The private territory of Her Royal Highness Princess Sevini is located in the northeastern province of Lampali Kingdom, closer to the eastern border of the kingdom, about 700 kilometers away from Bangta City.
Being so far apart, and in order to clearly express his attitude, Sevini basically did not care about matters outside the territory, so naturally he knew nothing about what happened in Bangta City.
However, on the first day of the new year in the year 3784 of the mainland new calendar, Sevini was in the same mood as the people in Bangta City, and was not in a good mood.
Starting about half a month ago, a number of people who looked like refugees started pouring into her private property from the west and northwest.
At the beginning, seeing these ragged, skinny refugees who were obviously extremely poor, Sevigny immediately asked his stewards to take them in and make proper arrangements.
However, as time went by, more and more refugees poured into the territory.
As of today, a rough calculation shows that in the past half month, more than two hundred people have entered the territory.
This surprised Sevini.
In recent years, with the large-scale promotion of the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce's farmland magic machinery in the Lampali Kingdom, food production in various parts of the kingdom has increased significantly. And because of the use of chemical fertilizers, the food produced every year in the kingdom can now fully meet the needs of everyone in the kingdom, and there is even excess food that can be sold to neighboring countries.
Logically speaking, even if a natural disaster occurs, there should be enough food in the kingdom to prevent refugees from appearing.
What's more, the weather in the Lampali Kingdom can be considered smooth throughout this year, and there have been no natural disasters at all.
But the refugees in front of him were an ironclad fact, so Sevini was very confused.
After worshiping the dead Rampalli XIII on the first day of the New Year. Thinking of his father's instructions to him before his death, Sevini could not help but personally went to the place where refugees were housed in the territory and found several refugees to ask.
After a simple inquiry, Sevini got a completely unexpected answer.
These refugees actually did not flee because they had no food to eat, but to avoid serving in the army.
"Serving?" Sevini frowned slightly. "Except for compulsory military service, there has never been any compulsory military service in the kingdom. What are you running from?"
"No, no, no, Your Highness, you have misunderstood." The person who answered her was a middle-aged man who had fled from the northwest province. He shook his head vigorously and said, "We are not escaping from the service of the kingdom, but local The service prescribed by the Lord and the City Lord." Sevini was stunned: "The service prescribed by the Lord and the City Lord's Palace? What did they ask you to serve?"
"They just let us work in the factory. If we don't work, we won't be given fields to farm, and we won't be given food to eat." The middle-aged man sighed. "But when you work in a factory, you have to go at dawn every day and come back after dark. This happens every day. I kept working for several months. I couldn't stand it at all."
"Yes, it's the same over there. Sometimes we are made to work all night, and then we are only allowed to go back to sleep for a few hours before having to work again. Two people in our village died of exhaustion last month." A man next to him, who was so thin that he had deep-set eyes and looked young, looked like he was in his thirties or forties, agreed.
"Yes, yes, many people over there were exhausted to death. We were afraid that we would be exhausted too, so we found a chance to escape." This time, it was a middle-aged woman who agreed. "Our whole family is running together this time. Otherwise, if we stay, we will definitely be arrested. If we continue, our whole family will probably die from exhaustion."
Looking at the extremely haggard-looking refugees around them, they all agreed. Sevini was greatly surprised.
"What kind of work are you doing? Are you so tired?"
"I'm just doing some work in the factory. I guess I'm working on some magical machinery, right?"
"Yes, it's the magic machine. This damn magic machine, I dream about it every night when I have nightmares!"
"Well, what I made before seemed to be called a magic hot water kettle? It seems like that. It's such a simple thing, and it's actually not difficult to make. But I have to work there all day long, and it's really unbearable."
"Oh. We are making magic air conditioners over there."
"We are making magic stoves..."
…
Listening to the discussions of the refugees, Sevini looked a little strange.
You heard me right. This group of refugees had been forced into hard labor by the noble lords and the local city lord, and they were actually asked to make magic machines in a magic machine factory
But in Sevini's impression, shouldn't the work in the magic machine factory be very simple, much easier than farming or something like that
"Your Highness, you have never done it before. Let me tell you, that job is simple. But if you have to repeat the same action all day long, thousands of times, no one can stand it. . And we can only take a break during the meal, and we don’t stop at all other times,” a refugee explained to Sevigny.
Sevini asked in shock: "No way? Don't you only work eight hours a day? You will be paid overtime for the extra hours, right?"
"Overtime pay?" This time, the refugees were all shocked. "What is overtime pay?"
Sevini was speechless. It seemed that these refugees had no concept of overtime pay.
"What about the salary? You work so long every day, you should be given a lot of salary, right? Is there twenty every month... Oh no, this is unlikely. Is there ten gold coins?"
"Ten gold coins?" A group of refugees all looked at Sevigny with wide eyes, as if they had heard something incredible.
Seeing their expressions, Sevigny immediately knew that he had said the wrong thing.
Perhaps for Bangta City, a monthly salary of ten gold coins may not even meet the ordinary standard, but for other places in the Lampali Kingdom, this is already a very high salary standard.
"Your Highness, to you, ten gold coins are certainly nothing, but we... have never seen so much money as ten gold coins in our lives." A refugee couldn't help but said.
"Yes. I have only seen gold coins once in my life. The man from our village who went to Bangta City to work showed it to me after he came back. He said that he could earn thirteen gold coins a month from his job in Bangta City. ”
"So high? Then why don't you go to Bangta City too?"
"I originally planned to go, but my parents were old at the time and I didn't dare to stay too far away."
"What about now? I remember you said on the road that your parents were beaten to death by the lord before. You don't have this burden anymore, right?"
A trace of sadness flashed across the face of the young man who spoke. He lowered his head slightly and sighed softly: "I can't even think about it now. The man in our village said that after the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce left Bangta City, Bangta City has been completely controlled by those ten chambers of commerce. Even if I ran over, they were also controlled by them. Catch it and send it back to its original place.”
At this point, the young man suddenly raised his head and begged Sevini: "Your Highness, please have mercy on us and don't send us back. If we go back, I will be beaten to death by the lord sooner or later!"
Sevini was stunned for a moment and had not yet answered. The other refugees seemed to have just reacted. Together they begged Sevigny.
"Your Highness, I heard that you are the most merciful. Please forgive us for escaping from the territory! We just want to live a few more days."…
"Yes, Your Highness, we don't really want to escape, we just don't want to die of exhaustion."
"Your Highness, please forgive us..."
…
Sevini sighed softly as his eyes passed over the longing faces around him. He stood up, told the stewards next to him to take good care of these refugees, and left the temporary refugee shelter.
The refugees behind him were still begging. But she could only harden her heart and ignore it.
It's not that she is unwilling to agree to the requests of these refugees, but according to the answers of these refugees just now, they are obviously subjects of the private lands of the nobles in the kingdom. According to the regulations of the noble council, even if she is Her Royal Highness, she has no rights. Intervene in other noble territories.
These refugees are all subjects of those nobles. So how to deal with it is the matter of those lords.
Although she can accommodate them temporarily. But he does not have the power to deal with them at will.
The only thing that can be done is to temporarily settle them. And he pretended not to know about this matter, and he could hide it for a while.
If the lords of these refugees came to the door, according to the regulations of the noble council and the unwritten rules among the nobles, Sevigny would not be able to force them to stay.
Walking on a newly built road in the territory that was not particularly spacious, Sevini thought about the conversation he had just had with the refugees, and his heart was filled with bitterness.
She thought that solving the kingdom's food problem would improve the lives of the kingdom's people by more than half.
But I didn't expect that the people of the kingdom would still suffer this kind of suffering.
Although she didn't ask clearly just now, judging from the reactions of the refugees, when they were forced to work in those magic machinery factories, not to mention overtime pay, they might not even get wages.
Because they all call this service, and service is naturally voluntary work.
Thinking of this, Sevini couldn't help but smile bitterly.
When she saw the work standards for Xinfei Chamber of Commerce workers formulated by Xu Yi himself, she had expressed surprise and felt that Xu Yi was completely unnecessary.
Because she felt that since these workers were employed by the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce, they should work according to the arrangements of the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce. There was no need to set so many additional rules for them to abide by, and they also limited working hours, which seemed so rigid.
Xu Yi commented on this at the time, saying that Sevigny's idea represented the oppression of the common people by the nobles. Sevigny was still unconvinced.
Now it seems that Xu Yi was absolutely right.
The experience of these refugees is a perfect example of this.
Thinking that the jobs these refugees were engaged in were actually related to the production of magic machinery, Sevini was greatly moved.
Although this also means that the magic industry is booming in the Lampali Kingdom, but this is probably not the kind of development Xu Yi wants to see, right
Thinking of this, Sevini suddenly felt resentment and strong yearning for Xu Yi in her heart.
What is this guy who cruelly abandoned the Lampali Kingdom and Bangta City doing on the first day of the new year? How much do you know about the current situation in the Lampali Kingdom