Chapter 338 The Poor
Dutata City can be considered a half-port city after all. Its business is more developed than that of Innadli City, and the circulation of newspapers is also large. There are several newspapers with different publication cycles.
The newspaper that published the Lady Lord's statement was not published today, but the Lady Lord's driver came to deliver the big news with money, so the newspaper company certainly didn't want to push away the money, so they rushed to print a batch of headlines...
As gentlemen enjoyed their healthy breakfast, this hastily printed newspaper appeared on the left hand side of many respectable people.
There are many respectable people like Viscount O'Neill who spurted milk or tea after seeing the headlines in the Express...
“Is this woman crazy?”
This is the most confusing question for many decent people this early morning.
Of course, the vast majority of nobles care about the interests of married women. Of course, they care not only about the married women themselves, but also the interests of the family into which the married women marry - as for the in-laws, the richer the better, and who would be willing to be relatives with a poor guy?
There is certainly nothing wrong with Viscount Darcy standing up for her married aunt and confronting Viscount O'Neill. If Viscount Darcy can help her aunt regain the O'Neill family property, or even help her aunt's son regain the viscount title, then most of the Dutata nobles would even be very keen to associate with such a capable female noble.
But right from the start, they openly published it in the newspapers, threatening Viscount O'Neill to give a reply within three days and to apologize in the newspapers, otherwise they would send troops to declare war. What on earth is wrong with this? !
Even if there are some minor conflicts or disputes between each other, decent and respectable families will spend ten days or half a month to communicate and exchange ideas to determine the other party's bottom line; then they will pick a good day to hold a dance or tea party to announce to the outside world whether the two sides will confront each other, never have any contact with each other again, or shake hands and make peace.
Threatening to send troops and declare war right away is totally unacceptable for a decent person to do!
Before noon, several Dutata nobles came to visit Viscount O'Neill and asked him if he was colluding with others to do some eye-catching performance art.
Viscount O'Neill was at a loss for words. He was not crazy enough to deliberately let people spread the news in the newspapers that he was not on good terms with his brother's widow and nephew.
After learning from Viscount O'Neill about his meeting with Viscount Innadri... the nobles of Dutata also felt that this little girl from the Darcy family was extremely arrogant.
"Didn't the Darcy family just get wiped out by vampires? It hasn't even been a year yet. Has that girl recognized all of their butlers? She wants to start a territorial war right away. Can she control the Darcy family's private soldiers?" An aristocrat who had close contacts with Viscount O'Neill said in disbelief.
The nobles' private soldiers are of course loyal to their noble masters, and the nobles would not be stupid enough to continue to pay to support disloyal private soldiers; the problem is that the Darcy family's private soldiers were still loyal to old Viscount Darcy less than a year ago, and the little girl China Darcy is not the heir appointed by old Viscount Darcy at all. Will those private soldiers listen to her?
"Could it be that their own internal conflicts are too great, and they want to unify people's hearts by starting a war?" Another noblewoman said with disdain, "Really... Didn't this child's mother teach her well? She wants others to die for her, can she afford the price?!"
"Wait." One of the nobles thought of something and said in fear, "Could it be... that this little girl wants to get those undead spirits from Inadri to help her fight?! I heard that those undead spirits can be hired!"
"Can she afford the commission?" The noblewoman who looked down on Qina's style said with even more disdain, "When Phoenix of the Odysseus family hired the undead to participate in the war, he paid for an entire fleet."
As soon as these words came out, the Dutata nobles present nodded one after another.
The Odysseus family was so wealthy that all the nobles present could only envy them... Not to mention them, even Lord Adler could only look up to them.
Who made Dutata City famous for its poor security? Most of the merchant ships on the Barcelo River don’t even consider docking at Dutata. Even land merchants are reluctant to enter the city to do business unless they are in urgent need of supplies... It’s very sad!
The Darcy family was tragically massacred by vampires, which was once the focus of attention of the nobles in Dutata City. After all, no one wants such a tragedy to happen to their own family, so of course they have to try their best to find out the situation in order to avoid following in the Darcy family's footsteps.
In other words... the nobles present knew about 70% of how many properties the Darcy family had and how much income they made each year - not to mention comparing with the big nobles like the Odysseus family, there were not many nobles present whose wealth was greater than that of the Darcy family.
After all, Innadeli was a place where horse bandits were rampant a hundred years ago. After three generations of running the business, it is impossible for the Darcy family to be richer than the nobles present who have been running the business for at least a dozen generations.
China Darcy rose to power by luck due to a family accident. Not to mention spending lavishly on a fleet, the fact that she was able to embezzle thousands of gold coins was considered amazing.
"But... since this little girl has the confidence to come to Dutata City to show off her power, who knows what her confidence is." The nobleman who has a close relationship with Viscount O'Neill said, "After all, China Darcy was promoted to the position by the new lord of Inadelli. O'Neill, if Charlie Rex is willing to lend his undead army to this little girl... then it will be a big trouble."
Viscount O'Neill nodded grimly.
This is also what he is most worried about.
Charlie Rex, this illegitimate child, does not understand the rules of the nobility. He helped China Darcy to the top but did not support her. It seemed that he did not care about her life or death... But who knows if such an unruly illegitimate child will be easily persuaded by a weak little girl and do something stupid that will harm others and himself in a fit of anger?
China Darcy herself was indeed not pretty at all, but since she inherited the Darcy family, it was not difficult for her to find a few beautiful commoner women to bribe the illegitimate son who had never seen the world.
Not to mention that it is the autumn harvest period now, and forcibly requisitioning civilians for war preparation will lead to a reduction in the autumn tax in his own territory. Even if O'Neill is willing to bear the loss, he does not think that he can be a match for those Tarantan undead!
O'Neill was naturally very clear about the real reason why these nobles came to care about him - no one wanted to see the Tarantan undead appear around the city of Dutata!
After weighing the options again and again, O'Neill could only sigh in humiliation and said, "I will visit Lady Darcy later. After all, her aunt is my brother's widow, and her cousin is my nephew who grew up under my care. She misunderstood me and thus acted so drastically. I think I need to have a good talk with this relative from Innadri."
The nobles present breathed a sigh of relief, either openly or secretly.
These Dutata nobles would never look down upon a "lucky guy" like China Darcy who had not received a proper education as an heir, but they were indeed very wary of the Lord of Innadli, Charles Rex, or rather, they were afraid of the group of Tarantan undead with great military exploits under Charles Rex's command.
If it weren't for the existence of this group of undead, and the illegitimate child suddenly rose to a high position and became a great lord of a place, all the major and minor current affairs magazines, newspapers, and radio stations in the Rhine Kingdom would have already criticized Rex himself and his biological father!
Viscount O'Neill, who decided to swallow his pride and get the matter over with in private, saw the guests off, forced himself to get the car ready, and headed to Six Corners Lane to visit China Darcy, his brother's widow, and nephew.
On the way, Viscount O'Neill had planned to bear the pain of shedding some blood and cutting some flesh, and give it to his beggar-like brother's widow and nephew...
At the same time, Viscount O'Neill also gritted his teeth and calculated the subsequent revenge plan - after this stage is over and China Darcy rolls back to Innadri, he will immediately send people to Innadri to carefully investigate the relationship between China Darcy and Charlie Rex.
If China really had gotten on Charlie Rex's good side, he would just have to endure it and spend some time getting the cut flesh back from his brother's widow and nephew in a more secretive and unobtrusive way.
What if China is just using this as an excuse to gain an advantage? Then this ignorant bitch won’t be able to live to see the Winter Festival!
Viscount O'Neill, who had planned everything and made preparations for both situations, was turned away after entering the Six-Corner Alley in the South City District, a place he would never visit normally...
China Darcy wasn't even there!
Mrs. O'Neill and Coulson weren't home either!
Standing in the cramped, narrow, dirty alley, facing the tightly closed rusty door, Viscount O'Neill inhaled and exhaled repeatedly, and the blue veins on his forehead could not be suppressed.
Be it Qina or Yang Qiu, after meeting him once and coming up with a convincing excuse (that can be used for argument) to start a war, they had no intention of wasting time on Viscount O'Neill.
The three days listed in the newspaper were not the deadline for Viscount O'Neill to solve the problem. Rather, it was the time it took for the militia, security forces, contract workers, and agents and clerks from Westram, Everlook, and Innadri to set out from Innadri and rush to Dutata City...
After all, players can only be used to attack cities and seize territories, and cannot be relied upon to take over governance; Yang Qiu cannot rush to take action without a large army.
At this moment, when Viscount O'Neill was getting anxious and angry, China, Mrs. O'Neill and Coulson were walking on the beach of the Barcelo River southeast of Dutata City with Yang Qiu and Zhao Zhenzhen.
This river beach is also part of the Duta City slum, with many wooden huts and thatched huts with mud walls, forming a village-like settlement.
Due to river flooding, humid air, and the breeding of snakes and insects, the slums near the riverbank are considered to have the worst living environment in the entire slum... There is no romance facing the river with spring flowers blooming, but only huts covered with mold, reed mat roofs that are extremely easy to rot or be blown away by strong winds and need to be replaced frequently, and half-wet clothes that look like they have been soaked in water when you wake up every day.
On the river bank with rocky ground, many women, wrapped only in two pieces of cloth, stood barefoot in the water, scrubbing tablecloths, carpets, bed sheets, quilt covers, clothes and other woven fabrics brought from the city; after beating and rinsing them clean, they spread them on dense bushes or large rocks to dry under the scorching sun.
Upstream of the open-air laundry area is a river beach covered with large and small stones and gravel, where dried fish, shrimps and other catches are dried on mats woven with reeds and rushes.
Further away, there were many young and middle-aged men, with only some cloth tied around their waists to cover their ugliness, rowing wobbly little fishing boats, weaving through the reeds and casting nets to catch fish in the shallow waters of the Baselo River.
Compared with the city of Dutata , which is less than two kilometers away and has stone pavement, neat brick and stone buildings, street lights, and occasional horse-drawn carriages and pneumatic vehicles... this place is like another world, a primitive, impoverished, and materially scarce world that makes people doubt whether this is even a corner of civilized society.
Qina looked at the scene in a daze.
She grew up in the closed Darcy mansion, and only had the opportunity to see the world outside the Darcy mansion and the country farm until all the people in the mansion who were qualified to restrict her travel died at the hands of vampires.
Even on a farm in the countryside... Qina couldn't see any serfs. After all, serfs had no right to set foot in the big house where the master's daughter lived.
The slums of Dutata City were the first thing Qina saw with her own eyes. It was different from the territory governed by the undead, and it showed the true appearance of the lower-class civilians.
"...So this is what poor people are like." Qina couldn't help but murmur.
"Qina, what do you think poor people are like?" Yang Qiu said with a smile.
Coulson suddenly turned his head to look at Yang Qiu, surprised that the butler did not use honorifics.
"What I read in books and newspapers, and what I heard from the butlers and maids about the poor, is not like that." China shook her head. "Everyone said that the poor are very lazy. They would rather watch the weeds in the field grow taller than the wheat seedlings than lie down under the trees to sleep. All their cleverness is used to avoid work. The poorer they are, the lazier they are, and the lazier they are, the poorer they are."
"So what are the poor people like now?" Yang Qiu asked again.
Qina stared silently at the washerwomen who were washing tablecloths laboriously not far away for a long time, then she turned her gaze to the small boats shuttling through the reeds in the distance.
She remembered again... when the carriage passed through the slums, she saw the slum dwellers sitting on the roadside, under the earthen walls, in the low sheds, and in the cramped narrow courtyards, their hands constantly doing sewing work, weaving bamboo strips, rolling clay embryos for pottery jars, weaving carpets, spinning linen, shaking looms, using primitive processing tools to make leather goods, repairing wheels and tires...
When leaving the city, I also saw old people and children carrying sacks next to the garbage mountain that was transported out of the city. They were carefully picking out pieces of iron and glass bottles, picking out coal slag from the coal ash, and carefully searching and sorting out scraps of paper from the dirt.
"They are very hardworking." Qina said affirmatively.
