Chapter 411 Cultural Export
The drama "Cadi's Farm" has two important tasks: promoting the harmonious coexistence of humans and the undead (players), and promoting the land contracting policy of the undead regime.
The former is important, but the latter is even more important.
The eastern country of the Kingdom of the Rhine can be described as vast in land and sparsely populated by the standards of Earthlings - the map area is about 400,000 square kilometers, which is roughly the size of two G provinces in China, but the population is only about 20 million, about half of that of G province; even though many areas in the country are mountainous and hilly and there are not so many large plains, the land that can be developed is still very vast.
It is unrealistic to rely solely on the national team to carry out development. We must vigorously encourage and support the local people to participate in the wave of large-scale land development. It is of utmost importance to seize every opportunity to publicize the land policy of the undead regime. This is not only conducive to the economic development and social stability of the areas ruled by the undead regime, but also conducive to winning more support from the Rhine citizens and laying a solid mass foundation for overthrowing the Rhine royal family.
Otherwise, how come the Tarantin handheld radio is sold at such a low price and targeted at ordinary citizens? Wherever this kind of listening tool can be circulated, it can be radiated by the "cultural output" of Innadelli Radio, and its effect is huge...
Mrs. Harrington and her daughter, who had listened to some of the content yesterday, were listening with great interest to this drama that was replayed every night after 8 o'clock. At the same time, many listeners in the Rhine King City, the Northern Territory of Tachia, and the Eastern Territory of Odysseus gathered in front of the radio, fascinated by the moving tunes coming from the small handheld radio speaker...
The play "The Kadi Family's Farm" opens with the Kadi family living in the suburbs of Duthatha city having a headache about the dowry for their two daughters.
This scene really hits the pain point of the common people in the Rhine... For traditional Rhine families, a daughter's dowry determines whether she can get enough respect and attention after marrying into the man's family. No matter how poor the family is, they will try their best to raise a dowry for their daughter when she gets married.
Kadi's family was not wealthy. The whole family made a living by farming vegetable fields in the suburbs and could only scrape together the dowry for the eldest daughter. After marrying off the eldest daughter, it was obviously impossible for the family to save up the dowry for the second daughter within two or three years, and the whole family was troubled by this.
After Mr. and Mrs. Cuddy discussed with their eldest son in embarrassment for a while, Mr. Cuddy slapped his thigh and said, "Don't rush to get Jenny married. Let's find a way to earn a dowry for both of them first! I heard that as long as there is a deposit of ten gold coins, we can apply for land contracting rights from the city hall. Our family's savings happen to be this much. How about using this money to try to make more money?"
"Are you crazy, husband? That's a good thing that only people with connections can get. We are all vegetable farmers and we don't know anyone. How could others give us land for free?" Mrs. Kadi immediately raised the question on behalf of the audience.
"I saw a notice posted at the city hall saying so, but it didn't say that only people with connections can apply."
"You believe that kind of talk! Stop it, marry Jenny off first. If that doesn't work out, let Annie find a job in the city and save up her dowry together."
"It's not that easy to find a job in the city. Haven't you seen the son next door who has been looking for a job for so long and still has nothing to do?"
"That's because his kid is too timid. He can't do this or that. Our Annie is very hardworking!"
"Mom, maybe we can consider Dad's advice." The eldest son of the Kadi family said, "I heard that some people from the slums who moved to the new town in the south did contract large tracts of land. Those people may not know how to farm better than our family. Why don't we give it a try?"
The actors playing the family of three argued for a few minutes, explained the background of the plot with lines, and then fast-forwarded to the moment when the Kadi family gritted their teeth and ran to the Duthatha Town Hall to try their luck.
There is naturally no suspense in this part... Mr. Cuddy, who was so nervous that he stuttered, and Mrs. Cuddy, who was trembling with fear, made some harmless little jokes in the city hall, and caused some minor misunderstandings with the fierce-looking approval officer of the Land Bureau of the Civil Affairs Department, and finally got the job done with some bumps and bumps.
The sound of wheels rolling could be heard in the background as the Cuddy family packed up their belongings and moved to the farm that would be theirs for the next five years.
Mrs. Cuddy could hardly believe that she, who had been a vegetable farmer all her life, was about to become a farmer's wife, and regretted that she did not have the time to show off to her neighbors before leaving town. Mr. Cuddy was nervous about the large loan he would owe the city hall after contracting the farm, and worried that he would not be able to repay it within five years. He blamed his wife for spending too much money on oil, salt and sauces before leaving in her excitement.
The spoken lines were down-to-earth, the content was about the daily necessities of ordinary people, and in the short fifteen-minute first act, the Cardi family had already won the recognition of the audience, making many people fall in love with this lively family.
By the second act, the Cuddy family successfully arrived at the farm surrounded by mountains.
The Cardi couple argued as they put their luggage away, their lively eldest daughter and hardworking youngest daughter began to clean the room, and their excited eldest son took his wife's hand to inspect the land that belonged to their family.
"Dad! There's a ghost next door!"
The eldest son of the Cuddy family dragged his wife and ran home screaming. This scene made the listeners who had already listened to this radio drama burst into good-natured laughter - the more lively farm life of the Cuddy family officially began from this moment on.
The Kadi family, who contracted the farm with all their might, could not accept the fact that there were a large number of undead activities on the slope next door. In order to find out why these undead appeared near their farm, the Kadi family made a lot of jokes.
When the whole family came on the scene with farm tools, ready to use force to scare away the ghosts on the slope, the ghosts who could only make "clicking" sounds actually walked towards them happily, "borrowed" the hoes and hayforks brought by the Kadi family, and leveled the ground in front of them.
"Oh my god, those undead can also farm! They are using our farm tools to farm! Look, Dad, they are turning the soil so flexibly!"
"Will they return the tools to us? We didn't bring much."
"How should I know! Who suggested bringing farm tools up here?"
"It was you, Dad, who said we should be brave enough to drive them away and protect our farm, but here we are, bringing them farm tools."
"Shut up!"
The Kadi family, whose farm tools were "borrowed", were worried, but they didn't dare to ask the ghosts for the tools back, yet they were unwilling to leave. They could only stand there and bicker with the ghosts. This comedy without pictures, which relied purely on dialogues, made countless audiences laugh.
Fortunately, these undead had no hostility towards the Kadi family. At night, some undead returned their farm tools and also gave them some dried beast meat (a product of life skills) as a thank you gift (farm tool rental).
The next day, the undead came again with dried meat, gesticulating to borrow farm tools; the Kadi family, who also wanted to plow the land, did not dare to refuse directly, so they gestured to the undead, hoping that they would only borrow half of the tools and leave.
The Kadi family rented a cow for plowing the land from a nearby village. The ghosts on the hillside came running over and wanted to borrow it. The Kadi family wanted to refuse, but the ghosts dropped their dried meat and tried to lead the cow away. As a result, they were chased all over the mountain by the cow.
Mr. Cuddy and his eldest son were so scared that they broke out in cold sweats, fearing that they would anger their undead neighbor, and they chased the cow screaming and shouting. This scene, recorded by several actors at the top of their lungs, once again made the audience laugh.
After gradually becoming familiar with the dead, interesting things continued to happen in the Cuddi family.
Mr. Cuddy tried to teach the dead spirits how to farm, but ended up being taught a lot by the dead spirits themselves, who taught him about intercropping and homemade fertilizers.
The eldest son of the Kadi family tried to use a trap to stop wild boars from destroying their farmland, but ended up trapping their undead neighbors.
The two daughters of the Kadi family volunteered to work for the undead as an atonement, but they found that the undead’s farms not only grew vegetables with fast harvests, but also many dangerous magical plants (black magic spell materials and alchemical herbs), which scared them and made them scream.
Cuddy's farm and the undead farm on the hillside next door harvested at the same time. Mr. Cuddy asked his eldest son to get up early and deliver the selected carrots and potatoes to the city first, and then go back to help the neighboring farm to transport goods. As a result, after Cuddy's eldest son entered the city, he found that the undead next door had already transported all the harvest to the city hall and were already counting the money.
Different from the inspirational "Our Struggle" and the epic "Susan's Story", "Cudi's Farm" is more like a lively and warm sitcom; the 130-minute show only has an opening song and a closing song, without any singing in between. It relies entirely on vivid, interesting and novel plots to attract the audience.
It is natural that this form of artistic performance, which is closer to the lives of the grassroots people and exudes a strong sense of life, is popular with the public. Whenever this drama is rebroadcast, the listening rate of Innadri Radio Station always reaches a new high.
"It's really interesting, these ghosts are so funny!" Mrs. Harrington's daughter was still not satisfied after listening to the closing song. She didn't realize that she had been conquered by "cultural export" at all. She said with longing, "It would be great if I could become friends with the ghosts. It would be fun!"
"Come on, who was it that screamed and hid when they saw a ghost when they got off the bus at the City Hall?" Mrs. Harrington teased her daughter with a smile.
The daughter said embarrassedly, "I'm going to bed" and hurried back to her room.
Mrs. Harrington sat still and listened to the entire radio play. As a woman with richer life experience, she thought about more things than her younger daughter.
The propaganda intention of this radio drama is obvious. The fact that it dares to be rebroadcast and publicized repeatedly shows that the land policies mentioned in the drama are real and not fictional.
This made Mrs. Harrington very emotional: "The Eastern Kingdom is so willing to easily hand over hundreds of acres of land to civilians for contracting... If it were in Kenya, how could such a good thing fall on the heads of civilians."
Mrs. Harrington was once the wife of a wealthy aristocratic family in the Kenyan Empire. No one could remember the bloody factional struggle between the old aristocracy and the emerging aristocracy due to the competition for fiefdoms within the empire more deeply than Mrs. Harrington, who had personally experienced the overthrow of her family.
For example, the Kadi family could obtain the right to use a piece of arable land for five years by paying a deposit of ten gold coins and taking out a low-interest loan from the city hall. This kind of thing is unthinkable in the Kenyan Empire - all idle arable land will be firmly held in the hands of powerful nobles and there is no reason for it to flow out.
It's not just a matter of stinginess. If a commoner gets rich by managing land and squeezes into the aristocratic circle, wouldn't that be cultivating competitors for themselves?
"The City Hall... No, the Undead Archon has contracted the local land to the common people. Do the nobles here have any objections?"
Mrs. Harrington's thought returned instinctively to this question.
The Archon of the Undead is the spokesperson for the Black Mage Yang, and the Archon of the Undead undoubtedly represents the will of the Nightmare Butcher.
But the Nightmare Butcher only ordered the undead to govern, and did not openly usurp the territory of the Rhine Kingdom - the lords of Innadri and Adler were still Rhine nobles.
All nobles would plan for family inheritance, and Mrs. Harrington found it hard to believe that the nobles of the Eastern Kingdom would be any different from those of Kenya.
Mrs. Harrington's doubts were answered the next day when she met her nephew Hal, who had traveled day and night from Tarantin.
After not seeing each other for more than ten years, my nephew Hal has transformed from an impetuous little villain to a...deep big villain.
When Mrs. Harrington saw the burly man with a face full of flesh and eagle-like eyes appear at the door of the reception room of the Town Hall, she gasped on the spot.
If she had not been in the city hall, and if the mercenary Jasper who had escorted them all the way and the receptionist from the secretarial department had not been standing nearby, Mrs. Harrington might have dragged her daughter away on the spot, refusing to recognize this nephew who looked like an insane maniac and a top villain.
The daughter of her imagined "wise and brave" cousin, who had been looking forward to meeting him, had the same reaction as Mrs. Harrington.
"Mom, Mom?" After being frightened, young Dorothy looked at her mother for help, hoping to hear a denial from her mother.
Mrs. Harrington exhaled tremblingly and tried to put on a happy smile: "Hal."
Although it was not visible on the surface... but in fact, Hal was timid in front of his relatives. His eyes were red. He walked forward silently, stretched out his arms, and hugged the two last blood relatives of the Maxwell family on the left and right: "Aunt, Dorothy, I miss you very much."
Dorothy: “…(° △° )”
Mrs. Harrington, afraid to move but touched, raised her trembling hand and patted her nephew gently on the back.
Well, it’s not Hal’s fault that he looks like this…
This touching family reunion scene made Mrs. Harrington and her daughter very stiff, and Hal himself felt a little uncomfortable. After a moment of tenderness, Hal untied his hands and extended his hands to the mercenary standing next to him: "Thank you, Jasper."
The mercenary Jasper smiled indifferently: "No need, I just take the money and do the job."
As he said this, the famous lone wolf mercenary from the Nabarron continent wanted to let go... but then he found that Hal was holding his hand tightly.
"Don't leave this time." Hal said fiercely, "Are you interested in working with me?"
"Hal? What do you want to do to Mr. Jasper?" Mrs. Harrington said in horror.
The mercenary Jasper was quite resistant to the bad appearance of "Razor" Hal, and asked calmly: "What do you want to do?"
"It's very interesting, more interesting than being a mercenary." Hal gave his aunt a soothing look, and said to Jasper with a fierce look on his face, as if threatening someone.
Mercenary Jasper thought about it and nodded readily: "Okay. But I have to make it clear first, if I feel bored, I will leave."
Hal smiled cruelly: "No, man, what we are going to do is very interesting. We are about to escort several noble families to Tarantin to build a road. How about it, isn't it interesting?"
Mercenary Jasper: “???”
Mrs. Harrington and her daughter: “???”
"Oh, aunt, I forgot to tell you." Hal was still thinking about his relatives, and said, "Life in Tarantan is inconvenient, you don't have to go with me, just stay here. You usually take care of Dorothy, don't let her be deceived by others and use my name to show off. We must abide by the rules here. Those who break the law will be arrested and sent to repair the road, no one is exempted."
Jasper & Mrs. Harrington: "..."
There is probably nothing in this world that makes people more uncomfortable than listening to Hal, a guy who looks like a wanted criminal (and he is indeed a wanted criminal), talking about abiding by the rules.
After Hal finished his instructions, he pulled out a bag of heavy gold coins from his jacket pocket and stuffed it into Mrs. Harrington's pocket, asking her to find a suitable place to live in the city . After expressing his affection in a steely straight-man way, he promptly called Jasper to leave without any delay.
Before Mrs. Harrington could refuse and ask Hal to keep some of the money for himself, she disappeared.
Mrs. Harrington: "..."
Mrs. Harrington: "..."
"Ms. Phoebe, what is this... escorting of nobles that Hal mentioned?" Mrs. Harrington, full of questions, could only look at Phoebe, who was responsible for receiving them.
Fei Bi smiled brightly and said, "It's not a big deal. It's just that the Public Security Department is investigating old cases in Adler County and clearing out families with criminal records. Before the Chinese New Year last year, Nadeli had already cleared out the cases, and we were short of manpower here, so it has been delayed until now."
Mrs. Harrington's mouth twitched slightly.
Very good... She understood why the Undead Archon had the confidence to ignore the opinions of local nobles and contract the land to the common people; she also figured out why her nephew Hal, who should have "turned over a new leaf", was still acting like a gangster.
They are able to find excuses to liquidate local nobles and send entire families to build roads. What is the difference between the undead regime from top to bottom and a bandit group!
Mrs. Harrington was in a mess in the wind, and Miss Phoebe said enthusiastically: "Mrs. Harrington, you are the most intellectual lady I have ever met, and your daughter is also very smart. Would you and your daughter be willing to work in the City Hall? The staffing of various departments in Dutata City is very tight."
Mrs. Harrington paused.
In fact, this iron-fisted approach of eliminating the illegal nobles and eliminating the possibility of bloody infighting at the source is not undesirable...
