Bulgarian Empire

Chapter 70: Recruitment

Ferdinand was recently in a good mood when he crossed before he admired his days as a contractor. The first Bulgarian development zone is now in his hands at a cabbage price.

Once the future development zone got developed, he will earn enough to profit from the rent and the monopoly on water, electricity, gas, and property fees.

On the other hand, Franz is busy. Perhaps, being busy is also a kind of happiness for some people, so people do not have time to learn the pain. It is a kind of happiness to run around to feel alive. It is a kind of leisure to be tired so that people have no time to be idle.

It s lucky that Ferdinand has such a good subordinate like Franz, who has never once complained about the pain and stress.

"Recruitment" is never an easy task. It is about the long-term development of the business.

Now Franz is hiring not dozens or hundreds of people at a time but more than 20,000 people at once. It also includes some managers besides ordinary workers.

In order to manage the fresh workers, Franz even brought in a battalion of Royal Guard from Ferdinand to help maintain order as well.

Even so, no less than what happened when the chicken feed. Well, now Franz always knows the benefits of being a retired soldier. He comes straight in as a part of the secret service and doesn't even need training.

Before going on duty, there is a month of military drill. Ferdinand's idea is mainly to develop a sense of unity and discipline.

First of all, there is a month of military drill before the duty. Ferdinand's idea is mainly to develop a sense of teamwork and a purpose of obedience.

Also, just like all workers in Bulgaria, there is a need for literacy education and, as a side note, patriotic brainwashing.

Ferdinand adjusts the teaching materials regarding the later-day propaganda system, and of course, are mixed with a lot of personal interests, which are full of loyal and patriotic ideas.

In the eyes of future ages, it is totally feudal and vicious and an insane sense of cult of personality. But at that time, in the relatively conservative Balkan region, this idea was still prevalent. Other than young scholars who venture a vocal minority sometimes, others were still very supportive.

If he can solve the problem of workers, then managers' problems are pretty tricky. They can still draw off the middle and senior levels from other industries, but what about the skilled managers at the low level?

Out of thousands of low-level managers, Franz has only solved a small part of the problem, even with all his efforts.

The good thing is that the work task is not heavy now because the new development project has just started. The groundwork is not required to be highly technical, and there is still time to adjust to the pair.

When automobile technology has not matured, it still got transported by horse power and manpower for short distances. There is no such thing as an excavator. The internal combustion engine technology has not yet made a big breakthrough, so you can't get a steam excavator!

Even if the terrain is relatively flat, engineers estimate that the first phase of the excavation construction will take more than three months to complete, with the main body completed and put into use, it is at least the end of 1892.

Ferdinand couldn't achieve results in a short time in the development zone, and his idea went bankrupt right at the beginning.

As a farmer in a small village in the Bulgarian Burgas region, Ivan had several hundred acres of land at home and lived a decent life. Since he was a child, he was envious of the outside world and wanted to go out several times when he grew up.

However, the old man has been very religious and old-fashioned, leaving Ivan to carry on the family business, which means to continue farming. However, there are already three brothers in Ivan's current generation, which means that once the ancestral land has divided, everyone's future days will become problematic.

When he heard the news that the new district of Sliven has established and the new district development was looking for people, Ivan knew it was a chance to escape from the small mountain village and could no longer hold back his desire for the outside world.

As always, the old man discouraged: "Ivan, the outside world is not as good as you think and is full of greed all over, so do as told and stay home and farm! This year we have applied new agricultural technology, and our income has increased, and our days will slowly get better!"

Ivan has made up his mind to go out and make a go of it. He then decided to have a bargain with the old man.

He did not flinch as usual and said in a firm tone, "By all means, my father! Don't forget. We have three brothers now. In the future, if we split up, the land we have now would not be enough to support three families!"

"For the love of God, let me go out and make a living! You don't want me and my two brothers, who can't even afford to raise our kids when we start a family in the future, to be bankrupt together!"

After hearing Ivan's words, the old man wanted to say something but stopped. He did not know that this was true, but his thoughts have not been able to step over this hurdle. He was simply silent, secretly wishing Ivan a good trip in his heart.

In rural Bulgaria in the 19th century, many families were poor because of splitting families. Moreover, it was so much so that some families were afraid to raise more children. Due to the lack of good contraception, many children were born and left behind in churches, hoping to be adopted by some good clergy.

In fact, only a few can meet good people, for all it is known. As soon as Ferdinand succeeded to the throne, he financed the creation of dozens of orphanages in Bulgaria, which received thousands of orphans one after another every year.

It follows that the main reason for the slow population growth in the Balkans compared to Western Europe after the Industrial Revolution was war and poverty.

Ivan had just arrived at the new Sliven area when he heard someone shouting, "Ivan, you're here too? Aren't you at home farming? Did you get permission from the old man?"

The visitor was none other than his fellow villager, and Ivan asked in wonder, "Veri, what brings you here too? Aren't you making a name for yourself in Sofia?"

"Don't mention it again! Originally I stayed in the food factory, which went bankrupt, and they did not settle even the last three months' wages before the boss got arrested. Thank God it's easy to find a job now. I've been doing odd jobs for people for half a year. I heard that this time the company that recruited workers is a large business. I think it should be more stable, so I came to try my luck!" Veri said with a gloomy face.

"Oh, I wish to God to bless you, my dear poor Veri!" Ivan said with comforting words.

Veri looked at Ivan, who was full of sincerity, and said, "Come on, Ivan, tell me about yourself! I don't believe that old man will let you out!"

Ivan shrugged and said, "Sure, but he can't say no! I told him if he doesn't let me out, he'll have a hard time seeing his grandchildren later!"

After Ivan's words, Veri became depressed all of a sudden. His family is much more complicated than Ivan's. Besides a married sister, there have initially been three younger siblings. Later, there was really no way to send the three younger siblings away one after another, and now life and death are still unknown. It is also why he will get out early to earn a living, as their family has gone bankrupt earlier.

Ivan realized that he had said the wrong thing and hastily apologized, "Sorry, Veri. You know me, I'm always blunt!"

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