The initial trade cooperation was reached, and Duke directly agreed with the barbarian great shaman for a time when the storm army would trade directly with the barbarians somewhere in the grassland. And Duke also reached some other intentions, that is, if the barbarians can, not only the business of war horses, but also cattle and sheep, and meat, can be discussed.

Because the meat in Storm Castle is currently in a very embarrassing situation, that is, with the increase in population, although the food is at the point of starvation, there is no oil and water. Not to mention ordinary civilians, even a person at the lord level of Duke has a difficult time if he wants to eat and see meat.

Sometimes Duke feels that life is difficult, and every month he watches countless golden coins pass by in front of his eyes, but under all kinds of expenses, his pockets are still empty.

When Storm Fortress didn't absorb the Sea Clan before, it was able to trade some fish and meat with the Sea Clan in the trade market to supplement the protein. But with the Tide Tribe also becoming its own people, and the Shark Tribe blocking the coastline, the Tide Tribe itself is not enough to eat, and needs Storm Fortress for food support, how can there be a supply of fish and meat.

In addition, with the increasing demand for animal power, Storm Castle is basically not allowed to slaughter cattle, mules and donkeys, and the general countries of this world do not have a very mature breeding and castration technology for pigs like ancient China.

However, this problem can also be resolved in the future, because the Hans Empire is probably the only country on the continent of Europa that has studied pig breeding very well, and they mainly consume pork. Once this talent can be invited, then the problem of eating meat in Storm Fort can be solved by more than half in the future, because the growth rate and meat production of pigs, as well as the cost of breeding and slaughter time, etc., are far more than cattle and sheep in the absence of a large grassland.

Therefore, Duke also traded cattle with the barbarians, exchanging salt and tea for cattle and sheep. In this way, not only can the living conditions of the people of Storm Fort be improved, but also the physique of the Storm Army can be greatly improved, at least these dozens of kilograms of armor and weapons can be carried for a little more time, and the future marching speed can also be stabilized at thirty kilometers, which is considered a rapid march level for other armies.

The education with the barbarians was very successful, but when these things were reported back to Storm Castle, the agricultural officer Adela and the commercial officer Andy were very headaches. In addition to the armor and weapons, which were not enough in production, salt, tea, iron, and other materials began to have great pressure as the volume of trade progressed.

It's okay to talk about salt, after all, Stormcastle is on the verge of the Sea of Death, and there are several natural salt drying sites, so under normal circumstances, production is not a problem. Before Duke came to Stormcastle, the sea salt trade had always been one of Stormcastle's pillar industries, maintaining the operation of the entire city lord's guard and the survival of the people of Stormcastle.

Even if it is a transaction in the summer, it can be satisfied according to the output of the salt farm, but it is still spring, and the time of the summer sun is some distance away, and the rainy spring rain has caused the salt drying plan to be very unsmooth. But fortunately, the world is covered with amazing vegetation, and Storm Castle has coal resources, so I have switched from drying salt to boiling salt.

Adra, the tea farmer, really didn't have anything to do, because Storm Fort tea had never been the main industry, and there was no habit of drinking tea. But in order to solve this problem, Adela planned to open up tea mountains in the Saint-Michel Mountains in the spring, and let some of the old and weak women and children of the dwarven tribe plant them.

This not only lays the foundation for the agricultural and sideline industries of Storm Castle, but also improves the living conditions of the dwarf tribe, after all, once they integrate into the human society of Storm Castle, then they will have to face a lot of buying and selling transactions, the wages of dwarf craftsmen are very high, but they have no other production, plus the dwarves are too alcoholic, and the living conditions of the entire dwarf tribe are not high.

Therefore, Adela's idea is to take advantage of the mountains of the Saint-Michel Mountains where staple food cannot be grown, and secondly, to settle the surplus labor of the dwarven tribes, and finally to create greater value, which can be described as killing several birds with one stone.

However, it takes about three or four years for the tea leaves to be picked, so during this time, Storm Castle can only be purchased from other territories and sent to the northern defenses. Fortunately, tea is actually not expensive, and with the support of the strong transportation capacity of the storm truck, it should not be a problem.

The biggest problem now is the production of weapons such as the Storm Armor. Because the Storm Army's own shortage is tens of thousands, as well as the ration of the Sea Clan and the dwarven recruits. You must know that most of the dwarven labor force has joined the army, and the rest are also in the hydraulic factory, so there is no labor force to build armor at all, so even the dwarven army of the storm army lacks armor.

This is not a problem that can be solved by simply expanding production capacity, because now that the production of Storm Castle has reached its limit, the exchange of war horses is calculated before, and in the case of full firepower, it can barely break even, but the equipment process of the Storm Army's warframe will also slow down, and this matter can be completed in almost one piece.

But now Duke is still thinking about exchanging meat such as cattle and sheep, which is far beyond the current production capacity of Stormcastle. And sell cattle and sheep to civilians, even if you have money, there is no way to buy such things as storm armors from other places, all you can buy is sky-high, and it is estimated that you will lose money.

So this matter is not Adra, think about it, only the production of a series of weapons and equipment such as hydraulic hammer forging machines must be expanded. There is also the training and cost of future war horses, and we must also be fully prepared.

Once again, the issue of manpower was placed in Stormcastle, and Duke set his sights on any place on the continent where there was war and conflict, so that he could absorb enough displaced people. Even in order to be able to attract more people, Duke also proposed that as long as he was willing to go to Storm Castle, he could receive a gold coin for the passage, and he could exchange his labor for houses and food to ensure that their living standards continued to improve.

It's just that Duke can't complete these steps by himself, so he can only give full authority to Storm Castle City Hall. This is also to cultivate their ability to operate independently, and in Duke's absence, Stormcastle Town Hall will be able to maintain its own operations.

Everything was in full swing, and a month later, Duke completed the first batch of deals for 200 horses and 800 horses, for a total of 1,000 horses. This is basically the supplies that Duke brought from Stormfort, plus the supplies transported by the subsequent Stormfort convoys, and finally completed the first trade exchange.