Chapter 205: Rex the Scapegoat
Violet Gerry, 42, was originally a senior clerk in the Secretary's Office.
Mr. Gary's job is to be responsible for the personnel files of the Innadri city law enforcement force. In other words, if there are personnel changes in the original city police, prison, and court, they have to apply for file changes from Mr. Gary.
This is a humble but powerful position. Although Mr. Gerry does not have direct control over the personnel transfers of the city police and the prison, he has the right to send back unreasonable file change applications and request reaffirmation... There is a lot of room for maneuver here. If Mr. Gerry looks down on someone, even if that person is a new judge who is about to take office, Mr. Gerry has the right to have that person stuck in the file for three to five months.
At least half of Mr. Gerry's annual income of fifty gold coins was obtained through the convenience of his position. This was an unspoken rule that was reasonable and legal, although not public. The Secretariat had such privileges, just as it was reasonable and legal for the lord to appoint the local mayor.
Similar situations also happened to other senior clerks in the Secretariat, such as the friend in front of Mr. Gerry... This friend's channel for making money was even better than Mr. Gerry's. He was originally responsible for the land approval authority of the Innadri territory. If the nobles wanted to buy (annex) a good piece of land, they had to send him, who was responsible for the registration and filing of local land ownership.
In the secretariat that directly connects with the mayor and the lord, most senior clerks are unwilling to be promoted even if they have accumulated enough experience. The main reason is the gray legal income that is envied by outsiders.
Unfortunately, with the Bartles family being ousted, the good days of the Secretariat came to an end - the unruly Charlie Rex abolished the Secretariat without even deciding on a mayor, and dispersed the senior clerks of the Secretariat to various departments, leaving them to do basic copying work that new employees could do!
Mr. Gerry was sent to the Cultural Department, and his immediate superior was a woman named Sibel, who used to be a prostitute in Westham!
This Sibel has not come to the city yet and is still in Westham carrying out some kind of literacy work, but the existence of this shameful boss is enough to make Mr. Gerry feel that his personality is humiliated... He and his wife occasionally go to cocktail parties hosted by nobles. If any noble at the party teases him about working for a prostitute, then will he still have the face to stand among those respectable people?
The two people who had the same experience were talking more and more excitedly in the study. In the excitement, the friend blurted out impulsively: "Why don't we go with the Third Generation?"
Mr. Gerry, who had just been chattering and cursing the new lord Rex, suddenly became quiet.
After Adela III was defeated, he was kept in prison.
The nobles in the city were all watching coldly to see how Charlie Rex, who broke the rules and destroyed everyone's source of wealth (casinos, brothels) as soon as he entered the city, would treat the former lord. Perhaps because he did not want to provoke a strong backlash from the nobles, the hateful illegitimate son Rex did not do anything too extreme to the Bartles family. He only sealed off the Bartles mansion.
But… Rex also didn’t seem interested in being too kind to the Bartles family.
Mr. Gerry knew that a few days ago, Viscount Darcy tried to find an excuse to swallow up the large estate of the Bartles family in Kane Town, and Lord Rex did not respond to this.
The nobles who had suffered heavy losses on the day of entering the city seemed to have received some signal and attacked the Bartles family's manor farm together. In Mr. Gerry's opinion, Lord Rex seemed to have acquiesced in the nobles' division of the Bartles family's inheritance in an attempt to appease the angry nobles.
Like today, those rude civilian women from the newly established Logistics Department reopened in the bar area without any deliberate obstruction or embarrassment. The reason was that the nobles were busy putting the land that originally belonged to the Bartles family into their own pockets and could not distract themselves to make their presence felt in the city for the time being.
Through his wife's friendship with the noble ladies, Mr. Gerry knew how angry the local nobles were about Rex, the unruly and immoral illegitimate child; he also knew that the street gangs in the city that had gone underground had actually been intentionally taken in by the nobles, just waiting to create some big trouble for Lord Rex.
In short ... Mr. Gerry no longer had much regard for the Bartles family, who were like stray dogs. Based on his understanding of the attitude of the local nobles, he felt that he could be more patient and wait a little longer. Perhaps before long, Rex would be driven out of power by the local nobles who united together.
By that time, no matter who became the new lord, Mr. Gerry felt that he still had the capital to make a comeback - he had worked in the secretarial department of the City Hall for fourteen years and had enough experience and impressive qualifications. As long as it was not Rex, any noble who became lord would have to employ a reliable senior clerk like him.
After thinking for a while, Mr. Gerry hinted to his long-time friend with a meaningful tone: "Maybe we don't need to be too anxious, Yodon. Who knows when Lord Rex will release the Third?"
The friend failed to immediately grasp Mr. Gerry's intention and asked doubtfully, "The Third Generation knows so many great nobles in the royal city. Lord Rex won't embarrass the Third Generation too much, right?"
Mr. Gerry could only say tactfully, "Of course, Yodon, Lord Rex will release the Third sooner or later, but I think we can wait a little longer and don't make a decision so soon... Even if the Third has a wide network of contacts, I think it would be difficult for him to solve the employment problems of so many people in the territory outside of Innadri - you see, you want to follow the Third, there must be many people who have this idea, and we are not more familiar with the Third than others."
Yodon's expression suddenly became a little strange, and he seemed to be hesitant to speak.
He thought that Gerry's wife, who was good at socializing, could also have a say with the Bartles family, but it seemed that he was overthinking it.
Without being able to make a name for himself with the Third Lord, following the former lord who had lost his territory would be a gamble. Yotton had no choice but to give up the idea. He leaned back in his high-backed chair with a long sigh and said painfully, "This kind of life is really despairing. I really don't know when I will see changes."
"That's right. We can only wait patiently." Mr. Gary couldn't help but sigh.
Middle-class people like Yoden and Gerry, who thought they were closer to the nobility, were concerned about the whereabouts of Adela III. Charles Rex himself certainly would not ignore the former lord whom he had casually thrown into prison.
After coming out of the boring cocktail party with the nobles , Rex ran to find Yang Qiu who occupied the Bartles mansion without even having time to change out of the dress that made him uncomfortable.
Seeing Yang Qiu lying in the luxurious living room playing with his phone, Rex asked bluntly: "Yang, do we really not need to care about those factories in North City?"
"Huh?" Yang Qiu, who was playing stand-alone auto chess, frowned and looked up.
"Do you know how much food there is in those factories?" Rex took off his bowler hat and slammed it onto the sofa, untying his tie on his collar while talking angrily, "The price of black bread in the city has risen to six copper coins a bag. The millers in the East City District can't sell much flour, but the factories in the North City District ship out food every two days! Carriage after carriage!"
The Innadri territory is not a very good grain-producing area, not because there are too few plains. In fact, this territory located in the central and eastern part of the Nabaron continent has quite a lot of plains, accounting for about 40% of the total land area.
The biggest reason limiting Innadri's grain production is the inadequate water conservancy projects. In summer, floods are common in other areas except Westerme, which is mountainous and has high terrain, while there is a large-scale water shortage in spring and autumn.
However, because Naderi has a small population, the total urban and rural population is only a little over two million, and the peasant population accounts for more than 70% of the total population. Even if the crops are widely planted and the harvest is small, there should be enough food to eat, and there will even be surplus.
But... the local grain prices are at a relatively high level except for one or two months after the autumn harvest. The reason is that the nobles are engaged in the grain export business. Among the six provinces (counties) of the Rhine Kingdom, Innadri is the largest grain outflow area!
The neighboring Count Odysseus's territory would restrict the outflow of grain every year, but the Innadeli Territory was open to selling it... No wonder Rex became more angry the more he learned about the local industrial structure.
"Calm down, Rex." Yang Qiu continued to play with his phone calmly. "The mill owners in Dongcheng District are all from noble families. It's not that they can't provide food, but they are controlling the amount of flour flowing out to ensure that people can accept the increase of one copper coin in the price of black bread. Just leave this matter to Ji Tang."
It was not winter yet, so it was easy for farmers to enter the city. If the price of bread rose too much, or if the public reacted too strongly, then the farmers who still had surplus food , and the nobles behind the millers would not dare to go too far...
Rex couldn't be comforted by such words. Instead, he felt even more uncomfortable. He walked around the sofa twice but couldn't calm down and sit down.
Rex, who used to wander around alone, thought that the lord could ensure that people would not go hungry as long as he lowered the price of food. He had a naive idea in his heart that "one day when he becomes the lord, he must cut the price of bread in half."
After supporting Yang to become a puppet lord, Rex realized that the problem was not that simple... Let alone doubling the price, if the price of a pound of black bread slices was reduced by one copper coin and sold for only four copper coins a bag, it would also cause a serious blow to the people in this industry chain!
From bakeries to mills to farmers who produce wheat, everyone will suffer!
Lowering food prices does not allow people to live in peace, but instead leads to public unrest. This problem really annoys Rex to the extreme... (Deflation is not the same as people's voluntary consumption downgrade. It is extremely harmful to society and can easily lead to negative growth in productivity and economic depression, especially deflation caused by food)
Fortunately, Yang did not give him the power to decide the price of grain, and Ji Tang and Ms. Zhao would not allow him to do whatever he wanted.
After being annoyed for a long time, Rex could only suppress his temper and force himself to calm down. He sat down in front of Yang Qiu and took a big gulp of cold tea: "Then what about Adela III? When can we get this guy to leave?"
"Speaking of this...has the Bartles family's property been robbed?" Yang Qiu asked, raising his eyelids.
Rex: “…”
It was certainly not Rex who allowed the nobles to divide up the Bartles family's property. He wanted to confiscate all of the Bartles family's manor farms, including their shares in the factory area...but he had no say.
If he had the final say, he would definitely hang the Third Generation on the city gate - that guy was nothing like his grandfather the Second Generation, he had never done anything good!
"It's almost over. The head of the family and the butler are in prison, the mistress and the heir have been sent away in advance, and no one in the Bartles family can stop those shark-like guys. Now only the farm in Horseshoe Town still belongs to them." Rex said aggrievedly.
"Then you can release the Third Generation." Yang Qiu said with a smile, "You go to meet him in person in your best attire, make a big scene, be polite to the former lord, and invite him out respectfully. Oh, and you'd better say some polite words to maintain the Third Generation's dignity, and let the weekly newspaper publish it."
Rex: “???”
"Young man, don't just look at the present, you have to look at the long term." Yang Qiu said indifferently, "Captain Horn of the city defense army resigned after bringing those soldiers back. He doesn't want to serve you, a young lord with a bright future, at all. There are many people like him who miss the old friendship with Adela III."
"Wouldn't it save a lot of trouble if we let that Third Generation leave in a decent manner and take away those guys whose crimes were not serious enough to be arrested and hanged, and who had no chance of being tied up and used as laborers in road construction?"
