Above the mage!

Chapter 307 Unified Approach

"His ideas are always novel and practical." Sunaifa nodded in agreement with Lan Wen's exclamation.

"Mother Zhan, what should we do with these captured mice?" Lan Wen asked again.

"After the interrogation, send a letter to their tribe..." Sunaifa thought for a moment and finally remembered the word God said, "and ask them to use ice marrow to redeem the people."

"Twenty drops of third-level ice marrow can redeem one person. The Frostwolf clan is an exception. Tell them to bring twenty drops of fourth-level ice marrow to Phoenix to redeem them." She said lightly.

"Twenty drops of fourth-level ice marrow to redeem one person." Lan Wen hesitated and said, "This is too expensive. Will they accept it?"

Twenty drops of fourth-level ice marrow require a fourth-ring early ice mage to spend twenty years to condense, and fourth-level ice mage is the key to the "artificial fourth-ring ice mage".

It is a strategic resource for every tribe.

The Frostwolf Clan is most likely not willing to pay such a huge price to redeem an informant who is neither important nor unimportant.

At least that's what Lanwen thought.

"They will definitely accept it," Sunaifa said with certainty. "You should explain in detail in the letter you send to the Frostwolf Clan that their people stole our Northwest Barley No. 1. You should also introduce Northwest Barley No. 1 and show its importance to our clan."

"Mother Zhan, what do you mean?" Lan Wen couldn't help but widen his eyes. He obviously understood Sunaifa's thoughts from her instructions, but he just couldn't believe it.

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

"Northwest Barley No. 1 is a grain crop. After harvest, it can be used as a staple food. It can also be used as feed to raise birds such as snow pheasants. If the Frostwolf Clan knew about this, how could they not have some ideas?" Sunaifa said lightly.

The Frostwolf Clan started out by training snow wolves, and has grown to be as famous as the True Ice Tribe and the Hammer of Winter.

The Snow Wolf is the foundation of the Frostwolf Clan.

Snow wolves are not ordinary wild beasts. Each one is agile, majestic, and possesses great strength.

As a powerful earth creature, the amount of food consumed by the snow wolf every day is even more than that of a strong adult man.

This is a huge burden for the Frostwolf Clan.

Of course, if there were no food constraints, given the number of snow wolves on the snowfields, the Frostwolf Clan should have continued to develop and expand in size.

It is not the case that after becoming a large tribe, its development will almost stagnate.

"What we want is for them to have ideas." Sunaifa tapped the table with his fingertips and said decisively.

"This was also the king's idea."

"For those small tribes, we only need to wait until the production of Northwest Barley No. 1 is high enough to support more people. We don't need to go to great lengths to plan anything. We just need to send out a signal that we are willing to accept them, and those small tribes will surrender on their own."

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

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

A beast attack or casualties from hunting could lead a small tribe to the abyss of destruction.

Therefore, in the North, 99% of the small tribes are willing to join a powerful tribe and seek a safe haven.

Everyone knows that it is good to lean on a big tree for shade.

But the problem is that food is always a scarce and limited commodity in this frozen land. Even a large tribe that seems to have strong financial resources is actually "the landlord has no surplus food."

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

In comparison, those small tribes often have only two or three Ice Wizards in the entire tribe, which is too weak.

Efforts and gains are completely out of proportion.

Who would be willing to do such a losing business?
Just like the Duoer Border tribe that Gaode encountered when he first entered the northern border, it was such a small tribe.

If the Zhenbing tribe is willing to take them in and provide them with shelter and food, let alone resistance, they will simply come right up to them and won't be driven away.

Sunaifa continued: "But it is not so easy for other tribes, especially large tribes, to subdue them."

"They often have a strong sense of identity with their tribe. Moreover, although the food supply of large tribes is not sufficient, it is relatively stable. Even if there is an ice age, the tribe members will not starve to death."

Sunaifa tapped the wooden table lightly and emphasized, "Under these circumstances, it is impossible for them to join our tribe just for food."

"So, we have to use some methods to deal with these large tribes. Military reunification is ultimately the worst option." At this point, she smiled slightly, "These are the king's original words."

The word Wutong was also a very new word to her.

However, compared with "subjective initiative", "military reunification" is much simpler and more intuitive, at least its meaning can be understood at a glance.

"These rats are racking their brains to secretly pass the news of Northwest Barley No. 1 back to their own tribe. They never thought that we were planning to release the news actively to let all tribes know about the existence of Northwest Barley No. 1." Sunaifa opened his thin lips slightly, his voice cold.

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

"We are planning to sell them Northwest Barley No. 1, but not at a high price. Rather, we will sell it at a reasonable price." Sunaifa gave Lan Wen an answer that he did not expect.

"Ah?!!!" Lan Wen opened his mouth wide, suspecting that he had heard it wrong.

"This is the king's decision." Sunaifa raised the corner of his mouth. He was not surprised at Lan Wen's reaction.

Because when she first heard the resolution, she was also very confused.

"Why is this?" Lan Wen couldn't help but ask. If he could understand the previous words, he was completely confused by the operation of selling grain at a fair price.

"Wang said that military reunification is the most direct way to achieve unification, but it will also result in the heaviest casualties. Population is the most precious resource, and it would be foolish to waste it for nothing."

"The ideal way to unify is without bloodshed."

"How is it possible to do this without bloodshed?" Lan Wen blurted out.

You said before that large tribes would not surrender easily, but now you say that you want to conquer large tribes without bloodshed. Isn't this contradictory?
"Wang knows a way to unify, called economic warfare, which can do just that."

"Economic war?"

“He didn’t give me any specific explanation, but told me a story,” Sunaifa said.

"What story?" Lan Wen asked curiously.

Sunaifa's blue eyes flashed with a gleam of light: "In the king's hometown, there used to be a country called Pampas, with vast grasslands. The local people have long been nomadic and have a brave and combative cavalry team. Their strength should not be underestimated. They were very tenacious in resisting foreign enemies."

"Another country called the Sun Never Sets had its eyes on the Pampas, but was afraid of the cost of a head-on conflict, so it came up with a clever plan:
As a nomadic country, the animal husbandry of the Pampas was very developed. The ruler of the sun never set asked his merchants to purchase wool from the Pampas at high prices. "Seeing that raising sheep could bring huge profits, the Pampas herders followed suit, and a large number of pastures were opened up to raise sheep. The number of sheep increased sharply in a short period of time."

"Sheep are different from war horses. When they eat grass, they pull it up by the roots. As sheep flocks proliferate, the vegetation on the Pampas has been severely damaged. High-quality pastures have gradually become desertified and degraded, and there is less and less space and grass for breeding excellent war horses."

"The cavalry that the Pampas once prided themselves on lost the support of sufficient and high-quality war horses, and their combat effectiveness was greatly reduced. Facing the overwhelming force of the British army, they no longer had the confidence to resist. After weighing the pros and cons, they had no choice but to surrender."

"He said it was called the Trojan Horse."

"Trojan Horse?" Lan Wen repeated the name in a low voice, frowning, full of doubts.

He couldn't understand how this trick was related to the Trojan Horse, and what Troy was.

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

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

He took a deep breath and said convincedly: "I understand."

His tone was crisp and clear, and there was no longer any hesitation in his eyes, only excitement.

After seeing Lan Wen off, Sunaifa shook his head and once again picked up the parchment on the table and began to read it line by line.

On the parchment, several lines of large characters prominently marked the key information of the farm:
【Name: Jinhui Farm】

[Currently cultivated land: 2 mu]

[Yield per mu: 140-150 kg, ripening once every four months]

[Land to be reclaimed: 28 mu (target number in the first step)]

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

[Progress: 3000-3500 acres per day]

This is specific data summarized according to Gaode's intentions, and Gaode also called it a "self-made panel" in a rather novel way.

Although she didn't understand why it was called a panel, summarizing it in this format did allow her to understand the situation of Jinhui Farm more intuitively and at a glance.

Moreover, Sunaifa has gradually become accustomed to the strange words that often come out of Gaode's mouth, and has even learned to use these new terms.

In the past two months, under the leadership of Flora and the promotion of the art of nature, the per-acre yield of Northwest Barley No. 120 has increased from 140 kilograms at the beginning to 150- kilograms, an increase of nearly %, which can be called a leap forward.

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

Because she knew clearly that whether it was to absorb those small tribes like scattered sand, or to use the clever "Trojan Horse" to conquer large tribes without bloodshed, the core foundation of all plans was "food".

This is the foundation of everything. Without it, even the most sophisticated strategies are nothing but illusory castles in the air.

However, the current output of the Jinhui Farm is far from enough for the Zhenbing people to consume internally.

The Zhenbing tribe consumes about 9000 million kilograms of barley a year.

Even if the yield per mu is increased to 140-150 kilograms, nearly 21 mu of land will be needed to achieve self-sufficiency in food shortages.

At the current rate of progress, it will take about two months to reclaim 21 acres of land.

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

"Increase manpower and expand the number of people." Sunaifa picked up the bone pen, with the tip of the pen hovering over the parchment. He thought for a moment, and finally brought it down heavily, writing "20000 people".

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

The existence of this batch of reserve grain is enough to allow the Zhenbing tribe to withdraw 20,000 people to temporarily "leave production", give up their previous hunting and animal husbandry livelihoods, and devote themselves to reclamation and farming.

Of course, this is just the beginning.

After the second batch of Northwest Barley No. 1 is harvested, she will further expand her staff.

Because according to Gao De's calculations, to take care of 300,000 acres of land, given the current conditions of the Zhenbing tribe, at least 40,000 full-time farmers would be needed to barely be enough.

Pearl stood in the crowd, her little face flushed red by the cold wind. At this moment, she stared with wide eyes at the busy and energetic people around her and the green wheat seedlings growing in the fields.

She never thought that one day she would actually see this scene that only existed in her dreams on the permafrost.

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

She still clearly remembered that after listening to the other party's introduction to the outside world, she sighed and said, "It would be great if crops could be grown in the North," and was "ridiculed" by her companions for this.

The instructor comforted her by saying that the land in the north was absolutely incapable of growing food, and asked her to work hard to become a powerful guardian and protect the snowfield.

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

She wasn't the only one whose eyes widened.

The other children around her were equally stunned.

Even the usually strict guardians and teachers who were walking in the front had the same look of astonishment on their faces as these children.

"Lady Caitlin really didn't lie to us," Pearl thought silently in her heart, her eyes unconsciously looking at Caitlin who was leading the way in front.
Along the way, Caitlin had demonstrated her powerful strength more than once, leaving Pearl in awe.

But the reason why everyone was willing to follow her to Phoenix was not only because they were afraid of her strength.
The Phoenix described by Caitlyn and the new king Goder were the main reasons for their coming.

Caitlin walked steadily towards the gate of Phoenix with this huge group of people.

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

While Pearl was somewhat nervous and worried—after all, in her opinion, these people were the "big bad guys" who destroyed their sect—two True Ice Guards had already trotted over, saluted respectfully to Caitlin, and shouted, "Deputy Director Caitlin, welcome back!"

Pearl blinked.

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

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

The new king Gode was very friendly to these members of the sect who had nothing to do with the forbidden necromancy.

They even treated everyone equally, which really gave Caitlin, a foreigner, a very high status.

(End of this chapter)