Vientiane Throne of Civilization

Chapter 1874 The Clever Goblin

Assembly work in a factory is not complicated, but it is high-intensity repetitive labor.

The demand for these daily necessities is very high, so there are requirements for production efficiency, and the workers must work quickly.

The experienced workers who can keep up with the speed of the assembly line have all developed muscle memory, and they also need to be physically fit to achieve such efficiency.

Goblins certainly don't have this kind of muscle memory, but they excel in hand-eye coordination and nimble movements.

At the same time, as soldiers, they had also undergone physical training, and after a period of repetitive work, their efficiency improved rapidly at a visible rate.

The workers on the same assembly line were all taken aback.

In the blink of an eye, it was lunch time.

The factories in Da Zhou were mostly clustered together, commonly known as factory areas. Each factory area usually had a large canteen with affordable prices, providing meals for the workers.

However, the goblin prisoners of war did not receive any income for their work, so they naturally did not enjoy the meals provided by the mess hall. Their food was distributed by someone else.

The standard meal consists of steamed buns, pickled vegetables, and a glass of water.

If it were prisoners of war from other races, they would not be able to get enough to eat and would be working while half-starved. This was precisely their purpose, to prevent the prisoners from being too full and having the energy to cause trouble.

However, goblins are different. They have small appetites. Among all the races in the Great Zhou, the elves have the smallest appetites, but the goblins have even smaller appetites. A few steamed buns and pickled vegetables are enough for them to fill their stomachs.

But that didn't stop them from sniffing and drooling as they watched the workers at the next table with their two dishes and a soup.

However, they didn't feel any resentment. They were all very clear-headed about their situation and knew that given their current circumstances, they were lucky to have anything to eat, let alone three meals a day.

From this perspective, these goblin prisoners of war are actually quite ideologically aware.

They have only one thought: as long as they can live, nothing else matters.

After listening to the reports from his subordinates and learning about the performance of the goblin prisoners of war, even Zhou Xu was a little surprised.

To some extent, these goblin prisoners of war were indeed intelligent; they did not do anything futile and knew how to do things in their own best interest.

The goblins' sensible behavior gave Zhou Xu more confidence in his plan to recruit them.

After all, these goblins weren't very loyal to their country, so their resistance to being incorporated into their ranks shouldn't be too strong.

Given this premise, and since they are all intelligent people, they should know that the most correct course of action is to honestly serve their Great Zhou.

Meanwhile, the captured goblin soldiers were already living a stable and surprisingly comfortable life of labor reform in the Great Zhou Dynasty.

This was something they hadn't expected; in their minds, prisoners of war generally didn't have a good life.

It's already a blessing if you're not whipped to death while working.

But in reality, they adapted to the factory assembly line work. They had three meals a day, including steamed buns and pickled vegetables, and they went home to sleep on time.

After a while, not only did no one whip them, but no one even bothered them, which surprised many of the goblin prisoners of war.

However, they mostly kept these thoughts to themselves and didn't reveal them. Meanwhile, in the goblin kingdom…

To ensure the exploration team was operating without incident and to monitor the progress of the exploration, the goblin exploration team would send someone back to report every so often.

However, some time has passed, and the exploration troops sent out have yet to send back any news, which has caused some anxiety for the goblin general stationed on the border.

This is undoubtedly a very bad situation for the rear.

The goblin general immediately reported this matter to the king.

To this end, the King convened a radio conference.

The meeting members held differing opinions and argued endlessly...

"The exploration team hasn't sent back any news. Sending more troops out is too risky. I disagree."

“Sending more troops would require additional funding, but the country is already out of money, so I don’t agree to it.”

"The problem now is that domestic resources are already very scarce, and we need more new resources! Just because we're holding onto this land, do we expect new resources to magically appear out of thin air?!"

"Didn't oil get discovered near the gnoll tribe's territory before? We can start extracting oil."

"That one resource point is simply not enough! Continuing to hold it is just waiting to die! We must find more resources to pull the kingdom out of this predicament!"

Listening to the arguments of his ministers, the goblin king felt a splitting headache.

Regarding the problem of resource scarcity within their goblin kingdom, the country is divided into conservatives and radicals.

The conservatives basically advocate continuing to exploit existing resources first. They argue that resource scarcity doesn't mean resources are exhausted, and there are still resources to be extracted internally, so there shouldn't be any major problems in the short term.

Your current aimless actions are not only failing to find new resources, but also needlessly increasing resource depletion and internal pressure. This is extremely unwise.

As for the radicals, if you're about to die, what's the point of even looking at the situation?!
We need to expand our territory and find new resources as soon as possible!
"That's what you said before, and what happened? You fought several battles with the elves, gained nothing, wasted a lot of resources, and lost many soldiers. Many soldiers' pensions still haven't been paid out! Where will you get the money to continue your expansion?!"

"We have to keep going even if we don't have the money! Not exploring means certain death, don't you understand?! The exploration team suddenly disappeared without a trace, which is very likely because there are other forces in this desert. Where there are forces, there are resources! Let's just send a large army in and seize them! Problem solved!"

After saying that, the goblin general seemed to remember something and couldn't help but add another sentence.

"Don't forget, we're a powerful nation too! Surely not every faction is as difficult to deal with as those elves!"

Conservatives and radicals each have their own reasons, and the goblin king is caught in the middle, finding himself in a difficult position.

But at the same time, he also knew that things had come to this point and he had to make a choice.

After much hesitation, the goblin king gritted his teeth and made a decision...

"open up!"

In the end, he still felt that the general was right. If things continued like this, they would really be facing death. Only by finding and acquiring new resources could their kingdom continue to exist!
(End of this chapter)