Chapter 212: Union Problems

While Weisshem was busy organizing young people to build roads and study, the city of Indhal was quite calm.

The new lord did not interfere too much in people's lives. Not only did he not issue new decrees and regulations requiring everyone to comply, he even did not touch the North City Factory District, which everyone thought the he would definitely take action against. Not to mention the middle-class families who could only watch the fun, even the nobles who owned the North City Factory District found it incredible.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the bulk of Indhal's wealth was concentrated in the North City Factory District. There were more than 40,000 workers and dozens of large and small factories here. It was the only industrialized production base in Indhal. If this world also had an economic indicator such as GDP, then more than 80% of Indhal's GDP must have been created by the North City Factory District.

Ever since the fall of the Bartles family, Viscount Darcy, who had become the leader of the local nobles, had been secretly observing the movements of Charlie Rex, who entered the City Hall. The result of his observation was...Charlie Rex seemed to be blind and basically ignored the wealth of the North City.

After sweeping the club area, sealing off the bar area and casino area, and clearing out all the gray industries in the city, Charlie Rex seemed to be very satisfied with his "political achievements" and stopped there.

This made Viscount Darcy very confused.

Even if this illegitimate child was worried that the local nobles would unite to force him to step down, or even release the position of mayor to someone qualified... he wouldn't have been so afraid to not even touch the money, right?

Not to mention the Bartles family's large shares in several large factories. Didn't Charlie Rex dare to touch these free benefits?

After much deliberation, Viscount Darcy decided to gather the factory owners at his home in the name of a private cocktail party to discuss countermeasures.

These factory owners... were actually just the more respectable local nobles. Even Baron Marcus, who lost his fiefdom, was among them - this guy still had two farms in his hands, and could barely maintain his small brewery.

In the study, facing a group of nobles who were landlords, capitalists, and factory owners, Viscount Darcy solemnly opened the topic of discussion: "What do you think of the Bartles family's shares?"

As soon as these words came out, all the gentlemen in the room showed their hungry wolf-like eyes...

Last week, Charlie Rex released Adela III and his loyal butler Gould.

This third generation was quite sensible. After returning to the only remaining farm of the Bartles family, he stayed indoors and never mentioned a word about selling their family's shares. The tragic experience of losing the territory and being thrown into prison finally made this third generation learn what worldly wisdom and human relationships were. He could already figure out that although those shares were still in the name of the Bartles family, they no longer belonged to the family.

The winner takes all is the most universal truth in this world. Whoever does not know what's good for them will have to pay the price. When the local nobles divided up the Bartles family's farm estate, they were very honest and did not touch the Bartles family's shares. That was the meat on the plate of the big winner, Charlie Rex. No matter how much they despised that illegitimate child, the nobles would not think that the guy would not kill people for such wealth.

But things in this world are so strange. Charlie Rex had been in the city of Indhal for more than 20 days, but this guy had never sent anyone to the factory area to receive the largest legacy of the Bartles family...

Who wouldn't be tempted by such a big piece of fat meat with no owner just lying there?

"Doesn't Rex know about this?" someone said, swallowing.

"How is that possible?" Someone immediately sneered, "Even if that illegitimate child has not received a proper education and doesn't understand these things, do those he's working with not understand either?"

Those who were hoping for luck remained silent.

Charlie Rex abolished the city police superintendent with an iron fist, and the National Guard quickly surrendered. Together with the sheriff's detectives who were usually ignored by many people, they became the most loyal lackeys of the new city hall. Now, apart from the militiamen that Rex brought into the city from Weisshem, these people were the only ones patrolling the streets. The gentlemen were fed up with seeing this group walking around like they owned the place.

The National Garrison is part of the regular establishment of the cities of the Kingdom of the Rhine. The garrisons of each city are uniformly appointed by the royal city. It is a violent organization loyal to the lord, but even more loyal to the Rhine royal family. Its relationship with the local nobles had always been delicate... To be precise, the nobles wanted to interfere with the military power of the National Garrison, but they also disliked the fact that there were too many people in charge of the National Garrison.

The Bartles family had a strong army of their own and had neglected the National Garrison of Indhal for hundreds of years. Now that they had finally replaced the new lord, the National Garrison would naturally cling to the new lord and it was impossible for them to keep the leadership position open for the Bartles family.

"Then why didn't Charlie Rex take action?" a baroness asked, "Your Excellency, what do you think?"

Viscount Darcy glanced at everyone and saw that everyone was waiting for his opinion. He felt a little smug and said solemnly, "Adra III has not left yet. Everyone knows that, right?"

"Of course he doesn't dare to leave. That bastard confiscated his family's shares as money to buy his life. I don't think he can sleep well at night these days, let alone pack up and leave." A young noble sneered, "What if he is robbed and killed by some bandits who don't know who he is when he leaves the city? That would be a disaster for him."

Viscount Darcy didn't look at the young noble who suddenly spoke. He knew that after the fall of the Bartles family, not everyone agreed that the Darcy family should be the leader. However, he was too lazy to care about such a young brat: "The news I got was that the Third Generation had been writing letters during this period. Some letters were sent to the Royal City, some letters were sent to the Holy Land of the Gold Coin Church, and some letters were sent to the Earldom of Odysseus next door..."

"As the current head of the Bartles family, Adela III sent a letter to the Count of Odysseus for help?" The young noble interrupted Viscount Darcy rudely and sneered even more exaggeratedly, "Such an unpresentable person is actually the former lord of Indhal. This is more embarrassing than having a bastard child sitting on the throne."

After these words were spoken, not only Viscount Darcy, but all the gentlemen present were a little angered, and they all glared at the young nobleman.

"Dennis Frank, please watch your words in this situation!" said the Baroness unhappily.

"I'm sorry." The young noble Dennis Frank said this verbally, but his behavior did not restrain at all, and his attitude became worse and worse. "I know that you are greedy for the shares of the Bartles family, but you don't want to be the first to provoke the anger of Charlie Rex, so you hope that Adela III's letter of request for help can cause some trouble for Charlie Rex, right, your Excellency the Viscount?"

Dennis Frank's last two words were directed to Viscount Darcy.

No matter how well-mannered Viscount Darcy was, he could not ignore such an offense. He immediately frowned and sternly scolded: "Who told you to talk to me like this? Is this the family education of the Frank family?!"

"Don't say that. The Darcy family's tutor let their granddaughter hook up with a bastard you always say you look down upon? Isn't such a tutor shameful?" Dennis Frank said with contempt, "On the surface, they said that we should all unite to see what tricks that bastard can come up with. But privately, you let your granddaughters take turns to visit Charlie Rex and try to use marriage to swallow up the Bartles family's shares and eat all for herself. Is this the Darcy family's style?!"

As soon as these words were spoken, Viscount Darcy's face turned green, and all the gentlemen in the audience were instantly in an uproar.

"Of course this is not true!" One Baroness was shocked and angry. She pointed at Dennis Frank's nose and cursed, "I'm really fed up with you, shameless brat. Get out of here!"

Dennis Frank's voice was louder than the Baroness's. "Do you expect the Darcy family to give you a share of the spoils? Don't dream, ma'am! Let me tell you the truth. Viscount Darcy thought those letters of help sent by the third generation were useless. Before Charlie Rex declared war on the Bartles family, he had already formed an alliance with the Count of Odysseus!"

The gentlemen, who had just been excited, suddenly became quiet.

Dennis Frank was becoming more and more complacent. "There is another thing. Why was the Gold Coin Church completely unmoved during the territory war? Because the Gold Coin Church also supported Charlie Rex. Haven't you seen that the Night Watchmen even hired the Undead to be exorcists? This is obviously a public matter, but the Darcy family deliberately didn't say it. Why do you think the Darcy family didn't say it? What exactly does the respected Viscount want to use you for? Have you ever thought about it?"

Viscount Darcy, who was sitting firmly in the main seat, suddenly felt dizzy.

The factory owners' party hosted by the Darcy family ended in unpleasantness in less than an hour.

Two hours later, the news arrived on Rex's desk in the top floor office of City Hall.

Rex read the brief report and looked stiffly at Zhao Zhenzhen who was sitting opposite him.

"Everyone has enemies." Zhao Zhenzhen smiled brightly. "Find a family that is at odds with Viscount Darcy's family and has the strength to challenge them, and disclose the operation that Lord Yang had arranged earlier. Naturally, someone will come forward to disrupt the connection that Darcy's family was trying to make... We should use our energy to do the right things. We don't have the time to intrigue with those people. It's better to let them play together and save us some trouble."

Rex gave a stiff and cautious smile...

He finally understood why Ms. Zhao, who seemed to be a cheerful, efficient and easy-to-deal-with, always gave people the feeling that she was menacing... This undead lady was indeed very dangerous!

"Let's put this aside." Zhao Zhenzhen pulled out another document and spread it out in front of Rex. "The labor union in the factory area has a big organizational problem."

"Uh... isn't this union used by factory owners to control workers?" Rex said cautiously.

"That's both right and wrong," Zhao Zhenzhen said. "If the union is clearly acting as a lackey for the factory owner, then the workers will be very resistant to the union. When we start adjusting the industrial structure of the factory area, it will be difficult for the union to resist us."

"The point is that this union is, in a sense, a self-organized and recognized organization of workers that seeks the welfare of the working group. This is the key point."

Rex didn't say anything, but showed an incomprehensible expression to express his attitude - what a joke, which organization that seeks welfare for workers would unceremoniously take 10% of the workers' salary? It's the same tax rate as the one implemented by the great lords!

Zhao Zhenzhen understood Rex's reaction very well and patiently explained, "This union was indeed spontaneously organized by workers in the beginning. The leadership of the union was originally workers. When the union was first established, it was indeed serving the workers. The management registered and classified people who needed work, introduced them to various factories to participate in the work, and arranged people to contact the employing factories to ensure that the workers' wages were not lower than the minimum level."

"The factory district of Indhal was established ninety years ago, when the army was formed and could effectively deter border bandits. The union also took shape around that time. According to the information we have obtained, at least in the first ten years after the union was established, it was indeed working hard to benefit the working class."

"However, as time went by, this original intention changed." After a pause, Zhao Zhenzhen said calmly, "The management of the union is hereditary. The father is in the management, and the son is also in the management, and it is passed down from generation to generation. The senior management also fought fiercely for the position of union president, and it even developed to the point where they had to win the support of factory owners. At this point, it can no longer be said to be serving the working class."

Rex nodded solemnly. He was now a staunch opponent of the hereditary power system. He understood more and more deeply how terrible it was for an incompetent person to occupy a high position after being pushed to the position of puppet lord by Yang... Without the assistance of the undead, he, who thought he was not incompetent, would definitely have made a mess of things.

"Of course, if that were the case, overthrowing the already corrupt union wouldn't be a big problem." Zhao Zhenzhen continued, "The trouble is that there are a large number of middle and low-level backbones in the union who have accepted the harmful information promoted by the union's top leaders in order to protect their own interests. They believe that only when the factory owners make money can the workers have work and food to eat, and that it is right to sacrifice the interests of the workers to protect the interests of the factory owners to a certain extent."

"These middle and lower-level cadres who directly contact the grassroots workers have conveyed the same message to the workers. In other words, not only within the trade union organization, but also among the more than 40,000 workers in the factory area, many people think this is a reasonable thing to do."

"If we don't solve this problem and we take action against the unions and the factory owners, then ... the first people who stand in our way will be the ordinary workers we want to protect."