Chapter 52: 52 Population Structure

Many of the Free Citizens in Shanlin Town, when tracing their origins, are related to the Wushan Ridge Allied Forces that originally surrounded and suppressed the noble resistance army.

For example, the surrendered Tangmu, whose father was a Professional Knight who died in the Battle of Shanlin Town;

Or the manservant Jialun, whose father was a Logistics Soldier who also died in the chaos of war;

Although the Administrator Wilson has no connection to the allied forces, he was a house servant to the previous Baron, somewhat similar to Chahar before he became a Steward, which is why he understands many characters and handles matters with clear logic.

At this moment, Wilson is sitting upright on a chair in the dining room, with a bowl of thick meat soup placed before him and a white bread roll clutched in his hand.

"How many years has it been!"

Wilson's heart trembles slightly; he has not tasted such fine white bread in many years, nor has he drunk such thick meat soup in Along time.

"Praise the Lord!"

He praises the Lord with every bite he takes.

Being able to have the Lord personally instruct the kitchen to prepare dinner for him fills Wilson's exhausted body with energy instantly.

"Praise the merciful Lord!"

Wilson has drifted through Shanlin Town for half his life, never finding a satisfactory job. He even once wanted to serve Pulinsite, but was flatly rejected by him.

Pulinsite is an Administrator himself, so he does not need an assistant.

Now that he has the good fortune to become Luoning's Administrator and is so highly valued by the Lord, he feels that no matter how hard he works for the Lord, it is worth it.

Before long, Jialun arrives at the dining room, "Mr. Wilson, the master is now free to see you. If you are ready, you may come with me."

"Good, I'm coming right now!"

Wilson swallows the last bite of bread, then finishes the last of the meat soup, stands up with brisk efficiency, and follows behind Jialun.

In the study, the Administrator meets Luoning and begins with a heartfelt greeting.

Luoning gestures for him to sit on a chair to the side, "Coming to see me so late, could it be that the census is already finished?"

"Yes, my Lord. Except for you and those who came with you from Wushan Castle, everyone in Shanlin Town has been registered!"

As Wilson speaks, he pulls a large roll of parchment from his bosom and respectfully presents it on the desk.

Luoning takes the parchment; on it, everyone's name, gender, age, and occupation are clearly recorded by family unit, in great detail.

He flips through several pages and finds that Wilson's handwriting is very clear and neat, with no sense of clutter.

"To be able to complete the census in less than two days, your efficiency in handling matters makes me look at you with new eyes!"

His gaze turns to Wilson, "Choosing you to be my Administrator was indeed the right decision."

Faced with such praise, Wilson appears very humble, "Thank you for your trust, my Lord!"

Luoning claps his hands, applauding the other man, and the topic returns to the roll of parchment before them.

Although the statistics are very detailed, these are merely a pile of raw data; to unearth useful value from them, further processing is required.

The task of processing this data naturally falls to the Administrator; Luoning cannot spend time on this, otherwise, why would he spend money to hire someone?

"Registering this information is only the first step. Next, I need you to help me organize this information."

Luoning says: "For example, divide them into age groups and then count the number of people in each age group; or categorize by occupation type and count the number of people in each; calculate the number of eligible unmarried men and women, and so on."

These divisions are all meaningful.

Take the "eligible unmarried men and women" statistic, for instance. If the gender ratio is severely imbalanced, leading to all eligible men in Shanlin Town remaining bachelors, Luoning, as the Lord, would have to consider where to bring in some eligible women to solve the problem of his subjects being single.

Wilson writes down all these requirements as the content for his subsequent work, while also feeling a bit proud, because after finishing the registration, he had already done some preliminary screening.

"My Lord, please look at the last page."

"Oh?"

Luoning notices the "praise me" look on the Administrator's face and curiously takes out the last page of the parchment:

【Total Population】: 1993 people

【Number of Families】: 543

【14 years old and under】: 410 people

【14~20 years old】: 416 people

【20~30 years old】: 505 people

【30~40 years old】: 346 people

【40~50 years old】: 243 people

【50 years old and above】: 73 people

【Number of Serfs】: 1356

【Free Tenant Farmers】: 609

【Other Professionals】: 28

It turns out Wilson had already divided the population by age group.

Luoning looks at the Administrator, his eyes naturally filled with approval, "To be able to anticipate my thoughts in advance, Wilson, you have done very well!"

"You flatter me, my Lord!"

Wilson smiles and responds humbly, "I only thought of a part of what you had in mind; there are still many areas I haven't considered."

"No need to be humble; the completion of this task has already exceeded my expectations!"

Punish when things are done poorly, praise when they are done well—this is Luoning's philosophy, "I believe that being an Administrator is just your starting point. Work hard, and you will have the opportunity to become my Advisor in the future."

The official ranks in this world are not specifically divided into first, second, or third grades, but Luoning plans to design a system.

For example, for the civil officials of the territory, he currently only has three levels in mind: Scribe, Administrator, and Advisor.

A Scribe is equivalent to an assistant to an Administrator;

At the same level as an Administrator, there are also Tax Officers, Defense Officers, and so on;

At the Advisor level, there will be similar distinctions.

For Wilson and the others, the most intuitive feeling is that they have been promoted, and their wages have increased.

In this way, it would also give people something to look forward to and provide them with the motivation to climb higher.

Sure enough, the moment Wilson heard Luoning mention the word "Advisor," his eyes lit up.

Although he did not yet know exactly what an Advisor did, it sounded one rank higher than an Administrator, so the benefits would certainly be substantial.

"My Lord, I will work hard!"

"I look forward to it!"

Luoning signaled for him to sit down, and he himself began to carefully examine these statistics.

First, the population count left him very satisfied.

There were 1,993 people in total, and adding the Guards, Maiken, and Aierlong he had brought with him, the population had already reached 2,025.

The Population Prosperity achievement required the territory's registered population to reach 3,000; although it was still over 900 short, it was not that far out of reach.

Besides this, Luoning observed the age distribution; if one considered those aged 15 to 40 as the prime labor force, there were 1,267 people, accounting for 63% of the total population.

This was a very good ratio!

Furthermore, there were 410 young children, accounting for 20%, which was also very good.

The only thing that surprised Luoning was the number of people over fifty, which showed a near-cliff-like drop.

At this age, one could actually be considered elderly.

After all, there was no saying here that "an old person in the house is like a treasure," and the elderly had no benefits.

For those over fifty, their physical strength and health would decline rapidly because they had suffered too much in their youth, yet due to the pressure of survival, they still had to participate in heavy labor.

Consequently, the rise in the mortality rate of the elderly was also to be expected.

Although it was somewhat cruel, this was reality.

Even as the lord, Luoning could not change this situation in the short term.

"This report is good."

Luoning praised him once more, "Tomorrow, find some time to dig deeper into these statistics according to the classifications I just mentioned."

Dig deeper into statistics?

Wilson had never heard such a term, but combining it with the context, he could understand it, so he memorized this thing invented by the Lord and could brag about it to those who didn't understand later.

"Additionally, I will be taking a trip to Muma City the day after tomorrow."

Luoning tidied up the parchment, "Before I return, there is one more thing I need you to handle."

(End of chapter)