Lux's Magic Penetration Rod

Winter entered the 10th year of the New Fuli Calendar, and Demacia ushered in a brief period of peace.

The invisible smoke between the royal family and the nobility finally dissipated, and everything seemed to have returned to the time when the old king was on the throne, the era when you were good, I was good, and everyone was good.

After three years of hard work, the Illuminati has gradually found its own place at the grassroots level.

To the lords everywhere, these Illuminati missionaries are like pebbles in a clam. After three years of grinding, they gradually become somewhat rounded like pearls.

In the past, lords from various places mostly relied on the nobles of their families if they wanted to manage their fiefs well.

However, this kind of management method that relies on family branches is not bad for large families. For example, the Crown Guard family has a large business. Many of the branches have specialized in family industry management or fiefdom management since they were young. In this They are relatively professional, but for those small nobles, their ability to branch out is simply a lottery ticket.

If the scraping is done well, the family's fiefdom will be prosperous, and the clan will be worried about Li Daitao's death; if it is scraped poorly, the good fiefdom will be in dire straits, and the situation will deteriorate, and the family may even have to hire a tax collector to manage it on its behalf. …

In the absence of a stable talent selection and appointment mechanism, nepotism in various places has both advantages and disadvantages, and from the perspective of the family, it definitely does more harm than good.

However, as the royal family wedged the power of the Illuminati into the grassroots, and after the resistance was hopeless, the lords everywhere suddenly discovered that these Illuminati missionaries seemed to have something.

Of course there is something!

Branches of the nobility may not be sent to study and learn to read, but none of the Illuminati missionaries are illiterate!

If these missionaries were not literate, able to write and calculate, how could Jarvan IV choose to let them become the tentacles of the royal family to reach the grassroots?

Realizing that missionaries are rare talents and that they cannot exclude them, many lords' minds gradually became active - after all, you are sent by the king, so if you don't use it, it will be in vain!

As a result, the grassroots missionaries of the Illuminati who were supposed to supervise the local lords gradually began to hook up with the local lords.

This is not a betrayal, but a necessity, because regardless of whether they are missionaries or lords, they are essentially their own people.

The relationship between everyone was not good before, and that was because the royal family and the nobles had been maintaining a confrontational attitude.

But in essence, Demacia is still a feudal kingdom with military nobles as the main rulers!

The royal family, the nobility, the Illuminati, they do sometimes fight each other, but once the situation is stable, they are still their own people.

Now the lords everywhere can't refuse the arrival of Illuminati missionaries. Since they can't resist, let's take advantage of them and make them their own!

There has always been a gap between the taxes collected from the common people and the share that fell into the hands of the nobles.

This part of the benefits was previously taken away by side nobles and tax-farming merchants.

And now... there is nothing wrong with transferring it to the missionaries of the Illuminati!

Even many nobles with flexible minds have begun to strongly support their children from the side branches to study and convert to the Illuminati.

The purpose of Jarvan IV's support of the Illuminati was to wrest power from the hands of the nobles. He did this, but he did not completely achieve it.

He did it because under the pressure of Jarvan IV, the power of the Demacian nobles was indeed greatly weakened. Even the Noble Council, a place where nobles united to put pressure on the royal family, was about to become Jarvan IV's words were clear, and it would take a lot of effort for the nobles to oppose the king's proposal.

The reason why it didn't happen is also very simple. Although Jarvan IV did change the basic order of Demacia to a certain extent, this change was closer to "regeneration after introducing a variable" rather than to A complete transformation to follow the wishes of Jarvan IV.

The entry of the Illuminati has indeed opened up a new track, but after all, the lords and local missionaries in various places cannot always be distinct.

In comparison, only armies that live in a relatively simple environment, receive relatively good personal treatment, and have little profit on their hands can still remain relatively reliable.

Now Jarvan IV had to eagerly open up the Shurima trade market, largely to maintain this rare reliability.

……………………

The royal family was mobilizing resources and manpower, and began to confidently prepare for gold mining in Shurima. In the north, Lux took advantage of this rare opportunity to launch Forsbarrow's first internal purge.

This is Lux's first large-scale internal disciplinary review since arriving at Forsbarrow.

When Lux first came to Forsbarrow, the Archon and the private army had no interest in Forsbarrow, and the Archon at that time had just gotten rid of his status as a prisoner, although occasionally there were cases of corruption or malfeasance. They were punished and even sent to a real demon-forbidden prison due to problems, but overall, the atmosphere within Lux's mage, clerks, and Northern Walker organization was quite positive.

However, with the construction of Xinfucheng and Xinfugang, and with the gradual rise of northern trade and Fusibairo trade, more and more money began to flow through the hands of the law enforcers and clerks - once the economy develops, the same The economic benefits that power can bring will also increase.

In Forsbarrow, when the first batch of clerks came to work, even if they wanted to use public power for private purposes, they could at most give themselves some trivial preferential treatment in terms of meal subsidies, or give themselves more in the promotion and planting of new crops. Just giving advice to relatives and friends.

Clerks at that time could only really do errands.

However, Xinfu Port has now become the largest port along the entire Sea of ​​Conquest. The power that was once insignificant can now bring extremely amazing benefits to the clerks.

Even if he is just an ordinary port administrator, the amount of gold coins he handles every day is quite astonishing.

Although you need to provide a voucher to pay the port entry fee, and you will need this voucher if you want to buy or sell bulk commodities in Forsbarrow, after all, it all depends on people, the displacement of the ship, the number of sailors on the ship, the specific time when the ship is berthed, etc., these are all It was up to the port administrator to make his own judgment - so soon businessmen started offering bribes.

The berth fee at Sun Fook Port Terminal is very expensive because it is essentially a tax.

For these businessmen, rather than paying staggering berth fees, it is often more profitable to give a sum of money to the port administrator so that they can pay a little less.

Even though any ship will be told that it cannot evade berth fees when entering the port, and any evasion of berth fees will result in a tenfold fine, over time, the port administrator and familiar businessmen gradually developed a tacit understanding.

This tacit understanding may have started out just for the sake of being acquaintances, to wipe out a little change for the other party and exchange for a few bags of good tea, but once the hole is opened, it will naturally gradually become bigger and bigger.

The erasure gradually developed from the berth time to a fraction of the displacement and a fraction of the number of sailors.

The gifts in exchange have changed from tea leaves among the goods to new gadgets, rare gadgets, and even luxury gadgets from all over the world.

Perhaps the tacit understanding at the beginning was just a compliance operation between acquaintances for convenience and efficiency, but over time, corruption will still breed from it.

During this disciplinary review, a special tax avoidance industry chain was even discovered - foreign businessmen who were familiar with the port administrator simply stopped running their own ships and instead went to work as brokers on other people's ships, specializing in "reducing berth fees." work; and the port administrator also dragged down the accountant who managed the accounts and the administrator of the big lighthouse...

Afterwards, calculations showed that due to the collusion between the port administrator and foreign merchants, the total amount of berth fees undercharged exceeded 10,000 Demacia gold coins.

After figuring out the truth of the matter, Lux punished the port administrator involved without hesitation, fired the lighthouse administrator and the port accountant, and launched Forsbarrow's first large-scale internal disciplinary purge. .

Although the result is not shocking, it is enough to make people feel chilly.

The port and terminal side is the most direct transaction of money and power, while in Xinfu City, there are more tricks. Facts have proved that even if Lux studies and criticizes the nobles several times, when some people have power in their hands, They will still aspire to become nobles and gain recognition from the nobles.

Although these people will not be exposed to any core information, many of their actions still have an extremely bad impact on Forsbarrow.

A simple exchange of benefits would be fine.

The worst thing is that Lux even discovered that someone in charge of immigration affairs was instructed by other nobles to select civilians with good looks from among the immigrants to serve as human traffickers.

Even if three clerks involved were hanged and eight were imprisoned in the Forbidden Prison, the nobles involved were also included in the blacklist of northern trade, and they would later encounter Count Laxana, a noble model. Iron Fist... But what has happened cannot be changed.

Although this matter was handled relatively secretly and did not affect the overall immigration situation, after the matter was completed, Lux was still unable to eat for three days.

This is not the end.

In addition, due to the inaction and indulgence of several regional clerks, several gangs were born in Xinfukang. They charged new immigrants additional protection fees, and even openly took advantage of the new immigrants' residence subsidies, turning several The well-located first floor, which was supposed to be used as a dormitory for new immigrants, was occupied and operated as a community store.

In comparison, the flesh and bones who proactively provide services to the dock workers' physiological needs are already the least trouble.

It is no exaggeration to say that this is the most tiring time Lux has felt since she came to Forsbarrow.

Even though she knew very well why this was, she still felt heartbroken as she watched the clerks and even the law enforcers who had been with her along the way and witnessed Fosbarrow's getting better and better, choose to violate the laws and rules for their own benefit. very tired.

Although almost everyone involved in the incident had expressions full of guilt when they finally saw Lux - not only regretting that they were caught, but really having no face to face Count Laxana - this did not make them feel guilty at all. Lux felt relaxed, but it made her heart even heavier.

"They all know this is wrong." Lux asked Kalya frustratedly, "But why do they still do it?"

"What do you think?"

"Is it because the power in their hands does not match their treatment?" Lux sighed longly, "But... this is completely impossible. The scale of northern trade is so large, and the actual power in the hands of every clerk The power is astonishing..."

"This is caused by many aspects." Kalya said in a rare comforting tone, "Greed is a part of human nature. Think about how you felt when you faced Tam. That feeling of being greedy and ready to act does require a strong person. It takes willpower to resist.”

Lux pursed her lips.

"Moreover, what is more terrifying than strong greed is the erosion of Sun Gong Yizhi." Kalya told it in a tone of experience, "Even if everyone is an adult, they still need supervision."

"The supervision department is still short of manpower." When talking about this topic, Lux's tone became more helpless, "And the supervision department must be credible, otherwise wouldn't it be more troublesome?"

"Then have you noticed that in this operation, the clerks and the Dharma Masters performed best?" Kalya asked with a smile, "Do they have anything in common?"

"What do they have in common?" Lux was stunned for a moment, then realized something, "It seems... the younger clerks who have just started working perform better?"

"Then why can they resist this temptation?"

"Perhaps it's because they have received a complete Forsbarrow education?" Lux blinked, "And most of them don't have families, their relatives are relatively simple, and they don't have much desire for money... "

"Continuous learning can give people motivation." Kalya affirmed Lux's judgment, "Even the most determined ideals sometimes need to be taken out of the cabinet to bask in the sun and give yourself a shot of chicken blood."

"And relatively stable, worry-free interpersonal relationships can also help clerks resist greed and temptation." Lux quickly understood what Kalya meant, "It's best to downplay the impact of money on them as much as possible..."

"The scale here still needs to be explored slowly." This time, Karya did not come up with a complete plan, "Moreover, special disciplinary rectification is also necessary. If you want to curb these problems, you must take a multi-pronged approach. No one can Don’t think you can get away with it once and for all.”

"I understand, I understand." Lux let out a long breath, "But no matter how much I understand in my heart, my chest is still a little breathless."

"Human nature is like this. As you get older, you will feel the complexity of human nature more and more." Kalya's tone finally gradually became happy, "Although excessive greed will lead to destruction and destruction, but In many cases, it is greed that promotes the development of this world - understand it objectively, understand it rationally, and then try to guide and utilize it, ensuring that you do not lose your true heart in the process."

"It sounds really complicated."

"But I believe you can do a good job."

"Of course - I'm Lux!"

Kalja’s Little Classroom·Fosbaero’s Supervisory Agency:

In Forsbarrow, there is a supervisory organization composed of special legal guardians, which is responsible for supervising the work of clerks and legal guardians. The members are all northern pioneers and are very reliable - but they have too few manpower. As Xinfu City gradually filled up with immigrants, these people finally became too busy.