Chapter 485: A Transaction of Massive Proportions (1)

Baifeng quickened his pace to return to the city, then told everyone not to panic; the Suiren Clan had indeed come to trade and had no intention of attacking Huaxia. Only then did everyone's hearts settle, and they felt much more at ease.

Only the people from the Ministry of Revenue were relatively proactive, asking Baifeng what the Suiren Clan had come to trade, as this matter was under the charge of their Ministry of Revenue.

With a strange expression on his face, Baifeng said to the Shaman, "They have come to trade for Slaves."

The Shaman had not yet realized the gravity of the situation and said with some excitement, "King, how many are they trading, and what do they want to trade for?"

Baifeng stared at the Shaman and said, "Ten thousand Slaves; they only want grain."

The Shaman's expression turned to shock at an extremely rapid speed, and then he became somewhat panicked: "King, don't scare me. Are they really here to trade ten thousand??? How could they think of trading so many?"

The Shaman, who had only just managed to settle ten thousand people, was now physically and mentally exhausted. Not a single person from the Ministry of Revenue was in a good state; upon hearing the number ten thousand, it was no different from a dying patient suddenly sitting up in shock, their eyes wide and staring. Yet, they had no way to refuse, because this was a great opportunity for Huaxia. Huaxia rarely had such a chance to expand by ten thousand people at once, so they would just have to be tired; they shouldn't be tired to death.

After the people from the Ministry of Revenue were collectively silent for a while, the Shaman said somewhat timidly, "King, the main thing is that we don't have many places left to settle them. Lema City also has no room left. Unless we start construction in the Winter to build houses for them now, otherwise, they might be harder to manage than the current tenant farmers."

Baifeng also rubbed his head in distress: "Let's talk about that later. The main thing is that the Suiren Clan wants grain. Those slaves of theirs are all very thin, but the price they want is grain of equal weight to the slaves. Even if one slave is calculated at sixty or seventy jin, we would still need about seven hundred thousand jin of grain. Tell me, do we have that much grain?"

Hearing this number, the Shaman was also somewhat shocked and hurriedly asked the Ministry of Revenue officials behind him for the documents to see exactly how much grain Huaxia still had. The official hurriedly ran toward the office to find the relevant documents.

The Shaman also began to complain to Baifeng: "King, we saw before that the amount of grain in Huaxia was very large, so much so that the old grain was molding and reaching the point of being fed to livestock. But now, if we accept these ten thousand slaves, our population will break the one hundred thousand mark. Although the proportion of children is high, they still need to eat the same amount of grain."

"If we trade for all these slaves, the first immediate expenditure will be very large, and then there is the grain needed to feed them. What I fear is that our Huaxia will return to the state where the year's grain is just enough to eat, with no grain in reserve. If, just in case, our fields suffer a disaster, the days ahead will be very difficult. So, I think, how about we buy a portion, or use other things to trade?"

Baifeng sighed: "Let's first see how much grain is left."

While they were speaking, the official from the Ministry of Revenue had already brought the documents over. After the Shaman took them, he flipped through them quickly and then read the data: "King, the various grains in our National Treasury—mainly Wheat, Rice, Millet, and other miscellaneous grains—add up to about five thousand tons. The main thing is soybeans; the processed Bean Dregs and the unprocessed ones add up to about fifteen hundred tons. There is also other scattered grain. Because everyone is currently eating their own family's grain, our National Treasury grain is used for construction, other expenditures, and disaster prevention. The Bean Dregs are for the livestock in the Pasture."

"If the Suiren Clan is willing, it is not impossible to sell the Bean Dregs to them; our livestock will just have less to eat. Likewise, these newly arrived slaves will need to eat at least a thousand tons of grain a year. Our National Treasury will be severely depleted, and many construction projects for next year will likely have to be delayed. Moreover, we must also make greater efforts to expand our cultivated land; otherwise, the current area of cultivated land cannot support the current standard of living of our Citizens."

All the other people did not know what this quantity meant, including Baifeng, who actually did not know very clearly either, because this had to be calculated based on how much grain one person eats in a year, multiplied by the total number of people, and finally, the National Treasury would keep the corresponding reserve grain, while the rest would be used in various aspects that year.

Since the people from the Ministry of Revenue said so, it meant that it would still be very difficult for Huaxia to directly take on these ten thousand slaves. All they could do was continue to negotiate—negotiate the price, negotiate the content of the trade. He believed Baoxi also had this realization and knew that this trade would not be successful so quickly, because just weighing that much grain would take an unknown amount of time.

Thus, Baifeng decided to continue the negotiations. This time, he would bring the people from the Ministry of Revenue along to let them list the data for him, so he would know how to set the price. However, he also had the people from the Ministry of Revenue bring out a few Tents, as a gift for a big client. To be honest, Baoxi's current tent was not as good as Huaxia's. For Huaxia, such a tent really did not count for much. He also brought some iron daily necessities; Baifeng decided to sell Ironware to the Suiren Clan.

Although Baoxi was a bit anxious, he could only wait. He had already prepared for it to last a long time. Moreover, Baifeng had told him that he could camp and gather firewood here, so he was not at all polite, setting up his own tent and lighting a bonfire to wait.

The creaking sound of the city gate carried very far, and Baoxi heard it in the tent, so he walked out of the tent and looked toward Huaxia City. He saw a Large Team of people slowly walking toward them.

This time, Baifeng gave Baoxi a very friendly smile and presented him with a large Tent, and had his own people install it for Baoxi. As soon as Baoxi saw it, he knew it was much better than his current one.

He was somewhat puzzled and pointed at the tent to ask Baifeng: "This, what is this?"

Baifeng raised his hand to stop Baoxi's question: "This tent is a gift from our Huaxia to you. Because this trade is truly too large in quantity, it is estimated that it won't be finished in a day or two, so I am giving you this tent so you can live more comfortably. After all, you have just recovered from a serious illness."

"What is 'recovered from a serious illness'?" Baoxi did not have the concept of "illness."

Baifeng was somewhat at a loss for words. To explain what an illness was, he would have to tell him about a whole new system, which was too much effort. So, Baifeng simply ignored the question and hurriedly had people set up the tables and chairs they had brought, set up the small fire stove, and put up the screen, instantly creating a space that was windless and slightly warmer.

Baoxi was already familiar with the process, so he sat down without being polite and waited for the attendants brought by the Huaxia side to brew tea for them.

Now Baifeng suddenly felt that he should raise some female attendants; at least they would look better on such occasions. The ones acting as attendants were all burly men from the Phylum of the Secretariat. Usually, Baifeng did it for convenience; the Phylum of the Secretariat could run errands and protect him, but this kind of delicate work looked a bit incongruous, like Zhang Fei doing embroidery.