Chapter 1327: Year-End Assembly (Conclusion)

However, regarding the reward for Xiong, Baifeng was very direct and clear; even Zhigui, who was reading out the rewards, paused for a moment, almost thinking he had misread it, because the reward Baifeng gave Xiong was to award all the slaves obtained from this year's war to Xiong, with the cost being that Xiong's fief would not be changed again, remaining in that place that no one knows where it is.

Because he had no one in his household, he did not participate when it came to asking for people from the Suiren clan, and all the benefits were left behind; he had been busy for a year, so he could not end up with nothing, thus these three thousand or so slaves of varying quality all belonged to Xiong.

This was a matter Baifeng and Xiong had discussed privately, but Baifeng also had requirements: Xiong could only keep at most one thousand of these slaves; what he used them for, he did not care, but these slaves could not be equipped with any Weapon.

As for the other slaves, whether they were killed or traded away, it was all up to him, though it was likely that Xiong certainly would not kill them; what kind of person would kill so many slaves?

Xiong himself already had a plan; although Baifeng was willing to let him keep one thousand people, Xiong certainly would not keep that many, as just hitting that limit would show a lack of proper attitude, and seven or eight hundred people was a more reasonable range.

Slaves only need to listen to their master; if a general has one thousand slaves under his command, no one would feel at ease, and Xiong understood this principle, so he had enough with a few hundred people; he wanted to use these few hundred people to develop his own territory.

Using slaves has a great benefit, which is that there is no need to pay taxes; slaves are not people, so they do not need to pay taxes, and the land reclaimed is all Xiong's; later, when there are no more slaves or not enough, he can hire people to farm.

A fief and private land are not the same thing; for farmland that belongs to you, you must pay taxes, meaning farmland reclaimed on Baifeng's land requires taxes, and above the head of you, the master, is Baifeng, the greater master.

But a fief does not; in a fief, you are the greatest master, and Baifeng will only collect taxes from the people living in your fief, not taxes on the land.

In this way, Xiong gained a greater benefit than everyone else, and he himself knew that this compensation from Baifeng was very sufficient, perhaps even a bit too much.

He would trade the remaining slaves to other Nobles; having obtained his own benefits, he could not take too much, and just having several hundred people who did not need to pay taxes, plus the food obtained from trading away the population, was enough to make the hardships Xiong endured this year not in vain.

Except for the Nobles, everyone else was a bit astonished at this reward, because they felt this reward was a bit too excessive, as it was practically giving away almost all the results of Huaxia's war this year.

Chengqie, who had come to listen on behalf of his father, was also shocked, because this meant that a large portion of his slave business would be snatched away, and his future livelihood would not be as good; listening to everyone's voices, it seemed they all felt it was unbelievable? Could it be that this was aimed at his business? Having too many slaves of his own was indeed not a good thing for Huaxia.

The Nobles all knew it in their hearts, especially those Advanced Nobles who could attend the meeting; when they took advantage of things, they did not bring Xiong along, so now that the King was compensating Xiong, it was reasonable and fair, although it sounded overly generous, there should still be restrictions in private, and Xiong himself probably would not dare to take such a rich reward; let us wait and see what it is actually like later.

Because it was Baifeng's decision, no one dared to have an opinion, and even if you did, you had to keep it to yourself; that is just how it was.

The reading of the rewards was finished, and then came the awarding of the prizes; although it did not look that formal in the meeting, with all the major figures of Huaxia present, the awarding of these prizes was also very serious.

The Landlords looked at the awarded prizes with eyes full of heat; this was the goal they were pursuing!

The assembly finally concluded on the third day after all the rewards had been distributed; on the last day, Baifeng also treated everyone to a good meal at noon, which was whole roasted lamb.

The sheep used were castrated young rams; for several hundred people, dozens of sheep were served, basically finishing off all the castrated sheep that had been used for testing at the beginning.

The cooks were also a bit strained, but fortunately, they had been arranged long ago and knew that today was to be a whole lamb feast, eating whole roasted lamb, so they had built stoves and set up roasting racks in advance.

When the meeting ended and everyone moved to the cafeteria, the whole roasted lambs, still sizzling with oil, were brought up one by one.

For most people, this was the first time they had eaten meat so lavishly; after all, the amount of meat was limited every time, so how could they be allowed to live their lives so comfortably?

Those who had once mixed in the tribal era were a bit nostalgic; in the past, they were like this, a group of people surrounding a fire roasting meat, and then the person who was the Tribal Chief would distribute the meat and bones to everyone; at that time, the person distributing the meat was Xiong.

But now, Xiong was at the same table as Baifeng, and Baifeng, as the master of the country, was naturally the one holding the Knife to carve; he distributed the thickest meat from the leg to the several Marquises to reward them for their hard work throughout the year.

As for himself, he picked the ribs he liked best to eat; there was no hidden meaning in this, purely because Baifeng felt the meat there tasted good.

Eating at the same table as Baifeng was both an honor and a torment; only those elders who had followed Baifeng for many, many years could be a little more relaxed, while Chengqie, this young man, would have to suffer for a long time.

He could not chat with the elders, and as for young people, there were only three: Changle, Yulong, and Yu; those three grew up together, while Chengqie had only been here for a short time.

But who let his status be so high that he was qualified to be at this table; if his father had come, he would still have to sit next to Baifeng; although the whole roasted lamb was delicious, Chengqie could not eat to his heart's content, it was a bit difficult, he did not dare to reach for the meat to take what he liked, and could only wait for Baifeng to take it and distribute it to him; alas, sighing at the sight of the lamb.