Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 397: Major Internal Affairs Examination

At dusk, exactly as Li Wei had anticipated, the reinforcements from the territory headquarters really did arrive.

Personally led by Li Yue and accompanied by Hathaway, there were also Zhao Xuanxuan, Benjamin, Javier, and the other nine Riverside Knights, along with thirty trucks and ten buses.

The vehicles carried ample supplies, as well as three steam generators and three diesel generators.

It could be said they were fully prepared.

Li Wei personally welcomed them. The moment they met, Hathaway rushed up to give him a massive hug, holding him for over a dozen seconds and refusing to let go.

Li Wei could understand this. Just thinking about exactly how immense the pressure of the flood peak passing through over those previous five days was, one could tell; she had practically acted as the commander-in-chief of that entire region around Riverside Fortress.

Yet under such pressure, Hathaway was still able to coordinate with Li Yue, Qin Yu, and Thomas. Not only did they withstand the flood peak, but they also beheaded a Neanderthal Centurion. This was a heaven-shaking merit!

It could be said that without them, Li Wei's territory, including this Pioneer City Building Mission, would have ended right then and there.

Thus, Li Wei wasn't hypocritical either, speaking softly and gently, taking good care of her. That doting appearance made even Li Yue roll her eyes in exasperation. You've gone too far, too far!

Though, she could also be considered to have witnessed Li Wei's thick skin. It was truly fucking thick!In the end, it was actually Hathaway who couldn't quite hold on.

"Aunt Yue, you guys have worked hard this time. Seeing you all safe and sound, this heart of mine has finally settled back down into my chest like a stone hitting the ground. This time, you guys are the ones who contributed the absolute greatest merits."

"We're all our own people, what's with the politeness? You act as if you have a lot of time. Three months of peace negotiation time doesn't necessarily mean it will truly take three months. Hurry up, what's the situation on this side?"

Li Yue shot Li Wei a white-eyed glare and directly spoke of formal business.

"I have a total of over one thousand five hundred people who need to board vehicles here. In addition, there are also some surrendered Ability Users currently hiding out over there. I plan to settle them in that small county city to the north of our territory. Aunt Yue, what do you think?"

"That's doable, that place is not bad. You handling things sets my mind at ease. However, I heard from Xuanxuan that there's also a Magic Well here, so I had Hathaway tag along to come over."

"Currently, the construction plan for the Level 4 City Wall has already been initiated back at the territory. Qin Yu has also agreed to help. When the time comes, she will work together with your Second Aunt and Hathaway—the three of them joining hands to build the One-Star Mage Tower. However, regarding the specific remuneration and such, you'll have to negotiate that yourself."

"Alright, that's it for now. Hathaway, hurry up and go check out that Magic Well. If it can be relocated, relocate it; if it can't be relocated, dismantle it. Good stuff like this cannot be left behind."

"Understood, Aunt Yue!"

Hathaway's address was quite sweet. The three immediately arrived at the location of the Magic Well, but only Hathaway herself could go inspect it; the other two couldn't be of any help.

"This doesn't seem to be the standard-issue Magic Well of our Locke Kingdom's side. It's the specifications of the Barbarians' side. Therefore, relocation is unnecessary; the magic structures are totally different and cannot interface. Furthermore, this Magic Well possessed built-in anti-counterfeiting from the very beginning. Rather than wasting time on this, it's better to dismantle it. I can settle it in ten minutes. In addition, if possible, Li Wei, I hope Aunt Yue can immediately escort me back."

"In such a rush?" Li Wei blanked for a moment; he had still planned to have a candlelight dinner with Li Yue and Hathaway tonight.

"It's a rush! Ten thousand urgent fires, my Great Lord Li! If you cannot obtain the status of a Substantive Viscount before the Task Settlement, it will be a destructive disaster for me. I am your vassal, you know."

"The reason I came this time was entirely to dismantle this Magic Well. Once dismantled, I'm leaving. Following this, whether it's the Level 4 City Wall or the One-Star Mage Tower, I cannot be missing!"

After Hathaway finished speaking, she went to get busy. Li Yue smiled faintly. "Yes, this is exactly the meaning. You can take the people and slowly head back, but over at the territory's side, I will continue to hold the fort at Riverside Fortress. Qin Yu and Hathaway both must go to the territory headquarters. The plan for the three of them is to churn out the Mage Tower within one month! Within two months, build the Level 4 City Wall, and tell those bastards who tried to intercept and steal our fruits of labor to roll as far away as possible!"

Just like that, in less than ten minutes, Hathaway and Li Yue came in a hurry and left in a hurry, leaving Li Wei alone standing there, deep in thought.

Early the next morning, when all the electric trucks and electric buses were fully charged, Li Wei personally led the team, directing those natural persons to board the vehicles one by one. There were nearly one thousand six hundred people; it was truly somewhat crowded.

Therefore, they had no choice but to abandon some relatively important supplies. At worst, they would just make another transport trip later. The most urgent priority was to return to the territory first, and register all this population into the Prestige Card system, officially making them territory Freemen.

Anyhow, if factoring in Chekhov and those Ability Users, the population of Li Wei's territory was already approaching four thousand. Plus the population of his vassal Hathaway's territory, it reached five thousand.

This could be considered enough to match a Substantive Viscount, right?

The journey was surprisingly smooth. They didn't see even a single Ability User squad again, let alone Neanderthals. This bunch of guys seemed to have vanished without a trace due to the storyline of this peace negotiation.

That Socrates over in the west could be considered to have picked up a small life from the jaws of death, right?

With these three months of buffer time, even if the Frost Duke flipped his face at the end, it would be impossible to take him down again.

In any case, the situation had abruptly changed just like this.

Because there were many people and complicated matters, the entire convoy took three days to reach that small city located at the exit of the mountainous region.

Here, Li Wei stopped and settled Chekhov and those Ability Users at this location.

"You guys stay here for now. First, build yourselves temporary lodgings or build a fortress yourselves. Moving forward, I will send people to deliver food to you. Regardless of anything else, this is a brand-new beginning; I hope you grasp it well. The things I promised will not change."

After speaking these words, Li Wei also specially renamed this small city to Dawn Fortress, meaning hope, meaning light.

Subsequently, he continued escorting those natural persons through the mountain roads, arriving at the territory headquarters.

And Nelson had long led the relevant personnel to wait early on. From personnel registration, personnel food and lodging, adjusting follow-up work—everything was arranged methodically and perfectly in order.

This was a major examination for the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Li Wei wasn't too perfectly at ease, keeping a watchful eye on the entire process. He couldn't even bother with the Level 4 City Wall and the Mage Tower temporarily. Just because he wasn't adept at internal affairs didn't mean he didn't know its importance.

"Lord, currently the settlement and registration of all new Freemen has initially concluded. The headcount is 1,561 people. Among them, 54 children under the age of five, 67 children under the age of twelve, and 43 lactating women. These have already been incorporated into the jurisdiction of the Education Group."

"And teenage boys and girls above the age of thirteen and below eighteen are uniformly registered as apprentices, evenly divided among the various departments. They shall become the reserve forces of the various departments."

"Adult females above the age of eighteen count to seven hundred and forty. A large portion of them have lost their husbands, and have suffered varying degrees of infringement in the recent past. The Internal Affairs Group, Kitchen Group, Warehouse Group, Medical Group, Gathering Group, and Tailoring Group will prioritize conducting a round of screening for them, and promise to be responsible for the activation and binding of their first Profession Card. And if they possess an extremely strong desire to do other work, arrangements will then be made."

"Adult males above the age of eighteen count to four hundred and thirty-two. The Combat Readiness Group will prioritize selecting 90 individuals from amongst them to serve as new recruits, though this does not include the 37 individuals the Lord selected beforehand. The remaining people will undergo another round of screening by the Internal Affairs Group, Warehouse Group, Engineering Group, Agriculture Group, Mining Group, Blacksmith Workshop, and Armor-Making Workshop. Those eliminated will be sent to the Engineering Group and Agriculture Group."

"Furthermore, according to the laws of the territory, we have already conducted marriage-matching investigations for these four hundred and thirty-two men, and propagated our basic principle of monogamy. In short, adhering to the principle of not investigating the past, but mandating compliance from today onward, we conducted marriage registrations for them. Every married couple can freely claim a 70-square-meter civilian residence. As for those men with too many wives, they will have to figure out a solution themselves..."

"Do we have enough civilian residences?"

Inside the Territory Building, Li Wei listened to Nelson's report. He had to go to Riverside Fortress next; the wheat over there could be harvested immediately, this was the most important matter.

But before departing, he had to understand the current development situation of the territory. Among the conditions for upgrading to a Level 5 Territory, one of them was a highly efficient internal affairs system. This point was the exam question he left for Nelson.

If you couldn't handle it, then don't blame him for sending out Hathaway.

"Replying to the Lord, building civilian residences is a plan we formulated early this year, and we had detailedly designed several templates for civilian residences, as well as formulated the supply of materials. Therefore, although the construction tasks this year have been extremely heavy and the Engineering Group is overwhelmingly busy, these minor projects have not been delayed. Moreover, everyone's enthusiasm towards building civilian residences is extremely high."

"For example, the Chef Group, or the Agriculture Group, they will participate in construction during their idle farming periods. After communicating with the other groups and submitting it to the Finance Group for review, I have also specially formulated some rules. For example, Freemen qualified to be allocated a civilian residence can personally participate in the construction themselves, getting it built early and moving in early, and so on."

"Up until now, the registered married couple families within our territory have already reached six hundred and fifty-four pairs. Among them, two-thirds would rather live underground, so we built underground civilian residences for them inside the basements. The area for each household is 100 square meters."

"Another one-third of the families are willing to reside on the surface. And surface civilian residences are divided into three types. The first type is built within the Second Enclosure Wall. They are basically four-story buildings, six households per floor, totaling eight buildings. These were built in the early stages, and have already been moved into."

"The second type is built on the foundations of the original civilian residences of the small town, being three-story buildings, one household per floor."

"The third type are civilian residences built near the Northern Fortress, provided protection by the fortress. They are primarily inhabited by people of the Agriculture Group, Forestry Group, and Gathering Group. They will enjoy detached building-style civilian residences."

"In addition, Riverside Fortress over there can also arrange for six hundred Freemen. So generally speaking, there are no problems regarding residence."

"As for food, clothing, and tools, these things... in principle, every Freeman can enjoy two free meals per day. Breakfast is pickled vegetables + vegetable congee + one portion of hard bread. Dinner is pickled vegetables + meat congee + one portion of hard bread. Children have meal subsidies. Those who want to eat better will have to pay out of their own pockets to buy it."

"In addition, all Freemen can in principle receive one set of summer clothing and winter clothing every year, for free. But those who want better must also save money to purchase them themselves."

"Tools are provided free for one set. Damages can be repaired for free, but if damaged three times within a year, wages will be deducted."

"As for the aspect of salary, it is formulated by the various departments themselves, divided into three parts: base salary, overtime salary, and special reward salary. Among them, the special reward salary is very difficult to obtain; after all, usually there are no special circumstances. But with the coverage of the first two types of salary, an ordinary family can obtain roughly five to seven silver coins per month."

"Regarding the aspect of job positions, it is ample. We can basically ensure all adults have their own jobs, and the minimum wage will not be lower than three silver coins per month."

"There is also the matter that the market will continuously purchase One-Star Profession Cards long-term. All Freemen can sell the experience they earn during work. The purchase price of one One-Star Profession Card has currently stabilized at a unit price of one gold coin."

"At the same time, we have already considered starting to levy Territory Taxes. After all, our Professional Soldiers currently have reached 400 people. Soldiers marching out to battle brave the danger of losing their heads. Their monthly salary must be of the highest tier, and there are also training subsidies, supply of food provisions—these are extremely massive expenditures. Over a long period, I'm afraid the territory's finances won't be able to bear it."

"Furthermore, there are also the salaries of various departments. Currently, the majority of the work of various departments will be recorded on file, and evaluated by the Finance Group. The specific model has already fast-forwarded to submitting project proposals first, followed by financial appropriations, operated by the relevant departments in a corporate model. The process will be supervised and spot-checked by the Legal Group. Like this, when a project or mission is completed, the relevant department is responsible for its own profits and losses. Of course, currently, we are only doing trial runs."

"Corresponding to this, there is also the distribution of spoils of war from soldiers fighting outside, distribution of bounties, and so on. This still requires the Lord's coordination. Of course, this might not be necessary. After all, the great power of the military can only secure long-lasting peace when under your firm grasp."

Nelson spoke cautiously, awaiting Li Wei's verdict.

Yet he didn't know Li Wei's thoughts had flown very far away.

In the past, he had always been unable to figure out clearly: the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Tactics Department, Logistics Department, Resource Department, and Commerce Department of Weir City—these clearly should be considered important departments of Weir Province, so why did they instead seem to be estranged from the core management tier of the Duke of Weir?

Now he understood. These five departments actually just managed ordinary civilian livelihoods.

Just like Nelson, Linus, and Ellen, these department bosses—of course they were very important, basically bearing the operation of a territory.

However, they truly couldn't touch Li Wei's core.

For example, regarding the military, how much was invested into those eighty-two cavalrymen? Several hundred thousand gold coins had been smashed in just to see a preliminary form. Subjecting such massive wealth to the Finance Group for project proposal evaluations? That's joking!

There was also magic-related matters, the Magic Wells, and the subsequent Mage Tower, coupled with things like the Level 4 City Wall. These weren't things Nelson and the others could lay a finger on either.

He estimated Weir Province was also like this.

Calculating it this way, Night Owl's previous promotion to Chief Spellcaster of the Locke Kingdom Magic Association's Weir City Branch was truly a high promotion.

Moreover, just like how Li Wei would not tell Nelson that the total number of gold coins inside his territory's treasury had already exceeded five hundred thousand...

The Duke of Weir also wouldn't publicly announce the sum in his territory's treasury.

(End of this chapter)