Chapter 291 (1/2)
Maintain world peace and promote social progress. It was easy to say these seven words, but hard to achieve them.
The former was simple. It just meant to stop wars. Before a war broke out, people had to support the party that would be invaded and try to melt the hatred between the two parties of the war. Although it was not so easy, there were still ways to do it… However, the latter was too vague and general. Even though most of the higher rank members of the Void Mask Church were smart, they couldn’t figure it out.
“Let’s not talk about maintaining world peace for the moment. Since the battle of Sun’s Death Day was so terribly tragic, major powers in the world, at least those in the Main Plane, will be unwilling to start a war for a long time.” The pontifex Leon Igor thought about it for a while and said, “That is to say, currently, we should focus on promoting social progress. Your Majesty, what do you think progress is?”
Sui Xiong nodded, pondered for a while, and said, “So-called social progress should first be reflected in the improvement of people’s living standards, that is, to let the people eat and drink well, to live well, to protect their legitimate rights, and allow them to live in a rich and safe environment with dignity. Further, it means to promote democracy and protect personal freedom…”
He was speaking while thinking, and suddenly, an idea came to him, “Oh, I remember! It is… to build a prosperous, democratic, civilized, and harmonious country, to build a society of freedom, equality, justice, and the rule of law, and to advocate a culture of patriotism, dedication, integrity, and friendliness. Oh my gosh! I’m thankful for my experience drawing posters for the community, or else I definitely wouldn’t be able to recite it so fluently!”
Leon and the others were confused. They looked at each other without saying a word. After a while, Giant Gerald, who had been simple and honest as well as straightforward, asked, “Your Majesty, what you’ve said… I don’t understand.”
“It doesn’t matter. I can explain it to you one by one. It’s easy to understand.”
“Your Majesty, do you really need to set such a high target to promote social progress?” Leon asked, “I understand what you’ve said, but… won’t that be too optimistic?”
Sui Xiong was surprised at that, “Optimistic?”
He looked around the meeting room and found that almost everyone wore the same expression as Leon.
They were surprised, helpless, and hopeless…
“Well… It seems optimistic…” Sui Xiong wiped his sweat and said with a bitter smile, “We can lower the standards…”
“Your Majesty, in my opinion, to promote social progress, we just need to provide people with food, clothes, and homes to live in, as well as stable income, letting them save some money after a year of hard work. That’s to say, we’ll ensure that they’re living with dignity and don’t need to worry about going to hell after dying… Am I right?” One of the two leaders of the church, Olian Geerteng said, “If that’s the target, I think we have a chance.”
“That’s too low a target,” Sui Xiong murmured.
“It’s not low at all!” Olian sighed, “Your Majesty, do you know that? Before the establishment of the Stationary Workshop, more than ten people died from hyperthermia and starvation in the Geerteng Hill every year. The point is that the Geerteng Hill has been under exploration, so people there have more land, higher incomes, and more property than others. If it was in another Hill that had existed for a long time and been exploited by several royal families, it wouldn’t be strange to assume over a thousand people died every year…”
Sui Xiong frowned and asked, “Why didn’t you relieve people in the poverty stricken area?”
“It’s easy to rescue people in an emergency, but not from poverty!” Olian said with a sigh, “Those people who died from hyperthermia and starvation were poor. They usually had no land to plant on or no young and strong labor in their family to earn money. How much could they earn with elders, women, and children? The Geerteng Hill had been poor for a long time. In the winter, everything there is more expensive than ever, but we still managed to send some food and clothes to weaker families. However, it was too cold this winter…
“But the situation is better now. Since the establishment of the Stationery Workshop, the financial resources of the Geerteng Hill have been much more generous. I simply moved the families without land to the vicinity of the workshop and asked them to work for the workshop. On one hand, they have a relatively stable income, and on the other hand, it’s easier for them to get help in the winter.” Olian smiled and said, “These days, excluding those who were ill or slept on the road after getting drunk, there has been no one who died from the cold or starvation.”
Sui Xiong nodded slightly and looked at Leon.
Although Kalisa Riley was the Hill Lord of the Garth City, everyone knew that it was Leon who was actually responsible for the civil affairs of the Garth City.
Leon immediately understood what he meant and replied, “The situation of Garth City is better than that of Geerteng Hill. After all, it’s a commercial city with more working opportunities. Even if a family has no farmland or labors, they can still find jobs to make a living. It’s just that there are too many people in the Garth City and its surrounding area, so there are a lot of things to handle correspondingly. In terms of relieving poverty, I have only done some general work. I’m afraid that the work is not as good as that done in Geerteng Hill.”
Sui Xiong frowned slightly, then looked at Mrs. Teague.
Over the years, the Void Mask Land had been developing consistently, and its governor was also changing. Recently, Liv, who had been originally in charge of political affairs, finally couldn’t stand doing paperwork in the office all day long. She had resigned, formed an adventure team, and had been in Northern Iceland during this time. The current main governor was Mrs. Teague, who had been in charge of civil affairs before and had a high reputation among people. Thus, it was just one more job for her to do, and she could do it well.
“The situation of our land is much better.” Mrs. Teague said, “However, it can’t be taken as an example for other areas.”
She said, “Our income is so high that only the disposable floating capital is enough to provide everyone with abundant food and clothing. Under such circumstances, I can certainly ensure people will enjoy a comfortable life. But if you want to make our experience universal, that is impossible.”
“Why?” Sui Xiong asked.
“Your Majesty, do you know that our Void Mask Land is the largest entertainment venue of the highest level in the Main Plane? There are a large number of rich people there. It isn’t rare to see customers spend money like water here. What’s more, we also have another financial source, the once-in-a-decade auction of Longevity Potions, which is a great chance to make money for the whole Main Plane…” Mrs. Teague said with a smile, “Just these two financial sources have been enough to support the living of a small country, but how can other countries have the same financial sources as us? Your Majesty, you’re planning to promote social progress, not the progress of our area alone.”
Sui Xiong nodded. His dream was different from those millionaires living in the desert on the earth who relied on the abundant oil to make money and never helped poor people. He wished to promote the progress of the whole world, at least to achieve social progress in the whole Main Plane. As Mrs. Teague had said, the two financial sources for Void Mask Land were beyond the available range of other areas. Even if they wanted to follow this pattern, they couldn’t. It would be meaningless to take the Void Mask Land as an example.
Suddenly, an idea came to Sui Xiong. He remembered Baron Keane in Duchy of Thunder.
Compared to stationary base Geerteng Hill and major commercial city Garth City, Keane Hill had a more average situation. It had neither special financial sources nor convenient transportation. It was just a small Hill. If he could promote the development there and let the people live and work in peace, then his experience would be worth spreading.
Actually, there was no need for Sui Xiong to wait for the development results of the Keane Hill. He could find another place and do construction there first to see whether it worked!
He made a decision.