"My lord, I don't understand something, I want to ask," Aubrey said suddenly.

"You say," Bird guessed what Aubrey was trying to ask.

"About the former lord buying a slave"

"I don't know about this"

"This kind of thing is already an open secret in the territory of the Horsens Empire......"

"Aubrey, I really don't know, even this lord I did in a hurry. If I knew anything about what the previous lord had bought the slaves for, I'd certainly tell you, unreservedly," Bird said, with a helpless expression on his face.

According to the middle-aged man, the previous lord bought a batch of slaves every year or so. However, in the more than half a year since he took over the lordship, Bird had not found these slaves anywhere in the palace, and there was no record of them in various books.

However, a thought suddenly flashed through Bird's mind, 'Could the previous lord have a private letter to the cult?', and he remembered the secret room under the dormitory, where there were a large number of high-purity gold coins, as well as things related to magic, wizards, and dragons.

"Your Lord, Your Lord!" Bird felt a slight shake before he woke up suddenly.

Bird said apologetically, "I'm sorry, I'm fascinated"

"My lord, forget it, it's nothing, I'm just suddenly curious"

"No, I'm just wondering where the hell if there were such a large number of slaves every year."

"I've heard in the imperial capital that the nobles in the empire often buy such slaves to train them to become dead soldiers, help them assassinate enemies or make friends with others."

"Isn't there anyone in the imperial capital who cares about this?" Bird is actually a little curious, as the saying goes, at the foot of the Son of Heaven, the imperial capital belongs to this kind of place. Since the imperial law explicitly prohibits the slave trade, presumably the imperial capital should be the strictest place, why has it become an open secret now.

"It is said that the king ......" Aubrey did not say much, but the meaning was obvious.

Bird nodded, understood.

Since the highest people in an empire are involved in this matter, it is no wonder that the people below are involved in similar things, and this law prohibiting the slave trade is also useless.

"Then do you think we should buy these slaves or not?"

Seeing Bird ask, Aubrey smiled bitterly and said, "My lord, this initiative is not ours, if this slave trading team asks us to buy it, we must buy it!"

When Bird heard this, he was also dumbfounded.

"Forced to buy and sell?"

"Almost"

"The key is the forces behind the slave traders, who belong to one of the most prominent forces in the Central State, and this slave trade is only a small source of income for them. And this slave trade team that came to Stanlow this time is a small and small branch."

"We can't afford to mess with us," Aubrey said, smiling bitterly at the end.

"In that case, I can only pay for these slaves, but the price is really a bit expensive."

"As Ward said," Aubrey glanced at the old man Ward, who was still standing outside the house.

"These slaves are actually not very valuable in the Central Country, and the reason why they sent slaves to the Horsens Empire to sell is nothing more than for high profits, I think that's why they are willing to come here."

"And we don't know if it's just this slave trading team or the entire army that came to the Horsens Empire this time. ”

"How much will we tax this year?"

"Three hundred and forty-six gold coins"

About sixty slaves, each of them would have to get five gold coins, so a total of three hundred would have to be spent, and Bird felt a little distressed when he thought about it, which was almost the entire Stanlow year's fiscal taxes.

Aubrey had just taken a picture of what Bird was thinking.

"My lord, this year we have promulgated a new policy to reduce a lot of tax items, and this year's income is quite good."

"In this way, I will come up with this money myself, and the financial allocation of Stanlow will not be moved, and the money should be kept for the construction of Stanlow City."

"My lord, this is not a small sum, and you promised to establish the Lion Knights before" Aubrey was a little skeptical that Bird had so much money in his pocket.

"You don't have to worry about this, when the potions of the Naibao Firm are sold, I will surely have a lot of income," Bird said with a wave of his hand, both to comfort Aubrey and to comfort himself.

"I'll pay for it, and I'll see if I can lower the price when the time comes."

"You can find me a place, preferably a larger one, near the farmland, and arrange for these slaves to live there. When the time comes, let these people farm there, or join the knights directly, or enter the palace to serve as attendants."

Bird counted at random, and there were quite a few ways out for these slaves. I really can't afford to build a tavern or something like that at my own expense, just ask these slaves to help manage it. Thinking about it this way, Bird was in a better mood.

As for the food of these dozens of people, Bird can still afford it, because long before the winter comes, Bird has arranged for people to go everywhere to buy food for emergencies, and now it is just in handy.

"By the way, my lordship, it occurred to me that I might be able to offset the cost of buying slaves," said Aubrey with a sudden pat on the head.

"When I took these people to dine in the evening, these people were very curious about the food in the territory, especially the barbecue, and they thought it was very fragrant, and wanted to know how this barbecue was made" Aubrey was actually also curious, when Bird ordered someone to bring him some barbecue meat and other foods at the Winter Veil Festival, after tasting it, he also felt that the taste was extremely fragrant, completely eliminating the smell brought by eating meat before, especially on food such as mutton.

Aubrey's words reminded Bird, who had recently begged Bird to open a tavern in the city to sell this kind of barbecue, saying that it would be a pity if only the lord could taste it.

Bird remembers that he was also very happy at the time, and lent some money to the chef, saying that it was to help finance the kind of food that allowed his tavern to open smoothly.

Unexpectedly, Aubrey actually brought these slave traders directly to the newly opened tavern today.

"The slave trader called the cook, and the cook said that it was because of the recipe, and you had the recipe, and the slave trader said no more."

"I do have a recipe for this"