You were made to farm, and now you're the emperor of an empire?

Chapter 53 Anyway, they're all just cattle and horses
Roman frowned slightly.

The situation is becoming increasingly unstable.

The plateau and Wandong are adjacent to the Black Iron Kingdom.

But one is in the north, and the other is in the east.

Their people actually gathered together and were all sold to the town of Sig.

That premonition grew stronger and stronger.

War is about to break out!

"Wow……"

Just then, the weak cry of a baby came from the crowd, which caught Roman's attention.

He saw a gaunt, white-haired woman frantically cover the child's mouth with her hand, pressing it down tightly. The baby struggled violently but to no avail, and its voice grew weaker and weaker.

Roman's brow furrowed deeper.

He said, "Take your hand away!"

The female slave looked up at him and, through the disheveled white hair on his forehead, saw that the young and valiant lord had a calm expression and very focused eyes, like those of a hawk.

Captivated by that gaze, the woman gradually loosened her grip. The seven- or eight-month-old baby nearly suffocated, coughing and crying violently, the sound echoing above the crowd. Hearing this pitiful cry, a sense of unease, rooted in their genes, suddenly rose from their hearts, making everyone present feel somewhat uneasy.

Roman ignored the slaves' reaction and said to Daken, "Come with me."

Then he said to Aaron beside him, "Aaron, you are in charge of these people."

Aaron simply nodded; he knew what Roman wanted him to do.

And Daken gradually felt relieved.

It seems the lord accepted the goods, but it's unclear how many gold coins he'll receive as payment.

However, Roman had no intention of paying with the Daken coins—he had no cash left.

He took Daken to the storeroom of Origin Manor.

"You have two choices: accept the 10 gold coins I give you, or take these 4000 catties of salt."

Daken stared at the several thousand kilograms of salt in the warehouse, stunned for a long while, then his eyes lit up and he said with unusual decisiveness, "I choose salt!"

Only a fool would choose gold coins!
We've struck it rich!
Really made a fortune!
Selling all 4000 jin of salt, which had no cost, would earn him at least fifteen or sixteen gold coins.

He didn't invest a single penny; he just needed to transport and sell the goods back and forth to make a net profit of fifteen or sixteen gold coins!
Who would dare to imagine that!

“You are here…” Daken looked at Roman with eager eyes.

Roman gestured and said, "Sige Town will produce salt in the future, so come here to buy it. The export tariff is only 1 copper coin per 100 catties."

This offer is quite amazing.

Upon hearing the word "salt production," Daken immediately forgot all his previous collaborators.

He bowed deeply and said, "Your Excellency Lord Roman, from this day forward, I will be your most loyal collaborator!"

Roman was completely immune to the merchant's flattery and continued, "You can also exchange slaves for salt, I'll even take children... If you can satisfy me, I'll treat you well on the price."

Daken left, filled with excitement.

He could exchange fewer than two hundred inferior slaves for 4000 catties of salt; he couldn't even imagine how much more he could get from higher-quality slaves.

They initially thought they had been scammed by slave traders, but now it seems that this wasn't a scam at all; it was a windfall.

From this day forward, all slave traders are my brothers!
With this in mind, Daken directed his men to load 4000 jin of salt and drive away from Sige Town.

……

Limited by factors such as the difficulty of rock salt mining and primitive technology.

Even though Roman had deployed 200 laborers to the salt mine.

After all these days of mining, they've only managed to extract a few thousand kilograms of fine salt. And that's after they've worked themselves to the bone.

It can only be said that it has not reached the production capacity level that Roman wanted at all.

There was no other way; those salt miners didn't even have a mining pickaxe. Because iron tools were scarce, they mostly relied on wooden tools for mining. Large chunks of rock salt had to be broken up with stones. The conditions were rudimentary, so they couldn't expect too much.

There will be bread, there will be milk, we just need to get through the initial period.

Roman returned to the livestock shed full of confidence.

Then he received news that Aaron discovered the exact number of slaves was 195, not 188.

Aaron was initially puzzled.

But it was soon discovered that children under the age of 5 were not counted in Daken's headcount, perhaps because he thought they wouldn't live much longer.

For Roman, this was an unexpected surprise.

He didn't think these children were only good for eating and not for working.

On the contrary, he felt that these children, who had not yet been corrupted by this era, contained enormous potential.

It's afternoon now, past lunchtime.

But under Roman's orders, the 80 peasant women who were originally responsible for the lunch of everyone in Sigge Town were busy again preparing food for these slaves, with the same standard as the lunches eaten by everyone else.

Each of them is responsible for cooking for more than 20 people on average. With division of labor and cooperation, the efficiency will only be faster. They can also take care of the elderly and children who cannot walk.

This is not the point.

The main issue is that the grain that Roman had previously sent people to buy is showing signs of running out again.

Now only 60,000 to 70,000 jin remain, enough to last for about 20 days.

But having two hundred people is also a considerable burden.

Roman had previously used Moore's treasury to purchase grain twice, 10 catties and 5 catties respectively, which nearly emptied Moore's savings. This agricultural official will probably have to live on his salary this year.

Fortunately, the discovery of the salt mine directly reversed all the difficulties, allowing Roman to continue to accelerate his progress.

Roman planned to have the merchants of Sig Town exchange salt for grain.

On the market, 1 jin of salt is equivalent to 17 jin of wheat. However, the market is a huge pitfall. After passing through many hands, the wheat you end up with is only about 10 jin at most.

Of course, if you were to exchange it for oats, beans, or vegetables, you could exchange even more, easily twenty kilograms or so.

Without the carrot of "free lunch," Roman really didn't know how to spur these fools to follow him forward.

He must get through this phase in order to demonstrate his authority and correctness.

We must cultivate in these idiots the instinct to obey him without question!
Let these idiots know from now on that whatever he says goes, he is right, and he is the only destiny they must obey!

This is a rather long taming process, but Roman is very patient and confident about it.

Aaron walked towards Roman and asked, "Roman, where do you plan to put these people?"

Two hundred people is not a small number; it's basically one-tenth of the total population of Sigge Town.

Roman replied, "We just finished building the livestock sheds, so let them live with the cattle and horses for now."

They're all just cattle and horses anyway.

Aaron glanced back at the livestock shed and nodded.

These hundred-plus head of livestock don't take up all the space, and even if two hundred more people lived there, it wouldn't feel crowded.

Simply lay down thatch, and it becomes a comfortable communal sleeping area.

There's no need to be so particular about slaves.

(End of this chapter)