carriers into prisons without distinction, causing many prisons to become outbreak sites for the virus. Now many prisons cannot release these criminals, otherwise it will aggravate the spread of the influenza pandemic in the country.
"Will most people believe your explanation?" Annie asked worriedly, holding the microphone tightly.
"Explanation is not to convince others, but to shirk responsibility. It is also an excuse for the mass death of prisoners. I have to clean up the mess for Black Gold Company anyway!" Sheffield sighed, "Report one-tenth of the death toll, and then two-thirds. The rest are all people who died of the flu. People are dying every day across the country. There is no reason for the prisoners to be alive. Everyone knows what prison is. It is very normal for more people to die."
"Okay!" Annie hesitated after hearing this. "When will you come back? I miss you so much. I feel like a young girl. You can try it then."
"It should be safer at least." Sheffield certainly heard the hidden meaning. His wife had sent out a clear signal that every woman needs a man's arms to sleep in, and it is not a good thing for the husband to be away all the time. However, it is expected that once the slave owners return to Arlington, there will definitely be a fierce fight.
The slave owners were terrified at the thought of that scene, as all the women now lived in Arlington.
It was a rainy day on February 12. Outside the Missouri Prison, Jessla sent someone to announce that all the prisoners must return to their cells immediately, otherwise he would not be polite. As expected, there was no response.
There was nothing to say at this point. In terms of light artillery, the army's artillery was mainly French 75mm mountain artillery. This was enough for a fortress-shaped prison. At Jesla's order, twelve mountain artillery began to bombard the Missouri Prison. With a loud bang, the shells hit the battlements of the Missouri Prison, shattering the boulders and covering all the heavy prisoners who took it lightly.
The scene of flying limbs and blood mist made the criminals who thought they could negotiate with the government feel like they were falling into an icy cave. Compared with the black money companies that were killing, burning and trafficking people all over the world, these so-called serious criminals in Missouri prisons were as innocent as newborn babies.
Jesla had already intercepted the state police on the periphery and had contacted St. Louis, saying that once these criminal rioters successfully entered society, they would be walking pathogens that would only make the raging influenza pandemic even more serious.
At the same time, he said that not many people would die once the attack began. The criminals at most had some guns in the prison, and facing artillery bombardment, it would be difficult for them to make up their minds to fight to the death.
After firing more than a hundred shells, 3,000 Black Gold employees with bayonets launched a charge, stepping on the ruins of the prison castle and rushing into the prison. Two hours later, the entire Missouri Prison was back under the control of Black Gold Company.
"Take photos and spread them to all subordinate prisons." Jesla spit and turned around and said, "Call Oak Grove Manor and tell the boss the news."
"That's it? More than 600 people died. It's not a difficult number to handle. Just hang up if it's okay." Sheffield put down the phone. The so-called vicious criminals are not completely fearless of death.
I counted on my fingers and rounded it up to five hundred people, so I reported it as one-tenth of the number, and multiplied it by two-thirds according to the one drop of blood rule. The next day, the Chicago Daily Times published news of a riot in Missouri Prison. The cause was that there were patients with the Spanish flu in the prison. The criminals tried to escape, but were blocked by the heroic state police, thus avoiding the worst outcome of the Spanish flu spreading in Missouri. During the entire process, thirty prisoners died, but compared with the terrible consequences of a large number of criminals pouring into society, it was still something to be thankful for.
"Tell the warden of each place which prison has trouble. I will make you pay." Berzin threatened viciously in a telegram to various places. "Even if it means death, the criminals must die in prison. Dig a big pit near the prisons in each place, throw each dead one in, and bury them on the spot."
At this time, the news from the Paris Peace Conference was needed to prove that the current situation in the United States was not just good, but very good. This is what Sheffield did, allowing the information explosion to dilute the public's attention to the Missouri prison riot. At the same time, more people were sent to surround the Missouri prison to quell the incident as soon as possible.
At worst, if someone holds us accountable, we can just hand the prison trust back to the state. After the pandemic, the prison trust is no longer useful, and it’s not particularly profitable.
The Paris Peace Conference was of course a very important matter, and every day the three parties were accusing each other. Britain and the United States were only willing to think of ways to deal with other members of the Allied Powers, but were unwilling to dismember Germany.
Lloyd George made no concessions on this issue, even though the war was going on, and threw his promises to the French behind his back. On the German issue, Britain and the United States took a common position.
"Wilson is a pro-German, just like the businessman in your country," Clemenceau said angrily to President Wilson. "No French prime minister would sign a treaty that would not annex the Saarland to France."
"Do you want me to return home now?" President Wilson retorted.
"No, I want to go home now." Clemenceau said unyieldingly, "That's what I'm thinking now."
"Don't be so impulsive!" Lloyd George said, trying to smooth things over. "Why don't we talk about other issues now?"
On the issue of colonies, the British Prime Minister stood with the French President, trying their best to maintain the superior position of Britain and France in colonial issues and world status. When the two drew a pencil on the world map, a country was born. Nothing like this had ever happened in history. Under the pencils of the two, the future world pattern gradually took shape.
"The punishment for the Ottomans is too harsh! But I agree with the self-determination of the Eastern European nations." Wilson paused for a moment, "Regarding the current issues on the west coast of the Persian Gulf, the federal government and I have our own ideas."
France and the United States reached a consensus on this issue, because the British were obviously too greedy in the distribution of colonies, and France and the United States jointly took a piece of land from the Ottoman Empire. President Wilson said that the land on the west coast of the Persian Gulf was only a temporary trusteeship, and a new country would be established in a few years according to the wishes of the local people.
(End of this chapter)
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