Facts proved that these workers, who already had a rudimentary organization, were more aware than Yu Lian had imagined.
Without waiting for him to start assigning tasks, Babalu began discussing with everyone.
He first efficiently assigned tasks to the cadres Present, instructing them to be responsible for a specific area and mobilize the workforce.
At the same time, he quickly organized the heads and main cadres of the Engineer team, mining team, security team, logistics team, and technical team.
Yu Lian watched with satisfaction as the other party systematically formulated plans.
As a disciple of the teacher, it would be too low to jump out and seize power to gain a sense of presence at this time.
What's more, this was Babalu's home ground; the workers trusted this most handsome Lumina youth from ten miles around, not himself, an officer parachuted in from Earth.
The most efficient approach was to let the local strongman Babalu command and allocate, with Yu Lian only making up for deficiencies at most.
Buska was the captain of the technical team, which was not unexpected.
Yu Lian already knew that this strong black youth was Babalu's most trusted right-hand man, and he actually held a junior Engineer qualification certificate issued by the Commonwealth.
It was said that he spent his free time studying, preparing to take the international Engineer certification exam.
"I'll organize all the existing chemical raw materials for you in a bit.
Also, all the equipment lists and their operating status!"
"And the detailed situation of the pickling workshop!" Yu Lian added.
"Okay, I'll do it as soon as possible."
"How long will it take?" Yu Lian asked.
"...One hour!" He answered solemnly without any hesitation.
Yu Lian looked deeply at the other party, said nothing more, and just nodded slightly.
He was really reliable!
Babalu's mentor, an old Lumina worker named Beikai, was responsible for logistics—however, this old man happened to be absent today, reportedly having crossed the mountain road to transport grain to the north and would return the day after tomorrow.
Babalu's senior apprentice, Xia Xiake, would still be responsible for security work.
At the same time, Babalu also hoped that he could organize more Hunter teams and expand the hunting range.
The other party's expression seemed a bit troubled, but he did not directly object; instead, he nodded silently with a tragic sense of going to the battlefield to block a bullet.
"Don't worry! I'll risk my old life to ensure the front-line technical team has meat to eat!" he said.
"I need to find time to talk to this fellow later; there's really no need to be so tragic!" Yu Lian thought.
However, what surprised him the most was that young man from Earth whom he had always found a bit intriguing—the one whose demeanor was more like a young intellectual or a primary and secondary school teacher, rather than a worker.
He held two positions, serving as a deputy in both the technical team and the logistics team.
As the saying goes, only the capable can do more.
Could this guy be that capable?
Yu Lian finally knew his name now: Cerdy Stoke, a very normal Earth name, but still a name that Yu Lian found vaguely familiar.
Additionally, this refined young man was twenty-six years old this year and was a graduate student studying at Xia'er Memorial University in the Empire.
"Oh, a top student!" Yu Lian was a little surprised.
Studying abroad in the Empire was much more difficult than in the Alliance.
Moreover, this university was established to commemorate Duke Xia Yier, the wise prime minister of the Dawn Dynasty and the… uh, close comrade-in-arms of Emperor Yiwanya, who rose to the throne after being reborn in fire.
It has a history of over six hundred years and is one of the top prestigious universities in the Empire.
Although this was also considered one of the most open academies in the Empire, it was still very difficult for foreigners to enroll, and if one couldn't get a scholarship, the tuition fees were not something an ordinary family could afford.
However, this young man named Stoke should not have come from a privileged family.
Although he couldn't specifically introduce his family background, Yu Lian just had that feeling.
All in all, this was a young elite.
But then again, what was a top student from a prestigious Imperial school doing here?
Could he also be a child from the Red Maple Factory?
"...Heh, I wish.
But my hometown is in New Shengjing."
That was the capital of the Far Shore Star Region.
It required four jumps from the Luna Star System, and a regular passenger ship would take about a week and a half to travel.
Counting it, it was actually closer to Daina and their hometown of New Tennessee.
"However, I heard about the Red Maple Factory's story during my student days and always wanted to know what happened, so I decided to make the Red Maple Factory the subject of my graduation thesis."
"Oh, you studied industrial metallurgy and casting?"
"...Actually, it's macro cosmic economics," he said seriously.
"Is this stuff really useful?" Yu Lian almost said subconsciously, but he held back.
"However, I attended a vocational school in high school, although it was for textiles and light industry, I can still tinker with machines.
That's why I can help a little," Stoke quickly added.
"Mr. Stoke has been a great help.
He's already so busy, yet he often takes time to help us maintain the machines.
If it weren't for him, our machine repair team would have become an empty shell long ago!" Buska quickly chimed in, fearing Yu Lian's suspicion.
Yu Lian could feel that these young worker leaders were not very good at lying; even if there was a bit of emotional color or exaggerated description.
Oh, a vocational school student getting into university and even receiving a scholarship from a prestigious Imperial school—this story, upon hearing it, was inspiring and shocking.
In short, when the top student Mr. Stoke first arrived, he indeed intended to collect material for his graduation thesis, planning to stay for at most two or three months and then leave.
As a result, during an Explore activity to a nearby town, he was first attacked by the Lumina Rebels, becoming separated from his guide and troops, and then encountered a flock of Dinosaur Birds, losing all his supplies and communication devices.
Just as he was hiding in the mountains, waiting to die, he was rescued by a senior Lumina Hunter named Katerkama.
This old Hunter was also an old worker of the Red Maple Factory and was now a member of the Hunter team and the Explore team.
In the mountains, the old Hunter Katerkama took the university student Stoke on a thrilling and life-testing jungle adventure in the vast forest beyond the wilderness.
Without this experienced Lumina elder, the graduate student would probably have died more than twenty times in the forest.
After returning to Maple City, the old man Katerkama took Stoke to his home as a guest.
He then learned that the nearby school was about to close because the Red Maple Factory could no longer afford to subsidize the school.
Yes, originally there were several primary and secondary schools and a technical college in the city.
Although they were public schools, because the students were basically children of Red Maple Factory employees, they almost had the feel of factory-run schools.
We all know that Maple City exists because of the Red Maple Factory; even the municipal government is just a makeshift organization like a mascot.
The daily maintenance of public colleges and the salaries of teachers were actually directly paid from the Red Maple Factory's accounts.
But now, this city had not had a mayor for many years, and various makeshift municipal government agencies had also withdrawn.
Now, only three or five mascot-like clerks remained in the entire city, thereby declaring that this was still the territory of the Commonwealth.
Coupled with the Red Maple Factory itself being on the brink, the school naturally could not be sustained.
"How can children not go to school?" Stoke thought.
He felt he should repay the life-saving kindness of the old man Katerkama, so he found an empty classroom in a nearby school building and began teaching the old Hunter's grandchildren and the community's children.
Mathematics, Chinese, basic natural sciences—he taught everything.
He had five or six classes a day, keeping him extremely busy.
After teaching for a month, he felt like he was half-dead from exhaustion.
However, more and more children came from various districts, drawn by his reputation, quickly growing from the initial thirty or so to over a thousand, ranging in age from five to fifteen.
Stoke simply went to the schools that were about to close, one by one, to persuade them, hoping to keep as many teachers as possible.
Most still left, after all, people also needed to eat and could not be morally blackmailed.
However, there were always some idealistic people with a burst of passion.
He spent another month, managing to keep seven or eight teachers, and then some slightly educated technicians joined, finally forming a teaching team.
Thus, the framework of a factory-run school was barely put together.
Everyone in the factory had decided that there was no one else to consider for the principal, so Mr. Stoke became the principal.
The quality of education at such a school was, of course, imaginable.
However, having it was better than not having it, right?
The workers didn't expect their children to be able to get into prestigious schools—even if they could, they wouldn't have the money to send them.
However, they knew that only by studying could they understand reason; even if they took over their fathers' jobs to operate machines later, they at least had to be literate!
He finally relaxed a little, of course, only a little.
Although Stoke studied overly broad economics, he at least had a basic economic mind, so he organized idle labor to start secondary industries.
In fact, as of the Present, a small bedding factory in the suburbs of Maple City was started by him with a group of aunts.
They certainly couldn't make money, as the entire Maple City was under a rationing system now, and currency had actually lost its effectiveness here.
But it was naturally very useful.
The clothes, quilts, and sheets sewn by the small bedding factory, although not very beautiful, were sturdy and durable, at least ensuring that a family would not have only one pair of pants for everyone to share when going out.
In addition, as the saying goes, the more capable, the more work.
Mr. Stoke, who studied and prepared for university while learning to repair spinning machines during his teenage years, actually had a good repair skill, so he organized a machine repair team.
Or rather, it was slowly recovering.
The Red Maple Factory originally had a very large machine repair factory, but it had long been closed after losing technical support from the military, the government, and the Alliance.
All in all, through various coincidences, Stoke eventually fell in love with the place and simply applied for a leave of absence to stay.
"Heh... I think your experience here is enough for a movie," Yu Lian said with a smile.
"...Uh, you're joking!
It's not about the power struggles of emperors and generals, nor the grievances and enmities of knights and ladies.
These are all things ordinary people do to survive; what's so interesting about that?
What do those film directors say nowadays? Oh, 'lacks a sense of power'!"
"No, this is the true sense of power!
The power that everyone has been missing for a long time.
To be honest, I really want to make a movie.
This could be the first step towards some great endeavor."
"Haha, then I'll look forward to it." Stoke still didn't quite believe him, but he still played along with a professional smile: "In short, everyone here has been truly kind to me! I also truly like it here!
So, I also really want to face the future with them."
Yu Lian looked directly into the other's passionate black eyes and suddenly said, "...You've been at the Red Maple Factory for more than half a year, haven't you?"
"...Yes, it's been eight months."
"The Imperial University's holidays and leave of absence applications should have time limits, right?"
Unlike Alliance universities, where you can come and go as you please as long as you pay tuition when you arrive, Imperial higher education institutions have always been very strict in this regard.
Leave and academic suspension must have legitimate reasons, and can only last for a maximum of eighteen months.
If one does not return to school by the specified time, the school has the right to revoke academic status.
Of course, this regulation was merely a paper rule for some Imperial citizens and nationals who needed to serve in the military, or for powerful Imperial nobles.
But for international students like him, who had no background and relied on scholarships and part-time jobs to support themselves, it was a guillotine that could fall at any time.
Stoke quickly suppressed a hint of helplessness and struggle in his eyes, forcing out a smile: "...I've already come to terms with it."
Yu Lian smiled and patted the other's shoulder: "No need to be so tragic, Sirdy, my friend.
Since I'm here, I'm here to solve problems with everyone.
Restoring the Red Maple Factory to its former glory is one problem, and ensuring you can return for the New Year is another.
The people at the Red Maple Factory wouldn't want you to delay your studies for them, would they?"
"But..."
"So, once we finish this... grand battle!
You can set off with peace of mind, right?"
Stoke always felt that something about this sounded off, but the phrase "grand battle" also felt quite fresh to him, making him inexplicably excited.
"Well then, let's start working.
First, the technical team, Mr. Buska, where is your pickling workshop?
Where is the chemical laboratory?"
"Starting now, without eating?" Buska was taken aback.
True laborers were decisive people, but Yu Lian's decisiveness made everyone feel a bit at a loss.
"That's right!
No matter what, as a guest from afar, you should be invited to taste roasted Dinosaur Bird wings and lake celery stewed armored crocodile.
Don't worry, they all suit human tastes!" Babalu also urged.
If it had been the kind of "traditional" military representative, government special envoy, or arrogant Alliance technician from before, Babalu would probably have cursed them behind their backs with phrases like "good cabbage all ruined by pigs."
But for Yu Lian, he genuinely wanted to invite him to taste Lumina's specialty dishes.
Although these dishes were something they wouldn't even dare to eat during the New Year.
Yu Lian's saliva slid down his throat.
Roasted Dinosaur Bird wings and lake celery stewed armored crocodile, though not universally known court delicacies, were highly praised among gourmands.
Yu Lian had only eaten them once in the commercial street of New Shengjing in his previous life, and the taste still made him endlessly nostalgic.
However, a senior who considered himself a food critic, who was with him at the time, was very dismissive, stating that they were all a bunch of abnormal, low-quality, degraded products.
"It should still be a problem with the ingredients.
These Lumina Dinosaur Birds and armored crocodiles are farmed; you can tell they lack vitality just by smelling them!
Indeed, the authentic ones should be eaten in Lumina!
What a pity..." He sighed repeatedly.
He never thought he would have such an opportunity in this life!
But...
"Can you usually eat these?"
Everyone shook their heads with bitter smiles, feeling disappointed.
If they truly had this standard of food every day, everyone in the city could look down on Earth with disdain.
"Then leave it for those with the heaviest work.
I'll eat with you all! Oh no, please ask the cafeteria workers to send it to the chemical laboratory.
We'll eat as we go!"
"What are you standing around for?
Get moving!" Yu Lian clapped his hands forcefully.
