Lord: Marry the villain's daughter at the beginning?

Isa was currently in the former royal capital of Anjou, talking to a chimney cleaner.

"Yes, ma'am. If you want to get these little devils to come down, you can wet the straw and light it on fire. Then the straw will just smoke quietly without catching fire, and you can get these little devils to come down quickly."

The chimney sweep added: "All the other smoke is useless and will only make the little devil pass out."

But Isa's eyes were not on the worker, but on the child who climbed out of the chimney.

"Hasn't the Child Labor Law been promulgated? In the future, new tools will be used to replace child labor, but why is there still child labor everywhere in Anjou, whether in factories or other places?"

Guessing what Isa was thinking, the worker said, "Ma'am, you are kind-hearted and can't bear to see these children working, but there is nothing we can do about it. After all, it is not us who actively recruit these 'apprentices', but their parents who send them here."

Just then, a parade happened to pass by on the street not far away.

"Free child labor! Guarantee the working rights of child laborers!"

One person shouted in front, while the people following the march also shouted numbly: "Free child laborers! Guarantee the working rights of child laborers."

This was the first time that Isa had seen these parades. The empire no longer had any external rivals, but there were still some unstable factors within it, just as Isa had seen.

Isha once visited parents who sent their children to factories instead of schools. The answers she got were basically that their families were poor. Even if the school was free and meals were provided, other food and clothing expenses still cost money. Many families started with five or six children, and these children were very important labor and income sources for the family, so child labor still could not be eliminated.

No matter how strict the policy is, it still needs people to implement it.

There was once a worker who begged Isha painfully not to send his children to school because his wife at home was sick and he had to ensure a stable income so that the family could barely make ends meet.

To be honest, even Isa felt confused after the visit. The results of the visit were different from what Isa had imagined, even completely different, and completely inconsistent with her expectations.

This was the first time that Isa did not believe in her own investigation. Those children covered in coal dust, those children who suffocated to death in the chimneys due to improper operation of the adults, and those children who had never seen the sunlight in factories and mines were all telling Isa that sometimes the truth is not as simple as it seems.

Previously, a girl in a mine told Isa that she had to stay in the dark mine for twelve hours a day. She had to operate an independent device in the mine to prevent toxic gases from depositing underground.

Isa went down to the mine herself to check out the area where the girl worked. Even though Isa was relatively petite, she still couldn't squeeze into that place.

It was narrow, dark, and cramped. Even an adult who could get in would probably have mental problems after a while, let alone a little girl of only eight years old.

Eight years old is already very old among these children, because if they grow up any older, they will not be able to do this job. Most of the children who do this job are basically around five years old. Of course, children in such places cannot grow up either.

The happiest time for the girl was when she got her salary, as she could go to the nearest town with her parents and have a meal of not-so-hard black bread with her family.

When Isa asked the little girl if she still wanted to work here, the little girl nodded silently and said, "Yes."

When the little girl said that she wanted to continue working here, Isa suddenly felt a chill running down her spine to her forehead. She thought of the serfs she once was. It seemed that the workers today were no different from the serfs they once were.

Then Isha met the little girl's parents. The girl's parents looked very simple and honest. They had more than one child, and the other children were also working.

The eldest child is twelve years old. Of course, they originally had a child who should be fourteen years old now, reaching the official working age. Unfortunately, that child died in a mining accident when Alberto was still in power, and the couple did not receive a single cent of compensation.

At that time, no one cared about a family who lost their eldest son in a mining accident.

Isa wanted to send the children of this family to a newly opened public school, but the two parents knelt down and cried and begged Isa not to send their children away, saying that the family still needed these children to work to make ends meet.

Until the end, Isa didn't know how she walked out of that house, and many bloody words still echo in Isa's ears.

It’s different from the past. At that time, Isa was powerless to change everything, so she decided to fight to the death with everyone. But now, Isa has the power to change everything, but she can only punch cotton and has no idea how to exert her strength.

Especially when Isa saw the couple again, they were in a parade against child labor laws.

The couple, like everyone else, followed the parade with numb faces, occasionally uttering a few numb protests, like a pair of spiritless bodies.

After the interrogation with Lind, Lind comforted Isa and gave Isa an address. Isa had the power to act first and report later, and now it was time to exercise this power.

Linde also understood that some things could not be accomplished overnight. Improving workers' treatment, improving factory environment, enforcing relevant laws, implementing compulsory education and subsidies for poor families, these things combined would make those damn kids go to school obediently.

The Empire has also been implementing these policies, and at least for now it is openly prohibited to recruit child laborers under the age of fourteen.

In fact, in the North, you can't even enter the factory without a basic education, because the production equipment in the North is almost all the most advanced. If you want to use those production equipment, even if you don't have professional skills, you must at least be able to read, right? Otherwise, you won't even understand the basic regulations of the factory.

Sometimes, investigations must not only start from the grassroots and the people, but also require a broader vision to connect some clues together.

Just as Isa's investigation at the grassroots level can help Lind better understand the current civilian situation in Anjou, and through the intelligence and information of his subordinates, Lind can clearly feel that there is a force in Anjou that is consciously rejecting more advanced production equipment.

Combined with Isa's report that the factories and mines were still using the cheapest and most backward production equipment, even a fool could understand what was happening.

Of course, Lind had guessed this kind of thing a long time ago. After all, Lind never overestimated the bottom line of those guys.