Five Hundred and Seventeenth REBIRTH V: Elk Woodland

Ferries, alleys, carriages, fields...

Crossing the blue Kappes Bay and driving through the clean and tidy estuary city, when the scenery around the car gradually opened up, and the continuous grass hills replaced the buildings, Raul finally saw the green and white road sign carved with pansy lace on the side of the dirt road .

There are three single-arrow road signs, one of which points to the northwest, with the words [Bosques De Alces] in black cursive on the board, a woodland where elk haunts.

Raul secretly taught himself a little handwriting in Viscount Zona's cowshed, and he could barely make out [Alces]'s handwriting.

That is the meaning of elk. Probably because of easy writing and easy recognition, the talkative coachman referred to the elk woodland as Arces for short along the way.

Is our new home at the end of this road? Raul's heart throbbed.

The destination of the section carriage was in Mailang Township, and it would never turn into the small road of Arces. The Bocklon family could only get off at the side road regrettably.

Raúl held his sister's hand, while Mom and Dad carried the luggage.

After all the luggage was unloaded from the carriage, the coachman said to his father: "Follow this path and walk one kilometer to Arces. Do you see the stream next to it? If you see a fork in the road, follow the water."

"Except for this one correct road, the other roads were either treaded by Indians or left by wild beasts looking for water. You are not familiar with the place, if you take the wrong one, you may be in danger."

Dad nodded hurriedly.

"What do you want to do first when you get home?" asked the coachman.

"Probably... I want to build the house first, and I can't let the children live in tents all the time."

"The Chamber of Commerce provides authentic felt tents. Although they may be a little old, they have excellent thermal performance and spacious space, so you can take your time when the house is big."

"My suggestion to you is to go to Mailang Township to find a job as soon as you settle down. You only need one person to take care of the fields at home. Anyway, even if you grow potatoes, it will take 100 days from planting to harvesting."

"Before that, you have to get a foothold first. There is a labor referral office set up by the Chamber of Commerce in Mailang Township. If there is a job, there will be a salary, and if there is a salary, there will be food. This is the key."

"I see……"

Dad suddenly realized, and the anxiety about the unknown life in his heart dissipated a bit.

The family bid farewell to the coachman and embarked on the journey. The weather in Miami is warm and pleasant, and there is already a sense of spring after New Year's Day.

The grass sprouts new life, and the birds sing joyously.

Sophia fell asleep in her mother's arms. They had been walking in a strange land for a day since they disembarked from the boat early in the morning. Now the sunset was hanging in the sky, bright red and yellow, setting off a large cloud of fire, lying leisurely in the forest at the edge of the sky.

They soon saw the stream that came up so many times in the conversation. The clear stream is less than half a meter deep, and there are large rocky beaches on both sides, covered with dazzling pebbles.

Go straight along the stream, cross several specious forks, and cross a brand new wooden bridge from the left bank of the stream to the right bank.

The elk forest is there, with green pastures nearby and gentle rolling hills farther away.

At the end of the hill is the forest, which is supposed to be the legendary wild forest where deer and Indians live.

Dad put down his luggage, wiped his sweat, and glanced at the scattered tents far and near.

There were twenty or thirty tents, but only a dozen of them had their curtains lifted, and the yard was full of firewood and fodder. A group of children chased the puppy and passed through the tents, laughing and running to the village square.

There is the only official building in the village on the square, a small wooden building with two towers, the flag of Spain and the state flag of the Florida Governor's Mansion are flying on the top of the tower, and there is a simple flagpole in the open space in front of the building. It was barely two stories high, and the pansy flag Papa already knew was fluttering from the flagpole.

However, this pansy is different from the pansies seen along the way. It has no lines and borders, and the calyx overlaps to form an X-like shape. At first glance, it looks like a pirate flag with a white background.

"That's the village hall, right?" Dad pointed to the white-flagged pirate flag, "Ms. Vivienne told us to find the village chief first... Raul, let mom and sister have a rest, let's go to the village chief first."

"Hmm." Raul nodded solemnly.

...

Different from the three-dimensional political model established by the Eastern Empire during the long period of centralization, the Western political model has always been a combination of flat and three-dimensional.

This is the political legacy of the feudal fief era.

In that era, the lord had complete and independent political rights in his own territory, and each fief could be regarded as an independent country.

The fief government is only responsible to their lord, and the lord himself, as a vassal of the superior lord, needs to be responsible to his lord.

The so-called lord's lord is not my lord, and the vassal's vassal is not my vassal, from this.

This political model has undergone subtle changes over time as civil rights awareness has grown.

Taking constitutional Britain as an example, the aristocratic class headed by the king handed over power and was replaced by the parliament representing the "nation".

Governments at all levels are accountable to parliaments at all levels, thus completing the “flat” formation in the political model. The head of government is responsible to the higher government, thus completing the formation of the "three-dimensional".

The United States, which advocates democracy, carried out a bold "de-three-dimensional" reform of this political model after its founding.

The governor no longer needs to be responsible to the federal government, only to the state legislature; the mayor and town mayor are no longer responsible to the state government, only to the city and town councils.

They have even begun to experiment with truly popular politics.

In American towns, villages, and some towns, they have completely abandoned the parliament, and instead hold an open "resident assembly" during the annual parliamentary week.

Under this administrative division, every registered and adult resident can speak freely at the residents' assembly, discuss and decide the legislation and budget of the town/township/village, and the government will make a special or comprehensive administrative report to the assembly.

The Residents' Assembly also elects the Administrative Council.

The members of the committee are different from the former councilors. They are amateur and public welfare in nature, and they no longer hold specific rights. They only represent the general assembly to supervise the daily operation of the government, public affairs, and use the special funds resolved by the assembly to hire suitable towns/townships. /village head.

This is a major innovation in the political system, the head of government employment system.

Through this market-oriented approach, government members are completely separated from the original civil servant system, and the operation of the government tends to be that of a company. The relationship between the government and the committee is like that of the CEO and the board of directors, and the residents are similar to the shareholders of the company.

Lorraine appreciates this kind of anarchic government reform, but Miami is a Spanish colony after all. Even if the Drake Chamber of Commerce has a great say, it is impossible to change the inherent political model of the country.

The mayor of Miami is still appointed by the Governor's Mansion and is responsible to the Political Council and the Governor's Mansion at the same time. There is a district hall under the city hall, and a district council under the town council.

But at the grassroots level where there is no council, such as the "community" in Hekou Township and the "village" in Tianyuan Township, Lorraine still exerted his influence on Miami.

Grass-roots administrative affairs are dominated by the residents' assembly, imitating the American election administrative committee. The members of the committee are set to three to five people according to the grass-roots population, and the chairman of the committee is the head of the community/township/village.

Regardless of the nature of the committee or the chairman of the committee, they are all amateurs and public welfare. They are not civil servants and do not receive job remuneration. If the residents' assembly thinks that a full-time manager is needed to manage the grassroots, the assembly will raise the funds for the employment and the committee will implement the employment. It has copied the American "political for all" model.

This system has been implemented for a short period of time. Even in Hekou Town, only two communities held the first residents' assembly and completed the first committee election.

The remaining applicable communities/townships/villages are still in the implementation stage, and the temporary managers are temporarily concurrently held by Drake’s employees, only ensuring the two key points of amateur and public welfare in terms of personnel nature, and restraining the rights of the future administrative committee from the source .

But for the time being, Dad and Raul don't know that Miami is different from the original Zona Viscounty.

They took it for granted that the Elk Grove was equated with the knight fiefs of the Spanish mainland, the village hall as the knight's castle, and the village chief as the great and noble knight lord.

They tremblingly walked towards the brand-new small building, which was far from luxurious, their eyes flicked from bottom to bottom, anxiously looking for the vicious dogs hiding in the shadows and those superior guards and servants who could communicate for them.

But they found nothing.

There are no guards, servants, or vicious dogs. Outside the village hall, there is only a docile pony tied to a horse post. Its body is shiny and shiny, and there are still wet spots on the ground.

Dad is in trouble.

There are only playful children outside Lord Knight's castle, and the children are dressed as poor children, what should I do?

Raul silently tugged at the corner of his father's clothes, stretched out his hand, and pointed to the open gate of the village hall.

Papa gave Raul a reproachful look, which was clear and obvious.

[So what if the door is open? Did you break in? 】

Raul immediately returned the wink: 【Can you knock on the door? 】

[Knock on the door? If you ran into something, wouldn't you be asking for trouble? 】

[But you can't just stand there, right? ] Raul pressed the corner of his eyes in the direction of his mother, 【Mom is still holding Sophia and waiting. 】

"this……"

Dad covered his mouth and murmured, and before the muffled voice could come out of his mouth, a burly man with a swollen face came out of the village office.

He was wearing wide-leg cotton trousers and a loose shirt like a docker. His short blond hair was upturned, and his bulging cheeks were intertwined with bright scars.

He only has one hand!

The veins in the only right hand were bulging, and the thick palm was holding a long, half-eaten bread stick, walking like a dragon and a tiger, with great power and prestige.

He strode straight from the gate into the square, yelled at the children with a gong-like voice, "You bastards! Go back and eat potatoes!"

The children dispersed in a rush, leaving only various exclamations floating in the air along the evening wind.

"Run! The pirates are coming!"

Raul and his father looked at each other, staring at each other for a long time, and saw the increasingly pale face from the reverse view of each other's pupils.

"Sea... pirates?!"