More than a month has passed since the war, but the continuous stream of supplies from Scotland still hasn't been moved completely after a month.
This is because, despite the poverty of the common people in Scotland, the nobles virtually controlled sixty to seventy percent of the resources, and the wealth they represented from their vast resources was immense!
Since this was a war of annihilation, Kayal did not grant the surrendering nobles their former status; instead, ordinary, lowly artisans were treated better and valued by Kayal, followed by the knight class. Few knights surrendered, but those who did were set up as examples to encourage more future surrenders.
Finally, there were the farmers. The lowest rung was occupied by the nobles, who were completely incapable and only knew how to scheme… The nobles' wives, mistresses, and daughters were completely divided among Camelot's hundreds of thousands of bachelors. As for the nobles themselves, except for a very few with exceptionally strong administrative abilities who were used by Kayal to manage slaves, the rest were utterly miserable, truly living as if in hell.
The supplies and money confiscated from the noble households were so vast that nearly 250,000 horses from both Camelot and Scotland were used as cart horses.
Kayal's attitude towards horses was like that towards cars, trains, and airplanes; continuous improvement was his motto. He painstakingly selected 50,000 stallions from over 500,000 horses across the country. These horses were uncastrated and couldn't go to war, but each weighed over two tons, with glistening, long, flowing manes, almost like kings among horses. At least 20,000 high-quality mares awaited their service.
As for Kayal's demonic horse, it existed as a super stallion, with almost a mare a day serving him, just waiting for him to mount.
Kayal's Unicorn was also a mare. Kayal once had the whimsical idea of bringing the Unicorn to see the demonic horse, but while the black nightmare was willing, the Unicorn was indifferent, completely unimpressed by the big, dark brute, kicking him far away and leaving the nightmare quite wounded.
Watching the endless stream of horse-drawn carriages coming and going, a burly man dressed in animal skins looked on with envy. However, his celtic was not very good, and after much hesitation, he grabbed a new recruit who looked kind-faced and stammered in celtic, "Brother, do you know why so many carriages are driving in and out here?"
The man who was grabbed tidied his clothes and looked at the tall, burly fellow with surprise, silently praising him. Perhaps he was a Gaul who had just been released? Or a Gaul who came to do business? Gauls doing business? He was pleased with his own sarcastic joke, and with a smile, he looked at the fellow with the condescending gaze of a city dweller looking at a country bumpkin: "You don't know, do you? Scotland was destroyed by us! All these are the riches obtained from Scotland. After these riches are transported into the national treasury, they will be distributed throughout the country to subsidize us, the people of Camelot. All you need to do is register your household, and you can receive money, supplies, or food." His tone was filled with pride as he spoke.
In fact, such a distribution not only allowed for the registration of farmers under the nobles but also allocated resources based on contribution value. Those with higher contribution values would receive more supplies, such as choppers, farm tools, or horses and grain, while those with less would receive less. This greatly increased their enthusiasm.
This is the very essence of policy-driven progress and prosperity.
As he described Camelot's welfare, spitting as he spoke, and proudly showed off to the outsider, he didn't notice the greedy and desirous glint in the outsider's eyes, as if the seemingly honest outsider had suddenly transformed into a ravenous wolf.
This outsider stayed in the royal city for a day, paying with Roman gold coins. Although they were not easy to circulate in Camelot, Roman gold coins always had a high gold content, so they were not entirely rejected.
The next day, he set off, following a merchant carriage to Red Leaf Ridge, where he stayed for Ichiya, then disappeared into the vast horizon.
"Leader!" When this honest-looking fellow reappeared, he was already on an island in Iceland. Seeing the man enter the cave, countless Gauls who were singing and laughing, wiping their weapons, or raping women, all put down what they were doing, raised their battle axes, and cheered.
"Hoo-ha!!" He raised his hand and roared, like the alpha wolf of a pack.
"Hoo-ya!!" His subordinates responded, then crowded around him, asking excitedly, "Leader, how was your scouting trip this time?"
Scouting what? Scouting for fat sheep!
How was it? The seemingly honest-faced half-blood Gaul showed an unwilling, greedy smile: "It's too powerful; we can't swallow it." But it was also too rich! Even a little spill would be enough for them to eat!
"Then what should we do?" a subordinate asked.
"Unite with others." This guy still had some brains, he chuckled, appearing incredibly sinister.
The Gauls or Vikings were powerful, but none had a unified, centralized system. The Vikings generally roamed the Black Sea and Aegean Sea, specializing in plundering ships from Persia to Greece or Rome, but now they seemed to have been beaten into disarray and fled to who knows where, due to a secret agreement between the high-ranking officials of Rome and Macedonia.
As for the Gauls, they specifically troubled this coastal area.
The Romans were not afraid of them; if they wanted to invade Camelot, they only needed to build a bridge across the English Channel. The entire coastal area was open and uninhabited, just waiting for them to come in and be killed by heavy infantry. There was no profit there. But Camelot was different; as an island nation, Camelot's land resources were already insufficient. If they abandoned naval defense and even fishing and hunting, it would truly be a step backward.
Therefore, Camelot's wealth was even greater than Rome's.
The Gauls used ships and tribes as administrative units, and plunder as a means of livelihood.
Sailing the high seas with a single ship as their base, their hygiene conditions were extremely poor; almost every person had syphilis. Moreover, they almost never left anyone alive. Except for women who would be taken back to their base to be played with for a few months, everyone else, including merchants or Gauls from other tribes, would fight to the death upon meeting.
These were the most authentic Barbarians.
Regardless, wherever there are people, there is a government. As a man who owned three large ships and had plundered Camelot several times and escaped unscathed, this fellow named Bolt_Tatakin was quite influential and held a position among the Gauls… And the alliance he spoke of naturally meant—contacting all the Gauls!