Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest-Chapter 259 - 28: The Spoils of War

The Duke and the Church Court acknowledged that Roman had the right and ability to demand a ransom.

But the price was too steep.

The annual revenue of the Black Iron Royal Family was only about two hundred thousand Gold Coins.

Ask for the moon, settle for less.

Roman didn’t expect to win a battle and then force Gael to sell his underpants.

Then they would have to trade with other resources.

As for what specifically to trade, that would require negotiation.

Gael had sent Roman Riptide, Dragon Castle’s chief Conquest Knight, while the Church Court dispatched a Bishop named Abella.

Beside Roman stood Seth, followed by a cadre of warriors.

"Lord Roman, your level of greed astounds me, this is not a price befitting a noble. If you were the one captured..."

He waved his hand to interrupt the Bishop, "Then I would kill myself!"

"That is a bit extreme..." the Bishop muttered, as the doctrine forbids believers from committing suicide.

"Lord Roman Riptide, you have dishonored your last name," said Robert.

"Call me River Valley King! Sir Robert, you know my last name was given by Alster, not by Gael!" His eyes bore down like those of a majestic lion, "You owe this ransom! Gael made me suffer great losses, I could have sent Kate’s head to Gael—best not doubt it, otherwise I swear you’ll be in for a shock!"

"I think you’ve gone mad!" Robert exclaimed angrily. As the instructor of Dragon Castle, all its youths had trained under him, and he looked towards the two Knights behind Roman, "Have you gone mad with him?"

"Sir, you taught us loyalty during our time at Dragon Castle, and I believe I have been loyal," said Green with a neutral tone.

Aaron discreetly kicked him, signaling him to shut up. Was this the place for him to speak?

"I think you have no regard for death!" Robert’s black eyes filled with disgust, "Perhaps I should have taught you to discern right from wrong better!"

"I am clearer on right and wrong than you!" Green retorted.

"Draw your weapon!" the instructor stood and shouted.

He was nearly seventy years old but still robust, lean and formidable.

Roman kicked the negotiation table over, and suddenly silence filled the room, everyone heard his cold voice, "If you don’t want to talk, get out!"

"Sir Robert, Lord Roman, let’s sit down and talk this out..." the Bishop hurriedly tried to mediate.

Grand Duke Gael could no longer suppress the roar of the River Valley King. Their current forces were still mismatched, but the River Valley King showed no fear of Grand Duke Gael.

No wonder, for even if an army of a hundred thousand were to attack, they might not be able to penetrate this river valley.

Robert, his face ashen, sat down.

The main force in the negotiation wasn’t the instructor; he was a qualified and powerful Samurai, but not skilled in negotiation.

A Financial Officer from Dragon Castle took on the role instead.

On Roman’s side, Seth took the lead.

The three parties discussed details round after round.

Until the third day, they finally agreed on a specific compensation list.

The ransom for Riptide was five thousand Gold Coins, one hundred fifty thousand silver coins, three hundred pounds of Magic Stones, five hundred Blue gems, five hundred Red gems, three hundred Green gems, and one hundred Rare Gemstones, among others.

And the Church Court’s ransom was two hundred pounds of Magic Stones, three million pounds of Saltpetre, two million pounds of Sulfur, and one hundred strands of Blood Coral, etc.

Additionally, the Church side tried to redeem all the Nuns and Priests, but Roman refused anyway possible.

He was quite satisfied with this price.

So he signed the contract readily.

Riptide and the Church, on the other hand, signed their names sweating profusely.

The most valuable were actually the Magic Stones.

Gold Coins and gemstones were secondary.

Dragon Castle was wealthy enough to rival nations, and Grand Duke Riptide’s treasury lacked no variety of gemstones.

Gemstones were not expensive; an average one was worth five or six Gold Coins, and their quality was generally not as good as the one Alster had given to Roman.

So don’t even talk about three or five hundred, thousands of gemstones of the same color series could be taken out, but this was the foundation, so the Dragon Castle side firmly refused to exchange all the gemstones.

And saltpetre and sulfur were even cheaper goods.

Though they spoke in terms of millions of pounds, their total value was just a few thousand gold coins.

Roman’s side did have a saltpetre mine, but it wasn’t easy to exploit, so it was better to exchange for ready-made ones.

In this era, humans had always been mining saltpetre, mainly for glass production, and the output was not large.

Those Magic Stones were of utmost importance. Although there were only several hundred pounds, their value was equivalent to gold, and they were not sold to the outside world at all.

Since the Noble contract had been signed, Roman directly released the captives.

To break the contract was to declare war on the Black Iron King.

However, when both sides saw the captives’ miserable condition, their faces all took on a poor complexion.

The only consolation was that Roman had only ordered their limbs to be broken, not chopped off; otherwise, they would have been completely useless.

"Lord Roman, the Judgement Knight’s Armor?" the Bishop asked with a forced smile.

"Do you think I would give it back to them?" Roman said coldly.

The Bishop’s smile became even more bitter.

Origin City probably didn’t have the technology for forging Mountain Copper, why did you covet this thing?

More importantly, that thing was really expensive.

A hundred or more pounds of Mountain Copper forged into a set of plate armor, just the cost price was in the triple digits of gold coins, and each set of plate armor was custom-made, the manpower and resources involved were incalculable.

A hundred copper coins for one gold coin might reflect the high value of the gold coin.

But a hundred pounds of Mountain Copper for one pound of Fine Gold, the price of Mountain Copper was definitely not lower than Fine Gold.

Now, to directly forfeit thirty sets was basically like tossing tens of thousands of gold coins into the water, even the Church Court felt the pain.

On Riptide’s side, seeing the situation, they also knew that the shattered Longbows could not be taken back.

Robert could only lead the remnants of the defeated soldiers back home.

Lost equipment could be remade; it was good enough that the people were still alive.

...

The outcome of the negotiations fell within Roman’s expectations, which finally allowed him to relax.

War could bring huge profits.

But Roman couldn’t possibly launch another war in the short term; now was the time to lick his wounds.

With these supplies, Origin City was going to experience a period of swift development, not the gradual linear improvement of the past, but an explosive increase.

As the saying goes, a fall into the pit, a gain in your wit.

The tragedy of the Spring Rain War could not be repeated a second time.

For the coming year, Roman had to solidify his foundation and continue to enhance military strength.

This was also why he refused to hand over the Mountain Copper plate armor.

In the five-dimensional attributes, Mountain Copper corresponded with Constitution, those thirty sets of Mountain Copper plate armor could improve the Constitution Attribute of over five hundred Angel Envoys.

Increased Constitution meant a stronger load-bearing capacity.

When the time came, the entire army would be clad in armor!

Roman planned to manufacture armor on a large scale; he initially chose the Puncture Armor style, but ultimately he designated the standard armor to be plate armor.

Not full-body style, but half-body style, focusing on protecting the torso, a unified structure that could effectively disperse impact forces,

Thus, plate armor was the ceiling of defense among all armors.

The downside was the difficulty in manufacturing.

Limited by production technology, it was impossible to mass-produce plate armor.

Even if Roman brought out the Hydroelectric Hammer, the work hours and labor needed for plate armor were still exaggerated.

So far, Roman’s troops were generally equipped with simple plate chain armor—Chain Armor with large pieces of metal installed, with very poor resistance to impact forces.

If he wanted to mass-produce plate armor, he would have to unlock more advanced technological points.