Chapter 242 – ‘As Many As You Want’
Wales led the way for Zhao Hai into the tent. Compared to Spiel’s tent, Wales’ tent was more gorgeous. There was a well made goat rug spread open inside the tent, and top of it were tables and chairs. This was uncommon in Beastmen Prairie. Most of the furniture inside the tent were made of silver. This showed the extraordinary nature of the owner’s status.
But what surprised Zhao Hai was that there wasn’t a single female or child in the whole camp. In the several hundreds of people who were warriors, there was no one else other than Wales and the prophet.
When they sat down inside the tent, a Herculean Bull Tribe warrior brought them milk tea immediately. Wales raised the cup of milk tea and said, “Brother Zhao Hai, I wish to thank you for your help. Otherwise, those mongrels would’ve been really hard to deal with. Ah, I forgot to introduce you to him. This is my teacher, Prophet Yale.”
Zhao Hai stood up and bowed down to Yale. ‘One must maintain respect towards the prophets of beastmen’. This was a sentence that all humans who arrived on the prairie had to keep in mind.
After bowing down to Yale, Zhao Hai said, “Greetings, respected prophet. This is my fiancee Laura, and this is also my fiancee, Meg. This one is Nier.” Zhao Hai introduced them to Wales and Yale. It was also his first time introducing that Meg was his fiancee in public.
Laura was the one who let Zhao Hai do it. She thought that it would be fair to Meg.
When Meg heard Zhao Hai introducing her, she blushed uncontrollably, yet she was happy in her heart that her status was finally confirmed. This also made the remaining bit of worry in her heart vanish completely.
Regarding Zhao Hai’s introduction, Wales didn’t feel much of a surprise as not only human males could marry many wives. It was the same over in the beastmen tribes. In fact, this kind of situation over here was worse than humans. It was said that a Horse Tribe chief had more than 30 wives on his own. He was nicknamed ‘Seeding Horse’.
Wales bowed down to Laura and Meg courteously and then they sat down again. He drank a cup of milk tea and looked at Zhao Hai, “How did you even get the battle flag of the Big Belly Pigs Tribe, brother Zhao Hai?”
Zhao Hai smiled, “We just knew each other in some time before. I helped their Goat Head Hammer Tribe on a favor, and the tribe chief, brother Spiel, gave me that friendship flag.”
Wales didn’t say that the flag was a friendship flag because he wanted to see if Zhao Hai knew the meaning of the flag. Now that Zhao Hai said it, Wales understood that Zhao Hai knew what the flag was symbolizing.
Wales nodded and said, “Seems like you helped him in a great way, or else he wouldn’t have given you the friendship flag, hehe. I see that you’re a merchant, brother Zhao Hai? Is your wagon full of grains?”
Zhao Hai nodded, “Yes, brother Wales. Actually, I cannot count as a legitimate merchant. I have a fief and it produces grains. Right now, I have a large quantity them that I want out of my hands. Bamboo rice most of all.”
Wales’ eyes sparkled when he heard what Zhao Hai said, “My brother, what’s the price of your grains?”
Zhao Hai smiled slightly and said, “2000 kilos for 1 argali.”
Wales did a double take and then spoke with shining eyes, “My brother, did you just said 2000 kilos of grains in exchange for 1 argali goat? Are you sure you didn’t say it wrong?”
Zhao Hai smiled slightly, “Actually, it’s just a public price. If it’s for friends, this price can be lowered. And I’m not lying to you, I have a senior who likes to research magic beasts a lot, so if they’re prairie specialties, especially magic beasts, I can buy them with a great price. Of course, if you need grains, I can also exchange using grains. And I have the freshest vegetables on hand. They are as fresh as they’ve just been plucked. Meg, go get some fresh vegetables for brother Wales as a meeting gift.” Meg heeded with a sound and walked out of the tent.
Wales and Yale both listened to Zhao Hai’s words idly. They never thought that Zhao Hai would bring such terms. It was truly out of their expectations.
Wales looked at Zhao Hai and said, “My brother, how much can you provide? I mean, how many of the grains do you have in your hands?”
Zhao Hai looked at Wales, “I have as many as you want.”
The words were so boastful they bordered on insanity. Yale and Wales felt that Zhao Hai’s words were too conceited. One should know that Wales still had his position. If Wales really wanted to do business with Zhao Hai, the amount of crops required would be an astronomical sum.
Wales stared at Zhao Hai, “My brother, I think I forgot to introduce you to my identity just now. I’m Herculean Bull Tribe’s 7th son of the chieftain. If I really want to do business with you then the grains I need will be extremely numerous.”
Zhao Hai smiled a little, “I don’t mind, my brother. I know your identity isn’t common. You have a prophet teacher and you wear gorgeous robes, so your identity is surely uncommon. But please relax as I just said it. I have as many as you want. This isn’t a bluff. You can calculate the amount that your entire Herculean Bull Tribe needs, and then we’ll talk.”
Wales looked at Zhao Hai with incomprehension. He didn’t understand where Zhao Hai’s confidence came from. One should know that grains had always been the trading goods that were exported to the beastmen in the largest quantity of all trading goods. Likewise, it was also the most powerful weapon used by humans to strangle them. It was exactly because of this that the prices of grains in the beastmen parts were high on end.
Even though there were many grains transported to the Beastmen Prairie by humans, compared to the massive population of beastmen, they were far from enough. Every year there were many beastmen who had to eat their goats sparingly in order to survive the famine.
Long periods of goat eating wasn’t something good for beastmen. If they ate up the goats, they would lose more compared to trading them for grains, but when they couldn’t resort to anything else when they lacked grains.
It wasn’t as if humans didn’t bring grains to the Beastmen Prairie on purpose. In the eyes of human merchants, bringing grains to Beastmen Prairie meant getting argali back in exchange. That’s money. Why let go of such a business on purpose? But the problem lied in the fact that humans didn’t have that many grains.
Now all the large countries on the continent were adopting a ‘turn a blind eye’ attitude towards the matter of selling grains to the Beastmen Prairie. You could sell, but not too much. You couldn’t sell them to the point of affecting the grain prices of the continent. Otherwise, the royals would not let it slide.
It was because of these various reasons that there was always a large gaping hole in the Beastmen Prairie’s grain supply. Even if they were willing to trade their argali, it couldn’t be helped. There were no grains.
Wales didn’t readily believe in Zhao Hai’s words. Even if Zhao Hai had a fief, the bamboo rice production could not possibly plug the gaping hole of the Beastmen Prairie’s grain supply. How could Zhao Hai’s be so boastful?
Compared to Wales, Yale felt even stranger about this. Zhao Hai seemed to be too confident. This made Yale think of something bad all of a sudden.
There were human merchants who said such things before in front of beastmen in the past. In the end, it was proven that the merchants were all liars. They could never have that many grains, so it was them who brought some mouldy grains to deal with the beastmen. If it were mouldy rice, then it would’ve been manageable. At least the rice would be barely edible after some washing. But if there weren’t a lot of grains and the tribe were depending on the grains to get through winter, then the outcome would be very dire.
Yale remembered clearly that 5 years ago, there was a great battle tribe that had its members starved to death in grain panic because of such a liar. That tribe ate large amounts of argali and incurred heavy losses. Even now the tribe had yet to recover.
Yale was afraid that Zhao Hai was such a person as well. If Zhao Hai wanted to use this method to deal with Herculean Bull Tribe, then his appearance would not be a coincidence.
Once Yale thought to this point, he stared deeply at Zhao Hai. Before Wales said anything, Yale coughed a little and then spoke to Wales, “Wales, it was thanks to Zhao Hai’s assistance today that we could win against the mongrels. Should we serve them properly? They must also set up their camping grounds as well.”
Once Wales heard what Yale said, he knew Yale wanted to talk alone. He didn’t discuss with Zhao Hai about the grain issue any further. He just nodded and said, “Right, will you look at me, only knowing how to talk about such things. Brother Zhao Hai, you go and set up camp first, and then we’ll have a couple cups of drinks for sure.”
Zhao Hai could see them through, so he didn’t say anything and just smiled. He stood up and spoke, “Alright, brother Wales. I will go and set up camp, and then I’ll bring the vegetables over.” After speaking, Zhao Hai let Laura and Nier bow down to Wales and Yale before they all left the tent.
Just then, Meg was leading some undead creatures to bring some basketfuls of vegetables to outside the tent. These vegetables were just put into the wagon by Zhao Hai. After all, they couldn’t be put outside for too long. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be fresh anymore.
Zhao Hai didn’t let Meg enter the tent again, and just let her bring the vegetables to the guards outside the tent. He led Meg back to the team of wagons.
The camping grounds building today was very convenient. The wagons had already formed a circle formation. Just set up a tent within the formation, and presto.
When they went back to camping grounds, the tent had been constructed. Zhao Hai and others went back into the tent. It was a very simple tent; the ground ground was adorned in rabbit fur and there weren’t too many decorations so it appeared to be spacious.
When they sat down inside the tent, Laura laughed at Zhao Hai, “Hai-bro, you’re too impatient. I think Wales and Yale must’ve treated you like a liar.”
Zhao Hai laughed, “What? Do beastmen come across such liars often?”
Laura replied seriously, “It depends on whether or not the tribe is worth cheating. If a beastmen tribe’s strength is too powerful, it’s very likely that there will be this kind of liar.”