After the camp was built, the caravan personnel began to prepare dinner.

Chu Tianjiang asked the three Andre brothers to stay and investigate the situation near the camp. When night fell, he sent Nicol and the others out.

Because he secretly disposed of Edgar, and then Stuart told the rest of the caravan that he had sent Edgar to the town to deal with some things, Chu Tianjiang had reason to believe that Mark didn't know that Edgar had been exposed, and he didn't know that his ambush plan had been exposed.

If Mark is going to ambush the caravan in Death Valley, he will enter Death Valley early and ambush the caravan in its path.

Obviously, Nicol and the others are better suited for reconnaissance missions.

When dinner was ready, Stewart sent Carol over and invited Chu Tianjiang and Clara to dinner. Now, Chu Tianjiang is no longer the guard hired by Stewart, but Stewart's partner. After Chu Tianjiang took out twenty top-grade diamonds weighing between twenty and thirty carats, Stewart was even more impressed with him, and invited Chu Tianjiang to dinner for two consecutive nights.

Dinner was not a sumptuous meal, but a few light and nutritious dishes were prepared.

Obviously, Stewart had already heard that Clara was pregnant, and guessed the relationship between Clara and Chu Tianjiang, so he was particularly concerned.

After dinner, Clara was a little tired, and Chu Tianjiang asked Carol to send her back to rest.

Because he had to wait for Nichol's reconnaissance news, Chu Tianjiang was not in a hurry to leave Stewart's tent.

When the maid arranged by Stewart brought the tea and pastries, the two talked about the slave trade.

Chu Tianjiang already knew that Carol was the personal maid of the daughter of the president of the Chamber of Commerce, and the other women in the caravan were also the maids of the daughter of the president of the Chamber of Commerce. To be on the safe side, Stewart left only one maid in town to take care of the young lady, and the rest followed him to Las Vegas.

Obviously, these handmaidens were slaves.

According to Stewart, there are two types of slaves according to their value, namely, slaves who are mainly engaged in labor, and slaves who are used for the pleasure of the director.

Strictly speaking, the former is more valuable, but this value is not reflected in the price.

The slaves who worked were mainly adult females between the ages of thirty-five and fifty-five, as well as adult males with weak constitution. Depending on their age and physical fitness, there was a clear difference in the price of such slaves, but they were all very low. According to Stewart, 100 ounces of gold could buy 500 labor slaves in Las Vegas, and in Houston, it was sold to a farmer for 1,000 ounces of gold. If these labor slaves are suitable for industrial production, such as the extraction of crude oil, they can be sold at a better price. That is, as long as one out of every ten slaves reaches their destination safely, the caravan will not lose money, but two will make money when they arrive.

Because of the large number of laborers needed everywhere, the demand for labor slaves was very high.

In Stewart's words, as long as you send labor slaves to Houston, you are not afraid that you will not be able to sell them. Two months ago, when many roads were impassable due to heavy snowfall, a large number of caravans could not return to Houston, and the price of labor slaves skyrocketed fivefold and was still in short supply.

However, labor slaves, like wheat, rice, and corn, are only the most basic "commodities".

Although in Chu Tianjiang's view, ten times the profit is already very considerable, but compared to the trade risk, this profit is too low.

According to Stewart, half of the caravans never returned to Houston after leaving Houston. If you can complete the "Great Loop" three times in a row, that is, starting from Houston, first going west to San Antonio, then continuing west to Elberso, then north to Albuquerque, then west to Phoenix, then northwest to Las Vegas, north to Salt Lake City and Boise, northeast to Helena, then east to Billings, south to Denver via Caspar and Cheyenne, then southeast to Oklahoma City, and finally south back to Houston, Even the most incompetent general affairs can be the general affairs, and even the general manager. It's a pity that more than half of the general affairs have become robbers and separatists in the first big cycle journey.

In addition to the plunder, the natural deaths of slaves on the way to trade were also very serious.

Even the strongest working slaves could not walk through the Great Cycle on foot. As for transporting slaves in vehicles, that is something that no one would do, because it would increase the cost several times, and even if all the slaves could reach Houston alive, it would definitely be a loss.

Of course, most caravans will not go through the big loop.

For example, if enough working slaves were bought in Salt Lake City, the caravan would go straight to Denver and then return to Houston via Albuquerque. In addition, the caravan does not have to bring slaves back to Houston, but will trade slaves along the way and buy new slaves in the next slave trading town.

However, only the small caravans led by the general secretary were mainly engaged in the trade of labor slaves.

It's the entertainment slaves who really make money.

There are three types of entertainment slaves, the most popular being the able-bodied adult male, followed by the young and beautiful female, and then the teenager over twelve.

According to Stewart, after buying a strong male slave, the slave owner will generally give him limited freedom, and his status is between that of a slave and a commoner, and the main value is to take care of other slaves for the slave owner and do some special things for the slave owner. In addition, if they have unique abilities, such as serving in the military, they will be given higher status and treatment, becoming the slave owner's bodyguard or bodyguard, protecting the safety of the slave owner and his family, and even taking care of the estate and other properties for the slave owner.

These slaves formed a special class, and they were often trusted and reused by their slave owners.

However, not all able-bodied men will willingly act as lackeys of the slave owners and obey their commands.

These unruly male slaves, who could not be domesticated, were often sold to gladiatorial training grounds to become gladiators.

Because most of these people have a skill, and they are mainly good at martial arts, many have military experience, and some have even served in special forces, so after a short period of intensive training, they will be sent to the gladiatorial arena and become victims of viewing entertainment.

Las Vegas has the largest gladiatorial arena in the Midwest of the United States, as well as three large gladiatorial training grounds.

According to Stewart, gladiatorial fights were not only for the entertainment of rulers and commoners, but also the main means of making money by dividing the power of the people, that is, gambling through gladiatorial fights. The Las Vegas white syndicate started out as gambling, and gladiatorial fighting was its main gambling industry. On important festivals, or on days associated with a ruler, large gladiatorial fights are held, and each gladiatorial fight is worth hundreds of thousands of ounces of gold. Two months earlier, on the day of her wedding, the daughter of the governor of the white Las Vegas conglomerate and the supreme ruler, a gladiatorial show was held in which as many as 100 gladiators were contested, with a whopping 1.5 million ounces of gold at stake. By manipulating the gladiatorial fight, the Governor earned 300,000 ounces of gold, equivalent to three months' profits from the Houston Chamber of Commerce.

Young and beautiful slave girls, mainly sold to nightclubs and other entertainment venues.

Of course, there are a few exceptions. That is, some people with particularly good qualifications will be "collected" by slave owners and become the private favorites of slave owners. In addition, some of them became "gifts" to high-ranking rulers or other big names by the slave owners who bought them. Some slave owners, who had large estates and a large number of slaves, would also buy some female slaves for the amusement of other slaves. For example, the owners of the three large gladiatorial training grounds in Las Vegas had many female slaves, who served the gladiators or were rewarded as prizes.

Among such slaves, there were also a small number of young males.

Of course, most of these young men were feminine and did the same thing as slave girls. Only a handful possessed a strong physique to satisfy the peculiar hobbies of some slave owners.

The latter type of entertainment slave was mostly the slave owner's attendant.

Entertainment slaves were in a slightly better position than labor slaves. The main thing is that entertainment slaves generally have a higher status and are treated better than labor slaves, most of them can be trusted and reused by slave owners, and a few more obedient can also become the cronies of slave owners.

What's more, entertainment slaves had the opportunity to redeem themselves, that is, to become commoners.

For example, some of the best gladiators had the opportunity to win their freedom in the gladiatorial arena. In the gladiatorial show held by the governor of the Las Vegas white group for the marriage of his daughter, in the last collective duel, the only winner, the "champion", won the ransom and became a commoner.

In addition, most entertainment slaves were paid, so they could redeem themselves by accumulating wages.

It's just that the higher the salary, the greater the value, which means that more money is needed to redeem themselves, so there are very few slaves who are really redeemed with salaries.

For some female slaves, there is another way to change their fate.

That is, to strive to become the personal favor of the slave owner, to bear children, especially boys, for the slave owner. If one boy and half a girl can be born, and the slave owner is more charitable and the mistress is more enlightened, the female slave can become the informal wife of the slave owner, and at the same time raise the children, become an inferior commoner. Of course, there are also very few female slaves who obtain civilian status through this method.

Whether it is a labor slave or an entertainment slave, as long as they are marked as slaves, most of them are slaves for life.

Of course, it's only been a few months, and it's not for life.

Although slavery was not practised in most places, slavery spread rapidly as the number of slaves increased rapidly. Perhaps, before the next Civil War, slavery will not be abolished, but will become the basic social institution of the United States.