Chapter 45 — The First Step of the Plan
Blade of Dawn · Page 2 of 3
"Because before, they were only working for a lord; now their work is bound up with their food," Gao Yang said, unsurprised. "This is only the first step. You can already see it—compared with the food and wages we must pay out, what we gain is far more."
"I once thought of motivating them to work as well, only I never took it this far," Hedy said, shaking her head. "I dare not imagine what the future of this territory will be if these systems truly continue."
Gao Yang laughed. "It will certainly develop in a good direction—you need only trust me. And what I have done today is only the first step. Come here and look at these..."
He had been writing and sketching on several sheets of paper all this while. Amber had leaned over earlier to glance at them twice, then lost interest, finding them dull. Now Hedy, hearing Gao Yang's instruction, obediently came over at once: "What... is this?"
The papers were full of sentences she could not understand—they looked more like a heap of strange terms piled together: work groups, competition and contracting, assessment methods and efficiency statistics. On other sheets were written the words "medium-term plan," beneath which appeared general education, a census of magical aptitude, the recruitment of talent, and so on—all the more baffling to look at.
"These are things I have been thinking up over this period, but the time to put them into practice never came. Now that the building of the territory has begun, some matters should be put on the agenda," Gao Yang said, pointing at the topmost sheet. "These things will likely be hard for many commoners and serfs to understand, so I will first explain them to you. Then you will explain them to Sir Byron and those in charge of oversight, and then have them repeated to everyone again and again—oh, right, where is Rebecca?"
"She... is helping burn off the weeds and scrub south of the riverbank," Hedy said. "It is one of the ways she practices magic."
Gao Yang's mouth twitched. "Have her come here too. A big fireball is the same whenever she practices it."
Soon Rebecca was called in. The viscount's daughter had a soot-black face and smelled all over of smoke and fire. One might say she had gone off to practice magic, but it looked more like she had just crawled out of a kitchen—no wonder she still knew only one spell, the big fireball.
"Let me explain to you the shift system for the camp from here on," Gao Yang said, spreading out his plan and beginning a detailed explanation. "First, work groups. I require all laborers to be divided into groups of five to ten, and work assignments and rotating rest will be distributed with the group as the unit...
"Before starting work, every group must report to an overseer, and when the work is done and they leave the site, they must report again. The overseers are responsible for tallying up each group's work. In addition, each group will have a group leader, who is responsible for assigning the work within the group...
"Let them choose their own group leaders, and tell them the leader is not fixed. If a leader hinders work efficiency, or conceals things from the overseer and the lord, he will be replaced immediately.
"Work results will be assessed with the group as the unit—the whole group rewarded, the whole group punished. I will speak of the reward and punishment system and the competition mechanism in a moment...
"As for the point system I mentioned earlier—considering that most people can neither read nor count, for now you, Hedy, will record the completion status of each group. We will discuss the exact method of counting contributions slowly...
"In addition, we must also discuss how each group records the tools it draws and returns."