Pollitt still lived in the most spacious room of the council chamber, and his life was not deliberately difficult, every meal was as rich as ever, every request was met as much as possible, and Hodge only limited his sex life slightly, and only had the right to recruit the Red Street Girl once a week.

On the one hand, it was because he thought that if the fat man indulged in female sex all day long and weakened to death, it would hinder his plan, and on the other hand, it was naturally out of a slight sanction for his unruly words in a certain conversation in the bathhouse.

Other than that, there were no restrictions on his movements, and the spacious room was even big enough for him to trot back and forth, just not being able to get out of the room.

As far as the Chamber building is concerned, even though Pollitt is still there, it has already changed hands.

There were many familiar faces in the conference room.

Harlow and Rhodes, the two important members of the town, naturally did not need to say much, and Herbert, who was the head of Hodge's own underground forces, also came with his apprentice Aiden.

Hodge brings with him Daphne and Hera.

Rhodes' first reaction was that it was inappropriate, and even though Hodge was already the true master of Blackstone, it was too presumptuous to lead the two witches to this important meeting so publicly.

However, he is a smart man, especially after experiencing Crane's betrayal and imprisonment for a period of time, he has learned to be cautious, his eyes constantly sweep back and forth over several other people, Harlow looks as usual as if he doesn't care about the existence of witches, and Herbert and Aiden bow their heads early and show a respectful gesture to Hodge.

OK...... I didn't rush to get the words out of my mouth.

Rhodes felt a pang of rejoicing.

"It's all here. Hodge looked at the people in the room and nodded in satisfaction, "Very well, then our meeting can officially begin." ”

Rhodes stood up first and bowed slightly to Hodge: "My lord." ”

Due to the need to use Pollit's name to stabilize the situation, the mayor of Blackstone is still wearing Pollitt's name, while Rhodes is back to the position of treasurer, Harlow's patrol captain remains the same, and Hodge is still sitting in the position of intelligence director, but has appointed Herbert as his deputy.

But Rhodes understood that these were only nominal, that Hodge's identity had changed, and that it would not be appropriate for him to call Hodge by His Excellency, so he continued to address Pollitt and called Hodge an adult.

He looked up, flipped through the booklet in his hand that recorded important events, and said in a slow voice: "In the few days you have been unconscious, we have received many requests from the townsfolk to fulfill the promise you made on the high platform that day, that is, to compensate them for the damage they have suffered. I think we should think about how to deal with this first. ”

"I haven't forgotten this matter, and it is indeed a problem that needs to be solved urgently. But before I do that, I'd like to hear what advice you have as treasurer?" Hodge looked at him with his hands raised.

Rhodes did think about this problem, he coughed lightly and said: "It is imperative to compensate the townspeople, after all, it is your public promise, if you don't carry it out, it will damage your reputation in the town, but at that time I didn't specify the specific amount, after sending someone to do some investigation, I roughly estimated that if we want to appease the townspeople, we only need to compensate each person one silver coin plus the resumption of the tax policy, which is not too much of an expense in terms of the number of townspeople in Blackstone Town." ”

"Wait. Hodge waved his hand to stop him from continuing, "When did I say that I would use coins to compensate the townspeople?"

"My lord, I think I've made it clear if you don't keep your public promises......"

"There will be a loss of prestige, I hear you very well, but I want to say that you misunderstood. Hodge shook his head and said, "I'll compensate them, but not in this form, just appeasing their emotions on the coin won't do Blackstone any good in the long run." ”

"What do you mean?"

Hodge snapped his fingers: "I will give one gift to the townspeople, everyone, including the offender, and that is employment." ”

"Jobs?" Rhodes could roughly guess what the word meant, but didn't know why Hodge brought it up at this point.

"Who was responsible for the records of the census of Blackstone?"

"It's usually me who sends my men to look into the records. Rhodes said.

"Was there a census this year? I would like to know when the last census was recorded. Hodge asked.

Rhodes thought for a moment and replied, "There was a survey at the beginning of this year. ”

"The result? How many people are registered in Blackstone? ”

Rhodes searched for the numbers in his memory, and his years as a finance official made him quite sensitive to them, and it didn't take long to remember: "There are three hundred and fifty-four townspeople in Blackstone. But that's just the number of people who have the status of townspeople, and you know that there are more criminals in the town, and it's almost impossible to count them completely, but based on past experience and some information, the number of criminals should be about eight times that of the townspeople. ”

"Including chambers of commerce and slaves?"

Rhodes shook his head: "The merchants of the Chamber of Commerce do not belong to Blackstone Town, and the slaves - only the Chamber of Commerce can count, they belong to the personal wealth of the Chamber of Commerce. ”

"Okay. In other words, excluding the Chamber of Commerce, there are more than 3,000 people living in Blackstone Town, and how many of these 3,000 people have occupations and regular income?"

"There are less than three hundred people, and most of the perpetrators make a living by stealing and robbing. Rhodes replied truthfully.

"Look, this shows that ninety percent of the population in the town is idle, and if we want to develop Blackstone, we can't use this force, we have to make use of all these idle people. Therefore, I plan to open up the recruitment of various occupations and get the employment rate of these 3,000 people to rise to normal levels as soon as possible. ”

"Career recruitment?" Rhodes' eyes widened, with an incredulous look, "I have to warn you, most of these three thousand people who have no profession are criminals, let them become official professionals?

"They'll accept how much they'll earn a day, a few copper coins, or dozens of coins, and a decent job will pay much more than that. ”

"My lord, bad habits are hard to change. Rhodes still didn't believe the offender would take it.

"That's where the patrol guards come in. Hodge turned his head to look at Harlow, "Blackstone will no longer be the same as before, now that I have it, I no longer want this town to be called a paradise for criminals, the corresponding policies and systems will be implemented quickly, and these systems will be strict with theft, robbery and other behaviors, if the criminals do not value the employment opportunities I give them and still cling to their old business, you will have to take the guards to arrest them." ”