Chapter 360: Eliminating the Slums (Part 2)
Dutata is a large city, located by the harbor in the central part of the Rhine Kingdom, far away from the harassment of bandits and horse robbers. It has enjoyed peace for more than two hundred years.
More than a hundred years ago, when the ancestors of the Bartles family had just driven away the bandits and horse bandits in Innadri and tightened their belts to rebuild the city of Innadri, the city of Dutata was already one of the largest cities in the Rhine Kingdom.
For a large city like this that has enjoyed peace for a long time, it would not be a big problem for a million people to live within the city walls.
Why are there hundreds of thousands of poor people who have no place to live in the city and can only live in clusters of houses they build outside the city?
The reason is very simple. 1% takes too much, so the 99% have less to distribute.
In the three outer urban areas of Nancheng District, Dongcheng District and Xicheng District, less than 40% of the real estate buildings belong to the poor or middle class in the city, and the rest are all properties owned by the nobles or people related to the nobles.
In the central city area, the middle class who own their own property rights are almost all concentrated on South Street. Other areas are either the "property" of the Ezekiel family or the private property of local aristocratic families.
In other words…even among the urban residents within the city walls, nearly half of the population do not own property and live their entire lives by renting.
It turned out that Colson O'Neill and his mother were one of the landlords.
The reason why they still lived in poverty despite owning a property was because people's lives were too difficult. Not many people could afford even a monthly rent of two or three silver coins - until China Darcy came to the door, the Coulson family's old building had not had a tenant for half a year.
In the past, Ezekiel's family could turn a blind eye to the dire situation of hundreds of thousands of civilians crowded in slums outside the city. But now that the national team has arrived, it is certainly impossible for them to sit idly by and watch so many living people being left outside the city to fend for themselves.
Even without mentioning the rampant spread of cults leading to frequent vicious incidents, the potential fire hazard alone is enough to make Zhao Zhenzhen, who has seen the slums with her own eyes, feel her scalp tingling!
Of course, it would be an extremely heavy burden to resettle so many people at once. After careful consideration, the expert group behind Zhao Zhenzhen came up with a plan to divert the crowd and then resettle them.
During the period of organizing the slum residents to participate in social work, the contract workers and volunteers responsible for arranging these residents will be responsible for promoting the new city hall resettlement plan to these residents.
During the renovation of the red brick house, the contract workers who organized and arranged the residents of Old York diligently explained the new policy of the city hall to them: "Ms. Zhao said that the local industry in Dutata City cannot provide too many jobs for the time being. There is no guarantee that people from outside the city can find jobs and support themselves after moving in. Therefore, before starting the lottery to select houses, we will conduct an intention survey. Those who are willing to work as farmers will be arranged to go to the new town in the south-"
Old York's heart skipped a beat. When he was young, he also went to work as a harvest laborer every autumn like his eldest son. He was familiar with the distribution of villages in Adler Territory. He asked quickly, "Sir, isn't the south a vast wilderness? When did a new town appear there?"
The contractor had done his homework and said with a smile, "It was indeed a wasteland over there before, but it is not anymore. Mr. Wagner Pitt and Mr. Ben Ham Walton went there to open up the wasteland in the summer. By the way, the pioneers of the new town were all recruited from the slums of our Dutata City. You may even know them!"
The people present exclaimed "Ah", remembering that a group of Inadli people had indeed come to the slums in the summer to recruit refugees to open up the land.
At that time, Wagner and Walton took away more than 4,000 people. Among these people, there were indeed many who knew the residents who came to do odd jobs. Even Old York remembered several families who could be named who left with the Innadri people.
The contract worker proudly introduced the situation in the new town - this was first-hand information provided by the operators who came to help from the new town, and it couldn't be more accurate; when talking about the few families who performed well in the land reclamation, some people present even heard familiar names and excitedly inquired about them on the spot.
"Next month, when Xinzhen sends the grain tax, some of the people who went to open up the wasteland will also come with them. You can ask them more about the situation in Xinzhen then."
After dealing with the excited crowd, the contract worker continued to explain the policy: "In our new town, according to the land policy, adults have five acres of land in their name, and minors have three acres. When they reach the age of majority, they can reclaim another two acres to make up for the loss. As you know, there are a lot of wastelands in the south, so there is plenty of land."
"For those who have just arrived, the new town will arrange their first year's grain, food, clothing and housing. If the consumption exceeds the unified provision of the new town government, they must make up the difference themselves in the next year, or it can be deducted from the autumn tax..."
"You don't have to make a decision now. The city hall's statistical intention will continue until before the winter festival, so you can think about it. Although you can't get land in the city, you can participate in the lottery for low-rent housing. At least you don't have to worry too much about housing..."
Welfare is not about supporting lazy people, and the national team does not have the ability to suck blood from other places to provide welfare to slum dwellers.
If you want to be a farmer, you have to open up wasteland yourself.
If you want to stay in the city, the housing arranged by the city hall is not free. Each household still has to pay three silver coins in rent every year - this rent is only one twelfth of the normal rent, and a half-grown child can earn it by delivering newspapers or milk, but after all, you have to work hard to earn it, not enjoy the benefits for free. (The annual rent of low-rent housing on Earth is similar to the monthly rent of ordinary rental housing)
Old York finished his work for the day in a state of excitement. When it got dark, he received a "heavy physical labor meal allowance" - two packs of counterfeit instant noodles - and then hurried to pick up his daughter and took his mute daughter home.
That night, Old York cooked a full pot of the fake instant noodles he had received and the potato vermicelli his son had received, plus a few potatoes. After the meal, the father and son sat around the stove to discuss the city hall's diversion and resettlement policy.
The so-called ground stove refers to a hole dug out on the ground in the center of the house, surrounded by picked up bricks and stones. Iron pots and ceramic pots can be placed on the top, and some embers can be left for heating in winter.
The embers in the ground stove are often used to stew potatoes, roast corn, or roast a handful of soybeans, which can be scooped out to fill the stomach when hungry.
The father and his two sons were all very full, so there were no potatoes in the stove tonight. In the light of the gradually dying firewood, Old York and his youngest son became more and more excited in their argument, and they had a rare quarrel.
"What are you doing staying in the city? Didn't you hear what the gentlemen at the city hall said? There aren't that many job opportunities in the city, and it's not our turn!" It was the first time that Old York was talked back by his youngest son. He slapped his thigh in anger, "While your sister is still here, we can open up 20 acres of land. Do you know what 20 acres of land means? If you don't know, wait for your eldest brother to come back and ask him!"
"I know it's good to have land, but father, I think it's also good to stay in the city." The youngest son argued hard, "I heard from the older brothers in charge of the prisoner camp that after the autumn harvest, the city hall will start to build a road from Dutata City to Innadri, not only a road, but also a railway. By then, those imprisoned in the prisoner camp will serve their sentences, and road construction workers will be recruited from outside. Dangerous work such as opening mountains and digging stones will be done by prisoners, and we can just do the hard work. My older brother and I can go, and my sister can go to the Logistics Department..."
"Why don't you just listen, little brat? Road builders can only work for a few years. What else can you do after the road is built?" Old York yelled at his youngest son angrily, "It's different when you open up wasteland. The land you open up is yours. It will still be yours when you are old, and you can even leave it to your son!"
The mute daughter was so anxious that she was running around, pulling her father's arm and pulling her second brother's shoulders, but unfortunately the two men were so busy arguing that they didn't bother to pay any attention to her.
The same quarrel occurs in countless homes in the slums.
Some families quarreled more loudly, like Old York and his suddenly rebellious younger son, who alarmed the neighbors; some families were more dull, just arguing from time to time.
On the fourth day after the change of ownership of Duta City, more slum dwellers took the initiative to gather at the South City Gate, waiting for the people from the City Hall to take them away for work; more people also took the initiative to talk to the people who managed them , and repeatedly inquired about the City Hall's diversion and resettlement policy.
Mrs. Hank, a volunteer, and her salad chef Kelly Berkeley repeated the same words to the workers they were responsible for dozens of times over two days. Their lips were almost blistered from hearing them, but they didn't feel bored at all. Every time a group of women came around to ask questions, they would repeat what they had said.
"We visited the new town on the way here. Mr. Wagner and Mr. Walton were very responsible. They bought a lot of farm tools on credit from Mr. Yang and lent them to the people who were reclaiming wasteland. They also had a very large machine called a tractor that could turn over hundreds of acres of land a day. But if you want to apply for machinery to help, you have to queue up, and you have to clean up the wasteland you are assigned before applying..."
"Of course women can do it, but it's a little more tiring and they have to be more able to endure hardships than men."
"The land you have obtained is definitely yours. The household registration book here is different from that in other places. Everyone has a separate page. Under your name it will be written where the land you obtained is and in what year. After you get married, your file will follow you, and no one can forcibly take it away..."
There is a serious loss of women in rural China, and the biggest reason is that women in rural areas do not own the means of production.
They cannot be allocated housing plots and have no land under their names. Before they get married, their property is their natal family's major property, and after they get married, it becomes their husband's family's major property. Given this situation, it would be illogical for rural women not to try their best to leave the country.
This alien world also has similar "national conditions". There are generally more men than women in the countryside. In Nadeli, a rural area that has been deeply cultivated by the country for more than a year, there are always a few old widowers in every village who will never get married.
The reason for this phenomenon is not only the traditional emphasis on male labor in agricultural society, but also the high suicide rate among women. When Tattle Joe and Ji Tang went to the countryside for research, they experienced this terrible situation themselves.
After all... if Chinese rural women can't make ends meet, they can run to the city and work as cleaners, nannies, or housekeepers, which are better than staying in the countryside and becoming a big asset; but the women in this alien world have nowhere to run.
This rural situation is certainly unhealthy. With the level of productivity in this alien world, it is impossible to vigorously merge villages and towns and promote urbanization as China did. After multi-angle research and investigation, the expert group believes that it is unrealistic to expect the Rhine Kingdom (the expert group has already regarded the Rhine Kingdom as Lord Yang's private land) to rush into modern society. For a long time in the future, the Rhine Kingdom will inevitably be, and can only be, an agricultural country where most of the citizens rely mainly on agriculture for income.
Since the Rhine Kingdom's development plan for the next 20 years has been determined to focus on supporting the development of agriculture, the national team will naturally put a lot of effort into rural ecology; the first and most important point is to ensure the stability of the rural population structure.
If one wants the native women of the Rhine Kingdom to be willing to stay in the countryside to work, get married, have children, and raise the next generation of agricultural population, then one naturally has to ensure that they have equal personal and property rights in the countryside.
Since the villages in Naderi have already started to implement the policy of one person per file and the transfer of land under the names of women along with the files, Adler's side naturally cannot fall behind.
This policy allows women to own land by reclaiming wasteland or purchasing or transferring it, and the land ownership will be included in their personal files and will not be lost due to marriage or household registration transfer (separation from the original household registration file). This policy was implemented in Innadeli for only one year, and the suicide rate among rural women has been greatly reduced. The effect was also immediate in Adler.
While the old York family was still arguing about whether to go to the south to open up wasteland or stay in the city and become urban residents, slum women had already come to the city hall one after another, stumbling and asking whether they could fill out resettlement intentions in advance...
In mid-October, when the lower classes were busy with the autumn harvest and the reputation of the Tarantan Undead was gradually spreading, the first batch of slum dwellers who took the initiative to choose to go to the south to open up wasteland said goodbye to the simple wooden huts where they had lived for many years, followed the operators arranged by the city hall to lead the way, and left Dutata City without looking back.
On the day these residents left, workers who entered the slum to demolish the vacant dilapidated houses found an abandoned puppet statue of the evil god in the garbage dump.
That night, the statue of the evil god was brought to Zhao Zhenzhen, who was in charge of the diversion and resettlement work in Dutata City.
Zhao Zhenzhen took one look at the statue, which gave off a faint feeling of discomfort, as if she were near a trash can, and had it burned.
"Burn it? Ms. Zhao, why don't you investigate its origins?" The operator who nervously delivered the evil god statue said in confusion, "Among the people who left today, there might be evil god believers!"
"They even lost the idol, why bother to investigate?" Zhao Zhenzhen said with a smile, "In the past, Ezekiel's family didn't care about the lives of the people, forcing them to believe in evil gods. Can this be said to be the people's fault? Let's do our job well and let the people know that our government is more reliable than evil gods. It's better to believe in the government than in evil gods. That's better than anything else."
The operator scratched his head, smiled sheepishly, wrapped the puppet statue with his gloves, took it downstairs to the kitchen and threw it into the stove.
Burning the statue of the god does not mean that the matter is over. At the internal mobilization meeting of the city hall the next day, Zhao Zhenzhen publicly praised a group of staff and volunteers who performed outstandingly in the diversion and resettlement work. She also mentioned the statue of the evil god that was burned yesterday, and regarded it as the slum dwellers' recognition of the city hall's full-staff resettlement work, encouraging everyone to do a better job in mass work with more care, patience and meticulousness.
The Public Security Department is not directly involved in the resettlement work, but it is part of the City Hall after all, and has to participate in such general meetings.
When Agent Pearson Stanford and his colleagues heard the words of the undead lady on the stage, their expressions were particularly distorted.
In the past, if a civilian was found hiding a statue of an evil god, it would needless to say be a major case that would require all detectives from the Public Security Department to work overtime to investigate. Even the former mayor, who was rarely seen on weekdays, would go to the Public Security Department twice a day to urge the detectives to come up with results quickly.
And now, the Archon Lady of the Dead not only urged the detectives to crack down and investigate strictly, but also thought that this was a good sign that the City Hall had regained the trust of the people from the evil god, and encouraged everyone to keep up the good work...
"Not afraid of the evil god at all, is this the confidence that comes from being a fellow dark creature?" Agent Stanford thought with mixed feelings.
Thinking about it this way, he actually felt vaguely that being in the same camp with the undead seemed quite reassuring.
