Lord of the Oasis - Chapter 285
Chapter 285: Upcoming Negotiations
No one could go against money.
Moreover, the merchants who had come here were mainly probing.
The noble families behind them had asked them to come, in order to establish a relationship with Kant and establish friendly trade. Without exception, they all planned to spend money and asked to talk alone with Kant.
If they were to be disqualified from this trade, or even their future trading qualifications, they would be skinned alive by the noble families behind them if they went back with empty hands.
This was the early stage.
It was barely a matter of cooperation based on benefits.
As for after they understood Kant’s actual situation, the hidden rules of the noble families would begin to devour Kant’s industry. At that time, they would not have to worry too much and they would just have to eat in a less ugly manner.
But now, they still needed to maintain a certain degree of friendliness.
There was also competition among the nobles.
If there really was a mistake, they would also not mind setting their political enemies and dragged them down.
These merchants were all low-level errands, and in reality, they did not have much power, so each of them obediently chose to be quail. For a time, there was complete silence, and the atmosphere was very harmonious.
Moreover, Kant was no longer the same as before.
His character, which was so benevolent to the point of cowardice, was only used to hide the prying eyes of others.
Now, he had regained his strength.
There was no need for him to continue pretending!
Just like a week ago, those two merchants who dared to cross Kant’s bottom line and incited many trade caravans to attempt to attack the posthouse, even if they had the backing of the Lord of the North County, Viscount Wayne, and the noble family of the South County, who had been there for a hundred years, were still killed as he wished.
These merchants saw that and were even more fearful.
Rolf was also not considered a good person.
The combination of the two was very effective in shutting them up.
When they returned to the central posthouse, the ten Swadian footmen immediately opened the door with their shields and greeted respectfully, “My lord, Welcome to the posthouse again.”
“Mm.”, Kant nodded and instructed, “Unload all the salt from the caravan.”
“Understood.”
The ten light footmen immediately nodded.
After gathering more than 50 desert bandits, they immediately began to unload the sacks filled with white salt.
The sacks looked like gray flesh worms, but as they were being unloaded and piled up, the merchants gathered at the southern side of the posthouse widened their eyes. Looking at those sacks, their eyes were filled with extreme shock, they could not help but swallow their saliva, their eyes filled with greed.
That was a total of 400 sacks of fine white salt. In terms of price, it was worth 80,000 great silver coins!
Not to mention small merchants like them.
Even the hundred-year-old noble families in the Dukedom of Leo’s Southern County would breathe heavily when they saw the fine white salt that was worth so many great silver coins. Compared to the transportation and procurement costs, the profit was almost as much as 100% !
The trade of table salt was a huge profit!
Otherwise, the 100-year-old noble families would not have banded together to form a trade caravan to go to the Dwarf Kingdom to purchase table salt. Then, they would go through a lot of trouble to transport it back at the risk of being plundered.
After all, it was not easy to go to the Dwarf Kingdom.
There were not many human kingdoms were on the way.
There were also wilderness and wastelands, where many evil alien races lived.
Similar to Jackalan, they were bloody and barbaric, uncivilized, bloodthirsty and barbaric races!
As a result, the price of salt in the human countries was extremely high. Only noble families, landlords, and merchants could enjoy this seasoning. Ordinary civilians could only eat some salt occasionally, and ordinary poor people were not qualified to eat salt at all!
This could not be helped. In the feudal era, the average life expectancy of civilians and poor people was less than 35 years old.
No one cared whether they ate salt or not.
Even if they ate salt, it was just low-quality salt.
It was the sour and astringent rock salt produced in some small salt mines underground and in ravines. These rock salt only had very little salty taste.
As long as one had some status, they would not eat it. After all, there was no way to purify and remove impurities. Eating too much of this rock salt would cause irreversible damage to the kidneys. People would really die!
Of course, the poor did not care if they died or not.
In any case, very few of them could live past the age of 45.
Kant did not care about this. People were born, aged, sick, and died. If he cared so much, he could not control it either. It was enough as long as he took care of the civilians in his own estate.
After taking a short rest, Kant said, “Let those nobles enter the posthouse. I will talk to them personally.”
“Understood.”
Rolf nodded.
Kant had brought ten royal knights with him. Together with the three royal knights who had stayed at the posthouse beforehand, the security was absolutely tight. Moreover, there were his Sarrandian horsemen and the desert bandits outside. It was no problem to prevent these merchants from causing trouble.
It was estimated that even if the hundreds of merchants and trade caravan guards were added together, they would not be a match for these thirteen royal knights.
After all, these were the royal knights at the pinnacle of grand knights!
Following Kant’s orders, the entire posthouse was tidied up.
After breakfast, the cavalries put away their tents, extinguished the bonfire, and urged their horses to slowly gallop around the surroundings. They gradually warmed up their warhorse, returning it to its peak status of being able to charge during the day.
The spears in their hands were tightly gripped, and the scimitars were at their waists. All of them were in high spirits.
The noble families were all very observant.
All of them were deep in thought.
Kant’s background and the princess of the Silver Platter Kingdom, Sofia, were not some secret information. Although these information were sealed, people were all whispering to each other, which made the story even more exaggerated and more eye-catching.
At least the friction between the Silver Platter Kingdom and the Dukedom of Leo had always existed.
After waiting for a moment, Rolf walked out, his fierce face had a hint of malevolence. “Be quiet. Now, each trade caravan will send a representative to enter this posthouse to discuss the transaction with Baron Kant. No weapons or guards are allowed. At the same time, no rude actions are allowed. If we find out…”, Rolf paused for a moment, but his tone became even more stern. “Then I will make you sleep forever in an unknown sandpit in the desert!”
The merchants all nodded in agreement, but they did not dare to say anything more, afraid that their tone would offend this scoundrel noble who had no bottom line. At that time, the losses would not be worth the gains.
Even the new trade caravan had been notified in advance and obediently followed the rules.
Although there were also many merchants of higher status inside.
However, looking at the scimitars and spears that flashed with a glaring light, the desert bandits and Sarrandian horsemen who were eyeing them like tigers watching their prey. They all understood in their hearts that if they wanted to make a fortune here, they had to first show their respect.
The posthouse was opened, and the group of merchants walked into the hall.
Kant was sitting at the main seat of the long table, and there were four royal knights in full plate armor on each side.
Their entire bodies were shining with silver light, and they were more dazzling than the ordinary knights in chain armors.
Their strength was naturally stronger!
