Unknown Knight

After listening to what Aix said, Roger was slightly thoughtful. Among the 20% of slaves lost in his castle every month, half of them were completely healthy, and they were marked as dead in his account and embezzled by him. The remaining 15% were slaves who would eventually die of illness and would be disposed of by him.

Of course, he could not wait until the slaves really died before throwing them into the sea, as that would easily cause epidemics. Instead, he sentenced them to death when they were already sick and dying, and had them transported outside the city on carts and thrown into the sea. More than 10% of the slaves did this, and only a very small number of slaves actually died of illness in the city dungeons.

In Rogge's eyes, there was a shortage of supplies in Zion City. Lord Aix must have taken those dying slaves to eat. For the sake of the silver coins, Rogge kindly reminded:

"Lord Aix, I heard that you can't eat too much human flesh, otherwise you will become stupid and eventually go crazy."

The Oscar-winning Aix blushed, as if someone had stripped him of his underwear in broad daylight, and whispered:

"It's okay, it's okay. It's for the slaves. It won't matter if they become a little stupid."

Roger nodded suddenly, and then said:

"Yes, yes, slaves, it's good enough to have something to eat, it's not a pity if they die. If the lord needs it, just come to me and buy it."

Axe hurriedly agreed with "sure, sure", as if he wanted to actively avoid this embarrassing topic, but he was already very happy in his heart. He also laughed at Rogge, the ignorant country bumpkin. No matter how hard he tried, he would never know that Axe had the artifact Nana in his hand. As long as these slaves were still alive, they could basically be saved. Wouldn't these slaves become his labor force?

With a good start, the following conversation between the two became more harmonious and smooth. They then talked about the issue of food procurement.

Due to the lack of water, the local grain production is very low, so the price is relatively high, usually each bag is sold for fifty or sixty copper coins, or even more than one silver coin. In Calradia, this is a price only seen in famine years.

The Ogbai family, who had convenient sea transportation, could not buy local food at this price. They usually purchased food from Gronia, where food was very cheap, usually no more than ten copper coins per bag. Moreover, their food was mainly used to feed slaves, and most of it was low-quality grains, and the price was as low as five copper coins or less.

They were usually transported here along with the slave ships, enough for the garrison personnel and slaves. Even so, Rogge sold most of them to local merchants.

Due to the monopoly, Rogge only sold each bag of grain to local merchants for twenty copper coins. This price did not actually bring much profit, after all, the value of the grain was not high.

Aix directly quoted a price of fifty copper coins per bag, which was the same as the retail price outside. He felt that it didn't matter who he bought from, so he directly quoted a profitable price that Rogge could not refuse.

This price was indeed very profitable. As long as Rogge negotiated a profit share with the captains that the family had dealings with, none of the captains would refuse. The two of them immediately finalized the purchase volume for the first batch of 200 bags, and agreed to deliver the goods in half a month, and maintain this amount of delivery every month thereafter.

Afterwards, Aix commissioned Roger to help purchase some iron tools for construction, as well as burlap for making sacks and other supplies from Gronia. There were some of these supplies in the city, so Roger generously asked Aix to buy them first and was responsible for helping him transport them out of the city.

Finally, Aix paid a deposit of twenty gold coins, and the two ended the meeting happily. Roger politely sent Aix out of the city.

After returning to the inn, Aix gave some instructions to Niza, Bolcha, Zeb, Old Mike and others who were waiting there, then he took Aisu and rode out of the city on horseback. There were still many things in the Secret Bay that needed his personal attention, so he could not afford to waste time in the city.

Nizza, Bolcha and others who stayed behind were mainly responsible for receiving the supplies that Aix bought from Rogge, as well as purchasing some pottery jars, burlap, reed stalks and other items in the city. These supplies were either transported out of the city in small batches or transported out of the city by Rogge.

Even if some locals became suspicious, they could do nothing about it, and they didn't dare to step forward to ask. After all, the Ogebai family behind Rogge was someone they couldn't afford to offend, and their family had stationed more than 50 people in the fortress near the pier alone. Although these people were not the largest army in the city, they were the only regular army in the city. Not only were they well-equipped, but their combat effectiveness was unmatched by other armed forces in the city.

These strengths meant that although the Ogebai family had little communication with other local forces, no family dared to attack them. This powerful and neutral attitude made their family an aloof force in the city.

Besides, the supplies purchased by Niza, Bolcha and others were not important things. Except for food, water, camels and horses, which were strictly controlled by local masters, they didn't really care about other things as long as they were not serious.

It was almost noon when Aix and Aisu arrived at the Secret Bay on horseback. The craftsmen and laborers led by Bestul had also arrived not long ago. They simply cleaned up the area facing the gap on the mound where construction was to take place and piled up two piles of stones of different sizes.

At this moment, they were eating dry food and resting in the shade at the bottom of the cliff. Axe greeted them and asked them to continue resting. He and James came to the mound next to the gap in the cliff.

The sun was already very high at this time, and they did not care about the scorching sun as they circled the mound again. It was a mound with a base diameter of about seventy meters, and the overall shape was a slightly irregular trapezoidal cylinder with a not-too-flat top with a diameter of less than thirty meters.

In the relatively flat terrain of the desert Gobi, there are many such protruding mounds. Sometimes there are many of them connected together, and sometimes there are only one or two protruding mounds.

According to what Aix knew, there were only three reasons why this kind of mound could still stand tenaciously in the desert after being eroded by wind and sand for countless tens of thousands of years: either its texture was too hard, its texture was very sticky, or it had a high water content.

When he came to investigate yesterday, Aix pried a piece of it with a dagger and studied it carefully. The formation of this mound should be due to the latter two reasons.

Perhaps tens of thousands of years ago, this place was a deep quagmire. After tens of thousands of years, the sandstorms from the desert Gobi weathered and blew away the surrounding soil. Only the soil here, because it is rich in organic matter and water, stuck together firmly and formed a tight texture on the surface. It eventually resisted the invasion of sandstorms and stood tenaciously on the Gobi Desert.