Warlord: King of All Clans

After staying in the West for a few days, Leo ended his journey and prepared to go back to the river bend to continue fishing.

It was called a visit, but in fact it was the same as Arina's participation in the Hewan War, which was a kind of spying.

But the barren Western Territory really didn't arouse Leo's interest. At least for now, he couldn't find the urgency to occupy it.

In the vast and sparsely populated grasslands and deserts, you can often ride on horseback for a whole day without encountering a small settlement, and only occasionally you can see a group of nomadic tents grazing their livestock.

The legion formed by Hewan was like a drop in the ocean when thrown into the Western Territory. It was too weak and could not effectively control the occupied area.

Nomads who are used to freedom are not qualified laborers. They simply will not farm or mine honestly. They will only accept their fate as slaves under the constraints of whips and shackles.

If they touch the butt of any horse, it will jump into the vast ocean and disappear in the next second.

The entire Orlantis Empire is like a big pie decorated with delicious meat fillings, with the southern border being the most abundant and the northern border being the second.

When we reached the western border, only a layer of bland dry bread was left.

Leo could only continue to focus his attention on the map of the northern border.

But this journey to the West was not without any gains. In addition to meeting the wind wolf elf Hati, Leo also saw many supplies that were in short supply in the North at the Wolf Mountain Conference.

Like cotton! Rubber! Coffee! Cocoa! Tea! Spices! Even silk!

Before this, Leo always subconsciously compared the Western Territory to the Western Regions in his previous life, but in fact they were quite different.

A port city at the southern end of the West Territory, it is also close to the Archipelago Free State in the Storm Sea and adjacent to the Orantiri Province in the southern border of the Empire.

Tea and silk are the specialties of the province of Oranteri. They are almost impossible to grow in the cold north and can only be obtained through ocean trade.

The remaining tropical cash crops, all products of the Free State of the Islands, are now spreading to the southern part of the South Territory and the southern part of the West Territory.

After the Tarhan tribe conquered the Yuezhong tribe, it bordered the Sakya tribe to the south, and the Sakya tribe bordered the Ilan tribe further south.

The western seaport controlled by the Yilan tribe not only produced abundant cotton and rubber, but also imported large quantities of spices from the Free State of the Islands and tea and silk from the Province of Oranteri, and sold them to the nomadic peoples in the north.

Rio also opened up this trade route through the Tarhan tribe.

These southern border supplies, which could previously only be obtained briefly through the imperial capital's portal, now have a new source.

Although the cost is ten times higher than portal trade, it is still profitable in the North.

Moreover, Hewan does not need to exchange real gold and silver. The Talhan tribe has a more urgent need for Hewan's high-quality ammunition and cheap industrial products, which will prompt them to actively look for more cost-effective goods to exchange.

Arina sent Leo all the way to Buck Fortress before reluctantly turning back.

Participating in a war in the North with the Riverbend Legion gave this wolf girl from the West deep feelings.

The Earl's Legion in the North still retains the combat effectiveness of the regular army of the Orlantis Empire hundreds of years ago. It has complete military qualities and is simply not comparable to Burke's horse bandit group in the West.

The Talhan family trained nearly a thousand musketeer cavalry, and with the addition of dozens of centurions, they were able to lead the remaining traditional cavalry to kill people in all directions and conquer the Yuezhong tribe, which was equally powerful as them.

However, if they really collide with the Northern Earl's Legion, they can only rely on guerrilla tactics to win, and there is still no chance of winning in a head-on confrontation.

In order to defeat the Earl's Legion in the North, the Talhan tribe must at least be equipped with a well-organized artillery regiment of thousand-man commanders, flintlock muskets that can penetrate plate armor, and high-level extraordinary people who can stop the strong men in the North.

But when she thought of the huge mountain of River Bay Earldom blocking her way, Arina felt that she would never be able to get involved in the North in her lifetime. On the contrary, she had to do her best to develop herself so as not to be eaten by the other side.

Shilatu's youngest son Yuegechar did not follow his sister back, but continued to follow Leo and his party back to Hewan. He was happier than everyone in Hewan who returned home.

He comes to Riverbend at least three times a year, responsible for the official trade and diplomatic affairs of the Tarhan tribe and Riverbend. If he stays for a long time, he will stay for ten days or half a month. If he stays for a short time, he can only play with his kobold friends in Riverbend for one or two days.

This time, Slatu finally gave in and allowed him to spend the entire winter in the river bend.

As for his five hundred firearms craftsmen, only one hundred went to Hewan for internship.

After the establishment of the Talhan tribe's firearms craftsmen group, they made outstanding contributions to the family. Now their whereabouts are no longer decided by Yue Gechar.

Neither the head of the family, Shi Latu, nor his older brothers would allow Yue Gechaer to send the entire group of firearms craftsmen to Hewan for further studies.

So after much persuasion from Yue Gechaer and with Leo's encouragement, he finally got rid of the one hundred low-level craftsmen.

Arina told her brother that these one hundred craftsmen who went to Hewan would either only be able to participate in the lowest-level manufacturing and not be able to get in touch with the core technology of Hewan firearms, or they would be integrated into the Hewan system and never be able to come back.

Yue Gechar said there was no need to worry. The one hundred firearms craftsmen were just his stepping stones. He would just give them away. The important point was to let him take a few more looks at the river bend.

Spending a year studying in Ulangar to improve firearms is not as good as taking a peek at the river bend!

As for Leo, he was also very interested in Yue Gechar, a rare R\u0026D genius. In Hewan, only Fesha could compare with him.

Early firearms manufacturing could be mass-produced based on the population base, but more advanced military products test the overall industrial capabilities.

No matter how much the Tarhan tribe researched, they could only break through the pig iron casting technology in a short period of time, start producing thousand-man long cannons, and dominate the western border.

However, modern weapons such as the Ten Thousand Man Army, the City Breaker, and the Rifled Gun require the iteration of the entire industrial technology and cannot be produced by the primitive blacksmith shop model.

Even in Hewan, with the existence of Leo, the "prophet", these industrial creations would not appear until another half a century later if it were not for the dual support of Atrium Technology and Imperial Capital Technology, as well as the craftsmen and high-end talents that have been continuously recruited over the years.

Back at Buck Fortress, the Buck Tunnel in the north has been finalized, with wooden tracks running through it. Horse-drawn carriages loaded with gravel, sleepers, and wooden tracks are heading deep into the grassland.

Once the construction of the western track is completed and the input of high-quality coal increases exponentially, River Bay can start considering the production of rails, replacing the wooden rails on the track with iron rails, and allowing steam trains to replace rail carriages.

At the same time, the Fusiliers of the Riverbend who had withdrawn from Arbroath began to move into the Westerlands, establishing military stations along the Westerlands tracks to maintain the trade in firestone.

Knight Solovy stood on the newly renovated fortress wall, looking at the workers from both realms working in the cold wind at the construction site outside the city, and couldn't help feeling a little dazed.