Chapter 273: Chapter 269: The Depressed City
Pignes Castle, despite being the largest city in the northern part of the New Continent, was initially a military stronghold, and decades of peaceful life have not changed this fact.
Therefore, the overall area of Pignes Castle is not large, and the main industrial industries are steel and military manufacturing.
Limited by the city’s size, these industries are also not large in scale.
The steel plant mainly produces metal parts needed for the daily maintenance of the stronghold and rails for railway use, while the military industry is only able to produce rifles and small-caliber six-pound cannons.
Furthermore, these two factories mainly serve the maintenance of the stronghold’s armaments, originally used to support military logistics during the war, so the equipment is very outdated and the production capacity is low.
Decades have passed, and the factories in the Empire have already achieved full mechanized production, while here most work is still done manually.
It’s not that the factory owners here don’t want to upgrade their equipment, but the military industries in Pignes Castle are owned by the Imperial Military. If the military doesn’t update, they can’t upgrade their equipment.
And the efficiency of the Imperial Military...
"They are often very efficient when applying new equipment, but miserly as a miser when it comes to upgrading old equipment." Perfikot inspected the industrial situation of Pignes Castle and had to make a very disappointed evaluation.
Lieutenant Kevin followed Perfikot, not knowing what to say about her evaluation.
As a local of Pignes Castle, Lieutenant Kevin is aware of the situation here; when the war had just ended decades ago, it still seemed flourishing, and over the following decade, the city saw great development during the peaceful times.
That was the most prosperous period for Pignes Castle, and most of the current buildings were constructed during that time.
However, the city’s development stagnated over the next twenty years, although it still seemed thriving and everything looked beautiful, it was only maintaining the status quo.
In the same period, other cities in the New Continent experienced rapid development, while Pignes Castle remained the same.
To the residents of Pignes Castle, life didn’t seem to have gotten worse, but compared to other places in the New Continent colonies, Pignes Castle was not just a little backward.
In recent years, as factory equipment increasingly aged and technology became increasingly outdated, factories in Pignes Castle have struggled to receive orders, and operating rates have been on the decline.
This is why Kallen can encounter a large group of workers in the tavern listening to her speech during the day.
It’s not that people aren’t working, but there simply are no jobs to go to.
Although this phenomenon isn’t severe yet and doesn’t involve most factories, the problem is already gradually becoming apparent.
If not properly resolved, one can imagine serious unemployment will inevitably break out in the future, leading to labor movements.
So for Kallen, this is the best environment for her to be active.
The workers have time to listen to her lecturing on the knowledge she learned from Perfikot, and their unemployment issues have filled them with dissatisfaction, resonating with what Kallen preaches.
Moreover, these workers are only temporarily unemployed; life is difficult but not unbearable, preventing immediate serious social clashes or labor movements.
Indeed, there’s no more perfect environment than this.
This has led to the rapid growth and development of the Workers’ Federation in less than two months, with Kallen having established it in Pignes Castle, now connecting almost all factory workers into a significantly large group.
In recent times, Kallen is aligning with workers from different factories, gathering their situations and demands, preparing for a tentative march to pressure the government of Pignes Castle for improvement in workers’ unemployment issues.
Kallen doesn’t want things to become too tense; this attempt is mainly a trial to let the workers understand and learn how to fight and advocate for their interests, while also testing Pignes Castle’s response and tolerance.
If the other side’s attitude is rigid, her priority is to avoid unnecessary sacrifices.
After all, they currently don’t have any military power; relying only on workers’ marches and struggles would be irresponsible for their lives.
Moreover, Kallen hasn’t ignored the most crucial information she got from Perfikot: In two years, the entire world will be frozen by ice and snow, breaking everything old. Under this premise, the first thing to do now is to accumulate enough strength, rather than fighting or creating conflicts and unrest, which would be bad news for anyone involved.
Especially since Perfikot once told Kallen that what she wants is stability; whoever stirs up trouble at this time will only be strongly suppressed by her and the Empire.
Kallen instinctively doesn’t want to conflict with Perfikot, naturally not willing to do such things deliberately.
According to Kallen’s plan, she will organize the workers in some small-scale struggles within the year or two, strengthening everyone’s unity and fighting spirit without causing major trouble.
Once the Empire announces the apocalyptic winter news, she will raise the banner of the Pioneer Knight and lead workers north to the Northern Territory, establishing their own pioneering domain to fight against this apocalyptic winter.
Kallen knows she is not a leadership talent, so after forming the Workers’ Federation, she didn’t place herself in the leadership position, letting the workers nominate the person they trust most as the leader.
Instead, Kallen is responsible for teaching and lecturing the workers, using Perfikot’s words, she acts as the spiritual mentor.
However, Kallen clearly understands that she is merely passing on what Perfikot taught her; she is not the true spiritual mentor, Perfikot is.
Therefore, upon learning Perfikot had arrived in Pignes Castle, she once again used her stealth capabilities after a long time to secretly sneak into the location where she was informed Perfikot was staying, quietly arriving in Perfikot’s room.
She wasn’t sure what her state of mind was, but she very much wanted to meet Perfikot again, with many things she wanted to say to her.
However, the moment Kallen entered Perfikot’s room, she was discovered, with two sharp blades thrusting directly toward her face.
Had it not been for Perfikot timely stopping Beifa, Kallen might have ended up with two clear holes on her body.
"Hi, Kallen." Perfikot greeted Kallen, and Kallen likewise smiled back.