When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 674 Slaves are the cornerstone of the Black Snake Bay economy

After listening to Javier's narration, Horn looked at the kind old man with a little disbelief. How could a man with thick eyebrows and big eyes be a slave owner?

But when he thought about it carefully, these Black Snake Bay secret party wizards were not good people, so it was normal for them to have low moral standards.

However, Horn did need to consider the issue of slaves carefully.

In the traditional narrative of the Empire, races that can intermarry and reproduce with humans, such as dwarves, beastmen, and Aiel, are often called orthodox races. They are the favorites of the Holy Father and the most intelligent creatures.

Vampires, ogres, centaurs, snakemen and other creatures that cannot intermarry are called heretic races, or the aliens in Javier's words, and are the devil's creations that are not worthy of believing in Mircella.

If the people of Qianhe Valley are orthodox heretics, then the people of Black Snake Bay are orthodox pagans, and the Snake People are the alien pagans at the bottom of the contempt chain.

In this cultural context, alien slaves appeared in many places in the empire.

For example, there are centaur herders in the north of Leia, dwarf forging slaves everywhere in Norn, and snakemen serfs are common in the Lilac Corridor and Griffin Horn frontier.

Of course, with the current level of morality and civilization in this world, it is normal for everyone to be slaves to each other.

The Flesh and Blood Court has human slaves, the Centaurs have human slaves, and even humans themselves have human slaves. It is not strange.

However, since Horn's Holy Axis was based on freedom and equality, it inevitably advocated religious tolerance, thus taking on the color of a universal empire.

Whether or not one can accept alien species as citizens is also an important issue. The Sacred Axis’ narrative in this regard is quite vague and dilemmatic, so it can only be put aside for the time being.

Based on the custom of freeing slaves in the Thousand River Valley, Horn felt that he could not give the nobles an excuse, so he rejected Javier's proposal in the end: "Sorry, I cannot agree to this."

We are currently in a state of war, and it would be a waste of food to keep these snake-people prisoners alone, so we might as well send them to the rear to build roads, and then send them away after the war is over.

"Those snake people who have eaten human flesh can be selected as slaves." Horn thought of the big pot in the center of the village. "You can take them away for free."

As if sensing Horn's thoughts, Javier smiled kindly and slowly explained, "Your Majesty, I know you think I am cruel, but you know too little about Black Snake Bay. This is already the best solution.

Black Snake Bay is vast and sparsely populated, the environment is harsh and it is blocked by the church, but we need manpower to grow food and maintain life.

Apart from the local indigenous people, if we don't rely on slaves, no one can work for us. A system like a manor is too costly for us.

It’s not like we haven’t tried, but no one wants to live in this green prison. All the peasants are always thinking about escaping, so we have to brand them and put them in shackles - but how is this different from slavery?

You may think that the people of Black Snake Bay are too hypocritical. Since they advocate equality, why do they insist on having slaves? "

At this point, Javier laughed helplessly and said, "Your Majesty, people always have to eat. Besides, the church often comes to crack down on us, so we have to survive.

We have a burden for human slaves, such as beastmen and forest savages, but are these snake people considered human?"

Horn frowned, looking at the obedient snake people on the ground: "They have their own language. Are they intelligent beings that can communicate?"

"Your Majesty, I am a monster scientist. No one knows the species in the world better than me. Just because something looks like a human doesn't mean it is a human.

"Apes look more like humans than they do, so are they humans? Whales and dolphins also have their own language and clans, so can whales and dolphins also be considered intelligent life?"

Javier pointed his cane at the snake people on the ground and said, "These snake people are just like livestock. Do you remember how many steaks you have eaten?"

At this moment, Horn's expression finally became serious: "There are so many bankrupt and homeless farmers in the coastal areas of the empire. Wouldn't they rather starve to death than come here and become self-employed farmers?"

"Haha, who would come? Aren't you afraid of not being able to go to heaven? Aren't you afraid of being abused and tortured by the secret party? Even if you are willing, who will pay for the trip?" Javier shook his head, "Your Majesty, I have seen your efforts to unite Black Snake Bay, and I support you, but slavery is the cornerstone of Black Snake Bay's economy, and it cannot be changed."

Looking at the departing figure of the old human supremacist wizard, Horn was actually a little dazed for a moment.

These secret parties, which advocated equality, widely used the most unequal system of slavery as a production system.

It can be seen that in the eyes of Javier and other secret parties, humans are more equal than snake people. Judging from the intelligence obtained by Cheka and Horn himself along the way, the behavior of many secret parties in Black Snake Bay is quite anthropomorphic.

The slavery problem is widespread in Black Snake Bay. There are a large number of savage slaves in the plantations of many wizard families and the alchemy workshops of the Secret Party.

Unlike the semi-serfs like the Gongbu farmers, these slaves were real slaves who could be beaten, scolded, slaughtered and sold at will.

It's not just a slavery issue. A large number of secret parties are involved in various criminal activities, such as human trafficking, terrorist attacks, opening gambling houses and technical academies, raising monsters, etc.

Judging from the investigation results of the Cheka and the Holy Fathers monks, some secret parties did so out of necessity, while others even took pride in it.

This runs counter to the stable production environment required by the Sacred Axis.

Horn looked at the soldiers of the God's Punishment Army who were prying open the snake-men's mouths to see their teeth, and his eyes narrowed unconsciously.

If the people of Qianhe Valley have no "self-awareness" and "rebellious spirit", then the people of Black Snake Bay have too much "self-awareness" and "rebellious spirit".

This kind of thinking even gave birth to a trend similar to primitive anarchism, so Horn had to compromise and come up with a federal government.

This has not yet solved the previous problem, and the slavery issue in Black Snake Bay itself has arisen again.

Just as Javier said, slavery is indeed the cornerstone of Black Snake Bay's economy, and Horn cannot change it for the time being.

But at the very least, he must eradicate those customs and secret parties that affect production and the economic environment within the Black Snake Bay Federation.

Prior to this, Horn's most important task was to completely expel the church army from the southern counties and prevent the important production areas of sweet twigs and spices from falling into the hands of the nobles of the Lilac Corridor.

After a moment's silence, Horne beckoned Mormont and asked, "How about this concentrated bombardment tactical test?"

"From the current situation, the effect is very good." Mormont seemed to be watching his own children looking at the hawk cannon shining in the sun. "If it is a small wooden fortress, I think three rounds of artillery fire will be enough to penetrate the wall.

It's not that the wall is too thick, but that the shells are not concentrated enough. If you are unlucky, four, five or even seven or eight rounds are possible.

After the bombardment, the enemy archers were suppressed by the Holy Gunners and the Falcon Cannons, and our infantry was able to quickly approach the fort and break through the wall. The battle lasted a total of three hours, and only seven or eight of our men were slightly injured. "

"Very good." Horn nodded with satisfaction. "After returning, summarize all this data and the on-site situation and submit it to the Privy Council."

This tactic of concentrating the bombardment of the entire regiment's 24 Falcon Cannons when attacking small settlements is one of the new tactics Horn is preparing to experiment with.

Otherwise, every attack on such a small stronghold would cause certain casualties, which is really unnecessary.

The new tactical system Horn used in the Battle of Black Snake Bay was actually a combination of artillery and infantry.

This is an extension of the combination of infantry and cavalry in the Thousand Valley War, and is also a preview of the future invasion of the Kingdom of Leia.

Originally, we should have brought along a cavalry unit, but the terrain of Black Snake Bay was not suitable for large-scale cavalry deployment, so we had to give up for the time being.

After capturing this village outside the city, we only need to send infantry to clear out the nearby small strongholds, and we can basically occupy the north and east sides of the Temple of Avis.

However, before that, the mechanism of the hydraulic winding machine must be determined first, otherwise even if the four sand sculpture cannons at the rear are transported, they will not be able to continue the shelling.

"Leonardo, how's the water truck doing?" Horn asked as he saw Leonardo jogging over.

The mechanical engineer, whose hairline was as long as the horizon, breathed heavily. "I've checked it. The damage is quite serious. We are running out of time. But your early capture of the village just made up for this. We should be able to complete the renovation before dinner."

"Okay." Horn looked towards the direction of the Temple of Avis outside his field of vision, "We will officially start the siege tomorrow."

(End of this chapter)