Alice blushed and asked, "My lord, but seriously, it won't be a trick on me, are you really willing to reduce the price by another 10%?" Zhao Huzhong laughed secretly, this stupid girl is just so foolish! I didn't even know the strategy of retreating, in fact, Zhao Hu had already secretly arranged it last night. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

It is necessary to show their military strength in front of the Kazakhs, but also not to force the Kazakhs to death, and this time the Kazakhs did not hesitate to use the state treasury to buy food, which shows that it has reached the most critical time.

If you hide your life-saving food and don't sell it, or the price is too high for the Kazakhs to afford, and the dying and struggling Kazakhs are forced to hurry, 20,000 Kazakh elite iron horsemen abandon the imperial capital and instead storm the tower fortress with a large amount of grain, even if they have tens of thousands of troops and a strong fortress, they will not be able to withstand the full attack of the 20,000 Kazakhs who are not afraid of death.

When the time comes, the chickens fly and the eggs are hit, the people and money are empty, not only can not keep the food, but also can not escape the fate of fleeing in a hurry, rather than selling half of the grain in their hands to the Kazakhs, which can not only be exchanged for the war horses, gold coins and other materials needed to strengthen the strength, but also allow the Kazakhs to better consume the strength of the imperial capital.

Sitting on the mountain and watching the tiger fight, why not do it with one stone.

If you lower the price first, the Kazakhs will not take risks if they can buy basically enough grain, and the grain they sell can also be bought back from the poor rural nobles in the south who only have grain left with the gold coins paid by the Kazakhs.

No matter how fierce the Kazakhs are, they are all like this, as long as there is a glimmer of hope, no one wants to break the jar.

With this realization on Zhao Hu's side, the negotiations naturally advanced quickly, and the negotiations that were originally planned to take ten days were basically negotiated on the third day.

On the suspension bridge of the tower fortress, Alice, who was wearing fiery red scale armor and had an excellent image of Zhao Hu, crossed her hands and bent down to Zhao Hu to make the most honorable namaste of the Kazakhs: "Dear Marquis Zhao Hu, thank you for your kindness to help us Kazakhs at the most critical moment, we Kazakhs respect the most friends who are willing to really help us, I can assure you here that our army will withdraw from the sixteen villages and towns around the tower fortress according to the agreement, and hand over the northern boundary of the tower to your lordship!" Watch Alice's graceful figure disappear into the depths of the Kazakh barracks outside the city.

After three days of bargaining, Zhao Hu and Alice, who were in love with each other, finally reached an agreement, and the Kazakhs exchanged 400,000 gold coins and 2,000 warlike horses, 5,000 ordinary pack horses captured from the Roman Empire, and sixteen villages and towns north of the tower fortress for 500,000 stone of grain for the tower fortress.

As for the captured nobles, Zhao Hu's attitude was very clear, the ransom was impossible, and the grain could be considered, so it would be exchanged for 500 stone of grain per person, whether they wanted to change it or not, whatever the Kazakhs were. Anyway, those losers are also raised by you Kazakhs, and no one is rare if you love them or not.

Such a low standard was unacceptable to Alice, and she immediately vetoed this possibility, and finally after a moment of hesitation by Zhao Hu, she ransomed all the captives at the price of 100,000 stone of grain.

"My lord, if we supply the Kazakhs with such a large amount of food, if His Majesty the Emperor knows, my lord is not afraid that we will be held accountable for the crimes of our enemies?" Tie Long looked at Zhao Hu, who was leaning on the battlements and fanning himself with a handkerchief, and asked with a worried face.

"Rivals? We sacrificed our 600,000 stone of grain in exchange for the noble lords of the north, which should be a noble deed worthy of praise. We are noble knights, how can we do such a disgraceful thing as an enemy! Zhao Hu looked at Tie Long, who had a big mouth and could swallow eggs, and continued.

"It's not to find someone to carry the black pot, what do I want to do with those wastes who just eat and don't work? 100,000 stone of grain, enough to feed pigs, 2,000 heads. Zhao Hu's face was full of pain, as if he had suffered a huge grievance.

Three days after Alice left the tower, 3,000 Kazakh cavalry drove the thousands of horses and 400,000 gold coins to the border of the tower, and the exchange process went smoothly, and the 3,000 Kazakh cavalry left with a thousand Kazakh defenders in sixteen villages and towns.

In addition to money and horses, Munda who went to exchange also brought back a group of beggars in tattered clothes.

Hundreds of battle flags embroidered with three-legged falcons of the Falcon family fluttered in the wind, 2,000 spearmen wearing iron scale armor and holding three-meter spears in their hands, fully armed spearmen, divided into ten long phalanxes to isolate the tens of thousands of villagers watching the excitement from 20 meters away, and 1,000 heavy infantry wearing heavy armor and holding tall shields stood on the inside of the road like two fences made of steel.

"Are you all ready? Remember to make the atmosphere a little warmer, it is best to make the entire Roman Empire know how much our iron tower attaches importance to the top of these empires, how much we abide by the knightly rules of caring for the nobles, how noble the moral character, and how willing to give 600,000 stone grain to redeem these big men, after all, we have to rely on them to carry the black cauldron of the enemy! ”

Zhao Hu stood on the suspension bridge of the tower fortress in heavy armor, wearing a long red velvet cloak representing the identity of the commander behind him, stretching his neck like a fat goose to look into the distance, and whispered to the iron dragon who accompanied him.

"Please rest assured, according to your lordship's orders, your subordinates not only arranged the highest and top 3,000 military formations, but also mobilized all the nearby villagers to come and watch, I believe that in less than ten days, the news that the tower has redeemed one hundred and sixty big men from the Kazakhs with 600,000 stone grain will spread throughout the Roman Empire!"

"My lord, you see how these captives will be resettled after they come back, in terms of identity, they are all important figures in the imperial capital and the north, and in terms of status, there are big people like Duke Hans, according to the rank, to satisfy these one hundred and sixty high-level nobles, this is a lot of expenditure for our tower.

The Kazakhs can treat them according to the general treatment of captives, and if we also follow the standards of the Kazakhs, not only will the prestige of the adults be damaged, but once the war subsides, these big people who hold real power will return to the imperial capital or their northern territories, and I am afraid that they will also do things that are unfavorable to the adults in the future! ”

The financial officer behind Zhao Hu, Starn, had a sad face, this former knight who was driven back to his hometown by the northern lords because of his battle wounds, has always been resistant to these northern lords, and he is also opposed to the decision to exchange prisoners.

"Hehe, what's so difficult about this, am I not the city lord of Chaoyang City, place all these big people who spend a lot of money in Chaoyang City, so that these big people who are used to staying in the prosperity of the north can also see what is called a hundred miles of long red street, and Chaoyang City that never sleeps. With the support of these adults, it is difficult for my Chaoyang City not to prosper, as for the problem of money, it is easier to deal with, they have no money but their family has money, he asked us for money, we asked their family for money, if there is no money to take it, we can't blame our tower, we can only blame your family for refusing to give money!

Anyway, we are just doing the middle transfer, so naturally we have to take a part of the handling fee! The more they spend, the more we take, what are they afraid of spending money for? Not only do you want them to spend money, but you also have to encourage them to spend big. ”

Zhao Hu responded disapprehantly, his neck that had been stretched out and looked at it from afar retracted, and his mouth made a grunting sound.

"What kind of aristocrat is this, it's simply a beggar gang in the world, who is the old man who runs at the front?"

I saw that on the road ahead, a group of ragged beggars, escorted by hundreds of soldiers on the left and right, pushed each other and stumbled towards the tower fortress.

At the front was a stubborn old man with a white beard, burly and with flying feet, and his fierce energy could not match his age at all, throwing out the young man behind him a lot, and he was also the best in his body, and the Kazakh allowed him to wear the old chain mail that had fallen off his tattered buckles.

Although the nobles behind him had been pushing each other to occupy a good position that would reflect their status, none of them could run forward to overtake him, because he was the Grand Duke of Hans, one of the three dukes responsible for guarding the northern border.

"Woo! Woo! Woo! ”

The sound of three loud trombones sounded from the head of the tower fortress, not only frightened all the captives, but even the stubborn old man who ran in front almost fell to the ground, only to find that the door of the tower fortress in front of it, crowded with people, lively, two rows of murderous heavy infantry holding large shields, standing on both sides of the road with swords in their right hands.

The old man's excited heart just now was poured with cold water: "What do you want to do?" Could it be that this Lord Zhao Hu wants to kill all of us nobles who were captured by the Kazakhs?

"Huh"

The two thousand spear phalanx soldiers standing outside the city put their feet together, straightening their bodies in unison, the crisp sound of their heels hitting each other carried an indescribable majesty, and the spears in the soldiers' hands shone in the sun, like a forest of spears, which stimulated the old man to tremble.

"Whatever, if he dies, he will die, now there is no other way out except to go to the iron tower, even if he wants to go back to the north, I am afraid that he will be arrested by the Kazakhs again!" The spirit of the Grand Duke of Hans was unmistakable, and no longer heeding the inexplicable arrangement in front of him, he was the first to run on the stones of the heavy infantry standing on both sides.