Chapter 66: Chapter 66: Establishing Authority
Grayson left fully loaded.
The carts were piled high with rock salt and fine salt.
To avoid attracting attention, he covered the top with layers of linen cloth and oilcloth.
He didn’t even need Lynn’s instructions; as a merchant, he understood the importance of secrecy.
By keeping Lynn’s secret, he also kept a new source of fine salt hidden for himself.
The fewer people know about Lynn’s sale of fine salt, the fewer competitors Grayson would have.
Even if other merchants were unaware, he could quickly seize this market, even at a small profit.
The key is, the value of fine salt is increasing, and Grayson couldn’t manage a small profit even if he wanted to.
As for the Merchant Association... to hell with his great-grandfather’s Merchant Association!
Grayson only believes in gold pounds!
Master Lynn told him that he could trade any goods other than salt here for fine salt!
Grayson became even more excited.
As for the output of Master Lynn’s salt mine, how long it could be mined, and whether anyone would come to control it—
these were none of his concern.
These were matters for Master Lynn to worry about.
What Grayson regretted most was that Master Lynn’s village was clearly on the banks of the Acadia River.
Yet it was blocked by a waterfall hundreds of miles away!
Otherwise, he could sail a longship directly to Master Lynn’s village.
Continuously transporting slaves or other goods there.
...
Lynn stood on the clearing, scanning the ninety-three slaves in front of him.
They appeared terrified, their gazes shifting back and forth.
In this way, they hoped to ease the oppression from the lord.
They were from the fierce nation of the Shar Khanate, unwilling to become anyone’s slaves.
But after the Shar Khanate lost a war with the Tetlan Empire, they had to accept the reality of becoming slaves.
The Slave Merchant’s months of whipping and indoctrination had imprinted a steel mark in their minds.
Making them understand they were indeed slaves!
...
The addition of ninety-three slaves greatly enhanced the village’s labor force.
Lynn immediately called Colin, instructing him to lead these slaves into the forest to cut down trees.
They needed to expand the cattle barns and horse stables and build simple wooden houses for the slaves.
Lynn considered himself not an authoritarian, at least not for now!
He could provide these slaves with three meals a day and wooden houses to live in.
Each slave was worth seven shillings, not to mention.
The main point was, he lacked labor too much!
The loss of one slave through starvation or illness far exceeded the costs of food and wooden houses daily.
Besides, he had too many tasks ahead!
Expanding the mining scale of the salt mine.
Expanding the salt factory to increase the production of fine salt.
Building pastures to develop animal husbandry, obtaining steady sources of meat and leather to lay foundations for making armor and breeding warhorses in the future.
Reclaiming arable land to expand the planting scale, acquiring stable supplies of grains and cereals.
When the world falls into chaos, even money wouldn’t buy food!
Only growing your own food is most reliable.
Excavating stone mines to burn lime for paving the main roads around the village with lime gravel roads.
Gravel roads would sink into the soil with ongoing usage...
If possible, Lynn wished he could split each slave in two!
...
Half a day’s continuous cutting made these already hungry and exhausted slaves even more resentful.
But they dared not express their anger.
They knew they belonged to the young lord as personal property.
At his will, they could be executed at any time.
At dusk.
The overseer responsible for them told them they could finish work.
They were utterly shocked.
Was "finishing work" even something slaves could say?
When they were brought back to the clearing in the village and saw pottery pots brewing barley porridge, their eyes widened.
The rich aroma of barley mixed with the scent of meat enveloped them.
Barley stew porridge!
On the wooden racks beside them lay stacks upon stacks of barley bread.
Their eyes glazed over, fixating on the food, swallowing uncontrollably...
The ten guards wielding scimitars kept them rational.
Lynn glanced at Red.
Red immediately understood and led the ten guards away from the pottery pots.
From the front of the slave line, a white-haired slave abruptly stepped forward to the wooden rack.
Without hesitation, he grabbed a barley roll, attempting to stuff it into his mouth.
Whiz!
In the next instant.
An arrow shot out, followed by a sharp sound, hitting his chest.
The slave’s eyes widened and he fell backward.
To his death, he never released the barley bread in his hand.
The eager slaves became terrified, retreating repeatedly.
Lynn stepped forward, glancing across them.
Countless slave eyes fell upon him.
Lynn remained calm, "I am the Lord of this territory, Lynn!"
"Without my orders, any action you take will be punished, severe ones... result in death!"
"However, as long as you obey my orders, you will receive three meals a day, each with meat."
"The logs you cut today are meant for constructing the wooden huts you will live in tomorrow."
Though a slave was worth seven shillings, Lynn could refrain from killing him.
Even if that slave was somewhat old, he could still perform simple labor.
Clearing weeds, helping in the kitchen, etc.
But Lynn needed to assert his power!
He wanted to convey to these slaves:
Disobedience meant death!
While obedience would earn food and shelter.
That simple!
Wow~
The slaves exclaimed at this, filled with disbelief.
Despite the shock, none dared to speak.
Because the lord hadn’t told them they could speak.
Lynn nodded with satisfaction, "Now, you can eat."
The slaves still couldn’t trust their ears.
Even as slaves, or even as villagers of the Shar Khanate, they had never tasted such fine foods!
The Shar Khanate was exceedingly poor.
Poor enough to invade the Tetlan Empire...
A child dragging chains slowly approached the rack, picked up a piece of barley bread amid everyone’s gaze and started chewing.
Seeing Master Lynn’s guards remain still.
A female slave slowly approached.
More and more slaves began to move.
At last, each held a bowl of barley stew porridge and a piece of barley bread, sitting unabashedly on the gravel ground, munching away.
They were starving.
Even disregarding the barley porridge’s heat...
...
All the slaves slept on the clearing outside the village.
With their bellies full, they slept soundly through the night.
No incident occurred in the village overnight.
To Lynn’s curiosity, no slave attempted escape under the cover of night.
After breakfast, the slaves were led back to the forest edge to continue cutting logs.
The amount of food they consumed over those two meals exceeded what they had eaten on the longship for a month.
They could hardly remember the last time they felt full...