Sword and Sorcery and Martial Arts

Chapter 253 The Slave Market (4000 words)
Rhodes walked towards a strong man in the corner of the tavern, trying to see if he had identified the wrong person.

"Quentin, why are you here? Aren't you going back to the north after finishing that business?" Rhodes patted the strong man on the shoulder.

Quentin turned his head to look at Rhodes, and asked with a puzzled face, "Are you?"

Rhodes lifted the visor of his helmet, revealing the young face under the helmet.

"Oh, I remembered, your name is Rhodes, right? It's the same name as the dead old king of Nord." Quentin patted his head and suddenly realized "I heard that you really got the Gulfstream City Athletic Tournament last time." The champion of the team competition, the gold content of that championship is even higher than the gold content of my Haiyan City hand-to-hand combat champion."

Unexpectedly, after such a long time, Quentin was still bragging about his Haiyan City Fighting Championship.

This is the first time that Rhodes heard that he was the champion of the Gulfstream Athletic Conference team competition. At that time, they didn't stay in the tavern after winning the championship, but chose to move to the set presented by the Duke of Owen. In the house, their reputation did not spread because of this incident.

"It was because of our luck that we won the championship." Rhodes said modestly. They were not lucky at all at the time. The sudden heavy rain weakened both him and Baron's strength, and strengthened that ability. A Nord similar to Duke Ulver.

In the end, if it wasn't for Baron's ability to restrain him, they would never win the championship.

This game is also the beginning of Rhodes' rapid progress. Before the game, he is estimated to be around the first level, and after the game is over, his strength is estimated to have reached the level of the third level.

Thinking back now, the opponents they met in the competition were only at the third level at most. Maybe the knights in the spear contest were even stronger, but Rhodes failed to enter the finals, probably because there were more people at the third level.

Compared with Tier [-] and Tier [-], it is more difficult to break through from Tier [-] to Tier [-] and from Tier [-] to Tier [-]. Countless adventurers still stay at Tier [-] throughout their lives.

If they can obtain a combat skill, they will be able to enter the second rank, and if they master the combat skill to a great degree, they will almost have the strength of the third rank.

As for the fourth level, it needs quantitative changes to lead to qualitative changes. Warriors are proficient and learn a lot of combat skills, while mages need to learn a lot of expert-level magic before they can comprehend master-level magic.

"Don't be humble, no matter how lucky a person is, he can't win the championship without strength. Come and sit down. I'll treat you today." Quentin pulled out a bench next to him and motioned Rhodes to sit down.

Rhodes felt that it was better not to use Miles' example to slap Quentin in the face, and Miles could be regarded as a winner in terms of strength.They happened to be short of people at the time and asked him to make up the number, and he won by lying down.

"Let me treat you, I made a small fortune recently. Then again, didn't you say you were going back to the north?" Rhodes asked again.

"There is danger in the north. Your Excellency the Duke told us to go north as far as possible to the south, at least away from the edge of the world." Quentin replied, "I don't know the specific situation, and I am just an ordinary person."

Rhodes felt that the group of them must know many secrets that he didn't know, and waited to see if they could get the words out of the mouth of the chief scholar, or from Baron's mouth.

"Do you know many businessmen?" Rhode asked suddenly.

"Yeah, many merchants rent my boat to deliver goods, what's wrong?" Quentin asked suspiciously.

"Some time ago, I got some credit in the battle of the Fortress of Glory, and now I got the fief and title and became a lord. My territory is the Riverview Plain on the other side of the river." Rhodes still told him these things after thinking about it .

"What! You became a lord at such a young age? If you say that the bald man next to you has become a noble lord, I can barely accept it. Tell me, what did you do to make you become the lord there?" Kun Ting widened his eyes and said in disbelief.

"Killed hundreds of soldiers, dozens of knight officers, and the deputy commander-in-chief of the fortress, burned a warehouse, captured hundreds of people, and later prevented a plague from erupting." Rhode counted with his fingers. .

Quentin stretched out his hand and touched Rhodes' forehead, "You don't have a fever, could it be that you were stimulated by something and went crazy?"

Rhodes also felt that it was difficult for normal people to do such a thing, and he was able to do such a thing mainly because of his various methods.

"Oh, by the way, if nothing else happens, the death of the emperor of the Roman Empire is also blamed on me, saying that I shot him with a bed crossbow." Rhodes added.

"Aren't you crazy? Or are you drinking too much?" Quentin shook his head, not believing what Rhodes just said.

"If someone else did such a thing, I wouldn't believe it. Let's not talk about it. Didn't I just say that I became the lord of Riverview Plains before? Can you promote it to those merchants? I am in Riverview Town A wharf has been built, and they can go ashore from there, and then send the goods overland to Winterfell Province or Fortress of Glory," Rhodes added.

"Leave this kind of small matter to me, but you have to make sure that what you just said is true, so as not to wait for our boat to sail there, and it turns out that the dock can't stop our boat at all." Quentin drank Said the wine.

"When the winter is over, it should be almost repaired. I will let them speed up the progress when I go back." Rhodes nodded, "And I will also have some goods that can be exported in the future. We can sign a long-term agreement in the future, and let you be my partner." The leader of a caravan in the territory is responsible for selling the goods to the Fish Kingdom, and I can give you a share of the profits, which is definitely more profitable than you simply running a ship."

"Let's talk about it when you can export the goods, and you haven't repaired the dock yet." Quentin picked up the glass and found that the glass was empty.

"Two more glasses of the best wine here!" Rhodes shouted to the maid in the tavern.

Quentin took a big sip from the wine glass, and let out a long sigh of relief. "The best wine in this tavern is the famous golden wine in Gulfstream City. Even I usually don't want to order it."

Rhodes picked up the wine glass and took a sip, only to find that it was ordinary white wine. Because of improper storage, the wine still had a sour taste.

"Do you like a stronger wine, or a lighter wine like this." Rhodes put down his glass and asked.

"Of course I like stronger wine. What's so good about not strong wine? It's okay to drink this kind of wine once or twice. I always hope to find the kind of wine that can make me drunk immediately after a few sips. It's a pity. I haven't found such wine for so many years." Quentin took another sip of wine after speaking.

Rhodes felt that his spirits were still very marketable. People in this world were a bit like Mao Zi, who had a special hobby for alcohol.Unlike the Huaxia people, except for drinking with friends and relatives, drinking at other times is a kind of torture. In many cases, the high-ranking people are used to show their power and status.

"Can you help me contact some slave traders, I need a lot of serfs to help me work." Rhodes looked at Quentin and asked.

"You should think that the slave trade is a gray industry. Many countries want to abolish it, but because this business can bring them a lot of benefits, they can still tolerate it, but it can only be traded in private." Quentin put down his glass and replied.

He hesitated for a while, "If you want, I can take you to an underground trading place, where there is a slave trade, but you have to prepare a mask, if someone sees you appearing in that kind of place, it will affect your reputation , it doesn't matter to me."

"I'm talking about serfs, not slaves," Rhodes explained.

"There is not much difference between the two. If you want serfs, you can raise taxes to make the farmers on your territory unable to survive. In this way, they can only sell the land and become your serfs in the end. You don't need to spend a cent Money." Quentin said a little unhappy, and Rhodes felt that Quentin should be very disgusted with the slave trade, so he misunderstood himself.

"It's not what you think. You may have misunderstood. My territory lacks population. If I want to develop, I must find a way to increase the population. Buying serfs is the fastest way. I can say this, as long as they work hard , I will definitely restore their identities and make them free citizens." Rhodes explained.

"Didn't you learn anything else? Start learning the hypocrisy of the nobility? No matter how you explain it, you were involved in the slave trade. If there were no needy people like you, there wouldn't be so many slave catchers. You know then they Where did you catch so many slaves? They were all disguised as robbers, robbing passers-by, not only taking their money, but also depriving them of their freedom and selling them as slaves." Quentin looked a little displeased Said.

Rhodes didn't expect that Quentin actually had a sense of justice and a certain business acumen, so he could figure out the relationship.

"Well then, tell me later where the underground slave trading market is. I'll go there and make a big fuss and release all the slaves. You will pick them up at the port with a boat, and I will guide them to your aboard. And you then send them all to my land, and I assure you that I will treat them as freemen, and if they will go home, I will let them go home. I can assure you, I will try my best to prevent those who choose to stay from starving or freezing to death this winter." Rhode looked at Quentin and said seriously.

Quentin hesitated for a while, drank the wine in the glass, and then slammed it heavily on the table, "You must remember the promise you made to me. I agreed to this matter, but it's still early. We wait until night to act, and you also know that there are almost no soldiers patrolling at night in this city, if the lord here is involved, it will be troublesome for us."

Rhodes nodded, "Take me there for a general look first, then get back on the boat and get ready."

"I want to go with you at night too," Quentin said.

"Forget it, I can handle this kind of thing by myself, and you can just meet us on the boat." Rhodes rejected Quentin, who is still very experienced in doing this kind of thing.

At that time, put on a night clothes, kill all the people in the slave market, and then release those slaves.

If exposed, he is not afraid of melee, even if he does not wear any armor, it is difficult for ordinary people to hurt him.

Doing this is actually the most beneficial thing for him. It can increase the population of the territory without spending any money, and he can also take the opportunity to gain a wave of chivalry.

As for whether these people came to his territory as slaves or as free citizens, Rhodes didn't care at all. In fact, he was more willing to hire them and exchange them with money. people to work for him, rather than directly enslaving and exploiting them.

After Rhodes discovered that he could reap a lot of benefits, he felt that it was not like being a hero, but an excuse to do good deeds, but the difference was that he treated those slaves better than slave traders. Treat them much better and give them their freedom back.

"Okay then, I'll help you deal with the guards at the pier. It will be troublesome if they get involved." Quentin nodded.

Rhodes stood up and went to the tavern owner to pay the bill, and then left the tavern with Quentin.

Quentin took Rhodes to an alley on the edge of the business district.

"We're almost there, put down your visor now." Quentin said, pointing to the alley.

Rhodes nodded, put down the visor of his helmet, and followed Quentin towards this dark alley. He had naively thought that the slave trading market was underground.

The deeper the alley went, the more people there were. Quentin led Rhodes into a dark and damp shed.

There were wooden cages placed under the sheds. Inside the wooden cages were ragged slaves with despairing eyes. They were all young men, women and children. Rhodes looked around but did not see the old man.

No need to ask, one can imagine that these slave traders must have thought that the older people could not be sold, so they killed them directly, so as not to spend money to raise them.

No wonder Quentin was upset when he heard that he was going to buy slaves. These slave traders kept their own kind in cages like livestock.

"Mr. Knight, come and see my slaves. They were all caught a few days ago. They haven't had time to train them. It must be very exciting to play with." A slave trader with a Mediterranean hairstyle smiled and stopped Rhodes. Looking at the row of cages behind him, he said.

Rhodes turned his head to take a look, and there were young women in the cage behind the businessman, the youngest of whom might not be ten years old.

Compared with other slaves, their bodies are still clean, but their expressions are also desperate and numb like other slaves.The clothes they wore seemed to have been torn on purpose, exposing their snow-white skin.

"Why are they all women? I want to come here to buy some strong men to go back to work." Rhodes said, shaking his head.

"I don't have men here, but take a good look at these women, how young and fresh they are." The slave trader said with a smile, showing his big yellow teeth.

"What's the price?" Rhodes asked, although he wasn't going to buy it, he was still curious about the price.

"Every price is different. The cheapest one costs a hundred gold coins. Who are you referring to?" asked the slave trader.

"One hundred gold coins is enough for me to find many beauties." Rhodes shook his head. After satisfying his curiosity, he prepared to observe the terrain here before leaving.

"What's the meaning of a beauty? There are some feelings that a beauty cannot let you experience." The Mediterranean slave trader stopped Rhodes and continued to persuade, "Look at this girl, have you ever seen such a small beauty?"

Maybe it was the armor on Rhodes that made him feel that Rhodes was rich.

"I haven't seen it." Rhodes replied, he was restraining himself not to make a move now.

"You can take her back with only five hundred gold coins. I believe you will enjoy it very much." The slave trader persuaded with a smile.

"You will definitely enjoy it tonight." Rhode looked at the slave trader and said with a smile.

The slave trader with the Mediterranean hairstyle looked at Rhodes away and felt a strange feeling. For some reason, he always felt that the smile just now made him feel palpitations.

……

(End of this chapter)