In truth, if Lord Wellen had wanted to, he had a hundred ways to stop the people on his lands from leaving, even if they wished to leave of their own accord. He could even have forcibly forbidden them from leaving his territory.
Given the absolute power noble lords held over their own lands in this world, these people would never dare defy his wishes unless they fled far away, much less simply move to Xu Yi's neighboring territory.
Yet when Xu Yi approached Lord Wellen to negotiate the matter, Lord Wellen's attitude was completely different from his outright refusal last time. He told Xu Yi that since the people on his lands wanted to leave, he would not stop them as long as they paid him satisfactory compensation.
Naturally, this was an indirect way of agreeing.
After some bargaining, Xu Yi ultimately reached an agreement with Lord Wellen on behalf of the Xinfei Merchant Guild.
Under the agreement, five thousand people from Lord Wellen's territory would "voluntarily" relocate to Xu Yi's territory.
According to the unwritten conventions of the Sains Continent and the relevant regulations of the Stantin Duchy, Xu Yi, as the lord of the territory they were moving to, had to pay Lord Wellen a corresponding relocation fee of one hundred and fifty gold coins per person.
In addition, to compensate Lord Wellen for the loss of his people, Xu Yi had to pay him another seven hundred thousand gold coins.
The agreement totaled 2.2 million gold coins. The Xinfei Merchant Guild proposed using other goods and arrangements to cover part of the compensation, and Lord Wellen agreed.
The final arrangement was for the Xinfei Merchant Guild to pay Lord Wellen five hundred thousand gold coins in cash, with the remaining 1.78 million gold coins paid in