Outside the city wall of the Western Region, under the guidance of the soldiers of the First Army, the refugees underwent an unprecedented identity check. _ _
Barov naturally knew that the population was His Royal Highness Roland's most valued wealth. In order to bring these people back to Border Town, His Royal Highness had spent a lot of Golden Dragon, and even didn't hesitate to send the First Army on an expedition to King's City. When the bill from Margaery's Chamber of Commerce was placed in front of Barov, his jaw almost dropped.
In the past half a month, the caravan had spent more than 2,000 Golden Dragons on renting ships, transporting goods, and food supplies, which was equivalent to the price of four steam engines. If it weren't for the deposit for the two sailboats last month, the financial statement this time would probably be in the red.
After the refugees were brought back, the tedious and huge statistical work fell on his shoulders. Almost all the officials and apprentices of the City Hall were mobilized. They set up wooden sheds and passageways at the foot of the city wall to classify and record these people. Looking at the dozen or so lines of refugees slowly passing through the checkpoint, Barov felt like he was looking at a group of moving coins.
Compared to the long queue of ordinary civilians, the professional talent channel that he was personally in charge of was much more deserted. So far, only fifty to sixty people had passed through.
"I'm … a carpenter." At this time, a middle-aged man walked over cautiously. "I heard that any craftsman can get a residence?"
"Yes," said Sirius Daly. "What is your name? Can you read? "
The former Knight of the Wolf Family was doing a good job in the Ministry of Agriculture, at least until now he had not made any mistakes. Barov was very satisfied with his judgment of people. Although this was a census, there were only so many literate people in the City hall, so they had no choice but to pull people from other departments over.
"Uh … My lord, my name is Maser." The other party paused. "I don't know how to read."
"Can't read or write?"
"Yes." The middle-aged man lowered his head.
"Well, if it's a carpenter …" Sirius rummaged through a stack of inquiry forms, looking for a form marked with the word 'carpenter'. "Ah, found it. Let me ask you a few questions. "
This preliminary examination method was thought up by His Royal Highness. He gathered the craftsmen of various industries together and asked them some professional knowledge and corresponding solutions. Then, he recorded their answers and formed a set of inquiry forms. In this way, as long as they asked a few questions during the audit, they could immediately know if the other party was lying or not. The first time Barov saw this kind of lie detection method, he couldn't help but want to applaud the devil's careful thinking. If one didn't work in this industry, most civilians wouldn't understand these things. If a person wanted to impersonate someone, two or three questions would be enough to make them choke and speechless.
"What is the tool used to flatten the surface of wood?"
"It's … a flatbed plane, my lord."
"What are the commonly used saws?"
"Frame saws and pull saws. Occasionally, hand saws are used when cutting small parts."
After a few questions, Maser was able to answer most of them. Furthermore, his tone of speaking gradually became smoother.
"Well, it seems that you are indeed a carpenter," Sirius was about to write down the man's name on the identity register when Barov stopped him.
"My lord?"
"Don't be so quick to judge, first look at his hands." He looked at Maser, "Stretch out your hands."
Hearing these words, Maser was startled, and with a puzzled face, he spread out his hands – the skin on his palms was extremely rough, and there were many soil grains mixed in the cracks. Below each finger was a thick callus, looking weather-beaten.
"If he is a carpenter, his palms shouldn't be so rough, especially the two meat pads at the bottom of his palms, which often rub against the wood, will become smooth and hard. In addition, carpenters often need to use black paint to draw outlines, so the palms will be stained with a large amount of black ink that is difficult to wash off and become black, not yellow. " Barov calmly said, "Also, when he answers, he will always first look away – many people will inadvertently show a similar expression when recalling memories from the past that they don't often use. If he is a carpenter, his answers should be very natural."
"Is … is that so?" Sirius's eyes widened.
Barov looked at the surprised Maser and said in a deep voice, "You should have heard the warning from the First Army when they summoned you. Any act of impersonation, deception, and refusal to register will be severely punished. Either you will be assigned to the mines, or you will be expelled from the Western Region. Now, do you still think that you are a carpenter? "
"No, my lord, I was wrong!" Maser couldn't help but kneel on the ground, "The carpenter is my neighbor, I just often watch him work!"
"Go over there and line up."
Seeing the other side flee, Sirius was speechless, "My lord, how do you know these things?"
"During the Months of Demons, I once did a census for His Highness, and I have dealt with every carpenter in the town, so I conveniently wrote them down," Barov replied, pretending to be careless. Seeing the Knight's shocked and admiring expression, his heart suddenly floated with a sense of pride.
Although the devil's methods were ingenious, they would still be deceived by some people. Only a person like me can make up for His Highness's shortcomings.
Moreover, under His Highness's influence, the way I deal with problems has recently changed … Barov couldn't help but secretly sigh, a civilian like this, in the past, would definitely be punished using Thunder's methods, in order to deter those who were ready to cause trouble. But now, he directly let him go, probably to save His Highness the Golden Dragon – after all, every fugitive was worth a lot, if they didn't work for Border Town for more than ten years, they simply couldn't make up for the cost of transporting them from thousands of miles away.
When the next fugitive passed the professional questioning, Sirius didn't immediately register, but looked at Barov.
He looked at the interrogator a few times, nodded and said, "You record it, I will take him to His Highness."
After passing through the hole in the city wall, on the other side was the shed set up by Roland Wimbledon, which was also the last inspection checkpoint.
Here, they would be personally questioned by His Highness, and if they were confirmed to have no problems, they would receive a "Resident Identity Card" and become an official resident of Border Town. At present, there was a shortage of housing in Border Town, so they could only give priority to the craftsmen. As for the fugitives who didn't have any skills, they would have to wait outside the city wall for another two or three months.
Barov also had an ID card – it was a piece of colored cardboard, almost the size of a palm, with his head drawn in the upper left corner, it looked just like a real person, and in the middle was his name, address and number. On the back of the paper was printed the emblem of Graycastle's two guns, as well as His Highness's signature and seal. Whether it was the paper itself or the film wrapped around it, the material was very strange, whether it was soaked in water or baked on a fire, it couldn't damage the ID card in the slightest.
There was no doubt that this thing was definitely made by the witch named Soroya. His Highness Roland seemed to want to promote the ID card to the whole town, so that in the future, no matter if it was to buy food or pay, they would all have to have a certificate.
Since the award ceremony, when the Pine Family's Miss had been awarded a medal, His Highness obviously didn't intend to hide the existence of witches anymore, and Barov didn't want to care about who was right and who was wrong, even … he began to hope that His Highness Roland would be able to defeat the Church and completely unify Graycastle.
There was no doubt that the higher His Highness's position was, the more generous the rewards he could get.
Of course, there was still a long way to go to reach this step, so he could think about it later. Now that the population of Border Town had already surpassed that of Longsong Stronghold, His Highness also revealed to him the city construction plan for next year – once it was connected to Longsong Stronghold, more than half of the Western Territory would become a whole, the scale would undoubtedly surpass King's City and become the most magnificent city in Graycastle, and as the City hall manager, what kind of promotion would he get at that time?
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
