Chapter 558 – Price

Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, “Hawk King is too polite. In fact, I want to thank you. I really am quite anxious about this matter. Haha.”

The Hawk King smiled and said, “This is the Ice Hawk King’s place, this is where he lives and does his work. I don’t know if Mister Zhao Hai has noticed, but the royal tribes of the Beastman Warring Races are all situated in the vicinity of the Northern Ice Fields. Legend has told us that the Northern Ice Fields contain formidable Magic Beasts that can cause a calamity to the Prairie. This was the reason why the Royal Tribes decided to move here, it was in order to protect the entire Beastman Race.”

Zhao Hai nodded, he had developed a habit to not disregard the legends of the Ark Continent. It was because these legends have high probabilities of being true, quite unlike the legends back on Earth.

At this time, an Ice Hawk arrived in front of them. The Ice Hawk issued a salute and then said, “Golden Ringed Hawk King, Mister Zhao Hai, the Hawk King invites you in.”

Zhao Hai and the Golden Ringed Hawk King immediately complied, they rode their mounts and then followed behind the Ice Hawk. The space inside was truly high, even if they had already flown 500 meters, they were still heading up.

In the uppermost lever, Zhao Hai and the others stopped in front of the sole cave entrance present. The cave’s entrance was about 10 meters high, and had a platform protruding out from it. The platform was about 30 square meters. Zhao Hai and the others landed their mounts on this platform.

This time, only three people had come here. When the three of them came down from their mounts, the hawk mounts immediately left. Then the Ice Hawk escorted Zhao Hai and the Golden Ringed Hawk King inside the cave.

After entering the cave, Zhao Hai couldn’t help but stare at the scene. Inside the cave were a lot of ignited braziers, completely illuminating the entire cave.

In this cave, an Ice Hawk can be seen sitting on the innermost part, reading a sheepskin scroll among the numerous scrolls around him.

However, this Ice Hawk didn’t actually process these documents, he was just simply looking through them. This Ice Hawk didn’t have much of a difference compared to the others of his race. He even looked thin, thinner than the common Ice Hawk. He had a golden crown on his head, sitting there as he turned his pair of cold hawk eyes towards Zhao Hai and the others. His mere gaze made Zhao Hai feel like the surrounding air just dropped a couple of degrees.

Zhao Hai didn’t know, but this was actually an innate ability of the Ice Hawk Tribe. Once this ability was in full use, it would send forth a beam that can freeze anything in its way. It’s intensity was just like an attack from a 5th rank mage, and it was quite difficult to deal with.

The Golden Ringed Hawk King immediately issued a salute and said, “Golden Ringed Hawk King has see the Ice Hawk King. This is Mister Zhao Hai, mister wants to cooperate with our Hawk Race regarding his Milk Wine business. Therefore, I led him here to see you.”

The Ice Hawk King nodded and said, “Right, I have heard about Mister Zhao Hai but this is my first time meeting mister, please have a seat.” Although his gaze was very cold, his expression was actually quite temperate.

Zhao Hai immediately responded courteously, “I thank the Hawk King.” Then he sat on a chair after the Golden Ringed Hawk King.

After sitting down, the Ice Hawk King looked at Zhao Hai and said, “The Beast King has sent word out about mister’s Milk Wine business. Before everything, this King here wants mister to accept my gratitude in behalf of the entire Beastman Race.”

Zhao Hai replied, “I don’t dare. This business also makes me money. Haha. This time, I wanted to see the Hawk King because I need help from the Hawk Race.”

The Hawk King looked at Zhao Hai and smiled faintly, “Mister can say it freely. As long as we can be of help, then I wouldn’t decline immediately. For the sake of the Beastman Race, I shall provide mister with a helping hand.”

Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, “I’ll thank the Hawk King in advance.” Then he told the Ice Hawk King about the details of his intended cooperation with the Hawk Race.

The Ice Hawk King silently listened to Zhao Hai’s words. After Zhao Hai spoke, the Hawk King nodded and then smiled towards Zhao Hai and said, “Mister, this is basically giving money to my Hawk Race. So how can we just push this opportunity away? Rest assured, with how broad our tribes are placed in the Prairie, information about mister’s Milk Wine business would be delivered much more quickly. Mister cooperating with us is indeed something good. I agree, tomorrow I’ll write a letter informing all of the Hawk Tribes, mister can rest assured.”

Zhao Hai didn’t expect the discussion would go this smoothly. He stared for a moment before he hastily stood up and bowed to the Hawk King and said, “This Zhao Hai thanks the Hawk King. But does the Hawk King also want to help me collect the Milk Wine?”

Zhao Hai knew how arrogant Royals were, so he was afraid that it would be impossible for them to help him collect Milk Wine. If the Hawk King was not willing to cooperate, then the Milk Wine business would have problems.

The Hawk King looked at Zhao Hai and smiled, “Of course, mister doesn’t even need to ask.”

Zhao Hai became happy, then he immediately said, “That’s great. I’ll have to ask the Hawk Race to receive the Milk Wine in a radius of three thousand li in a single Space Bag. For the price, one jin of Milk Wine would be traded with five jin of grain. What does the Hawk King think about this price?”

The Hawk King thought for a moment and then nodded, “This price is quite high.”

Zhao Hai faintly smiled and said, “The Hawk King can receive the Milk Wine from the other races with the previously stated price. And once the Hawk Race delivers the Milk Wine to Beast God City, I would exchange them for five and a fifth of a jin of grain for each jin of Milk Wine. These extra fifth of a jin can be said to be the transportation costs for the Hawk Race. What does the Hawk King think about this?”1

The Hawk King stared before his two eyes lit up. He knew that this 22 liang cannot be underestimated. Once added up, this amount was very big. Keep in mind, those small Beastman tribe can also produce a lot of milk wine annually. A single Beastman household would be able to provide 100 jin of Milk Wine monthly. And when those 100 jin of Milk Wine were traded for 500 jin of grain, the Hawk Clan would get a commission of 20 jins. Now how many Beastmen household are there? And in the end, how much grain can the Hawk Clan gain? With this arrangement, the Hawk Clan wouldn’t even need to buy food for themselves in the future.

After thinking about it, the Hawk King still didn’t immediately agree, he knit his brows and said, “Mister, in truth, this price is too high. It might be disadvantageous to Mister. If mister owes us, then it wouldn’t be good for the entire Beastman Race. From what I can see, Mister can set the price at one jin of Milk Wine per three jins of grain. And then our Hawk Clan would get about a tenth or so jin of grain as commission.”

Zhao Hai was shocked, he didn’t see someone like this before, lowering his benefits in order to decrease pressure. However, once he thought about the Hawk King’s words, Zhao Hai understood what he meant. The Hawk King was afraid of Zhao Hai owing the Beastmen and making him stop his Milk Wine business, causing the Beastmen to lose out on the long run. Also, the price that the Hawk King quoted was somewhat of a fair price for the Beastmen.

Zhao Hai knit his brows and then said, “Lower the price? How much jin of Milk Wine can the Beastman Race produce every month?”

The Hawk King smiled faintly and said, “Mister doesn’t need to worry. The average Beastman household would be able to produce not less than 50 jin of Milk Wine every month. This is already quite a large number.”

Zhao Hai nodded, he already expected these numbers. He had lived with the Beastmen before, so he knew that they cannot go without Milk Wine. But even if they produce more than 50 jin each month, they would also need to leave something behind for them to drink. They would only sell their excess off. If a household can sell 20 jin of Milk Wine each month, it would produce about one or two jins of Milk Wine after distillation. This is already acceptable.

Zhao Hai nodded and said, “Alright, then we’ll go with the Hawk King’s suggestion. I’ll have to trouble the Hawk King to spread the word tomorrow.”

The Hawk King smiled and said, “It’s not too much trouble, this is something good for the Beastmen. But mister, I’ll have to inform you that it would be impossible for the households to sell 50 jins of Milk Wine. Even if we Beastmen can stand not being able to eat, we cannot survive if we don’t drink. So the only wine we would sell to Mister would be the excess. I hope mister has prepared his mind for this. Along with the news, I’ll also have the Hawks do some statistics in each tribe, getting data on how much Milk Wine each one can produce so that Mister can have a figure in mind. Is Mister alright with this?”

Zhao Hai smiled and gave the Hawk King a bow and said, “Zhao Hai thanks the Hawk King. This matter is truly very important for me.”

The Hawk King chuckled, then he helped Zhao Hai up and said, “Mister doesn’t need to be so polite. We’re now in a partnership, so we would do our best to help Mister. The higher income Mister gets, the higher cut we receive.” Zhao Hai smiled at the Hawk King’s words.

After a day of rest, the Beast King spread word to the Hawk Tribes in the Prairie. At the same time, he also divided the Prairie into 20 different regions. A Hawk Tribe would be responsible for receiving the Milk Wine in each region.

Upon completing all of these, Zhao Hai returned to Beast God City and waited for the news from the Hawk Race. It shouldn’t take too long for the Hawks to tell him how much Milk Wine the Beastman Prairie would produce each month.

And five days after Zhao Hai arrived at Beast God City, the Hawk King sent him the numbers. For the entire Beastman Race, they would be able to sell about 10 million jin. This number was much smaller than what Zhao Hai expected. But in the end, he understood. The Beastmen also had a lot of uses for their milk, aside from making Milk Wine. At the same time, they would also leave behind some milk wine for themselves, which explains the small amount they could sell each month.

Although the Beastmen lacked grain, because of their living environment, they became able to consume milk products while eating their food. After all, they cannot just use up all of their grain before the winter, or else, they wouldn’t be able to survive until spring.

But because of this, the Beastmen were very grateful towards Zhao Hai. They weren’t looking at Milk Wine as a main source of income, they just use the liquor as some sort of pocket money. It was like those people in the rural areas back on earth. If they have excess eggs from their chickens, then they would sell if off as extra change, if they don’t have a lot, then they would keep it for themselves to consume.

Even if it was pocket change, it still helped them out a lot. Plenty of Beastmen decided to not trade their Milk WIne with grain, but in daily necessities instead.

After knowing about this situation, Zhao Hai didn’t care. He wasn’t afraid of spending 30 million jin of grain. And he was also not worried about not selling the 1 million jin of milk wine to the Human lands.

After taking care about the initial steps, Zhao Hai handed the matter over to Ah Tai. Ah Tai was just responsible for collecting the Milk Wine as well as giving out the payments. He didn’t have to do anything else, it was this simple.

When he saw that things had already been taken care of, Zhao Hai returned to Iron Mountain Fort. The winery in the Fort was already finished. The winery was divided into four districts; one was for Fruit Wine, one was for Rice Wine, one was for Beer, and the last one was for Milk Wine.

The machines for these districts were already installed as well. Some of them might be modern equipment, but the workers were already adept in using it.

Now, the Beastmen appeared to be understaffed. The earliest of Zhao Hai’s slaves were already sent out to manage the villages. Therefore, the ones left to man the brewery were only the Beastmen. Because of this, Zhao Hai asked the original slaves to help with the situation. And since the new slaves were already settled down and were working on their own fields, there happened to be some surplus manpower in the villages. Therefore, Zhao Hai had those people go to the winery and help, this would also aid the slave families earn a bit more income.

After this was taken care of, Zhao Hai also asked Green to start making the school for the children in the Black Wasteland. There were plenty of idle children right now, so Zhao Hai wanted all of them to be educated at school. Naturally, this was in the premise that they would be diligent in their studies.

When the matters in the Black Wasteland were done, Zhao Hai then returned to the Rosen Empire. He still needed to approach, Randolph, Charlie, Jesse, and the Shelley Family. He wanted them to prepare for the Milk Wine business.

The Milk Wine that Zhao Hai wanted to sell this time was the distilled Milk Wine of the Beastmen. Although it wasn’t as good as his Milk Wine, it’s flavor was still very tasty. Moreover, it also developed some kind of acidic taste to it. This acidic Milk Wine and Zhao Hai’s Milk Wine was different, one could definitely tell just from one sip. But it still gave a very unusual flavor, so Zhao Hai continued on to make this wine.

He also had Randolph and the others taste this new type of wine, and they agreed to sell it. Zhao Hai’s new wines weren’t priced very high, general commoners would be able to afford it. Therefore, their attraction towards Randolph and the others was quite big.

The grain in the continent was just sufficient for them to eat, moreover, they also needed to supply the Beastmen. Therefore, nobody was thinking about making wine out of grain. What people usually drank was Fruit Wine, but not all fruits can be made into liquor. This made wines quite rare in the Human lands, especially to the cash strapped commoners. If Zhao Hai’s cheap wine gets sold to these commoners, how much daily sales could Randolph and the others get? It would surely be an astronomical number.

1. 1 jin is 16 liang