Chapter 211 The Way of the Lord
Chris returned home excitedly, and immediately called his family together to tell everyone that the town was recruiting road construction workers.
Chris's brother, Corey, was the most excited about the good news. He and Chris had worked in the town for more than two months when the town was repairing the main road. He recalled the good days when he could get cash and eat free lunch every day. He asked eagerly, "Did Officer Sam tell us what the requirements are for this recruitment?"
"No, as long as they can work, they'll be fine." Chris said with a smile, "I'll still give them 30 copper coins a day. By the way, Operator Sam also said that the work this time will be harder, and the Logistics Department will provide two free meals for those who work!"
"Two meals!!" the whole family repeated in surprise.
On a civilian farm like Chris's that has no land, the family's livelihood depends entirely on captive dairy cows and free-range geese, and their life is not much better than that of ordinary farmers. When food is scarce, the family can only have a decent lunch at noon, and when they are really hungry before going to bed at night, they use milk to fill their stomachs - goose eggs are absolutely not allowed to be touched, and all the salt the family eats comes from goose eggs.
The town's open supply of very cheap eggs had a certain impact on Chris's business, but because salt was also very cheap, Chris's family was better off than before... At least the family could eat the eggs laid by the goose.
Chris's father, who was over 40 years old, said immediately, "There is not much work to do on the farm in winter. You two brothers should bring your sisters with you this time." Looking at Chris's wife, the head of the family said, "Lilit should go too."
Before Chris could say anything, his wife, Lillette Doyle, said happily, "Okay, Dad!"
"Lilit, the work on the construction site is very hard." Chris said to his wife quickly.
Lilit glared at her husband unhappily and looked to her old father for help.
"Let Lilit go. You will all stay at Mrs. Doyle's house. It's a good opportunity for Lilit to keep Mrs. Doyle company." The head of Chris's family slowed down his tone and said to Chris, "Don't forget to pay Mrs. Doyle. They have to live on the hotel."
Chris was reluctant to let Lilit suffer that kind of hardship, but he didn't dare to disobey his father, so he could only say helplessly: "Don't worry, Dad. Correggie and I paid for the accommodation last time."
After the red-light district was cleared out by the undead, Mrs. Doyle's family hotel was deserted for a while without those out-of-town pleasure seekers.
However, after the town began to recruit workers, Mrs. Doyle's family gradually improved - the Doyles changed their business model, from renting out rooms to charging bed fees. Each room had four to six beds, and each bed only cost two copper coins to rent for a day, which was very popular among the farmers who came to the town to work.
Nona, the wife of the eldest brother Correggi, looked at Lilit with envy as she smiled happily, and seemed to be hesitant to speak.
"Don't go, just stay at home." The old father said, "You are just pregnant, and it is easy to get into trouble if you are too tired at this time."
Nona lowered her head in disappointment.
Knowing that his wife had always wanted to go to town, Correji mustered up the courage to say, "Dad, let Nona go with us. She can't do the work on the construction site, but she can go to the Logistics Department to have a look... The town is going to recruit so many workers, the Logistics Department will definitely be too busy to handle it, and they might even recruit people."
The old father frowned and looked at his eldest son.
Ke Leiji felt his wife pulling at the corner of his clothes, and said more firmly: "Nona will go with us for a few days. If the Logistics Department really doesn't need anyone...then she can come back."
The old father looked at his eldest son, then looked at Nona who was looking depressed with her head down, and said, "Well... okay, you take care of her."
Korek happily shook his wife's hand, and Nona finally smiled.
The old father shook his head helplessly .
That night, the six young people who were about to go to town chattered excitedly until late at night, and only quieted down after being scolded by their old father.
Early the next morning, brothers Correji and Chris, along with their wives and two unmarried sisters, and their old father who had started working as a milkman again, set out from home before dawn.
Mr. and Mrs. Doyle were so happy to see their daughter Lilit whom they hadn't seen for a long time. When they heard from Chris that the town was going to recruit a large number of workers, Mrs. Doyle was so happy that she thanked Ms. Gold Coin again and again.
It was still early, and the six young men diligently helped Doyle clean up the room that had been vacant for a while. Before noon, they had cleaned the Doyle family's guesthouse and made it look brand new.
At Mrs. Doyle's strong request, the six people had lunch at the Doyle family's house, and then hurried to the town hall.
When they arrived, many people were already standing or sitting in the courtyard of the town hall and even on the street in front of the gate.
"I knew you guys would definitely come." Chris' uncle was also in the crowd. He smiled when he saw the whole family. "Oh, you all came. Doesn't your farm need anyone to look after it?"
"My mother is at home. " Chris happily greeted his uncle and his cousins, and led the group of people he led to the wall occupied by his uncle's house. "Where's my aunt? Isn't she coming this time?"
The last time the Chris brothers went to town to do odd jobs, the entire uncle's family came over, leaving only the little daughter at home to look after the fields.
"Your aunt has brought this upon herself." The uncle laughed. "Didn't the town hall sell cheap chicks and ducklings last time? Your aunt was greedy and bought dozens of them at once to raise. This time, even if she wanted to, she couldn't leave. Those chickens and ducks can't be left unattended."
"Are all the chickens and ducks alive?" asked Correggi's wife Nona curiously.
"It's not that easy. Almost half of them died." The uncle waved his hand and said, "The clerk at the town hall clearly said that if any chicken is not in good spirits, it should be isolated and raised immediately. If it dies, it should be buried. Your aunt couldn't bear to do it. She insisted on keeping the chicks until they could hardly stand up. As a result, one chicken infected another, and the situation got worse and worse... Fortunately, the remaining chickens were raised, otherwise all the cornmeal would have been wasted."
The agricultural tax paid this year is less, and most families have surplus food, otherwise not many people would be willing to feed cornmeal to chickens.
The two families gathered together in the corner and chatted about family matters, waiting for the people from the town hall to come out and post the notice.
If they were the only ones coming, they might have doubted whether the town was really hiring, but since there were many people from the town among the waiting crowd, then this was definitely the case - there were many families in the town who had people working in the factory in the town hall, and these people were well-informed.
As I was waiting patiently, I suddenly heard angry curses mixed with local slang from the side, and someone screamed in fear.
Chris, Corey, their uncle, and their uncle's cousins instinctively stood up and protected the female family members who were traveling with them behind them, then they looked at the source of the chaos in confusion.
On the other side of the town hall gate, it seemed that many people were pushing and shoving each other, and even fighting each other. Due to the large number of people and the chaos, and some people were constantly moving, it was difficult to see what was going on over there.
The two families were wondering in fear what had happened when several uniformed security guards suddenly rushed out from the town hall, pushed aside the crowd blocking their way and rushed into the center of the chaos, and after a burst of shouting and cursing, they used professional "violence to fight violence" to quickly quell the commotion.
The security guards were all former militiamen. Although these people behaved much better after surrendering to the new lord and no longer beat people up in the streets or took things for free, the locals were still afraid of these former militiamen. They dispersed far away without the security guards shouting, allowing Chris's family, who had been guarding the wall, to see the situation clearly.
Look at this... Well, it turns out that you can't mess with the security team. In just a short while, more than a dozen people were beaten down by them...
After quickly knocking down the troublemaker and the victim, the security guard impatiently asked, "Who started it? Are you tired of living and wanting to start a fight in front of the town hall?!"
Several young men who were dressed similarly to Chris's two families and whose peasant characteristics could be seen from the mud on their straw sandals and pants struggled to sit up and pointed at the others who were groaning in pain and said angrily, "It was them! They beat us up!"
This group of people was obviously larger than the group of young farmers, with seven or eight of them. Their clothes were not made of good materials, but they were relatively clean, and they wore round-toed leather boots that only people in the town would wear.
"Why are you hitting people?" The security officer picked someone close to him and kicked him.
"Ouch!" The unlucky guy who was kicked quickly propped up his upper body and dodged. He was so angry that he didn't dare to vent it on the security team. He could only shout, "We didn't hit them, they hit us first!"
"How can you say you didn't hit anyone? I clearly saw you hitting someone!" the young farmer cried aggrievedly.
The security guard was obviously very good at dealing with this kind of situation. He glared at me and said viciously, "Watch your words. This is the entrance to the town hall! Do you think the undead mayor can't see through people like you? Tell the truth! Anyone who dares to lie will be sent to the prisoner road repair team to do hard labor. Mr. Hal is not as easy to talk to as us!!"
As soon as these words came out, the faces of the group of young men in the town who were accused of beating people changed...
Until half a month ago, when the residents of the town passed by the detention center, they could see Hal Maxwell brutally beating the prisoners in custody almost every day.
In fear, the group of young men in the town who beat people could only stammer out the truth...
Not long after, this small conflict at the gate of the town hall was reported to Ji Tang and Tattle Joe who were busy calculating the accounts.
"People in the town think that farmers are taking their jobs? Is that such a stupid thing?" Tuttle almost laughed when he heard this.
During this period of time, he had been forced to digest a lot of new knowledge by an undead, which made his head hurt. Wasn't it just to make life easier for the people of Westram? He was dizzy looking at the full account book. The locals outside who were full of food and had nothing to do actually had the energy to fight among themselves. Did they think his bow was not strong enough and his arrows were not sharp enough?
"Calm down, Qiao." Ji Tang was much calmer. "It is normal for people to have conflicts. Don't take your anger at yourself out on the people."
Tuttle's face froze, and then he became angry and said, "What do you want to say? Do you think I'm stupid and look down on me?"
"I mean, we should adopt the right approach when conflicts occur among the masses. For example, why don't they live in peace? What is the point of their conflict?" Ji Tang remained calm. "For example, in this case, the young people in the town think that the farmers are stealing their jobs. First of all, this is not true, because more than 80% of our factory employees are town residents, and less than 20% are from farmers' families."
"Why is there such a big difference? Did we give special treatment when recruiting workers? Of course not. Our factory does not look at people's background when recruiting. We only look at whether they have the corresponding work ability." After a pause, Ji Tang looked at Tuttle with encouragement, "You should remember which dimension we use to measure work ability, right?"
Tuttle held it in for a moment, then gritted his teeth and said, "Level of knowledge."
"Yes, this is the key point. Our workers need to operate machinery and need to be able to do simple calculations. Illiterate people are not qualified for this job." Ji Tang said approvingly, "During the renovation of Zhenzhong Avenue, our education department provided voluntary literacy training to all temporary workers. If they can recognize 200 commonly used characters and can do addition and subtraction within 100, they are considered to have escaped from illiteracy."
"Many of the townspeople attended private classrooms for a few months or half a year when they were young, so their foundation is better than that of the farmers. Therefore, the illiteracy rate of the townspeople is higher, which gives them an advantage when applying for jobs."
"However, not all townspeople are satisfied with their advantages over farmers. For example, the town now thinks that their job opportunities were taken away by farmers." Ji Tang said, "And this small group of people, according to the floating population statistics of the Civil Affairs Department, are young and middle-aged people who 'returned' to the town from Innadelli City after we drove away the Bartles family. They missed the literacy period and had difficulty passing the factory job application. They couldn't accept that they were inferior to other townspeople, so of course they could only vent their anger on the farmers who occupied less than 20% of the quota."
"You really don't know what's good for you!" Tuttle cursed immediately.
"What do you think is the most appropriate way to deal with this situation?" Ji Tang asked.
"Of course he's thrown into free labor. Is that even a question?" Tuttle asked.
Ji Tang said nothing, but looked at the ranger who only had a handsome face with caring eyes.
"What's that look in your eyes?! Shouldn't such an ungrateful bastard be punished?!" Tuttle was furious.
Ji Tang shook his head and sighed, "Open more literacy classes! You are the lord, and the people of Westham are your people. If they do something wrong, you can punish them, but the ultimate goal of punishment is education. How can you fight with the people? The people are short-sighted, so teach them to look at the long term. The people lack competitiveness in employment, so you should consider how to give your people, whether they are townspeople or villagers, unified opportunities for promotion!"
"Why do we need to build roads at this time? It is to gather together the young and middle-aged people in the town and the countryside. The town builds infrastructure, and people have to work. The young and middle-aged people who work together will also make it easier for us to carry out secondary literacy campaigns and prepare qualified workers in advance for the factory's expansion next year... Isn't this obvious at a glance?"
Tuttle: “…”
He doesn't need to blink like the dead! He can't see that long at a glance! !