Chapter 89: Chapter 96 Recruitment

( ) Chapter 96 Recruitment

Near noon, the Minister of Personnel of Sky City appeared before the crowd and introduced the opening of commoners and other matters. In short, the Emperor, to facilitate the development of the lords, has specially opened ten thousand villages, allowing lords to freely recruit commoners in these villages. A lottery determines which lord can recruit in which village. Once decided, a lord may not cross into other villages to recruit commoners, otherwise the recruitment privilege will be revoked.

The ten thousand villages have almost identical populations, each around one hundred thousand people. Although Sky City covers several million square kilometers, it houses several hundred billion people, so the villages are contiguous, with boundary stones and roads marking each village, making them easy to distinguish.

A lord may decide how many people to recruit based on his own situation, and may later recruit at any time in his own village. When the village's population reaches the lower limit of ten thousand, Sky City will, according to circumstances, open additional villages.

These commoners require no recruitment fee nor monthly wages; they are people who have received almost no education, and their loyalty is far lower than those bought from the labor market. Thus, if they become extremely dissatisfied with a lord, they will leave to seek a better path, and if the lord suppresses them, they may revolt.

Commoner satisfaction is classified as: very satisfied, satisfied, average, dissatisfied, extremely dissatisfied. The safety situation, cleanliness, public order, fire protection, disease control, food variety, and other factors within the territory affect the civilians' satisfaction. Otherwise, as civilians leave, the lord suffers a great loss of reputation; higher reputation makes it easier to attract better people to serve under equal qualifications, while a reputation at rock bottom will cause even the generals who were once loyal to waver and not give their full support.

"Zuo You Cun," Li Bucai's bamboo stick displayed.

"That's the village I live in," Wan'er said happily.

In Sky City, only a small fraction of a village's residents possess skills. Wan'er was originally just a person of ordinary qualification; people like her live in villages, whereas those like Yan Qiu, who have general qualification, live in castles.

Since it is Wan'er's village, there is no need to ask for directions; after the lottery ended, Wan'er immediately led the way to Zuo You Cun.

All villages' houses are built of white jade blocks, very beautiful. Because Sky City's population is enormous and land is extremely limited, a tiny village houses over a hundred thousand people, so development can only go underground. The houses visible on the surface are inhabited by skilled people; the commoners' dwellings are all deep underground.

Having heard early that a lord would arrive today to take them away, tens of thousands of people blocked Zuo You Cun's village road from early morning, standing there hoping for the lord who would change their fate to arrive.

Li Bucai arrived here and found the people's eyes dim; long-term malnutrition left them gaunt, and living underground without sunlight made their skin as white as snow.

"Are all the villagers women? Why don't I see any men?" Unlike most passing villages that are mostly men, Li Bucai noticed very few men in the crowd; those present were over forty, with families, and extremely few.

Wan'er explained: "Commoners live differently from our families across generations. After turning sixteen, these commoners separate from their families and live in designated villages. Here there are a male village and a female village; Zuo You Cun is the female village. After eighteen, they may marry men from the male village, then move to other designated villages to have children and settle there."

"So that's how it works," he said, surprised that there was no family planning yet the sexes were neatly separated. The territory's subjects are all women; how will they continue to reproduce? Population is a renewable resource, but now it becomes non‑renewable, and recruiting from another's village is prohibited. They can only hope that the school‑uniform girls and Qian Feng draw the male village, allowing intermarriage and solving the reproduction issue.

At that moment, the crowd shifted as Wan'er's father led his clan to the village entrance to personally welcome Li Bucai and his party. Wan'er, an ordinary‑qualified person, was elevated to noble status by him in less than a month, and gratefully invited them into his home, presenting all the finest dishes he could offer.

After the wine and food arrived and the number of recruits was discussed, they were asked to wait there while Wan'er personally led them outside to recruit. Li Bucai could not refuse such hospitality; moreover, the locals have lived here for generations and know the village inside out, so delegating the task would be highly efficient. Thus, they went with them.

Li Bucai's food supply is limited; only 40,000 food units remain. To be safe, they will initially recruit 1,000 people; together with others, about 2,000 food units are consumed per day, so they must wait until food is plentiful before recruiting more.

The recruitment condition is to give everyone a job; if they meet the requirements, they receive 40 food units per month. A month has 30 days, and one food unit suffices for one person's daily consumption, distributed daily. The remaining 10 units serve as a bonus; once the market is built, they can freely exchange the surplus for money to buy other tools.

When the condition was announced, people swarmed to Wan'er's house doorway. Wan'er's father shouted: "The honored lord has spoken; schools will be established in the territory, and everyone will have a chance to become civil officials or generals. As you know, my daughter Wan'er was merely a common soldier less than a month ago, and now she has become the coveted general; this month's salary alone yields ten gold coins."

Wan'er stood there, and her demeanor showed a qualitative improvement. As soon as the words were spoken, the crowd buzzed like bees, discussing eagerly; people surged like a tide, all wanting the chance to change their fate.

"However, the honored lord has been here only a month. Considering the limited troops and the complex situation on the mainland, recruiting too many at once would jeopardize everyone's safety. For safety's sake, this time there are only 1,000 slots. With limited slots, I will call names; those selected will enter the courtyard through the door beside me, and Wan'er will lead them to meet the honored lord."

He felt Li Bucai's gratitude and, of course, gave his all, selecting only capable people. They were villagers he knew; in less than half an hour he gathered a thousand, almost filling the large courtyard.

Wan'er escorted Li Bucai out; in the courtyard stood a uniform group of sixteen‑ or seventeen‑year‑old girls with proper features, all bowing to Li Bucai.

With everyone recruited, Li Bucai gave a brief welcome, then went to the gate outside, promising the crowd that he would return to Sky City soon and, within a year, bring everyone down.

After thanking Wan'er's father, Xianghong and Rui Tong led the group to wait at Tengyun Station, then escorted Wan'er, Yan Qiu, and Wu Zhuoyue to the labor market. From the first‑tier labor market they recruited two each of builders, carpenters, potters, blacksmiths, miners, livestock keepers, farmers, weavers, and carpenters; from the second‑tier market they recruited 60 archers, 4 scouts, 2 military doctors, and 2 herbalists.

On the official side, the undead's Yue Ji's qualifications are hard to discern, but her six sisters each possess the same qualifications as Wu Zhuoyue, lacking only skills. With those six and the Wu Shi Jiejie, there are enough to deploy, so generals are temporarily sufficient; as for civil officials, only Yan Qiu remains, having handled everything alone these days. Now that 1,000 civilians have been added, she cannot manage alone, so she spent 4 gold coins to recruit four civil officials.

Including the undead, there are now 500 soldiers under command; one cannot blindly pour all money into troops, lest next month's wages collapse the finances.

Li Bucai spent the remaining money, using 20 gold to buy 100 warhorses, as a dock is to be built soon on the Shalanjiang banks, requiring a mobile unit to support both sides. The rest bought basic tools and some common books, covering Wan'er and others' skills, totaling 42 gold; less than 6 gold remained, which he deposited in the bank for later use.

Just before departing, at Sky City's city gate, Li Bucai met Zou Ying and reminded him of the promise to provide reinforcements for the expedition to Luo Ping Hai. Zou Ying said, "My master has submitted the personnel list to the Emperor; there are some cumbersome procedures that will take a few days. Rest assured, in a few days I will personally deliver the people to your residence; this time I will not shortchange Lord Li."

He spoke generously, but Li Bucai sensed a hint of helplessness in his expression.