Ms. Shirley watched as the families of the workers calmly accepted the placement of the women, and a smile continued to bloom on her face.
There were about 600 women resettled by the city hall, most of whom were young women aged between 14 and 30. A small number were middle-aged women aged between 30 and 37.
After all, the city of Indhal was a parish city of the Church, and child prostitutes under the age of 14 were not allowed to appear there. Of course, if someone married a girl under the age of 14, the church did not interfere.
Women who used to work in bars or lower-class brothels and whorehouses were happy to embrace a new life without having to entertain guests, but those who used to work in clubs may not be so happy.
Many young women who thought they could continue to enjoy their lives by using their beauty were unwilling to accept the resettlement by the city hall. Some people also found that their lives were very "hard" after accepting the resettlement and made excuses to leave. Ms. Shirley, who was in charge of the resettlement, did not stop these two types of people and let them go openly.
Ms. Shirley understood very well that it was difficult for people who were used to a life of luxury to return to a normal life unless they suffered enough. Just like Phoebe in the past, she not only did not think that working in a sensual environment was a torture, but instead believed that she had enough capital to thrive among men.
Young girls always made the mistake of taking a man's patience and fleeting affection when playing with cats and dogs as the capital for a good life.
How long could one enjoy this kind of patience and pampering?
Shirley herself was once a practitioner, and she knew it very well… After the age of 20, the lavish customers who were most willing to spend money would alienate you; when you were 25, the level of your customers would drop significantly, and bad customers may appear; if you reached the age of 30, you had to be grateful to anyone who took you.
But there was no use saying these things. Unless a person fell once, he or she would not understand how painful it was. Ms. Shirley did not think that she was a great being who could save everyone. She just needed to try her best to do what she could and try her best to help those who reached out to her.
Just like the Grim Reaper who appeared outside the window that night and pulled her hand.
"Shirley!"
While Ms. Shirley was reminiscing about the past, Phoebe, whom she had just remembered, trotted over from the other end of the street.
"What's wrong?" Shirley came back to her senses.
Phoebe, who once had extremely beautiful long platinum curly hair, had her hair cut like Mr. Rex's, leaving only short stubble sticking to her scalp. Her once fair and delicate face was tanned as dark as Mr. Rex, and even freckles appeared on it.
Although her image had changed drastically, the pride in this girl's bones had not changed much, and she was still in high spirits.
"Ms. Zhao has something urgent to do, so she has to go to the Environmental Sanitation Bureau to take charge of the recruitment work." Fei Pi, whose eyebrows still had some of the beautiful colors of the past, said breathlessly, "You know I can't deal with people who talk too much, I'll take care of this side for you, you go over and take a look?"
Shirley wanted to sternly accuse Mia of always being picky about the tasks assigned to her.. But when she thought about the number of workers the Environmental Sanitation Bureau was going to recruit, she could only helplessly say, "Okay, remember not to curse casually and don't be too aggressive."
"I never curse at anyone casually. I only curse when someone provokes me." Phoebe said dissatisfied.
"How dare you say that!" Shirley rolled her eyes at her, waved goodbye to Mrs. Hank, and hurried away.
It had been more than a week since Mr. Rex took over the city of Indhal. During this time, he had completed the rectification of the local security team.
The first step was to separate the prison system from the city's law enforcement team, renaming the prison in the West City District as the Detention Department, and placing it under the management of Mr. Hal Maxwell.
Next, the city police chief was abolished, and his authority was transferred to the sheriff's office. The newly appointed sheriff's deputy chief Jimmy and his detectives and sheriffs would be responsible for the internal stability of the city.
As for the original city police headquarters… it was assigned to the Environmental Sanitation Bureau that was being established.
The Environmental Sanitation Bureau of Innadli City had the same positioning as that of Weisshem, which was to provide resettlement jobs for the elderly and unemployed in the city. The salary of eight silver coins was not very good, but the extra breakfast and lunch provided as well as the daily necessities regularly distributed were enough for the workers to support themselves.
When Ms. Shirley arrived at the former city police headquarters, now the Environmental Sanitation Bureau, she saw hundreds of elderly people (average age 40-55, which was considered old in this world) crowded together at the entrance of the Environmental Sanitation Bureau, each of them eagerly looking forward to getting inside, but no one dared to step through the door.
This was easy to understand. After all, the City Police Department was just any office. Its headquarters were built magnificently. Even if the sign of the City Police Department had been removed and the former officers of the City Police Department were now cleaning sewers every day, ordinary citizens did not have the courage to run in.
Seeing that the crowd had blocked the gate tightly, Ms. Shirley simply raised her hand and shouted to the crowd. "Citizens, please don't block the gate of the Environmental Sanitation Bureau. Our City Hall Environmental Sanitation Bureau will start recruiting for the public today. Please make way for the applicants!"
The citizens looked back and saw Ms. Shirley in the City Hall uniform, and hurriedly made way.
"Hey, don't be in a hurry, disperse slowly, don't push! Gentleman over there, slow down, be careful not to bump into people!" Ms. Shirley quickly switched to the mode of maintaining order.
Organizing the crowd to make way in an orderly manner, Ms. Shirley walked through the crowd and onto the steps. She turned around, smiled at everyone, and said, "Citizens, are any of you here to apply for a job?"
People stared at each other for a long time before an old lady summoned up the courage to speak up. "Ma'am, is it true that anyone who is over 40 and unemployed can come and try?"
"Yes." Ms. Shirley nodded vigorously so that everyone could see her nodding motion, and said loudly, "The work of the Environmental Sanitation Bureau is to keep the city streets clean. This is a job that requires patience and perseverance. Young people can't do it, so we need older people with more experience and knowledge."
The first step to building a trusting relationship with someone who lacked self-confidence was to help him or her build that very same self-confidence.
These citizens who came to try their luck after hearing the propaganda from the newsboys (hired by the city hall) were delighted when they heard that the Environmental Sanitation Bureau required patience and perseverance rather than more physical strength.
Before the crowd started to stir, Ms. Shirley said loudly:."We need a lot of sanitation workers to participate in the work. If you are willing to join us, please look at the people around you, let the older people go up the stairs first, and the younger ones stand back and line up, and come in one by one to sign up!"
""That old gentleman, please go up the stairs first. The gentleman in the blue striped shirt over there, please let the old lady behind you go forward first…"
Ms. Shirley single-handedly organized 400 people who had never known what order and discipline were to enter the hall in an orderly manner. She pinched her throat which was a little sore from talking loudly for a long time, and quickly walked to the registration point on the left side of the hall.
The registration point was located in the side hall on the left side of the hall. Yesterday, Ms. Shirley and Ms. Zhao had come to set up the recruitment venue.
After seeing the situation in the conference hall, Ms. Shirley felt a surge of anger rising from the bottom of her heart.
There were people in the venue. There were three men in formal suits and bow ties. Two of them were standing by the window chatting, and one was making tea.
The situation at the gate could be seen from the window, but none of these people were interested in paying attention to the citizens who had gathered there. They all went about their own business quietly.
It was not until Ms. Shirley brought in the citizens who came to apply for the job that these people walked slowly to the registration desk and sat down.
Ms. Shirley suppressed her anger and did not show any obvious surprise. She just carefully organized the citizens to line up in front of the three registration points and register their names, home addresses, family members, etc. one by one.
Except for a few who left because they did not want to do the job anymore, almost all the officials and clerical staff below the section level in the city hall remained in their positions.
These people were basically useless, and that was what everyone who came from Weisshem thought… EvenPhoebe, who still had big problems dealing with people, was better than these guys who just wanted to get by.
"Forget it, it's just a one-month salary for these guys." Ms. Shirley, who seemed calm on the surface, was annoyed thinking in her heart, "Once we train our own people, we'll let these idiots go home and eat rotten potatoes!"
After taking over Indhal, the City Hall did not make many drastic changes to the city of Innadri.
It was not that Rex… No, it was not that Ji Tang and Zhao Zhenzhen's reform mentality had changed. On the one hand, there was really no one on hand, and on the other hand, there were still a lot of projects underway in Weisshem, and none of them could be left behind – transferring clerks such as Shirley and Phoebe and Patton's group of operators to preside over the operation of the City Hall, and leaving Jimmy's group of security guards here to be responsible for the city's security, was already the largest personnel transfer allowed by the national team. If more people were moved, Weisshem's industrial zone would be in trouble.
Due to various reasons, the current city of Indhal had not changed much from the period when the Bartles family ruled.
At least in the eyes of ordinary citizens, apart from the first day when he wiped out more than 90% of the illegal and disorderly dens in the city, the new lord Rex had not made any major moves since then.
As for the closure of more than 80% of bars, all casinos and clubs, and the vast majority of brothels, the impact on ordinary people… was actually not that big.
The city of Indhal was different from a town like Weisshem that had no industry. It had relatively developed handicrafts and a barely passable manufacturing industry… no, a processing industry.
After years of unremitting land annexation by the nobles, nearly 50% of the fertile land in the entire Indhal territory had been concentrated in farms throughout the territory, and at least 20% of the land belonged to the church. These highly concentrated lands produced a considerable amount of grain every year.
In addition, all the towns and villages in Indhal's territory were "fiefdoms" of nobles. Every year, these nobles had to collect taxes on behalf of the great lord Bartles' family, and the grain was also highly concentrated…
The large and small factories that lined the North City factory area mainly processed and produced various non-staple foods in addition to dairy products and fur products: flour made from wheat, sugar made from corn, oil squeezed from soybeans, and various types of alcoholic beverages made from wheat and corn were the flagship products of Innadeli's local industry.
The local grain self-sufficiency rate was on the red line, but it was actually a production area with grain processing as its flagship product, which was also very feudal…
Although it was a pain in the ass, the local grain, oil and non-staple food processing industry did provide tens of thousands of jobs. Unlike Weisshem, where many families had to make a living by providing cheap services in the red-light district, it could be said that there were pros and cons.
Without relying on the red-light district for a living, ordinary citizens could not be said to have a deep connection with the red-light district "industry."
Including the North City factory area with the highest employment rate, the average monthly income of citizens who accounted for more than 80% of the city's total population did not exceed 20 silver coins. The vast majority of the lower-class citizens did not have the spare money to go to bars, casinos, and play with women. The men on the street could take out a few coppers after work to buy a glass of rum and order some fried soybeans, and have a drink with others while bragging, which was considered a relatively easy life.
As for the new lord taking over the city police and prison, stopping the access control in the central city, forcing the former city police chiefs to clean the sewers, and sending batches of arrested prostitutes, casino and brothel operators to Westham… For most ordinary citizens, these were just topics of conversation after dinner and did not have much impact on people's lives.
Of course, it was not completely without impact.
For example, the previously active street gangs had all been broken up and disappeared, and no one dared to gather in groups on the streets anymore – there were rumors in the city that those captured by the new lord would be sent to the evil black magician as materials for summoning the undead, and no matter how brave and aggressive the gang members were, they would never be willing to get involved in such trouble.
For example, there were almost no drunkards on Indhal Street at night – pretending to be crazy and causing trouble under the influence of alcohol could effectively relieve stress, but being chased by the undead in the middle of the night was definitely not a pleasant memory.
Without the gathering of gang members, drunkards dared not cause trouble, gamblers and prostitutes disappeared, and the public security situation in Indhal had skyrocketed. Cases of petty theft, robbery and rape had dropped sharply… If it were not for these benefits, the citizens would not have been able to accept those undead running around the streets day and night, and would have definitely complained.
For example, Mrs. Gerry, who lived in the Granser neighborhood, no longer limited her afternoon walks to Plant Avenue, where middle-class women gathered. She not only wandered around the Midtown area, where access control had been abolished, but she also dared to bring her housekeeper to stroll around the streets of the South City and St. Joseph Avenue.
"It's a pity that so many stores are closed."
In the warm autumn afternoon sun, Mrs. Gerry, wearing a long dress and holding a parasol, walked comfortably on the spacious St. Joseph Avenue, looking around excitedly. "Will, is that the Free Market over there?"
"Yes, ma'am," said the housekeeper, Ms. Will. "The city has indeed become much safer recently, and there are not so many thieves in the Free Market. But you see, there are too many people there, and there are dirty carts carrying goods and baskets of vegetables everywhere. It would be terrible if your skirt was damaged."
Ms. Will's advice successfully discouraged the hostess from taking the small risk. Mrs. Gerry looked down at the expensive lace veil on her skirt and said regretfully, "Okay, then let's go somewhere else. What other famous streets are nearby?"
Ms. Will knew that the mistress wanted to go to a poor neighborhood to show off her expensive and beautiful dress to those dusty common women, but she didn't dare to take the mistress to a dangerous place… After thinking hard, the housekeeper came up with a compromise. "The bar area around here is very famous, ma'am."