It was a horn-hoofed kingship, similar to many of the other city-states on the northern plateau, and it did not have periphery or moats, but rather a natural transition between agriculture, suburbs, and cities;

Where Azra and his entourage are located today is in the outermost part of the agricultural area......

Endless fields occupy almost all areas of sight, and only in the far west can you see the scattered factories and the shadow of the city at the core.

Regardless of the factories and the city beyond, the fields alone were already dazzling to Azra......

When she was very young, she had also experienced the afterglow of the snake spirit clan's heyday, and she had also seen agricultural areas that were larger than those in front of her;

But at that time..... No, even the top three agricultural areas in the north today are in some ways not comparable to the places in front of them......

~~~~~~~~~

Two cars with dark green shells and a body full of the beauty of diamonds and threads are driving along the smooth and straight road one after the other, not too fast.

There were three passengers in the front car, with Alama and Azra sitting in the back, while the guide from the headquarters drove in the front.

Azra was leaning against the door, looking through the window into the depths of the road on either side of the road, where the big ones were roaring through the fields.......

"What's that? Seems to be harvesting crops? The leader of the snake spirit asked.

"The front row is a 'harvesting and threshing machine,' and the back is a 'transportation machine,'" the guide in the front row casually explained.

"The city-state has almost universally adopted 'field driving tools', and now it only takes two or three horns to complete the operation of large fields in a day."

"The early planting...."

"The same is true, including planting, irrigation, fertilization, weeding, insect control and other processes, most of which are handled by full-time 'tools', and the rest of the rough processing and finishing are also the same."

Azra was incredulous at this answer, and when he looked at this place and thought about the difficult state of production and life in his camp, his heart suddenly had mixed feelings and could not help himself.

She knew the erect creatures in the field......

In the past, even when the snake spirit clan was lonely, there were actually many subordinate tribes in the territory, including this group called the 'horned hoof' by the elves.

In her mind, they were weak, but diligent and honest, and had good fertility;

Therefore, whether in the eyes of the Serpent Spirit Clan, or in the eyes of the rest of the first- and second-class forces, these guys are qualified laborers and excellent slaves;

When the big forces need to trade with each other, but they can't find a suitable equivalent, it is not uncommon for subordinate tribes such as the 'horned hoof' to occasionally act as a 'currency', and it is not uncommon for hundreds of thousands or tens of thousands of dollars to be exchanged.

But here, not only do they live a normal life, but they also seem to have the technical ability to make the northern powers feel ashamed.

Instinctively, she confused the huge difference between the 'elves' and the 'hornhoof', and couldn't help but see them as a whole.

At the moment, Azra subconsciously believes that the so-called 'kingdom' in the mouth of the elves should be a model of multi-racial cohabitation......

For example, the elves with strong individual strength but fertility difficulties act as the absolute ruling class, while fertile races such as the hornhoes act as laborers;

Compared with the north, this is actually a change of soup and no medicine, at best, there is less of a 'slave' label, and now this situation is only a false harmony supported by strong productive forces, and the latter still has to serve the former unconditionally.

Moreover, what she saw was already the limit of what she imagined to be 'advanced', and Azra did not think that there could be a more advanced and completely elven kingdom in this world.......

Therefore, she sighed at this time,

"Is this the kingdom of the elves? No wonder you call yourself the 'darling of the world', your technology is the envy of the snake......"

But this 'escape' and taking it for granted is interrupted by Alama who is playing with the sharp tail of the beautiful female snake......

"Haha, you're wrong, this is not our country~"

"Yes, strictly speaking, this is a vassal city-state attached to the Republic, it has an independent administrative system, maintains a fairly high level of autonomy, and is only supervised and maintained by us in terms of law and security, and everything else is carried out on the principle of 'equivalent exchange'."

Mr. 'Driver', who was driving, echoed the words.

"Autonomy? Independent administration? Exchange? What about the elves, what do you get? ”

"This is a bit complicated, let me explain it to you slowly along the way......"

Next, the driver pointed to the field outside and said,

"The farms you see are run by a horn-hoofed farmer, and the large machines are production tools from the Elven Realm;"

"After buying these tools, the farmer does not have to go to the field himself, only needs to hire some labor, and can easily and efficiently complete the harvest, and then only need to pay taxes to the city-state, and the rest of the grain will be their private property;"

"And so much food is not something that a city-state can digest, so it will sell food to non-agricultural city-states in exchange for its characteristic output;"

"In the process, the farmers acquire a large amount of private property, and they have the money to enjoy a luxurious life, thus creating more demand for luxury goods;"

"A larger number of workers who receive income also have the money to buy necessities to support their families;"

"The city-state that receives taxes can repair the city and concentrate on purchasing supplies."

"When nearly 100 such city-states form trade routes, they can benefit more industries and feed more people, and what our elves have gained is the smiling faces in the process."

When the guide's last words fell, Azra, who was immersed in the narration, suddenly felt the tip of his tail clenched a little;

She turned her head to look in confusion, and saw Azra's face, which was already purple, but for some reason it was a little purple.....

"What's wrong with you?"

"Ahem.... No, I just choked on the spit....."

In the nonchalant 'staring' of the government guide, Alama shook his head and said that it was completely fine, so Azra's gaze turned back to the guide in the front row and asked his doubts,

"Can you tell me about the farmer and the hired laborers?"

"Of course.....

"The city-state we are going to now has more than 300,000 inhabitants, and naturally it is impossible for all of them to be rich, among them are wealthy aristocrats, farmers, factory owners, shopkeepers, and there are also ordinary horned hoofs who rely on work to eat.

"The former holds a great deal of wealth and goods, while the latter is paid for his labor."

"The former is also strong, right? Will the strong be willing to pay the weak? Why not use it as a slave? ”

"First, the most fundamental reason is that slaves are forbidden here, whether it is the country of elves or the affiliated city-states, there is no such thing as slaves."

"Second, it has been proven that the use of slaves is not necessarily efficient, and that there is generally more to be gained by employing free labour;"

"It is a bit of a shame to say that although the republic forbids slavery on the basis of the idea of 'equality among intelligent beings,' it can really be implemented because of profit and pressure from us."

"I see."

Azra understood, but she was also at a loss for the elves' choice, because it was completely different from the world she knew, both in terms of production methods and population relations.....

In any case, she had the impression that 'agriculture' would either rely on the abundant low-end labor of the slave tribe to obtain the harvest, as she had seen when she was a child, or it would be like the current serpent spirit camp, sowing some seeds and relying on the sky for food.

Indeed, the first- and second-tier powerhouses in the north have an innumerable amount of free labor like grit and food that can never be eaten, so who would think of working on magic and machinery?

After all, they themselves are almost never engaged in such productive activities.

And look at the backward inferior tribes......

The people in power do not have the heart to improve, because the extra food output will not actually change their lives and power;

The real laborers, on the other hand, have neither the energy nor the knowledge to improve;

In this way, the 'immutable' in the north that has lasted for hundreds of thousands of years has been formed.....

Perhaps, these self-proclaimed 'darlings of the world' are really suitable to dominate the entire continent?

~~~~~~~~

As we talked, large fields gradually disappeared on both sides of the road, replaced by small factories and several courtyards where various 'machinery' were parked.

In the oncoming wind, the snake spirit smelled the peculiar smell of the herd of beasts and heard the strange sound of roaring, so she turned her head to look out, and saw the houses and courtyards, and saw strange symbols.....

"Are those words?"

"That's right, it's the words of the hornhoof." The guide replied.

"It's not the same as I remember....."

"Well, it's the new phonetic characters they created in imitation of the elven pinyin, and it seems that the previous characters are too backward?"

What Azra didn't see at this time was that the face of Alama next door, which was blocked by his tail, once again appeared with an embarrassed smile......

'This guy is really a lie, just open his mouth.....

"What's written on it?"

"Alama, don't you give your snake spirit friend a thought? Stop playing, be careful I tell you captain~"

"I'll take a look....."

Reluctantly, Alama pressed his weight on the cold body of the leader of the snake spirit, looked out from the window on the other side, and read,

"Royal Farm..... Royal Woollen Mill ....... And the ..... over there. Oh, that's the parking lot where the farm machinery is damaged, and every once in a while a railcar comes and pulls it away. ”

As she spoke, her eyes inadvertently swept diagonally in front of her, and she noticed that at the end of the road, there were more than a dozen gorgeously dressed hornhoofs, who were waiting with the chin of a taller hornhoof.

"Achim, look ahead." (Elvish)

"I'm not blind, I've seen it a long time ago...... What a bunch of nasty guys, who said don't bother... I'm worried about whether their attitude will make the snake feel uncomfortable, after all, the horn-hoofed species are scared by us..."

"It's okay, that doesn't affect the outcome of the deep suggestion..... At least that's what the witch doctors say. (Fine)

"That's fine, I'll deal with it later, you and the lady will wait in the car for a while." (fine)

"No problem, leave it to me." (fine)

As Azra did not understand, the two cars approached the group in front of them, and then they heard the salute coming from the side of the road......

"Samar Boyinx, with all the nobles of the city-state, have seen the wise elven envoy!"

Achimsta reluctantly stopped, shook his head, and got out of the car after smiling a gentle enough smile.......

】

"King Boyinx, the Ministry of Princes should have informed you, you don't have to pay attention to us."

"You're laughing.... Since the noble elves have come to our state, we must pay the highest respect, otherwise how can we show our obedience. ”

~~~~~~~

"Who's that?"

Azra and Alama were already quite familiar, so it was natural for them to ask in a low voice,

"The king of this city-state, and the nobles of his subordinates."

"King? Inferior ......"

Swallowing the words that he was about to say, Azra brushed her hair in disguise and asked in a low voice again,

"What are they talking about?"

"Let me hear it...... Seems like some crap, oh oh..... This guy wants to boost this year's trading volume..... also complained about the bad words of the city-state next door...... That's about it. ”

"Deal? Will elves buy things in the states? Or is it the kind of deal that pays the price? ”

"Of course you have to buy grain, meat, cloth, raw materials, and sell some machinery to them... Like those farm machines just now,"

Habitually withdrawing back the braid that Azra was holding in his hand, and pointing with it to the heavy vehicles not far away, behind the horned hoof,

"And.... You see, over there, those vehicles are also our products, in addition to roads, tracks, rail locomotives, construction equipment, etc., as for the cost....."

Returning the braid back to its 'place' and flicking it in the palm of his hand, Alama continued,

"Whether it is a transaction between city-states or a transaction with the suzerain, it needs to use 'special equivalents', just as your northern tribes will exchange precious metals for goods, and we also have a 'credit currency' system here."

Alama pointed to the machinery in the field in the distance, and the off-road convoy that had just arrived, and said,

"They use 'credit coins' to obtain our specialties, and we also use 'credit coins' in exchange for the materials we need, and there are exchanges in order to build a fairly stable social structure."

As she spoke, she pulled out a brick-sized device from her backpack, pressed a few buttons on it, and motioned to Azra to look at the numbers displayed on it.

"Look, I'm a rich elf, too....."

"These symbols?"

"By the way, you don't use elven characters...... This is the number, and this circle represents 0........."

After explaining for a long time, Alama finally expressed the concept of 'I am a rich man', although there are no poor elves in the Black Forest......

~~~~~~~~

"King Boyinsta, although the affairs of trade volume are not within my purview, for the sake of your enthusiasm, I will reveal a little bit of information....."

"You say! You say, "My state will never remember your kindness!" ”

"Ha, there is no need to mention whether it is a favor or not, after all, this is a good thing for both sides."

"You're talking about ....."

"The next ten years.... No, it can't be said that in twenty or thirty years, or even longer, grain, fruits and vegetables, meat, woolen fabrics, minerals, these will be the materials that the Republic will have to double the purchase, especially food, which you can start preparing from now. ”

"Okay, Xiao Wang has written it down!"

"What do you see? I still have foreign guests to entertain here, let's talk later? ”

"Snake Spirit ......"

Samar glanced at Azra in the car, a slight hint of hatred and disdain flashing in his eyes;

As a noble species that has been inherited since the Tulum era, he understands that this group of snake spirits was not a good thing back then, and in the suffering suffered by the horned hoof species in history, there is also their 'contribution'.

But......

"Okay, since he is the honored guest of the sect master, Xiao Wang will not delay." He stroked his chest and bowed, "Samar will retire first, hoping that the envoy will have a good journey." ”

"Haha, you're polite, then we'll see you again."

After that, Samar bowed slightly to the other five elven warriors in the front and rear cars, and led a dozen city-state nobles who had not even interjected to leave in a hurry......

~~~~~~~

"Achim, how can you leak the news to him without permission?"

The captain of the warrior squad did not get out of the car, but his voice rang in his ears.

"You guy..... Don't worry, that's what I'm going to convey to the city-states recently. ”

The captain also got out of the car at this time, walked to Achim's side and frowned and asked,

"Doubling the purchase of basic materials..... What's wrong with the headquarters? Is it preparing for war? ”

"War? How do I know this kind of thing, you should know better, right? ”

"Also, then?"

"It's a problem, but the source is good news, so it's painful and happy...."

"What's going on, tell me? Provided, of course, that there is no violation of confidentiality. ”

"There's nothing I can't say, but my tongue hurts when the hellish snake spirit whispers along the way..... In fact, this problem has been looming in recent years....."

Achim leaned against the edge of the car and whispered with a slight groan,

"Think about it, we now have 350,000 citizens, but in addition to the 70,000 prime-aged people who have been directly transformed from trolls like you and me, there are only 30,000 'physiological prime', that is, compatriots over 30 years old."

"Although in terms of time and ability, the counting of 'labor' can be counted from the age of 15 after graduating from the Central School, but only 110,000 elves have entered society;"

"Moreover, half of them are researchers, a small half are military and civil employees, and there are very few production units that are actually on the front line;"

"The rest are the 60,000 3-year-olds, 80,000 4-year-olds, 20,000 8-year-olds, and 80,000 13-year-olds.......

"The production side may be fine, after all, efficiency is there to support it, but education and other aspects have already begun to be tightened...... And what about the next 10 or 20 years? ”

"I see.... Is the fast-about increase putting pressure on the ruling government? ”

"Isn't it? In the 90th year of the rune calendar, there were only six mother trees, and the number of mouths increased by only 250,000 per decade, of which No. 4 was produced for the first time the year before last, and 60,000 were produced at one time, and No. 5 and No. 6 will also usher in their first production next year and the year after tomorrow, which is another 90,000 little guys; ”

"After that, the 10 plants added in the rune calendar in '92 and the 13 plants added in '94 will also be produced for the first time in four or five years, which is 1.28 million children's ......."

"And in the past five years from 95 to this year, it is even more exaggerated, and there are 94 more plants all of a sudden, what kind of concept do you think this is?"

“..... The addition of only 160,000 in 90 to this year will skyrocket to 7.5 million in 100 to 109? It means that we will use less than 400,000 mouths to support the needs of more than 10 million teenagers and young students in all aspects in the next 15 years....."

"Yes, eating, dressing, playing, educating ..... This all requires resources, and fortunately, they are born as teenagers, so they don't have to be raised from the infant stage like we did back then. ”

"It doesn't seem like an easy thing to do......."

"It's not 'seeming', it's certainly not easy, so we have to transfer some unskilled production activities to the city-state on a large scale. We will focus on the automated production line ourselves, and then tilt the social forces towards education in an all-round way...... I estimate that before the first batch of elves born in the tide graduate, it is estimated that even people like you and me will have to work part-time as playmates and teachers for a period of time....."

"Babysitting!? I can't! The captain's serious face showed a rare show of nervousness, and he made random thoughts,

"It should all be militarized! Squad leaders, squadron leaders, and group captains are under control at all levels, and let them manage themselves at the grassroots level! Arrange a small number of middle-aged soldiers, teachers or something...... Isn't that great? Anyway, they are teenagers as soon as they are born, and this should be fine! ”

"You bastard, what's your idea? It's a shame that you think about it, don't talk nonsense in this department? ”

'Winter, winter, winter! ’

There was a knock on the window from behind him, and then Alama impatiently urged,

"Whether you can go or not!"

"Let's go, let's go."

With a greeting, the guide turned his head and explained to the captain,

"You'll go straight into the city later, you remember to keep up."

"Understood."

The two elves both returned to the car, and the group set off again, and then they slowly left the countryside and drove into the suburbs, and the core of the city-state began to be clearly visible.......

~~~~~~~~

On the road from then on, the number of chariots and hooves increased, and as they entered the city, they could even occasionally see foreigners from the rest of the city-states, seemingly sojourners or traders of long distances.

The people in the car are looking out, and the people outside the car are also looking inward, although everyone knows that there is a suzerain above their heads, but they can't often see it because of the number of problems and the problem of social circles;

Therefore, at this time, when the team of six elves and one snake spirit entered the city, it immediately attracted a series of curious eyes......

On both sides of the street, there are several storeys of concrete buildings, although they are not very beautiful, but the height of five or six floors, the full of shops below, and the well-dressed people on the street, once again opened Azra's eyes, but also bred jealousy in her heart.

"Rest assured, Azra, as long as you are willing to come, then the future snake spirit clan will also be qualified to live such a life."

"That's right, if you bring the snake spirit clan with you, you will naturally get the same treatment, and live in safety and peace under the protection of the Republic;"

"And with our funding, the Serpent Spirit will have a well-equipped city-state, a large number of auxiliary machinery, and the corresponding use of technology, and your people will not only live safely, but also richly."

Whether it was what the guide described or what he witnessed at this time, Azra felt heartbroken........

After all, even those lowly people on the street can live such a life, so why can't the snake spirit clan?

~~~~~~~

Northern Continent: Menglu King City

The Protector's massive body woke up slightly, and it felt a slight sense of confusion.....

In the past ten years, the regular brute beasts, which have not seen any major movements for many years, seem to have become somewhat active, and even in its 'sleep', it still feels no less than dozens of short but fierce battles.

Also, the sky seems to be getting a little noisy......

Some special 'exceptions', in addition to the original source, have dozens of more origins, making a mess of the already disordered 'truth';

All this affected its 'slumber', and the golden statue trembled slightly, savoring it.....

It found that some of them seemed to be regular, while others were chaotic;

The former is the focus of attention, and they are conveying a kind of ....... that they don't know in a strange way Information?

And its destination seems to be far south.....

The south of the kingdom? No, not where the chaos continues, but further south, even further south than the walls of the continent.