Chapter 198 Inspecting the Territory
After the autumn harvest was completed, October soon entered.
Richard looked at the population statistics. This year, through official purchases of slaves, reception of escaped slaves, private purchase of slaves, etc., the number of people in the Harland Territory increased by 15,000.
Fifteen thousand more mouths and thousands more families. Can these newly added slaves settle down? Will he be bullied by bureaucrats? Richard also felt a little worried.
Through his experiences in his previous life, Richard understood that there were various shortcomings in the bureaucracy, the most common of which was deceiving the superiors and concealing information from the inferiors, creating a closed information cocoon for the superiors, coaxing the superiors around and confining them to fabricated lies.
Many times, policies at the top are often closest to the people at the bottom. However, in the process of policy communication and implementation, they are distorted and misinterpreted by bureaucrats. In the end, they become a profit-making tool in the hands of some people to prey on the people.
They take advantage of the space at the top that is far away from the grassroots to conceal many things and use coercion and inducement to those below.
Even if the Dawn Plane is a world where great power is attributed to itself, this situation will still occur, but it will not be as serious as in the previous life.
Because the powerful people in the Dawn Plane possess powerful power, their power to intimidate the bureaucracy is naturally far greater than those who rely on the bureaucracy to gain power.
For example, Richard was able to control the power of the Harland territory not only because of the appointment of the king and his noble bloodline, but more importantly, because he relied on the strength of himself and his family to manage the territory and form an army. It was his own strength that allowed him to control the territory. the root cause. Therefore, he does not need to compromise with the bureaucrats. If anyone dissatisfies him, he can easily overturn the table and replace someone or even kill someone.
Even so, the bullying below is still very serious.
As long as you want to govern the people, you must have the bureaucratic class.
In order to prevent bureaucrats from causing serious problems, the easiest thing is to break out of the information cocoon and personally contact the grassroots.
Starting from October, Richard began to patrol the territory with his own soldiers. He would go to every village, factory and mine in person, talk to the slaves, see the real situation at the grassroots level, and solve some problems for the grassroots level to the best of his ability.
After walking all the way, Richard is quite satisfied with the current situation.
Last year when Richard was still in the territory, he could see some elderly people and children who had frozen to death, abandoned in the woods outside the village, and eaten by wild dogs.
There is a lot of food stored this year, and the wool spinning in the territory is on the right track, producing a large amount of sweaters and woolen cloth. Coupled with the successful development of the coal mine, it can provide sufficient fuel for the indentured servants, and no one has been seen freezing to death along the way.
After walking all the way, in late October, Richard came to Zhuanyao Village.
Brick Kiln Village is located near the Bobi Brick Kiln Factory, and almost all the villagers are workers from the brick kiln factory.
The brick kiln factory was separated from official management last year and began to operate on the market.
From last year to this year, because there were still relatively few free people building houses, they mainly relied on official orders for survival.
Of course, official orders will not be given high prices, and sometimes they cannot even get cash, so they can only pay in kind such as grain, salt, brown sugar, woolen cloth, steel, etc.
Last year, the Bobi Brick Kiln Factory only made a profit of 500 gold coins.
Rooney, the director of the brick kiln factory, was appointed by Richard as the civil affairs officer of Fort Sophia because of his strong management ability. He left the factory line and rose to the top of the territorial bureaucracy.
The deputy director, Bobby, is not good at managing people. He still serves as the deputy director of production, but he gets a 2% dividend from the brick kiln factory. On the contrary, the director of the factory, Layton, did not play a key role in the development of the brick kiln factory and did not have any shares in the brick kiln factory.
If Rooney is willing to be the director of the factory, Richard once promised to give him a 2% dividend on dry shares. But Rooney gave up the dividends from the brick kiln factory for the sake of his future.
As long as Bobby lives, he can continue to receive this share of stock, but he cannot inherit it to future generations.
Because the brick kiln factory was not very profitable, Poppy only received ten gold coins in dividends last year.
Poppy's salary is relatively high, one gold coin and six silver coins a month. Counting dividends, bonuses, etc., he earned more than 30 gold coins last year, which is comparable to that of a deputy squadron leader in the army.
And his job is easier and more stable than that of an officer. At least he didn't need to go to the front line in person to fight for his life against the orc army. In the seven years since he joined the Harland Territory, Bobby not only married a wife, but also had two lovers, and his life was very good.
Compared with before joining the Harland Territory, it can be said that a class leap has been achieved and a complete transformation has been achieved.
When Richard came to Brick Kiln Village, Layton and Bobby received the news and rushed into Brick Kiln Village with the management of the brick kiln factory.
The villagers of Zhuanyao Village looked at the management with flattering and frightened eyes when they saw Layton and Bobby.
Seeing this scene, Richard sighed in his heart: "The cute Bobby back then who was dedicated to improving the brick-making process has disappeared and turned into a bureaucrat like Leiden. Time is really a butcher's knife, and it has changed countless things. People."
Richard nodded to Layton, Bobby and others, and then entered a villager's yard.
The courtyard is the most standard house type in Harland territory. It is twelve meters deep and fifteen meters wide. The three houses face north and south, with an area of about 60 square meters.
Seeing Richard coming in with a group of people, the owner of the house was immediately shocked. Seeing Richard, he was so excited that he couldn't speak.
Richard can understand this kind of mentality. When a high-ranking big man comes to his side, he can't help but feel a kind of excitement and admiration in his heart. This is an emotion common to all human beings.
When Richard met the county magistrate, he was equally excited.
"Don't be excited. I see you look familiar. You should be one of the first old people to enter the territory. Is your name Robinson?"
Since learning magic and greatly improving his mental power, Richard's memory has become very amazing.
He can recall people he met a few years ago.
Hearing the lord call his name, Robinson became even more excited, his face turned red, and he was even a little excited.
After Robinson finally calmed down, Richard asked, "How many people are there in your family now?"
"I married Celia. When we got married, she had two children and took care of her parents-in-law. After we got married, we had three children. Now there are nine people in my family." "Nine people
can Forty-five acres of land are allocated to you. You want to work in a brick kiln. Can the elderly and children do it?" "
Last year, some of the land could not be planted, and the harvest was not very good. This year, our family bought a mule. Celia's big My son Sola is already sixteen this year, and her second child is fourteen. Her parents-in-law are not too old and can grow." "
How is the harvest this year? Can you survive?"
"Thank you kind lord. "This year, in addition to the rations we left behind, the food we grew, and the food we sold for one meal, plus my salary, we can have a balance of three to four gold coins." "It's going to snow these days. Do you have enough fuel in reserve?
"
"The children have been collecting firewood since spring. By winter, the firewood has been piled high. The firewood behind the house belongs to my family. In addition, we also spent two silver coins to buy a thousand kilograms of coal for the winter. " There is enough fuel."
Richard went out to look at the firewood pile and found a big tree. He lowered his head and said to Layton: "Promote to the people in the territory not to cut down big trees. Once all the big trees are cut down, not only will the future Without firewood, serious soil erosion will occur."
Seeing Robinson's fear, Richard turned around and asked pleasantly, "What are you going to do with the gold coins you saved?"
"Sora is of age to get married. , he will have his own family and will no longer be able to live with us. I will use this money to build a house for Sola next year." "It's a good idea. The goddess of the morning favors hard-working
people. If you encounter unfairness If you have any questions, you can ask someone to write to me. I will come to Zhuanyao Village to visit you next year."
(End of this chapter)