Chapter 359: Eliminating the Slums (I)
The battle at the beginning of the year in which three thousand undead took the enemy prince from the midst of thousands of troops was eye-catching enough, but it was not enough to become a muscle that people were afraid of; although the Odysseus family also intended to make Innadelli famous and promoted it very hard for a while, the influence was limited to the Rhine country and did not really spread.
The reason is very simple, there are too few undead.
Three thousand undead are enough to threaten small local forces, but they are not enough to face the regular army at the national level.
Even Count Ezekiel was very confident before the actual war, saying "it's at least 50-50" and "it can be delayed until the autumn harvest is over"...
The size of the undead army has expanded tenfold, but their characteristics such as immortality, human-like intelligence, ability to execute battlefield orders, and ability to use tactics remain unchanged. This is truly called quantitative change leading to qualitative change.
Combined with the battle record of the Tarantan Undead, the joint propaganda of Innadri, Adler and Odysseus is actually equivalent to sending such a signal to the outside world - these four territories (including Tarantan) have enough military force to fight against an army of 100,000!
This also means that this undead force, centered around Lord Tarantan (Nightmare Butcher) hiding behind the scenes, with two territories (Innadri & Adler) ruled by followers as vassals, and an earldom ally (Odysseus), has jumped out of the scope of aristocratic wars between local lords and entered the circle of high-level players that only kingdoms with a population of tens of millions are qualified to enter.
Of course, before a certain evil black magician completely exposed his ambitions, most of the ruling elites in the eastern part of the Nabaron continent still looked at him with scrutiny... After all, no one is stupid. The undead forces that occupy one-third of the territory of the Rhine Kingdom must first pass the Rhine royal family before they can truly enter the international circle of competition. Since the Rhine royal family has not fallen yet, why should people outside worry about it?
As for Yang Qiu, after showing off his muscles and demonstrating how formidable his own undead army is, it is time to bide his time - in other words, he has to play the political game with the Rhine royal family for another year or two to buy time to digest the land of Adler.
Yang Qiu called his teacher Kingsley to Dutata City to ask him to help take charge. While he accompanied Coulson O'Neill to the royal capital to be conferred the title, the national team headed by Political Commissar Zhao was working hard to resettle hundreds of thousands of poor people in the slums of Dutata City.
Old York, a slum dweller and leather craftsman, did not have any clear feelings on the day when Dutta City changed hands.
On October 10, just like the day before, he listened to a radio drama in the afternoon, ate a bowl of cheap vermicelli sold by Innaderi before dark, brought another bowl for his daughter, and then packed up his leather tools and went home.
When it was getting dark, the youngest son suddenly ran home excitedly and told Old York in surprise that he saw the son of the water carrier next door being captured by the undead near the South Gate, and many of the gangsters who were with him were also captured.
Old York said, "I knew that kid would get into big trouble sooner or later," and said nothing more.
On the second day after Dutata City changed hands, the youngest son got up early in the morning and wanted to go to the South City to find some odd jobs as he did in the past, but was stopped by Old York.
"Yesterday, the Naderites sold us their last powder and went into the city. The city must be in chaos now. Don't go into the city these days, and it's best not to even get close to the city gates."
Old York believed that the Inadri people were friendly and would not harm innocent poor people like them, but there was a war in the city after all, so he thought he should wait a few days until everything settled down.
He had just kept his son by his side for a whole morning of leather processing when a young man named Becky Berkeley, who had come to their alley before to sell vermicelli, came back with a thick booklet and knocked on the doors of every household.
When he knocked on the door of Old York's house, the young man from Innadri stood at the door with a smile and greeted Old York: "Uncle York, would your young man like to come to our place and do some odd jobs for a few days?"
"Do you need anyone?" Before old York could speak, the youngest son stood up from the stove excitedly.
"Yes." Becky Berkeley wiped the sweat off her face and said, "We have captured a lot of people. The prison in the city and the prisoner camp we built can no longer accommodate them. Many people spent the night on the main road. Now the prisoner camp outside the city needs to be expanded, and the seized properties in the city need to be quickly cleared out and put to use. Don't mention how much we need people."
The younger son quickly looked at his father.
Old York hesitated. He was really worried about letting his youngest son go out at this time, but he didn't dare to offend Innaderi. He had to smile and ask Becky humbly: "Sir, from what you said, the city has stabilized?"
"I guess so. We have almost caught all those who should be caught." Becky Berkeley said generously, "Now there are only a few who took advantage of the chaos to spread rumors and cause trouble. The Central City, South City, and Port District are all under control, and all the shops in the city have resumed business."
When Innadri "fell", Becky Berkeley, a young man who was working as an errand boy in a bar at the time, was also frightened three times a day... He knew very well what old York was worried about.
Old York instinctively thought that the other party was bragging - such a big city of Dutata, it changed its owner in just one day and one night, and it could still be stable? How is it possible!
Even if there is a fight between two street gangs, the winner cannot be decided so quickly and the situation cannot be settled.
But thinking that the other party had indeed returned to the slums to recruit odd jobs after only one night, Old York felt that the other party did not seem to be completely lying...
Becky didn't notice Old York's suspicion, and smiled and said, "By the way, does your daughter want to apply to the Logistics Department? She can do some work like washing vegetables and dishes, and she can get a salary of 30 copper coins a day, and she will also have two meals."
The mute daughter that Old York picked up from the garbage dump was not born deaf and dumb. Although she could not speak, she had no major problems with her hearing. When she heard what Becky said, she stood up excitedly and looked at her father pleadingly.
Old York felt sorry for his mute daughter, and after much hesitation, he finally nodded; but before his daughter left, he reminded her for a long time to run to a place where Innaderi was if she was in danger.
Relying on the foundation of trust laid in the previous two days, in just one noon, volunteers like Becky Berkeley, who went deep into poverty for "targeted employment," brought out more than 20,000 slum dwellers who were willing to be employed.
Among these people, teenagers and adult men were taken to the prisoner camp south of the slum for expansion; women and the elderly were taken to the city, and either worked odd jobs in service companies or were assigned to clean up sealed buildings.
Old York waited anxiously at home for a long time. When it got dark, he saw his son and daughter returning home with the workers one after another, and he finally felt relieved.
"I saw the son of the water carrier in the prisoner camp, the bastard from the next street who beat up his mother, and the gangsters who robbed me of my wages in the South City!"
As soon as the door was closed, the younger son excitedly told Old York about what he had seen during his half-day odd job, especially focusing on those guys who had bullied him. Because he was born with a cleft lip , Old York's youngest son was often bullied by street thugs, and even the shoe-shining tool box that he had saved up money to buy was snatched away.
The mute daughter couldn't speak, but she just kept putting the small packages of leftovers that the aunts from the Logistics Department gave to them, the vegetable and dishwashers, into her father's plate.
Old York looked at his daughter's arms, neck, and face with concern, confirming that she was not injured at all. He then questioned his son in detail about the situation in the prisoner camp. After a long while, he murmured in disbelief: "Only one day... Is the war really over?"
On the third day after the change of ownership of Duta City, the number of slum residents willing to do odd jobs for the new city hall increased to more than 40,000; many women and girls who were hiding at home like Old York's daughter came out of their homes and signed up.
Old York also signed up that day and went into the city with his mute daughter.
With so many people coming into the city to work for the new city hall, according to Old York's experience, it would definitely take a lot of time to wait for arrangements, and perhaps they would have to wait until the afternoon before it was their turn to take up their posts.
What he didn't expect was that the people from Innadri seemed to be very experienced in organizing large crowds; the people gathered at the South Gate were quickly taken away in groups by people in uniform. Old York and his mute daughter had only stood there for more than twenty minutes before they were counted into a group of people and were taken away by a woman from the Logistics Department.
Old York held his mute daughter's hand tightly and followed the crowd along the streets of the South City towards the Midtown area.
After passing through the open inner city gate and South Street and arriving at the crossroads, Old York's mute daughter and the women in the team were taken to East Street, leaving him and a group of middle-aged and elderly men to continue moving towards Central Avenue.
"They are going to help clean up Viscount O'Neill's Mansion. As you all know, it's the mansion where our Lord Coulson O'Neill grew up." The person leading this group of odd jobs explained to everyone as they walked, "The houses in that mansion are all new and have a lot of space. Ms. Mia from our Logistics Department said that they want to clean up the rooms in that mansion and turn it into a school in the future."
Old York listened to the woman's muttering with a half-comprehending look, and it took him a while to realize that his daughter didn't seem to be doing the vegetable washing job today, but was going to tidy up and clean a big house.
Thinking of the leftovers he had last night, Old York couldn't help but feel a little worried.
After walking for a while, Old York and others were taken to the northern section of the central avenue where many people were already working.
The woman from the Logistics Department pulled Old York and others to a red brick building, and a man who was guarding several tricycles came over, took Old York and others from the woman, distributed tools, explained the work content, and assigned work areas.
Old York is unable to do heavy work, but that is only relative to young and middle-aged men... In fact, he can carry hundreds of pounds of leather in and out every day, and he has the strength to easily shake out a whole piece of bison hide.
Old York, who was much stronger than the otaku, took the distributed hammer and entered the beautiful red brick building. He stood in the room, which was still magnificent even after being looted, and listened to the supervisor's request to break down the wall. His hands felt a little weak at the time.
"Sir, why do you want to tear down such a good wall? Look, there are tiles on it. What a pity." Old York said with heartache.
"Don't worry, this is not a load-bearing wall, we can knock it down." The contract worker in charge of the workers probably heard this kind of question before, and said with a smile, "This small compartment can't accommodate a family. Break open the wall and make a door. The two small rooms will become one big room, and then divide the corridor into sections and make it a balcony. It will be enough for a family to live in."
After a pause, the contract worker from the city hall who was leading the workers to renovate the building added, "After the houses here are renovated, they will be allocated to you to live in. Uncle, you see, the compartments are so small that if your family is drawn here by lot, you won't be able to live here, right? So we have to change the layout, at least to have an inner and outer room."
Old York, who was holding a hammer, and the slum dwellers who were carrying other tools, all stared blankly at the overseer.
