At least a thousand fine weapons met the needs of the entire Free People's Corps.

However, in terms of armor, the Free People's Corps still lacked enough.

The Dwarves only brought 130 sets of armor, 50 of which were star iron armor purchased by their caravan for trade, and 80 were fine level Dwarf armor sold on the market. All this star iron armor was exchanged by Su Li for beer, beef, and venison.

Beer was especially in demand by the Dwarves, so much so that their need for it surpassed even food.

The Dwarves, when short on food, could still mix more crushed stones into their black bread, as long as it filled their stomachs.

The Dwarves were not as ravenous for gourmet food as their distant Half-Elf relatives; as long as they were full, they weren't too concerned about what they ate.

But having no beer was absolutely out of the question!

After a day of hard labor in the underground mines, drenched in sweat, the Dwarves returned with large quantities of ore, heavily burdened, and relied on a pint of beer to relieve their fatigue.

Dwarves did not favor brandy, which they considered too refined and not strong enough. Legend had it that Dwarven beer was potent enough to fuel the engines of Dwarven devices.

Right now, the Province of the Gray Mountain Range was in urgent need of beer; the ancient Dwarven relic, the Golden Comb, had been retrieved, and the Redbeard Clan Dwarves had defeated a Divine Chosen level Demon Army.

In the Province of the Gray Mountain Range, from the Dwarf King to the Mountain Lord, there was an air of enthusiasm, planning to host a feast in celebration.

But for well-known reasons, very few Dwarves or organizations could store more than two barrels of Dwarven beer, so the caravan came to the Hesse Territory to procure a large batch of human beer.

This human beer, although as bland as water compared to Dwarven beer, was sufficient in quantity to get the Dwarves slightly tipsy.

The first batch of beer brewed in Hesse Territory was almost entirely exchanged by the Dwarves.

The caravan was pressing the brewery to speed up production, given they had over two million pounds of grain there. Later, when beer barrels were insufficient, the Dwarves even helped, without charge, to chop down oak trees in the Oak woods to make more barrels.

The price of this beer was extremely low, one could say that the purchasing power of the Empire's currency remained quite strong, with 1-3 Copper Coins buying a large fragrant cup of beer.

A barrel of beer was priced at only 1-3 Silver Coins, but the price sold to the Dwarves couldn't be retail; in fact, they purchased in bulk at only 90 Copper Coins per barrel.

One set of star iron armor could be exchanged for over 15,000 barrels of beer.

The extraordinary swapping for the mundane, such was the exaggerated exchange rate.

However, Su Li didn't feel too much of a loss, because beer was mostly just water! Two million pounds of grain could brew over 13 million liters of beer.

This mode of trade pleased both Su Li and the Dwarves.

But according to Dorglin, this kind of trade might not last long.

Because the Redbeard Clan was ambitiously expanding, they believed that the Dwarves would enter an era of peace and prosperous development for a period of time. They would reap a bountiful harvest from their farms, using it to brew large quantities of Dwarven beer.

The open fields and farmland of the Dwarf Fortress were located on the territory between the border and the fortress, often constructed into extensive and magnificent terraces atop the mountains.

If, in the coming years, the weather was favorable and war ceased, then the harvests from these surface farms would be abundant, increasing the food supply in the underground agricultural halls of the fortress.

The Dwarves didn't only have surface farmlands, but also some Dwarf farms scattered beyond the borders, hidden in secluded valleys, though not too far from the fortress. Most of the farms outside the borders were only accessible through secret passages known to the Dwarves. In fact, it was rare for anyone to accidentally stumble into these Dwarven farms.

If there were no wars this year or next, these fortress farms would produce a great amount of grain for the Dwarves to brew their beer.

For the Dwarves, they still preferred beer brewed by themselves. Dwarven beer had transcended the realm of art; it was not merely a beverage. Indeed, beer had become an indispensable part of the Dwarven nutritional diet.

The nutrients in Dwarven beer alone were enough to sustain a Dwarf for several weeks. Every Dwarven settlement, regardless of size, would have at least one master brewer, usually the elder of the brewing clan. It was said that the personal skills and foresight of a master brewer—more so than other Dwarves—were critically important to the development of local Dwarves. During the Goblin War, Dwarves often survived by relying on beer, and even the livestock raised by Dwarves survived on beer.

For Su Li, this was also an incentive. The Gray Mountain Range was ushering in days of peace and tranquility; next, it would be the turn of the Hesse foothills!

While the Dwarves ambitiously focused on farming, Hesse Territory was also seizing time to reclaim and plant fall crops, aiming to sow seeds before the Green Dragon War arrived.

After all, once war broke out, humans wouldn't be able to farm extensively.

Though Dwarves preferred their own brewed beer, there was no difference in the grains needed for brewing. Hesse Territory intended to become the grain warehouse of the frontier, only responsible for selling off the produce; whether others bought it for consumption or brewing was not of Hesse Territory's concern.

However, continuing to seize farmland was no easy task, as the Free People's energies were all drawn toward the impending war.

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