I was a lord farming, how did I become an emperor?

Chapter 39 New Product Ideas
As the sun set, the caravan slowly entered Frostleaf Town.

Manshu bowed gracefully to Rhodes, then raised his head with a smile.

"I have not disappointed you, Your Excellency, I have brought you slaves."

"Welcome back, my friend, handsome silver dove of Oak City."

Rod hugged Mansh, then walked to the carriage and observed the slaves before him.

It looks to be of good quality.

The long journey had made these slaves look weak, but they were all between seventeen and thirty years old, and could get back to work after a short rest.

"Where did it come from?"

Rhodes looked at Mansh with some surprise.

These seventy or eighty people are all high-quality citizens and cannot be easily sold, unless...

Manshu didn't step forward, lowering his voice.

"The town on Razorfen Downs was captured by the beastman tribe, and since they didn't want to take these people with them, they sold them to me."

Rhodes was somewhat surprised.

Didn't they say that the people of Razorfen Downs conspired with the beastmen to murder Lord Avril?

How come the town has been captured again?

Could it be that the traitor has been betrayed by the beastman again?
Or did the two parties fail to reach an agreement and fall out?
Rhodes tried to ask Menshu, but unfortunately he didn't know the details either.

Manshu was able to do business with the beastmen because he had the resources they needed, and he could bring a steady supply of resources next time.

This does not mean that Mansh is qualified to have close contact with the beastmen tribe.

All he knew was that the tribe was called Blackscale, and its leader was a lizard-headed beastman.

The so-called beastmen, also known as half-orcs, are the product of the union of alien races and humans.

The people of the Northern Wastes also like to call them mixed-race, or even hybrids.

It's not just human women who are trampled on; when humans trample on other races, beast-like beings may be born.

Originally, beastmen were considered outcasts, despised not only by humans but also by other races.

However, many of these beastmen not only retained human intelligence but also possessed various talents from other races, and they quickly rose to power after coming together.

These beastmen sometimes approach humans, but more often they gravitate towards other races.

Even though they were just lowly tools in the eyes of other races.

Of course, these are just rumors; Rhodes has never actually seen any real aliens or hybrids.

Rhodes pulled out a few slaves to inquire about the situation, but only received a few shakes of their heads and indifferences.

This group of people were terrified by the beastmen.

Rhodes gave up and turned to Manshu, asking, "What's the price?"

"Please give me a price."

Manxiu was respectful, with a smile on his face.

Rod knew very well.

This is a businessman's instinct.

There is no price bureau in this world.

Merchants are afraid of scaring away customers if they offer too high a price, and afraid of earning less if they offer too low a price.

So sometimes they just like the other party to give them a price.

“Then I’ll decide… We don’t have any craftsmen, do we?” Rhodes asked.

"No," Menshu replied helplessly.

Craftsmen are highly sought after in places like the Northern Wilderness, and no one would be willing to sell them.

Rhodes nodded, walked around the slaves, returned to Manshu's side, and said,
"Thirty-five silver coins for men, twenty-five silver coins for men over thirty-five years old, and fifty silver coins each for the fertile female slaves."

Rhodes offered slaves at only 80% of the price in the border town slave market.

Manshu looked distressed. "Baron, I've exchanged all the supplies for the slaves you wanted. You can't just give me this little price!"

“I’ll take these people back to Oak City and sell them for much more than this price!”

"I believe you."

Rhodes pulled out a pale-lipped, listless slave. "But I also believe he'll be dead before you get back to Oak City."

The slave owners were far more ruthless than Rhodes.

When slaves weren't working, they were often only given a bowl of thin porridge each day just to keep them from starving.

As he spoke, Rhodes pulled another slave from the pile.
"and this."

"this."

...In the blink of an eye, five or six sickly slaves were dragged out by Rhodes.

"With so many slaves you're taking with you, the farther you go, the more will die."

Rhodes smiled, but his words were anything but polite: "Besides, you only had one empty carriage; this price is enough for you to make a fortune."

"So don't say things like 'you'll sell it for a higher price' anymore. I won't try to drive down the price of the slaves you deliver as agreed."

"Well, Your Excellency, you are as shrewd as ever."

Manshu was defeated.

Despite feeling somewhat helpless, Manxiu knew that Rod was telling the truth.

Rhodes didn't respond to the question, but asked directly, "How many are there in total? Count them, and then you won't be responsible for their meals."

The territory is in dire need of manpower right now.

These people are indeed weak, but they can still do some light work.

Manxiu nodded and began to count, "Of the fifty-seven male slaves, twelve are over thirty-five years old, and nineteen female slaves are all capable of bearing children, totaling two thousand eight hundred and twenty-five silver coins."

"Two thousand five hundred silver coins, I suppose."

Manshu looked on incredulously: "Baron, aren't you being a bit too aggressive in your price negotiation?"

"Pay taxes, don't forget, you still have to pay taxes."

Rod put his arm around Mansh's shoulder. "It's settled then. Let's go. Dinner for our friends is ready. Don't worry about these little things."

"Well... okay, okay, we're friends after all."

Manshu shrugged helplessly, and the two returned to the manor together.

……

……

Before Rhodes's silver coins were even paid, the slaves had already started working.

The male slaves were mostly assigned to fishpond and irrigation canal projects. However, for the first two days, they were still recovering their strength and were only responsible for tasks such as transporting soil.

Four of the female slaves were selected to join the cooking team, while the rest formed the gathering team.

In mid-May, farmland and forests were covered with various wild vegetables, such as bracken, wild celery, and wild onions.

Rhodes possessed the [Knowledge of Fertile Soil], which allowed him to always find places rich in wild vegetables, enabling each slave to dig three or four baskets of wild vegetables, weighing forty or fifty catties, every day.

These wild vegetables not only have a pleasant aroma but also provide some nutrition, while reducing the slaves' food consumption.

Especially in the morning, Rod also likes to eat some pickled wild vegetables.

The slaves worked for two days.

Rhodes was still hesitating about how to pay for the slaves.

The hunting team traveled around every day and collected some animal skins such as rabbit, wolf, and deer, but all of them together amounted to only a few hundred silver coins.

Rhodes originally intended to pay part of the cost with grain, but now that there are over seventy more mouths to feed, he cannot give away any grain.

"Actually, you could pay with one of those exceptionally sharp greatswords."

After seeing the brand-new one-handed sword in Durant's hand, Manshock kept tempting Rhodes.

Despite Mansh’s assurances that the goods would only be sold in the south of Oak City, Rhodes remained unmoved.

Rod would never perform unless absolutely necessary.

Moreover, the territory is not yet fully equipped with armor-piercing weapons.

After some consideration, Rhodes decided to take out eighteen gold coins from his own capital and give the rest to Manshu's caravan with some lean jerky and animal hides.

"Looks like we need to hurry up and create some products that can make money."

Rod couldn't help but ponder, recalling the daily necessities of his past life.

Soap and perfume already exist in this era, and making them doesn't seem to offer much of a competitive advantage unless they have some unique features.

But that would be too energy-consuming.

Distilled spirits consume too many raw materials, and drinking them might not suit the tastes of the nobility. Refining alcohol might have some value.

"Papermaking might be a good option..."

After much thought, Rod had an idea.

Papermaking technology was very backward in this era, relying on parchment and animal hide paper, which resulted in limited and expensive paper, and books were also extremely expensive.

The materials are also very simple; plant fibers such as wheat straw, bark, and flax can all be used as raw materials.

The only thing missing now is lime water for soaking the materials, and it would be best to also build a hydraulic pulping machine.

Rod is currently busy repairing the irrigation canal.

"Looks like we need to speed up."

Rod decided to begin full-scale construction of dams and canals!
(End of this chapter)