The slave dealer that Jeff helped Arold contact escorted five iron cage carts to this place, these prisoner carts slowly moved through the muddy path, the cages were filled with captured slaves, these slaves wore heavy iron shackles on their hands and feet, their faces were weak, dirty, ragged, and even more moving, the eyes of these people, their eyes were full of despair and numbness of life.

"Drop the drawbridge." The sentry on the city wall saw the team of slave traders coming from the path, and he hurriedly said to the soldiers at the city gate that there was a natural moat around the perimeter of the castle, and a wooden drawbridge was used at the city gate, and the drawbridge would be pulled up by two iron chains when no one entered or left the city gate on weekdays.

"Dangdang~~~." Five sturdy soldiers turned the wooden axles and slowly lowered the chains, the drawbridge fell right above the moat, and the slave traders led their caravan into Arold's Fort of the Angry Lion.

"Let these slaves out." The slave trader ordered his men to take the slaves out of the cages, and the slaves were led out of the cages by thick iron chains, in groups of ten, under the guard of the armed traders in leather armor.

"Bed bugs, get out of here, don't be lazy." The armed trader whipped the slave with a leather whip in his hand, and the whip made of cowhide whipped the slave on the slave's body, only to make their brow furrow, and neither dodge nor shout, as if they had become accustomed to it.

"Is this all slaves?" Arold led Julian to the front of the carriage, where a hundred slaves lined up in the clearing. Meekly hung his head and waited, because Arold required that the slaves must have men, women and small children, so the real strong labor was less than thirty people, most of them were women with low spirits and thin skinny children, it seemed that the slave trader introduced by Jeff was stuffed into Arold with everything he didn't need.

"Oh, my honorable Earl, I am Amun, a slave trader, and I am glad to be of service to you." A round body walked from the back of the convoy with a big smile on its face. This year's slave trade was a bleak one, and Amun's armed traders managed to get a group of slaves from the Venetians. However, most of these slaves were women and children. Although women could be sold to the brothels of the towns, children were worthless, and they had to take care of one meal a day, which was a complete loss of money.

Amon thought he would go bankrupt this year. For this reason, he had planned to flee the town where he lived in order to escape his creditors. But one of his friends, Jeff, introduced himself to such a big business. A hundred slaves were not only unpicky, but also children and women, and although Amon did not understand the plans of the Frontier Count, who was said to be from the north, he was happy as long as there was business.

"Hmm. Is there so much slavery? Men don't look like much. As he walked by in front of the convoy, he looked around the slaves, and found that they were malnourished, and of all nationalities, and he was a little troubled, and it seemed that they had to be taught the language, and that the matter could be left to the monks.

"Yes, I only have so many male slaves in my hands, but please rest assured, Lord Earl, I will get a better batch of strong laborers next year, whether it is to go down the mine or become a rowing slave, the Tairogar people in the south are strong, I am ready to go to trade, how about if this business is successful, next time I can get a discount." Amon saw that Arrod did not seem to be satisfied with the slaves this time, and hurriedly promised him that it would be up to luck to see if he could really hunt and buy enough Tarogals.

"Children can only be counted as half." Arold is actually very satisfied, although he needs a lot of strong labor to build a territory, but at the same time he needs women and children, women can reproduce, and children are malleable, and when they grow up, they can become laborers or warriors, which is like doing long-term and short-term concepts.

"This, okay." Amon thought about it and rolled his eyes that were almost slit, he also knew that he was hungry and full of these slaves because of financial reasons, and it was good to be able to survive, and now as long as he could help, he had already thanked the Lord, and soon he made a settlement with Arrod, Amon was impressed by Arrod's direct payment of silver, and felt that this was a very generous and non-credit nobleman, and made up his mind to come to business next time.

"Lord Earl, how do you arrange these slaves?" Julian looked at the slave trader who had left contentedly and said to Arold.

"Loosen the chains of the women and children, send them to empty longhouses, give them food, and the male slaves will rush to build a water-powered blacksmith shop if they have something to eat." Arold divided the slaves, the women and children had a weak ability to escape, as long as they sent guards to watch them, and the male slaves were temporarily locked up for observation.

When Arold accepted a large number of slaves, the construction of the territory was significantly accelerated, these slaves were very docile and simply beyond Arold's expectations, Arold may have seen the story of the Spartacus slave revolt before, thinking that the slaves were full of hatred and rebellion against the slave owners, in fact, in this era the slave trade was still active throughout the Europa continent, bankrupt homesteaders, prisoners of war and sold by their families, were the main sources of slaves, and people in the Middle Ages were accustomed to it.

Although if a Christian becomes a slave, sometimes the church will come forward to redeem him, but most of the time the slaves can only pray that they will meet a good master, who in the eyes of the slave traders is just a commodity, but if they meet a good master, life and life are guaranteed.

"It looks pretty good here." A male slave from Spain with curly black hair was lying in the longhouse, he was the default leader of the group of slaves, and among the thirty he and his companions were five of them, he was a Spanish farmer, but was driven by his lord to go to war with the Muslims, but because of the lord's recklessness, he and several of his companions were captured by the Islamists and sold to Amun.

In these two years, he had enough of the suffering of the slave owner, and in the slave camp he tried to take care of the other people inside, but as a slave himself, he could only watch the weak women and children starve to death and freeze to death, which made his heart gradually numb, but even so, the only thing he did not give up hope was the woman, a Slavic woman who was sold by her husband after bankruptcy, and the two of them loved each other, even if it was an iron cage.

"Martin." Suddenly there was a sound from outside the window of the longhouse, and the Spanish slave jumped up from the ground with a rattling sound of chains, and he hurried closer to the window to see the Slavic woman standing outside the window, and he was glad that she had no chains on her body.

"Are you okay?" Martin stood on tiptoe and hooked the woman's brown hair, and there was a slight smile on his face, and by the moonlight outside he could see that the woman was much cleaner than before.

"Very good, the lord here just ordered us to take a bath, although the river water is cold, but after washing, it is much more comfortable." The woman said to Martin a little shyly.

"What? Have you ever been bullied. Martin's brow furrowed, and he knew how bad these slave owners were, and how often women were ravaged, whether they were clean or dirty, and the cleaner they were, the more miserable their fate was.

"No, the lord ordered the soldiers to fence off a place with linen, which is invisible to others, and it is the first time I have met such a good master." The woman was also a little puzzled, she believed in pagan gods, but even so, like Martin, the gods did not respond in any way when she was in trouble, but this time she felt as if the gods had heard her response.

"Really? I don't trust these nobles though, Melinda I miss you so much. Martin took Melinda's outstretched hand, the two looked at each other through the iron window, he had the opportunity to take Melinda to escape from the slave traders, but he failed, after the two were captured by Amon, Martin was beaten to the flesh, and Melinda was even more miserable, this somewhat beautiful woman was ravaged by several of Amon's men all night, which made Martin bitter and blamed himself.

"I have heard that many of the people here were once serfs, but this Count Arold promised them land and freedom, and perhaps we have a chance, you know what I can do." Melinda understands self-blame in the eyes of men, and although she has been traumatized physically and mentally, women are sometimes stronger than men.

"I know what you're capable of." Martin smiled bitterly and said that Melinda used to be Fat Amon's right-hand man, because she knew many ethnic languages, and she seemed to have this talent, and if she hadn't been burdened by herself, she wouldn't have encountered that kind of thing.

"I will try to get close to Count Arrode, that he may appreciate us, and that we may gain freedom and our own lives." Melinda said with a little excitement, and was very confident in her plan.

"But, but." Martin said a few things, however, because he was not sure whether this nobleman was really a good Samaritan, but Melinda was leaving, she couldn't stay here for too long, the patrolling soldiers would soon pass by, the two could only kiss deeply, but time was waiting, the sound of the soldiers' boots was gradually approaching, Melinda had to return to her longhouse, and disappeared into the back of the house with deep thoughts for Melinda in two steps and a look.

The next day, when Martin and the other slaves were working, he no longer numb to the mechanical work, and he carefully observed the strange castle, in which the Saxon houses were where the lords lived and gave orders, and two or three longhouses were inhabited by soldiers, slaves, and serfs, and along the inner walls of the castle were some buildings, one of which was the blacksmith he was building, but some strange gears in the blacksmith made him scratch his head. As a lord, Count Arold seemed to take this place very seriously, and from time to time he would come over to make rounds and make some suggestions to the monks in charge, and Martin found that this Count Arold was very young. (To be continued......)