Unknown Knight

After meeting with Rogge, Aix met with leaders such as James, Velen, and Niza to discuss the matter. They all agreed that they should maintain friendship with the Ogbai family. Such friendly relations would bring more benefits than disadvantages and would make the territory safer.

At the same time, the territory helps them guard the slave fortress, which can not only form a deep bond with their family, but also allow their family to witness the military strength of the territory through cooperation, promote mutual understanding, and prevent strategic misjudgments like last time.

So after some preparations, the next day, a fast single-masted sampan sailed out of the dock of Zion City, carrying a direct member of the Ogbai family and more than a dozen sailors. Their destination was the Ogbai family’s residence on the Gronia continent.

A month and a half later, a three-masted clipper flying the flag of the Ogbai family sailed into the bay of the Standing Castle, carrying an elder of the Ogbai family and dozens of his followers.

Having received advance warning, Aix was also mentally prepared and organized a grand welcoming ceremony.

Five hundred warriors in shining helmets and armor, wearing uniform weapons and equipment, lined up on the beach of the bay. High Priest Velen personally came out to greet them on behalf of Aix. The scene was as grand as welcoming the king of a country.

The main purpose of Aix in organizing such a grand ceremony was to demonstrate the strength of the territory, so that the members of the Ogebai family who came to negotiate would have some idea in their minds and not look at the territory through the eyes of reading glasses.

This operation did have an effect. The elders who came to negotiate had never seen such a scene before. They were so nervous that cold sweat broke out on their backs and they kept swallowing their saliva.

This elder had also seen the world, and just the soldiers who came to greet him shocked him. Apart from their sophisticated weapons and equipment, just looking at the temperament of each person, these soldiers were definitely elite warriors who had experienced hundreds of battles. The key point was that these people were only there to greet him. God knew how many more such soldiers there were in Fort Standstill.

He was even more shocked when he arrived at the Standing Castle. The main castle, which was converted from a mound, was more than 30 meters high and could be seen from afar. The population of the territory had increased dramatically. In order to protect the increasing number of underground dwellings, a second city had been expanded 100 meters outside the original city wall.

There are many prisoners in the territory now, and after a period of emergency construction, the outline of the outer city has begun to take shape.

By the time the elder passed through two city walls and came to the main castle to meet Aix, his attitude had become extremely respectful, and every word and action of his was filled with caution.

After some negotiations, under the pressure created by Aix, the result of the negotiations between the two sides was similar to the conditions initially envisioned, except that the cost had changed. The garrison's salary, maintenance and supply costs became rent, slave security fees, and fortress management fees.

This apparent change silenced the elders of the Ogebai family, who had initially been trying to fight for it. It seemed that there was nothing wrong with charging this way, and the family's final expenses did not increase. They no longer had to worry about all the affairs of the slave fortress. They only had to send one person to do the handover and count the number of slaves.

After receiving a bag of 100 gold coins secretly handed over by the chief steward Afanti, the elder lost the last bit of his persistence.

Finally, the two parties reached an agreement: the Ogbai family leased the right to use the slave fortress for 1,300 gold coins per year, and paid an additional 200 gold coins for various expenses of the slaves during their stay in the fortress, while Fort Yili was required to ensure that the number of slaves delivered each time was 80% of the number brought in.

As for the more than 500 captives, except for more than 200 family members and some close relatives, the elder did not recognize the remaining mercenaries and distant relatives and was unwilling to pay ransom for them.

But think about it, it is indeed difficult for their family to pay such a large ransom at one time. What's more, most of the remaining people are mercenaries, and their family probably still owes them wages. So now, they might as well save all the money.

Aix was also happy that he did so. The remaining two hundred mercenaries were all good sources of soldiers and could be used by him. The rest could be used as laborers. The territory was short of people right now.

Finally, the two families reached an agreement on the ransom for the captives. After paying an additional 1,200 gold coins, the Ogbai family sent a ship to pick up more than 260 people. The remaining captives became the property of Aix.

At the same time, in order to open up sales of the territory's spices, under the negotiation of General Afanti, the territory will also distribute spices worth 2,000 gold coins each year to the Ogebai family.

Some time ago, Aix invented the technology of sealing ceramic jars containing spices with asphalt, which ensures that the spices will not be affected by moisture and their quality when transported by sea.

These locally produced spices are all high-quality products. After being shipped to Gronia, their prices can double or even more. This move made the elder of the Ogebai family overjoyed. He thought that he had found another stable source of income for the family, and he happily returned to Gronia to claim credit.

At this point, the feud with the Ogbai family was temporarily settled. This negotiation seemed to be a win-win situation. In fact, the gains on the side of Yili Fort were greater. Not only did it eliminate the hidden danger of the Ogbai family, but garrisoning the slave fortress was equivalent to using other people's money to support its own army, which invisibly saved a huge amount of money for the territory's finances. In addition, a large spice business was negotiated, which made the territory earn a lot of money.

However, even in such a remote area, as long as the size is large enough, political conflicts will arise. Although the problems of Zion City and the Ogbai Family have been solved here, the problem of Berbera City, the biggest threat nearby, has surfaced again.

It turned out that some time ago, when dealing with the properties of the five major families in Zion, private letters between the patriarch Sabir and the lord of Berbera Humamu were found in the secret room of the Sabir family.

The information obtained from the letters showed that Chief Sabir had always been a force secretly fostered by Lord Humamu in Zion. After the last failure, Lord Humamu relied more on Chief Sabir. Not only did he agree with him to watch out for each other, he also asked him to find a way to obtain intelligence information about Fort Standstill by any means and pass the information to him in a timely manner.

In addition, the Lord of Humamu also urged him to speed up the construction of city defenses and actively guard the city of Zion to prevent sudden attacks from Aix.

In order to reassure Chief Sabir, Lord Humamu also promised in the letter that he would provide certain material support to the city of Zion, and even send troops to help them defend the city when necessary.

Not only that, Lord Humamu also revealed in the letter that he was currently mobilizing the entire city to gather military forces and issuing a call to the forces he depended on. In the near future, he would gather a large army and then lead his troops to attack Fort Standing again.