The brave man opened the coffin and rose

Chapter 163 Labor and Slime City

What is the difference between a city, a city-state and a castle?

A city usually refers to an area with dense population, prosperous business, political center and cultural concentration, usually a larger residential and commercial area.

The city-state is a system of city-states in ancient Western times, or in the world where Abes is currently located.

Its area of ​​authority includes the city itself and its surrounding suburban and rural areas, which have their own government and are independent political entities.

A castle is a building, usually built for defensive purposes, to protect the inhabitants of a city or city-state from attack by hostile forces.

In the North, or in the current world, city-states and cities are often built around castles and walls.

However, depending on their importance and level of development, not all settlements have tall and huge walls.

Generally speaking, only capital cities like the royal capital would have two layers of city walls, an inner city and an outer city, plus the high walls and fortresses of the royal palace castle itself - strictly speaking, there are three layers of defense.

If it weren't for Abes and his men using grenades to take down the first layer of the city wall and a trick to trick the second layer of the city wall into opening, and if the fake king in the palace didn't want to resist, the battle for the capital would probably have continued for a long time.

When the situation changed, General Paddy immediately dispatched Davis's troops to defend the area near Sweetleaf Town, and also specially allocated laborers and stones to hope that Davis's troops would build city walls. The reason was that in today's world, city walls are still an absolutely advantageous defensive fortification.

Now, with General Paddy missing, the laborers and stones were naturally taken advantage of by Abes and his men.

As materials, the stones naturally became spoils of war, classified as collective public property, and allocated to the construction of a series of new fortifications built outside the east gate of the royal capital around the teleportation stele.

For these workers, the situation is a little more complicated.

Because they are human beings, but unlike before, they did not fight with the people on Abes' side, so they cannot be considered prisoners.

But at the same time, they are not the citizens of Sweetleaf Town or the citizens of the Royal Capital, whose existence is tacitly accepted as power changes.

Adhering to his consistent principles, Abesi did not forcibly detain these workers, but instead preached freedom and dignity to them.

"We are not the bullies of the old days. We fight for the freedom and dignity of all people."

"Of course, you are also within the scope of our protection."

After taking over the royal capital, supplies became much more abundant.

With the support of supplies, Abes provided them with medical care and food, and after they had recovered, he gave them the freedom to choose to leave or stay.

As for these workers, when have they ever been treated like this?

After all, laborers, to put it nicely, are workers who are conscripted and recruited by the state, but at the same time are allowed to be freely employed by the people.

However, only they, or those who are in charge of or have had contact with this aspect, know the bleak situation.

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Let’s explain it from the beginning.

In the geographical situation where the North was divided again and again, it was normal to retain slavery.

As long as slavery is retained, there will naturally be certificates such as contract documents and slave registers.

Don't misunderstand that these things are for the purpose of protecting slaves. These things are for the purpose of protecting the interests of slave owners. It's just that the health indicators of slaves and the cleanness of their family background just happen to be part of the interests.

Therefore, it is easy to understand that slaves have slave certificates.

But the problem is that only slaves have slave certificates and enjoy basic protection, but non-slaves do not have non-slave certificates.

It is just like a non-disabled person cannot have a non-disabled certificate and cannot apply for corresponding subsidies.

However, the laborers were labeled as serving the "country" and contributing to every need of the "country", which made them almost slaves without proof of slavery.

According to the original regulations, they were all eldest sons or brothers selected from families with abundant labor force and many children and grandchildren.

However, as the North was divided again and again for unknown reasons, no one cared about this rule anymore.

As the two cities attacked each other, there were so many fortifications, walls, cities, canals that needed to be built... and even the reconstruction needs of the citizens.

Therefore, it was common to capture refugees, or even directly invade villages and farms, and use the captured people as conscripted laborers.

When needed, they can be hired farmers, canal workers, or citizens who earn wages and pay taxes.

But they just couldn't be slaves.

After all, from the perspective of formal channels and relevant laws, the price of a slave needs to go through the layers of increase in the price by slave owners, local tax officials, other local bureaucrats, market price fluctuations of slaves, and even a "protection association" composed of a group of ruffians.

Their health protection and basic treatment require a large amount of money.

Therefore, no matter how bleak the situation is, there will always be people who insist on standing up and saying that they are not slaves and there are no outcasts in the kingdom.

But at the same time, the disappearance or death of workers would not attract any attention.

Therefore, because of the protection of laws and power, slaves changed their names, and those who were named slaves were no longer real slaves.

When Kronos first learned these things, he almost covered his chest.

Although as the daughter of the Mels family, she knew a lot about the superiors, and also knew many inheritances and secrets from thousands of years ago.

But after all, her mother's generation had fallen on hard times and had to live on a farm. She herself was a thorough farm girl, so how could she know that such things would happen behind the hired laborers?

In the past, she really thought that the things she had heard about farms and villages being attacked and abducted by bad guys who came from nowhere were really robbers or alien species from the Eastern Wilderness. Now it seems that the truth is still unknown.

Wilford and Hiiragi are much clearer about this.

"This dark side is everywhere. That's why I admire Lord Abes's determination to eradicate it completely." Hiiragi said in a low voice.

Why do laborers exist? Is it because of slavery?

Maybe.

However, those in power can certainly refute that the real slaves are fine, they are not slaves, and it is obviously their own choice to work harder. If they can't stand it, they can just sell themselves into slavery...

Although, those who sold themselves as slaves would most likely be granted free status soon as a pretense, and then be classified as wage laborers.

Wilford explained this cautiously, "In fact, when I was developing new trade routes in the early years, I needed some manpower, so I hired some laborers. But don't worry, I paid them according to the normal workers' price."

"Now, several of them have settled down in Sweet Leaf Town..."

Normal price?... Abes did not ask Wilford further, he knew very well what the correct answer was.

The workers who are forcibly organized by the "state" or local bureaucrats to sell their labor can of course easily compete with ordinary workers who sell their labor in terms of price.

So, how can it be a normal price?

It is natural that various tragedies arose around this policy, which was nominally a labor concentration policy but was actually a slavery policy organized by the "state" or local bureaucrats.

As long as we think from the perspective of interests, we will have the answer to why bureaucrats withheld relief funds and supplies, why soldiers laid down their knives against the people they were supposed to protect, why refugees needed to migrate at any time and were unwilling to stay in one place for too long or to get close to the areas where local bureaucrats were located.

The North, a land that has been washed in madness and despair for 333 years and tortured for more than a hundred years by a group of psychopaths who put blood above all else, is like a huge natural battlefield where the strong prey on the weak.

Anyone who dares to show a hint of weakness and fatigue will be turned into cheap canned meat, either actively or passively.

In the gluttonous feast attended by the superiors, they were completely exploited.

With the above knowledge, when you see Abes Grande, the man with the name of a brave man from thousands of years ago, offering the workers food, medical care and the freedom to choose to stay or leave, what choice will you make?

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When hearing Abes recount the conclusions he had drawn after reading through the documents and records of the royal capital and interrogating some of the minor noble bureaucrats, Hyogi who was present was actually a little worried.

Because since the ancient hero in front of him has so much material evidence to support that reality is not idealistic, will this ancient hero just give up his idealistic and optimistic thinking and turn to a more stable and realistic side?

In fact, even if he gave up, no one would blame him. After all, the other party had already defeated the Dragon Disaster a thousand years ago. Now, with a group of farmers, refugees and small town residents, they took down the capital of the small kingdom. This was already an exciting thing.

The words he preached had slowly but surely begun to spread across the North.

I wonder what the other warlords would think when they heard these propaganda slogans.

And now... after understanding what kind of group the workers are, will the hero before us make changes?

Bing Nagi subconsciously clenched her palms, her nails almost piercing the skin on the palms.

Only finally, she heard Wilford, who was also present, sigh in relief.

So she raised her head and looked at the corner of Abes's mouth that seemed to be smiling.

"Fortunately, we now have enough supplies to last for a long time. The 'king' handed over a lot of things to save his life, and even the treasury can be mine."

"In order to avoid being liquidated, those minor nobles also expressed their desire to contact me privately early on."

"What they promised is enough to keep us going for a long time..."

"Now, the new little kingdom of New Womuza definitely does not need those workers to make sacrifices again."

"It's up to them whether to stay or go, and the relevant policies will be abolished or modified, and additional supervisory posts will be added."

"My request for the future is simple: the law is equal, including the makers and the executors, who are all within the framework."

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When Abesi announced the drafts to the workers, he was first met with deathly silence, followed by unimaginable applause.

Amidst the many shouts and excited calls, Abes still heard some people asking questions.

"Excuse me...Excuse me...What's your name?"

"Abes, Abes Grande, I seem to have been a hero."

With these detailed introductions and guarantees, most of the laborers chose to stay, and immediately participated in many construction tasks in Tianye Town and the Royal Capital as workers.

The group that did not stay mainly had serious psychological problems - the situation of being killed by grenades was too tragic.

The main reason was that Abes had to deal with two waves of enemies, General Paddy and the Lizardmen, at the same time. In a hurry, Abes had no time to check whether there were any non-combatants in General Paddy's team.

How could he have imagined that his plan of sending people to lure General Paddy's troops to rush to the main road to engage in a dog-fight with the Lizardmen would result in the death of a group of laborers standing on the side of the team?

Abes is not the kind of guy who has no sense of responsibility. He will not say things like this is a necessary sacrifice to show his moral superiority.

"No one is perfect. If you make a mistake, you make it. Making amends and apologizing are more important than anything else. There is no need to use words like 'necessary' to show that you are on an absolute moral high ground."

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After finally dealing with the laborers' affairs, Abes turned his attention to dealing with Slime City and Raven Castle.

The Slime City is undoubtedly the most ordinary city.

It only has one wall which is not very high and does not cover a large enough area.

There are many reasons why such a city does not build high walls.

First of all, it is because its two sides are connected to the royal capital and Raven Castle respectively.

On one side is the capital of the small kingdom of Łomza, and on the other side is a military fortress. How much money can an ordinary city like it apply for to build city walls?

Are you worthy enough to compete with the capital or the military stronghold?

As long as these two sides are as solid as a rock, what can happen to you?

Let’s not talk about whether the funds can be applied for for now.

When the application comes, there is another problem.

That is, why is the Slime City called the Slime City?

This is because the foundation of the city is extremely soft and cannot support high walls at all, and even stone walls cannot fully support it.

Therefore, there is only one low wall in the entire city, which is also a helpless choice.

With only a low wall, it is conceivable that the lord of the Slime City would not even want to fight and would simply side with General Paddy.

And now, what Abes and the others have to do is to hope that this spineless person will fall towards them once.