Will the kemonomimi encounter Alien Ranch Story?

These out-of-town merchants would absolutely not raise prices again. As for keeping the money for themselves, that was fine, but the noble tax collectors didn't think so.

As for selling to others, haven't you seen those local farmers and landlords already waiting to devour the land of the extinct? They haven't raised the rent for tenants yet because their main source of income is still these self-sufficient farmers.

They have to sell in order to pay taxes. It's fine to sell to these out-of-town merchants now, but if there are really stubborn guys, we'll have to wait and see.

Next, these large buyers will purchase the goods for one yuan each, and then sell them to these out-of-town merchants for one yuan and one jiao.

In this way, both sides can make a profit, but after paying their taxes, the farmers will have no surplus grain to live on or to buy seeds for the following year.

Then, the large farmers could lend them the grain they had bought for one yuan each, calculating the loan and interest based on the price of the cheap grain that was sold everywhere for two or three yuan.

"I'm a great philanthropist, you know. Go around the surrounding villages and tell me, which landlord would lend money to a peasant at the lowest market price?"

For these merchants, they would never lose money. If these people were to sell, they would buy them for 1.2 yuan and then, after two days, use the excuse that they had bought enough to lower the price to 1.1 yuan or even lower.

If they don't sell, those landlords can buy them for one dollar each, and then buy them in bulk for one dollar each.

"If you want to sell grain, come to the mobile store at the entrance of the village. If you don't want to sell, that's fine too. Our master will only wait for two days. First come, first served."

After the lackeys left, only a group of farmers, on the verge of tears, remained by the field, silently watching the thriving wheat.

They didn't need to know much about math to know that the days ahead were going to be very difficult.

This is just the beginning. They still have some savings from the past, and the autumn grain harvest and summer and autumn taxes have not yet begun. The harsh winter of Kazdel is gradually approaching at a slow and steady pace. This winter will be the coldest winter they have ever experienced.

"Fired!? Why, why?" Even as he stood at the company entrance holding a cardboard box full of his personal belongings, young Vayvan still couldn't understand how all of this had happened.

He was an employee of a Longmen Trading Company, whose main business was food sales, which was originally a very good business for Terra.

Especially after signing a food agency agreement with Xia's Group last year, its performance has been booming.

Every day there are endless phone calls and orders to process, but for some reason, it suddenly became quiet this year, and then rumors started circulating in the company that the boss was going to lay off employees.

A few days later, he was announced to be dismissed, and according to Terra's rules, there was of course no severance pay.

Autumn has arrived, and a chilly wind has swept through the streets of Longmen, causing him to shiver involuntarily. The streets remain as bustling as ever; perhaps this is just a minor setback.

Young Vayvan did not immediately succumb to despair, because trade in Lungmen remained as prosperous as ever.

Although reports indicate that economic growth is slowing, it is merely a matter of simple technical adjustments.

He quickly cheered himself up. As an educated salesman, he could always find a job. If all else failed, there was always the Xia Group to fall back on. They had recently recruited a lot of people, although no one really wanted to go to a place like Kazdel.

The Xia Group is recruiting these talents with high salaries, including basic teachers, accountants, engineers, and skilled workers. This has made it difficult for even the more astute members of the elite class to realize the approaching winter, because their salaries and employment rates are rising.

The news that some peripheral factories with relatively backward production capacity and technology had begun to lay off workers did not attract anyone's attention.

This is quite normal. Their products are more expensive than Lao Xia's, of lower quality, and have higher labor costs, so naturally they either have to reduce wages, lay off employees, or both.

As for the other way, reducing profits and the boss's retained profits (that is, the part that the boss uses for savings instead of investment or consumption), this is simply impossible, even if it is just a numbers game in the account.

After all, it's quite rare to find someone like Lao Xia who is so detached from worldly desires compared to Terra capitalists; Lao Xia spends every penny he earns.

Whether it's used for his own consumption, investment, or salary, it means creating value and jobs, rather than meaningless numbers in an account or a hedge fund in a financial game.

Meanwhile, the new equipment jointly launched by the Xia Group and Swire Group, along with the benefits brought by the sharp drop in raw material prices, have enabled Longmen's industries to rapidly upgrade and transform. However, this is just the beginning.

Layoffs at peripheral factories, equipment upgrades and capacity expansion at some factories, lower prices for consumer goods, plummeting raw material costs, and rising profit margins have attracted a large influx of investment capital into the manufacturing sector—from Lao Wei's perspective, it all looks like a healthy process.

Well, if all this happens in a country that is well-prepared, it is indeed a very healthy process, as long as you can ensure that you absorb the excess manpower and find a market for dumping, it is an economic boom, transferring the disaster to someone else's house while you enjoy the benefits and dividends.

If you can't find it, then you can only create a dumping market or create a visible future dividend, forcing capitalists to take out their money to invest now—to put it bluntly, that is—to start a war!

Unseen by Lao Wei, a significant number of workers became unemployed. They had no money to spend, which forced them to lower prices to sell their goods and recoup their costs. As a result, the meager profits necessitated lower wages, the upgrading of advanced equipment to increase production scale, and the reduction of personnel.

Meanwhile, in another corner, growers who mainly produce raw materials, primary processing mills, and food factories are falling into dire straits at an alarming rate, because their costs have already exceeded Old Xia's selling price.

Imports of raw materials from other sources have also decreased significantly as a result. The first to be affected are minerals from Ursus and grains from Kazimir. The Great Depression, or economic crisis, is spreading from Kazdel and Lungmen to the rest of the world.

Meanwhile, massive amounts of cheap export products were crashing against the borders of every country like waves, and Victoria, who reacted quickly, was already discussing the issue of increasing tariffs.

However, tariffs are no small matter, and coupled with previous events, the two factions have been fighting fiercely, and now the Victorian Parliament has completely fallen into a state of opposing for the sake of opposing.

Tariff policy is a good buffer to protect one's industries from being crushed by shocks at this time.

But they can't care about that right now. After all, before they take power, no matter how bad the country is, it's someone else's problem.

For other countries like Kazimir, tariffs mean that the flood of cheap goods will no longer affect them, but will instead engulf those who released them. At this point... generally speaking, a scene of "Open the door! Free trade" will likely appear.

Of all the neighboring countries, Kasimir is the one most affected, as it mainly exports food and primary products and imports consumer goods, and borders almost all countries.

At the Knights' Council, some astute individuals had already realized that the international economic situation was beginning to deteriorate—

No matter how stupid these knight lords are, they can clearly see how many gold coins their manors and farms were worth last year and how many gold coins they've earned this year!

The conclusion, or rather the measure, reached by more than 95% of the knight lords was to place this growing pressure on the farmers—simply put, they began to refuse to collect in kind and demanded that farmers pay in currency according to the standards of previous years.

In this way, their income would not be affected. As for where the farmers would get money, that was not a concern for these nobles. Whether they needed to sell their children or mortgage their land to borrow money at high interest rates was irrelevant to the noble knights.

Chapter Twelve Good Evening, Night City

Chapter 12

Kazimir, the capital, Kavaleriaki, is a city of tradition and modernity, commerce and prosperity. It is also one of the few large, modern cities in Kazimir. Located in the north-central part of the Kazimir Plain, it was a major transportation hub for international trade and its commercial prosperity was once comparable to that of Longmen.

However, as a commercial city that developed solely by collecting tolls, it is ultimately very different from a city like Longmen, which is backed by three major raw material production areas and has its own well-developed financial and manufacturing industries.

In the very heart of the city, occupying an entire town block, stands the famous Kazimierz Arena, a bloody and brutal gladiatorial arena.

However, it is also the only path to advancement for ordinary people and even infected people in Kazimierz. As long as they can survive in the arena, they may become knights.

Once one becomes a knight, one possesses one's own fief and basic noble rights, which for the infected means having a home that can accommodate them.

Even if you can't become a knight, you can still climb out of the city's lowest garbage dump and become a person, even if you can't become a knight.

As countless people, including noble children, participate, it naturally attracts countless tourists and... gamblers, along with the powerful nobles and forces behind them who manipulate the games.

"Ladies and gentlemen, good evening!" Every screen in the city was shining brightly, displaying the images of teams and warriors. "Welcome to the Kazimierz Knights Tournament. Yesterday's competition saw a full thirty deaths, with the Hell Knights team alone losing ten. I think you all have to pay compensation, because the Red Knights of the Flame Team will definitely not swallow this insult!"

The host delivered a passionate opening speech, describing this as an arena woven from death, blood, and honor, a place where the people of Qazimir and Terra can enjoy the same fun and opportunities regardless of their social status.

"However, you might be disappointed in today's match!" the host abruptly changed the subject. "A new challenging team has joined us: the infected squad from 'Sector 0,' the Mangrove Forest! Hopefully, they can survive a little longer on the field and make the match less boring."

In the dressing room, the red-haired girl took a deep breath, not at all angry at the host's disdainful attitude.

Because infected teams often struggle to pass the preliminary rounds, they lack equipment and training, and are not allowed to use Originium magic in the Knights Tournament, in addition to malnutrition, etc.

Most of the time, their only role is to warm up the evening matches. They go on stage around 7:50 pm, and if they survive for ten minutes without all of them dying, it means they have fulfilled their value, because the official matches will start at 8 pm.

Of course, it's not that no infected teams have passed the preliminary rounds. After suffering considerable losses, some infected teams have indeed survived and defeated their opponents in these warm-up matches. However, most of them are unable to advance further due to their heavy casualties.

However, for an individual infected with the virus, if they perform exceptionally well, they may still be noticed by coaches or agents from other teams.

For them and for the poor who are not infected, this is the way to change their lives and their future; it is the only fairness this cruel world has given them.

"Everyone, cheer up!" The red-haired girl looked at her teammates, then walked towards the exit of the rest room. "Our compatriots on the street are watching us!"

In the underground neighborhood, crowds of infected people and the poor gathered around the few broadcast screens, watching the competition on the screens with bated breath.

“Infected ones—” At the betting table in the arena, a stack of Lungmen Dollars was placed on the betting table, “I bet on Red Pine to win.” Behind the girl wearing a lady’s conical hat were several burly, well-equipped Ursus bodyguards, who were obviously nobles from Ursus.

The laughter that had just started quickly stopped because the other party looked like a young lady from a very powerful noble family who was not to be trifled with, especially with several burly Ursus men with unpleasant expressions behind her.

"Are you really going to buy the Red Pine team?"

"Since we're here to have fun, why not try something new?" the girl said lightly, seemingly not taking the stack of at least 20,000 Lungmen Dollars seriously at all. "Even if we lose, it doesn't matter."

"Uh..." The betting clerk looked like he didn't quite understand the pleasures of the aristocracy. However, given that the other person seemed to be holding a VIP viewing box ticket, he said nothing.

"Sister, someone bet on us to win!" A huge sum of 20,000 was very eye-catching on the bare betting panel of the Red Pine team, and the bettor wrote "anonymous".

"Okay, don't let everyone down!" the red-haired girl encouraged her teammates. "As long as we win the game, that's all that matters. This is our only chance."

Win the game, keep winning the game, earn the title of Honorary Knight, and finally win ten consecutive arena championships to receive the reward of a titled Knight and own a piece of land to settle everyone.

In this way, whether it's an uncle playing guitar or a young man making a living by collecting garbage, they no longer have to live at the bottom of the city, but have a neighborhood of their own where they can see the sunlight.

To achieve this goal, she must win, keep winning, defeat every opponent in front of her, stand at the very top of this stage, and become a legend of Kazimierz!

“Winning or losing doesn’t matter, as long as they don’t all die.” She took off her cone-shaped hat, and her slightly curly hair shimmered with a silvery light under the lamplight. “We still need them.”

Because the weapon was upgraded to the M12 rifle, some of the original molten metal weapons and miscellaneous equipment needed to be disposed of.

Coincidentally, Talulah knew of a safe channel, and even a place that could become a source of future wealth—the Knights' Arena in Kazimierz.

They cannot use magic staffs or bows and arrows; they can only fight with melee weapons, which happens to be what the workshop street can produce.

If we can establish our own brand there, we can not only get rid of the current obsolete products, but also support many infected workers.

Moreover, it's also a good thing for the local infected people, as they generally don't have any sponsors and assemble their own equipment. Another purpose is...

Since we may need to take action here in the future, it is important to acquire a loyal and capable fighting force in advance.

What could be more suitable to develop into new members of the Reunion Movement than these neglected gladiators, or those forced to become gladiators and fight for glory?

The Talulah of today is not the increasingly extreme and narrow-minded Talulah. The ordinary infected, these infected who seem to be doing well, and those civilians who seem to be high and mighty, are actually all in the same camp, only their identities have been artificially altered.

They were divided into several fighting and hostile groups by scraps of food, and the infected in Kazimierz generally looked down on those from Ursus.

Because they also have a large arena, and Rembitox even promotes that they have basic social welfare for the infected, thus proving that they are already in heaven and should not ask for more.

The situation was similar in places like Letalu. What to do when the poor and common people rioted?

Then they announced that they would consider improving the treatment of infected people, which both won over the infected people with strong fighting ability and incited them to be hostile to each other—and the special isolation towns for infected people in places like Sargon are almost the same trick.

Terra's high-ranking officials and nobles all used this method, only their specific manifestations differed.

Now, under the alternating tutelage of Old Xia, the Doctor, and Koschke, Talulah has finally seen through this deceptive tactic.

Therefore, not limited to Ursus, not limited to infected people suffering, and not even limited to infected people, the Reunion Movement opens its doors to anyone who is oppressed.

The first step in realizing this ideal is to first transform these people into human beings. This is the first principle of the future program currently being proposed by Lao Xia and his group: inherent human rights—the inalienable rights of a human being to life, property, and liberty. [Proposed during the bourgeois revolution]

However, if property rights are not deprived, it is tantamount to tacitly acknowledging the inviolability of private property. It's just that this clause was not written down, which can be seen as Lao Xia leaving a loophole for possible future progress.

The remaining two refer to feudalism and slavery, two classes and forces that must be completely eliminated.

Because Terra's current capital groups are actually very weak and unevenly distributed. Powerful entities like Columbia can control the country, but weak entities like Ursus are almost non-existent.

As for the Great Yan, it was nothing more than a fat pig in the eyes of the imperial power. Therefore, this clause would receive the support of these capitalist groups, at least preventing them from becoming the opposing force to the Unity Movement, and it was also more practical for the local Terrans.

They are no longer considered human beings by the upper class; they are not even human beings, but merely consumables and property.

Therefore, it is very reasonable for the Reunion Movement to absorb these low-level infected gladiators, and it can indeed make up for the problems of manpower and propaganda to a large extent. You should know that the Reunion Movement is only known in the border regions of Ursus, and is slightly famous in Lungmen because of Amiya Logistics. No one in other countries and cities has heard of them.

How can this be allowed? If you don't occupy this propaganda front, someone else will!