Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 485 Population Explosion

After the second captured red lizard man sacrificed his life, a thick new experimental report was added to Harvey's desk.

The dozens of pages of damage test reports recorded in detail the degree of the demon lizardmen's response to attacks other than magical weapons - and as Harvey expected, their skin was also immune to divine attacks!

But probably because of the significant difference in physiological structure between them and humans, the damage feedback they receive when facing plague, toxins, and mental attacks is minimal. Currently, it seems that only freezing and anesthesia can have a certain effect.

This forced Harvey to abandon the "biochemical weapons" research and development plan in his mind and turn his attention to their unique black water weapon - this liquid weapon is transformed from the human fluids of the red lizards. Although the composition is unknown... it is absolutely certain that it has highly flammable properties, to put it bluntly, it is "weak fire."

As long as the battlefield is not located in the icy sea, Harvey is confident that he can develop thermal weapons that can achieve large-scale flame burning effects - such as incendiary bombs, which would be a good choice to deal with the Demon Lizard Tribe.

……

The short summer in the North soon came to an end, and with the arrival of autumn, the population growth of Spark City ushered in another explosive peak.

With the fall of the old royal capital, Fengyuan City, Grizzly Castle, Silver Pine City, Black Mountain Port, Sancha Town and other top cities in the country changed hands one after another, and 70% of the territory of the Principality of Saint Valen was brought under Harvey's actual control.

These towns, which had just experienced brutal wars, had undergone tremendous changes in their structure - the nobles, under coercion and inducement, voluntarily surrendered their fiefdoms in order to protect themselves, while the poor tenant farmers who had been working the land honestly had most of their fields burned down due to the war, or were wantonly trampled by nobles from neighboring countries who took the opportunity to plunder. They saw their whole year's hard work go to waste, and even before the cold winter came, they fell into a miserable situation of hunger and poverty.

The effectiveness of the refugee recruitment that Harvey sent to the two southeastern regions immediately doubled - compared to the previous situation where the secret police went secretly to various places to recruit, the city hall now set up subordinate municipal departments in almost all cities with larger populations, and began to recruit fresh labor openly.

Sancha Town, which was originally just a river transit port, has nearly a thousand refugees gathering from the southeast every week, waiting for the northbound ships to take them to the recruitment propaganda... Spark City, where everyone can have comfortable housing and stable jobs, and live a rich and stable life.

In order to prevent accidents from happening to the refugees before they arrived in the north, the city hall also dispatched an engineering team from the Ministry of Construction to Sancha Town. In a very short period of time, they expanded the port town, which originally had a population of over a thousand, by half. They set up a relief canteen and a free medical station, and built a large number of stone brick barracks for the temporary accommodation of refugees. In this way, even in the cold winter, there is no need to worry about the refugees stranded here suffering from cold and hunger.

After the opening of the Shenji Mountain Tunnel, Jackdaw Ridge, which is less than five hours away from Xinghuo City, naturally became the busiest checkpoint before entering the northern border. The City Hall and the Police Department dispatched almost 30% of their personnel and police force to maintain order and security at Jackdaw Ridge, a "border port", to ensure that everyone who boarded the train to Xinghuo City had completed background inspection and identity registration.

The officials in charge of population management in Xinghuo City divided the refugees who came from all over the country into detailed categories, and then arranged them in three temporary shelters in the east, west and south outside the city.

Although Reiner, as the mayor, has been working almost 24 hours a day, the City Hall, which has always been short of staff, is still extremely busy and in chaos - this is entirely due to the fact that Harvey's southern border operation plan was implemented too quickly. Nearly half of the staff were withdrawn from the City Hall alone and sent to various places in the south to establish lower-level municipal management departments.

"A telegram has arrived! In half an hour... a group of refugees from the Southern Territory will arrive at the Central Station. There are about 500 of them, from around Silverpine City!"

"Ahhh! Silverpine City again! How come they've recruited so many refugees there?"

"Tsk! Those lousy nobles of Silverpine City... They'd rather surrender their land and send tons of jewelry and valuables to our Lord Lord as tribute, than give the damp grain from their warehouses to help the people. Most of the farmland over there has been destroyed by war, and the locals can't even make ends meet!" "Pah! They should really be shown those foolish nobles of the Old Capital hanging on the gallows, so they can reflect on themselves!"

"Shh... stop talking! There's no need to kill an obedient dog and eat its meat right away. Let's go get a car outside the city!"

"What bad luck! I'm assigned to Sancha Town next week, responsible for the transfer of people! This is my first time in the southern border... I heard that the towns over there don't even have sewers, and filthy water is flowing everywhere... The houses don't have running water, heating or lighting. I really don't know how I'm going to survive!"

"Hehe, you have to go through this. This way, your boss will have a good impression of you during the year-end review. Stop complaining... Remember to bring some extra cigarettes and soap. You can't get those goodies in the South."

Sitting in the general manager's office on the second floor, Reiner was able to relax for a rare moment. The alchemical life's keen hearing allowed him to hear the various noisy conversations downstairs, and he could accurately figure out who was speaking them - since the city hall was built and restructured, there has been no chance for it to be idle for a moment.

But recent events have made Reiner, who thought he was already qualified for the position of city manager, feel a little anxious and impatient.

With the massive recruitment of refugees, the city of Spark City suddenly saw a surge in the number of foreign population in late summer... This uncontrolled influx of foreigners naturally led to frequent security problems and a sharp rise in crime rates.

Even the usually calm and capable Chief of Police, Yurio, who had just been promoted to Deputy Minister of Justice, had his shiny black hair turn slightly gray at the temples in less than a month. Remember, he just turned thirty and hasn't even officially started a family yet!
……

"Mr. Manager, I didn't want to ask you for anything during such a busy time at City Hall..."

Even when Yurio was incredibly busy, he always maintained a straight back and a radiant demeanor, his police superintendent uniform pristine and impeccable. But the first thing he said was what Reiner hated to hear: "The refugee camp outside the city is desperately short-staffed. I applied for two hundred emergency trainee officers a week ago, but you rejected my request without even looking at it... I had no choice but to come and ask for more manpower myself."

Reiner leaned over his desk, holding a pen and quickly drafting a document without even raising his head. The mechanical tentacles hanging from his spine silently stretched out of his robe, pulled out a document from the bookshelf behind him, and handed it directly to Yurio who was sitting opposite him.

"It's not that I'm deliberately ignoring the Police Department's requirements, but the recruits must be locals, with a clean background and reliable character, and the age limit is between 20 and 40... As you know, people with these qualifications are highly sought after by the military and various factories in Xinghuo City. When it comes to your side... how can we have any extra personnel to assign?"

Yurio raised an eyebrow. Facing the most powerful figure under the city lord, he showed no fear or perfunctory attitude. "But the security problem in the internment zone cannot be delayed. If it is not curbed immediately, it will soon spread to the city... When the city lord is held accountable, we will all be held responsible!"

As soon as he said these words with implicit threats, Reiner, whose emotional perception had gradually subsided, suddenly became angry. He finally raised his head and stared at the other person quietly for a few seconds with the soul fire in his eyes dancing.

"Superintendent, threatening me won't solve the problem," Reiner explained calmly. "Unless you change the recruitment requirements set by the City Lord himself... there's nothing I can do."

Yurio, ready to force him to say this himself, quickly softened his stance and politely suggested, "I have a solution... How about we propose to the city lord that we bring in alchemical artifacts to work with the police department to manage city security?"

(End of this chapter)