Ever since the change in the weather in Alano, the entire feeling of the town has changed.
The originally calm and lifeless atmosphere became lively. According to the mayor Chen Hansheng, in the new era where the Chinese are in charge, everyone will find their place.
After the baron's land was redistributed, Chen Hansheng led the former serfs, now farm workers, to do militia training in the early morning and evening, farmland water conservancy construction during the day, and cultural and agricultural knowledge learning at night. He had to improve the efficiency of each farmer and free up more hands to go to the forest farm, fish pond, mine, and factory.
These former serfs never lived their lives in a very compact or meaningful way.
It's not that no one complained that life was more tiring now than under the Baron's rule. But Chen Hansheng only had to hold up the carrot of food and money, plus the comparison of the prisoners' hard work, to make these people hide their lazy thoughts.
There will be a competition for training tasks, production tasks and learning tasks. Those who practice the most standard, complete the most planned tasks, and learn to read the fastest will be rewarded with better food. The best ones will even receive bonuses such as bronze shields and silver spears. Those who do not do well will naturally have to redo the work. Those who behave maliciously will even have their rations deducted or receive corporal punishment.
The instructors, team leaders and technicians under Chen Hansheng are not the cautious teachers on Earth, and the new employees are not fragile students. When it is time to take action, they will not miss any whip. These days, the carrot and stick approach has achieved very good results.
Even many freemen in the town were attracted by these treatments and signed up to work on the farm.
Chen Hansheng would take time out almost every other day to join in the work of water conservancy construction. Not only him, but also warriors like Kalanda, Wang Zifeng, and Mareno, as well as magicians like Glade and Crete, would join in the work as long as they were free.
This was something that the locals could not imagine. To the serfs, Chen Hansheng was like a replacement for the baron. Digging pits with a baron and building walls with a magician were things that could not be heard of in the most outlandish stories.
At first, there were always rumors that these strange Chinese were pretending to win people's hearts. But as time went on, when Chen Hansheng and others appeared in the fields again and again, all the rumors became a joke.
"I tell you, this is the power of example." Chen Hansheng, dressed in linen clothes, holding a hoe, said to Kalanda, who was also dressed for work, "As long as we take the lead, their efficiency can be increased by 30%. It's worth it!"
"I never thought that the first time I picked up a hoe would be with you." Kalanda smiled, and her coarse clothes just showed off her heroic appearance. She is now the president of the Women's Association and an idol for many local women. Every time she takes the lead in working, the women in the Women's Association behind her work hard as if they were injected with chicken blood. Although Kalanda has no experience in farm work, nothing can withstand the powerful strength and fighting spirit of a senior warrior. As long as she takes action, today's advanced people will not be able to escape her palm.
“Feeling good, huh?”
"It's a very strange feeling. I always thought that labor was a very painful thing. I didn't expect that fighting together with everyone would give me a sense of pleasure!"
“That’s because we help everyone find the meaning and value of their efforts.”
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Almost everyone found a place, except for one person: Jenny, the daughter of Baron O'Farrell. Because she was still young and had not committed any crime, she was left in the town, which made her the most out of place here. Almost everyone avoided her, and she often received hateful looks when she walked on the road.
Fortunately, she was accepted as an apprentice by Glade, a magician's disciple, which obviously gave her a protective umbrella. Glade was not a human being and had no interest in taking care of the little girl's daily life, so this task was given to her senior brother Crete.
In a newly built primary school, Krete finished a Chinese class and sighed heavily. The students in the class mastered new words at very different speeds. In the same class, top students like Jenny mastered all the words, but the slower students might not have learned any.
"Everyone else can go. Go back and review well. There will be an exam tomorrow. Remember not to run around. Two people have gone missing in the past two days. You are all teenagers, so you should be more careful. Doris, Mara, Andrea, and Rosa, you guys stay. We still have some time before the adult night school starts, so we must catch up on our lessons."
Doris blushed and hung her head in silence. She was the oldest in the class, but she had no talent for learning. This was not the first time she had to stay behind for extra lessons. She secretly glanced at Crete, who seemed to be younger than her. This beautiful teacher who looked like a girl was much better than her in both appearance and inner qualities. She felt that she had listened to the class very seriously, but she had not remembered as many words as the teacher. The shame in her heart overwhelmed her again.
Several other children were also the hardest hit in the class, but most of them were not as ashamed as Doris, and some of them did not realize what problems would arise if they were not good at studying, because they had never been in a classroom since they were born, and did not know what learning was like.
Crete waited until everyone else left and said, "Let's get started. I'll repeat the words to you from the beginning."
The others opened their textbooks dejectedly, waiting for Krit to start lecturing, but they heard another person walking back from the door. It was Jenny. She mustered up her courage, walked over to them and said, "Krit, let me talk to them. You're about to break through and become a low-level mage, so you need more time to meditate and think. I've learned magic runes before, so I'm familiar with these contents."
Krit was a little surprised. In fact, with Jenny's level, she didn't need to attend classes here, but because she had nowhere to go, or because she felt safe following Krit, she attended every class. But she hardly spoke in class before, and I don't know what happened today. Krit said, "Are you here to review for them?"
"Um."
"What do you think?" Crete asked the others.
Someone muttered, "Teacher, is she any good? She is younger than us."
Crete found this to be a good opportunity for Jenny to integrate with these people, so he said, "I believe she has enough knowledge, but I don't know if she can teach you well, because I couldn't teach you well either. Maybe changing someone will help us improve?"
Seeing that no one raised any objections, Crete left Jenny behind and walked out of the classroom.
Jenny looked at the other four people with some anticipation. She had been struggling for a long time before she mustered up the courage to ask Crete for this. She took out a textbook from her bag and said, "Then, let's start with this word..."
Before she could finish her words, a voice came from the side: "Stop!"