People in Terra, governing a bizarre little country

But Ernst's office lights were still on.

He is still preparing his speech for tomorrow's prayer service.

"The great god Jeragand protected Kerrigan, granting it a land untouched by natural disasters. But this land is subject to invasion. Within the belly of our distant northern neighbor, the Ursus Bear, lie countless Kerrigan lands, destroyed and digested. To protect our Kerrigan, the Kerrigan people have assembled their elite forces to share the burden of the great god Jeragand!"

"The great god Jeragand protected Sherag and gave us fertile land. But the land does not grow food on its own, so the people of Sherag learned to cultivate it, sowing seeds, watering them with snowmelt, fertilizing their livestock, and harvesting full granaries to reassure the great god Jeragand."

"The great god Yeragand protected Sherag, giving us different races the same name and allowing us to share the same banner. We are the devout, pure, and passionate Sherag people! But is that enough?"

"The merciful god Jeragund never asked the Sherag people to do anything, but are they just going to be like children who never grow up, nestled in the cradle of the mountains?"

“I am unwilling, and I believe that no ambitious, spirited, and devout Sherag man would be willing!”

"I always hope that today, we Sherag people are proud to have such a benevolent, great, and magnanimous god as Jeragand, and in the future, we will make Jeragand proud to protect us Sherag people!"

Ernst lifted the pen from the exclamation mark and admired the lengthy speech, nodding in satisfaction.

To be fair, this speech is probably only at the level of a high school student's flag-raising speech—pure, unadulterated platitudes. It might even be a stretch to use it to appease students from Da Yan.

But for the Sherag people, it should be just right.

There were no obscure words or profound principles; the entire speech addressed only two key issues: 1. What Jeragand did for Shelag, and 2. What the Shelag people should do for Shelag.

Whether it was the Peroch family's militia protecting Shelag or the Shelag people's hard work in growing crops, Ernst did not sever ties between these matters and Jelagand, firstly because the Shelag people's devout faith would not accept it, and secondly because he insisted on his promise that Jelagand was also a member of Shelag.

But at the same time, Ernst also emphasized the role played by the Sherag people.

Although the phrases used are "to share His burdens" and "to put His mind at ease," that is enough.

Overly radical language is not conducive to acceptance by the Sherag people. Since they believe in Jeragand, it is more reasonable to take advantage of the fervor of this belief.

Which believer doesn't want to receive God's praise, share God's burdens, and put God at ease?

After that, Ernst also expressed his own expectations: "Let God be proud to protect me!" This simple yet effective rhetoric was enough to evoke the most basic impulses in the Sherag people.

Don't think that this sentence sounds as low-brow or boring as "Today I am proud of my school, and tomorrow my school will be proud of me." In fact, the first person to say this must have been a true linguistic genius.

Because the effect of this statement goes beyond simply motivating people. When you acknowledge "I am proud of my school," you already consider yourself a part of the school, which is the construction of a sense of identity.

If we replace the subject of this sentence with "nation" or "country," then this sentence subtly constructs a sense of national identity and a sense of national identity.

For the people of Sherag, who had never tasted any inspirational platitudes before, Ernst was confident that this short speech would give them a memorable "first time"!

With this start, the new urban area plan and the enrollment of the "Spark Night School," a basic talent training base that emerged in response to this need, will be able to proceed more smoothly.

"call--"

I checked it once, and there were no grammatical or semantic discrepancies.

Ernst capped his pen, stood up, and prepared to leave. But as soon as he opened the door, he encountered Enya and Ya'er standing in front of it.

Ernst was somewhat surprised: "Sister? What brings you here so late?"

Enya smiled warmly, reached into her bosom, took out a small knitted hat, and handed it to Ernst.

"Here's a gift for you. Happy Harvest Festival, Ernst."

Ernst felt a warmth in his heart as he took the little hat. Just as he was about to thank her, Enya's smile suddenly changed, and her outstretched hand reached straight for his ear.

"Ouch!"

"If I hadn't wanted to surprise you, I wouldn't have known you were working overtime so late. What's wrong? Tomorrow is a holiday, why aren't you resting? Do you want to come to the holy mountain looking exhausted?"

"How could I dare, sis? Oh! Stop pulling me, I'm just preparing my speech!"

Ernst's tail was taut, and he leaned to the side towards Enya, his face showing an exaggerated expression of pain.

Enya couldn't bear to hit her younger brother, so she didn't use much force. How could she not know that Ernst was deliberately playing the victim? She pouted and let go of Ernst's big, fluffy ears, which felt quite nice to the touch.

Ernst immediately and naturally put the hat on his head, the pained expression on his face vanishing instantly, and he chuckled:

"Alright, your ears are all red from being pulled. For the sake of my image as Prime Minister, I'll accept this hat. This doesn't count as accepting a bribe."

"Who cares about you!" Enya pouted.

My younger brother just loves to joke around. Bribery? He talks like it's the real deal. Who bribes with hats? You're using that to test officials?

Moreover, even if a trial were to be held, the judge would be either you or me. Who in the courtroom would accuse me (my brother)?

Ignoring Ernst's glib tongue, Enya naturally extended her hand and said:

"And yours?"

Ernst reached out and gave her a high five.

Before Enya could get angry, Ernst quickly explained:

"Sis, of course I prepared a gift for you. And I'm sure you'll like it!"

"what gift?"

“Wouldn’t it be less of a surprise if I told you? Anyway, just wait, I’ll give it to you tomorrow morning when we’re at Holy Mountain Square,” Ernst said.

Ernst was confident that his sister would be extremely pleased with the fireworks that could launch SilverAsh into the sky and then explode.

As for whether Mr. Silver is satisfied or not, well...

You've already gone to heaven, something even Christensen couldn't do. What are you still dissatisfied with? Are you complaining that it wasn't you who flew up there?

Of course, Ernst did prepare a gift for the silversmith.

The entire year's tax benefits package includes various tax reduction and incentive policies, government support projects, and investments in various sectors by Kalan Trade.

It can save SilverAsh at least 30% on taxes while increasing Kallan Trade's investment expenditure by 60%! What a bargain!

What a conscientious policy! Ernst couldn't help but drool... no, he shed tears.

Ernst thought contentedly. But then he suddenly noticed Ya'er standing next to Enya.

Ya'er maintained her smile, a smile that seemed to carry a hint of doting affection, as if she was particularly enjoying, even "happy," the little interaction between Ernst and Enya.

I forgot to prepare a gift for her.

Ernst grinned awkwardly, trying to quickly think of a gift for the head maid. Unexpectedly, the head maid spoke first:

"Um, I'm curious about what Ernst wrote in his speech. If it's alright, could I take a look at it as a gift?"

She smiled and winked playfully.

"Of course, in exchange, I will also pray for you in front of Yeragand one more time tonight, even more than Enya."

"Ya'er!" Enya said coquettishly, without any real concern.

Hearing this request, Ernst breathed a slight sigh of relief: "You startled me! You didn't prepare a gift either."

The content of the speech was to be made public tomorrow, so Ernst had no intention of hiding it. Since Al had given him an out, Ernst naturally took the opportunity to acknowledge Amiya's contribution.

As for the phrase "pray one more time," Ernst took it as a polite remark made by Ya'er to tease Enya.

The head maid handed the manuscript to Ya'er and began reading it with great eagerness.

After a brief silence, she looked up and nodded at Ernst with an expression of deep emotion that he hadn't expected:

"Well written! You're such a good child that makes Mom... Yeragand so proud!"

Ernst scratched his head sheepishly.

Ya'er's voice even had a slight sobbing, nasal tone:

"Keep going! Jeragand will definitely support you! I'm going back to pray for you right now! He will hear you! He will be very happy!"

No, He's happy, why are you so excited?

There's a saintess and a saintly son here. Your excitement makes it seem like neither of us is very devout.

Ernst and Enya exchanged a knowing smile.

P.S.: The school had a power outage last night, affecting the entire campus. Not only was the power outage bad, but for some reason, the internet also went down. The problem is, even after the internet came back on, my crappy Apple device still couldn't connect. I ended up having to borrow my roommate's hotspot to finally post this chapter. I should have posted it much earlier.

I'm furious.

Chapter Seventy-Six: The Price of Modernization

Shelag, Tukarim, Tukarim train station.

Kjerag's first railway station is now in operation, and although only one train runs between the two stations, it has greatly facilitated Kjerag's import and export trade.

What Ernst found somewhat regrettable was that even though the most troublesome and dangerous route out of the mountains had been opened, most of the people in Kherag still had no desire to travel. As a result, the railway had now become almost exclusively for trade with Kherag, and its transport capacity was far below its original design limits.

Today, the usually quiet station finally welcomed a bustling scene rarely seen since the opening ceremony.

Even at 5 a.m. in the freezing cold of winter in Sherag, when Ernst arrived at the train station, there were already many Sherag residents waiting on the platform.

The vast majority of them were residents of the Shiva'ish family's territory, especially those from Tukarim, but Ernst could still spot quite a few young Ursus faces among them.

These people came from the Peroch family's territory and were workers who came to Tukarim to work.

This is not uncommon in Kjerag today. The Perroch family's territory is mainly composed of plains and lake areas, which are the most suitable regions for agriculture and supply 80% of Kjerag's food. However, after thousands of years, even the most vast lands will eventually be divided up. By the time of Actos Perroch, the displaced people in the Perroch family's territory had become a serious social problem.

To prevent these energetic young men, who had no land to cultivate, from causing any unrest in their territory, the Perroch family chose the simplest and most traditional method—conscription.

Bring all these young men into the Perroch family's militia, give them jobs, and let them expend their excess energy. After a few years, help them find wives, using families as a constraint to prevent these young men in their prime from acting rashly.

At this point, some may have already realized that the fundamental contradiction has never been resolved. Even if they were drawn into the army during their most passionate years, and even if they were later bound by family ties, land is land. Shelag is only so big; can Perroch conjure up farmland?

The answer is, of course, no.

The Perroch family, of course, had no choice.

The contradiction between people and land is the fundamental contradiction of feudal society. Before Ernst, the world, the countries, feudal emperors and their think tanks studied it for more than 2,700 years but could not find a solution. Could it be that the Perroch family has such ability?

After doing all that, the leaders of the Perroch family could only start to slack off and eventually just leave them in their territory.

To put it nicely, it's called trusting in the wisdom of future generations; to put it bluntly, it means we can't control you anymore, you're left to fend for yourselves!

Those who were more obedient and compliant would voluntarily wander to the territories of other families, or become tenants under the landlords of their own territories, working for the landlords in exchange for a living.

As for those who want to cause trouble, haha, don't forget what the youngest, most energetic, and most passionate Perroch citizens are doing!

More than a decade later, when those Perroch people, starving and poorly clothed, were forced to raise their sickles and hoes against their esteemed lord, only to be met with the merciless and bloody suppression of the Perroch militia, they would surely remember that day more than a decade ago when they had done the exact same thing to those with the same eyes.

Then, the following day, their corpses would be displayed throughout the Perroch territory. As a traitor, this would end the miserable life of a Perroch citizen.

But now, this unchanging story has finally taken a turn and changed.

After realizing the rapid development of Tukarim, many people who had no land in the Perroch territory began to flee to Tukarim. Their level of education was almost non-existent, but fortunately, they had the ability to endure hardship and a large pool of young labor. Most importantly, they had almost no concept of "wages". They were satisfied as long as they could support themselves and their families. If their quality of life could be improved even slightly, they would be extremely grateful to the factory owners.

Needless to say, the factories that Ensiodes introduced and invested in were also willing to hire such a group of cheap laborers.

The Peroch family, of course, noticed the situation on their territory, but until now, they remained in a state of "talking a big game but doing nothing," frequently using threats like "Tukarim's machine monsters are kidnapping and devouring my people like snow monsters" to intimidate ordinary citizens in their own lands, or to extort money from SilverAsh. However, the exodus never showed any real signs of being contained.

Clearly, they have been overloaded for hundreds of years and are far from reaching a state of equilibrium.

They didn't stop them, so Ernst naturally had no reason to stop them.

Even Ernst was well aware that this move was sending ordinary people into sweatshops in a de facto sense.

Silver Boss is not a philanthropist. To support his ambitions, his Karan trade needs to make money. He has invested in and holds shares in several factories in Tukarim. These factories are willing to hire ordinary people who have no skills or basic education because they are themselves labor-intensive enterprises.

The brick factory, the ironworks, the farm implement factory, and the only slightly more advanced Originium refinery are all, in the literal sense, "man-eating" factories.

With 12-hour shifts and a two-shift work system, and almost no rest throughout the year except for major holidays like Harvest Festival, to be honest, apart from the black mines in Ursus and the companies on this land that are willing to accept infected employees, he really couldn't think of many factories with stricter systems.

Ernst had also communicated with Enciodis about this matter, hoping to at least implement a three-day rest period per month.

But Enciodes's answer was concise and firm.

"impossible."

"No matter how brutal it may seem, this is still just a factory in Shelag. Although it sounds appalling, Karan Trading at least strictly monitors their safety standards, and so far, apart from a few cases of ore disease infection at the beginning of operations, there have been no new cases at the factories."

"Compared to the army of Victoria, the mines of Ursus, and the frontiers of Columbia, this level of cruelty is less than one-tenth."

His words, spoken with extreme restraint, still linger in Ernst's mind:

"Ernst, development is not child's play."

Ernst, who had witnessed SilverAsh's expression at the time, knew very well that he was not mocking his own naiveté, nor was he trying to whitewash his actions. He was simply stating a fact, a fact a hundred times more cruel than the "cannibalistic factory."

"A land that devours people."

Ernst looked at the Perroch workers, their faces weary, clearly not fully awake, yet determined to come to the platform to watch the spectacle. A helpless yet gratified smile appeared on his face.