Chapter 550 – Trivial Matters

With the addition of the 100 thousand slaves, the Black Wasteland had finally gained some human atmosphere. Although 20 villages were still too few for the Black Wasteland, it was still much more vigorous compared to before.

These villages weren’t very far from Iron Mountain Fort. After all, the fort was the Buda Clan’s administrative center. The villages that had been constructed cannot be too far from the fort.

After the slaves settled down, they immediately started to work. Because they now have farming tools as well as work animals, a family can easily plant in their respective fields.

The majority of these slaves had family backgrounds as farmers. Therefore, taking care of a farm wasn’t very foreign to them, on the other hand, they were actually very adept in the practice.

But before, the farms that they worked on were owned by their masters. Even if they cannot slack off, it was impossible for them to give their all towards the job. But now was different, the land was now bestowed to them and the only thing that they needed to do was hand over 40% of their harvests, while the rest were their own. This way, the higher their harvest, the more food they have.

However, farming was a seasonal activity, one doesn’t need to be busy in the field all year round. There are only two seasons where the farmers would get busy, it was the spring for sowing seeds and autumn for the harvest. Other than these two seasons, farmers didn’t have much to do, so Zhao Hai instructed them to learn another craft.

At the same time, Zhao Hai also had Green prepare the wineries while the slaves were planting in their land. After the wineries are built, the slaves should be finished in their busy schedule at spring. Therefore, the slaves can go to the wineries and work. Naturally, their efforts would be reciprocated with pay.

Settling the slaves still wasn’t completely finished, after all, the wineries would still take a lot of time.

However, Zhao Hai can just hand these matters over to Green, he doesn’t need to monitor all of it himself. The stones that were needed for the wineries as well as other particulars can be found in Golden Island. If Iron Mountain Fort needs anything he can just get it there.

A lot of Great Nobles have businesses in Golden Island, and their goods and services have a huge range. They can provide anything that one wants in the continent. If Zhao Hai wanted something special, he can contact them in order to get it.

Zhao Hai didn’t need to worry too much about building the structures. He has a 2 million undead army, building should be alright for them to do, the only thing they need is to have an artisan providing them guidance at the side.

While the factory was being built, Zhao Hao also gave his product orders to the Great Nobles who manufacture them. After that, he didn’t think to much about it. He still has something else to do, and that was going to the Beastman Prairie.

It was now two months after the Beastmen had returned to the Prairie, so Zhao Hai wanted to see them and take a look at their situation. Two months was enough for them to divide their spoils of war. Now they should be needing something again.

Besides, he still needed to deliver new goods to Ah Tai. Zhao Hai plans to contact a lot of Beastmen when he goes to the Prairie this time. He also wanted to get in touch with the Beast King and try if he can have a business cooperation with him. As long as he has a business with the Beast King, the Buda Clan would certainly gain huge profits.

Zhao Hai wanted to gain several large clients in the Prairie and form a large network of business there. This was also part of his plan to expand the businesses of the Buda Clan.

After all, the Buda Clan’s roots have been placed in the Black Wasteland. If all of the lands in the wasteland were to be developed and used for farming, how much food would they be able to produce? The amount would surely pose a huge threat to the food market of the Human Race,

At the same time, the Humans had already signed a fair price agreement with the Beastmen. And with this agreement, the Merchants would have to fork out the expense of transport. Merchants weren’t like ZHao Hai, who can just carry his goods through the Space.

Therefore, the prices of food on the Prairie would still be high, but much lower compared to before. However, this would mean that Merchants wouldn’t be able to earn as much, aside from the large Merchants. Those small Merchants wouldn’t be able to do business in the Prairie anymore since the profits wouldn’t be enough anymore.

But as the matter stands, the Beastmen cannot have another food shortage anymore. If it happens again, another war between the two races would surely happen. Therefore, what Zhao Hai meant to do was to sell the grain from the Black Wasteland to the Beastman Prairie. This way, not only would the Beastmen’s food problem be solved, it would also stabilize the food market in the Prairie.

Zhao Hai also discovered that the Beastmen weren’t like those ancient Prairie dwellers back on Earth. For generations, the people living on the Earth’s Prairie has always been very eager to conquer the land of the Han people. They were bent on being the rulers of that land. Therefore, they were waiting for the Hans to grew weak, and then they would invade China.

On the other hand, these Beastmen had their own civilization. Moreover, their society wasn’t any worse than the Humans. This stopped them from having thoughts of going to the Human domain. In this world that depends heavily on strength, the ones who advocates this rule the most were the Beastmen Race, this made them dislike the Humans. In their opinion, Humans were too starved, which explains their weak and thin appearance, so their lands shouldn’t be that good. Because of this, the Beastmen didn’t covet the Human lands. At the same time, the Beastman Prairie was already too big for the Beastman Race to thrive in.

Since the Beastmen didn’t have much thoughts towards the Human lands, it wasn’t common for them to wage war. The only reason for them to wage war was in the situation where their survival was threatened.

A Beastman’s aggression was deeply connected to their straightforward temper. In their eyes, black is black, white is white. Not unlike other people where grey was in between black and white. The Beastmen simply didn’t have this view.

It was because of these violent tendencies of the Beastmen that they would go into a fight over the smallest details. It gave people the impression that they were warfreaks. But in truth, the Beastmen disliked war as well.

Even if the Beastmen looked down on Humans, they actually depend on human grain to survive. At the same time, the Humans also need Beastmen beast skins, wool, and beast meat. Therefore, it was possible for both sides to depend on each other.

The Beastmen had a straightforward attitude, very much unlike the Human Merchants who were very greedy for benefit. There were several times where Humans and the Beastman went to war because of their greed. They priced their goods too high, negatively affecting the survival of the Beastman race. So in order to survive, the Beastmen would have no choice but to take up their weapons and pillage the Human lands.

Zhao Hai sending his grain to the Prairie would definitely solve this situation. If he becomes the top grain merchant in the Prairie, the Beastmen wouldn’t be able to worry about grain anymore. In this case, it would be impossible for the Humans and Beastmen to wage war with each other anymore.

And if that happens one day, what benefits would the Buda Clan gain? It was even possible for them to be the ones who would have the most profits in the entire Human race.

To be honest, Zhao Hai had thought about the time when the Rosen Empire negotiated for him to have the Purcell Duchy. If he gains control of that territory, it would be equivalent to adding the Purcell Duchy to the Black Wasteland. When that happens, he wouldn’t even need the Space to transport the food to the Prairie using the Space. He could just directly transport the food using normal means. However, it was a pity that it didn’t succeed.

However, Zhao Hai didn’t become anxious about this. As long as there is time, avenues of progress would be found. Later, he would slowly make his own grain route, this was because he didn’t know for how long he’ll live. If he dies, the Space would cease to exist. And when that happens, the Buda Clan would be able to use that route for their business.

Walk one step, look forward three steps, this was Zhao Hai’s attitude. He knew that the Space wouldn’t disappear with no reason, but he was afraid that it would be gone once he dies. Nobody was immortal, even 9th ranks were the same. Therefore, Zhao Hai considered the Buda Clan heavily in his decisions.

It was because of this that Zhao Hai invested his time on the Prairie. As long as he gains big clients in the Prairie, the Buda Clan’s future development wouldn’t be very difficult.

After handling the matters of the Black Wasteland, Zhao Hai went back to the Rosen Empire. Even if he had established his cooperation with the Calci Family and the others, the details would still be needed to discussed well. At the same time, the logistics of the business needed to be considered, otherwise their costs would increase by a lot.

It was important for a store to have a stable transport network so that it could sell and restock its items on time. Because of this, logistics was one of the most important aspects of a business.

There were only two forms of transporting goods in the Ark Continent. One was through the water, with the use of ships, while the other was through land, by having beast-pulled carriages.

Comparing these two, using the waters was much convenient. It was quicker, and it costs was much lower as well. Carriages might cost less in short distance transport, but ships were the most suited for long-distance shipment.

Even if it was good that Zhao Hai had established some good partners, the logistics wasn’t a well oiled machine. Those families have their own transport networks. Zhao Hai’s supplies cannot be just placed at one location, that would be very inconvenient.

In the end, Zhao Hai decided that with the current numbers of the Buda Clan, even with the addition of the Markey Family, it would be impossible for them to have a lot of shops. Therefore he settled for the second choice, establish some supply locations at some major cities. This would save a lot on transportation towards the nearest cities as he handed the goods over to the other families.

The Calci Family and the others naturally agreed to this. They were afraid that the Buda Clan would establish their own sales network since that would mean that they would have a new competitor. But even so, the Calci Family and the others didn’t extend their hands too far. Ruyen was currently managing a Buda Clan business in Purcell Duchy. This was the sole place in the entire continent where the Buda Clan directly sells Haven products.