Chapter 1182

It seemed she was very pleasantly surprised that Zhao Chi had taken the initiative to ask her for help.

Zhao Chi asked, "Are those rat-men from last time still around?"

Su Qin nodded: "Yes, they're really good at clearing land and tilling fields. Not one of the 72 is missing. I'll send them all over to you together. Anything else you need? Money? I got over 90 gold coins this time—I'll give them all to you."

Su Qin spoke very happily.

It seemed that as long as she could be useful to Zhao Chi, she would feel happy.

Zhao Chi laughed: "I don't need money for now. The money I borrowed from you, I'll pay you back in a while."

"No need, my money is your money."

"It's fine, we'll talk about it later. This time I captured close to 2,500 people, most of them beastmen. I'll give them all to you in a few days. You can expand a beastman army."

Su Qin's smile froze for a moment.

She blinked, seemingly confirming the information she had just heard.

"You… captured 2,500 beastmen? You mean 2,500 of them, right? I didn't mishear, did I?"

She knew Zhao Chi was strong, but she hadn't expected him to be this strong.

She didn't understand—Zhao Chi only had a few hundred men, how could he have captured so many beastmen?

Zhao Chi pressed close to her Bai Bai ear: "Not 2,500 beastmen—2,500 captives, most of them beastmen."

"Eek~ that tickles! Don't talk right in my ear."

Su Qin shrank her shoulders, but didn't dodge away.

Zhao Chi then told Su Qin all of his thoughts.

Su Qin kept nodding, her ears turning pink.

"You mean those 2,500 captives are all being given to me? Including those 5 beastman heroes?"

"Right, I'll give them all to you in a while, at most one to two months. Right now I need them to help me do some work."

"But, with that many captives, my food might not be enough."

Captives consume less food.

But if the number is too large, it still becomes a heavy burden.

Su Qin has 1,200 people, Zhao Chi's side has 2,500, plus the earlier captives—roughly 4,000 people in total.

For Su Qin, it really is quite a lot.

Captives don't need too much food.

But slaves do.

After all, slaves need to work.

If you squeeze the slaves, making them work longer hours, their food consumption goes up even more.

Make them work more without giving them enough to eat, and they'll quickly grow weaker and weaker, until they starve to death.

So you can punish slaves by making them go hungry.

But you can't let too many slaves go hungry, unless you don't want those slaves anymore.

In a few days, after Zhao Chi sends all 4,000 slaves over to Su Qin, her territory's daily food consumption will increase by 4 tons.

Every day!

Adding in the normal consumption of the elves in Su Qin's territory, the total daily food consumption comes to 6 tons.

And the yield of an ordinary wheat field is only 500 kilograms; ground into flour that's 350 kilograms.

Even if they eat the bran too, they'd still need a full year's yield from 12 wheat fields every day.

At 10 copper coins per kilogram of flour, the daily food cost comes to 6 gold coins.

That's 2 times more than Su Qin's previous food expenses.

For Su Qin, it really is a heavy burden.

However…

Zhao Chi smiled: "Don't worry, I'm here."

Su Qin was still a little worried: "I've seen both of your territories, and you only have a few hundred fields. Are you planning to buy grain?"

Zhao Chi laughed: "That's why I need a large number of slaves—to help me clear farmland, then plant on a large scale."

Su Qin still asked, puzzled:

"Even if your farmland increases, it still won't be ready for harvest until next year at the earliest.

"What do we do now? Buy grain to get by for now?

"Or maybe sell them off after they finish clearing your farmland. You're so strong anyway, you can always capture more later.

"It would save a lot of food."

Zhao Chi laughed: "It's fine, you'll see when the time comes. Don't worry about the food problem."

Su Qin didn't understand, but since Zhao Chi already said so, even though she didn't get it, she believed him.

"Alright, then I'm counting on you."

Zhao Chi was confident.

Now, not counting the farmland that has been cleared, only counting the farmland that has been planted.

Zhao Chi has a total of 250 wheat fields.

If nothing else is done.

Only counting the default bonuses of Zhao Chi's territory.

His super wheat fields can harvest 6.5 tons of wheat every 25 days, which can be ground into 4.875 tons of flour.

On average, each field produces 195 kilograms per day.

That works out to roughly every 1 super wheat field being able to feed 195 people.

And these 250 fields can sustain 48,750 people, or 8,125 Taoyuan women.

This alone is already extremely strong.

But now Chaoge Village has 98 plots of fertile land, and if there are surplus territory allocation points later, more fertile land can still be added.

If the fertile land bonus is factored in, each farm field can sustain 262.5 people.

These 250 fields can sustain 65,625 people, or 10,937 Taoyuan women.

If only the two types of golden fertilizer are counted, each farm field can sustain 690 people.

These 250 fields can sustain 170,000 people, or 29,000 Taoyuan women.

If both the fertile land and the two types of golden fertilizer are added together.

Each farm field can sustain 812 people.

These 250 fields can sustain 200,000 people, or 33,000 Taoyuan women.

Absolutely terrifying.

Of course.

Right now the number of fertile land plots is only 98, and territory allocation points are needed to increase them, but allocation points aren't something one can casually obtain either.

The two types of golden fertilizer are the same.

Although these Taoyuan women eat a lot and excrete a lot.

Recently they've responded to the call, trying to eat more and drink more every day.

But each person can only excrete 3-4 kilograms of feces and 6-8 kilograms of urine per day.

And it still needs to be composted and fermented.

To have fertilizer for all the farm fields across the territory also requires no short amount of time.

However, even if it's slow, it will eventually be achieved.

For now, only the territory bonus can be used for estimation, calculating each farm field as able to sustain 195 people, or 32 Taoyuan women.

But this is already very strong.

Absurdly strong.

Each field sustaining 195 people — others probably wouldn't even dare imagine it.

At the very least, the grain from Su Qin's side, even if she fully supplies it herself later, would be no more than a drop in the bucket.

Even calculating based on 6,500 people on her side, it's only the output of 33 farm fields.

Supplying her is effortless.

Su Qin can also save a large amount of grain money, developing her own combat strength faster.

And this is only the data for 250 wheat fields.

Wait until not long from now, when all the farm fields across Chaoge Village's territory — who knows how terrifying the data will become.