"Remember the story I told you?" asked Arthur.

    "My Lord, I remember."

    "There is no God in this world. At least there is no God who can convict and save people," Arthur said.

    "When we are faced with difficulties, it is foolish to ask God for help. At this time, we should ask ourselves what we can do and whether friends or neighbors can give us some help. Even if we ask strangers for help, it is much more useful than asking God for help."

    "Remember, Leah!" Arthur stressed, "We don''t believe in God when we go to the river to lead people. God doesn''t play any role here! If we can''t fill our stomachs, we cultivate more land. If we don''t have money, we try to earn it. When Warcraft strikes, we will unite as one! Everyone can''t escape death, and difficulties will always appear, but don''t dream of a savior or God. All we can rely on is ourselves and unity 。”

    "If the river leader really wants to believe in anything, it should not be God, but thousands of river leaders who have sacrificed their lives for the peace of this land since ancient times!"

    "I see, Lord Arthur," Leah said behind Arthur: "Just as you abolished the farm, gave the serfs freedom and let them work hard to reclaim the land and cultivate. These are not what God did, but what you did! And Mr. torio, you pardoned him and tried to reunite their family. It''s not God''s credit, but Lord Arthur''s credit!"

    What a simple silly girl. Arthur thought with a smile.

    ……

    After the discussion with Leah about God and sin, Arthur thought about the problems mentioned by torio earlier.

    The shortage of labor force is really a headache.

    The recovery of the iron mine solved the financial problem of lingfengbao.

    Abolishing farms, emancipating serfs and promoting intensive farming... The problem of grain can be basically solved in less than two months.

    But labor

    As a soul from a populous country who believes in the concept of many people and power, Arthur attached great importance to the population problem of Shanghe collar from the beginning.

    To liberate serfs and distribute land, in addition to increasing grain production, Arthur also wanted to make farmers have the ability to feed more children, so as to improve the birth rate and increase the population in the river.

    But the problem is: population is not exactly equal to labor.

    When newborns grow up, they can participate in social labor, at least more than ten years later.

    Therefore, in addition to encouraging fertility, Arthur sacrificed part of the interests of the iron mine in exchange for a large number of slaves to go to the river - slaves are ready-made labor.

    However, with the continuous progress of reform, the labor gap of Shanghe collar can no longer be met by buying slaves alone.

    Slaves are those who are convicted of felony or captured after defeat, and no one pays ransom for them.

    According to the statistics of the foreign trade bureau, lingfengbao has bought more than 400 slaves since the iron mine was recovered.

    This purchase of slaves is absolutely huge. If it can continue, the employment problem of Shanghe collar can be solved, but the problem is that the number of slaves transported by businessmen has begun to decline recently.

    This is a very bad situation!

    Many businessmen even proposed to replace the preferential treatment of slave trafficking with some other goods.

    Other goods?

    Arthur now only wants people except gold coins!

    He still has many plans to start, and many factories have not been established!

    In fact, without torio''s reflection, he had a headache for this matter a few days ago. However, he discussed with the two bachelors for a long time and couldn''t come up with any good way to quickly increase the labor force in Shanghe town.

    Arthur tapped his fingers on the table and thought about it. He just crossed his heart and shouted at the door, "Thorne!"

    Looking at Thorne who came in, before he could speak, Arthur directly ordered, "send someone to find Gustav and say I have something important for him to do!"

    "Yes, sir!" Thorne took orders.

    As Thorne left, Arthur continued to think about his population plan in his mind. At a good time, he could not stop the reform of Shanghe town anyway!

    ……

    ……

    Shanghe Town, in the Merchant Hotel.

    "You''re just in time! Boss pace!" seeing pace''s figure, the small mercenary immediately shouted at him.

    When he came to some of his men and looked at the food on the table, pace frowned and taught him, "the things here are not cheap. You guys had better not be too presumptuous. You should always leave some money to return the old woman of loreg, or she won''t sell us wine when you go back!"

    The little man smiled and said to pace: "So you''re just in time, boss! Elif didn''t know what good news he heard. He went to the foreign trade bureau with several businessmen just now. When I saw him happy, I yelled for his treat. Unexpectedly, the guy waved his hand and directly said that he had all the food and drink we had these days! Tell me, how can we miss such an opportunity!"

    "Good news, what good news?"

    "I don''t know. We can eat and drink. We''re too lazy to know the good things of elif. Boss, come and sit down!"

    Pace frowned and thought, then said, "no, I''m going to go out and have a look around. Since ARIF''s treat, you''ll let go and don''t save him money. I think that guy probably made a lot of gold coins this trip!"

    "Out again?!"

    The little man said puzzled: "I said, boss, what''s good about Shanghe town? Why do you always run outside? We might as well stay in this hotel, eat and eat, then go to the bathhouse to take a bath, then sleep comfortably, and have a good night with some women. Shit, I don''t know what the cook in this hotel thinks. He can make these food and leave here. Let''s go They can only eat cheese and dried meat again! "

    The other mercenaries shouted in agreement and asked pace to sit down and drink with them.

    "Anyway, it''s a treat. What''s the hurry? Just come back and eat later." with that, pace turned and left the hotel.

    Seeing that pace really left, the little man had to sit down, looked at several companions and said suspiciously, "Hey, what do you say the boss goes out to see and what''s good here!"

    The mercenary axe replied, "we don''t know what the boss thinks! Let''s drink here honestly. The Lord here is really enjoying it! It can''t be cheap. The boss told us not to save money for elif."

    Several mercenaries laughed and shouted loudly, grabbed the wine cup and began to eat and drink. For them, enjoyment is the most important thing.

    ……