Even in a world where transportation and communication are extremely advanced, it is very difficult to make accurate demographic figures.

On the continent of Sainz, it is even more impossible to know the exact population number of a map.

However, even if you don't need to do precise statistics, you can see that Stratholm City and the surrounding area are extremely sparsely populated.

As far as the eye can see, in the surrounding wilderness, except for the city of Stratholme, where a little outline can be seen in the distance, it looks like an inhabited place, and it is probably just two small villages not far from the city of Stratholme.

According to the number provided by Count Josius Hus, the lord of Stratholme City, it can be known that the total number of people of the Maro Empire under Stratholme is about 50,000, which is even worse than the original Bonta City.

However, the city of Stratholme was already the largest city in the northern coastal region of the Maro Empire, and it was also the most populous.

Even the city of Stratholm has only 50,000 people, and the rest of the city is even more scarce.

"Lord Baron, according to the plan, after the successful establishment of this base, the total number of workers required for each factory will exceed 200,000. However, the total number of people in the establishment of Strasom is only 50,000, and many of them are old, weak, sick and disabled who are unable to participate in the work at all, and cannot meet the needs at all. Hogan said helplessly.

"Hmm...... This is indeed a very serious question. Franklin touched his chin, which had just grown a soft fluffy beard, thought for a moment, and continued, "But this problem is not so difficult to solve. It's entirely possible to open up for calls from within the Empire. I think as long as you know that there are good jobs here that can earn a lot of gold coins a month. There will definitely be a lot of people who will want to come. ”

"Not necessarily. Hogg shook his head. "The environment here is really far from the hinterland. Especially in winter, the temperatures are simply unbearable. Although our Chamber of Commerce has made all the preparations, it is not enough for everyone to rule out this concern. And the most critical question is...... This will make them far away from home, which is something that many people don't want to accept. ”

Franklin frowned: "That's right, for the people of the empire, staying in their hometown is more important than anything else, and no one wants to leave their hometown unless they have to." ”

Hogan coughed lightly: "This...... Lord Baron, of course, is not completely out of the question. It's up to you and the Marquis to make up our minds?"

Franklin looked at Hogan in surprise, blinked, and instantly understood what he meant.

"What? do you want us to help you forcibly relocate some people from within the Empire? It's very difficult......

"No, no, no...... I've never said that, don't get me wrong, Baron. Hogan waved his hand. "I mean, can you get through the connections between the Southgate family and the Macarus family, and buy some slaves to work as workers?"

"Slave?" Franklin was surprised. "Do you think these lowly guys are up to the complicated work in a factory?"

"Well...... In fact, when our chamber of commerce was first established, because of the shortage of manpower, many slaves were also used as workers. They may not be able to do complex work, but there is no problem in handing over some very ordinary, mechanical and repetitive work to them. Hogan explained.

"But slave ......," Franklin thought for a frown. Shake your head. "I'm afraid it still doesn't work. This is different now, because there have been no major wars on the continent for many years. There are fewer and fewer people who have become slaves, and even our family now has only more than a thousand slaves. If you want to meet the needs of the 200,000 people you mentioned, I'm afraid that the slaves of all the noble families related to our family will not be enough. ”

"Really?" that Hogan hadn't expected.

Originally, he thought that the Maro Empire, as one of the two major empires on the mainland, had a long history, and unlike the complete abolition of slavery in the Duchy of Stantin, the number of slaves owned by him must be a very large number.

But he didn't expect that even the slaves in the Marlo Empire have become very few now, and it is difficult to even get 200,000.

Hogan couldn't help but frown.

It is not difficult to build a base, but the most critical problem is to get the factories in this magical industrial base to start working smoothly.

If you want to start work, the most important thing is manpower.

If there is not enough manpower, then it is a qiē Hugh.

"Do you still have to invest more after all?" Hogan sighed in his heart.

When the plan for this magical industrial base was first designed, the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce certainly took into account the impact of the harsh environment here, so it had the idea of buying slaves to serve as workers.

But now Franklin said that there were not many slaves in the Marlo Empire, and besides, those nobles obviously did not transfer their privately owned slaves at will, so it was even more difficult to get them together.

If this plan doesn't work, the only way left is to invest more in the area and raise the wages of workers to attract more people to work here.

However, the environment here is too harsh, and if you want to be attractive enough for people to come and work here, you will obviously have to pay a very high salary.

When the plan was first formulated, the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce set a salary of about ten gold coins a month for the workers of several of its magical machinery factories.

It should be said that this standard has a strong attraction to the vast majority of civilians in the Maro Empire, but it is not so easy to attract people to the extremely cold north with ten gold coins.

Hogan roughly estimated in his mind, I'm afraid that this standard will be raised to at least fifteen gold coins.

The total number of workers to be recruited in this base is about 200,000, and if a worker spends an extra five gold coins a month, then 200,000 workers will spend an extra 1 million gold coins a month!

This has greatly increased the investment in this magical industrial base, and I am afraid that it is not the result that the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce and anyone else he has invested in this base are willing to see.

"That's right. Franklin slapped him hard. "Director Hogan, actually...... Slaves, of course, could not have come out of nowhere. But we can make it ourselves. ”

Hogan looked at him wonderingly, "Make it yourself?"

"Look. The appearance of the vast majority of slaves. In fact, they all came from the guò war. Because there have been no major wars on the continent for hundreds of years, there are fewer and fewer slaves......"

"Wait......" Hogan couldn't help but raise his hand to interrupt him. "Your Excellency, do you want us to go to war on our own initiative......? Are you kidding?"

Franklin laughed and shook his head: "It's too much of an exaggeration to start a war, but it's not a big deal to capture a few people as slaves." ”

"I don't understand what you mean. Hogan frowned and said, "Do you want us to take the initiative to attack other countries and capture some people from other countries as slaves?"

"No, no, if you take the initiative to attack other countries, then you are really starting a war. Although our Maro Empire is not afraid of any country on this continent, if we attack other countries without permission. I'm afraid that His Majesty the Emperor will not be able to protect us. ”

"Then what do you mean ......"

"Just because you can't attack other human nations doesn't mean you can't attack other races......" Franklin smiled meaningfully.

"Huh, other races?" Hogan was momentarily stunned.

"That's right. In fact, because of the harsh environment in the northern part of the empire, few of the people of the empire are willing to live here for a long time, so that it is sparsely populated. But it's a good place for those alien races who can't survive on our human soil. As far as I know, there are three orc tribes in the vicinity of Stratholme alone, and the total number of orcs is at least four thousand. ”

"Orcs?" Hogan was stunned. "Orcs here, too?"

As soon as the words came out, he couldn't help but laugh to himself.

This is just nonsense.

There is no doubt that the race with the largest number of people on the continent of Sainz is of course humans.

And the second largest race after humans. It's the orcs.

With scattered dwarves, elves are rarely seen. Unlike the dwarf race, which has almost become a legend, the orc race is the most common race on the continent of Sainz.

Even in many countries, the power of the orcs is still huge, and although it is impossible to suppress the human countries in turn, it is no problem to occupy a territory of their own.

Because the territory they occupy is a barren land that most humans don't look up to, and the orcs still maintain a fairly good force, as long as the orcs themselves don't cause trouble, human countries generally don't bother with it.

This is evident in the Kingdom of Lampari.

If you count it theoretically, most of the Black Rice Wasteland actually belongs to the Lampari Kingdom, and a small part belongs to the Sark Kingdom.

However, a large number of orcs have been entrenched in the Black Rice Wasteland, and the kingdoms of Lampari and Sark have not paid attention to it at all, allowing the orcs to live on it.

Of course, because of the emergence of the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce, most of the orc tribes in the Black Rice Wasteland began to cooperate with the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce and other human chambers of commerce, and basically integrated into the nearby human society, so that Hogan basically ignored the problems that existed on this continent.

The Maro Empire is one of the two major empires on the continent of Sainz, and it is certainly not uncommon for orcs to exist in the territory.

"Of course there are, and there are many. Franklin nodded in the affirmative. "Although there are no specific statistics, there are a lot of orcs living in the northern part of the empire, and even some people in the empire estimate that the total number of orcs here will even exceed one million, which is quite a huge number. ”

"More than a million?" Hogan was really frightened by the number this time.

Although there are many orcs in the Black Rice Wasteland, all of them add up to about 200,000, less than 300,000.

Unexpectedly, just in the northern part of the Maro Empire, there are more than a million orcs, which is really terrifying.

"Well, one of the largest orc tribes is said to have over 100,000 people. Think about it, if you could capture all these orcs and use them as slaves, wouldn't it solve the problem at once?" Franklin's words were full of temptation.

Hogan had seen too many orc workers in the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce, and he had no resistance to adopting the orcs, and he couldn't help but think about it when he heard it, thinking that this was indeed a good idea.

However, when he calmed down and saw Franklin's expectant expression, he thought for a moment and said, "It's a big deal, I need to ask the elder first." (To be continued......)