Vientiane Throne of Civilization

Chapter 1970 Paid Assistance (Bonus Chapter for 600 Monthly Tickets)
"Of course I considered taking the initiative to eliminate the threat, but to my shame, only the dark elves in our elven race possessed shipbuilding technology at the time. Before they took action, the dark elves had already prepared an escape route for themselves, and all the relevant technologies and blueprints were disposed of."

Listening to Wright's account, Hilke quickly grasped the general outline of the matter.

To understand this, you must first understand the Elven race. Excluding the special case of the Dark Elves, 80% of the Elven race does not have any expansionist mentality.

On the one hand, the Elven race is by nature peace-loving and averse to war. The warlike traits of the Elven God were all inherited by the Dark Elves, while the other four Elven races did not inherit them at all.

On the other hand, the elves are a naturally long-lived race. Although their lifespan is long, their population size is not large. This means that they do not need a large territory. Often, a beautiful forest is enough for them to survive.

This has led to the Elven race's core philosophy for many years being to stay within their own territory, not to provoke others, and not to be provoked by others.

Under this premise, it is no exaggeration to say that the dark elves, who studied shipbuilding and advocated exploration, were heretics among the elven race.

However, considering the internal environment of the elven race, dark elves were already ostracized, and their extreme personalities made other elves afraid of causing trouble.

In this situation, if the dark elves want to research shipbuilding, then let them do it. It's better to give them something to do than to let them idly cause trouble.

As for normal elves, they have basically no interest in things like shipbuilding, sailing, and exploration.

Even if a few curious young elves showed some interest, they would be immediately stopped by their parents or elders because the area was full of dark elves.

The main point is that you are not allowed to play with 'bad kids'.

This foreshadowed the later events where the dark elves escaped to the sea, and the elves on this side lacked the ability to pursue them.

Meanwhile, Hilke was wondering why the elves didn't defend the coastline.

And now, this question has been answered.

Anyone with even a little experience in naval warfare knows that, in this situation, the Dark Elves, who possess warships, are virtually invincible at sea.

If the Elves dare to deploy defenses along the coastline, the Dark Elf warships can bombard the coastline with ballistae, and the Elves will have no chance to retaliate.

Rather than that, it would be better to avoid this battle altogether and let the dark elves land and enter the elven forest before engaging in combat.

And that's how the scene from before came about.

Considering the situation of the elves, this approach is indeed sound.

After understanding the situation, Hilke spoke after a moment's consideration...

"But this can't go on forever. Haven't you ever thought about researching shipbuilding yourself?"

"Of course I've thought about it, how could I not?"

Wright said this with a look of utter helplessness on his face.

"But for those ships, we only know their shape. I have tried to get the tribesmen to study and build them, but they all said they didn't know where to start."

"..."

From Hilke's perspective, he just felt that those guys were too lazy, or rather, that they didn't care.

They believed that even without warships, they could handle the Dark Elves. Dark Elves without any heritage were no match for them, not to mention they had the powerful Elf King as a backup, so they didn't bother to study them at all.

And what Hilke could think of, Wright certainly had too. But did he have a solution?
Obviously, he didn't.

So sometimes Wright could understand why Eredar wanted to do that. This was also why he had shown mercy to Eredar and felt sorry for him, hoping that Eredar would repent and return to his tribe.

After reading the Chronicles of the Emperors, Wright became even more convinced that he and the Eredar simply had different ideologies, and that they were both essentially acting in the best interests of the Elven race, so there was no need to escalate the situation to that point.

If he had read this book more than three hundred years ago, he could have handled things much better back then. The two of them could actually talk it over and come up with a solution that would benefit both sides.

But Eredar clearly had no intention of turning back. In his view, the elves were a mess, and Wright was too lukewarm, or to put it bluntly, naive.

If the Elves want to truly change, they must take drastic measures and fundamentally dismantle their existing system so that they can achieve new survival and development under their own new system!

"I don't think this can continue; we need to be more proactive in making preparations."

Hilke seized the opportunity to express his opinion.

"If you need it, our Great Zhou can provide some assistance for a fee."

Hilke didn't mention any unconditional aid.

The elves aren't stupid; if you offer them free aid, they'll have reservations.

Conversely, paid assistance can essentially be viewed as a transaction.

Sure enough, Wright was somewhat tempted.

The main reason was that he realized he was in a dead end.

To break this deadlock, we need to rely on Da Zhou, an outsider.

"How exactly?"

Hilke was clearly prepared for this, and was just waiting for Wright to ask him this question.

"For example, our Great Zhou forces can help deploy defenses in the beach area. If the Dark Elf fleet dares to approach, our Great Zhou forces can sink their ships at sea."

"If you wish to go further, our Great Zhou can also build ships in these waters to assist you in taking the initiative, pinpointing the Dark Elves' location at sea, directly annihilating them, and dismantling the threat posed by the Dark Elves."

These simple words, however, quite moved Wright.

The previous battle had made Wright fully realize that the forces of the Eredar and the Dark Elves were no longer as easy to defeat as they had been more than three hundred years ago.

He was pushed to his limit by Eredar and unleashed a hurricane slash that created a fiery storm, nearly reducing an entire elven forest to ashes.

As the most important homeland for their elven race, Wright certainly didn't want the elven forest to suffer any more destruction.

Hilke's proposal undoubtedly hit the nail on the head.

If the battle could be resolved directly at sea, that would be ideal.

"So what exactly should I pay as compensation?"

Wright didn't see anything wrong with paying her; in fact, he thought it was only right.

In response, Hilke simply shrugged.

"There are too many and too complicated things involved here. If you are interested, I can have our relevant staff from Da Zhou come over to discuss it with you."

Unsurprisingly, the matter was quickly settled.

The person who came to discuss this project with Wright was Kong Daqian, the minister of the Foreign Trade Department of their Great Zhou Dynasty.

"Then, Your Majesty the Elf King, let us begin!"

(End of this chapter)