Published: March 12, 2025
Chapter 550: Trivial Matters
With the addition of these one hundred thousand people, the Black Earth Wilderness finally gained some liveliness. Although twenty-some villages are still a bit too few compared to the vastness of the Black Earth Wilderness, it is a significant improvement from having no one at all before.
These villages are not far from Iron Mountain Fortress since it is the administrative center of the Budah family, so the newly established villages naturally wouldn't be too far from Iron Mountain Fortress.
After settling these slaves, they have already started working. With farming tools in hand and enough livestock, they can cultivate their own land.
Most of these slaves come from farming backgrounds, so they are not unfamiliar with agriculture; in fact, they are quite skilled at it.
However, in the past, they worked the land for their masters. Even though they were careful and didn’t dare to be lazy, they could not fully commit themselves. But now things are different; the land has been given to them, and they only need to hand over forty percent of the harvest each year. The rest belongs entirely to them, which means the more they harvest, the more food they can keep for themselves.
However, farming is seasonal. They don't have to be busy in the fields all year round, as there are only two peak seasons: spring planting and autumn harvesting. After this period, they won’t be as busy, so Zhao Hai wants them to learn some additional skills.
Zhao Hai also had Galen and the others prepare for this. While the slaves were farming, Zhao Hai and the others began constructing a brewery. After the brewery is completed, the slaves should have passed the busy spring season, at which point they could be sent to work at the brewery, of course, they would be paid.
So, after settling the slaves, Zhao Hai's work was not finished; the construction of the brewery would take a lot of time.
Fortunately, these tasks could be handed over to Galen and the others, and he didn’t need to supervise them continuously. The brewery's construction utilized stone, and for other necessary work, he sourced from people in Golden Island. Now that he had access to Golden Island, it became much more convenient to acquire anything he needed for Iron Mountain Fortress.
Many prominent families on the continent have business dealings on Golden Island, and these families engage in various trades, capable of producing almost anything one could want on the continent. Therefore, if Zhao Hai needed something special, he could simply have it custom-made.
Zhao Hai did not need to worry about the construction of the factory; with an army of over two million undead beings at his disposal, building a factory was a simple task, requiring nothing more than a craftsman to oversee the process.
While constructing the factory, Zhao Hai also provided the items he wanted to custom-make to the families specializing in those goods, and then he moved on to other matters. He needed to go to the Orc Prairie.
The orcs had retreated to the prairie for almost two months, and Zhao Hai felt it was time to check on them. During these two months, they had enough time to distribute the spoils; now they should be in need of supplies.
Besides delivering goods to Atai, Zhao Hai also thought it would be beneficial to engage more with the orcs. He wanted to build a relationship with the Beast King to see if he could secure some business from him. If he could establish a business relationship with the Beast King, it would bring significant income to the Budah family.
Right now, Zhao Hai was looking to establish several major clients for the Budah family on the Orc Prairie, aiming to develop a substantial commercial network there, which would be highly advantageous for the Budah family’s future growth.
The Budah family’s old base is in the Black Earth Wilderness, and if the land there was fully developed for agriculture, just imagine the amount of grain produced each year! It would pose a tremendous threat to the human race’s grain market.