"You lazy black birds! The brick kiln has already been fired up, and you all better sleep on it and watch carefully! The Samurai in the county are waiting for the bricks. If the bricks are burnt, I’ll pluck all your feathers and hang you naked from a tree!"
Outside Apa County, at the newly built brick kiln site, the charcoal kilns rge into a single stretch, puffing blue smoke like tombstones. Dozens of tall kilns are lined up in a row, with lots of brick batches drying under straw shelters, and piles of charcoal stacked in the corners. A robust middle-aged leader, dressed in short clothes, stood in the middle holding a staff. In front of him were over 400 craftsn and apprentices, shirtless, sweating profusely, and busy with their heads down.
In front of the kiln, the Construction Chief Koskachi, eyes glaring, with a hoarse yet loud voice, barked at his black-sooted kiln workers, ruling like a king among crows! His tanned face was as dark as charcoal, wielding a bronze rod fiercely, akin to a mightful Samurai. When his stern gaze swept over those present, more than a few hundred strong n bowed their heads, afraid to et his eyes.
Koskachi looked around, satisfied with his own dominance. In his eyes, craftsn in the workshop differ from farrs in the field; the most important thing is to follow rules and obey!
How to make bricks, build kilns, light the fire, observe the smoke, everything must be done according to the instructions of the senior artisans, without the slightest nonsense. If negligence ruins the bricks and kilns, delaying the work schedule, by the Kingdom’s laws, it would indeed result in execution!
Of course, after wielding a big stick, so hope must also be given. Koskachi tapped the rod on his palm, "pa, pa," and grinned.
"The Chief Divine is watching us, work well! Once this kiln’s bricks are done, everyone gets a day off and a bag of food!... In the surrounding Tlaxcala villages, there are many won without husbands, so even with half-grown children! With food, whether you go for a day of fun or find a partner, it’s very easy."
"Once the work is finished before the rainy season, done well, there are also rewards in Apa City! By then, find a wife nearby to marry, even the children are ready-made, after raising them for two years, they can work for the family!... The future looks promising, so work hard, everyone, do you hear !"
"Yes, boss. Work hard, we all listen to you!"
At this, the craftsn in the kiln site showed joy on their faces, responding loudly. One quarter of them are skilled workers, who ca over months ago with the leader from the Patzcuaro Lake region to build the kiln site outside Apa City. The other three-quarters are apprentices, recruited from Apa County, all long-submissive Prepetcha people.
In two southern counties, within a year, twenty thousand migrating people from the East have been settled. Migrants are being settled, establishing small and large villages, with the most important buildings being the brick warehouses! It’s known that people can live in wooden houses, straw shelters, or even in caves, but not food. In the humid rainy season of the South, brick-built waterproof warehouses are necessary to prevent food from molding and spoiling. Secondly, there have to be brick-built sacrificial altars to store sacred scripture tablets and precious copper and iron tools.
Hence, under a Royal Decree, Koskachi led a group south to Apa City last year to build a large brick kiln, to supply building materials nearby. The charcoal-burning plants and smoking kilns operate non-stop day and night, like a grounded giant beast, exhaling the force to transform the Apa Plain.
As the migrants are continuously settled, the kiln site’s scale also keeps expanding, recruiting over three hundred more apprentices. These craftsman apprentices are mostly single, robust n expected to settle locally, becoming craftsman households in the county. What is most lacking now is wealth for forming households and wives.
Apa County has given rewards, with many single won among the captive migrants. Being able to beco a craftsman household here is a highly sought-after opportunity. If they perform well, they could beco Craftsman Masters, not much different in status compared to the military rit nobility.
"The Chief Divine’s revelation values craftsn greatly, with generous treatnt! Once you beco a craftsman household at the Divine Revelation Place, your good days truly begin! Never worry about food and drink, focus on working in the kiln site. After enduring for ten years, you can beco a skilled craftsman, with living standards not inferior to the Samurai! Endure for twenty years, and you can beco a senior artisan, able to afford up to seven or eight wives and children! If you devise new improvents, there are rich rewards, and possibly like , rise above others, becoming a Craftsman Master, a Craftsman Priest!... Tsk tsk! Leaving the villages to work in the workshop truly is a blessing from the Chief Divine!"
Koskachi shook his head, waving the big rod, patiently giving guidance and education for quite a while. He spoke sincerely, leading by example. His kiln workers nodded in anticipation, feeling energized for work.
The Kingdom of the Lake now has a population of over 1.2 million. The Kingdom of the Lake is vibrant and expands yearly, continuously plundering population and wealth from outside, cultivating and colonizing internally. This place differs greatly from the Alliance of the East; the upward path is remarkably broad!
The first clear path for advancent is naturally military service. In the Kingdom, aside from thousands of erging priests and nobles, the highest-ranking are the fifty thousand Samurai among the seven legions! The Samurai lords engage in external conquests, winning every year, plundering spoils of war by ship and house. They receive military rewards of land and titles, occupying one-third of the Kingdom’s land, and own over 300,000 agricultural slaves, acting as the most crucial pillar of the Kingdom!
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