Chapter 62: The Unformidable Northland Barbarians
The main reason Owen insisted on doing this was that he had another sudden idea to try and create a series of underground structures in Wild Bull Territory, Magic Horn Forest, and the territory’s castle, and then connect them.
With the castle dungeon as the core, connecting the Magic Horn Forest, which produces food and fuel, and the Wild Bull Territory, which produces iron ore, this would allow for a hidden connection between several important locations. It would not only allow for the silent concentration of all forces but also guarantee multiple escape routes, not to mention the benefits of resource transportation and surprise attacks.
While there were many benefits, the only problem was that this project was large enough to build a city, yet Owen preferred to bury it underground. This showed that he still lacked a sense of security.
Perhaps it was because he had been underground for so long that, for Owen, the earth was like a blanket covering him as he slept alone at night. Whether it was useful or not, at least it could bring him some sense of security.
Besides, even if he had the ability to build a city, he wouldn’t do it, because he didn’t want to be targeted.
Rapid development within the scope of what others could understand or accept was fine, but inexplicable rapid development was like projecting the words “I’m suspicious, I have secrets” onto the sky with a projector. There were better ways to court death than this.
The idea of building an underground complex was good, and Owen had the ability to achieve it, but he didn’t know if he had enough time.
After having his scouts carefully inspect the area and finding no traces left by outsiders in Wild Bull Territory, Owen knew he still had time.
The escape of Baron Wild Bull’s descendants was a hidden danger, but only a hidden danger. Even if they brought back the barbarians, he wasn’t afraid. It would be a good opportunity to try and increase his Progress Value limit again.
Owen’s confidence wasn’t unfounded. It was a conclusion he reached after gaining sufficient understanding through Maya’s explanation.
The Northland Barbarians were indeed formidable, and they were once a serious threat to the Empire. However, as the Empire developed, the Northland Barbarians remained stagnant or even regressed, turning from a major threat into a border issue.
After the First Northland Pioneer Group severely weakened the Northland Barbarians several times, the barbarians were forced to migrate north for survival and inheritance. This showed how weak the Northland Barbarians had become.
It was common knowledge that the further north one went in the Northland, the more desolate it became. If there was even a slight chance, the Northland Barbarians wouldn’t have chosen to cross the river and migrate north, because it was easy to go but difficult to return.
The problem was that they had no choice. Even if they still had the ability to annihilate the Northland Pioneer Group, it wouldn’t matter. If the Empire could form the first group, there would be a second, a third, and even forming ten at once wouldn’t be impossible.
The Empire had plenty of people and could afford the expenditure.
Therefore, the wise men of the Northland Barbarians saw it very clearly: the barbarians’ only hope lay in the north. This was the reason for the great migration of the Northland Barbarians back then.
It was a pity that even though they had found a way to survive, in the far north, the barbarians would face even more difficulties. Maintaining their current situation would be considered good; they couldn’t expect to grow and expand.
Of course, even if the Northland Barbarians were weak, they weren’t something that Owen, a small Viscount, could deal with, even with his cheats.
The problem was that the Northland Barbarians weren’t good at farming. They mainly relied on herding and hunting, so they couldn’t gather in large numbers.
After all, the wild beasts of the Northland weren’t crops, and the grass also needed time to grow. Simply put, a piece of land could only support a limited number of people. To obtain more prey, they had to travel further. This prevented the barbarians from gathering in large numbers; they could only continuously migrate in the form of nomadic tribes.
It used to be fine. For countless years, the Northland Barbarians had constantly fought and compromised with each other. Although there was hatred between the tribes, they all had their own living spaces and nomadic routes, generally not interfering with each other, living in relative peace.
However, after migrating north, all order vanished, and everything returned to a primitive state. Whoever had the bigger fist had more to eat. The originally faded hatred would definitely accumulate deeper and deeper. This made it extremely difficult for the barbarian tribes to cooperate.
Without cooperation, Owen wasn’t afraid of a single barbarian tribe.
The population of a barbarian tribe wouldn’t be too large, mostly staying around three to five hundred people. The most common were small tribes with over a hundred people.
This was mainly because the barbarians were big eaters. The nomadic people in his previous life didn’t eat meat every meal. They mainly relied on dairy products and grains traded from agricultural peoples.
The problem was that with the barbarians’ appetites, dairy products couldn’t fill their stomachs. As for exchanging for grain with agricultural peoples, did they think the Imperial Border Army was dead?
Therefore, the barbarian tribes mainly relied on hunting and herding for food. However, food obtained through hunting was unstable, and herding was limited by grasslands and prone to attracting wolves. It was difficult to increase their livestock. Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, they wouldn’t slaughter more livestock, so it was common for them to go hungry one day and full the next.
It was because they ate so much that the barbarian tribes couldn’t support too many people. Unless it involved the survival of all Northland Barbarians, the tribes mostly had no contact with each other, at most exchanging unmarried men and women every two or three years in common areas to maintain fresh blood within the tribes.
Baron Wild Bull only had half barbarian blood, and his descendants only had a quarter. Even if they could establish a relationship with a barbarian tribe by selling ironware, it wouldn’t be enough to make the tribe go all out to help them avenge him.
The barbarians were savage, not stupid. How could they risk the destruction of their tribe to help someone seek revenge? They knew that the most fundamental thing for any tribe was continuation, not impulsive revenge. Tribes that thought and acted like that wouldn’t have survived to this day.
It was because Owen understood this that he didn’t take Baron Wild Bull’s descendants seriously. This was also the reason why he didn’t put all his effort into building a city.
Although they knew that the hope of crossing the North Boundary River again was slim, the Northland Barbarians still understood how fatal it would be for them if the Empire built a city on the river.
Once a city was built there, it would not only completely cut off their hope of returning but also become a bridgehead for the Empire’s next northern expedition. Therefore, the Northland Barbarians would never sit back and watch Owen build a city on the North Boundary River. A town was their limit of tolerance.
It was still too early to talk about these things. Just the city walls alone were enough to make Owen worry until he was bald, let alone a complete city.
As the mining of iron ore in Wild Bull Territory got on track, ten carts of high-quality iron ore were transported to the territory every month. After being smelted with Magic Horn Tree blocks, it was turned into refined iron, then hammered by strong blacksmiths into various tools and weapons. For this, Owen had to increase the number of blacksmith shops in his territory.
Even though Maya could handle most of the territory’s affairs on Owen’s behalf, it didn’t mean he didn’t have to do anything. At least he needed to understand the extent of the territory’s development and what to do next, especially the direction of development, which Maya couldn’t decide for him.
Amidst the busyness, only Dier and the [Expansion Potion] could soothe Owen’s wounded soul.
He had to admit that Dier was even more adventurous than him in this aspect, especially after she mastered Transformation Magic. Beast ears, tails, fluffiness, and her application of the [Cartilage Charm] truly opened his eyes. In his previous life, she would have definitely been an ancestor-level character in the doujin world.
