Chapter 592 - 283: Drought and Disaster Relief (Part 3)

As the senior officer in town, Blake was quite familiar with the people from the surrounding villages. The two groups of people in front of him, fighting, came from two different villages, and the reason for their fight was exactly due to the dispute over the water source.

This lake is the public water source for the entire town, but as the water level continues to dwindle, it has led some people to attempt to claim the lake for themselves, allowing only those from their own village to draw water.

This clearly stoked public anger, which is why the two groups were brawling so fiercely.

With Carlo deliberately promoting bullfighting activities, the Spaniards have more or less picked up some of the combative nature.

Especially in such hot weather, the violent tendencies in people’s characters are infinitely amplified.

Chief Blake looked at the two groups who had stopped fighting; everyone had more or less gotten bruised, and a few seriously injured guys were now only feeling the pain, possibly with broken bones.

"Damn it, you fools!" This isn’t the civilized age of later generations; naturally, a police officer’s temper wasn’t too good either.

Chief Blake was known in several surrounding small towns; not only was he skilled, but his marksmanship was also exquisite.

More than a decade ago, a gang of bandits came to the town, specializing in looting remote farmers.

Chief Blake chased these bandits for several days, eventually executing all of them at the cost of heavy injuries to himself.

This also earned Chief Blake a promotion from the city government to chief, responsible for managing the town’s security and order.

Upon learning that the reason for the fight was the dispute over the water source, Chief Blake was furious but still explained to the onlookers, "From today, you no longer need to worry about the water source issue.

His Majesty the King has learned about the drought and ordered the government to handle the drought issue in various regions at all costs. The city government has passed the proposal to release water, and the town’s irrigation canals will have water by tomorrow."

"Chief Blake, is what you said true? Will the canals have water tomorrow?" Hearing Chief Blake say that the release of water would happen tomorrow, the onlookers couldn’t be bothered with gossip anymore and excitedly gathered around Chief Blake.

"Damn it, do you think I’d lie to you? This is a direct order from His Majesty the King, conveyed by the Cabinet Government to the regional governments and then to the city governments.

Who would dare to falsely transmit an order in such critical times? Folks, His Majesty the King cares about us, and we should also reduce His Majesty’s troubles, shouldn’t we?

From now on, I don’t want to see any behavior of fighting over water. Everyone must line up for water as needed; if there’s any cutting in line or fighting for water, then I’ll have to consider revoking their water-drawing privileges.

His Majesty the King will not abandon us, provided we are law-abiding citizens, right?" Chief Blake looked at the slowly closing-in crowd, first stepping back to free himself from their encirclement, and then slowly explained.

Although he knew that the people in front of him were all residents from nearby, he dared not ensure that malicious individuals wouldn’t take advantage of the chaos to snatch his handgun.

Though firearms are not banned in Spain, they aren’t widely circulated either. The rifles generally allowed for civilian use, aside from small-caliber handguns, are only hunting rifles approved for outdoor use.

Entering the city requires handing over firearms. After all, the Spanish Government doesn’t want to see people engaging in all-out brawls in their cities.

Usually, you can buy small-caliber handguns or hunting rifles at official weapon stores, as long as you have legal citizenship in Spain and no criminal record.

But bullet purchases come with quantity limits, and each bullet purchase requires reporting the previous purchase’s purpose.

This is done to reduce the occurrence of shootings. Normal hunting or self-defense is permitted, but if firearms are maliciously used to attack others, it will be easy to identify the weapon store even under such weapon regulations.

Aside from official weapon stores, any privately-owned weapon stores are prohibited from existing, at least not openly.

This policy is tied to the performance of officials in various districts and city governments. If a shooting occurs in a city or district and it’s determined the firearm was purchased from a non-official weapon store, the officials in that district will face severe penalties.

This also effectively reduces the circulation of weapons and lowers the incidence of shootings in Spain.

Back at the scene, after confirming that there would be enough water use tomorrow, the people present immediately cheered.

The reason for their quarrel was precisely the reduction of water resources; now that sufficient water use was confirmed, there was no reason for them to fight anymore.

"Long live His Majesty the King!"

As the order to ensure water for drought-stricken areas at all costs was issued by Carlo, the people present, after a brief cheer, immediately began chanting slogans like "Long live His Majesty the King."

The gratitude these farmers felt towards Carlo was genuine; it was because of Carlo’s orders that ensured their year’s worth of hard work wouldn’t go to waste.

Having enough water ensures the grapes mature and the vines don’t wither. The grape harvest affects their income this year, and the survival of the vines concerns the hard work of many years.