Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 309 The Aftermath of Hatred

"My lord, Inspector Yurio and Commander Pierce request to see you!" The guard at the study door knocked on the door and reported to Harvey.

"Let them come in together."

Pierce, his face filled with joy, and Yurio, with a hint of worry on his face, walked side by side into Harvey's study.

Just as Yurio was about to salute, Pierce spoke up, "Sir, after yesterday's public trial, the military recruitment office has been flooded with new immigrants from the southern border, eager to sign up... It seems that using public trials to arouse the people's shared hatred of the enemy is truly effective!"

Harvey rolled his eyes helplessly. This guy was really insatiable. More than 20,000 pioneers had to adopt a professional army of more than 3,000 people, which already made Harvey feel a little stretched financially. Yet he was still obsessed with expanding the army.

"There's no new conscription order, so why are they going to the military recruitment office to join in the fun? Even if they want to expand the army, at least half of these new immigrants from the southern border wouldn't be able to pass the recruitment office's physical fitness test. Don't you know that?"

Harvey frowned and scolded Pierce, finally cooling down his enthusiasm. He scratched his head and thought about it and felt that it was true. The physical fitness of immigrants from the southern border was indeed much worse than that of the locals in the bitter cold north. Judging from their stature alone, they were obviously much shorter than the people in the wasteland. If they were to be selected according to the military's selection standards, nine out of ten of them would be eliminated on the spot.

"Then... the garrison gap in Grizzly Castle... we can't just let the Defense Army and the Northern Army rotate there all the time, right? That's a big city with a population of nearly 10,000. Five hundred people alone are a bit tight just to control the city gates and guard the outside world." Although Pierce's mood had dimmed, he still talked about the matter at hand.

Harvey pinched his brows and pondered for a moment before saying, "It's not like we won't recruit anyone. We'll first fill the job vacancies in the territory's various production departments. The remaining new immigrants can be trained as militia and sent to the garrison on the east coast. While they can ensure planting and production, they can also quickly integrate into the territory. At the very least, their ideological outlook needs to be completely transformed..."

After saying that, he reluctantly approved a note to expand the militia by 500 men, threw it to the happy-looking Pierce, and finally sent him away first.

"Now then...what's going on with the police department?"

Yurio, on the other hand, was much calmer. He stepped forward and reported slowly, "Sir, yesterday's public trial focused entirely on the Church and the southern nobles, which led to the subsequent interrogation of those criminals involved in the illegal sale of grain. This hasn't served as a good warning to the public. I'm worried..."

Harvey was stunned for a moment. After the trial of the church priest yesterday, he was too lazy to watch the hanging scene and left in a hurry. He didn't even think about the subsequent case.

"Why? The onlookers are so tolerant of this behavior of enriching themselves and damaging the interests of the territory?"

Yurio shook his head and explained, "It's not quite leniency. After these men confessed on the spot, although they weren't pelted with rocks and mud, it was clear that the crowd wasn't hostile... They just shouted and swore at them, and there wasn't much objection to the final decision to sentence them to three years of hard labor in the mines." Harvey smiled and said, "That's fine. I don't want the people to be completely swept up in hatred, nor do I want to intimidate them with overly harsh laws. I just want to instill one idea in all my subjects: don't try, or you'll be caught!"

Stealing a small amount of old grain that should have been scrapped and selling it privately will result in confiscation of personal property and three years of hard labor, which is already a relatively serious punishment. It is enough to have a typical case here as a warning.

"There's one more thing, sir... After yesterday's public trial, many of the immigrants from the southern border, who were originally church members, took the initiative to take their altars, statues, and other offerings from their homes to the city square and discarded and burned them... The police department sent people to maintain order at the scene, but they didn't stop them."

Harvey burst out laughing with joy. This was exactly what he wanted to achieve by holding the public trial yesterday!
More than 60% of the wastelanders in the occupied areas have almost no religious beliefs. When they struggle to survive in the barren and cold land of the north, there is no god like the God of Light to give them any help. It is normal for them to say "thank God" when they are full and "damn God" when they are hungry.

But the growing number of immigrants from the southern border are completely different. They live in a peaceful country that is completely unaffected by the invasion of evil orcs and demons. Apart from the common oppression of noble lords, most of them have never experienced the baptism of war and severe famine. Therefore, most of them have a certain foundation of faith, and a large number of them are shallow believers of the Church of Light.

After arriving in the northern frontier where there was no religious activity at all, they spontaneously enshrined the religious objects they brought with them at home to make up for the regret of not being able to go to church to pray and attend mass. Many bold people even took the initiative to go to the city hall and request to attract missionaries to build a church.

This was not the result Harvey wanted to see. Forcibly depriving them of their faith would certainly cause secret dissatisfaction among the people. Instead of sowing the seeds of such discordant emotions, it would be better to directly and openly put the blame on the church with irrefutable evidence, thoroughly expose their past conspiracy, and allow these shallow believers whose faith was not firm to begin with to completely break away from the church's spiritual control.

"A similar public trial must also be held in Grizzly Castle. Although the church's charlatans have all evacuated, the church still remains in the city. Place some spies among the people in the city to quietly spread the truth about today's public trial. Let public opinion and emotions ferment for a while, and then completely ignite their suspicion and hatred of the church!"

Harvey said to Yurio in a calm tone, "I will have the city hall simultaneously implement a policy of tax exemptions and halving land rents for the people of Grizzly Castle and the surrounding territories. Earl Trevor, the new head of the Fagan family, will also fully cooperate. By then, the people of the city will clearly understand which side to support to reap the real benefits."

Yurio couldn't help but cheer up. He said, "Sir, if this happens, the people of Grizzliburg will definitely turn to us. In less than a month, I'm afraid they will take the initiative to demolish the remaining church and nearby monastery without us having to do anything."

After all, compared to the Glorious God who never responded to their prayers day and night, the Wasteland Lord who could reduce their rent and taxes and issue various laws that benefited the people brought them much more benefits.

Now that the Grizzlies have lost their church, civilians can pay less believer taxes and are no longer forced to respond to the church's recruitment in winter to do free labor such as repairing churches and expanding monasteries.

Even a fool knows how to choose.

(End of this chapter)