Don’t raise unruly people in extreme cold weather

Chapter 851

Because they did not want to give up the opportunity to kill the Imperial Regent, almost all the resistance groups in the city of Marcel participated in the assassination of Perfectoct.

These organizations usually operate independently and even sabotage each other due to differences in ideas, but they surprisingly reached a consensus on this assassination operation.

This also made her complain that there were four or five resistance organizations in one city, each of which operated independently and had no unified leadership.

In a sense, he is a perfect match for the Governor-General who only knows how to hold balls all day and the useless garrison commander who even withholds the salaries of the city defense troops.

However, this discovery did slightly change her opinion of the governor and the garrison commander - at least these two pieces of trash were still somewhat useful in preventing the resistance forces from growing stronger.

Although it was most likely an accidental success, at least it prevented these resistance organizations from joining forces or connecting together.

From this perspective, they are not complete waste.

But even so, this did not change Perfect's decision to replace the two insects after suppressing Marcel's riots and resistance.

After all, incompetence is incompetence. Even if they can occasionally accomplish something by accident, it cannot change the fact that they are essentially waste.

The suppression of the resistance did not take Perfecto much time.

Although these captured rebels appeared determined and resolute in their resistance, it is difficult to say that they were truly steadfast and unyielding - after all, they were neither professionally trained spies nor fanatical revolutionaries.

The most direct reason for their rebellion was simply that they could no longer survive.

Before being arrested and taken to the interrogation room, these people were just the most ordinary people at the bottom of society in the city of Marcel: workers with calloused hands in the factory, hawkers bargaining in the market, and unemployed people struggling to survive in the slums...

They had neither lofty political ideals nor strict organizational discipline. Many people even joined the resistance organization just because they could not survive without resisting, or simply wanted to take revenge on the tax collectors and sheriffs who oppressed them.

Even though they became so-called "rebels", their actions were very limited - blowing up several residences of imperial officials, disrupting the transportation of supplies, assassinating several low-ranking officers... After all, all they could do was cause some damage in the city of Marcel, nothing more.

Such an opponent poses no trouble to Perfect.

She did not even personally inquire into the details of the interrogation, but simply ordered the interrogators to "treat the prisoners well."

Whipping, branding, waterboarding... after several rounds of torture, many people collapsed and cried out the hiding places and action plans of their accomplices.

The remaining diehards could only hold out for a few more days before finally giving in under even more brutal torture.

With these confessions, the subsequent actions became unremarkable.

Her agents led the garrison to search house by house based on the confessions, and continued to torture the people after they were caught, uncovering the network of the resistance organization layer by layer like peeling an onion.

Soon, the leaders of several major resistance organizations were arrested, their strongholds were destroyed, and the entire resistance organization was uprooted.

Of course, Perfect was well aware that such suppression could not completely eradicate the resistance forces. There would always be some who slipped through the net, and there would always be people who would take up arms again out of hatred or despair.

But at least for a short period of time, the city of Marcel was considered "clean". As for those remnants who had managed to escape?
If they are smart, they will understand that the best option now is to disappear, otherwise only a more brutal reckoning will be waiting for them.

However, after suppressing these rebels, Perfect couldn't help but ask himself whether what he did was right or whether it was worth it?

She did not regret the brutal suppression of those who rebelled - in this position, mercy would only lead to more rebellion.

She was just wondering if she was pushing these people too hard and squeezing them too much.

After completely wiping out the resistance organization, she specially sent her confidants to conduct an in-depth investigation into the true situation in the city of Marcel.

When the thick investigation report was placed in front of her, she rarely felt an indescribable embarrassment, or an absurd feeling of "pain in the balls".

Perfecto thought his rule over France was harsh enough.

She still remembered what she had said to the pampered nobles in the Imperial Parliament: "If they still have money to rebel, it means you haven't squeezed them clean enough."

This sentence made everyone present silent.

However, comparing it with Marcel's situation now, she suddenly realized that her harsh words were just like a child's joke.

"What the hell..." She put down the report with a wry smile and rubbed her temples.

The shocking figures and data in the report, and the miserable conditions in which civilians could barely maintain their basic survival, made her waver in her own ruling methods for the first time—not out of pity, but purely out of consideration for the efficiency of her rule.

After all, even an iron-fisted ruler like her thought the measures were excessive, but there were actually people who could do even more extreme things.

Even if we have to squeeze out every last bit of their surplus value and plunder the last penny in their pockets, we have to let them have something to squeeze, right?

Sustainable exhaustion of fish is a technical job, and there is no doubt that the previous governor only learned how to exhaust fish, but not how to be sustainable.

If miners don't even have enough food to eat, how can we expect them to have the strength to work? No way!
The low productivity brought about by the overly primitive labor model makes it difficult to obtain sufficient output and efficiency no matter how hard the labor is exploited.

毕竟总产量只有10的时候，你就算把税率拉到100%也只能收获10，而当总产量有1000的时候，哪怕只是1%的税率也能有10。

To put it bluntly, if Perfecto was willing to spend some time improving the mining area outside of the city of Marcel, she could immediately double the output there.

This also made Perfect hesitate whether it was worth it for him to abandon these people because of the war with the gods.

During this period, relying on the mining units of the floating city and the exploitation of the entire Old France region, the materials for the third floating city module have been roughly gathered.

During this period of time, the attacks of the gods seemed to have slowed down. It seemed that the sacrifice and loss of the old capital of France last time made them temporarily stop. This made Perfect seem less urgent to squeeze out every bit of resources.

Perhaps we could try to improve the situation in Marsel and the entire Old France region and increase the efficiency of local resource output?

(End of this chapter)