Chapter 137 Beastmen Independence Regiment
There was a crescent moon hanging in the sky tonight, so the moonlight wasn’t that bright.
Adding in the fact that the Black Rice Wasteland wasn’t as illuminated as Banta City, when night came, there was only the flames of the bonfires at the caravan’s camp site on the entire plains.
This was a vast and empty area, so these bonfires were the most obvious goals. It guided the surrounding beastmen who already couldn’t control themselves.
In the deathly silence around them, there was suddenly a long wolf roar before there were echoes that sounded on the plains, as if countless horses were charging across it.
Hearing this sound, chairman Renersa’s expression changed.
“This is bad! It’s actually the ox beastmen!”
As soon as this voice fell, there were a large mass of dark shadows that appeared in the distance. They were charging forward with a wild aura.
At the same time, there were countless shadows that appeared around them. Some were tall and some were thin, but they all revealed a sharp and fierce aura.
“Chairman, it seems to be the Beastmen Independence Regiment!” A Renekton Chamber of Commerce shouted to chairman Renersa with a shocked look.
Chairman Renersa’s expression changed again.
Xu Yi on the side asked in surprise, “What is the Beastmen Independence Regiment?”
“It’s a group on the Black Rice Wasteland who aren’t willing to accept humans, but they’re actually a group of beastmen bandits. But they are different from the other beastmen who rob human caravans, these fellows have a deep hatred for humans and they will kill all the humans in the caravan when they attack. The royal army had encircled them many times before and I thought that since they hadn’t appeared in a while, they had disappeared, but I never thought…..they would suddenly appear.”
Seeing the dark expression on chairman Renersa’s face, Xu Yi asked, “Are they very strong?”
Chairman Renersa looked at the quickly approaching beastmen with a bitter smile, “There’s this many of them, can they not be strong?”
Xu Yi wanted to ask something else, but there were countless arrows that suddenly flew through the sky. Then there were a group of beastmen who were still two hundred meters away that all fell down.
Chairman Renersa was stunned before revealing a look of joy. He forcefully grabbed Xu Yi’s shoulder, “It’s a good thing that chairman Xu brought fifty elven guards, otherwise we might have died here tonight!”
Compared to humans, although most beastmen had an advantage at night, if one really wanted to compare battle efficiency at night, how could beastmen compare to elves that were called the children of the night.
Although everything was complete darkness, under Furio’s instructions, the fifty elves released their feathered arrows and the beastmen fell one by one.
To honour her cooperation with Xu Yi, the fifty warriors were the strongest elven warriors picked out by elder Illusia, so there was no need to doubt their battle strength.
Once the battle began, they immediately revealed a battle strength that far surpassed human warriors.
But there were too many beastmen who were attacking. Although the fifty elves could take out a beastman with each arrow, the killing power of a bow ended there and they couldn’t stop the beastmen from approaching.
In the blink of an eye, the beastman in front was already less than a hundred meters away from the caravan. They could even see the fierce wolf head of the beastman charging at them.
Seeing this, chairman Renersa let out a sigh, “It’s a pity that those noble magicians look down on our company, otherwise if we had some powerful magicians, it would be even better.”
When chairman Renersa was prepared to order his guards to attack the beastmen, Xu Yi suddenly gave a laugh from beside him. Then he saw a giant fireball that was as tall as a person suddenly fly out, landing on the dense group of beastmen in front.
“Hong!”
The giant fireball suddenly exploded in between the beastmen.
With this large sound, there were countless beastmen that were blown away by the force of the explosion.
Sparks flew all around and countless beastmen were set on fire.
In just the blink of an eye, the beastmen charging in chairman Renersa’s direction were completely routed.
Chairman Renersa suddenly turned to look at Xu Yi and saw him throwing out another giant fireball.
After being stunned, chairman Renersa finally understood.
After being with Xu Yi for this long, he always treated Xu Yi as the chairman of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce. But he had completely forgotten that Xu Yi had another identity, a powerful magician!
Although chairman Renersa didn’t know what grade magician Xu Yi was, for him to be able to casually throw out such a powerful fireball, his grade wouldn’t be low.
The more important thing was that there was actually the existence of a magician among the guards of the caravan.
It had to be known, the magicians had a lofty position on the Sines Continent because magicians were powerful and they had a very important use during battle.
It was because of this that many famous companies would invite magicians as special guards.
Although chairman Renersa had wanted to invite some magicians to be guards for the Renekton Chamber of Commerce, low grade magicians didn’t matter and magicians that were strong enough for companies to invite looked down on the Renekton Chamber of Commerce. So the Renekton Chamber of Commerce’s guards never had a magician.
Because there was no magician, he was somewhat worried when he saw those beastmen.
But suddenly remembering that Xu Yi was a powerful magician, chairman Renersa was filled with confidence. He looked at the fierce beastmen and he felt that they didn’t pose any threat at all.
This sudden fireball didn’t just return chairman Renersa’s confidence, it also greatly increased the morale of the guards.
Knowing that they had a powerful magician with them, the guards suddenly lost all their despair from earlier and were filled with courage.
After Xu Yi had scattered the beastmen with several spells, the Renekton Chamber of Commerce’s guard leader gave a roar and charged forward with the guards, meeting the beastmen who had finally come over.
The elves led by Furio also put away their bows and took out their elven shortswords, beginning to fight the beastmen in close combat.
This close combat began to show the difference between humans, beastmen, and elves.
Although the Renekton Chamber of Commerce’s guards were outstanding human warriors that chairman Renersa had recruited, once they began fighting with the beastmen, they were at a disadvantage.
Especially when they were facing the strongest ox clan beastmen, they even needed two or three people to deal with one of them.
Even if the remaining wolfmen, tigermen, and other beastmen couldn’t compare to the ox clan, they were still at a disadvantage when it came to single combat.
The Renekton Chamber of Commerce’s guards with the Amrit Chamber of Commerce’s guards added up to three hundred people, but they could only block a hundred or so beastmen. They had to defend with all their power to stop the beastmen from charging through them.
There were only around two to three hundred beastmen that attacked this time. If it wasn’t for the bows of the elves and Xu Yi’s magic taking around a hundred of them out when they were charging, they wouldn’t have been able to stop them with these guards.
Comparing it, the elves blocking beastmen on the other side revealed battle strength that was on an even higher level.
Although there were only fifty elves, they were also facing around a hundred beastmen and these fifty elves were much more relaxed compared to the three hundred human guards.
Xu Yi saw that the elves could maintain their graceful and elegants steps even in battle. Each action seemed fluid and beautiful.
Even though these actions seemed light and weak, the beastmen kept falling one by one like they couldn’t resist at all.
Seeing this scene, Xu Yi believed that the elves could rule the continent several thousand years ago.
They were super talented whether it came to close range combat or long distance bow shooting, they could even be teachers to humans when it came to magic. If they couldn’t control the continent, it would be strange.
If it wasn’t for the fact that the elves had a low fertility rate, that was slow and declining even when there was no turmoil, it would have been very hard for the humans to steal control of the continent from the elves.
While thinking of these historical changes on the Sines Continent, Xu Yi’s hands never stopped moving. He threw out a few spells when he had nothing to do and the beastmen who were about to break through the defenses were sent flying.
The battle continued for around half an hour and more than half of the attacking beastmen had already fallen.
The less than a hundred beastmen remaining saw the situation was bad. It was unknown which beastmen roared out, but all the beastmen forced their opponents back and turned to run.
Chairman Renersa stopped the guards that wanted to chase and because the elves didn’t receive Xu Yi’s orders to chase, they also stopped.
Seeing the remaining beastmen disappear into the dark and vast wasteland, chairman Renersa let out a long sigh of relief.
“Alright, even the Beastmen Independence Regiment was easily repelled by us. I think the other beastmen of the Black Rice Wasteland won’t blindly offend us.”
Xu Yi looked at the beastmen in pools of blood around the caravan and was silent.
Although he wasn’t compassionate enough to sympathize with these beastmen whose hands were soaked from the many humans who they had killed, this was still his first real battle.
Even if he was just throwing out a few spells and didn’t fight close range, it still made him a bit uncomfortable.
Seeing the expression on Xu Yi’s face, chairman Renersa looked around and guessed why Xu Yi had suddenly fallen silent.
Thinking about it, chairman Renersa patted Xu Yi’s shoulder and said in a comforting voice, “Relax, you’ll get used to it in the future. In the end, the continent is not as peaceful as Banta City.”
Xu Yi gave a slight nod.
He knew that to change the continent, this was one of the key issues he had to face.
Or perhaps his reason for changing the continent was to change the backwards primitive nature of the continent.
Seeing the bloody scene in front of him, he deeply acknowledged something.
The path that he chose would be very long and difficult.
But for him, the only choice he had was to not look back and firmly continue down this road.
Chapter 138 Worker issue
By noon of the next day, the caravan finally reached the Voller wolfmen tribe.
Not knowing if it was a mistake, Xu YI felt that chief Leiming Voller was treating him much more seriously this time.
Especially when facing Xu Yi, his attitude had clearly changed.
Last time chief Voller looked at Xu YI with disdain, but this time, he actually revealed a smile.
Although his wolf head smile was very ugly and even scary looking, it was enough to show his friendliness towards Xu Yi.
Of course, this was probably because he had received five hundred thousand gold coins from Xu Yi.
Even beastmen also had to live their lives.
With five hundred thousand gold coins, the Voller tribe could buy many goods they needed from humans and improve the lives of their clansmen. It would also consolidate his position as the tribe chief, so of course he was much more friendly to Xu Yi’s group.
The caravan rested at the Voller Tribe for a bit and after eating lunch, the guards and the caravans headed to the non-ferrous lodes by the Voller Tribe.
Opening a mine was not something that could be done in a day or two. According to their plans, the three companies would be building a living area by this mine and letting the workers live there.
Later when the equipment and people were transported over, the mine would be able to start operating.
According to their estimates, this would take around three to four months.
But compared to opening the mine, the real problem was with the logistics.
This mine was in the Black Rice Wasteland after all, even the Samara Town was quite a distance away. It would be difficult to send all kinds of supplies over.
For this, the three of them had come to a decision. First the Amrit Chamber of Commerce would send out a construction team who would create a road leading to the Voller Tribe from Samara Town.
Like this, they could reduce the transport time from Samara Town to the Voller tribe by half a day, avoiding the robbery attempts of the beastmen.
As for the transport of supplies, the three companies would first store them in Samara Town and transport them when they needed them.
To solve this initial problem, the Amrit Chamber of Commerce would quickly build a road between Banta City and Samara Town.
When they reached this suggestion, Xu Yi said that it was better to build a road from the Falling Rain Valley’s road to Samara Town instead.
Although it would still be quite a bit of a detour, with the total distance being increased by over ten kilometers, with the existence of the Falling Rain Road, the Amrit Chamber of Commerce wouldn’t have to build a road that was over a hundred kilometers long at once. They just needed to build a sixty to seventy kilometer road between the Falling Rain Road and Samara Town, which would without a doubt save quite a bit of money and time.
Other than supplies, the other thing troubling them was the problem with workers.
The Black Rice Wasteland was the territory of the beastmen and to most humans, beastmen were repulsive and fierce, as well they weren’t friendly to humans. So if there wasn’t a need, there would be no humans who would go to beastmen territory.
To mine this lode, they had to send many workers in the end.
But to request humans to work in beastmen territory for a long period of time, this really was forcing people.
When the three companies were recruiting workers, they even promised a high wage that was close to thirty gold coins a month.
Even like this, there were far from enough human workers who were willing to come.
The three discussed this issue and each time they discussed it, they felt like there was no way forward.
The three of them could only take their time and under the enticement of the high wages, recruit enough human workers.
But arriving at the Voller Tribe and seeing the change in attitude of chief Leiming Voller, Xu Yi immediately thought of a new possibility.
After having lunch, Xu Yi met with chief Voller and gave him his request.
“You want our clansmen to work for you?” Chief Voller’s wolf eyes opened wide as he looked at Xu Yi in surprise. Could it be that this human was crazy?
The relationship between humans and beastmen was just taking what each side needed. They just did some superficial deals and then there was mutual slaughter, no further relationship.
These humans opening a mine near their tribe and even paying them five hundred thousand gold coins was already enough to surprise him.
Now this human actually wanted to hire his clansmen to work for their company, this really was too strange.
“Is there a problem?” Xu Yi revealed a smile, like he couldn’t see chief Voller surprise at all, “I think that chief Voller should know that in our Frestech Chamber of Commerce, there aren’t just human workers, there are also dwarf and elf workers. If there are some more beastmen workers, do you think it would be strange?”
Chief Voller did know about this, but he still felt it was a bit strange.
“Why are those dwarves and even those hateful elves willing to work for you? Did you give them some kind of benefit?” Chief Voller asked in a curious voice.
“It’s nothing special. I just gave them work and treated them like human workers, giving them wages and benefits.” Xu Yi spread his hands as he said this.
“It’s that simple? Then those fellows are actually honestly working for your company?” Chief Voller clearly didn’t believe it.
“It’s just that simple.” Xu Yi nodded, “If you feel that you can’t accept it, whether it is the dwarves or the elves, they still need to be able to live right? Right now they can earn a stable income by working for our company and then they can buy the things they need with that wage, what isn’t good about that?”
“You’re saying…..they can use gold coins to buy what they need?” Chief Voller immediately asked.
“That’s right. This is because I have applied for labour cards for them with the Royal Parliament and when these labour cards come into effect, whether they are dwarves or elves, they will receive the same treatment as the normal human residents of the kingdom. So of course they can buy what they need.” After pausing, Xu Yi added, “Of course, there are some things that even humans can’t easily buy, so they can’t buy it either.”
“Labour card? It’s that powerful?” Chief Voller had a deep interest in this “labour card”. He had Xu Yi explain it to him for a while before he finally understood what it was.
“This means that…..if our clansmen work for your company and you apply for labour cards for us, we can use gold coins to buy things from your human world? You guarantee that we’ll be paying exactly the same as humans when we buy things?” Chief Voller asked.
“I can’t guarantee this.” Xu Yi shook his head, “But I can guarantee that if the product has a price tag of one gold coin and humans pay one gold coin when buying it, beastmen with labour cards can also buy it for one gold coin. Merchants won’t charge you extra just because you’re beastmen.”
“That is enough!” Chief Voller slapped the table and his wolf face filled with joy, “You damn human merchants…..Oh, sorry chairman Xu, I’m not talking about you. In short, when we went to your human world to buy things, we could only use items to exchange for items and couldn’t use money at all. There were many times that we used things that we knew were worth a lot in your human world, but we had no other choice. If we didn’t exchange them, the human merchants wouldn’t trade with us. If there is this labour card, that would be much better.”
Xu Yi revealed a faint smile, “Chief Voller, you’re worried about your five hundred thousand gold coins?”
Chief Voller opened his large mouth and laughed into the sky.
Although Xu Yi’s group had paid them five hundred thousand gold coins for this non-ferrous lode, as a wolfman, chief Voller knew that if he wanted to use this five hundred thousand to buy things that the tribe needed, he would be taken advantage of, so he was worried that this five hundred thousand gold coins wasn’t enough.
But now that Xu Yi had mentioned this labour card thing, he began to see hope.
“Chairman Xu, if you can help me, I can agree to your request and have the clansmen work for you.” Chief Voller said.
Xu Yi smiled. Seeing the look of hope on chief Voller’s face, he didn’t need to guess what he needed help with.
“I’m afraid I really can’t help you with this, you should discuss this with chairman Renersa.”
“Renersa?” Chief Voller blasted out steam from his nose as he gave a cold snort, “That despicable human has already tricked us for long enough, could it be you want me to believe in him?”
“There’s no other way.” Xu Yi spread his hands and helplessly said, “Chairman Renersa and I are partners, I can’t hide the fact that I reached an agreement with you from him. The Renekton Chamber of Commerce is in charge of trade between beastmen and humans, so if I agree to this, there might not be the possibility of cooperating between chairman Renersa and me.”
“But if you don’t agree to this, there’s no possibility of cooperation between us.” Chief Voller said without any politeness.
“No, chief Voller, things are not this absolute.” Xu Yi was unmoved as he said with the same smile, “Although I can’t promise to solve this problem for you, I can discuss this with chairman Renersa for you and make him meet your needs. What do you think?”
Chief Voller looked at Xu Yi doubtfully, “You really want to help me?”
“To be more accurate, I want to help everyone on the premise of achieving my goal. I named this win-win before, but now it is winning for everyone.”
Chief Voller thought about it before giving a slow nod.