Volume 10: Our Journey Chapter 324 Study Abroad Group (Part 2)
As far as human kingdoms are concerned, the atmosphere in the six southern countries is relatively open compared to the northern federation, but this open atmosphere only applies to races that are similar to humans in appearance - elves, sea people, barbarians, or races that are not much different from humans in human form will not receive special attention in southern countries (discrimination is also a kind of attention).
That is to say, aliens with overly obvious alien features in appearance are still classified as "abnormal creatures" in the eyes of the southern humans... For example, the goblins, this race is not only classified as "slaves" in the Federation, but also treated the same way in the South; and the snake tribe, for example, they have been quite talkative during the more than ten years they have lived in the South.
For example, larger orc tribes such as the bear tribe, elephant tribe, and snow wolf tribe are just stuck between the categories of acceptance and rejection by the southern humans - their appearance is not too different from that of humans (big issues that Earthlings care about, such as animal ears, skin color, hair color, pupil color and shape, are not a big deal in this world, with the exception of the snake tribe who are born with a villain face), at least they don't make most southern humans feel "deformed", but their size is so oppressive that they can't be ignored.
The southern countries do not deal with the orcs as frequently as the Federation because they are located in the center of the continent (the number of adventurers in the south is not as many as in the northern Federation). The only orc adventurers that the southern humans can see are the occasional orc adventurers in the city. After King Carlisle of Saint Bridge established a sea trade route directly connected to the grasslands of the northern continent, only goods produced in the grasslands flowed to the south. The grassland orcs did not have the time to show up in the south. As the saying goes, distance makes beauty, the two sides lived in peace and did not feel that there were any major problems.
Hein Valentine, a representative of the study abroad group and a member of the royal family, did not realize that he had left the human territory and set foot in the alien nest when he disembarked at the elven port.
Until now, when a sturdy man at least three times his size approached within one meter of him, sat down on the sofa in front of him with a smile, and successfully pressed an exaggerated indentation on the large and sturdy cowhide sofa (there is a lot of leather on the grassland, and this thing is not a luxury on the grassland), Prince Haien's noble temperament cultivated over many years of pampering almost couldn't hold back...
"Hello, Prince Hein Valentine, my name is Chengfeng, and I am a first-level clerk in the Economic Planning Project Department of the Secretariat."
The stubble-haired man sitting in front of Prince Haien had a square face with strong facial lines, and muscles that stretched his shirt and trousers tightly. This bear-like strong man who could definitely tear wild animals apart with his bare hands showed Prince Haien a ferocious and friendly (no mistake) smile, and extended his big palm that could twist a person's head alive...
For a moment, Prince Hein almost called out the name of his most trusted captain of the guard, and couldn't help but lean his body back slightly, and then suddenly bounced forward.
Just as his butt left the sofa, Prince Haien's remaining rationality reminded him not to do anything that would damage the dignity of the Valentine royal family, so he slowly sat down on the sofa with a pale face, and stretched out his hand with a slight trembling...
When Prince Hain felt the thick calluses on the other's palm, which was open enough to grasp his head, and which were as rough as old tree bark, he really used up all his willpower in this life to control himself from screaming and retracting his hand - the roughest hand he had ever touched was the hand of his captain of the guards, and the calluses formed from practicing martial arts compared to the hands of this snow werewolf were like the smooth and delicate skin of a young girl!
"You're so spoiled, even more like a spoiled brat than Isaac before." Chengfeng gently shook the other person's hand to show his friendliness and then let go, muttering in his heart.
Although he was complaining in his heart, Chengfeng, who had a square face and big eyes and looked a bit like the leader of the Fire Clan, did not show any abnormality on the surface. He naturally spread the folder between his arms on his knees and opened it, smiling, "We grassland people very much welcome our human allies to come and exchange economic knowledge with us. Before the exchange activities begin, I hope that both sides can reach a friendly consensus on the economics-related knowledge that the other party is willing to share and exchange, so as to avoid unnecessary disputes due to different concepts during the exchange. Does Prince Haien agree with this?"
Hein Valentine opened his mouth slightly: "..."
Of course he knew that people on the grassland had their own ways to make money, and he was willing to endure the boring sea voyage just to come here to learn from him. King Carlisle's path to counterattack was too dazzling, and anyone who was qualified to aspire would not refuse to imitate him.
But having this perception is different from seeing with his own eyes a beast-like orc (er...) being able to speak so clearly and logically and casually words that only the top lecturers of the Elliot Palace Royal Academy could say - the other party actually knew how to take care of the dignity of the members of the study abroad group and transform the one-sided study abroad into an exchange and sharing!
"Prince Hein?" Chengfeng called in a low voice, wondering in his heart, didn't Ayun say that all the royal family members were smart and asked them to be careful and cautious? Why was this seemingly smart human cub so stupid?
The dazed human cub, Prince Hain, finally came back to his senses and nodded as reservedly as possible: "I agree."
"Okay, then let's first see at which level we should start our communication." Cheng Feng said with a smile, "My personal suggestion is that, considering the uncertainty of the micro-economy being affected by the market economy, it is best for us to first study, understand and interpret the market economy from a macroeconomic perspective, and recognize the positive and negative effects of the self-adjustment of the market mechanism due to the lack of government leadership on the overall economy..."
Prince Hain opened his mouth slightly again, his eyes revealing a look.
He swore that he was not distracted this time - he really didn't understand!
Chengfeng used to be Qingcao's capable subordinate and participated in the construction of the Snake Tribe and performed well. Later, he participated in the post-disaster reconstruction plan of Farm No. 1. Although he did not have the opportunity to go out and see the outside world like Chief Caogen and Chief Ali, he saw a lot of the world. As soon as he saw Prince Hain's reaction, he knew that it was "out of scope" and quickly turned the topic to a lower level: funding allocation during regional construction, product commercialization to recover funds and reinvest in construction, and other issues.
Then, the members of the royal family of the Kingdom of Holmes, who he was responsible for conducting the first round of key investigations, gave him a confused look on their faces...
"Isn't this a problem that all town governors have to face? Could this guy be a fake member of the royal family?!" Chengfeng himself was confused. If he remembered correctly, before Ayun let Isaac go, Isaac studied this most basic short-term course on regional economic development for a month!
Don't the human royal family members have to manage the territory? !
Licking his lips, Chengfeng suppressed his confusion and tried to think about what other economic knowledge he could have that would allow this member of the Valentine royal family to keep up with him...
In the earliest courses of the Fire Tribe, economics was learned as supplementary knowledge to social studies. After all, Xiao Yun was a businessman engaged in building materials. He was accustomed to raising and solving problems with economic thinking. In the education of his tribe members, he would inevitably bring a strong personal style.
To put it bluntly, the economic knowledge exchange activities with the six southern countries are to promote this set of economic thinking and use the economy to pry open the ideas that have been welded for thousands of years in these feudal countries with land division. This is not because Xiao Yun has bad intentions towards the six southern countries. As natural geographical allies (far away!), Xiao Yun sincerely hopes that the six southern countries can become prosperous and powerful. Who is willing to be friends with poor people? Xiao Yun is not willing either!
In order to use the soft weapon of economy to pry back the political system, first of all, the economy of the six southern countries must flow and become running water. The overall economy of the southern countries is better than that of the federation because the southern countries are more open and private capital is more active than that of the federation. However, if you study it carefully, it is the difference between a dead pool with a small opening to circulate running water and a truly closed dead pool...
Apart from other things, Carlyle carried out moderate reforms in China, and the chickens that were brought out to offer to the monkeys all had cellars dug to hide money. This is enough to explain the problem - can money buried underground be called money? It's just scrap copper and rotten iron!
Chengfeng didn't know how advanced the things that the Snow Wolf people had learned and thought were "common sense" were for the world. After thinking hard, Chengfeng hesitated and decided to boldly use the economics enlightenment they learned in social studies to test the seemingly stupid human prince in front of him: "Well... Excuse me, Prince Haien, if you are the mayor of a small town, there are two wealthy families in the town, one owns a mill, blacksmith shop, tailor shop, laundry and other industries worth tens of thousands of gold coins, and the other owns a villa, holiday estate and wine cellar worth tens of thousands of gold coins, then in your opinion, which of the two families is richer, and which one would you prefer to nominate as a town councilor?"
Prince Hain looked confused.
Chengfeng has a pure face.
Prince Hain was embarrassed and said, "Well... if they are just richer, then both families are the same... if we choose one of them... the one who can own such a valuable villa and wine cellar should be a more prestigious family. The latter should be more suitable to be a town councilor."
I once tutored Niu Jiao but never gave up on riding the wind of life. At this moment, I had an impulse to deeply doubt life...
"Did I say something wrong?" Prince Hein looked grim. Although the other party didn't say anything, his devastated expression was enough to explain everything.
"Hain...Prince." Chengfeng said with difficulty, "The mill, blacksmith shop, tailor shop, and laundry can all provide jobs for the townspeople. The farm tools and clothes produced by the paid grinding and the services provided can benefit the townspeople on the one hand, and promote the economic circulation in the town on the other hand. The value to the town is far higher than the villa manor that only the owner can enjoy, and the worthless wine cellar... From the perspective of the mayor, if the purpose is to develop the town's economy, then the former is a better candidate for town councillor."
Prince Hain: "..."
The young prince tried to save his reputation: "But the latter can also employ a large number of servants, which will also benefit the townspeople? Being a servant is much easier than working in a mill or a blacksmith shop."
Chengfeng couldn't help but sigh, with a sympathetic expression on his face: "But the services and labor provided by hired servants do not produce any economic value in themselves. They are fundamentally different from the wheat flour ground by the mill and the ironware produced by the blacksmith shop...Except for the master, will anyone pay a copper coin for the service of the servants and generate even a copper coin of economic circulation in the town?"
Prince Hain: "..."
He always felt that something was wrong, but he couldn't find any words to refute it? !
Chengfeng came with a mission. His purpose was not to mock anyone's ignorance. Seeing that the prince really knew nothing about economics and had to learn from scratch, Chengfeng, who had originally regarded this mission as a "part-time chore" that could be easily handled after work, had to cheer up: "In the economics of our grassland, we classify all production activities into three categories. The primary industry is the most important raw material production industry, including planting, animal husbandry, breeding and other production activities. This type of industry is the cornerstone of our grassland. In the development and construction of the primary industry, all other matters must give way."
"The secondary industry is manufacturing, and the industries that process and manufacture the raw materials provided by the primary industry are classified here, such as our vermicelli factory , our hilly new district, and our woolen mill."
"The tertiary industry is the service industry. Well... this service does not mean being a servant for a wealthy family or serving only a specific group of people. It refers to activities such as transportation, canteens, education, and commerce. The services provided by the tertiary industry are for the collective. They are non-material manufacturing activities that benefit as many people as possible."
Chengfeng, who had good grades in social studies, knew the various ills of human society and perhaps knew them better than the prince sitting in front of him. He explained in detail: "If the second town councillor you chose is engaged in the cooked food industry, such as bypassing middlemen to purchase agricultural products from the countryside at a relatively fair price, processing them into cooked food in the town, and then having the service staff he hired sell them to the townspeople at a relatively affordable price, so that the townspeople can save time on cooking and have more energy to devote to production activities, then he can also be classified as the tertiary industry, because in this gentleman's activities, the villagers can sell their agricultural products nearby, saving time and cost, and can also sell them at a relatively fair price. The service staff have employment opportunities, the townspeople have gained convenience, and this gentleman himself has also made money, which can expand the economic scale and have the ability to expand the beneficiary group..."
Prince Hain opened his mouth in disgrace: "..."
The ten-minute interview was over. Chengfeng, who was feeling speechless but appeared polite on the surface, stood up and shook hands with Prince Hein, then walked towards Vic Gladstone who was sitting on the sofa next to him, holding the folder.
Vic was here to be Prince Hain's personal valet, and his attention never left the prince's side. He was as confused as Hain was. Seeing the Snow Wolf clerk sitting down in front of him, Vic, who had no royal baggage, was refreshed. Before Chengfeng could speak, he said, "I know nothing about economics. I hope to start from the most basic introductory knowledge."
Chengfeng: “…Okay.” This saved him the time of testing things over and over again.
The six clerks are each responsible for a country's study abroad group, and the other Snow Wolf is in charge of Yajia Lan.
After the two-hour interview, this snow wolf man who was very good at telling stories and was very popular wherever he went started to complain as soon as he left the lakeside hotel: "The prince of Yajialan looked shrewd and said some complicated and nice things, saying that he had studied with a great sage named Xavier, but when he started talking about serious matters, I didn't understand anything and kept making nonsense. I wanted to end the conversation with him after five minutes, but he felt embarrassed and forced me to talk nonsense for a long time."
"It's the same here." Shelda, a human clerk in the Finance Department who was a former woolen mill worker, said with a tired look on her face, "Did the prince study hard? What did his teacher teach him?"
When Sheldar lived in the human race, he was at the bottom of the bottom. He could only imagine the life of the royal nobles, and he didn't have much knowledge...
"Hehe, luckily the lot I drew was Saint Bridget. Rose is as smart as Carlisle, and she can help explain to me and the people she brought with her." The cat clerk of the Engineering Department boasted with a smile on his face.
"I'm going to have a hard time in the coming days." Another cat clerk said with a headache, "I still have a lot of work to do. It seems that I won't be able to sleep well in the next few months."
"It won't be that bad. The people who come here are all elites from the south. They should be able to learn quickly." Cheng Feng saw this and encouraged everyone out of habit. "Although it's different from what we expected to be able to pick a few ready-made helpers to help us, and we still have to teach them from the basics, but as long as we can bring them up, we can still earn labor."
"I hope so..." The others responded weakly.
The princes of the five countries were all a little distracted after the talks of varying lengths. In order to maintain the dignity of the royal family, they managed not to escape and stayed in the hall until the clerks politely left before they retreated back to their rooms.
Prince Hein had no time to watch other people's jokes, such as Yajia Lan, the guy who always thought highly of himself and almost slipped when he left the hall just now. After he hurried back to the room, he sat down by the landscape window again and drank a whole cup of cold tea without realizing it.
Vic, who was in charge of taking care of him, was suddenly awakened by Prince Hein's forgetting to pour out the remaining tea after he put down the teacup.
“Your Highness…”
"Quiet." Prince Hein had no patience to listen to any meaningless comfort, and shouted almost in an out-of-control manner.
Vic immediately shut his mouth and watched as His Royal Highness poured himself another cup of cold tea.
After drinking half a pot of cold tea, Prince Haien regained some composure. The eyes of this young man, who was in a period of intense competitiveness and sensitivity, were red, and his hands on the table were trembling slightly. All he could think about was the beast-like snow wolf who was crushing him with his incomprehensible knowledge while forcing himself to hide his indescribable face and put on a polite smile...
Prince Hein's heartbeat quickened again and his blood surged again, so he took a deep breath.
"-- Could it be that these grassland people deliberately let ministers and scholars of status pretend to be clerks to deceive us foreigners in order to intimidate us?!" Prince Hain couldn't help but have such a thought pop up in his mind.
Hmm... If Chengfeng knew that the prince actually thought that he might be a high-ranking official or scholar, he would probably be grinning from ear to ear...
"Clerk" is a pocket position in Huoyan City. What does it mean? People who have enough knowledge and ability but cannot take up management positions for various reasons will be stuffed into this panacea position... When their abilities improve, they will be released to take on their own.
Chengfeng has good social studies grades and is good at organizing and mobilizing, but his shortcomings are also obvious... He is a distant relative of the Fire Clan leader, and he looks quite serious, but he is actually quite detached and a bit arbitrary, not the kind of person who prioritizes planning when doing things (when he was leading the Snake Clan to farm, he even asked them to transform into their original form to pull the plow). Xiao Yun put him in the Economic Planning Project Department of the Secretary Department to change his adventurous style.
If Huoyan City's base was large enough and there was room for private capital to survive, if Chengfeng was allowed to start his own business, he might be able to create a new world. As for now... he could only bury his head in clerical work. Even if he had any unrealistic ideas or wanted to cause trouble, Xiao Yun could easily stop him.
The next day, the study courses for the students of the overseas study group officially began, so fast that the princes who had not yet recovered from the shock of the previous day were caught off guard... Fire City did everything as soon as it was planned, so they could not give them a few more days to heal their "wounds". Besides, the motivation for the clerks to serve as teachers was to quickly teach them and capture them as helpers, so they were all very anxious...
This time, they were not taught together. Each clerk was responsible for the group they were assigned to. The Holmes Kingdom study abroad group, led by Prince Hain, was directly called together by the gray dwarf "waiter" of the hotel and taken to the office area of the secretarial department.
When he saw Chengfeng again, Prince Haien's deep belief in "a high-ranking official and scholar pretending to be a clerk" was shaken without anyone's explanation...
They were brought here after breakfast. Chengfeng had just finished breakfast and arrived at work. When they entered the office area of the secretarial department (which was actually a spacious courtyard imitating a quadrangle), they saw a majestic figure holding a sickle and squatting in the flower bed where garlic seedlings were planted to weed...
"I haven't farmed for a few years, but I haven't lost my skills." Chengfeng squatted in the small vegetable garden he built with bricks, proudly showing off to his colleague who was mopping the floor in the house, "Look, it's growing so vigorously. In ten days or so, I can harvest some garlic sprouts and stir-fry them with meat."
My colleague said unhappily, "Come and help clean up. It's our turn to clean up today. Are you determined to leave it to me alone?"
"Mopping the floor, wiping the table and washing cups are too unchallenging. Just do it. I'll help you when you have something to do later." Chengfeng said nonchalantly.
"Even if you say so, the sanitation shift is in pairs!"
"It's the rule that's the problem, not me..."
Standing at the gate of the courtyard, Prince Haien, with his complex emotions and facial features distorted, said: "..."
But... he would rather the grassland people cheated them in order to intimidate them...
