Short of manpower...
This sentence made Sage pause for a moment.
He lit a cigar, leaned back on the throne, seemingly pondering something, and slowly exhaled a puff of smoke.
"How many people do we have now?"
Lily: "..."
What are you thinking?
Just want to smoke a cigar, huh...
Since Whitebeard's Remnant stopped being a threat, the underlings have been constantly conquering territories and expanding power. As the territories grew larger, Sage paid less attention.
As long as the plan was being fulfilled.
"According to last week's statistics, our total strength has reached thirteen thousand five hundred eighty-nine, with a total of seventy-one warships, including one main ship, the Death Star, four battleships, four officer ships, and sixty-two standard Pirate Ship battleships."
The Death Star doesn't need much explanation; it's full with two thousand people. The four battleships have a standard crew of eight hundred, comparable to the Navy's grand battleships, and they are also the ships of the high-ranking officers.
To be specific, they're the flagship ships of Moriah, Hawkins, Urouge, and Gin.
But Gin is no longer a part of that; he strongly requested to return to the Death Star as the Combat Captain, and Sage has already agreed. If the entire ship sets out, that battleship wouldn't be deployed.
Currently, it's only used for Gin to lead people to conquer territories.
The three major female high-ranking officers are crew members of the Death Star and have refused configuration on flagship ships. Even if there's something important, they only travel aboard the Death Star.
Four officer ships are standardly equipped with three hundred sixty personnel, mainly Bellamy, Pearl, Mute, and the recently ascending 'Executioner' Suleiman.
Suleiman, thanks to his exceptional command skills and sharp combat style, has already gained the recognition of the Disaster Pirates and promoted to become an officer.
As for Jean Bart and Stansen, one is the helmsman, permanently stationed at the main base now. One is a boatman, working with Leti, and being a Giant, isn't suitable for leading a warship alone, so all returned to the Death Star.
Oh, there's also the black cat Faust watching over the Treasure Vault.
He basically sleeps at the entrance of the treasure room on board, and sleeps at the castle's treasure vault door off board, almost going transparent.
The remaining sixty-two Pirate Ships are the warships owned by the Disaster Pirates' subordinates, each with a varying number of crew, ranging from eighty to one hundred and sixty.
"Additionally, our territory consists of one main base, O'hara, with a stationed force of three thousand, three Magnetic Field Islands with a thousand troops each. There are thirty-seven islands overall, but only twenty-seven have stationed troops, while ten remain unguarded and uncontrolled, merely flagged for now."
"And, the population under Disaster Pirates' governance amounts to two million five hundred thirty-six thousand two hundred twelve, according to last week's summary data."
"Huh? We already have so many people and islands? I thought about twenty or so..." Sage touched his chin.
"It's actually not that many, Sage."
Lily said, "Without any obstruction, our expansion is swift, but not all islands are the same."
"Important production areas, frontline islands, dangerous routes – these all require a majority of people to be stationed, not just the importance of Magnetic Field Islands. Some islands with general resources require fewer assigned people, but not too few. We need to allocate manpower to escort transport ships; at the very least, each island requires a crew of one hundred twenty for stationing."
"We need to separate manpower to continue expanding territories, with leaders taking subordinates on expeditions. Therefore, our forces are severely lacking, causing a vacancy on ten islands. Unless we cease expeditions, the current number of subordinates is sufficient."
"Additionally, the populace under our rule isn't sufficient, especially those islands, with their low production capacity due to a lack of population."
"Sage, we now... lack workers."
They are different from Big Mom; Big Mom's Totto Land only has thirty-four islands, but her sphere of influence is vast due to many islands being merely flagged.
Here, it's different; there is no flagging without control. Every time, personnel must be dispatched to thoroughly control. Even if flagged, it's purely due to insufficient manpower to fully mark into the sphere of influence.
And then came a very peculiar issue.
Earlier, Lily thought with more people, more food would be needed, and fiscal pressure would be great.
She always believed Sage was robbing so much money in the early stages to prepare for ruling territories, after all, how could one govern without money...
It wasn't until conducting a summary last week that she realized something was off.
Sage's money has been converted into various industries, given that building factories isn't purely a merchant's affair; a large portion is his own investments.
Especially concerning ammunition, warships, gemstones, and grain, Sage holds full ownership and control, not allowing any interference.
In terms of grain, Sage commands half of the country's food industry and canning factories, while the other half is operated by merchants, most on sub-islands.
These factory establishments have large expenses for salaries and material costs; with such great disbursement, Sage's money should have long been used up.
The issue now is, there's still a lot of money in the Royal Palace, about one hundred thirty billion Belly in cash and equivalent worth left; the more than two hundred billion he robbed seems untouched.
Taxes collected from O'hara are being very healthily cycled back into the country, used as resource costs and labor wages, then accumulating even more.
Even when Sage indulges in lavishness and wastefulness, the collected taxes remain plentiful, even if spent entirely at some point, Lily no longer worries.
She only feels the money will inevitably return, and O'hara's operation is excellent.
Now it isn't about money anymore.
But about the shortage of personnel...
Over two hundred fifty thousand people, yet still short of manpower!
Lily never imagined this issue, never...
In her concept of life, it was always about someone oppressing the populace, and the populace like wild grass, miserable but always growing.
Having a stable job was so rare.
But now, as more people gather, they earn more, thus demanding more resources...
The need for resources increases as demands grow...
Resulting in the need for more personnel to engage in this work.
Businesses established various industries, excluding that one-half of the grain production, anything people needed was established.
Initially, they were in O'hara, leading to a shortage of personnel in O'hara.
The abundance of industries, factories, service, and individual crafts kept everyone busy, even causing a manpower shortage.
In all of O'hara, two hundred thousand people!
Even excluding children and elderly, there are still many, yet still insufficient.
With insufficient people within, they request outside help; Magnetic Field Islands somewhat suffice in numbers, but those sub-islands, with fewer than five thousand per island, and with many surpassing ten thousand, they're short-handed, unable to do other work.
Products originating within O'hara were initially half retained and half sold externally.
But the daily increasing people's needs have gradually overshadowed the other half.
Yet business must proceed, as that's profit-making; merchants dare not raise prices – Sage's rule is to sell internally at a fair price; externally, he doesn't oversee.
Yet the fairer the price internally, the greater the demand; externally, the higher the price, the more investment grows...
Then...
Resources are plentiful, lacking labor to convert them into goods.
So strange.
Strange enough to baffling Lily at times.
Not only her, everyone feels this abnormality; Marika even mentioned her dreams are being realized here.
Even Lily herself perceives this realm as a paradise.
Everyone has work, everyone can earn, everyone lives better and better.
Yet upon careful reflection, she's left somewhat chilled...
She subconsciously glanced down from the high point of the Royal Palace at the cityscape below.
From here, she could see those nearly finger-sized crowds bustling about, lively, the entire city seemed to come alive, emanating unprecedented vitality.
Then, her vision blurred, and she felt as if the 'living' city suddenly opened its mouth, the crowds became densely packed sharp teeth, resembling a terrifying beast devouring everything.
She turned back to Sage, the Captain she vowed to follow for life, rumored to be illiterate; upon observing her gaze, he grinned, revealing white teeth, smiling brilliantly.
But suddenly, she felt the smile was like the fearsome beast beneath, making her shiver.
The master of the giant beast...
It's him!