At the ninth hourglass, Su Qin got up with Yisha's help and changed into his Silver Gull attire. Once he was dressed and had eaten, he instructed Yira to count the vacant houses.
As for Su Qin himself...
Su Qin took his guards straight to Gull Square.
He needed to start getting things done.
At Gull Square, Su Qin arrived with a group of soldiers and prepared to ring the bell.
"Dong, dong, dong... dong, dong, dong."
As the bell rang out, those still taking part in the matchmaking stopped.
The matchmaking had worked quite well. After all, this was the first time the commoners had encountered such a large matchmaking gathering!
Su Qin waited for the people to gather.
Once most of them had arrived, Su Qin began speaking.
The crowd stood below the square's raised platform. Su Qin glanced over them and nodded.
It was time to address the employment problem!
"Hello, everyone. Today, I'm mainly here to address employment for the refugees. Anyone who isn't a refugee may leave."
The target audience mattered. Some people left; they were locals.
"This time, the Master of Coin will announce the decree!"
He did not need to take the stage himself every time. That would diminish his prestige!
He only needed to let the appropriate person take the stage!
Su Qin instructed the Master of Coin, Tron Augustus, to get ready.
Telang cleared his throat. He was rather excited, because the people were different from before!
It was easy to tell from their faces!
Their faces were expectant. It seemed the atmosphere was slowly improving!
Su Qin nodded and looked toward Telang as he began speaking.
"Hello, everyone. I am His Lordship's knight, Right Master of Coin, and head of House Augustus, Tron Augustus!"
He enjoyed the people's gazes. "Today marks the beginning of the Lord of Gull Territory's first phase of the work-relief policy."
Before he could finish, someone asked a question.
"My lord, what is work relief?"
Telang looked at her and said:
"It is a form of employment in which the lord provides jobs, allowing everyone to earn pay through their own labor!"
The person nodded, clearly having understood.
"But this is not simply an employment relationship, because the lord intends to build farms for everyone in Gulltown to live on."
"After construction is finished, you will need to work for the lord without pay for three years, after which you will receive ownership of your houses. Of course, beyond that, everything you produce and the proceeds generated will be allocated centrally by the lord!"
"The Lord of Gull Territory guarantees that everyone will have enough to eat! Each household will also receive a certain amount of money."
The people below discussed it among themselves and nodded to one another. This really was advantageous for the homeless!
The farms needed to be built, but once construction was finished, simply employing serfs and using serfdom would not benefit long-term stability and unity!
For the sake of his reputation and the people's support, Su Qin had to compromise!
The people's response was very good. Sitting nearby to oversee proceedings, Su Qin nodded.
Once things developed further, production quotas would gradually be assigned to individual households. For now, collective labor was only suitable for accumulating capital in the early stages!
Suddenly, Kelun, the intelligence minister, stepped onto the platform and whispered something into Su Qin's ear.
Clearly, something had happened!
Su Qin's expression changed, and he said loudly, "Bring them up!"
Hearing this, Telang immediately interrupted his speech. He was also curious about what had happened!
Soon, voices came from below the platform.
"Make way, make way." Kelun appeared amid the crowd with several bound people.
They all looked vicious, clearly a bunch of desperate outlaws!
The people were curious. At that moment, Kelun stepped onto the platform and called out:
"The owner of the Gull Inn reported these assassins for plotting to assassinate the lord. They were caught on a rooftop today, and three longbows were confiscated!"
The people below began discussing it among themselves!
"What? Assassinate His Lordship?"
"I think these people definitely planned this. Don't forget what happened to the Earl. Those attackers killed plenty of innocent people."
"Everyone, beat him!" someone shouted.
The crowd immediately acted as one!
It seemed the aftermath of the attempt on the Earl's life still lingered!
The three assassins in the crowd were immediately punched and kicked, their faces quickly becoming bruised and swollen!
By the time they reached the platform, they were barely alive!
They were all like dead dogs. Normally, people like these would have been interrogated.
But they had already tried to assassinate him. Su Qin could not even be bothered to ask questions. There were only those few possible masterminds; he did not even need to guess!
He waved a hand. They might as well be beheaded. Keeping them around would only waste food!
Su Qin pointed at the execution platform, and the three were immediately escorted onto it.
One assassin who was slightly more conscious immediately shouted, "My lord, I surrender! I can give you information about the person trying to assassinate you!"
The intelligence minister looked at Su Qin, who shook his head. He could not casually pardon something like this, or anyone would dare try to assassinate him in the future!
He had to let them see the price!
After receiving Su Qin's instructions!
Kelun immediately turned around. "Execute them!"
The executioner began carrying out the sentence. Normally, a beheading had to be performed personally by Su Qin, the noble who had ordered it.
But this sort of thing was too dirty. He would leave it to the executioner. He did not believe in the Faith of the Seven anyway!
Three heads tumbled to the ground!
Blood spilled everywhere!
Some spies who had not yet been caught sucked in a breath. They were getting scared, and they had noticed a few things.
Ever since Su Qin took charge, Gulltown's residents had become as tightly sealed as an iron barrel.
These past few days, the slightest slipup would get them reported, and then the intelligence minister would arrive with a group of guards to arrest them!
Seven had already been arrested! Only ten had come in total. They could not afford this price!
In fact, that very night, the remaining three were caught by Kelun and his guards just after leaving Gulltown!
Su Qin had already marked certain people's names. Through interrogation and following the leads, he had long since identified all the spies!
Afterward, the refugees all strongly approved of this arrangement. They could earn a house after three years. It was a sure gain with no loss!
What they did not know was that land was cheap in this era, and building houses cost little too!
At little cost, Su Qin had bound them to his own wheels!
An exchange of interests, with each side getting what it needed!
Su Qin needed labor, and they needed housing!
Neither side lost out!
Of course, housing would first be allocated to those who had successfully found matches or already had families. After all, marriage meant stability!
These refugees, with their families in tow, also successfully received temporary housing within the manor before the rainy season. They would move to the farms once those were built!
The people's loyalty then rose across the board!
Everyone within the manor would be screened by Su Qin, one by one.
The screening showed that all their loyalty scores had reached over 70. The results were acceptable!
Those with low loyalty could not enter the manor! Each month, Su Qin could eliminate unstable elements simply by standing on the platform in the manor square and looking over everyone.
Friend, foe, and people's hearts were all perfectly clear!
Soon, the refugees temporarily staying in the manor went to learn simple construction techniques under the guidance of twelve craftsmen.
Stone bricks, lime, deer glue, tools, and other supplies had already been purchased from merchants!
A few days after Su Qin returned, construction of the smithy officially began.
The workforce began moving!
Soon, the lord's meeting for the second week of April began.
Everyone had done very well with their work. The smithy had also been completed and could house twenty craftsmen! It was perfect! The craftsmen loved it! The others were actually quite envious when they saw it, Su Qin included!
A bathing room! They still had to heat water and carry it inside to bathe themselves, but it was an old, effective method!
Of course, there was also a toilet system-dry toilets. The toilets were assembled from concave ceramic pieces. Ceramic toilets were relatively advanced!
A sloping installation led straight into a lower, double-layered stone-brick cesspit several meters away, giving human waste a container that would not let it seep underground.
Another point: how to wipe one's backside had always been an age-old problem! This issue was actually crucial!
Health had a great deal to do with it!
People in the past lacked the means and had no way to wash the bacteria off their hands! Stomachaches were therefore very common!
Nobles at least had the means to use hot water to kill germs!
But for commoners, firewood cost money too!
How could they worry about such things? Having something to eat was good enough!
All these reasons combined led to very short lifespans!
Su Qin currently used palm-sized pieces of woolen cloth. After use, he had the servants boil them in water to disinfect them, then rinse them repeatedly until they were clean!
Although there was no soap, there was lime powder, which could disinfect things!
It actually worked quite well!
The servants seemed to have started doing the same...
This was the issue of medieval hygiene that people were least willing to mention!
As for this large smithy...
These craftsmen had become some of the people with decent living conditions in this era!
After all, being able to bathe and having a dedicated bathing room already put them ahead of many others!
Meanwhile, the refugees, servants, personal guards, and ministers within the manor whose loyalty had reached 85 were also brought into the training room in batches and asked whether they would follow the lord's religion. Of course, a very small number chose not to believe in the Dragon God.
Su Qin respected them. He could simply let them or their families leave the manor.
I respect your beliefs, but what do they have to do with me!
When it was time to be ruthless and drive them out, he could not hold back! This concerned security!
In fact, preaching was done openly. The commoners were quite interested in this eastern lord's religion, and every day, commoners came voluntarily to the manor asking to pray beneath the Dragon God image.
The doctrines of the Dragon God Faith had not yet been decided, because the system had indicated that doctrines required some caution!
Of course, the Dragon God Faith was connected to dragons, after all! He also needed to guard against malicious speculation from certain religious groups and nobles of this era!
Thus, it was publicly called the Qilin Faith, and the sacred image used for prayer was a Qilin image!
Since there was no divine hall for believers to pray in, Su Qin instructed the soldiers to hang the Dragon God image on the wall of the judgment hall for now and lay out a simple carpet, tables, and stools beneath it.
All they needed was a setting somewhat suitable for prayer!
Mid-April.
The rainy season arrived, and the Gull River's water level rose considerably. Su Qin sent people to check it every day, and it remained at a safe level.
Fortunately, the vast majority of people had housing to shelter them from the rainy season.
However, Su Qin's food supply had also fallen to 7,000 units. There were many refugees, and he could only feed them at a loss for now.
The results were actually very good. Most people's loyalty quickly reached over 85.
Of course, as work continued, the population survey was also successfully completed.
Gull Territory's four town-level territories had a total of 1,200 households and over 5,000 residents.
Of these, Gulltown had roughly 500 farming households and 200 fishing households.
Apart from these, the remaining civilian households in Gulltown had all been converted from refugees. There were roughly 400 refugee households in total. That seemed like a lot!
But the manor had quite a few empty buildings, enough to last a few more months!