Violet Gerry, 42, was originally a senior clerk in the Secretary's Office.
Mr. Gary's job was to be responsible for the personnel files of the Indhal city law enforcement force. In other words, if there were personnel changes in the original city police, prison, and court, they had to apply for file changes from Mr. Gary.
This was a humble but powerful position. Although Mr. Gerry did not have direct control over the personnel transfers of the city police and the prison, he had the right to send back unreasonable file change applications and request reaffirmations. There was a lot of room to maneuver here. If Mr. Gerry looked down on someone, even if that person was a new judge who was about to take office, Mr. Gerry had the right to have that person stuck in line for three to five months.
At least half of Mr. Gerry's annual income of fifty gold coins was obtained through the convenience of his position. This was an unspoken rule that was reasonable and legal, although not public. The Secretariat had such privileges, just as it was reasonable and legal for the lord to appoint the local mayor.
Similar situations also happened to other senior clerks in the Secretariat, such as the friend in front of Mr. Gerry. This friend's channel for making money was even better than Mr. Gerry's. He was originally responsible for the land approval authority of the Indhal territory. If the nobles wanted to buy (annex) a good piece of land, they had to send him, who was responsible for the registration and filing of local land ownership, a bribe.
In the secretariat that directly connected with the mayor and the lord, most senior clerks were unwilling to be promoted even if they had accumulated enough experience. The main reason was the gray legal income that was envied by outsiders.
Unfortunately, with the Bartles family being ousted, the good days of the Secretariat came to an end. Charlie Rex abolished the Secretariat without even deciding on a mayor, and dispersed the senior clerks of the Secretariat to various departments, leaving them to do basic copying work that new employees could do!
Mr. Gerry was sent to the Cultural Department, and his immediate superior was a woman named Sibel, who used to be a prostitute in Weisshem!
This Sibel had not yet come to the city and was still in Weisshem carrying out some kind of literacy work, but the existence of this shameful boss was enough to make Mr. Gerry felt that he was personally humiliated. He and his wife occasionally went to cocktail parties hosted by nobles. If a noble at the party teased him about working for a prostitute, then would he still have the face to stand among those respectable people?
The two people who had the same experience were talking more and more excitedly in the study. In excitement, the friend blurted out impulsively. "Why don't we go with the Third Generation?"
Mr. Gerry, who had just been chattering and cursing the new lord Rex, suddenly became quiet.
After Adela III was defeated, he was kept in prison.
The nobles in the city were all watching coldly to see how Charlie Rex, who broke the rules and destroyed everyone's source of wealth (casinos, brothels) as soon as he entered the city, would treat the former lord. Perhaps because he did not want to provoke a strong backlash from the nobles, the hateful illegitimate son Rex did not do anything too extreme to the Bartles family. He only sealed off the Bartles mansion.
But… Rex also did not seem interested in being too kind to the Bartles family.
Mr. Gerry knew that a few days ago, Viscount Darcy tried to find an excuse to swallow up the large estate of the Bartles family in Kane Town, but Lord Rex did not respond to this at the time.
The nobles who had suffered heavy losses on the day of annexation seemed to have received some signal and attacked the Bartles family's manor farm together. In Mr. Gerry's opinion, Lord Rex seemed to have acquiesced in the nobles' division of the Bartles family's inheritance in an attempt to appease the angry nobles.
Like today, those rude civilian women from the newly established Logistics Department reopened the bar area without any deliberate obstruction. The reason was that the nobles were busy putting the land that originally belonged to the Bartles family into their own pockets and could not distract themselves by making their presence felt in the city for the time being.
Through his wife's friendship with the noble ladies, Mr. Gerry knew how angry the local nobles were with Rex; he also knew that the street gangs in the city that had gone underground had actually been intentionally taken in by the nobles, just waiting to create some big trouble for Lord Rex.
In short, Mr. Gerry no longer had much regard for the Bartles family, who were like stray dogs now. Based on his understanding of the attitude of the local nobles, he felt that he could be more patient and wait a little longer. Perhaps before long, Rex would be driven out of power by the local nobles who united together.
By that time, no matter who became the new lord, Mr. Gerry felt that he still had the capital to make a comeback. He had worked in the secretarial department of the City Hall for fourteen years and had experience and impressive enough qualifications. As long as it was not Rex, any noble who became lord would have to employ a reliable senior clerk like him.
After thinking for a while, Mr. Gerry hinted to his long-time friend with a meaningful tone: "Maybe we don't need to be too anxious, Yodon. Who knows when Lord Rex will release the Third?"
The friend failed to immediately grasp Mr. Gerry's intention and asked doubtfully, "The Third Generation knows so many great nobles in the royal city. Lord Rex will not embarrass him too much, right?"
Mr. Gerry could only say tactfully, "Of course, Yodon, Lord Rex will release the Third sooner or later, but I think we can wait a little longer and don't need to make a decision so early. Even if the Third has a wide network of contacts, I think it would be difficult for him to solve the employment problems of so many people in the territory outside of Indhal. You see, if you want to follow the Third, there must be many people who have this idea, and we are not more familiar with the Third than others."
Yodon's expression suddenly became a little strange, and he seemed to be hesitant to speak.
He thought that Gerry's wife, who was good at socializing, could also have a say with the Bartles family, but it seemed that he was overthinking it.
Without being able to make a name for himself with the Third, following the former lord who had lost his territory would be a gamble. Yodon had no choice but to give up the idea. He leaned back in his high-backed chair with a long sigh and said painfully, "This kind of life is really depressing. I really don't know when I will see changes."
"That's right. We can only wait patiently." Mr. Gary could not help but sigh.
Middle-class people like Yoden and Gerry, who thought they were closer to the nobility, were concerned about the whereabouts of Adela III. Charles Rex himself certainly would not ignore the former lord whom he had casually thrown into prison.
After coming out of the boring cocktail party with the nobles, Rex ran to find Yang Qiu who occupied the Bartles mansion without even having time to change out of the clothes that made him uncomfortable.
Seeing Yang Qiu lying in the luxurious living room playing with his phone, Rex asked bluntly: "Yang, do we really not need to care about those factories in North City?"
"Huh?" Yang Qiu, who was playing stand-alone auto chess, frowned and looked up.
"Do you know how much food there is in those factories?" Rex took off his bowler hat and slammed it onto the sofa, untying his tie on his collar while speaking angrily, "The price of black bread in the city had risen to six copper coins a bag. The millers in the East City District could not sell much flour, but the factories in the North City District shipped out food every two days! Carriage after carriage!"
The Indhal territory was not a very good grain-producing area, not because there were too few plains. In fact, this territory located in the central and eastern part of the Nabaron continent had quite a lot of plains, accounting for about 40% of the total land area.
The biggest reason limiting Indhal's grain production was the inadequate water supply. In summer, floods were common in other areas except Weisshem, which was mountainous and had high terrain, while there was a large-scale water shortage in spring and autumn.
However, because Naderi had a small population, the total urban and rural population was only a little over two million, and the peasant population accounted for more than 70% of the total population. Even if the crops were widely planted and the harvest was small, there should have been enough food to eat, and there would even have been a surplus.
But... the local grain prices were at a relatively high level except for one or two months after the autumn harvest. The reason was that the nobles were engaged in the grain export business. Among the six provinces of the Rhine Kingdom, Indhal was the largest grain outflow area!
The neighboring Count Odysseus's territory would restrict the outflow of grain every year, but the Indhal Territory was open to selling it... No wonder Rex became more angry the more he learned about the local industrial structure.
"Calm down, Rex." Yang Qiu continued to play with his phone calmly. "The mill owners were all from noble families. It was not that they could not provide food, but that they were controlling the amount of flour flowing out to ensure that people could accept the increase of one copper coin in the price of black bread. Just leave this matter to Ji Tang."
It was not winter yet, so it was easy for farmers to enter the city. If the price of bread rose too much, or if the public reacted too strongly, the nobles behind the millers would not have dared to go too far...
Rex could not be comforted by such words. Instead, he felt even more uncomfortable. He walked around the sofa twice but could not calm down and sit down.
Rex, who used to wander around alone, thought that the lord could ensure that people would not go hungry as long as he lowered the price of food. He had a naive idea in his heart that "one day when he became the lord, he would cut the price of bread in half."
After supporting Yang and becoming a puppet lord, Rex realized that the problem was not that simple... Let alone doubling the price, if the price of a pound of black bread slices was reduced by one copper coin and sold for only four copper coins a bag, it would also have caused a serious blow to the people in this industry chain!
From bakeries to mills to farmers who produced wheat, everyone would suffer!
Lowering food prices did not allow people to live in peace, but instead led to public unrest. This problem really annoyed Rex to the extreme...
Fortunately, Yang did not give him the power to decide the price of grain.
After being annoyed for a long time, Rex could only suppress his temper and force himself to calm down. He sat down in front of Yang Qiu and took a big gulp of cold tea: "Then what about Adela III? When can we get this guy to leave?"
"Speaking of this...has the Bartles family's property been robbed?" Yang Qiu asked, raising his eyelids.
Rex: "…"
It was certainly not Rex who allowed the nobles to divide up the Bartles family's property. He wanted to confiscate all of the Bartles family's manor farms, including their shares in the factory area...but he had no say.
If he had the final say, he would definitely have hung the Third on the city gate - that guy was nothing like his grandfather, he had never done anything good!
"It's almost over. The head of the family and the butler are in prison, the mistress and the heir were sent away in advance, and no one in the Bartles family could stop those shark-like guys. Now only the farm in Horseshoe Town still belongs to them." Rex said aggrievedly.
"Then you can release him." Yang Qiu said with a smile, "You go to meet him in person in your best attire, make a big scene, be polite to the former lord, and invite him out respectfully. Oh, and you'd better say some polite words to maintain the Third's dignity, and let the weekly newspaper publish it."
Rex: "???"
"Young man, don't just look at the present, you have to look at the long term." Yang Qiu said indifferently, "Captain Horn of the city defense army resigned after bringing those soldiers back. He did not want to serve you, a young lord with a bright future, at all. There are many people like him who miss the old friendship with Adela III."
"Wouldn't it save a lot of trouble if we let that Third leave in a decent manner and take away those guys whose crimes were not serious enough to be arrested and hanged, and who had no chance of being tied up and used as laborers in road construction?"