Warlords of the witcher world

Chapter 87 The Dwarf's Economic Nuclear Bomb

"Ah, damn it, I thought I could fight a war, but I didn't expect to spend all day digging here."

In a moat below the walls of Edsberg, a dwarf is complaining.

He was dressed in red with chain mail underneath. This man was Yarpen Zigrin, a dwarven mercenary who hunted monsters for a living.

After leaving Hackland, Yarpan originally played for King Henselt in Kaedwen, but after a loyalty experiment in Kaedwen, Yarpan, who lost his comrades in arms, decided to leave Kaedwen and go to Heme Aden to serve as a soldier.

(Siri, Geralt, and Triss also participated in this matter, which is the content of the original work.)
Herme left a very good impression on him, and Yarpan was willing to take refuge in the Lord Protector of Aedirn, and he treated the dwarves very well.

But what he didn't expect was that by chance, he became the leader of the Mahakam volunteer army sent to Aden.

While he was staying in Vergen, the people of the clan brought this order from Mahakam Grand Elder Hogg.

According to the rules of Mahakam, young dwarves will go to the foot of the mountain in regular groups after they reach adulthood, travel to human society, and experience the hostility and persecution of non-human races in human society, so that the restless hearts of young people will be calmed down.

In other words, they are sent down the mountain to be beaten, knowing the dangers of human society, so that they will stay in the mountain and work with peace of mind.

This trick is effective for most of the dwarves. After seeing the discrimination of human beings against non-human races, they have no expectations of the outside world. Since then, they have less complaints and resistance to Elder Hogg's strict management.

But there are always people who want to pursue freedom, so they start to stay outside, and the dwarves who really can't stand Mahakam's strict management will also flee from this mountain range.

After all, the dwarf society in Mahakam is a society with a series of complicated regulations. Elder Hogg's control is reflected in all aspects, and there are strict rules everywhere.

Here, marriages have to be reported in triplicate, and there are always many people who can't stand it.

Although it is said that these fleeing dwarves will be expelled by Mahakam, and their names will be deleted from the clan register, but the connection still exists. How could these dwarves outside cut off their connection with Mahakam so easily.

Moreover, Hogg actually turned a blind eye to the behavior of the dwarves to live outside. It is not good for these active young men to stay in Mahakam and affect the current order. Let them go out and work hard.

And these dwarves have worked hard outside to make a name for themselves, which has many benefits for Mahakam.

In fact, many dwarves who have made a name for themselves in the outside world still maintain contact with Mahakam.

If Mahakam needs them, they will also come to serve Mahakam. Mahakam also relies on this trick to build a network of relationships covering the entire north.

This is exactly the case with Yarpan. When Mahakam calls, he will come to serve. Mahakam's control over the dwarves outside is unimaginable for most humans.

After all, although Elder Hogg has many criticisms, no one can deny that he has been doing his best for the future of the dwarf race, all in order to prevent the dwarves from falling into the same fate as the elves.

It's just that when Yarpan led the more than 2000 dwarf volunteers to the front line, they found that the battle was over.

However, Herme accepted them. These dwarves are excellent soldiers and craftsmen, and they can be used in many places.

Now, around Yarpan, there are dwarves who are busy building trenches, and the movements of the dwarves are very quick.

They keep loading the excavated soil into small carts, and each cart is pushed away as soon as it is full.

The whole process was done in one go, without any delay, full of a sense of order and beauty.

The dwarves did not forget to lay planks for the dug trenches to make the trenches more accessible and stronger.

Outside the trenches, ammunition from Nilfgaardian catapults and fire scorpions kept falling.

But none of them hit the trenches, and it was still very difficult to hit the trenches.

And the counterattacks of the Ardian people continued continuously, and the artillery roared from time to time, either smashing on the city wall of Edsberg, or flying over the city wall and smashing into the city.

The trebuchet was working non-stop, throwing stones into the city.

Under such a scene, the dwarves were struggling to dig trenches.

"Stop complaining, Boss, who told us to come late, there's nothing we can do about it, right now we're only left to dig trenches, let's see if we can participate in the siege later."

replied a dwarf craftsman in an iron helmet, and went on with his work.

Most of the dwarves regretted that they were not able to participate in the battle of the Burning God Tower. These dwarves who were the first batch of volunteers were all Mahakam militants. Show your skills.

As a result, the first war mission after going down the mountain was to dig a pit, which is also quite dark and humorous.

Yarpan sighed, yes, they didn't catch up with the battle, so they can only dig trenches now.

So he picked up the shovel and got to work.

Every dwarf is an excellent miner, and digging the ground is an easy task for them, so the trenches are being laid out at a very fast speed.

"The efficiency of these dwarves is really amazing, every time I see the dwarves get to work, I am always amazed."

Looking at the work efficiency of the dwarves, Temeria's envoy, Baron La Valetti, one of the most powerful nobles in Temeria, said.

The nobleman was already very old, his hair and beard had turned white, and his spirit didn't look very good.

He is also known as the old Baron Valetti, and the smock on his body bears the coat of arms of his family, a man in green with a head.

Although the Valedi family is only a baron title, but because their family's territory is located on a traffic artery, this family has developed into a great nobleman in Temeria.

This family is also extremely loyal to King Foltest. In this war, their family mobilized 3000 people to join the army, as well as all the knights, which is almost the manpower that the entire family can provide.

Herme was impressed by this man, not for anything else but because his wife was the young Marie Louisa.

Another identity of this lady is Foltest's mistress—it's normal for old couples and young wives to have such things happen.

According to the original book, the baron should not know the true identity of the pair of children born to his young wife.

But maybe he knew it too, but he just couldn't say it.

I have to say that this is really ironic. The baron is a loyal subject of the king, but the king gave him a big green hat. It looks like Novigrad's dramas mocking the nobles.

Herme didn't think too much about these matters. This was a family matter, and it was his turn to say it.

"You have more dwarf volunteers in Temeria, right? Elder Hogg still has to fulfill his duty to his lord."

Herme's tone was full of envy. Although the relationship between Mahakam and Temeria was not good, they were still Mahakam's lord after all.

Even if Mahakam was not afraid of the pressure from Temeria, he had to put on a show.

"Not much, just three thousand dwarves, just one thousand more than you."

The old Baron Valetti shook his hand, saying that this amount is nothing to be concerned about,
"Hogg of Mahakam is really smart. He used the form of volunteers to influence the situation of this war, and he also made a lot of money in the arms trade."

Speaking of this, Herme's tone was full of envy. It's so cool to sit on the top of a mountain and watch the fire from the shore, and export armaments to both sides of the war to make money.

This means that the strategic goal has been achieved and money has been earned.

"For Mahakam, if there is a unified human country on both sides of their mountains, it will be an absolute geographical disaster. That shrewd guy Hogg will not allow such a situation to happen, so he will naturally send volunteers. As for making money Lord Protector, you probably don’t understand the situation in Mahakam, but the money Mahakam obtained through trade is not considered wealth by the dwarves, but a weapon.”

As the old Baron Valedy spoke, memories flashed in his eyes. As a high-ranking official in the Kingdom of Temeria, he knew a lot about Mahakam.

"Oh? Please tell me, Baron."

Herme was very interested in this. Temeria, as the suzerain of the dwarves, had a better understanding of Mahakam on the high mountain than Aedirn in many aspects, let alone him, the Lord Protector who hadn't held power for half a year. Herme is still learning a lot.

"In the interior of Mahakam, a kind of iron and copper tokens are used instead of gold and silver coins. The dwarves usually use this kind of money for internal transactions to buy various supplies and food. The money outside Mahakam is Scrap."

Hearing this, Hemei raised his eyebrows. Combined with the strict management of Mahakam he heard from some dwarves outside, Elder Hogg has a strong control over this mountain range.

What flows inside Mahakam is waste money that cannot be used outside, which means that ordinary dwarves should not easily leave Mahakam, because the money on them simply cannot allow them to gain a foothold outside.

Even if he ran outside, it probably wouldn't take long, and he could only go home in despair.

In other words, the dwarves who can successfully escape from Mahakam under such circumstances, basically everyone has some skills.

"As for gold and silver, they will be stored by that cunning fox Hogg, and he has been doing this for hundreds of years. The gold and silver stored by Mahakam has reached an extremely terrifying level, and the amount is still going on. Increase. To store such a huge amount of gold and silver, Hogg has only one purpose, and that is to put all these gold and silver into our market when a full-scale conflict with human beings breaks out in the future, so that our market will fall into a terrible currency In the midst of expansion, the society collapsed, the order was destroyed, and it fell into a bad civil strife, buying more time for the war preparations of the dwarven kingdom."

"This? This is a bit ridiculous. How much gold and silver do you need to destroy the economy of the North, and how did they invest so much money?"

Herme was really surprised. He didn't expect that the dwarves hoarded gold and silver for this purpose.

At first, Herme thought it was absurd, but after thinking about it, she realized that it was really possible.

As long as the gold and silver of the dwarves are really that exaggerated, they can completely destroy the northern economic system.

Although it is not enough for the northerners to die like this, it will take several years and decades of chaos, and this period of time is enough for the dwarves to do a lot of things.

Whether it is to create divisions within human beings, to take the initiative to attack, or to hurry up and prepare for war, there is more than enough time for all of them.

What the dwarf is holding in his hand is a deadly economic nuclear bomb. If he is hit by this thing, it will be a disaster.

"How to invest, don't forget that dwarf bankers are all over our banking industry. Do you think they have no contact with Mahakam? Even if we close all the dwarf banks, it will not affect their investment in gold and silver. Dwarf figures and connections are everywhere In all aspects of the northern financial field, it is too simple for them to invest in gold and silver."

Old Baron Valetti kept shaking his head as he spoke.

Although he has known these for many, many years, but mentioning Mahakam's methods, it is still uncontrollable to generate fear.

"I don't understand something."

After thinking for a while, Herme said,
"Since the dwarves have such a means to destroy the northern economy in a short period of time, how can the news come out? Shouldn't such a big killer be killed with one blow? Why do these news come out like this?"

"A sword is most threatening when it is not drawn, just as an arrow is most threatening when it is placed on the bowstring and ready to go. And to be honest, Hogg is indeed not afraid of us You know, we have no resistance at all to the method of dwarves investing huge amounts of gold and silver. Is there any northern country capable?

As for this matter, after all, you have only been in power for a few months now. It is normal not to know about this matter. Traditionally, several northern powers know about this matter. Even if I don’t tell you now, you will wait a few months. You can learn about it from other channels, and then you can learn more about the methods of the dwarves. "

When this matter was mentioned, the old Baron Valetti's tone was full of helplessness.

For those tricks of the dwarves, they are too weak.

But fortunately, the dwarves only regarded this trick as a big killer that would kill them all. They didn't plan to use it to kill humans and restore the glory of non-human races.

Elder Hogg never thought of counterattacking humans (although he wished humans would be finished), he just wanted to keep Mahakam, and he has indeed done very successfully in the past few hundred years, making Mahakam like an iron barrel Same.

"I kind of want to see this elder dwarf."

Herme's tone was full of admiration. It was amazing to think of such an idea and to turn Mahakam into an iron barrel.

"Ha, young man, you won't think so when you see Hogg. That guy has an extremely rough temper, and I'm afraid he won't give you a chance to speak at all. All he shows is arrogance and rudeness, like A stone in a toilet, smelly and hard."

The baron had obviously dealt with Hogg before, and seeing the unbearable look on his face, he knew that the experience of dealing with Hogg was probably some kind of horrible memory for him.

So involuntarily, he didn't use the respectful title for Herme, but called Herme a young man, wanting to pass on some of his life experience to this young man who didn't know the heights of heaven and earth.

"Really? Then I want to see this dwarf elder even more."

Combined with Hogg's series of operations, the more arrogant and rude such a person is, the more interesting it will be. All of this is probably not just a mask.

From the information obtained, the appearance of Mahakam has been unfolded in front of Heme. This is a country with a high concentration of elders' power, a high degree of unity of thinking, and a mountainous country with strong fortifications and developed smelting and manufacturing industries.

This country was completely shaped according to Hogg's will. Hogg's will is actually one, that is, to seek the survival of the dwarf race under humans, instead of falling into the miserable situation of elves.

Mahakam's strict management and centralized power, the gold and silver that can destroy the northern economy, and the forts and caves everywhere in the mountains... And most importantly, in such an environment, Hogg guaranteed that even if he died Later, his successors will continue his career.

Presumably, behind the tyrannical mask is a thoughtful dwarf elder who has dedicated his life to the race.

"Okay, lord protector, since you want to see that guy, it's very simple. Mahakam's traditional foreign policy is to maintain a good relationship with Aden. If you need it, go to Mahakam to meet him. Hogg isn't too difficult, but don't expect him to have a good attitude."

The old Baron Valetti was really speechless, why would anyone want to see that stinking stone, but it was his business that he wanted to see.

Unknowingly, Herme and the old baron walked out of the camp.

Outside the camp, the Temerian embassy guards waited.

"It's all here, Lord Baron, I think we have to say goodbye. As I said before, you must tell King Foltest that Aden will try to contain as many Nilfgaardians as possible in Anglin." The army, if Edelsberg is liberated, will directly seize the Anglin region and help the Temerian army relieve the pressure on the front line."

"Thank you very much for your promise, I will definitely bring it, goodbye, Lord Protector."

Saying so, the old Baron Valedy boarded his carriage, and after the last cliché, the Temerian mission left.

After seeing off the Temeria mission, Herme subconsciously looked at Edsberg, thinking about when he would be able to take that city.

Then he suddenly discovered that there seemed to be some changes in the sky of the city?It seems that there is something bloody in the clouds?

But after looking at it for a while, he found that there was actually nothing on it. Herme suspected that his eyes were dazzled, so he didn't continue to read.

In fact, it was the aftermath of some kind of sacrificial ceremony. In Edelsberg, someone did something that hadn't appeared on the mainland for a long, long time...

(End of this chapter)