Chapter 36 A Sudden Plague

"Do all these slaves have families?"

Byers nodded and said, "Yes, they were all captured from the Delong Kingdom. In order to prevent the slaves from rebelling, all the old and children were taken away.

Except for you northern nobles, ordinary buyers do not have such a big appetite. Slaves with families cannot be sold at a high price. If Master Richard is willing to buy them in a package, I will not charge for the old and children, and give them all to you."

"How many young and middle-aged slaves do you have here?"

"About 150 men and women in total."

"What is the total price?"

"2300 gold coins."

"How about 2000 gold coins? If you agree, I will take all the slaves away."

"Master Richard, you have lowered the price too much. The slave trade is extremely risky and there is no such high profit. 2300 gold coins is already the lowest price, You are a hereditary noble, so we have already given you a partial discount. "

"Byers, not all of your slaves are healthy. Some are sick and injured. If I pay a high price, I will only take the strongest young slaves. The young and sick ones are all money-losing goods.

You should have held these slaves for a long time, right?

Once a slave has a family, he certainly does not want to be separated from his family. If you dare to sell them separately, the slaves will resist and cause bloodshed. I think 2,000 gold coins are a suitable price.

This is also because you have a large number of slaves and will deal with them in the future, so I gave a little more. Otherwise, 1,800 gold coins would be enough. "

Byers saw that although Richard was young, he was not easy to fool, so he could only continue to make excuses and boast about the advantages of the slaves, hoping to sell them at a higher price.

Just as the two were bargaining, Soros also came to the slave market with his capable mercenaries.

Soros has been to Nolan many times and has some acquaintances in the slave market.

Seeing that Soros was very experienced and familiar with the prices in the slave market, Byers could not raise the price, so he could only reluctantly agree to the deal.

Soon Richard accepted all offers and reached a deal with five or six slave traders, spending 5,600 gold coins to buy about 1,053 slaves.

The quality of this batch of slaves was not very high, half of them were old people and children. There were also a dozen disabled people and three fools.

The reason why Richard was willing to buy disabled people and fools was first to stabilize the morale of the slaves. With family burdens, slaves would generally not run away even if they left their homes.

Secondly, fools and disabled people did not cost Richard a gold coin, just a meal, and the cost was very low. Their relatives would also think that Richard was a kind lord.

Richard took the purchased slaves out of the city. He bought a lot of tents and built a simple camp at the foot of the mountain 30 kilometers north of Nolan City for the slaves to live in the camp temporarily.

The safety of the camp was left to Soros. Richard once again came to the slave market to buy one or two cheap contract slaves.

The remaining gold coins cannot be used to buy ordinary slaves for the time being.

More than 1,000 slaves are far from enough to develop the territory. In addition to slaves, Richard also needs to buy food and livestock, and the tools for production are also a big expense.

Food, clothing, housing, transportation, seeds, cattle, food, clothing and daily necessities all require money. In addition, some slaves need to be armed to defend the territory.

Just as Richard was about to leave the slave market, he suddenly saw seven or eight big men, carrying two living people with a look of fear, and hurriedly left the slave market.

Regardless of the slaves' struggles, the strong men quickly piled up a pile of firewood, and then tied the two weak slaves to the stakes, ready to burn them directly to death with fire.

Almost all humans in the Dawn Continent have the custom of burial, and being burned alive by fire is a serious torture.

Only the monks of the Inquisition will use this method to kill people tempted by demons.

In addition, people who are possessed by evil spirits will also go to the stake if the exorcism spell cannot expel the evil spirits.

The Seven Gods Churches in the Dawn Continent are all protected by gods. Although the gods are now in deep sleep, there are still powerful artifacts left.

Relying on the power of the artifact, the church priests can use some specific spells through prayer.

The church's healing and exorcism charges are not too high.

The first-ring magic costs about one gold coin to treat minor injuries. Exorcism is a second-ring magic, and the price is about two gold coins.

When Richard just crossed over, the Dawn Church priest used exorcism on him.

"What's going on? Are these people possessed by evil spirits? Why don't you ask the Dawn Church priest to exorcise them?"

"It's not evil spirits, it's the slaves who are infected with the plague."

Because there is magic in this Dawn Continent, the necromancer magicians are also very knowledgeable about the plague.

The powerful necromancer created many strange plagues, induced viruses carrying magic power, and caused countless humanitarian disasters.

When they heard about the plague, everyone present couldn't help but step back a few steps. Even the slaves in the market heard the news and began to flee in panic.

The manager of the slave market reacted quickly and immediately notified the Dawn Church priest.

The priest came to the scene and immediately shouted: "Although the slaves have lost their freedom, they are also believers of the goddess and cannot be lynched and burned to death."

"Reverend Rhodes, are these two slaves infected with the plague?"

Seeing that a slave trader familiar with him spoke up, Reverend Rhodes explained a few more words.

"It looks like ordinary plague, no magical power was found. Use healing magic a few more times and it will be cured."

Hearing this, the slave owner's face changed, and he immediately took a few strong men to capture the two weak slaves.

Since Pastor Rhodes did not allow sick slaves to be burned to death, the slave traders did not dare to make decisions on their own.

The power of the Seven Gods Church is very strong, and the church does not allow lynching and burning slaves with plague. Even if the slave traders have nobles behind them, they will not openly oppose Pastor Rhodes' decision.

However, spending gold coins and asking the church to use healing spells on slaves is not in their consideration at all.

Generally speaking, patients with plague need to use four to six light injury healing spells. Each time a light injury healing spell is used, a gold coin needs to be paid to the church.

If the patient is weak, I am afraid that the fourth ring magic spell will be used to treat severe injuries.

Using a severe injury healing spell costs about twenty gold coins.

Slave traders are not willing to invest in this aspect at all.

Seeing that the plague suddenly broke out in the slave market, Richard returned to the slave camp outside the city uneasily and failed to successfully purchase contract slaves.

After returning to the slave camp, Richard immediately formulated a strict isolation system.

Slaves in the camp were forbidden to move around freely, and escorting mercenaries were also not allowed to go out.

He also bought a batch of thick cotton cloth from the market and asked female slaves to make masks, which were distributed to families.

Every time the purchasers entered the camp, they had to be isolated and observed, and they could only be released from isolation and restored to freedom after three days.