Chapter 547 The Fall of the Outer City
Is the situation very bad? The answer is maybe worse than imagined.
The empire has not collapsed, but it is almost the same everywhere.
The interruption of colonial trade caused a large number of factories to lose their sources of raw materials and even their markets. As a result, large-scale work stoppages and unemployment have become the mainstream in the empire today.
Other cities may be slightly better. After all, the cities are not large and the industry is not so developed, so the impact is not so severe.
But for Langton, even though the city itself still has a lot of demand, a large number of factories shutting down, closing down, and workers being unemployed are the main social phenomena in Langton today.
As for the big factories? Not to mention that those important large factories were on the list of moving to the north from the beginning.
Even if they were not on the list at the beginning, after knowing the news that the end was coming, they could still find a way to move their industries to the north to avoid being further impacted.
Most of the ones that really went bankrupt were small and medium-sized factories that were not strong enough to withstand risks. They were neither important enough to be on the government list, nor did they have the strength to move to the north.
So when there are problems with raw materials and the market, the death of these factories can be foreseen.
The closure of the factory is not an isolated social phenomenon. The social problems caused by the subsequent unemployment of a large number of workers are the main reason why the whole of Langton now looks bleak and desolate, and even the entire city seems to be dying.
The reason is also very simple. The main source of income for workers is their own wages, and most of the workers in this era are extremely poor. The monthly salary may not be enough for the family to eat and drink, and the family members need to go out to work. Only by supplementing the household income can the family survive.
Without their source of income all of a sudden, one can imagine the life of these workers.
No matter how much the church aids or wants to help these people, their strength is ultimately limited, and they can only give priority to ensuring that devout believers can survive.
At this point, even if the church knows that workers who have lost their jobs will become fertile ground for the breeding of evil sects due to lack of livelihood, there is nothing they can do about it.
Except for the factory left behind by the genius Earl of the North that can produce compressed biscuits using alchemy, which maintains the food rations of some people and also solves the work problem of a small number of people, others can't even think of how to improve these unemployed workers. living conditions.
It’s not that they don’t know what to do, it’s that they can’t do it.
The easiest way to solve workers' unemployment is to give them jobs, but the problem is, where are there so many jobs that need people to do in the Empire and Langton?
Even if everyone only needs one ration a day to feed themselves and their families, even compressed biscuits that require almost no raw materials cannot meet everyone's needs.
Not to mention that there are not so many jobs that need to be done manually.
The church does plan to build new churches and shelters on a large scale, but the problem is that even if three people are hired for one position to work three shifts, there will still be a large number of workers who cannot find jobs.
After all, only a few can have a stable job to support their families.
This has also caused a very bad phenomenon, that is, although the inner city is desolate and decadent, at least the city still maintains basic order, and some shelters that are being renovated and built can provide jobs for some people. and sources of livelihood, barely maintaining their basic livelihood.
As for the outer city... when Purficott was in charge of Langton's municipal work, he deployed troops and knights to station in the outer city to maintain local order and prevent problems in the outer city from affecting the inner city. .
But now, the defense lines of these armies and knights have shrunk. They have directly abandoned the outer city, and instead retreated to the inner city to re-establish a new defense line.
This is not because these people do not care about the lives of the people in the outer city, but that the outer city has now completely fallen into the sphere of influence of the evil sect, and even the church is unable to conquer it at this time.
At this moment, as far as the church is concerned, as long as these evil god sects don't cause big trouble, or simply sacrifice to summon evil gods to come, the church doesn't bother to take care of them.
After all, the current church has too much time to take care of itself. They can hardly take care of themselves, so how can they have extra energy to deal with the evil sect in the outer city?
Even if there is the god-killing armor that Purficott transferred from the north, it is used to deal with the descendants of the gods of the past, not to suppress the people in the outer city.
Although those evil god sects are indeed maintaining order in the outer city, since they are called evil god sects, one can only imagine what their style will be like.
They will indeed give the people a ration of food to survive, but the price requires not only belief in the old gods, but also dedication and sacrifice.
Consecration is easy to say, offering the last thing you have to the gods is not a difficult thing to accept for the people in the outer city who basically have only one life left.
And what the Evil God Sect does not want is their shabby wealth, but needs them to reshape the statues of the old gods, rebuild the temples, and restore their kingdom and faith on earth.
From the perspective of these people, this is not unacceptable. As long as they can have something to eat, as long as they can survive, who should they work for?
But the sacrifice is different. This requires placing sacrifices on the altar.
As for the sacrifices... Langton's grain production has been decreasing since three years ago. How do you expect to have extra grain to feed livestock in an age when people don't have enough to eat? It has been eaten up long ago!
As for things like changing children and eating them, it is not that it has never happened, but it was stopped by the Evil God Sect.
Don’t get me wrong, they don’t mean well, or they just want to save those children.
But because pure children are the best sacrifices to the gods of the past, it is a waste to let these people eat them instead, and how many kilograms of meat can a child have?
Adults should start eating, while children are gathered together. After special feeding and training, they become sacrifices used in various ceremonies and sacrificial occasions.
Even more extreme, they will use various means to induce believers to actively and voluntarily become sacrifices, dedicating their body, mind, body and soul to the gods of the past.
Don’t think this is outrageous. Sometimes the price of a human life is very cheap, even cheaper than you imagine.
There are many people in this world who are willing to sacrifice or give everything they have for certain things.
(End of this chapter)