In the afternoon, André was standing in his room, biting a cigar, looking through the window at the toiling slaves outside.

His attire was completely different from the traditional attire of the Central Trade City-States, with a plain black robe and only black wings painted on his shoulders.

Although the trading city-state nominally abolished slavery, the root of this evil existed in name only, and the great slave owners of the city-state were driven by the system to change their faces, and changed a few names and were still active in the trade market, André put down his cigar, they called the humans outside workers, but in fact they were still slaves who could be bought and sold freely, and he came for this.

"Mr. Andrey, you said that your country needs a large number of people and labor to exploit the mining veins." The big slave owner in front of him looked at Andre's request and asked with some confusion: "This is a hard job, but why do you pick these children who are not yet adults?" ”

"It's too far to get to the Northlands, and I don't want my them to rebel on the way, so that children can easily manage." Andre took a sip of tea and said with a calm expression: "And don't you want to get rid of these annoying little things?" ”

"Sort of."

The other party smiled, the slave owner who can make the business the largest in the trading city-state and has been green for so many years is certainly not a mediocre fool, as soon as he heard it, he knew that the other party's words were just an excuse: "These children are all valuable assets, I can wait for them to reach adulthood and sell them at a high price, in case any of these children have the ability to become professionals, then they will make a lot of money." You must know that with such a large number, there may be someone who has the potential to become a spellcaster. ”

"These children are growing up, eating heavily and disobediently, and I don't believe you have such patience."

Andrei shook his head noncommittally: "They are the most cost-effective things for trade, and you can't exchange these slaves for the most precious gold here, don't you want to?" ”

"That being said." The slave owner glanced at the laborer outside the window: "But I lost this deal, so ...... Gotta add money. ”

The two sides sang and harmonized, exactly the same as the scene of discussing the goods, and finally reached an agreement after some bargaining, because it was the first cooperation, both parties had more or less concerns, so the transaction amount was not high, and Andrei bought a thousand people at the price of thirty gold per person, all of whom were children under the age of fifteen, and the youngest was even only nine years old.

Andrei watched as the servants under the command of the slave owner helped him count the children, although he did not know the purpose of the empire to buy foreign slaves, but the order to buy only children in the trade was undoubtedly correct - these children were reduced to slavery and had no support, if Black Wing could save them from the sea of suffering, it would be tantamount to their reborn parents, and after arriving in the Northland, life was far away, and they could only rely on the empire, and there was no way back.

After doing this for a long time, the efficiency was naturally high, and soon, the thousand men that André needed were counted, and the private army of the slave owners was responsible for escorting them to the ports of the trading city-states, and the shipping route from the Northland West Sea to the Central Inland Sea had been opened, and the trade between the two sides was much easier.

The children arrived at the port in a daze, fearful of the army and the overseers, who had obviously suffered a lot before, whether in the former Northlands, trading city-states, or anywhere else, the human management of slaves was so strict that they were hardly regarded as just another creature, and they were often hanged and whipped.

In a few moments, the harbor was filled with a dense crowd of slaves, and many of the older children looked up at the big ship with the black dragon flag fluttering, and although they might have realized something, they were at a loss for what to do, while the younger ones were already sobbing softly.

Two children who were close together were muttering quietly, and Andre had sharp ears and could faintly hear their whispers in the wind along the harbor.

"Sister, this ship has dragons painted on it, are they going to give us as a gift to the dragon to eat?"

"No, it's going to ...... Don't worry, I'll protect you. ”

Andrei followed the sound and saw a girl with a scar on her hair and face whispering to comfort an even younger boy, when the army leader had come to him: "Do you want to untie the chains?" ”

Each slave wore a wire around his neck, in addition to heavy handcuffs and shackles, Andrei thought for a moment and sighed: "Not for the time being, let them get on board." ”

"A pair of shackles of twenty silver."

The army leader smiled and reminded his companions, and the overseers violently shoved the children onto the docks, where any uneasy commotion along the way resulted in a severe beating.

Twenty large ships, ten merchant ships, and ten frigates stood quietly, and in front of each gangplank leading to the merchant ship were wooden tables, behind which several humans in black shirts were sitting, holding paper and pens, waiting for the arrival of the slaves.

The child slaves were divided into ten columns, came to the table, and one by one they were asked the questions they had prepared, and then the black shirts were in charge of registering the records, and the slave children who were already acquainted were scattered and assigned to different ships, such as the brother and sister from earlier, for which another burst of crying and commotion.

The process was extremely slow, and the army leader waited for a while, and then frowned and asked impatiently, "Is this going to be done until tomorrow?" Why is it so troublesome? ”

Andre didn't look at him, stared at the slowly moving crowd on the deck and said, "The transaction is complete, these are now the private property of the Northland, the money has been paid to your people, if you don't want to wait, you can leave first." ”

"Alright, look forward to seeing you next time."

Upon hearing this, the leader of the army did not hesitate to lead the men away, and armed men immediately poured out of the frigate to take over their mission, and the flashes of several faces of orcs and flying apes once again caused panic in the slave ranks.

"Looks like we'll see you again soon."

Andrei shook his head, as an imperial merchant, he must carefully carry out the instructions of the royal court, and in this batch of slaves, the royal court officials resolutely do not want northerners, not northerners have no origin in the northland, and the unfamiliar and helpless environment is more conducive to the control of the empire.

There are about forty northerners who have been selected, and Andrei will need to negotiate the return later, the Black Dragon Emperor is a great dictator, he did not buy these children for his own charity, but to cultivate a group of excellent and loyal talents to serve the operation of the entire imperial machine, so in the registration process just now, people who are related by blood, who are familiar with each other, or even who have only had a conversation or two will be broken up and arranged on different ships, and there will be no more contact opportunities, In order to make them become isolated individuals, they can only quietly wait for the arrival of the savior.