In fact, in many races and cultures, including humans, a king who was willing to marry a 'lowly person' as his queen was a major event worthy of publicity.
Historians would portray this as the king's benevolence and universal love, while the enemy would portray this as the king's hobby of kidnapping women to play with. Men would envy the king's great power, while women would envy the lucky girl ….
On one hand, it showed the inequality of human rights. On the other hand, it also showed how convenient it was to have power.
On this basis, the king's' marrying a queen 'would always attract the attention of many people.
Many kingdoms liked to use marriage to strengthen their relationship with a certain country, whether it was in military, agriculture, or trade. Sometimes, being able to form a marriage alliance with a strong country was a joyous event that would make some small countries celebrate.
No one cared whether the girl who was married was willing or not. They only cared that their country had a strong backing and their lives would become more peaceful. They would even glorify the girl's sacrifice and selfless dedication in various records. Later generations would not know that the girl was probably forced into the carriage crying.
After all, he was someone who had studied history. Tang En was very clear about the marriage alliance. However, he did not expect Barod to propose marriage.
The person was Tina.
Tina was obviously frightened.
Twain did not think that Barod would like Tina. Just as he was about to speak, he heard Barod say, "Although you human women are ugly, tall, eat little, and are very weak, I am still willing to marry her as one of my queens. This will make our cooperation more stable."
Hearing this, Tang En was relieved. He was even more sure that Barod did not like Tina.
His idea of marriage alliance was for political purposes. It was to let both parties have a more stable relationship.
If Tang En was a cold-blooded and ruthless politician, he would definitely agree to it for the sake of maximizing benefits. However, it was a pity that he was never a qualified politician.
Tang En turned his head and asked, "Tina, are you willing to marry Barod?"
Tina bit her lower lip lightly with tears rolling in her eyes. After a moment, she nodded and said, "If it's your wish, I'm willing."
"No, I'm asking for your wish."
Tang En said, "In other words, do you like Barod?"
How is that possible!
Tina shook her head vigorously.
"In other words, you're not willing to marry him?"
Tina nodded with tears in her eyes.
"So," Tang En shrugged at Barod and said, "I'm afraid I can't agree to your request for marriage. Of course, even if we can't have marriage, we can still trade."
"Tsk! Surface creatures with no vision! "
Of course, Barod didn't like Tina, but she was a woman from the surface. As a king, if he could marry a woman from the surface as his queen, it would certainly increase his prestige among his subjects. At the same time, it would also expand his harem. So why not?
He spat and said unhappily, "What's wrong with me? You don't like me? You have to know that I am the most popular person here! I have the most facial hair! The most power! The purest bloodline! "
The prettiest beard was placed first. Did this mean that the beard was the most important part of the evaluation? Bloodline is the least important?
Tang En shrugged and gave Barod a way out. "Perhaps, it's because your facial hair is too beautiful that Tina can't appreciate it."
"That's true. Humans can't appreciate the beauty of facial hair."
It was rare for Brian and Barod to have a common opinion. They couldn't help but nod.
Elijah glanced at Brian and then at Barod. She touched her smooth chin and then looked at Tang En. She was suddenly very curious about what her big brother would look like with a big beard.
She thought for a moment and covered her mouth to laugh secretly.
After Tang En gave Barrod a way out, the matter of the marriage alliance was considered to be over. Tina could finally relax and eat in peace. For a moment, there was no smell of gunpowder in the room.
"This is the most satisfying meal I've ever had in my life!"
After the meal, Barod tasted the fruit desserts in the canned food and expressed his satisfaction. "I'm looking forward to the food you've brought us."
Tang En said with a smile, "It won't disappoint you. Not only that, if we sign a trade contract, we'll have an endless supply of food with Redrock Cave. You won't have to worry about food anymore."
"Hmph! What a good plan. Do you think I'm that stupid? "
Barod said to Tang En with a mocking expression. "Food trade is good, but if we entrust all of our food to you, once you purposely stop the delivery of food, I'm afraid we'll immediately face severe famine and death. Although it's a little inappropriate to mention this now, I have to say that as the king of the underground dwarves, this is something I have to consider. "
Even if Ellington could provide the underground dwarves with more food than they needed, they still had to have their own place to produce food. This lifeline couldn't be handed over to others.
Tang En was startled. He didn't think that much, but he was naturally aware of this point. What Barod said was, of course, what Tang En was most worried about. No matter the time, the production of food was one of the most basic and important indicators of a country. Ellington's food production was severely lacking. This situation had been improved after the invention of the combine harvester and seeder. Grandia's power had greatly reduced the possibility of famine in Ellington this winter.
In fact, due to the recent appearance of canned food and Grandia's continuous overtime, Ellington's citizens could already live through the first winter where they could eat their fill every day. This year, Ellington's citizens could already live through a winter where they could eat their fill every day.
"You're thinking too much, but I understand your thinking because I'm also a ruler."
Tang En still had that smile on his face, making it impossible for Baruo to see what he was thinking.
"That better be the case."
Barod finished the last piece of fruit in the can and licked his lips as if he had not had enough. Savoring the sweet taste, he said to Tang En, "Now, let's go and hand over the food."
Tang En stood up. "Of course, please prepare a large enough warehouse for me. You should know that nearly 100,000 tons of food isn't a small number."
Although the specific number was 71,000 tons, Barod didn't have a way to weigh it. With such a large amount of goods, it was impossible for him to re-weigh them one by one, so of course, Tang En was exaggerating.
The others stayed behind while Tang En and Barod went to the warehouse. Barod led the way while asking, "100,000 tons? How much is that? Is it a unit used by humans on the surface? "
Tang En smiled and said, "That's right, it's a unit we use. For the convenience of our trade, I can give you specific information and tools later."
Due to the difference in information between the two sides, if Tang En was treacherous enough, he could do something about the unit conversion and then make up an astonishing difference. However, Tang En deeply understood one thing.
Integrity was the basis of everything.
If he had been doing trade with the idea of exploiting the underground dwarves from the beginning, then it wouldn't be long before the two sides fell out.
Since there was a possibility of mutual benefit, there was no need to be too greedy.
Anyway, his goal was to use the underground dwarves' rich mineral resources to expand Ellington's production capacity.
Soon, Barod brought Tang En to a huge underground warehouse. "How is it? If it's not enough, there are a few more. "
"These few should be enough."
There were many dried mushrooms in this warehouse. It seemed to be the warehouse where the underground dwarves stored their food. It was very large, but most of the space was unused. It was the size of a hangar. If there were a few more, 70,000 tons of canned food could be stored.
"Step back."
Tang En stepped forward and stretched out his hand. A pitch-black vortex suddenly appeared in the space above. Then, the canned food was ejected. They flew out from the magic track set by Tang En and landed steadily in the warehouse. Soon, they piled up into a small mountain.
Seeing more and more canned food flying out, Barod's furrowed brows finally relaxed. Recently, no one knew how much pressure he was under. The death of the gargoyles would completely disqualify the underground dwarves from the Abyss competition. If they couldn't participate, they wouldn't be able to compete for the ownership of the caves where food could be grown. Once the dry season came, many people would starve to death.
Now that Tang En had arrived as promised, the urgent situation was finally solved.
The next step was to find a way to recapture the magic beasts and tame them from scratch. They would reach the minimum requirement of the competition as fast as possible and make the final gamble.
Tang En said as he released the canned food, "At that time, we said that it would be enough food for 100,000 people for three months. We made a precise calculation and inference based on Brian's appetite and came up with a number. We need to prepare 900,000 gold coins worth of food, a total of 71,000 tons. But in order to show our sincerity, we brought 100,000 tons of food this time."
Although the extra part was the weight of the iron box and the water, Tang En felt that he wasn't lying. He hadn't said anything yet, but if he rounded it up, it would be a hundred million gold coins!
When Barod heard this, he was overjoyed. The impact of this great news made his hatred for Twain disappear. Although Twain had indeed killed his magic beasts and caused the Underground Dwarf Kingdom to suffer heavy losses, he had used his actions to express his apology. Not to mention, those magic beasts might not have been able to let him win so much food in the Abyss competition.
How could he refuse such a powerful mage who was so sincere in expressing his apologies?
More importantly, if he didn't accept his good intentions, he wouldn't be able to defeat him.
Accepting his apology and establishing a bilateral trade relationship was his only choice.
Tang En smiled. This was the effect he wanted: 'Although I made you cry, you can't refuse my apology. I want to trade with you to express my apology and to take care of you.'
As for what would happen after accepting the trade …
'Have you heard of the Cultural Invasion?'
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