Warlord: King of All Clans

The head of Hewan's road administration followed the Earl and rode forward while introducing, "The terrain of the Western Grassland is much flatter than our Hewan, but the cost of this track is much higher than the Baiyi track."

"There are no quarries here, nor enough manpower. There is no place to buy wood. All these need to be transferred from the river bend. It is definitely not possible to repair it this winter. If we are in a hurry, we need to mobilize the engineering teams stationed in Isembol and Arbroath."

Leo shook his head when he heard that. "The development of Isenbor and Abros are both very important. I don't have any manpower to spare for you. If you are really short of manpower, I will contact the Talhan tribe and recruit several thousand young men from the Western Territory for you."

Ajina was also beside them. Upon hearing this, she immediately said, "Although there are few settlements in our Tarhan tribe, we are not without people. We can still recruit a few thousand young and strong herdsmen to come and build the road."

The road administration supervisor curled his lips but didn't say much. He just nodded and wrote it down in his little notebook.

The young and strong herdsmen in the western border are not as useful as the skilled laborers in Hewan. A small worker in Hewan who has been involved in infrastructure construction for a year is equivalent to two outsiders who know nothing on the construction site.

If he had used the craftsmen and skilled laborers from the Hewan Engineering Corps, he could have saved at least 30% of the money and time in building the track.

The team walked deeper into the prairie, where the wind and sand became stronger and stronger, and the bushes became increasingly sparse, until only withered grass roots were left.

The riders covered their faces with the prepared towels and continued forward against the gray west wind.

After three days of walking, they could no longer see the trace of Buck Fortress behind them, and the sand in the air turned into black gray. Leo's convoy finally arrived at the Talhan tribe's firestone mine.

The Yanshi Mine has become a mining town, where a large number of herdsmen have switched jobs and become miners and survive.

Of course, the main labor force came from the prisoners of war and slaves captured by the Tarhan tribe during their conquests.

With the assistance of Hewan Mining, dense mine car tracks were built here, and gantry cranes driven by human or animal power were everywhere.

Carriages loaded with burning stones drove out of the town and headed towards Buck's Fortress.

Passing through the town, a huge coal pit appeared before Leo's eyes.

The open-pit coal mines are several square kilometers in size, with the deepest being a hundred meters deep.

Every twenty meters of drop, a steam pump was set up to pump up the accumulated water below the mine.

For this purpose, a canal was built near the town to drain the accumulated water into the nearby river.

But in fact, there is a serious shortage of water here. Even grass doesn't grow much. Even in a mine pit that is a hundred meters deep, not much water can accumulate all year round.

On the surface of the huge mine, countless miners wearing chains and holding small iron pickaxes were digging.

Leo observed that these miners were not just human slaves, but also a large number of gnolls, wild boars, and lizardmen.

Ajina pointed to the other side of the huge mine and said, "Over there is my mother's tribe, the Yuege tribe. They also have open-air rock mines. My grandfather was the leader of the Yuege tribe. He married my mother to my father and joined the Tarhan tribe, becoming a captain of a thousand men. Well, the current leader of the Yuege tribe is my uncle."

When we arrived at the mining town, there was not much grass left, and beyond the mine, we could see the rolling Gobi Desert.

Living in such a place, it is impossible to raise war horses, and they can only raise cattle and sheep that are easier to survive. Such a nomadic tribe naturally has no combat effectiveness.

Leo couldn't help but say, "Your mother clan had a hard time."

Arina said in a deep voice: "The herders of the Western Border grasslands have been fighting for hundreds of years for the pastures, but they have never been able to grow stronger. But now it is different. With the firearms of Hewan, our Tarhan tribe can unify the grasslands and distribute the pastures fairly."

Leo laughed, "A fair split, nine for me and one for you?"

Arina didn't feel ashamed at all. "That's how it is on the grassland. The strong are the kings and they take over everything. It's only natural that our Tarhan tribe should take over 90% of the land. At least we won't let the herders of other tribes die out."

"Do you know the Ashina tribe next door? Every time they conquer a tribe, they slaughter all the people who are taller than the wheels, and sell the rest as slaves. If the Ashina tribe gains power, there will be no other tribes on the grassland."

"If my mother tribe, the Yuege tribe, had not become a vassal of the Talhan tribe, I'm afraid they would have been massacred ten years ago."

Leo was not interested in the West Territory for the time being. Hearing this, he said bluntly: "I am not interested in your land, the people of the West Territory. I only want your burning stones."

"As many fire stones as you provide, we can provide as much ammunition as you provide."

Ajina complained to him simply because she wanted to get more ammunition back. If Leo was soft-hearted, maybe he could get a few thousand-man cannons that the Tarhan tribe had never been able to cast.

Sometimes the technological bottleneck is so simple. Just the coke desulfurization technology caused the Talhan tribe's artillery research to be stuck on the twelve-pound thousand-man cannon.

Hewan now has a blast furnace and a rotary refining furnace, and has passed the early era of pig iron cannon casting and started to transition to wrought iron casting. They can make any 30-pound, ten-thousand-man cannon they want.

Arina's little trick was exposed by Leo, but she was not annoyed at all. Instead, she was very excited. "Then fix the track quickly. It will be mutually beneficial."

The road administrator of Hewan was already covered in dust and exhausted, but in good spirits. "It's really flat from Buck Fortress to here. The conditions are better than I imagined. The slag and gravel from the Burning Stone Mine can also replace the quarry and provide a lot of stone for roadbed construction. There is no need to transport it from Hewan."

Leo gave him full authority and said, "You can do whatever you want. If you have any difficulties, please tell me immediately."

The road administration supervisor was also a meticulous person. He had already found out everything. "I heard that there are some foreign tribes nearby. They attack the herdsmen nearby from time to time. When the track construction starts, it will be a large project involving tens of thousands of people. It will cost hundreds of gold coins every day. We can't let the foreign tribes interfere."

Alien races are not as chaotic as wild beasts. Many of them are equivalent to primitive tribes of human beings.

The wild beasts dared not approach when they saw the huge crowds of people, and the foreigners saw the thousands of unarmored civilians gathering and took the opportunity to create chaos and take advantage of the situation.

Tens of thousands of civilians were scattered across the grasslands, building roads in sections. If any foreign tribe attacked and destroyed one or two camps, it would cause great panic.

Arina immediately made the decision: "I will immediately mobilize the family cavalry to conquer the nearby foreign tribes and wipe them out. At the same time, the Hewan Engineering Team can also send a small number of soldiers to defend. Well, the ratio of soldiers to civilians cannot exceed one to ten."

Allowing Hewan's elite troops to enter the grassland was already a risky decision. If too many soldiers from Hewan came, her father Shilatu would have to mobilize the legion for defense.

After completing the survey of the western track, Ajina took the opportunity to invite Leo to visit Ulanggar, the main city of the Tarhan tribe.

(The temperature suddenly dropped, and I caught a cold again. I feel dizzy and confused. Everyone, please keep warm!)