128 Resonance

128 Resonance

The next day, when the sun was fully up, Andre was kicking pebbles impatiently in the shade of a tree.

In the distance, Wu Qingchen’s figure finally appeared, and Andre hurried forward to meet him.

"Los, why did you take so long?"

"Good day, Andre."

As he approached, Wu Qingchen glanced at the crude sundial they had piled up the day before. "It's still quite early. I just finished arranging the plow oxen before coming over!"

"Alright, alright, you're early!" Andre asked eagerly, "Can we start now?"

"Did you bring the things?"

"Of course!" Andre pointed to his side. A large basket sat under the tree, covered with broad leaves, guarded by two vigilant bailiffs.

"Good, then let's begin."

"Should I call that bunch of lazybones over?" Andre pointed toward the common land. Before Wu Qingchen arrived, wanting to avoid wasting time, Andre had already driven the lazybones into the common land to work in the old way.

"No, wait a moment. There's no need to call them just yet."

With that, Wu Qingchen walked to the edge of the path, scooped up a lump of wet clay from the common land, and squatted beside the crude sundial. Using his index finger joint as a unit, he measured eight spaces away from the current shadow's position and smeared the wet clay there. "Do you know what this is for?"

In the wilderness or any unfamiliar environment, "determining time" was an extremely important skill, let alone in the medieval world.

Having undergone training several times, Wu Qingchen had long since mastered several convenient methods that required virtually no auxiliary props, used respectively to determine direction, time, weather, and other natural factors.

However, to help Andre—who had not even established concepts of "minutes" or "hours"—understand his meaning, the advisory team suggested that Wu Qingchen use the simplest method to demonstrate to him.

"I understand."

Even with what was practically the most intuitive method, it had still tortured Andre quite a bit yesterday. Looking at the sundial, Andre nodded with lingering fear. "This is the time it will take later to make that bunch of lazybones work like Richard and the others."

"Correct."

Dusting the soil from his palms, Wu Qingchen picked up two half-man-tall branches he had snapped off along the way and pointed toward the common land. "Now that we have the time, next, we'll head over there to determine how much work they should be assigned to do within this timeframe."

"Got it... but why bring two branches?"

"You'll see in a moment!" Wu Qingchen smiled slightly. "Besides, you'll need to bring a lot more."

"Indeed." Andre smiled bitterly, asked the bailiffs nearby for a scroll of sheepskin, and, cross-referencing the data on it, began gathering short and long sticks used later for calculating paces.

"All right, let's go."

A moment later, Wu Qingchen was carrying two branches, and Andre was grasping a large handful of sticks as the two walked into the common land.

Their actions immediately drew the gazes of the lazybones in the common land.

Watching Andre muttering to himself while dropping sticks of varying lengths from time to time, several serfs who had witnessed the same behavior the day before turned pale.

As Andre walked deeper and farther away, the expressions on the serfs' faces grew increasingly ugly.

"Kyle! You bastard! I told you not to plow so fast!" Taking advantage of the bailiffs' attention being fixed on Wu Qingchen and Andre as well, one serf viciously kicked his companion. "Look, now the bad luck has arrived!"

"This..." The serf named Kyle touched the spot where he had been kicked and mumbled in response, "It... it might not turn out that bad, right?"

"You... besides being a bastard, you're also an idiot!"

The idiot was kicked again.

"We're in for it now." A few paces away, two other serfs were whispering to each other.

"Yeah!"

"Sigh!" Another serf who had just wandered over let out a sigh.

"What are you sighing for, you jerk! You at least managed to eat a bowl of beans, while the two of us got nothing, and now we have to share your bad luck!"

"I can't be blamed entirely for this, can I? Corey and Jais were going fast too! Even without me, it would have been the same!"

"Oh? You mean you didn't want to go that fast?"

"Yeah!" The newcomer serf nodded hurriedly.

"Then the good luck of picking your task first later—let me choose!"

***

The newcomer serf stopped talking.

Amidst the serfs' uneasy gazes, Andre gradually finished dropping the sticks in his hand and came to a halt.

At the spot where he stopped, Wu Qingchen planted one branch.

About two-thirds of the way back along the path, Wu Qingchen planted the other branch.

Upon returning to the starting point, after exchanging a few words with Andre, the bailiffs quickly reassembled the serfs near the large tree.

"We'll be working together shortly!"

With this sentence as an opening, Wu Qingchen took the data-recording sheepskin from Andre's hand. "The person who worked the fastest yesterday... let's see, who gets to pick their task first? Hmm, let's start with Jais. Jais, your pick."

This bastard had won two first-place titles yesterday, one of which was the heaviest task: carrying the plow.

The serfs looked at this lucky fellow with envy.

The result went without saying.

"I... I want to pick stones."

"Alright, stand over here." Wu Qingchen pointed to the left. "Next, Theodore!"

"I... I want to load stones."

"Oh? Are you sure?" Wu Qingchen reminded him, "Theodore, do you think loading stones is easier than picking stones?"

"No..." Theodore answered timidly, "Picking stones is easier."

"Then why didn't you choose it?"

"I wanted to choose it, but..." Theodore glanced cautiously at Jais. "Jais already picked it first."

"If you want to choose it, you can." Wu Qingchen pointed in front of himself. "Stand here."

"Next, and then Lyle..." Wu Qingchen asked bluntly, "Do you want to pick stones?"

Who wouldn't want the easiest job?

Lyle nodded hastily.

"Fine." Wu Qingchen pointed to his right. "Stand over here."

"Very well, next is Edgar. By the way, there are no more stone-picking tasks left."

"I choose to load stones."

Just like that, using the previous day's champions as the backbone, Wu Qingchen organized the prototypes of three teams.

Next, filling the remaining positions with the other serfs, and supplementing some manpower from Andre's side who had not participated in the previous day's test, he organized three complete teams.

With the grouping completed, facing the three groups of serfs, Wu Qingchen pointed to the sundial and the area specifically smeared with mud—representing a duration of two hours: "You've all seen it, when the sundial reaches here—"

Wu Qingchen pointed again to the distant common land, to the first branch planted earlier—representing the furthest distance the serfs could reach in two hours at their fastest speed: "The fastest person should have worked all the way to there."

Although the serfs could not read the sundial, they at least knew it was a timing tool. After yesterday's numerous tests and observing Wu Qingchen and Andre bustling about all this time, they naturally understood the meaning of the branches.

The serfs stirred slightly. Amidst these disgruntled and uneasy gazes, Wu Qingchen said unhurriedly, "Of course, Lord Andre knows that not everyone can work as fast as the fastest person."

"Therefore—" Wu Qingchen pointed to the second branch planted in the common land: "As long as you can work up to there, your assigned task is considered complete!"

"Hah!"

The serfs let out a collective sigh of relief. The spot where Wu Qingchen had planted the second branch was between 60% and 70% of the maximum speed. Although they didn't know the exact figures, the serfs could tell with the naked eye that the upcoming labor volume had suddenly dropped from a terrifying maximum speed to just over half required.

Looks of gratitude instantly turned toward Wu Qingchen and the nearby Andre.

Human Resource Management Strike Four: Approachable Leadership!

Approachable is approachable, but profit—of course, the more, the better! No, summer plowing was of course the faster, the better!

"Of course, if you are willing to put in the effort!"

Wu Qingchen continued, "As long as you can reach the fastest speed, every group—well, I mean—" At this point, Wu Qingchen gestured toward the three groups of serfs on his left, front, and right respectively, indicating the meaning of "group": "Everyone in the same group will get a bowl of beans!"

At Wu Qingchen's signal, Andre abruptly lifted the leaves covering the large basket beside him, revealing a large clay jar underneath. A rich fragrance of beans immediately wafted through the air.

Human Resource Management Strikes Five and Six: Team Spirit! Visionary Outlook!

With these two sharp weapons, the dawdling serfs who refused to exert themselves had to consider not only the severe gaze of the lord but also the wrath of their fellow group members.

"In addition, the group with the fastest working speed! When we work together again tomorrow, all of you will get to choose your preferred task first!"

With high morale, the serfs rushed into the common land. Standing beside Wu Qingchen, Andre watched the bustling production scene before him with extreme excitement.

He naturally admired Wu Qingchen's actions, but he also had some thoughts of his own.

"Los, why make these lazy... why make these fellows regroup tomorrow?" Regarding the final measure, Andre asked doubtfully, "If these fellows are allowed to work together often, once they get used to it, their speed should become even faster, right?"

Every matter has its pros and cons; team spirit could indeed accelerate the progress of farmwork, but it also easily fostered deep camaraderie and shared defiance.

At this stage, Wu Qingchen had no way to enjoy the dividends brought by the liberation of serfs.

His future goal was destined to make Wu Qingchen a member of the ruling class.

Under such circumstances, the Earth advisory team would have to be out of their minds to let Wu Qingchen genuinely untie the shackles for the serfs.

Therefore, targeting the drawbacks brought by the increased organizational level of the serfs, the Earth team introduced Human Resource Management Strikes Seven and Eight: The Competition Mechanism and Timed Re-grouping.

They would rather sacrifice the growth in labor efficiency brought by increased tacit understanding than risk weakening and mitigating the potential threat the serfs might pose once united.

Of course, there was no need to tell Andre all this.

"Maybe."

Hearing Andre's question, Wu Qingchen turned his head and smiled. "However, you see, even just so they can choose their tasks a bit earlier tomorrow, they are still working just as hard right now! Most importantly, a matter like this doesn't require you to shell out any beans."

"Hehe, that's true!"

Andre immediately accepted this explanation and burst into smiles instantly. "This is really great."

How could it not be great?

How could he not smile?

Taking something that originally belonged to the ruled class, repackaging it as a favor, and then turning around to bestow it upon them—this was precisely what the ruling class loved to do most.

Naturally, Andre deeply resonated with such practices.

"However, even if we save a portion here—"

Looking at the scene of doubled efforts and busy work inside the common land, Andre felt both joyful and distressed. "We still have to pay out the reward beans!"

"Heh."

Wu Qingchen let out a soft laugh.

"Los, what are you laughing at?"

"Nothing."

Wu Qingchen shook his head slightly.

Were the reward beans at 100% maximum speed really that easy to eat?

In other words:

Whether it appeared as "outstanding contribution," "exceptional performance," "employee of the year," "advanced representative," or "performance bonus"—

No matter what guise it appeared under, was a capitalist's reward ever easy to claim?

What was even more terrifying, or perhaps more tragic, was under the manipulation of approachable leadership, team spirit, visionary outlook, competition mechanisms, timed re-grouping, and more obscure, more malicious human resource management techniques that Wu Qingchen might introduce in the future:

Were the lord's rewards something the lazybones could simply refuse even if they wanted to?