Struggle in the Steam Age

"What's going on here?" After the ship docked at the pier of Carlos Island, Lawrence discovered that there were many ships on the side of the pier that were constantly loading people. It can be seen that these people seem to be preparing to leave the island.

The reason why Lawrence was surprised was that according to the traditional division of territories, it was not only the division of territories, but also those people on the territories. Although the personal attachment relationship in this era is much weaker than in the past, there is no forced change of personal ownership rights. But it is obviously abnormal for most people to choose to leave like this.

Moving to another place was not an easy task even in Lawrence's previous life, let alone this era. After all, it is full of uncertainty and difficulties for most people to abandon everything they own and go to another country from scratch, so under normal circumstances, not many people like to move around.

"This is indeed a bit abnormal. I'll ask someone to ask." Nora also showed a shocked expression after seeing this scene, and then flew into the cabin with a whoosh. Soon, several guard members dressed as ordinary people mixed into the crowd together with the attendants and began to inquire about the situation.

And Lawrence, along with officials from the two empires, followed a path to a small castle in the largest town on the island.

After they approached the castle, several people keenly discovered that there were a lot of very fresh magic and traces left after being hit by ammunition on the buildings of the castle, and there were even one or two buildings that should have been completely destroyed.

"Welcome, welcome, you guys came earlier than I thought." Just as Lawrence and the others were led down to the main gate of the castle by a member of the island, a man was wearing a white silk robe embroidered with gold, with a The High Priest of Dawn with a golden holy emblem came out from the gate.

"It's great that you can come now. To be honest, there are not many people among us who are good at handling these daily affairs, so these two days are going to be crazy."

When Lawrence and the others walked to the office on the second floor through a corridor, the left-behind staff, apparently sent by the referee, complained to Lawrence.

"It's really hard work for you." Lawrence smiled and said to him, as a powerful lord and an adoptive father with a clergyman. Lawrence knew how much work a manager who needed to make a final decision had to deal with every day, and a pure clergyman like the priest in front of him was indeed not very good at handling these matters.

After entering the office, the two parties signed the documents related to the handover of the territory as quickly as possible, and then everyone moved to a living room next to it. At this time, several trays of refreshments and several pots of hot tea have been placed here. It seems that a small-scale tea party is going to be held to relax together.

"I have a question to ask." When everyone drank a few sips of tea and started chatting, Lawrence took this opportunity to ask the priest next to him. "When I landed just now, I found that many people were trying to leave the island. Can you tell me what happened?"

"Are you talking about those people who left? They actually left for a reason." After hearing Lawrence's question, the priest put down the teacup in his hand and sighed, then said. "The main reason is that there are not many real natives on this island, and those outsiders are eager to go home—"

Following the priest's explanation, Lawrence finally understood what the island was all about. It turned out that the reason why this island was able to develop the sugar industry was purely because the island owner of this island was able to fool a large group of private workers with extremely cheap labor costs from the mainland of the Algarve Empire.

A very important reason why these workers are willing to leave their hometowns and come to this island is that the foremen who recruit them promise to provide them with enough food and shelter, and give them wages commensurate with their labor.

So in order to get rid of the poverty and war in their hometown, they came here by a series of means of transportation.

But when they arrived on the island, they discovered that everything was a scam: the labor time far exceeded the previously agreed time, and the labor was also much higher than the agreed time. Not to mention that they only have enough food to barely die of starvation and a Datong shop for 20 people, and there is no labor security at all that was agreed before.

But it was too late when they realized that they had been cheated, because the warlord on this island had enough thugs to force everyone to work. And here, as a small island more than 100 kilometers away from the nearest coast, even if they escaped from those sugarcane plantations, it would be difficult for them to leave the island.

Of course, this warlord also knew that what he did was obviously taboo. It's just because of the tiger skin of the Algarve Empire. So even if other people know that they didn't do anything good on the island, it's really hard for outsiders to intervene before they do something like sacrifice to evil gods.

"Actually, we have heard about the situation on this island before, but there was no way to send people over to investigate at that time. After all, unless it can be confirmed that the other party has committed some serious crimes against humanity. Otherwise, we absolutely have no right to intervene in other countries. Internal affairs, at most, report to the other party's superior." The priest of Dawn Church said with a sigh.

What the priest said was a somewhat helpless fact, because according to regulations, there is an iron law of non-interference between these organizations and various countries. After all, if the rights and obligations of both parties cannot be distinguished, then one day the current system will not be able to function.

"Of course. I can understand that." Lawrence nodded and said. As for why the report is invalid, it is also very simple. After all, although the island belongs to the empire on the surface, it is actually independent. Therefore, after receiving the report, the mainland of the empire did not have much to do with such a small island hanging overseas.

At least for the royal family, it is simply impossible for them to mobilize their troops to cross the territories of several semi-independent governors and warlords to attack the small warlords on this island.

Because even if they win in this way, it is impossible to cross the enclave ruled by those warlords, so it is of no benefit to them except to consume their own manpower and materials.

For the powerful warlords in the surrounding area, this island happened to be very close to several warlord territories. Whoever gets the island will have an advantage over the other parties. So they simply let the little warlord maintain a relatively independent position after collecting money from the little warlord.

The little warlord on the island is well aware of these things, which is why after this exchange of territories, he immediately gathered his people to prepare for a stubborn resistance. After all, for this kind of local warlord who has never seen the big world, he feels that he should be able to stop these people who want to grab his territory.

Of course, this kind of blocking does not mean using his own strength, because even with his vision, he knows that relying on his own strength alone cannot deal with those people from outside. However, he thought that with the location of his island, those warlords on land would definitely lend a helping hand.

As a result, after the referee took action, the little warlord on the island naturally stayed in the castle on the island and prepared to stand by for help. As a result, he was easily killed by the referee's armed forces before he even lasted for 15 minutes.

Until the moment the warlord was shot dead behind the table, none of the warlords on the coastline who he had placed high hopes on sent anyone to the island to support him.

Think about it too, after all, the larger group of warlords also has more sources of information. So naturally what it means to go to the tribunal. Therefore, it is impossible for them to send any force to the island. Otherwise, the imperial family would definitely not mind using this as an excuse to jointly kill them with the referee.