Chapter 1385: Our Path (V.)
Buying government bonds requires a lot of capital, and cash-strapped citizens cannot afford to invest in them, but there are other ways to express their patriotism. As His Excellency John Pullett, Director of Kingdom News, said frankly in the Fatherland Daily:
"The Motherland Daily is a state-owned enterprise, profit is very important to any enterprise, but this is not the most important mission of a state-run newspaper, the Motherland Daily shoulders a sacred political mission, is a platform for the central government to report to the whole people, through this platform to report to the people of the Far East the short-term goals and long-term plans of the government's work, to show the achievements we have made in construction and the internal difficulties and external threats that the country urgently needs to solve......
"If the newspaper can make a profit by selling the newspaper in addition to its political mission, then most of the profits except for the payment of manuscript fees and wages will be handed over to the state treasury in the form of taxes, and will be taken from the people for the people.
A week after the Fatherland Daily was first published, preliminary statistics showed that the print run exceeded 120,000 and continued to rise at a rate of more than 1,000 per day.
This week, the national newspaper distribution network withstood the stress test, although there have been such and such problems in the distribution points around the country, among which the printing and fax magic guide failures are the majority, but fortunately, the "Andre intercom" is powerful enough, and the site where the problem occurs can always contact the capital headquarters with the help of the "intercom device" to report the fault at the first time, and the newspaper will get in touch with the customer service team of the "Zuoqi Magic Technical Service Company" stationed in Krasbourg, and send a mage to directly send it to repair the instrument and troubleshoot.
After a week of running-in, the number of errors reported was greatly reduced, and after the successful national distribution of the "Motherland Daily", the "Far Eastern Evening News" will also carry the same channel for nationwide distribution. Roland's five specialized weekly magazines – Heroes, Bells, Discoveries, Deals, and Controversy – have also been advertised in the Fatherland Daily and the Far Eastern Evening News, which will be delivered to subscribers' homes across the country on a nationwide newspaper distribution network. Of course, the circulation of these professional periodicals, which are priced as high as three silver thalers, is far less than that of the "Daily and Evening News", but the annual subscription of more than 10,000 copies is enough to make the magazine and its writers happy. Before the establishment of a national newspaper distribution network, this kind of professional journal could only be sold in the small circle of intellectuals in Krasbourg, let alone sell 10,000 copies, and it was worth celebrating if you could sell 1,000 copies!
The opportunity to change one's destiny is always reserved for those who are prepared. By the end of June, the newspaper revolution in the kingdom of Kolas was in full swing, and a breakthrough had been made in transportation construction. The Northern Railway engineering team finally crossed the Cessus Plateau, and the vanguard "1st Engineering Battalion" passed through the Perren Canyon and laid the railroad tracks all the way to the settlement area where the Far Eastern pygmy tribe had lived for generations, and also planned to set up a train platform in the "Big Rabbit's Nest Town".
This is great news for the gnomes! With the magic train, they no longer have to rely on those poor little short legs to trek through mountains and rivers, they can take the train to and from the north and south of the motherland, and taste the food of various places while traveling.
The gnomes have high hopes for the construction of the railway, and although their small size is difficult to use on the construction site, they are still able to make full use of their ingenuity to provide logistics services for the construction crew, and make a little extra money from it!
Every morning, the town of Big Rabbit's Nest is busy, and the gnomes mix boiled water with fragrant and sweet honey, soak a few refreshing mint leaves, pour them into oak barrels, load them into donkey carts, and drive the little donkeys to the construction site outside the town. As the Commander-in-Chief of the Railway Works and Minister of Transport, His Excellency Matwi Wittgenstein, issued a ban on "no alcohol during the work of construction workers", the workers had to quench their thirst with other drinks instead of ale, and the honey mint water made by the gnomes was undoubtedly the most popular drink on the construction site, and a copper thaler could buy a large cup of this thirst-quenching and fatigue-relieving drink.
At sunset, when the construction site was finished, the gnomes drove the donkey cart back to the town. By this time the barrels were empty, but the donkeys were not relieved by this, because the dirty clothes of the workers were piled up on the cart. The dwarfs sell honey mint water during the day, and when they finish work, they start a business of "washing clothes on behalf of others", and hand over the work clothes they collect to the mother-in-law at home. After supper, the men went to the tavern, and the women put the children to sleep, then put the dirty clothes full of large wooden basins on their heads, and went to the river to chatter and chat, while skillfully washing the clothes, and after a night the washed and dried overalls were neatly laid out by the women, and loaded into donkey carts with oak barrels filled with honey mint water, and sent to the railway site.
While the women of the dwarf town were washing clothes and chatting on the moonlit riverbank, most of the gentlemen of the town gathered in the taverns to drink ale wine and listen to the recitation of today's new "Motherland Daily" and "Far Eastern Evening News". When listening to the contents of the daily newspaper, most of the gentlemen had pipes in their mouths, their small round faces looked solemn, and there were even fierce disputes because of political differences, and when the newspaper readers began to recite the anecdotes and jokes of the evening newspapers, many of which were not easy for children, and the dwarfs who had just fought for their faces and thick necks, like civil politicians, had regained their merry and humorous nature, and the tavern was full of laughter, and from time to time someone raised their glasses to wish His Majesty the King and His Royal Highness the Prince a long and healthy life! This is certainly an excellent reason to drink, and the toast is full of excitement and everyone is drinking happily.
"Whew...... Finally finished reading, I said you guys, don't just drink yourself, please have a drink with me, who has worked tirelessly to read the newspaper for everyone! ”
Parker, nicknamed "Scud", jumped off the wooden table, put down two newspapers, took the ale from the guest's invitation and drank it all, and recited the newspaper for so long that his dry throat was moistened, and Parker burped comfortably.
Since the newspaper distribution network was spread across the country, the town of Big Rabbit's Nest, with a resident population of more than 3,000, has also become an important node of the network, and Mr. Rogge, the owner of the "Unmixed Tavern" and a dwarf poet, attended the "National Symposium of Literary and Art Workers" in Krasbourg and returned to his hometown, and immediately took out his savings for many years to establish a newspaper distribution station and a town post office and a reporter's station, and ambitiously started his second business.