There can't be a Harvest Moon in the RimWorld.

There was only one final candidate.

That was the bald man's blacksmith master, the old man in the comical floral clothes.

But how could this old man, who had been so cautious and sweating profusely throughout, appearing timid and cowardly, be the one to spread such deadly news? This seemed hard for the bald man to accept, and it was even harder for him to understand since it was his own master.

"it's him."

I nodded to meet his skeptical gaze, indicating that I agreed with his judgment.

“That’s our ally. He spoke up for us selflessly, took care of things for us, and even helped spread the news of our victory, ensuring that our good news reached the whole town as quickly as possible. Are you satisfied with this result?”

My words of affirmation only made him more confused.

Indeed, it's as absurd as telling him that his bald, greasy, henpecked, lecherous father is actually Batman, the Dark Knight, who goes out to fight crime every night. His first reaction would definitely be "no way." If he were Batman, then who was the one who was forced to kneel on durians until 5 a.m. yesterday?

"You lead the way first, and we'll go take a look at the area where the slaves work and live. I'll explain everything to you slowly. We must complete today's task as soon as possible; the longer we stay, the greater the risk."

After hearing this, the bald man finally recovered from his bewildered state and strode ahead, leading me towards the east side of the town.

"Boss Seven, please tell me, I'm so curious!" The bald man scratched his head and couldn't calm down.

But I spoke in a distinctive, heavy tone, word by word: “Before we start the struggle, we must first figure out who our enemies are and who our friends are. Only by making as many friends as possible and as few enemies as possible can we do things well. Before that, we must first analyze the various social classes. Do you understand?”

Chapter 336 Social Class Analysis

"You told me before that the ranks of loaders are divided into several levels, right? You said they are basically divided into council members, armed forces, town residents, and slaves, these are the categories?"

The bald man scratched his head: "Yeah, Shisong Village, which used to be barely a viable trading center, is gone now. These are probably the only types left."

I shook my head noncommittally: "What you're saying are superficial, not the core differences."

The bald man asked in confusion, "What do you mean by 'core difference'?"

"Take men and women, for example. This is a fundamental difference that cannot be crossed or corrected. If you divide people into those who wear red and those who don't, then while such a classification clearly exists, it is meaningless," I deliberately nitpicked.

“But…” the bald man said with difficulty, “Isn’t using identity to classify people the most common method? People in towns use this method to identify each other when they meet and communicate.”

I patted him on the shoulder and asked solemnly, "Take you for example. You used to be a craftsman in town, a typical town resident. But later you were pulled into the town guard and privateer teams, so you have two identities, achieving a seamless transition. Do you consider yourself a town resident or an armed force member?"

The bald man pondered for a moment, then realized, "Okay... that was my inaccurate summary. The armed forces also include members selected from the town's residents. They should be divided into councilors, armed forces, town artisans, town merchants, and slaves. That's correct!"

Seeing his shameless behavior of admitting his mistakes and making up stories without thinking, I couldn't help but think that he had some of my own style.

“Completely wrong,” I interrupted. “Your classification has several problems. For example, among members of parliament, there are members from the armed forces, artisan members, and businessman members. Why can these people transcend their identities and be simply categorized as members of parliament?”

Before he could finish digesting the premise, I continued, "And what about the armed forces? For example, the assassins the lord ambushed earlier weren't just some country thugs from the town, but professional troops from elsewhere, right?"

The bald man exclaimed in shock, "Boss! Did that esteemed person tell you this too? That esteemed person knows so much about this place, so that's why you swaggered over here?"

Of course it's... bullshit!

Those soldiers in ghillie suits were clearly elite troops under the lord's direct command. They exuded professionalism from head to toe, completely different from the town guards I had seen wearing cheap plate armor and carrying cold weapons. They were also not on the same level as those pathetic cavalrymen with homemade hunting rifles.

These privateers, born and raised in the town, all had a kind of arrogant and domineering air about them, looking just like thugs who collected protection money, and only knew how to show their skills by being brave and ruthless.

The soldiers who had been so disciplined just moments before carried a barely perceptible, almost concealed, murderous aura, and their faces showed no sign of smugness. Just by looking at their expressionless, wooden faces, one could tell they were a professional team accustomed to battle.

Such a team would be impossible to find in this desolate desert without professional training and long-term development.

"So, is it possible for someone like you, who has confused these crucial personnel and made such a simplistic classification, to possibly grasp the essence of the problem?"

The bald man said helplessly, "Then what should we categorize them by, boss? We can't really just classify them by gender, age, or gender, can we?"

"Why not?" I countered. "If the age structure of this territory is particularly distorted, then the ignorant youth and the conservative, stability-seeking old people can form two very representative forces that influence all sorts of things."

The bald man led me across a stone-paved road, slowly guiding the way: "But everyone here is a young and strong man..."

I smiled smugly, but unfortunately, no one could see it from under my mask: "When it comes to young adults, they represent the labor force. So why haven't you thought about classifying people by their labor force? Status is not only a reflection of work, but also of one's ability and scope of labor. If you've thought of this, then you've already seen through part of the essence."

Perhaps it's because he's recited the Heart Sutra of Guanyin so many times, but the bald man's lowered head and contemplative expression always reminds me of a monk in a temple...

But the main reason is because of baldness!

“Boss, I’ve been thinking about that too, but if labor isn’t divided by job, it becomes something ambiguous and impossible to measure. I learned in my blacksmithing apprenticeship that in smelting and forging, you have to learn to effectively measure materials, otherwise you’ll be doing forging your whole life and still just relying on luck.”

This kid really thinks a lot; he even considered the idea of ​​indiscriminate human labor.

I shook my head: "You're on the right track, but that's not what I wanted to say. You still have a long way to go before you understand these things."

I pointed to the young people coming and going around me, dressed in coarse cloth, and said, "You can measure young adults directly as a physical entity of labor force."

“…That makes sense! But this only works for armed teams, right? The owners of those artisan workshops are all elderly, and merchants don’t need to use any young and strong laborers, do they?” He immediately fell into another cognitive trap.

I smacked him on the head: "Why are you thinking about the same old things again! When I said young adults as a measure of labor force, I meant using their destination as a dividing line, do you understand? For example, if you go from apprentice to bandit as an adult, isn't that order just a competition for labor among certain interest groups?!"

The bald man slapped his forehead: "This order is a rule set by the council five years ago, boss, how did you know about it?"

I sighed. This guy was pretending to be thinking seriously, but actually he wasn't thinking about anything at all!

Could he also make looking at a menu look like he's reading an academic book?

"Young people, as the carriers of labor, embody the power struggles within the ranks of the loader, and this struggle is the secret behind the class system."

“Currently, those competing for young labor include armed groups and artisan associations, right?” I asked.

The bald man nodded and said, "That's right. The young people in the town basically only have these two paths to take: some want to be craftsmen who live a stable life, while others want to be privateers who plunder wealth and glory."

I nodded slightly: "It is precisely because of your continuous influx of people that these two groups have been infused with vitality, which has led to the conflict between them. As the saying goes, whoever wins over the youth wins the world. When your unconscious choices determine the future, it will attract more people to participate in the planning."

"And these plans are embodied in the council members you mentioned. The reason why the council members seem difficult to categorize is because they are not an outcome, but merely a process. The council directly under the lord's jurisdiction is a platform, and all the decrees issued by the lord's overt leader in this territory are the result of joint decisions made by these people!"

Chapter 337 Bones Join the Battle

From its inception, this territory has maintained a highly centralized management model. I would describe it (including the wasteland forces behind it) as a military aristocracy system. A ruler with absolute military superiority manages everything through autocratic means, and all other members are merely insignificant vassals.

This process likely lasted a long time, progressing from the initial struggle to establish a territory to confronting powerful enemies. During this stage, the military aristocracy demonstrated strong ruling and management capabilities.

However, in this process, the military groups represented by the lords gradually formed a class, which can be called the military aristocracy.

They gradually discovered that the power they possessed did not come from the lord's mandate and approval, but from the military force they represented; having more subordinates meant having more power!

Unfortunately, the lord of the Loader's Territory did not command an army of equal strength, so their strength could not be simply determined by numbers.

The elite group consists of elite troops equipped with advanced tactics and sophisticated weaponry from the modern era, carrying out the missions of the Andernavato faction. These elite troops are single-mindedly obedient, and although few in number, they possess the power to exert overall control.

The second group consisted of modern troops riding warhorses and carrying homemade firearms that also served as melee weapons. Although they were inferior in terms of tactics and equipment, they were numerous and belonged to the second tier. They were the mid-level combat force that the lord intended to expand, and they fought against the pirates of Sabre Bay in place of his own men.

The third group consisted of town guards clad in armor and wielding melee weapons, fighting using feudal-era formation tactics. They were of the most ordinary origin, mostly lacking military training and combat experience, and were all town residents like the bald man. However, their local background guaranteed their loyalty, and they primarily performed military and police duties, such as suppressing slave rebellions.

These three layers together form a very stable structure.

The well-equipped elite troops were capable of crushing cavalry and town guards. This was also an all-powerful armed force that normally obeyed only the lord's orders and maintained a relatively pure and independent status.

The cavalry, with its powerful mobility and firepower, was indeed the backbone of the force, responsible for clearing out surrounding territories, eliminating invading enemy forces, and plundering wealth to maintain its military. This level of military strength could easily eliminate the short-legged armored soldiers within towns, achieving external pressure and preventing internal troop rebellions.

The weakest town guards were the reserve soldiers of the cavalry, selected through basic training to recruit those with potential. This basic conscription system also helped strengthen the fighting capabilities of the town's residents; in times of crisis, the entire population was mobilized, and in peacetime, orders were strictly enforced. Although these town guards were easy targets for bullying, they were the lord's second closest military force.

In summary, the structure adopted here is a strong-weak-secondary strong troop deployment from the inside out. This avoids the situation in the Song Dynasty where the outside was weak while the inside was strong, allowing foreign enemies to invade at will. It also avoids the situation in the late Eastern Han Dynasty where the local areas were strong while the central government was weak, resulting in a fragmented situation.

This structure sounds very stable, right?

Well, this system doesn't seem to have any major problems. It seems that as long as the lord doesn't make any blunders and wipe out his elite troops, he can maintain absolute authority and rule this place.

Therefore, I firmly believe that even the slightest risk is unacceptable to the lord, who does not want to see this stable structure collapse. Even if they are soundly defeated without suffering any real losses, the deterrent effect of this elite force will be greatly reduced—that's why the lord was unwilling to engage in direct combat with me just now.

In this environment, within this military aristocratic territory where the military controlled everything, a force was quietly brewing.

What does a place like the Loader's Headquarters, which maintains high-quality weaponry year-round, need?

They needed ample food, fine wine, excellent equipment, sturdy armor, and gunpowder weapons to ensure self-sufficiency and readiness for combat.

All these resources won't appear continuously with each victory in battle. Raw materials will automatically become supplies as they accumulate in warehouses, and will instead be constantly depleted during combat. If this supply line breaks, the most likely outcome for this mad lord is defeat and death in battle when resources are exhausted.

Thus, amidst such frequent battles, artisans who produced and manufactured everything rose to prominence rapidly. They grew stronger by the lifeblood of war and were protected as a strong support for armed groups.

Ironically, at some point, the military nobles who controlled everything found that they had many more artisans under their command who could challenge them.

They must have been wondering why, when powerful and wealthy traders posed a greater threat, it was the disheveled artisans who stood up and challenged them.

The granaries, mills, kitchens, bakeries, breweries, blacksmith shops, and stables that sprang up in the towns were all labor-intensive industries, requiring a large workforce for further production. The armed forces, which also needed able-bodied young men, were their greatest enemy on their path of expansion.

In the eyes of the armed forces, these damned craftsmen were both annoying and indispensable, which was the most painful thing for military groups. Without them, soldiers would go to the battlefield hungry and naked, but as they continued to develop, the once passionate and heroic warriors were all turned into timid and submissive workshop apprentices.

This was something the military aristocracy absolutely could not tolerate. Under these circumstances, they also felt they had to retaliate…

Now, let's look at it from another angle: what did the craftsmen need?

From the moment they appeared, the artisans discovered a new path that was both safe and lucrative. They could earn real resources from those murderers without having to risk their lives. Before them lay a thriving market brimming with business opportunities, and the contradiction between their own backward productivity.

Their interests were harmed due to lagging productivity!

In this desert, the surrounding trade routes are all open fields, but only this loader's territory has a stable production environment, exporting precious food, weapons, and tools.

Merchants, like angels, flocked to the place, waving banknotes only to leave disappointed, all of which deeply wounded the hearts of the craftsmen.

A mysterious and noble emotion welled up from their hearts, flowing through their limbs and filling their once empty souls. This guided them to continuously improve their technology, increase production, and even begin to boldly voice their demands to the former "masters"!

As I watched all this, a profound sense of familiarity washed over me. For from the very moment this power appeared, it was destined to be rife with evil and ignorance, guiding humanity, singing its way into an endless abyss, unaware of its own folly.

The merchants who brought this power arrived with smiles and left with smiles, accomplishing, like a gentle spring breeze and nourishing rain, what the pirates of Sabre Bay had never been able to do—changing this territory.

And I know that this force has only one name.

It's called capital.

Chapter 338 Insider Deal

After passing through the upscale residential area, workshops of varying heights began to appear, and the number of busy and happy young apprentices around me gradually increased, while the buildings along the roadside became low and simple.

The gap between the rich and poor has already quietly emerged among the residents of this territory.

Ordinary houses were built along the street, rectangular in shape with brick and stone structures, two stories high, each floor divided longitudinally in two, resulting in rooms only 20 to 30 feet wide or narrower. The doors and windows, however, were wooden, with wooden window panels used to close them. Due to the abundance of wood and the workshop area's reliance on open flames without chimneys, fires were likely frequent.

The homes of the merchants in the city were significantly more luxurious than those of ordinary citizens. They were not only spacious and tall with solid foundations, but also constructed of stone. Other differences lay in the fact that they brought their own glass and lead and iron for the windows and eaves. Some wealthy merchants' residences were even self-contained, surrounded by other buildings, enclosing a large courtyard.

The town's streets were also divided according to industry, such as Leatherworkers' Street, Armor Street, Restaurant Street, and so on. Within each street, for example, Restaurant Street was further divided into areas such as Bread Section, Flour Section, and Meat Section, and there were also special areas for selling defective goods.

The city streets are narrow and rugged, dusty on sunny days and noisy at night, with poultry and livestock roaming among vehicles, making traffic chaotic.

Within the workshops, the artisans who have mastered a skill and own their own production workshops are the masters of the local industry, possessing independent means of production. These are the people who form the Artisans' Association.

The association is an organization of handicraft owners in the same industry. Its purpose is to protect the interests of owners, prevent competition, coordinate prices, exchange goods, and also has basic functions such as guaranteeing financial loans and adjudicating commercial disputes.