Cthulhu Gonfalon

"What do you think of this matter?" asked Sui Xiong after he had given a recount of the entire event. With a frown, he said, "You can't blame me for saying too much. You should also instill in your followers a unified mindset. We are not pursuing absolute unison. It's not strange to have different parties and factions internally, but no matter what, it should not escalate to the point where two major parties have to resort to force and fight one another!"

The Goddess of Wealth, Manissy, was usually full of confidence. But at this moment, she did not seem to appear so confident. She kept silent for a long time only to heave a deep sigh. But still, she said nothing.

"What's wrong with you?" wondered Sui Xiong. "Weren't things perfectly fine before?"

"At that time, I felt that I was able to keep things under control," said the Goddess of Wealth as she finally spoke up. Her voice was filled with bitterness. "Now, I've come to realize that actually, I can't. On top of my inability to keep things under control, there's also… something major is going to happen."

Sui Xiong was taken aback. Though he did have some expectations on the severity of the situation, he had never expected it to be so serious enough to render the Goddess of Wealth to be at her wits' end.

"How did this happen? Does that mean you can't even control your church?" he asked worriedly.

"The church is still in control, but now… the church is the only thing left that I can control," said the Goddess of Wealth with a sigh. She seemed exhausted. "The conflict between the aristocratic party and merchant party has reached a point where their incompatibility is irreconcilable. Though the church is still trying its best to mediate their conflict, it seems like this time around, there is no way to hold them back."

"What if they can't be held back? Will there really be internal strife?"

"Most probably," said the Goddess of Wealth with a bitter smile. "I went to learn more about the details of this matter. Between the aristocratic party and merchant party, there's really no way we can mediate this."

"Why?"

"Probably because of the 'flow process,'" said the Goddess of Wealth. "The flow process method can greatly reduce the time required to train workers and can also break up the original complex working procedure. This will greatly increase the content that can be produced. Currently, the merchant party is going all out to push for this type of production process, so they need even more manpower. But they do not have enough workers on hand and need to recruit…"

Sui Xiong understood what she was getting at.

To the civilians, though the techniques available for them to learn via the flow process were limited, the wages at workshops were clearly much higher than the income earned from farming—mainly because the aristocrats collected so much tax that farming the fields was simply not enough for them to support their families. By contrast, at least if they had work to do, they could still put food on the table.

This world had yet to enter the era of the industrial revolution, a time where the people would be described as "things that dripped with blood and coated with dirt." The wages at workshops might not be high, but they were at least higher than the income earned on the fields… at least this was the situation in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins.

Under such circumstances, it was certainly not difficult for the merchants to recruit workers. However, they would encounter a problem.

Among the civilians of this world, most were not "freemen." As subjects of the lord, they did not have the right to accept employment out of freewill.

And would the lords allow a great portion of the labor force in their territories to become workers elsewhere?

Sui Xiong took a moment to recall and thought of Geerteng Hill.

Geerteng Hill used to be an area with agriculture as its main income. Now, it was a world-renowned place of stationery and medicinal herbs. How did Olian Geerteng deploy human resources?

So he contacted Olian to ask about this matter.

"Of course, I would have to let go of the fields," replied Olian. "Food supply and such, we just need to buy them."

Sui Xiong nodded. That was pretty much what he guessed.

But clearly, a majority of the lords in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins did not express their acceptance because those workshops belonged to the merchant party and not to them.

"If the merchants allow the lords to become shareholders of these workshops, do you think this will work out?" he suggested.

The Goddess of Wealth shook her head and said, "This is impossible. These workshops are supported by techniques that are the basis of survival for these workshop owners. Even if the lords agreed to be shareholders in name only and not participate in the operation of the workshops, there is no way the owners would give up their share of their workshops.

"In fact… to avoid the risk of technology leaks, most of the workshop owners who have relatively strong capital will not hire local workers. They would rather spend more money to hire foreign workers so as not to give the lords a reason to intervene."

Sui Xiong froze for a moment. He could not help feeling a little surprised. After regaining from his surprise, he could not help feeling distressed.

The ruling power of the lords in this world was much stronger than that on Earth. And the merchants of this world were also much stronger than those on Earth. When the strong joined hands with the strong, naturally there would be a one-plus-one-is-greater-than-two effect. But now, the strong were colliding with the strong, and no one was willing to give in.

If their workers were hired elsewhere, it would hinder the territory's production and be harmful to the lord's interests. But the merchants, especially the prominent ones, were in voracious need for a large number of workers to carry out production. At the same time, they were unwilling to give up the profits from the workshops.

If they were on Earth, both sides could probably reach a compromise by combining their efforts in squeezing the life out of their workers. But in this world, the civilians had the backing of the good gods who would not poke their noses into matters under normal circumstances. But if the lords and merchants really did join hands to exploit these workers and committed perverse deeds of squeezing out every last bit of profit, it would not take more than a few days for the clergymen to come roaring and banging on their doors.

In such a situation, it was not surprising that the conflict between the lords of the aristocratic party and the merchants of the workshops would intensify.

"Can't we get the merchants to step back a little?" Sui Xiong asked. After thinking for a while, he said, "There is no end to earning money, so earning a little less is nothing much."

"All this time, the merchants have been the ones giving in," said the Goddess of Wealth with a sigh.

Sui Xiong was rendered speechless.

It was apparent that the merchant party had been tolerating this for a long time. Now, they were really at the limit of their tolerance.

Just as how it was supposed that "depriving others of their means of making money made no difference from killing their parents," and also what was meant by "so long as there was a profit of 300 percent, capitalists would hold no fear at all, not even the gallows." The merchant party's tolerance could only last up until the present day solely because of the Goddess of Wealth. Now, they finally could no longer hold back as they reached the verge of an outburst. Even the reputation of the Goddess of Wealth was not going to help.

Furthermore, once the merchants made up their minds to come to break their relationship with the aristocratic lords, the Goddess of Wealth should rightfully take their side.

In any case, the merchants were the core followers of the Goddess of Wealth.

Sui Xiong gave the matter some thought, then asked about it.

"I really… don't know what to do," said the Goddess of Wealth. She shook her head with a bitter smile and said, "No doubt, the merchant party makes up my core followers, but most of the aristocrats of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins have also been my followers for generations!

"Now my clergymen are also very worried. Some of them come from families of aristocrats, some of them come from families of merchants. The pressure from their families must be making them feel so terrible too… Now, as we speak, there are more than a hundred clergymen praying to me. They are praying for me to resolve the conflict between the two parties and restore peace to the Commonwealth of Gold Coins."

Sui Xiong saw the bitter look on the Goddess of Wealth's face and could not help but sigh.

Obviously, she could not do anything.

Just then, he thought of something and could not help asking, "Right, the flow process method. I remember that it should be my invention. I didn't get anyone to expand that business to the Commonwealth of Gold, so how did this technique get passed here?"

An awkward expression suddenly appeared on the Goddess of Wealth's face. It was a look of embarrassment when she was caught red-handed doing something bad.

So Sui Xiong understood.

Looking at the Goddess of Wealth, a famous saying came to mind.

Heaven might be forgiven for its iniquities, but the evils man brought on himself were the hardest to bear!