Don’t raise unruly people in extreme cold weather

Chapter 444 Riot

Perfect walked up to the lamppost and used her all-seeing eyes to examine the lamppost, which in her eyes had obvious alchemical characteristics. Her expression became very serious.

"Soul Gathering Lamp"

"Material: Ordinary"

"Production technology: excellent"

"Effect: Gathers the souls of the dead within a 500-meter radius and collects their resentment. It can store a certain amount of souls and resentment."

"Evaluation: A very crude alchemical creation. An ordinary apprentice can make one in a day. However, this kind of thing is about quantity, not quality. If it is spread all over a city, it will be able to collect a large amount of souls and resentment."

Looking at the information displayed by the All-Seeing Eye, Perfect's face became more and more ugly. She really didn't expect that in Langton, the capital of the empire, right under her nose, someone was collecting resentment and souls.

Although these two things seem to be insignificant and the other party does not seem to harm anyone, they just erect a few lamp posts on the roadside and are harmless to the local residents.

But collecting resentment and souls doesn't sound like something a good person would do.

Whose good people collect resentment and souls? Do you want them to reunite in your Ten Thousand Souls Banner?
However, considering that this might be related to some religion, Perfect didn't deal with these things immediately. Instead, he turned to look at Sabelle and asked the church judge: "Judge Sabelle, do you know anyone who collects the souls and grievances of the dead?"

"Collecting souls and resentments? I have hardly encountered such a case in my memory. I have only seen similar records in the files of the church. It is said that in the era when magic power had not yet declined as it is today, there was a heretical sect that worshipped death, which would drive corpses and enslave souls. However, this heretical sect was wiped out by the church about a hundred years ago." Sabelle recalled and then dug out the information that Perfectoct wanted from the depths of her memory.

After hearing this, Perfecto had an idea in his mind.

Obviously, those who collect souls and resentment are definitely not good people.

However, she did not explode immediately, but said to the two people beside her: "I found something, let's go back first!"

After saying that, Perfect looked at the street lamp again. She wanted to take it away as an important piece of evidence, but considering the possibility of alerting the enemy, she did not touch it.

Sabelle and Samantha didn't know what Perfect had discovered, but they didn't ask much. They just nodded and followed Perfect to leave.

Because it was a secret visit and this place was also a slum, Perfecto did not come in by car. Now if he wanted to leave, he had to walk to the edge of the slum.

For Perfect, taking a walk was not a big deal; instead, it helped her understand the slum better.

This place is located in the suburbs of Langton. In the past, it was the main gathering place for the poor. Compared with those civilians who can still find a job to support their families in Langton, most people here do not have formal jobs.

They cannot even afford to rent the cheapest apartment in Longton and can only live in these shacks built illegally outside the city, living a life struggling below the poverty line.

For most people here, their so-called home may just have a bed for lying down and walls that are drafty on all four sides.

As for the rest? They are luxuries for these impoverished people.

Perfect saw with his own eyes a family that had at least four or five children, but they could not even provide each child with a set of clothes. The four or five children had to squeeze together on the bed, with only some straw underneath them and a piece of rag that could not even be called a quilt.

As for the adults? The adults in this family sat at the door with sad faces. It was obvious that they hadn't found a job for a long time, so their faces were drooping with hunger.

Most people here can only do some simple physical work and earn very meager wages, such as porters at the dock.

If there were no problems with the empire's overseas trade, then they would not have much trouble making a living.

But now the empire's overseas trade is basically in a state of Schrödinger's interruption. The docks simply do not need so many porters, so they are naturally unemployed.

As for the city of Langton? Relatively speaking, they would not employ these poor people living outside the city. After all, whether it was the nobles or the factories, they had more choices.

Ordinary citizens with more work experience, better physical fitness, and relatively decent education are better workers for factories and more suitable servants for nobles.

So when the end of the world came and everything in the city of Langton fell into depression, these people naturally couldn't find jobs and their source of livelihood was cut off.

After all, even if there is still work to be done in the city now, ordinary citizens who are stronger and healthier than them and have better education and personal hygiene habits cannot grab it, so how can it be the turn of these poor people outside the city?
Disease, hunger, and cold have completely enveloped the area. If no one helps them, they will soon fall into despair and die.

This is also the main reason why Princess Anne asked for help from Perfectocote. After all, the situation here has become so bad that it cannot be worse. Even if Princess Anne asks the relevant departments of the empire for help, the help they can provide to the poor here is limited.

The empire's food supply has now fallen into an extremely tight state. Even the nobles' tables have fewer delicacies than before. Without the luxurious enjoyment of the past, the food supply has become more of a means of filling their stomachs.

Therefore, even in the name of the eldest princess of the empire, the amount of food that can be mobilized is very little, and the food transported here is basically just a drop in the bucket. It is difficult to even keep the people here from starving to death.

Although it is cruel, for the empire, the best way to deal with these people right now is to not deal with them. Once they all starve to death or die of disease, they will no longer be a problem.

Because for the current empire, there is really no more energy and resources to save these people.

Even Perfect finds it a bit difficult to solve the problem here.

The problem of food is easy to solve. We can use the compressed biscuit making technology that Perfectcot used in the North. It will not be difficult to fill these people's stomachs, let alone prevent them from starving to death.

But solving the problem of food and clothing is only the first step, or the least important step, in solving the problem here.

If these people are not able to resist the cold, they will still freeze to death or die of disease even if they are well fed. Eating well will only make them suffer more when they freeze to death or die of disease.

However, it is not an easy task to enable people here to resist the cold.

Building shelters for them is feasible, but Perfect does not want to simply support them. The right thing to do is to let them work and support themselves. If he simply supports them, it will only breed laziness and cause trouble for himself. Perfect does not think there will be any other results.

Perhaps this is cruel, but rational thinking makes Perfect not trust human nature. She can temporarily provide them with food, clothes, and fuel to keep warm, so that they can temporarily get through the difficult times, avoid starvation, and recover to a state where they can work.

However, letting these people earn their own living and not working, and not eating, is the real way to save them, rather than pulling them out of hell and then kicking them back into the quagmire.

However, the quality of these people is really worrying. Most of them have never received any education and have nothing but their strength.

If they were thrown into the mines as miners, Perfect would worry that they would collapse the mines, let alone let them work in factories or be sent to build shelters.

For Perfect, these tasks can all be done by machines, which is not only worry-free but also more efficient.

The reason why she still uses manual labor to do these jobs in the North is simply to allow the people of the North to have a job instead of being simply raised like pigs.

She could feed these people, but she had no reason to feed them.

Just like some countries in the original world, they have a huge population base. Logically, they should be able to fully enjoy the development advantages brought by the demographic dividend. However, the low quality of the population has not allowed them to play this advantage. Instead, the huge population has become a burden to the country.

Therefore, "those who do not work shall not eat" is what Perfectcot insisted on, and it was also what made her feel embarrassed, because she really could not think of any place to accommodate so many low-quality laborers.

After all, even if they are asked to build shelters, they need to have a certain level of knowledge and skills, and not everyone can be a builder.

If you can't even build a straight wall, the most basic thing, it's better to give up this job.

However, most people in the slums do not have this ability. If they did, they would have found a job to support themselves long ago. Why would they starve here?
The empire in the past was not what it is now. A large number of jobs were waiting for the labor force to join. As long as you were willing to work, it was not difficult to find a job.

However, most people in the slums cannot find a decent job. They can only do odd physical work and have no skills at all.

So even if Perfect was willing to give these people work, there was still very limited what they could do.

As Perfect was wondering what these people could do, she gradually left the worst areas of the slums and came to a place where the situation was relatively better.

The streets here are relatively less narrow and cleaner, and the poor living here are also in relatively better condition.

But for Perfect, both here and the place he just passed were equally bad.

If there was any difference, it might be that someone was distributing food here, and the people here did not rush to grab the food like zombies like in the previous area, but instead lined up in an orderly manner.

It's obviously not that the people here are of higher quality, or that the people distributing food brought enough food so that they don't have to fight over it.

"Interesting, they actually exerted mental influence on these poor people?" Perfect noticed the little tricks used by the other party, but did not take it seriously.

After all, distributing food in such a place, if not controlled, would only lead to looting and eventually cause very bad consequences.

So using some tricks seemed harmless to Perfectot.

However, the purpose of distributing food to the slums at this time is very intriguing.

There are certainly some people who are simply good and do good things, but in Perfectcot's opinion, it is more likely that they have other purposes.

She would not assume the worst of others, but she would not judge a person's behavior with pure kindness either.

It is very unwise to judge whether a person is a good or bad person simply based on his behavior and first impression.

Some people seem to be doing good deeds every day, building bridges and roads, but they may be thieves and prostitutes and have committed countless crimes behind the scenes.

Similarly, some people may do all kinds of bad things, but in essence they may be forced to do so by life.

Therefore, the act of distributing food in the slums will not make Perfect think that the other person is a good person, but it will also not make Perfect think that the other person is a bad person.

"Claudia, let the Brotherhood investigate that man." Perfecto said to the air. She did not get a response, but she knew that the female assassin beside her had heard her order.

Afterwards, Perfect didn't pay any more attention and turned to leave the slums.

But Perfect didn't notice that when she left, the young man who looked like a noble who was distributing food noticed her leaving carriage, and his eyes were filled with some unspeakable desire.

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"My Lord Earl, what arrangements do you plan to make for the slums? If manpower is needed, the church can provide help." Sitting in the carriage on the way back, Sabelle took the initiative to speak, trying to get the church involved.

Perfect simply shook his head and said, "The situation in the slums is more complicated than I expected. There may be something hidden here that I don't know about. I can't make a decision for the time being.

I am glad that the church is willing to help, but for now I will investigate it first. It is possible that what I need to do is not salvation, but purification."

At this point, Perfect looked at Sabel and asked meaningfully, "If it were your church or some heretical sect, faced with the current situation in the slums, what would you do first?"

"Distribute food and clothes to win people's hearts." Sabelle was not dissatisfied with Perfecto for talking about the church and the heretical sects together. Instead, she answered her question seriously.

Perficot nodded, a smile on his face: "So do you think the people who are distributing food in the slums at this time are simply good people?"

"That person just now? I'll ask the church to investigate." Sabelle took the initiative to take on this task.

(End of this chapter)