Munitions Empire

"I'm not some sort of lord; I'm just an electrician responsible for installing lights and sockets in your village." He pointed to the socket box on the wall and explained, "Don't call me a lord. If others hear it, they'll laugh at me."

In Fengjiang, he was just an ordinary citizen, working daily to maintain electrical facilities. Now, he's on a business trip with a substantial travel allowance, living quite comfortably.

However, there is indeed a significant gap between him and the so-called lord: Above him is the team leader, then there's the captain, chief captain... the head of the chief captain is the director of the power company, and above that, the deputy director and the director.

In his opinion, the director of the electric power bureau was already quite high, but he knew that even his director couldn't get a front-row seat at Fengjiang city government meetings.

The ones sitting on the podium, those might be the ones qualified to be called lords, right? But in the Great Tang, it's not popular to call someone a lord; people just use the title directly.

For example, they call someone mayor, district governor, and so on. In factories, there's the factory director, in railroad sections, there's the section head. In short, very few people are called lord, and this title made the electrician in front of me quite uncomfortable.

"Also, those Orcs and Goblins repairing the road outside are all slaves, and they're afraid to cause trouble. If they dare to leave their station at night, they are fleeing, which is a big deal." After clarifying that he wasn't a lord, the electrician continued to explain to the woman.

He was very familiar with those Orcs; two or three years ago, during the construction of Fengjiang's power lines, there were Orc labor slaves helping out.

These laborers were very timid; they didn't dare to speak loudly to humans and were obedient to any human's request. Quite a few Orc Cat-girls followed these labor teams and did service-type jobs... earning money from humans.

Honestly, compared to serving Orcs, making money from humans was much easier. The Orc Cat-girls, already quite attractive, could easily get tips from overseers or other humans in the camp.

They had no choice; these people rarely went home, and they also had these kinds of needs. Anyway, Cat-girls inherently had "reproductive isolation," so they paid without much concern.

Of course, there were scarcely any Cat-girls in such poor areas; they had already learned the pattern and knew where it was easiest to make money.

Generally, these Cat-girls would gather on the outskirts of the core regions of the Great Tang Empire, where there were many jobs and opportunities to make money, and many inexperienced people. Going further out, the area was too poor to afford any spending; going further in, the economy was so developed that the men didn't pursue that kind of entertainment much anymore.

There were all kinds of clubs there, and places to squander money, where a single dish in a restaurant cost more than what these Cat-eared Girls made from selling themselves. They wouldn't dare go to such terrifying places to cause trouble.

"Don't worry, there's no problem." The electrician was very certain that the Orcs and Goblins camping outside were very safe, so he reassured the woman.

Even though he didn't know the rules, he had interacted with those Goblins and Orcs before, and indeed, they were "inferior."

That was the true submission. If those Orcs called him lord, he would truly accept it calmly: during construction, any of his requests were met with nods of agreement, with no refusal at all...

Actually, the electrician didn't know that the Great Tang Empire managed these slave laborers who might cause social instability with terrifying strictness.

Tang Mo wasn't about to talk about humanity or charity with these Orcs and Goblins. Apart from providing adequate food and some extra supplies, he never pitied these laborers.

According to management methods used since the Shen Wuxiong era, laborers separating from the team were treated as fugitives, to be executed without mercy! If one laborer escaped, the whole team bore the consequences; if a laborer harmed others, they compensated a hundredfold.

In plain terms, it was about killing, killing ten times, a hundred times! So the slaves had already learned to supervise each other, and if anyone had bad intentions, the laborers themselves would make sure to eliminate the person: after all, misbehavior during internal disputes would lead to penalties of twenty lashes and a hundred days of labor.

Under such a harsh system, laborers lived in constant fear, so it was impossible for them to cause any trouble. Just kidding, if they worked honestly, after ten years, they could enjoy on the islands, who would be foolish enough to cause trouble?

Moreover, even if heads rolled, the Great Tang Empire could receive almost unlimited slaves from the Orc Empire, making individual laborers incredibly cheap. Loss? It was non-existent.

Therefore, on both sides of the road at the village entrance, beneath the newly packed roadbed, in the tents, the Orcs were sharing their food.

The lunch box smelled of instant noodle seasoning, and their hands clutched hot dogs wrapped in red plastic casing—the Orcs' meals were not great, but certainly not bad.

They were eating happily, because tomorrow they would connect the road to the camp where the troops were stationed. Once they got there, things would be better: the army lords would provide them with hot meals.

That was food better than instant noodles, and if lucky, they might even taste pork or beef. There'd be warm soup and fluffy, glutinous rice... absolutely delicious!

Just thinking about these things made the Orcs drool. The humans treated them so well, providing food and clothing, and if they did well, they could even be promoted to a small leader. Fairness, transparency, better than the Orc Empire by a hundred times.

How could they cause trouble in such a place? Just kidding... Such good days, they wouldn't trade them for a priest's position in an Orc village, right?

Moreover, deep down, they were afraid of those humans. Because the whole management of the Orc labor team was handled by a human. At a single command, countless Orc heads would roll.

The blood of those Orcs who couldn't resist temptation and caused trouble would be spilled on the roads, their heads stacked into mounds, their bodies turned into fertilizer... and their souls... cursed eternally! This was not said by the Tang People, but by their Orcs' High Priest and Great Shaman leaders. Before they came, these people would remind them repeatedly, using the most vicious curses to frighten the Orcs who were planning to work in the Great Tang as laborers.

If it wasn't for the good food, plentiful rest, and comfortable clothing... the Orcs might really think they were here to do hard labor.

However, after coming to the Great Tang Empire, they found out that apart from being inferior, they just needed to work to keep living. This treatment was something they couldn't enjoy back in the Orc Empire.

Therefore... so be it if they're slaves, so be it if they're laborers... it doesn't matter.