Chapter 818: Was it intercepted by someone?

  Chapter 818: Was it intercepted?

  If we were to rank the moral standards of the various factions within the legion, the civil service group that stayed beside His Majesty the Marshal would undoubtedly be at the top.

  While the Eastern Legion was still figuring out how to squeeze the last drop of oil out of the indentured slaves, the civil service group had already referred to the colonial management methods of the Southern Legion and figured out a “systematic” way to transform indentured slaves into debt slaves.

  Don’t think this is something evil. Considering the background of the wasteland era, turning people from livestock into goods can definitely be considered a “good deed.”

  The poor people in the Bugera Free State at most complained that the advertisement time for opening the refrigerator door was too long and the iris detection device was too anti-human. The slaves in the Borneo Province would probably not sympathize with them after hearing their troubles. Instead, they would be confused and ask what refrigerators and advertisements were, and why they didn’t have to spend money just to waste 75 seconds of their lives?

  In short, although the civil servants of Triumph City did not let the survivors of Xifan Port use refrigerators, they at least opened a window to their hopeless lives.

  These civil servants first cooperated with the nobles of Lion State, renting slaves from the nobles for 50 dinars a month, and then they would give the slaves an additional 50 to 150 dinars “reward” at the end of each month.

  How much you can get depends purely on your performance at work.

  Of course, this money will not be put into the pockets of the slaves, but it will be recorded in their accounts, and when they have enough money, they can redeem themselves and their families.

  After these slaves redeem themselves, they are also skilled workers. Not only do they have rich work experience, but they are also more motivated to work.

  The legion will continue to hire them to work, and the original reward will be their monthly wages.

  For the Willant people, the wages they pay to these people have not changed. Instead, they save the 50 dinars rent paid to the nobles every month, which is equivalent to hiring a group of more skilled workers at a lower cost. For the nobles

  , how much the slaves work does not affect their income. Although it is a pity to sell skilled workers, the redemption fee of 1,000 dinars is not a loss, which is equivalent to buying out 20 months of income at one time.

  Moreover, they can make a fortune by relying on the packaged labor agency of the Labor Registration Office.

  The only ones who lose are the freemen.

  They used to eat and live on the estates of the nobles, but now they have to rely on themselves for everything…

  …

  Xifan Port.

  Unlike the busy days of sweating and sweating in the past, the atmosphere on the dock today is a bit strange and abnormal.

  The dark crowd crowded the port, blocking the entire road from the dock to the warehouse, and suppressed anger was written on every face.

  They were the first batch of laborers to arrive at Xifan Port. Every brick of this port condensed their blood and sweat. However, these people are not only satisfied with stepping on those bricks, but also stepping on their only dignity and hope.

  Orissa is not the first coolie to die in Xifan Port, nor is he the first freeman to die at work. However, his death is like the last straw that broke the camel’s back, making the freemen of the entire port completely angry!

  Why do they live like donkeys and work hard without complaint?

  Isn’t it just to get the paper certificate that proves they are free people?

  Humans are animals that live on hope for food. When there is hope, they can live even if they eat dirt.

  ”As long as you work hard, you can get freedom” is like a carrot hanging in front of them. For this carrot, and in order to let their families eat this carrot, they are willing to endure the whip and curse of the supervisor, fall into a body of illness, and even break their spines…

  However, the masters of Xifan Port pulled the carrot hanging in front of them down and threw their only hope to the ground.

  What if you get it?

  Can’t you be controlled with that piece of paper?

  In the end, it’s still the same. The real free people in Xifan Port are only those who don’t need paper certificates to prove themselves.

  No one will ask the Willant people for that thing, and no one will ask the nobles for that thing. Even the priests of Silver Moon Bay and the merchants in the southern seas don’t need it, it seems that it is because of some agreements of the sticky community.

  Orissa spent a thousand dinars to redeem himself, and I don’t know how much he spent to redeem his family. He may have borrowed some from the Weyland people.

  However, his death compensation was only a pitiful eight hundred dinars!

  Eight hundred!

  At the worst exchange rate of 1:5, it couldn’t even be exchanged for 200 silver coins!

  This money could neither repay the debt nor support the family’s expenses for too long.

  Once he was buried in the ground, his family would either repeat his mistakes or share his fate.

  Or –

  they would have to sell themselves and start another desperate cycle.

  If the new wind from the wasteland never blew here, the people here might be able to endure all this without complaint, and even wake up until the moment they entered the ground, and a moment of pain might not be a kind of happiness.

  Unfortunately, the merchant ships from the east brought not only wealth and technology,

  but also the ideas that enlightened all this.

  The freemen standing here may not know many words, but from the priests from Silver Moon Bay, they already know that there is a settlement called Boulder City and an awakener named Bol thousands of kilometers away.

  The power of one person is small, but when 500,000 survivors unite, even the huge wall hundreds of meters high will tremble, and the thousand-meter-high building will collapse!

  There are more than 500,000 survivors in Xifan Port, but there are millions!

  Inspired by the power of example, the people who had scattered at the sound of gunfire once again united…

  They have had enough of those lies.

  They want to fight for their own rights with their own hands.

  Facing the growing crowd, Naji broke out in a cold sweat, but still mustered up the courage to shout at them.

  ”What are you doing here! Why don’t you go to work… Are you itching again?”

  People didn’t speak, nor did they provoke the Willant soldiers like last time. They just stood there silently, looking at him with their eyes.

  Naji was frightened by those eyes. He swallowed nervously. His right hand holding the whip kept shaking, as if he had muscular dystrophy and couldn’t do it.

  There were at least 20,000 to 30,000 people gathered here, more than ten times the number of the day before.

  Not only did these people not work, they also blocked the way back to the warehouse.

  Now the whole port was like a broken alarm clock, and the loading and unloading work was completely stagnant.

  If he can’t unload all the goods on the dock before dark, the Willant ship owners and the local nobles will all come to trouble him!

  Thinking of that scene, cold sweat immediately seeped out of Naji’s forehead, and he looked at the port guards next to him for help.

  The guards were also whispering to each other, as if discussing countermeasures.

  ”Why don’t we disperse these people first?”

  ”But the dock still needs them to work.”

  ”But they are just a hindrance if they stay here now.”

  ”But what if they are gone? We can’t finish the work tomorrow with those lazy slaves.”

  ”The governor’s job is to ensure the production order here… We have to find a way to get them back to work, and we have to make them work honestly.”

  The captain of the guard team took a look at the group of laborers and frowned tightly.

  He underestimated these guys before. Although they are cowardly, they are not useless.

  For example, they are cunning enough.

  There have been cases of “freemen” striking in other colonies of the Willant people, but that usually occurred when the debt interest and income were completely unbalanced, and rarely occurred in the initial stage of the transition from indentured slaves to debt slaves.

  This should have been a honeymoon period for both parties.

  However, as if someone had told them where this scam would go next, they suddenly woke up from their illusory dreams.

  And they also learned the worst bad habit of striking.

  They could drive these people from one cage to another with guns, but they couldn’t force these people to work actively.

  And every time it came to this, even the Willant people could only weigh the pros and cons and make some compromises.

  It’s a pity that the governor went back to Triumph City for the New Year, and he is probably still floating on the sea.

  The captain of the guard strode to Naji’s front and said in a tone of command to the pale latter.

  ”…It’s not a good idea to keep on being stuck like this. Talk to them and see how you can get them to go back to work.”

  Naji hurried back to the crowd, trying to put on his usual domineering expression, but he couldn’t muster the courage to be fierce. In the end, he could only lower his posture and speak earnestly. ”

  What’s the point of you just standing here? What do you want? You have to tell me!”

  With the support of his companions, a laborer stood up and stared at him.

  ”We lost an Orissa.”

  Naji gritted his teeth and said.

  ”We have already paid compensation, what else do you want!”

  The laborer said angrily.

  ”…Too little! Eight hundred dinars is not enough for his family to survive in Xifan Port!”

  ”Then go back to the countryside–” Naji just opened his mouth to refute, but was interrupted angrily by the other party.

  ”Don’t play dumb there. The fertile land of Lion State is covered with plantations. Where is the land for them to survive!”

  This sentence resonated with many people, especially those who originally worked in the plantations.

  If they really had a choice, they would not want to come to this hellhole to work hard.

  They have the ability to farm, but unfortunately there is no land to farm.

  ”That’s right! They have no home to return to!”

  ”Are we going to let Orissa’s wife, daughter and son return to his former master’s plantation?”

  ”Then why are we redeeming ourselves? In the end, it’s the same!”

  The noise became louder and louder, and people’s emotions became more and more excited.

  Naji suddenly panicked and shouted desperately.

  ”What do you want? Are you going to let us support them for the rest of their lives? Why!”

  The moment they heard this, everyone was in an uproar, and their eyes became even more angry.

  ”Why!”

  ”Because Orissa died while working for you!”

  ”We have shed blood and sweat for this port, why don’t we have a place here!”

  ”That’s right! We don’t just want justice for Orissa! We also want justice for ourselves!”

  ”The wages for work must be increased!”

  ”Either give us at least 10 dinars a day! Or allow us to organize ourselves to contract the docks! Let’s compete fairly, we will eat as much as we work, and we will never rely on you!”

  The entire dock was filled with the angry roars of the workers, and even the slaves who wanted to squeeze through the crowd stopped involuntarily.

  Listening to the increasingly excessive demands, Naji felt his scalp tingling.

  These guys who ask for sky-high prices!

  10 dinars a day!

  That’s 300 a month! It’s equivalent to doubling the previous maximum salary!

  It costs so much money to move a few boxes, why don’t they rob!

  As for letting them organize themselves to contract the docks, that is absolutely not allowed.

  This is not just a matter of interests, there are other more difficult problems involved.

  Neither the Willant people nor the nobles would agree to let this group of inferiors organize. If

  they dare to ask for the contract of the dock today, they will ask for the contract of the city hall, bank and post office tomorrow!

  Whose name will Xifan Port be named by then? Will it be named after these rats?

  Naji’s eyebrows twitched fiercely, and he shouted at the crowd with all his strength.

  ”Are you crazy! Do you know what you are asking for? You might as well let us give this port to you!”

  ”Then give it to us!”

  The laborer standing in front of the crowd did not show weakness at all, and did not intend to give in.

  As if he heard a very funny joke, Naji sneered and said.

  ”Give it to you? You will destroy everything here in less than a day!”

  The dock worker stared at him.

  ”Then destroy it, anyway, everything here has never belonged to us!”

  Seeing that the crowd was getting more and more excited, the Willant guards standing aside finally couldn’t stand it anymore.

  The captain of the guard walked to Naji’s side, pulled him aside, stared into his eyes and said word by word.

  ”Are you a pig? I asked you to negotiate with them and coax them back to their posts, but I didn’t ask you to quarrel with them! Do you need me to teach you what to do?”

  Seeing that the Willant people were angry, Najib hurriedly explained.

  ”My lord, you don’t understand… You can’t treat them well! Once they get a taste of the sweetness, they will immediately crawl up like snakes along the baton in your hand.”

  ”I don’t understand?” The captain of the guard sneered and patted his head with a smile, “How many colonies have you been to? You have only been a foreman for a few days, and you dare to talk to me like this?”

  Naji was sweating and lowered his head with a pale face.

  ”I dare not…”

  The captain of the guard looked at the helpless guy with contempt, and the expression on his face became more and more disgusted.

  He didn’t reject obedient dogs, but this dog had to be used for some purpose, right?

  He had been a guard in the Southern Corps for more than ten years, and he had dealt with local natives around the colonies. Although he did not directly participate in the game of those big men, he still understood some basic consensus.

  Whether it was the Southern Corps, the civil service group, or the local native chiefs or nobles, they all preferred to fatten the cows before milking.

  This was good for everyone.

  And these guys, as if they had never seen money, wanted to cut the cow’s neck with a knife, skip the milking process, and lie on it to drink blood directly.

  There was no time to wait for this guy to come to his senses, and the captain of the guard said in an unquestionable tone.

  ”Raise the standard of death compensation and increase their wages, but you can’t give them all at once. You can bargain with them… You decide this yourself. I only have one request, to resume work as soon as possible and don’t make a big deal, otherwise if the governor finds out, you will all be in trouble!”

  Upon hearing this, Najib immediately cried and begged.

  ”But sir, our profit is only so little. If we raise their wages, how can we make money…”

  ”Don’t think I don’t know!”

  Seeing that this guy was still playing himself as a fool, the captain of the guard couldn’t help but spit, pointing at his nose and scolding.

  ”You charge by weight of goods! The wages you pay them are less than one tenth of what you earn! Even if you pay one tenth, what will happen? The time and money you have wasted here are far more than this amount! Do I still need to teach you how to do business?”

  Looking at the foreman who dared not breathe after being scolded, the captain of the guard sighed and said in a gentle tone.

  ”…Be a little better to your compatriots, don’t push them too hard, and don’t always think about winning the last dinar, otherwise it will not be good for anyone.”

  ”Yes…”

  Naji responded reluctantly, although he didn’t think that these snakes, rats, insects and birds were his compatriots at all.

  He is also a lion tribe after all.

  Even if he is not a noble, he is much nobler than these guys.

  Under the urging of the captain of the guard, he had to return to the front of the crowd again.

  ”…Thank the merciful Governor! We can raise your wages! But don’t go too far. How about eight dinars a day? That’s 240 a month! Damn, I envy your wages. You can buy a concubine after working for five months!”

  Hearing that the wages had increased to eight gold coins a day, the originally angry crowd gradually showed a little bit of division, and some people’s eyes showed their expectations for life again.

  Just as Naji said, 240 dinars a month is not a small amount!

  However, not everyone is so easy to bribe.

  There are still many people staring at the foreman who was pushed to the front with indignation.

  ”What about Orisa?”

  Naji gritted his teeth, thinking that since a lot of money had been spent anyway, it didn’t matter if it was just a little bit, so he made up his mind and said.

  ”The Labor Registration Office will give his family an additional 3,000 dinars… But this money is not compensation, it is a donation made out of goodwill and kindness! We cannot let those who have worked hard for Xifan Port feel disheartened, and his family should be supported by Xifan Port!”

  3,000 dinars is not bad!

  Even if calculated based on the salary increase, it is still a year’s salary! There

  was finally more hope in the eyes of the crowd. Unexpectedly, there were also good people among these nobles. Some people couldn’t help but whistle and applaud.

  This time, even those who were originally indignant gradually showed a little disagreement, and only a small group of people were still glaring.

  Looking at the already shaken crowd, Naji continued in a soothing tone.

  ”Okay, disperse, if you still want to get today’s wages, then hurry back to work, or do you expect the gold coins to fall from the sky by themselves?”

  The crowd gradually dispersed, and Naji finally breathed a sigh of relief, but thinking of the money he had spent, he still felt a pain in his heart.

  I hope the master won’t blame him…

  If he does, he can only use the Willant people as a shield. He

  said that he had originally adhered to the bottom line, and it was the group of Willant guards who forced him to raise his wages.

  Seeing that the people who were making trouble had gone back to work, the Willant guards who lined up in front of the port also disbanded their team and went about their own business.

  It was almost the end of the year, and after the end of the year it was the birthday. In fact, they didn’t have much energy to work, let alone find trouble for themselves. Their thoughts had already drifted back to their homes.

  The captain of the guard returned to the police station and first sent a telegram [Crisis Resolved] to Yongye Port via a dedicated line, and then reported the whole thing to the secretary of the Governor’s Office.

  Governor Huye returned to Triumph City and took away half of the guards of the Governor’s Mansion. General McLen and other instructors also went to Yongye Port to take a boat some time ago. The army of Xifan Port was left with only the port guards and the city defense army composed of locals, and the garrison force was unprecedentedly empty.

  If possible, he hoped that the Governor’s Office could borrow a team of people from the Southern Corps.

  Even if it was a vassal army.

  However, the trouble was that there was no ship on the entire route. All the available ships were sent to the east by the civil service group. It might not be easy to transfer people here…

  On the other hand, Naji, who had finally settled the matter, returned to the Labor Registration Office and reported the situation at the port and the wage increase to several major shareholders.

  Before he could catch his breath after being scolded, he saw his men running in a hurry, shouting as they ran.

  ”My lord, something bad has happened!”

  Before his buttocks could warm up the chair, Naji felt his heart skip a beat, and he stood up from the chair again, cursing.

  ”What happened again? Didn’t I raise their wages?!”

  His men were so anxious that their faces turned pale and they spoke hurriedly.

  ”This time it’s not the dock, it’s the steel mill… and the cement factory. When the workers in the factory heard that the dock had increased their wages, one after another stopped working and clamored for a wage increase.”

  Upon hearing this, Naji almost vomited blood and cursed.

  ”This bunch of greedy vultures!”

  It was just as he expected.

  He knew it would turn out like this!

  Those Willant people don’t know the situation in the Borneo Province. Those mud-legged people can’t be spoiled. Once their lives are comfortable, they will do these things.

  When the wages at the factory go up, the workers at the dock will probably make a fuss again, saying that the work of moving goods is more tiring, how can they get the same wages as the people at the steel factory. After all this,

  they don’t want to make money, so they might as well close all the factories at the port!

  Naji was so anxious that sweat broke out on his forehead, but the director of the Labor Department standing next to him frowned and muttered in a low voice.

  ”I always think that this matter is not right, it seems that someone is fanning the flames.”

  Naji shuddered.

  ”Are you talking about the alliance?”

  The director shook his head.

  ”That’s not likely. They have nothing to do with each other.”

  Merchant ships of the Alliance will also come here to buy steel and cement. The demand for building materials in Jingalon Port and French Fries Port is not small. There are also the southern seas and Haiya Province that are being rebuilt.

  It is not good for them to mess up Xifan Port. At most, it will cause headaches for the Legion and the Empire.

  At this time, the servant who came to report the news suddenly had an idea and spoke out.

  ”By the way, I heard that the few people who led the riot seemed to be members of the Silver Moon Church! And the ones who made the loudest noise just now!”

  Naji was furious when he heard it and cursed.

  ”Are those charlatans crazy!”

  The director of the Labor Registration Office said thoughtfully with a flickering eye.

  ”The doctrine of the Silver Moon Sect has the creed of mutual help. The reason why this matter has become so serious… maybe it really has something to do with them.”

  The servant continued to speak hurriedly.

  ”Right! I always feel that those charlatans are not good people. By the way, I heard that Orisa is a believer of the Silver Moon Sect. The ones who led the trouble this time often worship with him.”

  Naji’s eyes gradually narrowed, and a barely perceptible fierce light flashed in his eyes.

  ”It’s because of this…”

  He really neglected this matter.

  He almost forgot that the church is also an organization.

  Not to mention that the Silver Moon Sect is not honest. Not only did they teach those believers to read, but they also published a newspaper.

  As if he had grasped the root of the problem, he immediately pondered in his mind.

  ”…We have to find a way to get rid of that church.”

  The director shook his head after hearing this.

  ”This matter is not easy to handle…We can’t touch the people in Silver Moon Bay. They are residents of the Hump Kingdom and are protected by the relevant treaties of the Sticky Community. If we do it without a reason, it’s hard to say whether there will be any big problems.”

  ”Why do you do it yourself…”

  Naji suddenly smiled sinisterly, and said slowly in the surprised eyes of the two.

  ”It was the residents of Xifan Port who drove the charlatan away. We can’t blame them for this, can we?”

  …

  Although the steel mill had a lot of orders, the work was not as urgent as the port.

  Before the guards of the Willant masters at the port could take action, Naji took a hundred slaves borrowed from the labor department and formed a “long stick team”. He not only promised them freedom and dinar rewards, but also promised that they would not be treated unfairly in the future. When

  these slaves heard that there was money to be made and that they could be reused by the masters, they took sticks without saying a word and beat up the group of workers who gathered together and did not work.

  Looking at the mob who were running away with their heads in their arms, Naji showed a proud and grim smile on his face.

  If you don’t want to work, then don’t work!

  At most, the steel mill will be closed for two days to see who will starve to death first!

  With the lessons learned from the port, he knew that he must not hesitate in this matter. He must be tough when he needs to be tough, and he must be decisive when he needs to act.

  It is better to act first than to act later!

  Even if some people died, it was better than being beaten by the Willant masters.

  After settling the trouble at the steel plant, Naji took his men to the cement plant and commanded the sticks loyal to him to teach the troublemakers a lesson. With

  his vigorous and resolute actions, the Xifan Port, which was piled with gunpowder barrels, seemed to have finally returned to its former tranquility, but it seemed that a greater crisis was brewing in the endless greed… In

  three days, with the hard work of the dock workers, the cargo ships blocking the port finally unloaded all the cargo, and the dock was finally empty. The

  lightly equipped caravans took the authorization letters from the Governor’s Office and headed for the legendary dreamland – the Haiya Province in the far east!

  At the same time, Naji, who was forced to work hard by the group of porters, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

  The most difficult days were over, and he could finally free up his hands to do something.

  Whether it was the striking workers or the Silver Moon Cult that instigated those workers to be lazy and eat good things…

  He swore that he would make them pay the price!

  As time passed, Xifan Port seemed to be quiet for a while.

  At the same time, the first caravans that set out from Xifan Port to the Coast of Death finally arrived at the coast of their dreams one after another. After

  drifting on the sea for eleven days, looking at the port that appeared on the coastline, Alman, who was standing on the deck, finally showed an excited expression on his face.

  It’s the port!

  They are finally here!

  The nearest troop of the Eastern Legion is stationed in Haibei City, 100 kilometers away from the coastline. As long as they give those people the letter issued by the Governor’s Office, they can get the arms sold by kilograms!

  ”Quick! Pull the boat over!”

  Alman shouted to the crew behind him, and excitedly took out the telescope.

  However, the moment he took out the telescope and looked at the coastline, he was dumbfounded.

  I saw a row of black chariots parked neatly beside the container, waiting for professional suspension equipment to load them onto the ship.

  The models of those vehicles –

  why do they look so familiar?

  (End of this chapter)