Volume 9: Home Chapter 280 Prepare for battle!
If we were to ask which ally has the closest relationship with the Fire Tribe, the most frequent exchanges, and the most unbreakable alliance of interests, there would be no other choice but the forest elves.
In the era of Elder Gwendolyn, the Fire Tribe's blood transfusion to the forest elves did not necessarily win much recognition from the forest elves - this elder had the same problem as Chief Sunny Sky, he was too greedy and was overthrown by the people around the queen and the elders of Ananas. It was entirely his own fault.
In the era of Elder Merry, having learned the lesson of Elder Gwendolyn, Elder Merry was not one to eat alone and was particular about distributing profits between the upper and lower levels. Over the past four years, the blood that the Fire Tribe had transfused to the forest elves had "pleasing" everyone from top to bottom.
Moreover, the amount of blood transfusion was even greater than that in the era of Elder Gwendolyn - after all, the transaction volume of tens of millions of kilograms in the past four years was completely different from the previous transaction volume of at most one million kilograms.
Of course, this blood is not a one-way output. If there were no forest elves to protect them from the wind and rain, the Lamia Chamber of Commerce would have come to the door long ago, and the Dark Elf Mistress would have sent people to capture Xiao Yun and force a marriage, and put the Fire Tribe in her pocket long ago - those so-called civilized countries on Earth eat people without leaving any bones, so how kind can we expect the powerful forces in this world to be?
But... no matter how powerful the forest elves, this geographical ally, have been in the cooperation over the past nine years, Xiao Yun cannot ask the forest elves to block the evil hand of the Beast King on behalf of the Fire Tribe this time, even if he is very willing.
The reason is very simple. Even among family members, lovers, and spouses, a certain safe distance must be maintained. One party cannot rely on the other wholeheartedly. Otherwise, the relationship between the two parties will inevitably be unbalanced and distorted into a relationship of control by one party over the other. What's more, two groups with different political demands?
Xiao Yun would never do such a stupid thing.
After arranging Elder Meili to rest in the guest room (that is, the family housing that had not yet been allocated to her), Xiao Yun immediately called Mr. Sean, Mr. Hodgson, Balk, and Chief Ali (Chief Caogen was not there) and announced his decision to everyone honestly.
After Mr. Sean heard what Xiao Yun said, his first reaction was: "How many kilograms of vermicelli did the Dwarf Kingdom import from the Elf Forest in the first half of this year?"
"Sixty million kilograms." Xiao Yun said, "Ananas sent all the vermicelli he bought from us to the Western Continent, not keeping a single kilogram. This is what Ashu heard at the Elf Port."
Mr. Sean nodded in understanding: "I remember that the Dwarf Kingdom only imported 65 million kilograms last year. From this point of view, the Dwarf King is indeed our best partner."
"What do you mean?" Balk didn't understand.
Mr. Sean smiled slightly. "After the last Frank Feast, the Dwarf Kingdom imported only 20 million catties of vermicelli in the first year. It has been increasing year by year since then, and it has risen to more than 50 million catties the year before last. This means that Ayun's strategy is successful. In contrast to the import volume of vermicelli, the Dwarf Kingdom's food self-sufficiency rate has been increasing year by year."
After a pause, Sean said meaningfully, "Also... last year our northern continent suffered a flood, but the western continent did not have rain for three consecutive months. The granary production of the terraced fields in the southern part of the Dwarf Kingdom decreased by more than 50%. This was published in the "Travels of the Continent" in October last year."
Xiao Yun nodded and added: "After a flood, there will be an epidemic. In order to prevent and control the epidemic, we used 28,000 gold coins of tribal funds to purchase a large amount of potions from the Alchemist Association for spraying disinfectants and mixing them into drinking water for the immunity of all people and livestock. And the drought in the Dwarf Kingdom..."
At this point, Xiao Yun narrowed his eyes slightly and said, "After the drought, there will be a locust plague, which needs to be dealt with vigorously. Judging from the demand for purchased vermicelli from the Dwarf Kingdom in the first half of this year... the Dwarf King missed the best prevention period for the locust plague. The situation in the Western Continent this year must be much worse than last year."
Balke hissed, and Chief Ari's expression changed.
"Wait, if that's the case, 50 million kilograms of vermicelli won't solve the problem, right? The Dwarf Kingdom has a population of over 10 million!" Balk said.
"Indeed, but if the Dwarf King urges the forest elves to buy large quantities of vermicelli on his behalf again, he will expose his own predicament to the elves. So the Dwarf King must grit his teeth and get through this difficult time." Xiao Yun said calmly, "The safest allies are those who can see the bottom line clearly. At this stage, the Dwarf Kingdom, which is in urgent need of a large amount of food to survive the locust plague, is the best partner we can choose."
Mr. Sean added with a smile: "If the Fire Tribe falls into the hands of the Beast King, the lifeline of the Dwarf Kingdom's purchased grain will be indirectly in the hands of the Beast King, which is something the Dwarf King will never accept."
"Oh...I see." Balke finally understood.
Hodgson sat quietly by the side, his face expressionless, but his fingers on his knees unconsciously clenched...
That is to say, even if there was no Beast King incident, you had planned to give the Dwarf King a handle to coerce him a few years ago, right?
Chief A Li, a rare old shaman in the Snow Wolf Clan, frowned and listened for a long time, then said coldly: "In this case, we need enough chips to impress the Dwarf King."
"That's no problem!" Balk patted his chest confidently, "Auston and I have stockpiled nearly 300 million kilograms of vermicelli, and we can use them to defeat the Dwarf King at any time!"
The attitude of the forest elves towards the Fire and Flame Tribe is not pure, and it is natural that the Fire and Flame Tribe would not be so frank as to reveal all its true colors to the forest elves, its "closest ally"... Although the vermicelli trading volume is increasing every year, Xiao Yun actually still secretly suppresses a part of the production and will never expose his actual productivity.
Vermicelli is easy to store anyway. The Snow Wolf warriors cleared out the monster nests earlier, cleaned the caves that were relatively high, dry and cool, filled them with straw, and sealed them. With the low temperature climate on the grassland, it can be stored for three to five years. (Sweet potato flour is all starch, no fat or protein, as long as it is not damp, moldy or worm-infested, it is not easy to deteriorate)
"Not enough." Xiao Yun didn't even raise his eyelids, "Before the end of autumn, at least 400 million vermicelli reserves must be prepared."
Balk: “…”
Hodgson, who seemed to be sitting calmly on the side, couldn't help but silently calculate how many mouths 400 million kilograms of vermicelli could feed, and then he showed a very faint and unobvious expression of horror.
"I can't do it!" Balk said angrily, "Unless you open two more flour mills and create a pair of green dragons!"
"All the magicians of the cat tribe belong to you. I will also lend you a group of people from the production team." Xiao Yun said, "Starting tomorrow, you and Austin's flour mill will be open 24 hours a day, with three shifts. People can rest but the machines can't. You can only produce as much as you can."
Balk's face twitched wildly... After all, he knew that this matter was very important to the Fire Department, so he endured it and didn't complain.
"Mr. Sean, Mr. Hodgson, I hope that you can also participate in the work of the flour mill in the next two months. I know this is presumptuous, but what we lack most now is time." Xiao Yun looked at the two great magicians again.
Mr. Sean nodded immediately. He definitely couldn't just stand by and watch this happen.
Hodgson had a blank expression on his face and nodded his chin slightly.
Xiao Yun was used to Hodgson's poker face, which was a hundred times harder to recognize than that of the Fire Chief. He continued, "The truce agreement in the Cursed Land can only play a certain role of interference. If the Beast King wants to take action, even with the resistance of the elves, he can't be stopped... What's more, we can't afford the cost of the elves sending troops for our grassland tribe. So I plan to temporarily suspend the Grand Canal project, transfer all the personnel back, and strengthen the security precautions for the entire southwest region..."
"You said that the Beast King will send people to cause trouble for us? That's impossible?" Balk was surprised.
Xiao Yun sneered: "If I were the Beast King, I wanted to annex the Fire and Flame Tribe, which is worth annexing. First of all, I would not consider moving this tribe that produces endless wealth back to the Far East immediately. The territories in the Far East are all owned by someone. Finding another place to settle the Fire and Flame Tribe is not only troublesome, but also delays the time for profit. Then, considering reducing costs as much as possible and not using wasteful war means, I will take the leaders of the Fire and Flame Tribe, such as myself, Hongye, the Fire and Flame Tribe Chief, the Grassroot Tribe Chief, the A Li Tribe Chief, the Blue Fruit, and other guys who are capable of managing the tribe, to my own territory in any way and place them under house arrest, and confer a few imperial official positions that look good but have no gold content, and then remotely control the Fire and Flame Tribe, the hen, to continue laying golden eggs... This will not only look good, after all, I did not force the Fire and Flame Tribe to leave their accustomed place of survival, and "treat" the top leaders of the Fire and Flame Tribe well, and I can also obtain endless benefits with the lowest control cost."
Balk: “…”
Hodgson: “…”
"The Beast King is not Lamia. He will not be intimidated by the forest elves who are so close to us." Xiao Yun's face was gloomy, and he gritted his teeth and said, "Don't forget... He is the one who can exile the snake tribe in order to obtain the gold mine on Snake Island!"
The four people present looked serious and nodded heavily.
"Just taking a beating is not our style." Xiao Yun let out a sullen breath and said fiercely, "Internally, we should be well prepared for war. Externally, we should also find something for the Beast King to do - I plan to prepare for another two years before making any effort, but now, I can only try my hand first."
Mr. Sean stared at Xiao Yun for a few seconds, and said quietly: "I always feel that as an opponent... you are much more terrifying than the Beast King."
Hodgson nodded slightly with a poker face.
Xiao Yun: “…”
Two days after Elder Meli came to report the news, envoys from the dark elves, snow elves and tauren arrived one after another.
The dark elf's messenger was still the old friend of the Fire Tribe, the big-breasted dark-skinned Don Angelo. As soon as he saw Xiao Yun, this guy shamelessly proposed a marriage again, but was decisively rejected by Xiao Yun.
This guy then said that it didn't matter if Xiao Yun refused, any one of the three single Grassroots Chief, Fire Chief, and Hongye would be fine, she was not picky about age or gender... Xiao Yun fled in embarrassment.
The envoy of the Snow Elves was much more generous. Lieutenant Selina bluntly stated that the Snow Elves could lend troops to the Fire Tribe.
Xiao Yun said, thank you, but no thanks.
The snow elves seem to be more kindhearted than the forest elves. They act as if it doesn't matter if you consider yourself our vassal race, and we won't restrict you or oppress you. However, Xiao Yun is not so eager to take the initiative.
The truly kind-hearted ones were the Tauren. Harold, the chief of the Tauren tribe, not only came in person, but also brought two hundred strong Tauren warriors with him, saying that the Fire Tribe could be used until next year and then returned...
Obviously, not only Xiao Yun, the snow elves and the minotaurs also didn't think that the Beast King could resist taking action against the grassland tribes.
When Xiao Yun expressed his hope to get an invitation letter from the Tauren, Chief Harold hesitated for a long time and advised Xiao Yun to accept the invitation letter from the Elves. Xiao Yun had to bring out his previous statement of "the people of the grassland are united, and the grassland tribes advance and retreat together"...
Chief Harold understood Xiao Yun's vigilance against the elves. He didn't say anything, but just patted Xiao Yun on the shoulder.
In the first month of autumn, the Grand Canal Engineering Team of the Fire Tribe, which had been stationed outside for nearly two years, packed up and returned home. A number of cat/snake warriors were selected from various farms, resettlement sites and the Snake Tribe and reorganized into militia teams for full-time training.
Xiao Yun did not hide the Beast King's covetousness for the Fire Tribe and made it public to the people. The big cats who had just lived a stable life obviously did not want their lives to be affected and responded quite positively. In the three cat farms and four cat resettlement sites, the subsequent shock caused by more than half of the big cats banding together to "dismiss" the tribe leader was also suppressed by the shadow above their heads.
While the grassland tribes were tightening their collective gears and preparing for war, a major event happened in Valentine across the sea - the captain of the Orcish war team "War Bears", which had participated in two War Ball Days and achieved good results, was recognized as having served as an officer in the city defense team of Moon Bear City.
Isaac, a "politician" who changed his career, could see that the Beast King was plotting against Kroning's shipbuilding technology. The nobles of Kroning were naturally not so stupid as to not figure out why an officer from the Far Eastern Orc Empire would disguise himself as an adventurer and sneak into the country, so the Moon Bear was immediately arrested and thrown into prison. Individuals or forces that had close contact with the "War Bear" team were also strictly investigated by the Kroning nobles...
This caused the war ball sport to be greatly affected for a time, and many noble lords suspended the war ball invitational tournament.
However, as the saying goes, only the rare and restricted are good things. Even the rubbish can attract a large number of curious people if it is labeled as a "banned book". The short-term restriction is not a bad thing for the long-term development of the war ball movement. When the public demand accumulates to a critical point, the war ball movement will inevitably usher in a new wave of enthusiasm.
At the same time, the travel notes of "Elf Ranger", which usually stopped updating for three months, resumed updating after only two months.
In September, crops in various parts of the mainland entered the harvest period, and the "Travels of the Mainland" distributed throughout the mainland was sent to readers of this monthly publication in various places.
Western Continent, Ironforge.
"The potato harvest is only 60% of last year's..." The dwarf king, wearing a simple linen shirt, flipped through the report sent by the clerk while pressing his forehead with his short and strong fingers. "Didn't we buy insecticide from those alchemists? Is it of no use at all?"
The secretary was an old red-haired dwarf. He replied with a sad face, "King, the alchemists said that it would be useless to use insecticides after a locust plague has occurred... If you want to prevent a locust plague, you must use it the year before."
The Dwarf King sighed. Last year's drought had left everyone at a loss. Who could have thought that they would have to immediately start preventing and controlling locusts at that time?
Turning to the next page, the Dwarf King's voice trembled slightly: "The buckwheat and wheat harvest is only 40% of last year's... Secretary! Did you calculate correctly?! Our harvest cost last year was not high!"
The secretary smiled bitterly: "Wang... this is the harvest after using the insecticide machine. Otherwise, maybe even 20% of it wouldn't be harvested."
The Western Continent is covered with plateaus and mountains. Most of the country is mountainous and desert. It has strong winds and a dry climate. It is recognized as the continent with the worst agricultural development.
In the southern mountainous area where rainfall is more abundant, after the transformation and maintenance methods of the terraces were published in the travel notes of "Elf Ranger" five years ago, the Dwarf King decisively gave up other areas and concentrated on the development of the south. The results were gratifying. The southern terraces, which were developed on a large scale led by the army, became the largest granary of the Dwarf Kingdom.
If the Dwarf Kingdom could devote more energy to developing this terraced granary, then five years later the Dwarf Kingdom would probably no longer have any problem with food self-sufficiency... The buckwheat, wheat, potatoes, and soybeans that the Dwarves love can all be grown in the terraced fields, and a lot of sweet potatoes, which they don't like to eat very much, are also planted.
Unfortunately, in order to compete for underground mineral veins, the Dwarf Kingdom has been fighting with the Dark Elves for many years... After being able to purchase cheap vermicelli to alleviate the pressure on staple food, the Dwarf King also transferred part of the troops that were developing the south back to the underground world. The productivity of the southern terraced granaries was only maintained at a level that could barely supply domestic needs.
Since the Gray Dwarves were driven out, the Dwarf Kingdom run by the Dark Iron Dwarves has not had any internal strife. When the Dwarf King's attention was distracted by the war in the underground world and he neglected the operation of the southern granary, naturally no one would be so blind as to offend the Dwarf King's majesty... So last year's drought dealt a heavy blow to the Dwarf Kingdom.
This year's locust plague is even worse...
The dwarf king sulked for a while with his eyes bulging. Under the increasingly nervous and anxious gaze of the secretary, the king of the western continent let out a heavy breath and looked up: "Give orders, the food from the south does not need to be sent to Ironforge. Let them keep 10% for themselves, and send the rest to towns with serious food shortages. As for Ironforge... move the remaining vermicelli out and sell them all in the food store. Residents in the fort are limited to buying 10 kilograms each. Let's get through this stage first."
"Wang——" the secretary was about to give some advice.
"No need to say more, I will set out to visit the Elf Queen in the next two days. People won't starve to death in Ironforge in the winter." The Dwarf King raised his hand to stop him.
If a famine occurs in the human kingdom, the human royal family must ensure the food supply in the royal city even if it does not care about other places. Otherwise, once the royal city is in chaos, the king's head will be threatened... Only a demigod like the Dwarf King does not worry about the chaos in the royal capital Ironforge at all, and gives priority to pacifying the towns far away from the royal capital.
The clerk had a look of distress on his face, but he was actually relieved in his heart... As the Dwarf King's chief steward, he had long been worried about the food shortage in Ironforge. If he could get tens of millions of kilograms of vermicelli to relieve the pressure, he could at least sleep well at night.
After asking the secretary to leave, the Dwarf King, when alone, revealed his embarrassed expression that he would never show in front of his subordinates...
The Dwarf King, who was definitely considered young among the demigods, naturally cared about his reputation. Although the Forest Elf Queen always acted easy to talk to, asking others to sell food was still a big blow to a king.
“What a ghost…” the Dwarf King cursed in a low voice, “Damn the Beast King! If it weren’t for that bastard who sent the tiger tribe to the underground world, we would have taken the mineral vein west of the Dark Forest long ago. Why would it have been delayed until now?”
Well, the Dwarf King also discovered that he had neglected the operations in the south in recent years. If he had not been so eager to seize the mineral veins and recall some of the troops, the entire south would not have been in such a mess during last year's drought.
But admitting his mistakes was obviously embarrassing, so the Dwarf King had to put the blame on the Beast King...
The Dwarf King was in a very bad mood and sulked for a long time before he reached out and took the new issue of "Travels on the Continent" that the servant had brought over in the morning.
But before the Dwarf King could calm down, he saw the captain of the guards running into the study in a hurry.
"Your Majesty, the elven queen's knight has led a group of orcs to visit Ironforge. This is the letter from the queen that the elven knight handed to the city gate officer." The captain of the guards held up the exquisite envelope sealed with beeswax in both hands and presented it respectfully.
"A letter from the Queen?" The Dwarf King took the envelope in confusion. At first glance, he saw the Queen's seal painted with gold powder on the envelope in an extremely luxurious way.
At the same time, outside Ironforge, which was built on the mountain and some urban areas were even built by hollowing out the mountain.
The Dark Iron Dwarves, who are famous for their smelting skills, attach great importance to their main city. The average farmer family in the human country cannot afford steel-made farm tools, but in Ironforge, these Dark Iron Dwarves even use molten iron to cast towering city walls...
Standing at the foot of the city wall, the envoy team composed of the snow wolf tribe and the cat tribe, who were country bumpkins from the grassland, all raised their heads like country bumpkins, staring blankly at the majestic city wall that was thousands of meters long and embedded in the mountains on both sides at both ends. They were unable to recover for a long time.
"The iron wall only looks beautiful, but it's actually very difficult to maintain." The city gate officer who entertained their guests, an old black iron dwarf with white hair, seemed modest but actually boasted, "The surface is too easy to rust, and we are worried that it will freeze and crack in the winter snow, so we have to apply a layer of antifreeze oil every year. Look, those reflective things are left over from years of antifreeze oil."
"Oh." The leading snow wolf responded dryly and swallowed unconsciously.
Antifreeze oil is mechanical lubricant. The Hilly New District has to bear a huge expense every year just to buy this stuff. These guys actually use it to paint the city walls... It's really worthy of being the place of origin, so willful!
When Hongye, the general manager of the Hilly New District, heard that the layer of stuff on the black iron wall was actually mechanical lubricant, he had the urge to scrape a layer off and take it away...
Hongye's reaction as a country bumpkin greatly pleased the city gate officer, who, holding the sledgehammer at his waist, boasted about the great achievements of Ironforge with saliva flying - the Ice and Snow King City built on the snow-capped mountains of Samal was called the Unfallen City, and Ironforge also had a similar nickname: the Indestructible City.
This city, which is home to hundreds of thousands of Dark Iron Dwarves, was originally a war fortress that could be used for both attack and defense. Only one-third of the city area was exposed, and the other two-thirds were hidden in the mountains or even built underground. The Dark Iron walls connected to the mountains on both sides were so dense that even war beasts could not break through them. The arrow towers, defense towers, and artillery platforms inside and outside the walls meant that even dragons could not fly over the city unscathed.
In the later period of the racial war, the dwarves and the elves fought intermittently for hundreds of years. Even the elves, who were good at fighting (the elves had not yet separated at that time), could not break through the fortress of Ironforge and penetrate into the heart of the dwarf kingdom; and in the southern continent, which borders the western continent by land, those human war maniacs who were eager to conquer and plunder wealth never got the upper hand from the dwarves.
Well... at that time, the gray dwarves were still members of the Dwarf Kingdom, and they fought hard to defend the Dwarf Kingdom, but the gray dwarves would never appear in the boasting of the city gate officer...
