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

At this time, a group of Angevin nobles were shaking red wine glasses in a mansion and discussing the profits of their respective factories.

This was also a legacy issue from Alberto's time. In order to make money quickly, the nobles in the audience quickly colluded with the factory owners. At that time, behind every factory in Anjou stood a noble, big or small. These factories and the nobles had become an inseparable and deformed relationship.

"Business has become increasingly difficult recently."

A noble placed his wine glass on the table and wiped his lips with a special napkin.

"Isn't it? Age ban, compulsory school enrollment, doesn't His Majesty know how many families we have saved?"

The other noble seemed a little tipsy and slammed the table indignantly.

But someone immediately made a gesture to silence the voice and said, "Keep your voice down, be careful, the walls have ears."

Although no one has been convicted for words now, it is an open secret that the Emperor hates those old nobles. In the eyes of these nobles, if they say bad things about the Emperor, even if they will not be convicted for words, the Emperor will have other charges to punish them. They never thought that this was because they were being investigated because they had dirty hands to begin with.

“But business is indeed becoming increasingly difficult.”

These nobles are not big nobles, but because they swallowed up the factories thrown out by those big nobles, these nobles have already shown a trend of rising, and even planned to unite and get a share of Linde's pie.

While the great nobles stayed indoors and even sold out some of their assets, the nobles who had acquired the factories continued to hold regular dances as they did in the past, and often gathered together to criticize current social ills.

Today is the day for the nobles to gather.

"The Empire keeps asking us to improve the welfare of our workers, and even wants to shut down the factory for rectification if the standards are not met. Has His Majesty really opened a factory? Do you know how much our expenses will increase if we add those meaningless magic lamps? Do you know how much production time will be wasted if we give workers more holidays?"

In the eyes of these people, just being able to pay wages normally and provide a job to the common people should make them grateful. After all, this is much better than the treatment of serfs in the past. His Majesty the Emperor just doesn't understand that the half-dead common people are the best common people. Once they are well fed, they will start thinking about other things.

"That's right. You also asked the factory to use all the new production tools. Don't those tools cost money? I think your majesty is crazy about money. You asked us to buy the equipment produced in the North. We have already paid a lot of taxes!"

This group of nobles, who were already like street lamps, started to act crazy while drunk, saying, "We have done our best to solve so many employment problems for the empire, but His Majesty has been targeting us. If His Majesty Alberto were still alive, he would never let this happen."

Many nobles have already begun to ask those nobles who are acting crazy while drunk to lower their voices. After all, the more those nobles talk, the closer their necks are to the street lights.

But at this moment, hurried footsteps suddenly came from the gathering, and a security guard team kicked into the venue with muskets in hand.

Looking at these nobles who were manipulating the factories behind the scenes, and thinking about the child laborers who were thrown into the factories and mines, Isa ordered all these nobles to be arrested, without sparing any one.

When these nobles saw the security guards, their faces were filled with disbelief at first, but they immediately gave up resisting. The security guards' muskets could only deal with ordinary people, and they were usually not loaded. However, there were many professional nobles present who did not dare to move at all.

Once they resist, it means that they are openly defying the empire's law enforcement agencies. Then next time, it will not just be the security team that comes. If you are not decent, the empire will help you be decent.

Of course, there are still many nobles struggling violently.

"Let me go, let me go, I have paid taxes to the empire, I want to see His Majesty, I want to see His Majesty!"

The loyal sheriff would certainly not pay any attention to these crying nobles. These nobles, who only bowed and scraped to those of higher status than themselves a few years ago, were now dragged out by the lowest-level sheriff. They even dared not resist at all even though they had the power.

Isa came to the table where the nobles were gathering, flipped through it casually, and saw a parade slogan written by a noble.

Sure enough, how could workers who couldn't even get enough food have the money to buy such a large banner with slogans written all over it?

Now Isa finally no longer felt like she was punching cotton. At least now she had found the point where she could exert force.

The interrogation soon began, and the nobles confessed to instigating and manipulating their workers.

Of course, it doesn’t matter whether they confess or not. This group of people did not hide anything at all. All we need to do is investigate the funding channels and the factory owners who control the factories for the nobles, and we will know everything.

"You can't do this to me! You can't do this to me!"

One noble grabbed the railing and cried to Isa, "We are doing this for the empire too! If we were not in control, don't you know how many people would lose their jobs just based on your majesty's policies?"

Isa remembered the example Lind had given when they were communicating, that is, the so-called "millions of canal workers depend on their food and clothing." If this problem is not solved, even if the productivity is higher, they will never be liberated.

But if it was really the "millions of canal workers' livelihood", it would be fine. If destroying these nobles' factories would make it impossible for ordinary people to survive, Isa would be soft-hearted and hesitate. However, these nobles still exploited the lower-level workers in the same way they oppressed serfs.

If these nobles are not hung on street lamps, the lives of the lower-class workers will never get better.

"Deal with it according to the law."

Isa said to the judge beside her.

The judge wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and nodded.

Isa is the emperor's special envoy, or in other words, an imperial envoy. And Isa's status is even higher than that of an imperial envoy. Not only is she a friend of the emperor, but she is also a special religious figure. In addition, with the privileges given by Linde, even if those great nobles, even if the matter involves the former Angevin royal family, Isa can kill them at will.

After many people were hung on the street lamps in Anjou again, the so-called workers' collapse and the rebellion of millions of canal workers did not happen. Someone took over the factories of these nobles and began to honestly introduce equipment in accordance with imperial laws and improve the treatment of workers.

The saying "If you don't do it, there are plenty of people who will do it" finally fell on these nobles. If you are not loyal, there will naturally be people who are more loyal than you. What's more, the factory was not a losing business. It's just that those nobles were a little greedy and wanted more, and they held on to that little bit of profit and refused to let go.

As for the other unemployed people, they were invested in the large-scale infrastructure of Anjou. Coupled with the poverty alleviation policies invested by Linde, the backward factories and mines in Anjou finally began industrial transformation.

Even the Anjou Railway and other transportation, which had been stuck for a long time, began to be built at a faster pace because of the turmoil.

Isa stayed in Anjou for a long time. Only after she saw that no factory dared to openly recruit child laborers, and that the basic enlightenment schools and the newly opened technical night schools were gradually filled with people, did Isa gradually feel relieved.

After the situation stabilized, Isa went back to the house she had visited before.

The parents of that family were still busy, and it was the father of the family who received Isa because it was the children's mother's turn to attend night school today.

My father lost his job, but fortunately he found a job in a large infrastructure project. The salary is even much higher than his previous job in a factory. My mother still works in the factory, but she is not as tired as before.

The girl who had worked in the underground mines did not go to school because she was too weak and stayed at home to recuperate as recommended by doctors and the church, but now this working-class family can at least afford to keep one child at home to rest.

The children's father took out a wooden box, which contained several copper coins that had been polished until they were patinaed.

"To be honest, this was the reward the factory director gave us when he asked us to march in the streets. At the time, we regarded it as a treasure, as if it were life-saving money at the bottom of the box, and we didn't dare to use it at all. Now it seems that it is not such a good thing. These few copper coins, plus my original salary, are not as much as my current salary."

After recovering from brutal exploitation and oppression, the workers finally began to realize something.

After randomly visiting a few more houses, Isa looked up at the still gray sky of Anjou. The faint sunlight penetrated the mist and sprinkled on the new Anjou.

Isa, who had been looking sad and serious since arriving in Anjou, finally smiled.

Isa hummed softly and walked on the newly built avenue in Anjou with a relaxed look. Usually, Isa always gave people a feeling of maturity and stability, and even a little bit of hatred, but Isa was actually just a girl who was burdened with responsibilities that did not belong to her.

With the hood lowered, silver threads fell like a waterfall, and under the reflection of the sunlight, they seemed to be shining with golden holy light.

Isa finally embarked on the journey back home.