Chapter 549 – Hundred Thousand Slaves
After Zhao talked with Jesse about their cooperation, they ate a meal together then Zhao Hai returned to Wild Dragon Castle to rest. The next day, he went to Dark Soldier Fort and talked to Randolph about the partners.h.i.+p. Naturally, Randolph also agreed, since the Radiant Church has been suppressed, the Calci Family was also preparing to go all out.
After taking care of everything back at Dark Soldier Fort, Zhao Hai returned to his castle. Laura and the others didn’t follow Zhao Hai, they were inside the s.p.a.ce and handling the matters of the Markey Family and the Buda Clan.
Zhao Hai had always been disinterested in dealing with those things, and his wives had enough strength to handle them, therefore Zhao Hai simply placed those things to be taken care of by them.
The second day after he returned from Dark Soldier Fort, Zhao Hai rode his carriage and headed towards the Imperial Palace. He needed to see the Emperor in order to fetch Lizzy and at the same time, discuss the matter of cooperation.
The Imperial clan also had their own businesses. If Zhao Hai was able to cooperate with them, he could achieve a lot of things in exchange for a low amount of effort. Zhao Hai now had a high place inside the Rosen Emperor’s heart so when the palace guard saw that Zhao Hai had come, he didn’t dare to neglect him. He immediately arranged a room for Zhao Hai to rest in before he went to report to the King.
The Emperor didn’t make Zhao Hai wait for too long, he immediately invited Zhao Hai to his study room. When Zhao Hai sat down, the Emperor looked at him and said, “The Radiant Church had been dealt with this time thanks to you. But the Radiant Church has been repelled for a few days now, how come you’ve only come this time?”
Zhao Hai quickly responded, “I went back to the Purcell Duchy and established a network of shops there. This time, I came to pick up Lizzy. Another thing was to discuss a partners.h.i.+p with father-in-law.”
The Emperor looked at Zhao Hai and said, “You mean a partners.h.i.+p with those products that you have?”
Zhao Hai nodded and said, “I currently have a lot of those in hand. In the past, because of the Radiant Church’s suppression, n.o.body would buy these things. But now, I can definitely turn this into money.”
The Emperor nodded and said, “Right, it’s no use if those aren’t made into profits. You don’t need to discuss with me about this matter. You go to Charlie and discuss the particulars with him.”
Zhao Hai stared, then his two eyes lit up as he lowered his head to nod. At this time, Lizzy also arrived at the study. Lizzy and the Emperor exchanged some few words for a while before Lizzy left.
When they were at the carriage heading to Wild Dragon Fort, Zhao Hai turned to Lizzy and said, “It looks like father-in-law is already planning to hand the throne over to Third Brother.”
Lizzy stared, she didn’t hear about Zhao Hai and the Emperor’s exchange. Therefore, when she heard Zhao Hai, she became confused so she asked, “Why? Did father tell you that?”
Zhao Hai smiled and said, “He didn’t explicitly tell me. But when I told him that I would like to cooperate with the Imperial Clan, father-in-law pa.s.sed the responsibility over to Third Brother. If father-in-law didn’t plan to hand the throne over to third brother, then why would he let him handle this business?”
Lizzy’s eyes were s.h.i.+ning as she replied, “If father really said so, then that can prove that he indeed wanted to give the throne over to Third Brother. Hehe. It seems like Third Brother needed to thank Brother Hai.”
Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, “I really don’t need him to thank me. As long as he sits on the throne, our Buda Clan can certainly obtain a lot of benefits. How about we go to Third Brother tomorrow and discuss this matter of cooperation with him. But let’s not tell him about the matters related to the throne. Then the day after tomorrow, we’ll go to the Slave Market to see Lin and ask him if he has our slaves already prepared.”
Lizzy smiled and said, “We don’t really need to state it clearly, if Third Brother hears that we’ll have a partners.h.i.+p with him, he should already know what is going on. But Big Brother Hai, isn’t it too soon for us to get the slaves? The Black Wasteland still isn’t prepared.”
Zhao Hai shook his head and said, “It’s not too soon, planting season will come along with spring. Before that time arrives, we should already have the slaves prepared to cultivate the lands. If we miss this season, then it would be too late for planting.
Lizzy nodded and didn’t say anything more. She was not very knowledgeable regarding the matters of farming. It was much different than managing stores, of which she understood much of. There was really no way for a Princess to touch the topics related to farming, therefore, Lizzy didn’t have much to say.
The next day, Lizzy and Zhao Hai went to see Charlie. Charlie was still very low-key in doing his business, but ever since he cooperated with Zhao Hai, his income had already increased by a lot. It can be said that there aren’t any other Prince that can compare to his income. It was precisely because of this that Charlie had placed great importance on Zhao Hai.
When Zhao Hai came to him to discuss the matter of cooperation, Charlie couldn’t help but get excited. He already knew about Zhao Hai’s intention of cooperating with the Crook Family, Calci Family, and the Imperial Clan. Charlie understood the implications of this partners.h.i.+p, so it couldn’t be helped that he became elated. He even wanted to invite Zhao Hai for a drink. However, Zhao Hai had to decline. He still needed to visit the Sh.e.l.ley Hotel in the afternoon and talk about his partners.h.i.+p with the Sh.e.l.ley Family.
The last time Zhao Hai went to Marriott was to ask the Sh.e.l.ley Family for help. Spreading the news about the Iksa Family’s demise was perfectly executed by the Hotel. Therefore, Zhao Hai wanted to further improve his cooperation with the Sh.e.l.ley Family.
In addition to the Haven products, fire fish and seafood, he also cooperated with the Sh.e.l.ley Hotel by providing Milk Wine. But this time, Zhao Hai was planning to have them sell Rice Wine and Beer as well.
Currently, the Black Wasteland can now make Rice Wine as well as Beer. However, ways of ma.s.s producing these items were still under development.
The Ark Continent was still very backwards in their winemaking. If one wanted to ma.s.s produce these two products for the continent, one doesn’t only need 1,800 people to work on it, those people needed to be skilled as well.
However, Zhao Hai was planning to offer these two wines as samplers first, like what he did with the Milk Wine in the past. He’ll put them in the Sh.e.l.ley Hotel for a trial run and when the people of the continent becomes used to the two liquors, then the factories would be built. Then the ma.s.s production would begin.
The cooperation with the Sh.e.l.ley Family came very smoothly. At this point, the Sh.e.l.ley Family almost has a blind faith in Zhao Hai. They think that as long as they cooperate with Zhao Hai, they can make a lot of money. This preconception was backed with their one year of experience. From the very first day that they partnered with Zhao Hai, they had been making more and more money.
This result satisfied Zhao Hai. After him and the Sh.e.l.ley Family had reached an agreement, he immediately returned to Wild Dragon Fort. Then he prepared for his trip to the Slave Market the next day.
After going to the Slave Market and bringing those slaves to the Black Wasteland, Zhao Hai would then head to the Beastman Prairie. It was already a month after the Beastmen had retreated, going to the Praire should be alright now.
The next day, Zhao Hai and Lizzy headed to the Slave Market and went to see Lin. Lin told Zhao Hai that the slaves were ready for quite some time. But because of the war that was going on, they decided to refrain sending them to Golden Island. If Zhao Hai wanted, he can take those slaves right now.
Zhao Hai immediately paid the price of those slaves, and then had them transported to Golden Island at the shortest time possible. Then, Zhao Hai left with Lizzy. After returning to Wild Dragon Fort, Zhao Hai immediately rode a Blood Hawk and then flew towards Golden Island.
The third day after Zhao Hai arrived at the island, dozens of huge slave transport s.h.i.+ps arrived. Zhao Hai had them dock at the naval base and had the slaves kept there.
Golden Island naval base was very big. In addition to the fact that most of the Undead in the base were out patrolling around the island, it wouldn’t be a problem having 100 thousand people there.
What made Zhao Hai happy was that Lin actually had those 100 thousand slaves be families. All in all, there were about 20 thousand households that were sent over. This completely fulfilled Zhao Hai’s requests.
Zhao Hai immediately took advantage of the dark evening to send the slaves over to the Black Wasteland. It was now spring and the weather outside wasn’t that cold. Although there weren’t enough houses in the Wasteland, they can just construct it themselves, and the materials were already prepared by Zhao Hai.
After the slaves arrived at the Black Wasteland, Zhao Hai then had people give them some living necessities. He told the slaves that these living materials are their private property, so they must cherish it.
Many of these slaves were generational slaves, very similar to the original slaves of Iron Mountain Fort. Some of them might even be inferior than those slaves. So when they held their first pieces of property, all of them couldn’t help but get very excited.
The next day, Zhao Hai organized some slaves who had become commoners and divided them into villages. In fact, these villages were already planned by Zhao Hai. The only thing that was needed to be done was built it.
The building materials were already prepared, and at the same time, Zhao Hai also released some Undead to help them build. He already mapped the location of each village and the overall layout of the structure. Therefore, building them shouldn’t be very troublesome.
Zhao Hai wanted to build a village for every one thousand household. And no matter how many members ta household had, the lands would be divided accordingly to their structure. An old man would have 5 mu of land, mature men and women would both have 10 mu of land, and each child would merit 5 mu of land. Every family would be provided by either a bull or a scaled horse. Farm supplies and daily necessities were going to be provided as well.
As for the water supply of the villages, Zhao Hai had already prepared them long ago. The channels for water to flow through were made using Earth magic. What kind of plant to cultivate and where to cultivate it was already planned. There were lands made to specifically grow Bamboo Rice and there were also some lands to be used to grow wheat.
The remaining lands were left for the Beastmen slaves. Zhao Hai planned to have the Beastmen slaves herd here first and then train them to farm bit by bit.
The lands of these slaves weren’t given by Zhao Hai. The slaves would cultivate this land and by the end of the year, Zhao Hai would collect 40% of their harvest as tax. The remaining 60% would be left to the hands of the slaves.
Although this tax was very high, it was already a heavenly provision for the slaves. They didn’t expect that when they arrive at this place, they would be given land, their own property. One must know that this condition was only enjoyed by special commoners back in the continent.
But what made these slaves most excited was the fact that they have the opportunity to turn into a commoner in this place. They saw people who had similar slave imprints like them working in the fort and was eating meat everyday. At the same time, their children were given the opportunity to learn how to read as well as to play. This made the new slaves quite envious of them.
Zhao Hai didn’t immediately enact his plan of universal education. He must regard this matter as a reward. He wanted to reward those who do good. And those good slaves would not only become commoners, their children would be able to go to school as well. It was even possible for them to become n.o.bles.
Those slaves thought that it was too good to be true. But when they saw the slaves who became civilians, they couldn’t help but believe in Zhao Hai’s words and become motivated.
Zhao Hai also distributed some seeds to them as well as some rations and farming tools. He only managed to do all of these in seven days because of the his Undead. Otherwise, it would be impossible for this matter to be completed in a short period of time.
After all of the things were distributed, Zhao Hai also told them that they could practice other crafts after their work. As long as they learn well, they can become civilians immediately. And if they have some special talents, they can just go to the fort and have it tested. If it was satisfactory, they would be turned into civilians as well.
It took half a month before all of these things had been taken care of. This speed was also because Green and the others already did a lot of work ahead of time. Each step in the process were carefully planned by them, otherwise it wouldn’t have been this smooth.
Also, if Zhao Hai did this with commoners, it wouldn’t have been completed this flawlessly. Slaves were already trained and were very obedient. Whatever you wanted them to do, they would do it without much fuss. So it only took half a month for these 100 thousand slaves to be settled. At this time, the slaves have already begun to cultivate the land.
Sustaining 100 thousand lives requires a lot of things. This made Zhao Hai’s s.p.a.ce unable to be idle. Zhao Hai was even afraid of becoming poor in managing these people. However, he thought that as long as he provided these people with food and firewood right now, they would become self-sufficient come this fall harvest.
The Black Wasteland had been improved to become fertile lands. As long as these slaves word hard in cultivating the land, their future days would surely be good. The 40% tax that Zhao Hai enacted was fixed. If one got 100 jin of grain, Zhao Hai would take 40 jin. If you have 200 jin, then 80 jin would be taken away. The remaining 120 jin would be up to the slaves to use. After the slaves knew about this setup, they immediately became happy. And adding on to the fact that it was possible for them to become commoners, they immediately became hard working people.