After hunting the Megalodon, Richard gave a bounty to the members of the Demon Hunters. Although the amount is not much, it is equivalent to a year's salary. More than thirty demon hunters added up to five hundred gold coins.

With the bounty in hand, Sulla invited Jennings, Julian, and other old friends to dinner.

They were all the first slaves, and this year is already the seventh year that they have joined the Haaland domain.

More than one-third of the 300 comrades-in-arms who joined the army that year have been killed and more than one-third have been disabled. In addition to some of those who have retired from active service, there are only a dozen people left who are still working in the army.

These dozen or so people have different talents, some have developed well and have been promoted to the third rank, and some have average development and are still medium warrior students.

Sulla led everyone into a hotel, Jennings looked at the hotel sign, and asked a little strangely, "When did Fort William open a hotel?" ”

For most of the past six months, Jennings has been leading troops outside, and after returning to Fort William, he actually has a strange feeling.

On the streets of Fort William, there was a number of commercial activities.

You must know that before the orc invasion last year, Fort William was still a military fort, and it was also militarized, and there were no business personnel at all.

"Jennings, you've been out there for too long, and the territory is changing very quickly."

Sula smiled, beckoned a few people to sit down, beckoned the owner of the hotel out, pointed to the boss and asked Jennings, "Do you remember him?" ”

The owner of the hotel looked to be in his forties, very capable, and had a military style. It made Jennings feel a little familiar, but he couldn't remember it for a while.

"Forget it, it's Odaye."

"Odaye, you've changed so much, we shouldn't have seen each other for four or five years, right? I'm so sorry I didn't recognize you. ”

Odaye was also a comrade-in-arms of a squadron of Jennings and Sulla, and he was in a squad with Sulla, sleeping in a tent and eating a pot of rice.

It's a pity that his physical talent is very average and he can't withstand the high-intensity training of the army.

Not only was the progress of the breathing method very slow, but he also vomited blood and injured his internal organs during a training session.

In the end, Odaye was considered unfit for combat, received a part of the allowance, and retired from the 1st squadron.

Odaye was injured in training, and although he did not make any achievements, he was reinstated as a freeman ahead of schedule.

In recent years, he has been working in a tailor's shop.

After a few years of recuperation, Odaye's body finally recovered a lot.

After the end of the war, Odaye met his good friend Sulla at Fort William.

I haven't seen each other for a few years, and the circumstances of the two are already worlds apart.

Today, Sula is already a squadron leader, with a monthly salary of three gold coins, plus various rewards and allowances, and an annual income of more than forty gold coins.

Not only is the income high, but the status is also high, and the class jump has been achieved, entering the middle and upper classes of the territory.

And Odaye, although he became a freeman a few years earlier and saved a little money, has a very obvious difference in status compared to Sula.

At that time, because of the relationship between his fellow villagers, Odaye took good care of Sula.

In the slave market, in the army, help him as if he were a big brother. At that time, their relationship was like that of relatives.

After Odaye retired from the 1st Squadron, he couldn't accept the reality, so he didn't contact his former comrades, and did some work within his capacity in the clothing factory while recuperating from his illness.

Seeing his old friend again, Odaye suddenly felt ashamed.

He was about to pretend he didn't know him, but was stopped by Sulla.

Knowing about Odaye's current situation, Sulla also lent him 100 gold coins to finance him to open a large restaurant.

Sulla served in the army for seven years and was reinstated as a freeman four years ago. He did not get married, and after becoming a professional officer, his income increased greatly, and in a few years, he saved more than 100 gold coins after receiving several awards for meritorious service.

Able to lend 90% of his fortune to a friend at one time, Sulla is undoubtedly a person who does not value money and feelings.

Odaye is not only a comrade-in-arms with Sulla, but also has a special relationship with Jennings.

Jennings was suffering from the plague, and before he was treated by Richard, it happened to be Odaye who brought him food.

At that time, Sulla was also suffering from the plague, and in order to take care of this little fellow villager, Odaye offered to bring food to the sick slaves.

As he was in charge of delivering food to slaves suffering from the plague, Odaye was soon infected.

Together, they were bought by Richard and survived to join the Harland leadership.

Because of this relationship, Jennings was particularly excited to meet Odaye.

"I remember how you didn't know how to cook, how could you open a restaurant?"

"Time can change everything, seven years has changed Jennings, and it has changed Odaye."

Seeing that Jennings was still willing to associate with an inferior person like himself, Odaye felt his true feelings. He patted Jennings on the shoulder and made a joke.

"It's the honorable lord, Viscount Richard, who has changed everything for us."

Because Richard changed the fate of Jennings's family, he was very loyal to Richard, which can also be shown in daily casual conversation.

If someone unfamiliar meets Jennings, they must think that he is a man who is good at whiskering and shooting.

"I really owe a debt of gratitude to Lord Richard, without whom we would not have the good life we have now. I'm a restaurant owner, so I don't need to pick up a kitchen knife to cook, and our restaurant employs three indentured slaves, and one of the chefs is very skilled. “

"Haven't the indentured slaves in the realm always been under the direct administration of the authorities?"

"The letter of the law has changed since last winter. Today's indentured slaves are divided into official slaves and private slaves. Official slaves are slaves directly managed by the government, private slaves are slaves purchased by free people from the outside world, official slaves are known to sign a five-year contract, and private slaves can sign a contract for ten years. ”

After this year's Goddess's Birthday, in the year 3259, there were 14,000 freedmen in Haaland's territory.

Most of the freedmen in the territory are the families of the dead, wounded, and meritorious soldiers, and there are more than 8,000 of them.

As long as you join the army, the threshold for becoming a free citizen with your family is not high, as long as you have fought a few battles and cut off the head of an orc, you can basically make war achievements.

Of the 1,600 veterans in the territory, more than 90 percent are meritorious servicemen.

With the exception of the soldiers' families, most of the freedmen were slaves for the first two years. In addition, those who have contributed to the development of the territory and have been recognized and commended by Richard will also become freedmen in advance.

Fourteen thousand freedmen, because of Richard's thin tax policy, have now saved some money.

Many people with flexible minds have already started business activities.

Engaging in business activities is naturally inseparable from employing people.

However, the indentured slaves in the territory were controlled by the government, and they hired freemen and could not afford to pay too high a price.

The first merchants of the realm, all of them nimble-minded, approached Justice Otto to to change the law and open the way for them to buy slaves from the outside world.

Otto thought for a moment, agreed to the merchant's request, and decided to talk to Richard.

Although it is easier to infiltrate spies, it is also of great benefit to the development of the territory.

Because of the fact that he had raised too many troops, Richard could not afford to continue buying slaves for the time being.

If we want the population to continue to grow, we need to rely on the power of the private sector.

Many of the businessmen in the private sector are family members of military officers, and they have accumulated a lot of money in their hands.

If the money is hidden in the cellar, it will only cause deflation and will not benefit the economy of the realm in any way. If used to buy slaves, it will increase the strength of the province.

When the population increases, the size of the market will become larger, and the economy will develop.

How much power a territory has, not how much gold and silver there is in the hands of the lord? Rather, how many supplies, how many people, how many armor, how many extraordinary powers are there in the territory?

(End of chapter)