Mozo was even more shocked when he heard this. In order to ensure that the heating pipes would always be reliable, he had used Orichalcum steel for all of them!
This is a grand gesture that even the nobles of Florence have not used!
And then you tell me that the never-corroding Orichalcum steel, once called the metal of God, was dismantled because it was too old
Using Orichalcum steel to lay heating pipes was something that Mozo hesitated for a long time before making up his mind to do.
Because at that time, Mozo firmly believed that although this move would cost a lot of money, as long as it was completed it would definitely be a good deed that would benefit the world forever!
Now not only is it all gone, but it seems like it hasn’t been useful for several years
As for the reason, it's nothing more than money. By the way, I heard that when Florence was laying those sewer pipes, it purchased a batch of cheap and high-quality Orchard steel. Hiss, could these people have sold it to Florence
"Do you know how many years ago these pipes were removed, or how many years after the death of the Grand Duke of Aragon?"
"I don't know about that. If you can read, you can go to the city library. I heard there are a lot of books there. Maybe they have the answer you want."
The vendor then explained:
"Ah, I don't suspect that you are illiterate. I am worried that outsiders like you don't know our characters. I heard from the old man that the characters used by outsiders are different from ours. I think so too. After all, I don't understand a word of what many outsiders say."
After hearing this, Mozo asked weakly:
"I also heard that during the reign of the Grand Duke of Aragon, free public hospitals and public schools were established in every larger town. It seems that they are gone now?"
Mozo didn't even want to ask this question, because judging from the vendor's situation, he probably had no education.
Moreover, that group of people even dismantled the heating pipes and obelisks that obviously benefited them, and they would definitely not continue to suck their blood for free medical care and education.
"This one isn't available, the hospital and school are both here!"
"Um?!"
Mozo was really shocked this time. They had even demolished the heating pipes and obelisks that benefited them, but they still kept the hospital and school
No, it may just be kept, but not for free!
Mozo no longer believed that these people had any conscience left, so he asked tentatively:
“It’s not free, is it?”
"free!"
At this moment, Mozo almost thought he was hallucinating. Do these people actually still have some conscience left
But the vendor's words immediately shattered Mozo's fantasy and made him feel helpless and sad, thinking that this was the right thing to do.
"The hospital provides free medical treatment, but some expensive medicines or extraordinary treatments are charged."
As he spoke, the vendor looked around, approached Mozo and whispered:
"I don't think you're a bad person, so I told you this. Please don't tell anyone else that I told you this. I went to that hospital a few months ago. Hey, you know what happened. I was fine, but after I went to the hospital, I was fine."
"My hands weren't working properly, my waist wasn't working properly, and even my head wasn't working properly. Luckily, my friend knew some folk remedies and I was strong enough to handle it."
These words sound like a medical joke caused by ignorant poor people's malicious speculation about the doctor's kindness.
But Mozo always felt that the other party's statement was the truth.
After taking a deep breath, Mozo asked the vendor:
"You said there's something wrong with your brain? Can I take a look?"
"Ah? That's fine too."
The peddler hesitated for a moment, but still coveting the church silver coin, he leaned forward.
Mozo originally wanted to take a closer look, but he saw the problem at first glance—someone had used spiritual tides to subtly impact the vendor's soul.
Although it was obscure, the opponent's method was not only rough but also perfunctory, so Mozo saw the source at a glance.
This is really a way to prevent illness when there is none!
"Can you tell me more about the school?"
"Schools are better than hospitals, but not by much. Schools are indeed free, but they say they set up a lot of assessments to prevent students from taking advantage of the resources but not studying hard."
"Honestly, even though I've never been to school, I think this statement is correct. But in reality, the so-called assessment is just based on money, and they even euphemistically say, 'He's given so much money, how can he not study hard?'"
"If paying money can make the kids learn something, I'll bite the bullet and accept it, but the problem is that he only takes money and doesn't teach people! The only thing he'll give you is an integer that everyone knows is useless."
"Certificate!?"
"Yes, it's the certificate you mentioned. My friend didn't believe it because he heard that people in big cities look at certificates, so he borrowed a lot of money to buy his son a certificate. In the end, this thing is really useless!"
"It's really a piece of junk that can't even be used to light a fire!"
Hearing this, Mozo also sighed and said:
“The certificates that people in big cities look at are from foreign countries or specific schools, right?”
"Um, I'm not sure, but that should be what you said."
After listening to this, Mozo couldn't help but sigh again. He knew that this group of people had no conscience.
But he really didn't expect it to be so disgusting.
"Do you know the situation of the orcs?"
"Orcs? I don't know about that. Our place is very remote. I just heard from the guests that in big cities, you can often see orcs or subhumans being led around."
Being led? The slave trade has resumed in the bitter cold land
Mozo then asked a few more questions, but the vendor didn't quite understand any of them. Seeing this, Mozo had no choice but to give up trying to get more information from the vendor.
Apparently, he shouldn't have chosen to take this airship that was only temporarily docked at the border of Hazel in order to reach the bitter cold land as quickly as possible.
After thanking the vendor, Mozo handed the church silver coin to the vendor.
At the same time, when Mozo's hand passed over the wine jug, a ding-dong sound was heard that only the vendor and Mozo could hear.
In response, Mozo gave the somewhat dazed vendor a meaningful smile.
The other party immediately came to his senses and nodded with a smile.
Mozo paid more, and a generous amount!
Before leaving, Mozo asked the vendor for his lunch - a piece of hard plant stem of unknown origin.
Seeing the golden color in the wine jug, the vendor happily handed his lunch to Mozo and said embarrassedly:
"Just try it for fun, don't force yourself to finish it!"
In response, Mozo just smiled to show that he understood, and then he ate the bitter, cold and hard stem of the nameless plant bite by bite on the way.
After eating, Mozo couldn't help but sigh to the sky.
He once had a hard time getting the people here to move from pursuing having enough to eat to pursuing eating well.
And now I have come back to where I started after a big circle...
312 Indulgence and the Republic (5k)
The vendor had no reason or need to deceive himself, and what he said were basically things that he could find out by going and seeing for himself.
Therefore, Mozo intuitively felt that what the vendor described was the true situation in this bitter and cold land.
But in order to avoid different perceptions caused by different classes in different regions, Mozo decided to travel to more places.
And Mozo also wanted to investigate whether the assassination was as the history books said or there was another hidden reason. It is true that everything pointed to the orcs, but Mozo always felt that this was too "natural".
Moreover, even if this matter is not for my own sake, I must investigate it for the sake of the first Emperor Hazel.
After all, the first Emperor Hazel and Mozo have always been good friends and allies.
Mozo then wandered around the town for a long time as if aimlessly. He looked careless, but in fact he was observing everything in the town.
At the end of the day, Mozo was sure of a few things.
Although the judicial system in the Bitter Cold Land is nominally still in the hands of the court, it has actually fallen into the hands of the local nobles or the church.
When someone commits a crime, the court that tries him is often not a court of law, but a nobleman's manor or a church hall.
Mozo was not clear about the specific circumstances of the trial, but he estimated that it would not be very good.
Then, when Mozo was looking up the literature, he found that the vendor was wrong about some things. The heating pipes he laid were not "largely demolished", but were demolished regionally. All major cities at that time and the newly built large cities retained the heating system.
But the heating pipes in this small town-like place were completely demolished.
Mozzo speculates that the dismantled pipes were either sold or buried in the new large cities that were built later.
The reason for removing these pipes is not because they are in disrepair as the vendors said, but because the local governments are no longer able to continue to pay the huge heating and maintenance costs as the years go by.
After all, it was Orichalcum steel, known as the metal of God. Under normal circumstances, it was basically impossible for it to be scrapped due to its age. So the reason these people used to dismantle the pipeline was something that seemed to make sense.
And the literature says that there are many obelisks that are still usable in big cities, but in order to maintain these obelisks and heating pipes, the nobles will charge a certain fee to the people.
Moreover, they also stated in the documents that the expenses borne by the people were only a small part, and the bulk of the expenses were borne by governments at all levels and the nobles!
This statement may fool many knowledgeable people and may even gain support from many people.
But in fact, for Mozo, this is still a nonsense reason.
Not to mention the obelisk that is completely derived from the characteristics of Sequence 1.
In order to ensure that no one would freeze to death in winter, Mozo spent a lot of effort on the heating system.
The first thing to do was to build Oligarch steel pipes, which basically require no maintenance once they are buried underground. Thus, subsequent rulers would not have to pay the maintenance costs that increase with the years.
Later, in order to avoid a similar situation where the authorities gave up due to high heating costs, Mozo, under the instruction of the first Emperor Hazel, led the original founders to finally find two suitable Sequence Three extraordinary characteristics.
Three legendary craftsmen from the dwarves were invited to make hundreds of heating cores. This perfectly solved the problem of water heating costs.
Thanks to Mozzo's efforts, the two largest parts of the heating system have become zero-cost for subsequent authorities!
The only thing they have to spend money on is water, and the water in this bitter cold land is still purely cheap!
Originally, Mozo thought that after he achieved this, even if the later rulers were no longer the first Emperor Hazel and his people, these people would not be so greedy as to destroy the heating system he had built, which would also benefit them.
At that time, Mozo felt that the most they could do was charge a high heating fee to every citizen who used the heating system.
Then, since those in power, most of whom must be immortals, can make money at "zero cost", why bother killing the swan that lays the golden eggs
This is also the greatest effort Mozo has made to prevent later generations from digging up the gold and destroying the road while paving the road with gold.
Because no matter how Mozo thought about it, it was in everyone's best interest to keep the "gold" buried in the ground. The obelisks scattered throughout the bitter cold land had a similar purpose.
These are all swans that lay golden eggs! Anyone with a normal brain should know that it is best to keep them!
But Mozo did not expect that although these people also understood this truth, after all, the obelisks and heating systems in the big cities are still preserved today, but at the same time they did something that Mozo could never understand.
If the purpose of dismantling the heating pipes in small places is to recover the material cost of this batch of Orichalcum steel, and perhaps because they are too lazy to squeeze the poor.
But why was the obelisk removed
The material of the obelisk itself is not a very valuable thing. What is truly valuable about the obelisk is the Sequence 1 extraordinary properties contained within it and the countless inscriptions that lock these properties.
If all of them were dismantled, Mozo could still be understood to be doing it for the Sequence 1 extraordinary characteristics inside. However, if those in power were obsessed with power and were also on the corresponding path, then killing the swan that laid the golden eggs would be a relatively normal thing.
What does it mean to remove some and keep some
There's no weird saying about extraordinary characteristics that I use some for promotion and then keep some for later.
Mozo doesn't think these people are stupid, so is there some hidden secret that I haven't discovered due to insufficient intelligence
After putting down the documents in his hand, Mozo shook his head and left the library.
When he left, he did not forget to place a few church gold coins on the desk of the librarian, who looked embarrassed and covered in patches.
This is something that Mozo doesn't understand even more. In an age where knowledge is power, how could a librarian be so miserable
But when Mozo walked out of the library, he roughly understood this.
The word "National" in front of the name of the National Library had been scratched off. At the same time, Mozo also found the word "Donation Box" in the corner, which was not clearly visible. Then under this word, there was a rectangular blank space with a different color from the rest.
This is probably because the local nobles felt that there was no need to open a public library for a group of "illiterate people", so they directly stopped funding the library, and then the place changed from a public library to a private one. At the same time, the books stored in such a library should not be about extraordinary literature.
What happened next became even more obvious - with the education system collapsing, how could there be room for private libraries in areas where illiteracy was the majority
Perhaps everyone knows that the books in the library are "gold that does not shine". Not only can we not understand the words, but people are almost dying. What is the use of gold that is not gold
Looking at the word that could no longer be seen clearly and the donation box below that had obviously been removed long ago.
Mozo couldn't help but shook his head again.
If nothing unexpected happens, this library will probably be completely closed down soon.