Extreme Cold Era: Shelter Don't Keep Waste-Chapter 903 - 131

Because they didn't want to give up the opportunity to assassinate the Empire's Regent, almost all the resistance organizations within Marsel City took part in the action to assassinate Perfikot.

These organizations usually acted independently, often undermining each other due to differing ideologies, but for this assassination, they surprisingly reached a consensus.

And this made her unable to resist commenting: a city with four or five resistance organizations, each acting independently, without unified leadership.

In a sense, it's a perfect match for that noble Governor who only knows how to host parties and that useless Commander who even embezzles the salaries of the City Defense Army, a pair of inadequate leaders.

However, this discovery slightly changed her view of the Governor and the Commander—at least these two were somewhat useful in preventing the resistance forces from growing too powerful.

Though it was likely a fluke, at least they didn't allow these resistance organizations to form a united force or link up.

From this perspective, they weren't entirely useless.

Yet even so, this doesn't change Perfikot's decision to replace these two pests after suppressing the rebellion and resistance activities in Marsel.

After all, incompetence is incompetence, and even if they occasionally get things right by accident, it doesn't change the fact that they are essentially useless.

The suppression of the resistance organizations did not consume much of Perfikot's time.

Although these captured resistance members displayed strong will and firm resistance, they weren't particularly steadfast—they weren't professionally trained spies nor were they fanatical revolutionaries.

The most direct reason for their resistance was simple: they couldn't survive.

Before being taken into the interrogation room, these people were just ordinary lower-class individuals in Marsel City: factory workers with calloused hands, vendors haggling in the market, the unemployed struggling to survive in the slums...

They neither had profound political ideals nor strict organizational discipline, and many joined resistance groups simply because they couldn't live without resisting or merely wanted to take revenge on the tax collectors and security officers oppressing them.

Even as so-called "resistance members," their actions were quite limited—blowing up a few Empire officials' residences, sabotaging resource transportation, assassinating a few low-ranking officers... in the end, all they did was cause some disruption within Marsel City.

Opponents like these posed no real trouble for Perfikot.

She didn't even personally inquire into the details of the interrogations, merely ordering the interrogators to "properly entertain" these prisoners.

After rounds of punishments, such as whipping, branding, and waterboarding, many broke down and tearfully revealed their accomplices' hideouts and plans.

The remaining stubborn ones only held out a few days longer before ultimately confessing under more brutal torture.

With these confessions, the subsequent actions weren't particularly interesting.

Her agents, accompanied by the garrison, searched house by house according to the confessions, and upon capturing people, continued to interrogate them, unraveling the network of resistance organizations layer by layer like peeling an onion.

Soon, the leaders of several major resistance organizations were arrested, strongholds were destroyed, and the entire resistance was uprooted.

Of course, Perfikot was well aware that such suppression couldn't completely eradicate resistance forces; there would always be some who escaped, and there would always be those driven by hatred or despair to take up arms again.

But at least for the short term, Marsel City was "clean."

As for those lucky enough to escape?

If they're smart, they should understand that the best choice now is to vanish without a trace; otherwise, they'll face even more brutal reckonings.

However, after suppressing these rebels, Perfikot couldn't help but question herself, pondering whether what she did was right or worth it.

She didn't regret harshly suppressing those rebels—in her position, mercy would only lead to more rebellion.

She just wondered whether she pushed these people too hard, exploited them too fiercely.

After thoroughly cleansing the resistance organizations, she specifically sent trusted aides to deeply investigate the real situation in Marsel City.

When the thick investigation report was laid before her, she felt an unusual sense of embarrassment, or rather, a sense of absurdity.

Perfikot considered her rule over France to be severe enough.

She still remembers what she said to those pampered nobles in the Imperial Parliament: "If they still have money to rebel, then you haven't squeezed them thoroughly enough."

Those words made everyone present silent with fear.

However, comparing this to Marsel's situation now, she suddenly realized that her harsh words were almost like a child's play.

"It's ridiculous..." she smiled wryly while putting down the report and rubbing her temples.

The shocking figures and data in the report, the plight of civilians barely able to survive, made her for the first time doubt her governing methods—not out of pity, but purely out of consideration for governance efficiency.

After all, if even a ruler with an iron fist like her feels the measures are excessive, there's someone doing even worse.

To thoroughly squeeze the last bit of remaining value out of them, to scrape their last dime, they must at least have some resources to be squeezed, right? 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Sustainable overexploitation is a skill, and without a doubt the previous Governor only learned the overexploitation part and not the sustainability.

If miners can't even get enough food to eat, can they be expected to have the strength to work? Certainly not!

Low productivity brought by excessively primitive labor modes means that no matter how harsh the exploitation, it's difficult to achieve sufficient output and efficiency.

After all, when total output is only 10, even with a 100% tax rate, you can only collect 10, whereas when total output is 1000, a tax rate of just 1% yields the same 10.

To put it bluntly, if Perfikot is willing to spend some time improving the mines outside Marsel City, she could instantly double their output.

This makes Perfikot somewhat hesitant, pondering whether abandoning these people for the war against the gods is truly worthwhile.

During this period, by exploiting the mining units of the Floating City and the entire old France area, the materials for the third Floating City module were roughly gathered.

And during this period, the gods' aggression seemed to have eased, possibly because the sacrifice and loss at France's old capital last time made them temporarily hold back, which means Perfikot doesn't seem as urgently in need of squeezing every bit of resource now.

Perhaps she could attempt to improve Marsel and the entire old France region's situation, increasing the local resource output efficiency?