Lord of Industrialization

This year's spring came a little earlier than in previous years, and the shipping on the river in the Principality of Wesson suddenly became busy. The export goods accumulated over the winter were shipped to various places as quickly as possible.

Baron Turgot was about to return to China, and many fellow villagers in the Iris community asked him to bring letters and gifts back.

Among them, Da Franche had the most things. He bought a white lace blouse for each of his two nieces, a bicycle for his nephew, a pocket watch for his eldest brother, and a hand-cranked watch for his sister-in-law. For a noodle machine, put the dough in and turn the handle to press out noodles one by one.

Baron Turgot's help was not in vain. When he left, he took a boat chartered by Da Franche, and everyone separated in the city of Amstel.

There was another passenger on the ship, also a fellow from the Kingdom of Gaul. He was Guillaume, who had met Baron Turgot.

Guillaume was introduced by another fellow villager to ride on Dafranche's boat. When he had nothing to do, Dafranche asked him: "What is your business?"

Guiyum replied: "I am a student, not a businessman."

"Oh..." Da Franche nodded, "Nowadays, many students go to Weissenburg City to study. Which schools did you go to?"

Guiyum shook his head slightly and said: "I am not studying abroad, I am looking for some people who work in the Principality of Wesson."

"For many years, our outstanding students at the University of Paris have received scholarships from His Majesty Louis, but the scholarships of us students from out of town and local nobles have been embezzled by people in the school."

Da Franche shook his head and said: "Oh...those gentlemen are not good people...uh..."

He suddenly remembered that Baron Turgot was drinking tea nearby, and immediately said: "Sir, I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about those in Barris City."

Da Franche could scold the noble lord in the distant city of Barris, who was far away and out of control anyway, but Baron Turgot was a local nobleman in his hometown, and there were many ways to kill him.

Baron Turgot said calmly: "It's okay, I've been embezzled by them before."

Da Franche breathed a sigh of relief.

Guillaume continued: "We went to court to file a lawsuit, but the judges said that we could only sue the nobles if many people signed on, so we looked around for alumni who had been deprived of scholarships in the past and asked them to assist us."

Da Franche understood. He was about to say something, but when he remembered that Baron Turgot was nearby, he finally just said: "Litigation with noble lords is troublesome."

"Just wait. Regardless of how many people you are gathering now, the big men in the court will definitely find other reasons, such as asking you to pay a lot of money."

At this time, Baron Turgot said: "That's not all. They will use various excuses to delay the case. I heard that there was a case that dragged on for decades, and the plaintiff and defendant both died of old age."

He was also one of the plaintiffs in the scholarship embezzlement case, but he knew very well the methods of those bureaucrats.

Those bureaucrats have a hard time getting them to do one thing well, but if they want to do bad things, they are the best at it.

Baron Turgot was not optimistic about this lawsuit in his heart. He just hoped to create some momentum so that the rats guarding the granary would not eat so much.

At this time, Da Franche sighed: "Oh, the Duchy of Wesson is better. The common people can win the lawsuit against the nobles and still have to pay compensation."

Guillaume asked curiously what the situation was, and Da Franche told him about it.

Old Franz is the oldest nobleman in the Principality of Wesson, with a baronetcy. He is also the governor of Putz State and the chairman of the Football Association.

Nowadays, it is popular among young people in the Principality of Wesson to ride motorcycles. Last autumn, he tried it out of curiosity, and ended up knocking a farmer who was carrying a load into the city to sell vegetables into a ditch.

The farmer who was hit felt that it was nothing serious at the time, but the place where he was hit was a little painful. Seeing that the other party was an old man, he did not dare to pursue it, so he went home by himself.

But he actually had internal bleeding and died soon after returning home. When he was sent to the hospital for emergency treatment, he first underwent surgery to expose the affected area and then used treatment to save the ruptured spleen.

The high cost of treatment was unaffordable for the victim. When the victim's son went to see Old Franz, the housekeeper asked someone to beat him out, so he angrily took Old Franz to court.

This lawsuit attracted widespread attention due to the special status of old Franz. The court quickly made a verdict. He was fully responsible for driving without a license and paid a large sum of money. His housekeeper and home guard were sentenced for beating the defendant. Six months to two years in prison and compensation.

The Duchy of Wesson has a precedent of trying nobles for common people. More than ten years ago, a distant relative of Archduke Byrne was publicly tried and hanged. Not long ago, the son of Archduke Franken was also tried and hanged. Many people regarded these two cases as treat it as a political event.

But this was the first time that a domestic noble was publicly tried, and the domestic noble lost the case and a commoner won.

It was not long after the World Exposition ended. Foreigners had never seen such a scene before, and the friendly countries were shocked for a while.

Baron Turgot remained silent about the incident, supporting such a verdict from a simple point of view of justice, but speechless from a noble point of view.

"What's more," Da Franche continued, "I heard that in Faia, several businessmen sued the municipal administration because the people in that agency charged higher sanitation fees than what is stipulated by law. A lot of it, and I won the lawsuit later.”

"Also, not long ago, a child of a big noble in Cologne City had nothing to do and started a gang. There were dozens of people collecting protection fees at the stadium farm east of Weissenburg City. Guess what happened?"

Guium shook his head.

Da Franche said mysteriously: "That gangster was picked up by a group of Sardinian gangsters wearing black gloves and had their legs broken, and then he was thrown in front of the police station."

Guiyum thought he knew what was going on, so he said, "They must have taken over the territory of those black gloves."

"No." Da Franche shook his head, "There is a Sardinian family who grows cabbage on a farm over there. The gangsters asked him to collect protection money, but the Sardinian family was not beaten."

"The family found Miss Katie. She was the eldest lady of the Black Hand, the largest gang in the Kingdom of Sardinia. Later, the Black Hand beat those people."

Guiyum was a little confused: "That's not a land grab. That Sardinian family usually pays protection fees, right?"

"Hehe..." Da Franche laughed, "I know a small leader of the Black Hand Gang. He often comes to buy oysters from me. I have chatted with him several times."

"The Black Hand Gang looks down on the small amount of money in protection fees. It's far worse than selling canned oranges."

"You don't know that now, from the north of the Inland Sea to the northernmost Green Island, canned oranges in all countries are the business of the Black Hand Gang."

"So now the Sardinians in the Principality of Wesson are very united. When they encounter problems, they will seek help from the gangsters. If their own people are unreasonable, they will reason with them. If their own people are reasonable, they will reason with the other party. If they can't reason, they will help. Litigation."

Guillaume was amazed when he heard this, and asked: "What about us Gauls?"

Da Franche shrugged, said nothing, and then said everything.

He added: "Actually, it's nothing. We do business in the Principality of Wesson and pay taxes to the Principality of Wesson, which means that we have signed a contract with the Principality of Wesson and are protected by the Principality of Wesson."

Guillaume felt that there was a profound meaning behind this statement, but Da Franche only knew some things by chatting with other bosses, but he could not explain the big truth.