Chapter 198 Patrolling the Territory

After the autumn harvest, October soon arrived.

Richard looked at the population statistics. This year, through official purchases of slaves, receiving escaped slaves, private purchases of slaves, etc., the Harland Territory has increased by 15,000 people.

With 15,000 more mouths and thousands of families, can these newly added slaves settle down? Will they be bullied by bureaucrats? Richard was a little worried.

Through his past life, Richard knew that the bureaucratic system had various drawbacks, the most common of which was to deceive the superiors and create a closed information cocoon for the superiors, coaxing the superiors around and confining them to fabricated lies.

Many times, the policies of the top leaders are often the closest to the people at the bottom, but in the process of policy communication and implementation, they are distorted and misinterpreted by the bureaucrats, and eventually become a tool for some people to profit from the people.

They use the space where the top leaders are far away from the grassroots to conceal many things and coerce and induce the lower ones.

Even if the Dawn Plane is a world where the great power belongs to itself, this situation will still occur, but it is not as serious as in the previous life.

The superiors of the Dawn Plane have a strong power in their own hands, so their deterrent power to the bureaucracy is naturally far greater than those who rely on the bureaucracy to gain power.

For example, Richard can control the power of the Harland Territory not only because of the king's appointment and noble bloodline, but more importantly, he relies on the power of himself and his family to manage the territory and form an army. His own power is the fundamental reason for his control of the territory. So he doesn't need to compromise with the bureaucrats. If someone makes him dissatisfied, he can easily overturn the table and replace or even kill people.

Even so, the deception of the lower level is still very serious.

As long as you want to govern the people, you must have the bureaucracy.

In order to prevent the bureaucrats from doing serious things, the simplest thing is to break the information cocoon and personally contact the grassroots.

Starting from October, Richard began to patrol the territory with his personal soldiers. He would go to every village and factory in person to talk to the slaves, see the real situation at the grassroots level, and solve some problems for the grassroots to the best of his ability.

Along the way, Richard is quite satisfied with the current situation.

Last year, when Richard was still in the territory, he could see some old people and children who had frozen to death, abandoned in the woods outside the village, and eaten by wild dogs.

This year, there is a lot of grain in stock, and the wool textile industry in the territory is on the right track, producing a large number of sweaters and woolen cloth. In addition, the successful development of coal mines can provide sufficient fuel for contract slaves, and no one has frozen to death along the way.

After walking all the way, in late October, Richard came to the Brick Kiln Village.

The Brick Kiln Village is located near the Bobi Brick Kiln Factory, and almost all the villagers are workers in the brick kiln factory.

The brick kiln factory was separated from official management last year and began to operate in a market-oriented manner.

From last year to this year, because there are still relatively few free people building houses, they mainly rely on official orders to survive.

Of course, official orders will not be high-priced, and sometimes they can't even take out cash, so they can only use food, salt, brown sugar, woolen cloth, steel and other physical objects to cover the account.

Last year, the Bobi Brick Kiln Factory only made a profit of 500 gold coins.

Because of his strong management ability, the director of the brick kiln factory, Rooney, was appointed by Richard as the civil affairs officer of Sophia Castle. After leaving the factory, he was promoted to a high-ranking position among the territory's bureaucrats.

Deputy Factory Director Bobby is not good at managing people, and he still serves as the deputy director of production, but he has a 2% dry stock dividend of the brick kiln factory. On the contrary, Factory Director Leighton has no shares in the brick kiln factory because he did not play a key role in the development of the brick kiln factory.

If Rooney is willing to be the factory director, Richard once promised to give him a 2% dry stock dividend. But Rooney gave up the dividend of the brick kiln factory for his future.

As long as Bobby is alive, he can continue to receive this dry stock, but it cannot be inherited by his descendants.

Because the profit of the brick kiln factory is not high, Bobby only received a dividend of ten gold coins last year.

Bobby's salary is relatively high, one gold coin and six silver coins a month. Counting dividends, bonuses, etc., he earned more than thirty gold coins last year, which is comparable to the deputy captain of the army.

And his job is easier and more stable than that of an officer. At least he does not need to go to the front line in person to fight with the orc army.

After seven years in Harland, Bobby not only married a wife, but also had two lovers, and he lived a very good life.

Compared with before joining Harland, it can be said that he has achieved a class leap and completely turned over.

Richard came to the Brick Kiln Village. Leighton and Bobby received the news and rushed into the Brick Kiln Village with the management of the brick kiln factory.

The villagers of the Brick Kiln Village looked at Leighton, Bobby and other management with flattering and fearful eyes.

Seeing this scene, Richard sighed in his heart: "The cute Bobby who was dedicated to improving the brick-making process disappeared and became a bureaucrat like Leighton. Time is really a butcher knife, changing countless people."

Richard nodded to Leighton, Bobby and others, and then entered a villager's yard.

The yard is the most standard house type in Harland. Twelve meters deep and fifteen meters wide, three houses facing north and south, with an area of ​​about sixty square meters.

Seeing Richard coming in with a group of people, the owner of the house was shocked. When he saw Richard, he was so excited that he couldn't speak.

Richard could understand this mentality. When a high-ranking person came to him, he would involuntarily feel excited and admired. This is an emotion shared by all human beings.

Richard was also excited when he met the county magistrate.

"Don't get excited. You look familiar to me. You must be one of the first elders to enter the territory. Is your name Robinson?"

Since learning magic and greatly improving his mental power, Richard's memory has become amazing.

He can even recall the people he met a few years ago.

Hearing the lord calling out his name, Robinson became even more excited, his face turned red, and he even felt 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 brought two children with her and had to take 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 share 45 acres of land. If you go to work in a brick kiln factory, can you rely on the elderly and children to grow crops?"

"Last year, it was a bit difficult to grow crops, and the harvest was not very good. This year, our family bought a mule. Celia's eldest son Sora is sixteen this year, and the second son is fourteen. Her parents-in-law are not old, so they can grow crops."

"How is the harvest this year? Can we make ends meet?"

"Thanks to the kind lord, this year, in addition to the rations left, we planted grain, sold a meal of grain, and my salary, we can save three to four gold coins."

"It's going to snow these days. Is the fuel in stock enough?"

"The children have been collecting firewood since spring. By winter, the firewood has been piled up very high. The firewood behind the house belongs to my family. In addition, we used two silver coins to buy a thousand kilograms of coal, which is enough fuel for the winter."

Richard walked out to look at the firewood pile and found a big tree. He bowed his head and said to Leighton: "Publicize more to the people in the territory not to cut down big trees. If all the big trees are cut down, there will not only be no firewood in the future, but also serious soil erosion."

Seeing that Robinson was a little panic, Richard turned his head and asked kindly: "What are you going to do with the saved gold coins?"

"Sora is of marriageable age. He will have his own family and can't live with us. I plan to use this money to build a house for Sora next year."

"Good idea, the goddess of dawn favors hardworking people. If you encounter unfair things, you can ask someone to write to me, and I will come to visit you in the brick kiln village next year."