Above the mage

Chapter 307 The Method of Unification

"His ideas are always novel and practical." Sunefa nodded in agreement with Lanwen's exclamation.

"War Mother, what should we do with these rats we caught?" Lan Wen asked again.

"After the interrogation, send a letter to their tribe," Sunefa thought for a moment, finally remembering the word God had mentioned, "telling them to bring ice marrow to ransom the people."

"Twenty drops of Tier 3 Ice Marrow can redeem one person, except for the Frostwolf Clan. Tell them to bring twenty drops of Tier 4 Ice Marrow to Phoenix to redeem them," she said casually.

"Twenty drops of fourth-tier ice marrow to redeem one person?" Lan Wen hesitated. "That's too expensive. Will they accept it?"

Twenty drops of fourth-order ice mage mage require twenty years of condensation by an early fourth-circle ice mage, and fourth-order ice mage ...

For each tribe, it is a strategic resource.

The Frostwolf Clan is highly unlikely to be willing to pay such a high price to redeem an informant who is neither particularly important nor unimportant.

At least that's what Lanwen thinks.

“They will definitely accept it,” Sunefa said confidently. “In your letter to the Frostwolf Clan, explain in detail that their people stole their Northwest Barley No. 1, and introduce the Northwest Barley No. 1 to them, highlighting its importance to their clan.”

"War Mother, what do you mean?" Lan Wen's eyes widened in disbelief. He had clearly understood Sunaifa's thoughts from her instructions, but he could hardly believe it.

"Among the three tribes, the Frostwolf Clan has the greatest demand for food, and food has always been their biggest headache."

"Northwest Barley No. 1 is a grain crop. After harvesting, it can be used as a staple food and also as feed for birds such as snow pheasants. If the Frostwolf Clan knew about this, how could they not have designs on it?" Sunefa said casually.

The Frostwolf Clan started by training snow wolves and has grown to be as famous as the True Ice Clan and Winterhammer.

The snow wolf is the foundation of the Frostwolf clan.

Snow wolves are no ordinary wild beasts; each one is agile, majestic, and possesses immense strength.

However, as a powerful creature of the earth veins, the snow wolf consumes more food each day than a strong adult male.

This is a huge burden for the Frostwolf Clan.

Of course, if it weren't for the constraint of food, given the number of snow wolves on the snowfield, the Frostwolf clan should have continued to grow and expand.

This prevented their development from nearly stagnating after they became a large tribe.

"That's exactly what we want—for them to have ideas," Sunefa said decisively, tapping her fingertips lightly on the table.

"This was also the king's idea."

"Those small tribes only need to wait until the production of Northwest Barley No. 1 is sufficient to support more people. We don't need to go through any complicated planning. We just need to simply send out a signal that we are willing to accept them into our ranks, and those small tribes will come to surrender on their own."

This may sound exaggerated, but it is indeed the case in the North.

Small tribes have very low resilience and are extremely vulnerable in harsh natural environments.

A single animal attack or a casualty during a hunt could lead a small tribe to its demise.

Therefore, in the northern borderlands, 99% of the small tribes are willing to join a powerful clan in order to seek a stable sanctuary.

It's good to have a big tree to lean on for shade; everyone understands this principle.

The problem is that food is always a scarce and limited commodity on this frozen land. Even large tribes that seem to be wealthy are actually like "landlords with no surplus grain."

Every piece of food is hard-earned, and accepting a small tribe means giving up a precious share of food.

In contrast, those small tribes often consist of only two or three Iceborn mages, making them far too weak.

The effort and the reward were completely disproportionate.

Who would be willing to do such a losing business?

Just like the Dorbian tribe that Gaode encountered when he first entered the North, it was such a small tribe.

If the Zhenbing tribe were willing to take them in and provide them with shelter and food, they wouldn't resist at all; they would practically cling to them and wouldn't leave no matter how hard you tried to chase them away.

Sunafa continued, "But it's not so easy to subdue other tribes, especially the large ones."

"They often have a strong sense of identity with their tribe. Furthermore, although food is not abundant in large tribes, it is relatively stable. Even in years of ice age, the tribe will not starve to death."

Sunefa tapped the wooden table lightly, emphasizing, "Under these circumstances, they wouldn't join our race just for food."

"Therefore, we must use some methods to deal with these large tribes. Military unification is ultimately the worst possible strategy," she said with a slight smile. "These are the king's original words."

The term "military unification" was also a very new one for her.

However, compared to "subjective initiative", "military reunification" is much simpler and more intuitive, and its meaning is clear at a glance.

"These rats racked their brains trying to sneak the news of Northwest Barley No. 1 back to their own tribes. They never imagined that we had originally planned to release the news proactively so that all tribes would know about the existence of Northwest Barley No. 1." Sunafa said with a light, cold voice.

"Are you planning to sell them Northwest Barley No. 1 at a high price and rip them off?" Lan Wen was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and then blurted out the question.

"We're planning to sell them Northwest Barley No. 1, but not at a high price, but at a fair price," Sunefa gave Lanwen an unexpected answer.

"Huh?!?!" Lan Wen's mouth dropped open, wondering if he had misheard.

"This is the king's decision." Sunafa smiled, not at all surprised by Lanwen's reaction.

Because when she first heard about this decision, she was just as puzzled.

"Why is that?" Lan Wen couldn't help but ask. He could understand the previous questions, but he was completely baffled by the operation of selling grain at a fair price.

"Wang said that the most direct way to unify is by force, but it would also result in the most heavy casualties. People are the most precious resource, and it would be too foolish to waste them for nothing."

"The most ideal way to achieve unification is without bloodshed."

"Without bloodshed? How is that possible?" Lan Wen blurted out.

Earlier, it was said that large tribes would not easily surrender, but now it's said that large tribes can be subdued without bloodshed. Isn't this a contradiction?

"Wang knows a way to achieve unification called economic warfare, which is exactly what can be done."

"Economic war?"

"He didn't explain in detail, but instead told me a story," Sunefa said.

"What story?" Lan Wen asked curiously.

A glint of light flashed in Sunafa's deep blue eyes: "In the king's homeland, there once was a country called Pampas, with vast grasslands. The local people had long lived a nomadic life and possessed a brave and skilled cavalry force. Their strength should not be underestimated, and they showed great tenacity in resisting foreign enemies."

"Another country, known as the 'Emperor on which the sun never sets,' set its sights on the Pampas, a tough nut to crack, but fearing the losses from a direct confrontation, devised a clever plan:

As a nomadic nation, the Pampas had a highly developed livestock industry, and the British rulers allowed their merchants to purchase Pampas wool at high prices.

"Seeing that sheep farming could generate huge profits, Pampas herders followed suit, and a large number of pastures were opened up for sheep farming, causing the number of sheep to increase dramatically in a short period of time."

"Sheep are different from warhorses. When sheep graze, they uproot the grass. As sheep populations have increased, the vegetation of the Pampas grasslands has been severely damaged. High-quality pastures have gradually become desertified and degraded, and the space and fodder available for breeding superior warhorses have become increasingly scarce."

"The Pampas' once proud cavalry, having lost the support of a sufficient number of high-quality warhorses, suffered a significant reduction in combat effectiveness. Faced with the overwhelming force of the British army, they no longer had the confidence to resist and, after weighing the pros and cons, had no choice but to surrender."

He said this tactic is called the Trojan Horse.

"Trojan horse?" Lanwen repeated the name softly, frowning, his mind full of doubt.

He couldn't understand how this move could be related to a Trojan horse, or what Troy was.

However, he had already understood the deeper meaning behind "selling grain at a fair price".

"What a ruthless move," Lan Wen murmured unconsciously, his voice filled with a hint of amazement.

He took a deep breath and said, completely convinced, "I understand."

His tone was crisp and decisive, and his eyes no longer showed any hesitation, only excitement.

After seeing Lanwen off, Sunafa shook her head and picked up the parchment on the table once again, flipping through it line by line.

This work was compiled and uploaded by [author's name].

On the parchment, several lines of large text prominently displayed the farm's key information:

Name: Golden Glory Farm

[Currently cultivated land: 2 mu]

Yield per mu: 140-150 kg, one harvest in April

[Land awaiting reclamation: 28 mu (first step towards the target number)]

[Current number of people participating in land reclamation: 6689]

[Progress: 3000-3500 mu per day]

This is the specific data compiled according to Gaode's instructions, which Gaode also calls the "self-made panel" in a rather novel way.

Although I don't understand why it's called a panel, summarizing things in this format does make it easier for her to understand the situation at Golden Glory Farm more intuitively and clearly.

Moreover, Sunafa has gradually become accustomed to the strange words that Gaode often uses, and has even started to use these new terms herself.

Over the past two months, under Flora's leadership and with the help of natural techniques, the yield of Northwest Barley No. 1 has increased from 120 kg per mu to 140-150 kg per mu, an increase of nearly 20%, which can be described as a leap forward.

"It's still too slow." However, Sunefa was not satisfied with this.

Because she knew in her heart that whether it was absorbing those small tribes that were like scattered sand, or using a clever "Trojan horse" to subdue large tribes without bloodshed, the core foundation of all plans was "food".

This is the foundation of everything; without it, even the most ingenious strategies are nothing but castles in the air.

Currently, the output of the Golden Radiance Farm is far from enough to meet the internal needs of the Zhenbing Clan.

The Zhenbing tribe consumes approximately 9000 million kilograms of barley annually.

Even if the yield per mu increases to 140-150 kg, nearly 21 mu of land would still be needed to achieve self-sufficiency in grain.

At the current pace, it will take about two more months to reclaim 21 mu of land.

Moreover, it takes at least four months from sowing to harvesting the Northwest Barley No. 1, and a large number of people are needed during this process.

"Increase manpower and expand the number of people." Sunafa picked up the bone pen, the tip hovering over the parchment. After thinking for a moment, he finally brought it down heavily and wrote "20000 people".

After the first batch of Northwest Barley No. 1 was harvested, the tribe finally had its first batch of reserve grain.

The existence of this batch of grain reserves is enough to allow 20,000 people from the Zhenbing tribe to temporarily "take a break" from their previous hunting and animal husbandry businesses and devote themselves to land reclamation and farming.

Of course, this is just the beginning.

She will further expand the workforce after the second batch of Northwest Barley No. 1 is harvested.

According to Gaode's calculations, taking care of 300,000 mu of farmland would require at least 40,000 full-time farmers, given the current conditions of the Zhenbing tribe.

Perle stood in the crowd, her little face flushed red from the cold wind. She stared wide-eyed at the busy and energetic people around her and the green wheat seedlings growing in the fields.

She never imagined that one day she would actually see a scene that only existed in her dreams on the permafrost tundra.

And all of this actually came from that outsider brother from a few months ago.

She vividly remembers that after listening to the other person's introduction about the outside world, she sighed, "If only we could grow food in the North," and was "mocked" by her companions for it.

The instructor comforted her, saying that the land in the North could never grow food, and encouraged her to work hard, become a powerful guardian, and protect the snowfields.

But in just a few short months, everything came true.

She wasn't the only one whose eyes widened.

The other children around her were equally dumbfounded.

Even the stern guardians and instructors walking at the very front wore expressions of astonishment no different from those of the children.

"Lady Caitlin really didn't lie to us," Pearl thought to herself, her gaze unconsciously drifting towards Caitlin, who was leading the way.

Throughout her journey, Caitlin has demonstrated her formidable strength on more than one occasion, earning Pearl's deep respect.

But the reason everyone was willing to follow her to Phoenix wasn't just because they feared her strength.

The Phoenix described by Caitlin, and the new king Gaudí, were the main reasons for their arrival.

Caitlin walked steadily, leading this large group of people towards the city gates of Phoenix.

Before they even got close to the city gate, the Zhenbing guards at the gate noticed their group.

As Pearl pondered with some tension and worry—after all, in her mind, these people were the "big bad guys" who had wiped out their sect—two True Ice Guards trotted over, bowed respectfully to Caitlin, and loudly proclaimed, "Deputy Director Caitlin, welcome back!"

Perle blinked.

Although she didn't know what the deputy director meant, she could clearly feel the respect the guards had for Caitlin from their tone and expressions.

At least from this point of view, Caitlin did not lie to them.

The new king, God, was very friendly to these members of the cult who had nothing to do with forbidden necromancy.

They treated everyone equally, truly giving Caitlin, as an outsider, an extremely high status.

(End of this chapter)