Winter entered the 10th year of the New Fuli Calendar, and Demacia ushered in a brief period of peace.
The invisible smoke between the royal family and the nobility finally dissipated, and everything seemed to have returned to the time when the old king was on the throne, the era when you were good, I was good, and everyone was good.
After three years of hard work, the Illuminati has gradually found its own place at the grassroots level.
To the lords everywhere, these Illuminati missionaries are like pebbles in a clam. After three years of grinding, they gradually become somewhat rounded like pearls.
In the past, lords from various places mostly relied on the nobles of their families if they wanted to manage their fiefs well.
However, this kind of management method that relies on family branches is not bad for large families. For example, the Crownguard family has a large business. Many of the branches have specialized in family industry management or fiefdom management since they were young. In this case,
They are relatively professional, but for those small nobles, their ability to branch out is simply a lottery ticket.
If the scraping is done well, the family's fiefdom will be prosperous, and the clan will be worried about Li Daitao's death; if it is scraped poorly, the good fiefdom will be in dire straits, and the situation will deteriorate, and the family will even have to hire a tax collector to manage it on its behalf.
…
In the absence of a stable talent selection and appointment mechanism, nepotism in various places has both advantages and disadvantages, and from the perspective of the family, it definitely does more harm than good.
However, as the royal family wedged the power of the Illuminati into the grassroots, and after the resistance was hopeless, the lords from various places suddenly gradually discovered that these Illuminati missionaries seemed to have something.
Of course there is something!
Branches of the nobility may not be sent to study and learn to read, but none of the Illuminati missionaries are illiterate!
If these missionaries were not literate, capable of writing and arithmetic, why would Jarvan IV choose to let them become the tentacles of the royal family reaching out to the grassroots?
Realizing that missionaries are rare talents and that they cannot exclude them, many lords' minds gradually became active - after all, you are sent by the king, so if you don't use it, it will be in vain!
As a result, the grassroots missionaries of the Illuminati who were supposed to supervise the lords in various places gradually began to hook up with the local lords.
This is not a betrayal, but a necessity, because no matter whether they are missionaries or lords, they are essentially their own people.
The relationship between everyone was not good before, and it was because the royal family and the nobles had always maintained a confrontational attitude.
But in essence, Demacia is still a feudal kingdom with military nobles as the main rulers!
The royal family, the nobility, the Illuminati, they do fight each other sometimes, but once the situation is stable, they are still their own people.
Now the lords everywhere can't refuse the arrival of Illuminati missionaries. Since they can't resist, let's take advantage of them and make them their own!
There has always been a gap between the taxes collected from the common people and the share that fell to the nobles.
This part of the benefits was previously taken away by side nobles and tax merchants.
And now... there is nothing wrong with transferring it to the missionaries of the Illuminati!
Even many nobles with flexible minds have begun to strongly support their children from the side branches to study and convert to the Illuminati.
The purpose of Jarvan IV's support of the Illuminati was to wrest power from the hands of the nobles. He achieved this, but he did not completely achieve it.
He did it because under the pressure of Jarvan IV, the power of the Demacian nobles was indeed greatly weakened. Even the Noble Council, a place where nobles united to put pressure on the royal family, was about to become
Now that Jarvan IV's words are clear, it will take a lot of effort for the nobles to oppose the king's proposal.
The reason why it didn't happen is also very simple. Although Jarvan IV did change the basic order of Demacia to a certain extent, this change was closer to "regeneration after introducing a variable" rather than to
A complete transformation to follow the wishes of Jarvan IV.
The entry of the Illuminati has indeed opened up a new track, but after all, the lords of various places and the local missionaries cannot always be clear-cut.
In comparison, only armies that live in a relatively simple environment, receive relatively good personal treatment, and do not make much profit can still remain relatively reliable.
Now Jarvan IV had to eagerly open up Shurima trade, largely to maintain this rare reliability.
……………………
The royal family was mobilizing resources and manpower, and began to confidently prepare for gold mining in Shurima. In the north, Lux took advantage of this rare opportunity to launch Forsbarrow's first internal purge.
This is Lux's first large-scale internal disciplinary review since arriving at Forsbarrow.
When Lux first came to Forsbarrow, the Archon and the private army had no interest in Forsbarrow, and the Archon at that time had just gotten rid of his status as a prisoner, although occasionally there were cases of corruption or malfeasance.
They were punished for their problems and were even sent to a real demon-forbidden prison. However, overall, the atmosphere within Lux's mages, clerks, and Northern Walkers organization was quite positive.
However, with the completion of Xinfuku City and Xinfukuo Port, and with the gradual rise of northern trade and Fusbairo trade, more and more money began to flow through the hands of the law enforcers and clerks - once the economy develops, the same
The economic benefits that power can bring will also increase.
In Forsbarrow, when the first batch of clerks came to work, even if they wanted to use public power for private purposes, they could at most give themselves some trivial preferential treatment in terms of meal subsidy, or give themselves too much in the promotion and planting of new crops.
Just give some advice to relatives and friends.
At that time, clerks could only really do errands.
However, Xinfu Port has now become the largest port along the entire Sea of Conquest. The power that was once insignificant can now bring extremely amazing benefits to the clerks.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Even if you are just an ordinary port administrator, the gold coins you handle every day are quite amazing.
Although you need to provide a voucher to pay the port entry fee, and you will need this voucher if you want to buy or sell bulk commodities in Forsbarrow later, but after all, it depends on the human effort, the displacement of the ship, the number of sailors on the ship, the specific time when the ship is berthed, etc., these are all
It was up to the port administrator to make his own judgment - so soon businessmen started offering bribes.
The berth fee at Xin Fook Port Terminal is very expensive because it is essentially a tax.
For these businessmen, rather than paying staggering berth fees, it is often more profitable to give a sum of money to the port administrator so that they can pay a little less.
Even though every ship will be told that it cannot evade berth fees when entering the port, and any evasion of berth fees will result in a tenfold fine, over time, the port administrator and familiar businessmen gradually developed a tacit understanding.
In the beginning, this tacit understanding may just be for the sake of being acquaintances, to wipe out a little change for the other party in exchange for a few bags of good tea, but once the hole is opened, it will naturally gradually collapse and get bigger.
The erasure gradually developed from the berthing time to a fraction of the displacement and a fraction of the number of sailors.
The gifts in exchange have changed from tea leaves among the goods to new gadgets, rare gadgets, and even luxury gadgets from all over the world.
Perhaps the tacit understanding at the beginning was just a compliance operation between acquaintances for convenience and efficiency, but over time, corruption will still breed from it.
During this disciplinary review, a specialized tax avoidance industry chain was even discovered - foreign businessmen who were familiar with the port administrator simply stopped running their own ships and instead went to work as brokers on other people's ships, specializing in "reducing berth fees."
work; and the port administrator also dragged down the accountant who managed the accounts and the administrator of the big lighthouse...
Afterwards, calculations showed that due to the collusion between the port administrator and foreign merchants, the total amount of berth fees undercharged exceeded 10,000 Demacia gold coins.
After figuring out the truth of the matter, Lux punished the port administrator involved without hesitation, fired the lighthouse administrator and the port accountant, and launched Forsbarrow's first large-scale internal disciplinary purge.
.
Although the results are not shocking, they are enough to give people chills.
The port and terminal side is the most direct transaction of money and power, while in Xinfu City, there are more tricks - facts have proved that even if Lux studies and criticizes the nobles several times, when some people have power in their hands,
They will still aspire to become nobles and gain recognition from the nobles.
Although these people would not have access to any core information, many of their actions still had an extremely bad impact on Forsbarrow.
A simple exchange of benefits would be fine.
The worst thing is that Lux even discovered that the person in charge of immigration affairs was instructed by other nobles to select civilians with good looks from the immigrants to become human traffickers.
Even if three of the clerks involved were hanged and eight were imprisoned in the Forbidden Prison, the nobles involved were also blacklisted for trade in the North, and they would later encounter Count Laxana, a noble paragon.
Iron Fist...but what has happened cannot be changed.
Although this matter was handled relatively secretly and did not affect the overall immigration situation, after the matter was completed, Lux was still unable to eat for three whole days.
This isn't the end yet.
In addition, due to the inaction and indulgence of several regional clerks, several gangs were born in Xinfukang. They charged new immigrants additional protection fees, and even openly took advantage of the new immigrants' residence subsidies, and turned several gangs into
The location is good. The first floor was originally supposed to be used as a dormitory for new immigrants and was run as a community store.
In comparison, the flesh and bones who proactively provide physiological needs services to the dock workers are already the least trouble.
It is no exaggeration to say that this is the most tiring time Lux has ever felt since she came to Forsbarrow.
Even though she knew very well why this was, she still felt heartbroken as she watched helplessly those clerks and even the law-enforcers who had walked with her along the way and witnessed Fosbarrow's getting better and better, choosing to violate the laws and rules for their own benefit.
very tired.
Although almost everyone involved in the incident had expressions full of guilt when they finally saw Lux - not only regretting that they were caught, but really having no face to face Count Laxana - this did not make them feel guilty at all.
Lux felt relaxed, but it made her heart even heavier.
"They all know this is wrong." Lux asked Kalya frustratedly, "But why do they still do it?"
"What do you think?"
"Is it because the power in their hands does not match their treatment?" Lux sighed longly, "But... this is completely impossible. The scale of northern trade is so large, and the actual power in the hands of every clerk
The power is astonishing..."
"This is caused by many aspects." Kalya said in a rare comforting tone, "Greed is a part of human nature. Think about how you felt when you faced Tam. That feeling of being greedy and ready to act does require a strong person.
It takes willpower to resist.”
Lux pursed her lips.
"What's more, what's more terrifying than strong greed is the erosion of Sun Gong Yi Pawn." Kalya told the story in an experienced tone, "Even if everyone is an adult, they still need supervision."
"The supervision department is still short of manpower." When talking about this topic, Lux's tone became more helpless, "And the supervision department must be credible, otherwise wouldn't it be more troublesome?"
"Then have you noticed that in this operation, the clerks and the Dharma Masters performed best?" Kalya asked with a smile, "Do they have anything in common?"
"What do they have in common?" Lux was stunned for a moment, then realized something, "It seems... younger clerks who have just started working perform better?"
"Then why can they resist this temptation?"
"Maybe it's because they have received a complete Forsbarrow education?" Lux blinked, "And most of them don't have any families, their relatives are relatively simple, and they don't have much desire for money...
"
"Continuous learning can give people motivation." Kalya confirmed Lux's judgment, "Even the most determined ideals sometimes need to be taken out of the cabinet and exposed to the sun to give yourself a shot of chicken blood."
"And relatively stable, worry-free interpersonal relationships can also help clerks resist greed and temptation." Lux quickly understood what Kalya meant, "It's best to downplay the impact of money on them as much as possible..."
"The scale here still needs to be explored slowly." This time, Karya did not come up with a complete plan, "Moreover, special disciplinary rectification is also necessary. If you want to curb these problems, you must take a multi-pronged approach. No one can
Don’t think you can get away with it once and for all.”
"I understand, I understand." Lux let out a long breath, "But no matter how much I understand in my heart, my chest is still a little breathless."
"Human nature is like this. As you get older, you will feel the complexity of human nature more and more." Kalya's tone finally gradually became happy, "Although excessive greed will lead to destruction and destruction, but
In many cases, it is greed that promotes the development of this world - understand it objectively, understand it rationally, and then try to guide and utilize it, ensuring that you do not lose your true heart in the process."