The workers work indoors in temperatures of over 20 degrees Celsius. Although it is hard work, the wages are not low and lunch is provided. Therefore, this job in the factory is very popular among urban residents.
Ruby Eyes calculated that in just half a year, the gross domestic product of Laguge doubled.
All I can say is that when your starting point is low enough, any slight improvement will be a leap forward!
"That is to say, we have money now! Can we be extravagant at the end of the year?"
Hearing Ruby Tong say that the increase was so huge, Hei Qiangdai was so excited that she rubbed her hands together, but Ding'an poured a bucket of cold water on her at this time.
"Gross domestic product is not cash. Our money has been invested in various construction projects. We just paid out this year's military salaries the day before yesterday, and there are less than 500 gold coins left in the treasury. If you want to be extravagant, my suggestion is to eat more roasted corn. That's all you can eat now."
After being scolded by Ding'an, Hei Qiang propped his chin up in frustration. Dick flipped through the report in his hand and turned to ask Tia beside him.
"It seems that there are quite a few refugees in our territory this year."
"Yes, there are quite a few, especially during the winter. In less than a month, there were more than 2,000 new cases. Thanks to the household registration system, otherwise we wouldn't be able to count them at all."
"What's the situation with these refugees? They can't all be spies, right?"
"I have sent people to investigate, and indeed found some spies sent by other territories, but most of the refugees are pioneers who migrated from the south with the caravans. There is evidence of this."
"Caravan? What's the name of the caravan?"
"The Golden Ant Chamber of Commerce specializes in developing the middle class of the people."
In the empire, more than 70% of the population is concentrated in the less than 20% of land in the south, especially in the most prosperous imperial capital area, where the population density is explosively high.
Therefore, as the carrying capacity of the land reached its upper limit, the lords in the south had to find ways to transfer the remaining population, and thus pioneers came into being.
The pioneers were generally free people who originally owned land or property. Due to poor management, their family fortunes began to decline, but they were not yet so poor that they had to sell themselves into slavery. So they sold their land and took the initiative to go to the backward but sparsely populated northern region to seek other ways to make a living.
However, the journey from south to north spans thousands of kilometers, with high mountains and long roads, and the road ahead is confusing. If the pioneers do not have relatives to rely on in the north, they do not know where to go. Because some territories are very xenophobic and do not welcome outsiders, brokers who act as intermediaries for pioneers came into being.
This type of chamber of commerce can be said to be a variant of slave traders. They also do normal business, but they will take the initiative to use their connections in the northern territory to find out in advance which territories here want to increase their population, how many they need, and whether they need specific talents.
Then the Chamber of Commerce would go to the south to recruit pioneers according to these needs and escort them to the north. Thus, the northern lords got the population they wanted, the pioneers did not have to take detours, and the Chamber of Commerce could collect a brokerage fee from both the pioneers and the northern lords, and all three parties were happy.
Dick also thought about looking for these chambers of commerce at first, but he didn't expect that some chambers of commerce would send people to him directly and didn't even ask him for money.
This reminded Dick of something the old Duke Rune had said to him before he left the imperial capital.
"Don't worry about the population problem. Someone will help you solve it."
114. Dark clouds from the north
In the castle's reception room, Dick met with the caravan representative of the Golden Ant Chamber of Commerce, a man who looked kind and honest at first glance, but whose eyes revealed a gleam of brilliance.
As soon as the two parties met, the other party took the initiative to stand up and bowed deeply at 90 degrees, and handed over a well-made business card with both hands. Dick took it and glanced at it.
"Hello, Mr. Sellers."
"Hello, respected Earl, thank you for taking the time to meet me. It is my honor to serve a young and promising upstart like you."
"Forget the polite words. You brought people to my territory, and I am very grateful to you. Since you took the initiative to ask for a meeting, I think you have something to ask of me. This is a courtesy between us. Business is a give-and-take, isn't it?"
In a few words, Dick first determined that this was an equal business. He roughly guessed that the Golden Ant Chamber of Commerce took the initiative to send pioneers to Laguge at the request of the old duke, which did provide convenience for the development of his territory, but he did not want to owe anyone a favor.
Representative Cyrus smiled and immediately stated his purpose.
"You want corn?"
"Yes, our Chamber of Commerce is very interested in the crops grown in your territory and would like to purchase some seeds from you. Of course! The price will surely satisfy you."
"Interesting. Ever since the news of my large-scale corn planting spread, there have been thieves coming to steal corn almost every day. You are the first one to take the initiative to pay for it."
"Hey! How much can you steal? Our Chamber of Commerce wants to purchase on a large scale."
What Dick said was not an exaggeration, but a fact. Although corn planting in the first year had not yet been fully implemented, the labor camp farms plus the mandatory requirement of no less than 50 mu of experimental fields in each village added up to nearly 30,000 mu of planting area.
So, it’s not easy to hide!
As a result, the news that Laguge began to promote the new crop spread like wildfire, and those lords who had Earthlings under their command soon learned that this was an Earth crop called corn, and its yield was quite amazing.
Ironically, after learning about the benefits of corn, all of these lords wanted to get this excellent crop, but none of them sent envoys to negotiate with Dick. Instead, they secretly sent people to steal it. At first, they stole the seedlings, and later, when the corn matured, they began to steal the cobs.
There are even more wicked guys who not only steal corn but also destroy the fields after stealing it.
However, it was thanks to these endless stream of thieves that the farmers who were originally skeptical about this new crop finally realized that it was a good thing. Without Dick's orders, the villagers spontaneously organized themselves to protect the experimental fields and fight against the vegetable thieves.
Of course! Dick wasn't worried about this, because growing corn requires more than just seeds.
Agriculture is a profound subject. It is not like digging a hole, burying some soil, and waiting for a few months to get a yield of 600 to 700 kilograms. The growth of crops requires corresponding maintenance measures at each stage. If Dick had not received technical guidance from Ruby Eyes and invented primary fertilizers and pesticides, there would not have been such a big harvest.
In fact, under the advice of Ruby Eye, Dick had intended to promote advanced agricultural planting techniques to various territories in the northern region, win over neighboring lords to form an alliance and turn them into his own raw material production bases, while Laguge focused on industrialization so as to profit from their profit margins in the future.
As a result, these lords were worse than dogs and would rather send people to steal than buy.
As for these bastards, Dick made a note of each of them in a small notebook. When he completes the goal of expanding the army to 2,000 people next year, he will send "free trade" applications to each of them!
Since the Golden Ant Chamber of Commerce is interested in corn, Dick really needs a middleman to promote it in surrounding territories for him.
The corn seeds Dick had were from Earth, created by Lukoya with magic. Dick had more than a dozen varieties to choose from, but he didn't choose the variety that could be saved for recycling. Instead, he chose a hybrid corn with a very high yield. This type of corn had a very good disadvantage, which was that the seeds would degenerate, and the yield of the second generation of seeds would drop significantly.
So Dick was not afraid of thieves stealing corn, let alone worrying that promoting its cultivation to other territories would become an enemy in the future, because once his corn was planted, people would be dependent on his seeds in the future.
In front of Cyrus, Dick informed him of the characteristics of the corn seeds and said that the breeding technology was his exclusive formula, which he would never sell to anyone else. However, he could reach a strategic cooperation with the Golden Ant Chamber of Commerce and give them the exclusive distribution rights of the seeds.
After listening to this, Cyrus immediately understood the benefits of this seed, and his seemingly honest face finally broke into a sly smile that was more in line with his identity as a businessman.
"Sir, it is a real pleasure to do business with you."
"I like making friends. We can make money together!"
"I am truly flattered that you are willing to befriend a humble merchant like me. Since we are friends, I feel I should give you a warning."
"A reminder? What is it?"
"You should pay more attention to the developments in the northern wilderness. On my way to Laguge, I met some colleagues who had just returned from the northwest. I got some bad news from them. They said that since the beginning of winter, the orcs who had not harassed the empire's border for seven years have reappeared. I think you should know what this means, so it is better to take precautions early."
After seeing off the businessman Cyrus, Dick frowned slightly and analyzed the news in his mind.
Since there is a natural fjord to the north of Laguge, Dick's territory does not directly border the great wilderness to the north. If the orcs in the wilderness want to invade Laguge, they must first attack the territories northwest of Laguge and take a long detour before they can get here.
Therefore, when the orcs invaded in previous years, Laguge was not on the front line, but he would respond to the emperor's call and send troops to support other territories that were also citizens of the empire.
The last time the orcs invaded was seven years ago. Before that, they came almost every year, and they specially chose the autumn harvest time to plunder the human land. Then they retreated to the wilderness with the loot before winter.
But seven years ago, the orcs suddenly stopped their annual invasions and plundering. The Empire noticed this abnormal phenomenon, and some overly optimistic nobles thought that the orcs must have learned to be smart and realized the power of humans.
However, some people feel, after analysis, that the orcs have indeed become smarter, but they are by no means afraid of humans, but are preparing for a big wave of troops.
This abnormal situation lasted for seven years. Five years ago, the Empire organized a large-scale northern hunt, sending 30,000 troops into the wilderness to look for traces of the orc tribe. As a result, after searching for more than two months, they did not see even a hair of the orcs. They could only judge from some remaining traces that they had migrated to the north in large numbers.
Originally, the empire had planned a routine hunt to the north this summer, but the crown prince died suddenly on the way to the north, causing the hunt to be aborted.
But I never thought that the orcs, who had disappeared for seven years, would return again at this time.
115. The Golden Deer's Oath of Loyalty
There has always been debate about whether the orcs are an advanced intelligent race.
They do have their own language, relatively primitive hieroglyphics, and their social system has reached the primitive tribal stage, but they are also extremely barbaric and brutal, and their behavior is comparable to that of mad beasts.
Compared with burning, killing and looting, what other races find most intolerable is that the orcs eat people!
They not only eat other races, but also their own race.
Bloody battles with the goal of genocide often occurred between different orc tribes. Except for the female orcs who would be abducted by the winner, the remaining losers would be killed and made into jerky.
It is worth mentioning that among the various highly intelligent races in this world, except for humans, there is reproductive isolation between each other. The human race is like a universal plug and has no reproductive isolation with anyone else.
This created a rather ironic situation: while the human race was hunting down the elves everywhere to demonstrate their new dominance, the orcs were also chasing after the human race to expand their own tribe.
Therefore, humans hate orcs and regard them as enemies of civilization and pests of the world.
Over the past few hundred years, in order to reduce the number of orcs and compress their living space, the human race has continuously expanded northward. By building strongholds and fighting stupid battles, they have successfully forced the orcs into the northern wilderness with poor soil and harsh environment.
However, the oppression of humans did not succeed in exterminating the Orcs. After retreating into the wilderness, they still survived tenaciously, and would go south to plunder every now and then, like a pack of roaming wolves. If the humans were not careful at all, they would be bitten off a piece of their flesh.
In order to deal with the invasion of orcs, the empire has a permanent army of 30,000 people in the north. They have built a series of castles on the border and have pairs of armed cavalry patrolling along the border, but they still cannot stop the infiltration of small groups of orc raiders.
Therefore, the lords in the northern region are generally rich in martial virtues, and the ratio of military to civilians in their territories is more than three times higher than that of nobles of the same rank in the south. They appear to be warlike, but in fact they are forced by life.
The individual combat power of adult orcs is very strong. Even fully armed human regular army soldiers have to outnumber them three to one to win, not to mention the militia whose equipment and training levels are very poor. In the border areas, it is often the case that seven or eight orcs can massacre a village of hundreds of people.
To put it bluntly, the human race's advantages are reflected in the overall situation, but it often suffers losses in local small-scale conflicts.
There are currently no orcs in Laguge, but the information brought by Cyrus reminded Dick that he cannot only focus on the movements in the south and ignore the threats from the north.
The orcs’ comeback after seven years of silence is likely to be of great significance.
So Dick summoned Tia and asked her intelligence department to pay more attention to the northwest in the near future. At the same time, he prepared to inspect the fjord north of his home to strengthen the defense in this direction.
The next morning, Dick led three hundred private soldiers out of the city and headed for the new port in the fjord with supplies for the troops.
Thanks to the road construction over the past six months, and the fact that it was just the beginning of winter, the snow was not very deep and had not frozen hard, so the troops cleared the snow as they advanced. Although the marching speed was not fast, they still arrived at Xingang smoothly after two days and cleared the official road.
As soon as Dick arrived at the new port, he was immediately warmly welcomed by the three ship girls. Whether it was the big breasts of Niu Niu Kashino, or the octopus tentacles of Golden Deer and Royal Fortune, they all smeared his face with enthusiasm, making Dick almost unable to breathe.
"We are in public, everyone is watching, let go, let go."
"No, Commander, you have a great body, it's very comfortable to hug you... Oops, sorry, I accidentally got some slime on you..."
"Francis (Golden Deer's alias), don't just think about yourself, I want to hug the Commander too!"
"Hehe! My record is better than yours, so I should enjoy it first."
"You...quack! I'm going to fight you!"
Seeing that Royal Fortune was about to fight with Golden Deer, Dick hurriedly asked the two to stop arguing, saying that he would stay here for several days and everyone would have plenty of time to get along with each other.
This time when Dick came, he was accompanied by Befa and Ding'an, and all five ship girls with naval combat capabilities came.
Dick asked the Golden Deer if there had been any unusual conditions at sea recently, especially in the north, as the ocean currents this season happened to be from north to south.
After hearing this, Jin Lu thought about it and it seemed that she had indeed seen some small sailboats coming from the back in the distance when she was patrolling near the coast. However, Jin Lu did not get closer to observe because those ships gave off a strange aura that made her feel very uncomfortable. For some reason, she was unwilling to get close.
Dick immediately realized that this was some kind of spell with a dispelling effect.
As an octopus ship girl, the Golden Deer has some "sea monster" attributes, which allows her to communicate with marine life, but she will also be affected by certain magic targeting sea monsters. Some ocean-going ships, in order to ensure safe sailing, will spend a lot of money to buy magic tools that can drive away sea monsters.
After learning this, Dick became more and more convinced that his inference was correct.
At night, Dick stayed in New Port. Although the living conditions here were not as good as those in the castle, the dormitory that Dick had built for the ship girl was of high standard and had a special large bathroom.
The three ship girls' record of clearing out pirates is obvious to all, so it is considered natural for them to enjoy better benefits, and no one dares to question it.
Everyone was simply curious about where the Governor found such a beautiful and capable female magician.
In the steam-filled bathroom, the Golden Deer's tentacles entangled Dick and himself together. The body fluids secreted by the tentacles made both of them slippery and glowed with a crystal clear light.
The lustful octopus girl had impure intentions from the very beginning. From time to time, one or two sweet moans leaked out from between her lips as she entangled her tongues. The greasy feeling brought by the lubricant also provided a brand new experience for the caress after getting used to it.
Can’t catch it! Can’t catch it at all! The heavy fruit is like a pudding. You can hold it up and feel the weight of it, but if you squeeze it lightly, it will slip away mischievously!
"Commander, your hands are so gentle! Do you like these two big treasures of mine so much?"
“I like it. I like it very much!”
Dick's answer was so firm and honest that Jin Lu was overjoyed. She fell in love with Dick at first sight and decided that he was her destined and only commander. What she had to do now was to give him a mark of loyalty.
"Hehe~ Come on, Commander, no matter what your desire is, I can accept it~?"
The Golden Deer's body sank slightly, and Dick suddenly felt clearly that he had entered a crowded and slippery place. The lubricant made the whole process extremely smooth.
To describe it in one word, it is...silky!
"Is it good? How is everyone?"
Jin Lu's eyes were blurry, and his low and slightly trembling voice was very alluring.
"Excellent!"
Hearing Dick's praise, Golden Deer became more and more overjoyed, allowing the pleasure and joy to overturn and swallow her small boat like a surging wave.
And on her abdomen, a rune exactly the same as Hongye's appeared...
