Chapter 255

In the third month of the fire season, the castle construction led by Randall has reached the final stage, but thousands of people are still busy on the construction site.

Alda is one of them. The strong man in his thirties was carrying a rattan basket full of pebbles and climbing up the spiral pedal on the edge of the tower. The scorching sun sprinkled on his sweaty back, and under his bronze skin were Qiu knot muscles, which looked very strong and strong. The basket weighing more than 200 pounds seemed as light as nothing to Alda. After a while, he climbed the tower.

The tower of the castle is an important part of the security facilities and needs to be reinforced very carefully. The walls of the tower are composed of three floors. The inner and outer walls are made of square stone and plastered with mortar specially made by Randall collar, so it is very strong. The space between the interior and exterior walls is filled with pebbles, gravel and mortar. These materials need to be transported up by workers bit by bit.

Transporting building materials to the tower is not a job that everyone can do.

The tower is more than 40 meters above the ground. Timid people will feel weak when they stand on it and look down, let alone carry heavy objects on the pedal. People who do this job should not only have strength, but also be bold and careful. Nevertheless, when building castle towers, some people always fall and die. Therefore, awada can earn 14 copper sols a day, twice that of ordinary workers.

Alda has repaired many castle towers. Only the Randall family has the lowest salary, but he doesn't complain at all. The supervisor of Randall family has set up a three-story block on the periphery of the tower. Even if someone accidentally falls, he will be caught by the block. As long as he is not hit by the weight on his shoulder, he can always save his life. Moreover, the Randall family opened the pension very high, but no one has received the life purchase money yet.

The three-tier block doubled the courage of the workers. Awada was always warm when he saw this protection measure.

The afterglow of the sunset pulled the castle out of a slanting shadow. It was time to work. Alda and the workers in the same group lined up to receive today's wages.

After weighing the copper sol in his hand, Alda said to a worker nearby, "Carey, I'll invite you to have a good meal." With that, Alda greeted several other companions: "come together."

"Awada, won't you invite us to sweet potato porridge?" The man named Carey turned his eyes and said with a smile, "why do you want a pig head?"

"Good!" Avada gritted his teeth and said, "just eat pig head meat."

Carey licked his lips and said with a smile, "then go to the goat hotel. Their pig head meat is the most abundant and cheap."

Several other freedmen employees looked at each other. They and Alda had traveled far and wide for more than ten years, sleeping in the open air, hugging each other for warmth, and knew each other's roots like brothers. They know that Alda's conditions are not good. There are two women and four children to support in the family. Usually, they don't even want to spend a copper sol. Today, why did he suddenly ask Carey, a cheap miser, to eat pig head meat?

"Alda's treat today. What are you waiting for?".

Carey looked back and greeted happily. The employees suppressed their doubts and quickly followed up.

The castle is only close to Hekou town. After walking along the iron oak fence for more than 800 meters, they arrive at the suspension bridge at the South Gate of the town.

On the suspension bridge, two guards scrupulously checked everyone's Wooden cards.

Unlike other territories, landlords here allow free workers to live in villages and towns, but each employee has to show his wooden card to the guard before entering the villages and towns.

Alda's wooden plate is only the size of the palm of a hand. A triangle is engraved on the front and two groups of numbers are engraved on the back, namely 4 and 49, representing No. 49, zone 4, Pinghu Town. This is actually the residence of the Alda family in Pinghu Town.

Everyone in Randall's free civilian employees will have such a wooden card. The administrator of Randall family calls it a residence permit. With a residence permit, free people can be employed by the Randall family.

It's not easy for free people to get Randall's residence permit.

More than half a year ago, awada and his three partners took their families from Buryat to Randall to make a living. The guard of the border guard asked them about their identity, skills and purpose. After checking their belongings, awada's short knife for self-defense was confiscated, but the guard didn't take it for nothing, but gave it to him at a discount of 20 Silver sols. The guard told Alda that the weapons could be redeemed when they left Randall.

Despite strict censorship, Alda's partner, Alvin, was still refused release because he was a bachelor. The guards of the Randall family banned the bachelor from entering the country.

At that time, the rule was that a family could guarantee a bachelor, but if he was dishonest in Randall, the family who made the guarantee would also be expelled. Finally, Alda's family was the guarantor before Alvin was allowed to enter.

After the guards let go, Alda and his party did not go directly to Pinghu Town, but were taken to a temporary camp set up by the church. The church attendants in charge of the camp set aside a small area for Alda and others to rest and bathe, check their bodies, treat injuries, and provide free food and medicine. On the third day, the Randall family administrator explained to all the free people the scope of work of the hired workers, including farming, raising pigs, grazing, building castles and roads, weaving, digging canals, etc., as well as the corresponding remuneration. Those who disagree can receive two days' rations and return by the same route, while those who agree are taken to Hekou town by the steward for resettlement.

Alda later learned that the temporary camp was funded by Lord Randall. In addition to helping the church relieve the refugees, the camp is also an isolation measure to prevent outsiders from spreading the epidemic.

Entering Hekou Town, the Randall family manager arranged accommodation for the Alda family. Because Alvin was single, he was arranged to live in the barracks. When awada saw the green brick house assigned to him, he was startled. He nervously told the steward that he had no money to pay the rent. The steward told Alda that the residence is free, but it is not allowed to cook, and the food can be purchased in the canteen in Pinghu Town. Then they were given a wooden card, that is, a residence permit.

"Lord Angus, good day. Lord Gast, good day."

Carey greeted the guard attentively as he handed the wooden card. After checking the wooden card, the guard moved the corner of his mouth, which was a response to Carey, "go in."

"Thank you, two adults."

Carey happily took the wooden card and turned to the workmates to show that I knew the guard master very well.

In fact, the freedmen hired workers came in and out of the south gate every day. Alda and the bridge guards had known each other for a long time. However, the two guards are selfless, only recognize the brand and don't recognize people, and it's no use flattering again.

Once, Carey accidentally lost his residence permit. Relying on his familiarity with the guards, he wanted to enter the town. As a result, the two guards had no intention of accommodation and forced him out. Finally, it was the supervisor of Carey's working group who came forward to guarantee that the guards let him in. For this reason, the steward scolded Carey and fined him five days' wages.

Several people put away the wooden cards and followed the crowd into the south gate.

Pinghu Town is 5 square kilometers in size. The south area is the residential area of free workers. Alda's family of 7 live in independent dormitory No. 49. The roads here are clean and tidy. Green landscape trees are planted on both sides. Green brick houses are neatly arranged on both sides of the road, which is even more beautiful than the FengChen District of other towns.

Alda never thought he could live in brick houses. In fact, if they were in other territories, they could only build huts in the open space outside the villages and towns. The Randall family not only allows free workers to live in the fence, but also provides independent green brick houses for free. Of course, only employees in Pinghu Town enjoy this treatment, and several other villages only provide traditional civil houses. However, Alda heard that the free people living in the village can collect berries and wild vegetables in the wild and retain 20% of them, which is the treatment of the collar people.

The living environment in Pinghu Town is very good, and the rules here are also great. Littering is not allowed, defecation is strictly prohibited, and pedestrians walk on the right. Those who dare to disobey will pay a fine, those who are serious will be whipped, and those who refuse to change after repeated education will be escorted out of the country.

At the beginning, Alda was not used to it. For a long time, he liked the cleanliness and order here. Seeing those punished latecomers, Alda and their partners always have an inexplicable sense of superiority, just as the leaders despise the refugees.

Along the straight street paved with green bricks, Alda and his companions walked to the square of Pinghu Town. Father Miller's Chapel is located here. Every rest day, free civil servants like to gather in the square to listen to father Miller's teachings. Only these two days, people will walk around the square.

In the middle of the square stood a row of gallows on which more than a dozen bodies were hanging. At this time, it was getting late, and several guards lit two bonfires next to the gallows. The ferocious face of the corpse flickered in the light of the fire, and the purple black tongue hung out of his mouth. This terrible scene made Alda feel terrible and had an unspeakable pleasure at the same time.

"Bah! Deserve to be hanged!"

Carey spit fiercely in the direction of the body, and Elvin gloated and said, "yes! Hang these bad hairy villains!"

During this period, Randall led the construction of castles and the excavation of reservoirs. The labor was becoming increasingly heavy, and more young and strong labor needed to be supplemented. The Randall family gradually relaxed the restrictions on singles. In just over four months, more than 3000 people poured into Randall's collar, most of them singles. The arrival of these people not only reduced the workload of free civil servants, but also caused many problems.

Where there are people, there are conflicts. There are many gangsters among singles. If they fight with each other, it's OK, but many people are involved. Alvin is a bachelor and lives in a barracks called a dorm. Carey's family doesn't work in Pinghu Town. He also lives in a dorm. Since a group of bachelors moved in, the dormitory has been restless. They make trouble, extort money and coerce their roommates into joining the partnership. Alvin and Carey are often beaten black and blue because they refuse to join the partnership.

Later, these villains found that the number of security soldiers led by Randall was scarce. The sheriff was still a beautiful pregnant woman and began to become unscrupulous. They gradually formed three forces, fought openly and secretly with each other, and finally there was a bloody conflict, which became more and more intense, even to the point of murder.

When the free people's employees were in panic, the Randall family decisively took action, and the guard caught the murderer and the villain leader. Then, the Lord issued a death order, and the new sheriff sentenced these people to death and executed them in person, and then hung their bodies in public for three days!

On the day of execution, there was a sea of people in the square. When the death row prisoners twitched and struggled on the noose, the cheers of the onlookers were like a tsunami.

Since then, Pinghu Town has restored the original order.