Volume 2 Chapter 94 Building roads to the doors of the beastmen
Two days later, Xu Yi, Still, Agnes, and the ten elf workers appeared in a small tone on the outskirts of the Black Rice Wasteland.
This small town called Zamora was built by the river and was the human town closest to the Black Rice Wasteland.
Although it could be said that the humans controlled almost the entire Sines Continent, the other races didn’t completely disappear. The strongest among them was the beastmen race.
Although it was impossible for them to cause any threat to the human powers, it was still enough for them to control their lands.
Of course, the Black Rice Wastelands to the humans of the Sines Continent didn’t have any value since the wastelands were still wastelands, there wasn’t any land to cultivate at all. There were no human countries that were bored enough to contest this desolate land with the beastmen.
Although the beastmen didn’t know magic, most of them had strong bodies and had strong individual fighting strength. To steal the land of the beastmen, it would force the beastmen to go all out with the humans and the loss wouldn’t be small.
This was a business with guaranteed loss, so no human would do it.
Xu Yi’s group had just entered the small town that was less than two hundred meters wide with only two streets. The Amrit Chamber of Commerce’s chairman Cruise and the Renekton Chamber of Commerce’s chairman Renersa who had been waiting found them and immediately came over.
“Sorry, we made you wait.” Xu Yi apologized mainly to chairman Renersa.
Chairman Renersa had a strong build and had a great ring to his laugh, looking very heroic.
“Ha, ha, it’s nothing, we also just arrived. We were taking care of the carriages and were preparing to leave after chairman Xu arrived.” Chairman Renersa nodded to Still beside Xu Yi before his eyes fell onto Agnes and the other ten elves. He slightly knit his brows, “Chairman Xu, these elves are coming with us?”
If one was to say who in Banta City had seen elves the most, before Xu Yi, it was definitely chairman Renersa.
This is because chairman Renersa always did business with the beastmen tribes of the Black Rice Wasteland, so chairman Renersa came to the Black Rice Wasteland frequently, even being the guest of several beastmen tribes. In the beastmen tribes, he had seen the elves several times before.
But it was because of this that he was more clear than anyone that the relationship between beastmen and elves weren’t very good.
Even if they didn’t fight at first sight, there were still sparks that flew, so they couldn’t have a normal exchange at all.
When Xu Yi said that he wanted to go with his caravan to the Black Rice Wasteland to see the beastmen tribes, he didn’t really care and agreed quite quickly.
But now he found that Xu Yi actually brought elves along, which would be a very big problem.
Xu Yi naturally saw the worries of chairman Renersa, so he said with a smile, “Chairman Renersa, please don’t worry. When we reach the beastmen tribe, these elves will use their Stealth Spell. They won’t reveal themselves unless it was necessary.”
“That would be best.”
Chairman Renersa nodded, but he couldn’t help taking another look at Xu Yi with a bit of surprise in his eyes.
This chairman Xu, he could actually make elves become his bodyguards. It really was like the rumours, he had a special relationship with the elves of the Falling Rain Forest.
But he never knew that he had made a mistake.
After chairman Renersa finished discussing with Xu Yi, chairman Cruise on the side walked over and complained to Xu Yi, “I say, chairman Xu, there are no roads here, I really am collapsing from how tired I am. You had me run all this way, if there aren’t any benefits, I’ve done this for nothing.”
Xu Yi laughed, “You’re right, having you come along was to see how to build a road between Banta City and the Black Rice Wasteland.”
When his voice fell, chairman Cruise, chairman Renersa, and Still looked at Xu Yi with wide eyes at the same time.
“Chairman Xu, are you joking?” Chairman Cruise couldn’t help raising his voice, “What can you do if you build a road? You’re making it easier for those beastmen to cause trouble in our human territory?”
Xu Yi gave a sigh and shook his head, “Chairman Cruise, you’ve worked me for this long and you still don’t know I am a person who won’t do something if there aren’t any benefits?”
Chairman Cruise knit his brows and doubtfully looked at Xu Yi, “I know that you wouldn’t do something without benefits, but how can I see what benefits there are in building this road?”
Xu Yi looked up at the sky, “I’ll tell you slowly on the way.”
The Renekton Chamber of Commerce’s caravan was quite large, with thirteen horse carriages. Based on the mountain of goods packed in the horse carriages, the Renekton Chamber of Commerce wasn’t just dealing with a single tribe.
The relationship between beastmen and humans wasn’t that good, so if a caravan walked into the beastmen territory rashly, there was a high chance they would encounter some form of danger.
So the Renekton Chamber of Commerce was different from most companies of Banta City, they specially trained their own caravan guards and also hired mercenaries as guards.
Xu Yi sat in the back of a horse carriage and looked at the mercenaries on the side of the caravan. He couldn’t help sighing as he said, “Just based on their appearance, these guards are all veterans who have fought hundreds of battles. Chairman Renersa, if your company’s guards were taken out, perhaps they might not be worse than the royal army.”
Chairman Renersa revealed a confident smile, “Actually these guards are all old soldiers who have retired from the army and each soldier has rich fighting experience. I dare say that if they had the same equipment as the royal army, a single platoon could take out two platoons from the royal army.”
“No wonder your company has done business in the Black Rice Wastelands for this long and no problems have occurred.” Xu Yi praised.
“It would be a lie if no problems have ever occurred.” Chairman Renersa said with a smile, “There are over a hundred beastmen tribes in this Black Rice Wasteland and although our company has built relations with most of the tribes, there are some blind beastmen who still come looking for us. We can’t block them every time. Just four months ago, a caravan was robbed by an unknown beastmen. It was a good thing that the beastmen were smart and only took the cargo, not harming anyone. Otherwise our losses would have been big.”
“Only taking the cargo and not hurting people?” Xu Yi was a bit surprised, “Beastmen actually understand customs?”
“Do they dare not?” Chairman Renersa said with a cold snort, “From the beginning, those beastmen have dared to injure and kill when robbing. But each time this happened, I made a request to the royal army here and the robber’s tribe would be bathed in blood. After many times, these beastmen understood the rules. Even if they do rob, they would only take the cargo and wouldn’t dare hurt anyone. Even if they kidnap people sometimes, they just exchange them for some ransom. They wouldn’t have the courage to really kill anyone.”
Xu Yi was even more surprised, “Since they don’t dare kill, why do you need to pay them ransom?”
“This……” Chairman Renersa gave a dry laugh, “This is also the rule. As long as the beastmen don’t kill people, the royal army can’t make a move. If we don’t pay them ransom, although the beastmen won’t kill them, they won’t let them go. If you let your workers stay in the beastmen tribe for long, they’ll be useless even if they are saved.”
Xu Yi thought about it before asking, “That’s right, these rules aren’t just aimed at beastmen, they’re also aimed at you?”
“Un, it’s pretty much like that. Right now the human merchants who do business with the beastmen of the Black Rice Wasteland follow these rules. Doing business with the beastmen earns us quite a bit of money, so paying a bit isn’t much.”
Xu Yi couldn’t help shaking his head. He thought that the rules between beastmen and humans were really too barbaric and backwards, no wonder the beastmen were looked down on by humans and the other races. It was because their level of culture was just too low.
When Xu Yi was reconsidering his strategy for negotiating with the beastmen, chairman Cruise came over.
“Chairman Xu, now can you tell me what benefits there are in building a road from Banta City to the Black Rice Wasteland?”
Xu Yi looked at him before pointing at chairman Renersa, “Not mentioning anything else, at least chairman Renersa would say that there would be benefits.”
“Of course.” Chairman Renersa revealed a wide smile, “If there really was a road, our caravan could save quite a bit of effort. Chairman Cruise, if chairman Xu hadn’t mentioned it, I was already considering having your company make a road for us. It wouldn’t be far, it would be fine if it reached Samara.”
“That’s not far?” Chairman Cruise glared at him, “It is at least a hundred kilometers from Banta City to Samara, right? Even if it was only built as wide as the Falling Rain Road, it would cost close to three hundred thousand gold coins. Are you willing to pay that much?”
“Three hundred thousand…..That isn’t that much. If there are toll booths, even if I can’t get back the cost, I wouldn’t lose much.” Chairman Renersa thought about it before suddenly slapping his leg, “Good, it’s settled! Chairman Cruise, when we get back to Banta City, I will discuss with your company on building this road. What do you think?”
Chairman Cruise and Xu Yi were both surprised. It was Xu Yi looking for chairman Cruise to build a road, so how did it become chairman Renersa suddenly deciding to build a road?
Xu Yi thought about it before saying with a smile, “Chairman Renersa, it is good that you can see the benefits of building a road. But the road that I mentioned would pass through the Black Rice Wasteand, it would be far from being enough just reaching Samara.”
This time, chairman Cruise and chairman Renersa looked at Xu Yi in surprise.
This fellow actually wanted to build a road to the beastmen’s home?
He was crazy!