Green Monster Epic

“I hope Lord Alan can abide by the agreement and remain neutral when we are at war with the Drow.”

The elven envoy, Sherry, had truly learned what it meant to be impervious to persuasion from Alan, this hobgoblin. After spending more than half a month grinding away, she barely managed to make a sliver of progress on the purpose of their negotiations.

He accepted their gifts, but whenever it came to discussing serious matters, this hobgoblin would come up with a plethora of excuses, stating the difficulties of the covenant between their tribe and the kingdom. Although many of these reasons could not withstand scrutiny, there were indeed quite a few reasons that the other party had to treat with caution.

For example, if the Drow joined the Mansa Alliance, the Northern tribes, unless they wanted to secede from the alliance, could not ignore the alliance charter and attack the Drow, and so on.

After a final round of negotiations, the hobgoblin, representing several major members of their Thorns Ring organization, agreed to remain neutral between the elves and the Drow, and would also delay the alliance's support for the Drow, etc.

Although they did not get the most ideal result, the kingdom had anticipated all of this when they sent Sherry, so they were not disappointed at all. If the other party had truly agreed to all the conditions proposed by their side, then unless the hobgoblin leader really signed a magic contract, the elves would instead be uneasy about the contract reached between the two parties.

At least the contract currently signed, from an overall point of view, is indeed the most profitable and least costly for the Northern tribes. As long as they are not fools, they will naturally be happy to sit on the sidelines. Moreover, their choice is also very much in line with the style of the wilderness tribes, without any flaws.

It's just that the kingdom has bled a lot this time. The gifts sent to the other party and the price paid are enough to arm an army of 20,000 to 30,000 people.

However, the kingdom has a large foundation and a great cause. This bit of resources is a pity in Sherry's eyes, but in the eyes of the kingdom's higher-ups, it is nothing more than a drop in the bucket.

“You should have investigated me. I basically never fail to deliver on my promises, not to mention that we have also signed a contract. If you are still not at ease, then there is nothing I can do!”

Alan's expression was indifferent, as if he didn't care.

“Hehe, Lord Alan is really serious. We naturally believe in your promise!”

Sherry covered her mouth and giggled, but her eyes glanced towards a building at the foot of the mountain, which was where the Drow delegation, secretly separated by the goblins, was staying.

Even knowing that the Drow had also sent envoys to lobby the hobgoblin demigod, Sherry was not too worried, because the elves had long inquired about the discord between the Drow and the Northern Territory, and they also understood the Drow's wealth, which had no advantage in front of the kingdom.

Of course, nothing is absolute. Who can guarantee that the hobgoblin will not be subdued by the pressure from the Drow, the Mansa Alliance, and the temple, and eventually break the contract with the elves!

Or perhaps this hobgoblin has great ambitions and is not tempted by the immediate benefits, and intends to confuse the elves from the beginning?

It's just that as the main person in charge of the delegation, Sherry doesn't need to worry about these things. The kingdom's higher-ups must also have corresponding countermeasures. She only needs to complete the mission entrusted to her by the kingdom.

“However, I also need to remind you that if you want to attack the Drow, you should also fight quickly and resolve the battle quickly. Otherwise, I won’t be able to delay for too long when the alliance reinforcements arrive.”

“Please rest assured, Lord. After I go back this time, I will urge the generals on the Cold Wind Ridge front line to take action. I believe it won't be long before we can achieve the scene we all want to see.”

“I hope so!”

After seeing off the elves, Alan continued to communicate with the Drow. In the ten days or so of communicating and negotiating with the elves, he had been intentionally neglecting the Drow, just for the subsequent negotiations with the Drow.

Perhaps sensing that the elves and the hobgoblins had reached some kind of contract, when Alan negotiated with the Drow later, the other party took the initiative to increase their conditions again without Alan having to fight for it.

Even in order to break the contract between the elves and Alan, Matron Deborah took the initiative to find Oscar and other Oak Church earth priest, pulling the other party to discuss with Alan together. After all, Matron Deborah also understood that the chips in their hands were certainly not as good as the elves, but they could not ignore the existence and value of the Thorns Ring. If the Hoazia Federation did not have foreign aid in the face of the powerful elven army, the final result would not be difficult to imagine.

Although the Drow Federation is still confident in contending with the elven army currently located outside the city of Cold Wind Ridge, according to the information gathered by the Drow intelligence system, the elves still have a considerable army that has already set off from the kingdom's hinterland and is heading towards Thorns Fort.

On the other hand, regarding the matter of reinforcements to the Northern Territory, the Mansa Alliance is still fiercely discussing it in the Mansa City Alliance Council. Even now, there is no clear figure for the specific amount of reinforcement materials and troops. It is unknown how long it will be before they actually gather soldiers and materials.

Therefore, if the Drow Federation wants to survive in the military actions against the elves, it still needs to rely on the support of the neighboring Thorns Ring.

The envoy group of the Oak Church camp also raised the stakes. Although the Oak Church has declined severely in recent years, the forces such as the Ranger Church and the New Sprout Church in their camp are also deeply rooted, at least more valuable than the Drow who migrated from the underground.

Alan's goal of keeping the other party waiting had already been achieved. At this time, he reluctantly made a promise to the other party that he would definitely provide strong support when the elves and the Drow were at war.

A promise alone was naturally not enough. Subsequently, Alan summoned the representatives of the Thorns Ring who were staying in Green Lake Town and repeated the terms that he had previously discussed with them to Oscar, Deborah, and others. Only then did the other party barely believe Alan.

Of course, when confessing to Oscar and others, Alan was still prepared. He only revealed a part of the Thorns Ring's plan to the core members of their team. One reason was naturally to appease the other party's heart, and the other was to try to keep it as secret as possible.

Among the conditions that the elves promised to him, there were still a lot of resources that needed time to transport and hand over. Although Alan's ultimate goal in reaching an agreement with the other party at that time was to confuse the other party and make the Thorns Ring's actions more unexpected, wouldn't it be a profit if he could cheat some benefits from the other party!

As for whether Alan's personal credibility would be criticized for betraying his word because of this matter, the hobgoblin did not have any psychological burden at all. Keeping promises is also something that depends on the specific object. If he can exchange his personal credibility for the opportunity for the tribe and the Northern Territory, then everything is worth it.

Anyway, in the wilderness, those who really care about so-called credibility are rare. Everyone still believes in interests and strength.

In order to avoid being noticed by the elves too early, Alan kept the negotiation time with the Drow and the Oak Church mission the same, dragging it on for a long time. At the same time, during this period, the tribal members under the Thorns Ring organization have begun to secretly summon warriors from the vassals and their own clansmen to form an army.

The Knight Academy of Green Lake Town finally had a chance to show its skills. Over the years, the Greenfield Tribe had invested heavily in this academy, providing abundant resources and many benefits to the students, all in order to cultivate more military talents for the tribe.

It should be known that the knight profession in the wilderness is a chicken rib. Its combat ability is considered the weakest among all professions of the same level. Therefore, in adventure parties, these professionals are often disliked, and no one wants to team up with them.

Without development potential, naturally no one would want to embark on this path, unless there is a tribe or force behind them to support them. Otherwise, this type of professional in the wilderness is bound to be as rare as a phoenix feather.

Even with the strong support of the Greenfield Tribe, the number of students in the Knight Academy over the years has been the smallest among the several major academies in Green Lake Town. The number of students in each class does not exceed two or three hundred, and the number decreases as they progress to higher grades. Many students would rather switch to studying cooking or alchemy than continue down the path of the knight profession.

Nowadays, the tribe can basically only absorb orphans from orphanages and train them to become students as the main source of students. This has allowed the academy to barely maintain itself, so that it would not be closed down due to the inability to continue the source of students.

However, the total population of the Greenfield Tribe is now less than a million, and the size of the regular army is less than ten thousand. How can it accommodate nearly a hundred graduates every year?

Ordinary graduates find it difficult to find suitable jobs and cannot maintain their lives. Naturally, no talent is willing to devote themselves to this profession, which will form a vicious cycle of talent.

This is also an important reason why it is difficult for excellent military talents to emerge in the wilderness. Because of the lack of middle and lower-level military backbones, the scattered armies formed in the wilderness are inferior in quality and combat effectiveness to the armies of the four major civilizations, which is an inevitable fact.

Alan painstakingly united the Thorns Ring organization into one, and through cooperative development of the Cato Mountains and other profit-sharing methods, jointly formed a joint team of a public security nature. In fact, it was laying the foundation for strengthening the military in the Northern Territory.

Only when there are more military positions and military talents have a way out can the Knight Academy develop in an orderly manner and no longer need tribal support to exist for a long time.

After all, support policies are closely related to the rotation of the ruling class. Although Alan's current lifespan, according to the lifespan of a demigod, is still in his prime, with at least hundreds or thousands of years of long time, who can guarantee that in the crisis-ridden and dangerous Feynman World, he can really die peacefully?

Even the leader of the Human Church can be plotted to fall, and the high-ranking gods can fall from the throne. So where does he have the confidence that he can turn danger into safety every time!

If one day he falls and the tribal power changes, the policies he leads will definitely change with the change of the tribal ruling class. At that time, the Knight Academy and the Orphanage, which have always required a lot of tribal resources, are very likely to become the target of the tribal power class.

Now, the elf invasion is seen as a crisis by other tribes, but in Alan's view, it is also an opportunity.

The friction of the Thorns Ring has gradually decreased in recent decades, and multi-party cooperation has been effective. However, because of the strength of Alan and Greenfield, the senior members of other tribes except Snow Mí and Crow's Claw are still somewhat wary of Greenfield.

In recent years, there has been a lot of integration and exchange at the bottom of the various tribes, but the exchange between the middle and senior levels has not made significant progress, which is a great deviation from the blueprint that Alan envisioned.

However, if we want to continue to promote the integration between the several tribes, especially the integration of power, we cannot force it. Therefore, Alan urgently needs a crisis that the various tribes in the Northern Territory face together, so that there will be an opportunity to break the current deadlock and lead the various tribes to harmony and common development.

The Greenfield Tribe has a population of less than one million, but the Thorns Ring team organization has a total population of nearly three million. If we add the vassals of the various tribes, the total population of the Northern Territory exceeds ten million.

The larger the population, the larger the stage. If the Thorns Ring can be integrated into an existence like the Centaur Court, then the talents cultivated by training institutions like the Knight Academy will naturally have a relatively broad prospect, so there is no need to worry about students joining.

The decision made after this Thorns Ring meeting is that the six major tribes each recruit 15,000 strong warriors, and Kolyma and Heart of the Wilderness each draw 5,000 people, just to form an army of 100,000. Together with the original 30,000 joint legions stationed there, the Northern Territory has an army of more than 130,000.

With such a large-scale army, the number of supporting middle and lower-level knight professional officers will naturally be large. Although the various tribes themselves also cultivate knight officers, the short-sighted ruling class of other tribes is bound to not have too many knight reserves. In the end, if they want to build a qualified army backbone, they still have to look at the knight officers cultivated by the Greenfield Tribe.

As long as they control this largest legion in the Northern Territory, and after a period of practical training and life-and-death selection, then whether they cooperate with the Drow to defeat the elf army, or are defeated by the elves and retreat to Nasir Fortress, the vested rights holders of the Thorns Ring organization will definitely not give up the power they have obtained, and naturally the independent permissions of the various members of the organization will also be squeezed.

If this continues to advance slowly, just like the current Three-Clan Court Council, the power of the Thorns Ring organization will also replace the various member tribes in the future. At that time, it will be another step closer to forming a centralized organization.

Alan has also been pondering the future development of the Greenfield Tribe and the Northern Territory in recent years. The reproduction and growth of the Goblin tribe alone will soon reach a bottleneck.

Now the tribe still has the Greenfield Plain to develop. In the short term, there is no need to worry too much about the problem of living environment and resources. But when the Greenfield Plain is also developed, where should the tribe go if it wants to expand?

Then there is only one way to go, to annex the surrounding alliance tribe members.

However, doing so will inevitably arouse fierce resistance from the rulers of other tribes, and the existence of the alliance and the temple will make the Greenfield Tribe have to be cautious even if it wants to use force. In the end, the chances of success are not high.

The most important thing is that the continuity of the tribe's power and policies is full of variables. He can develop the Greenfield Plain in his lifetime, but it is difficult to grasp the time to lead the tribe to further plan to annex other tribes.

Even if he chooses excellent successors at that time, they may not have the ability and means to achieve the goals he envisions, or even they may be proud of their existing achievements and become complacent and indulge in pleasure.

Whenever he thinks of these things, Alan inevitably feels anxious. The kobold leader, who is accustomed to not placing his hopes on future generations, finally decides to start planning for more difficult goals now, and leave the relatively easy tasks to future generations.