The Natural Empire of the Oceanic Dragon

Fisher shook his head and replied, "I'm not too sure either, but I heard that after I left, Old Shaman has been in charge of recruitment in Rainwood Town. Lista hasn't interfered at all since taking over."

"Lista decided that he's better at speaking with his fists than gentle recruitment. Anyway, Green Scale Town and Rainwood Town have convenient water routes for communication, and Old Shaman doesn't have many affairs to handle in Green Scale Town."

"Letting him manage Rainwood Town makes it easier for Lista to focus on expanding south."

The lizardman leader that Artilan wanted to recruit hadn't submitted yet, but he already had so many lizardmen under his command. Fortunately, lizardmen can be said to be honest and simple compared to the infamous War Lizardmen.

At least after they realize the benefits of joining Artilan, their sense of belonging to Rainwood Town will make them loyal and reliable.

However, the lizardmen's power can only be fully unleashed with a suitable leader. The River East Minotaurs, led by Lista, are more powerful than the River West Minotaurs, even if their battle formation training is far inferior.

As long as Lista is stationed there, he doesn't even need to take action. Just watching from the rear, the River East Minotaurs' combat power will be higher than the River West Minotaurs.

This is the charisma of a leader.

The minotaur Lista, Black Bull, merman Fisher, Saar, centaur Wind Chaser, and naga Opeia all have this unique lordly charisma, capable of stimulating the combat potential of ordinary warriors.

Artilan believed that Trina, also a naga princess, should have had leadership qualities, but long-term wanderer training and mind control suppressed them.

Only when she regains herself can she help Artilan train and command his elite assassination unit. In theory, this assassination unit should encompass all of Artilan's affiliated races.

However, among the races that have undergone wanderer training, only mermen and nagas have shown assassination talents, especially nagas. Perhaps humanoid races really possess corresponding animal traits.

After undergoing training with the wanderer's secrets obtained by Artilan, almost all naga warriors led by Opeia have transformed from warriors proficient in ambushes to assassins skilled in stealth.

Even Opeia, as a magic class professional, has mastered many small techniques for reducing presence by observing the training ground, which is very helpful for her spellcasting.

That's right, Opeia is a general suitable for leading nagas and lizardmen.

"In that case, reduce the number of minotaurs and send all five hundred yaks to the swamp stronghold. Their fur is thicker and probably can't adapt to the dry, hot desert environment."

"Have Lista send eight hundred minotaurs over, and have Opeia take four hundred nagas and four hundred lizardmen to Great Horn Town for intensive training. They will also go to the front lines when the war officially begins."

Fisher began to calculate laboriously.

"Fifteen hundred centaurs, one thousand minotaurs, one thousand mermen, eight hundred nagas and lizardmen, and about ten thousand gnolls, but they use inferior iron and bone weapons."

"A small number are equipped with leather armor, but no iron armor. All of our warriors use fine iron weapons and equipment, making it easy to defeat two enemies with one. I think we can completely divide them into two teams and pincer them from the left and right like crab claws!"

"The gnolls might even collapse without being attacked."

Artilan nodded in agreement and said, "You take the mermen, nagas, and lizardmen to ambush in the south. After I lead the centaurs and minotaurs to defeat the gnolls, drive them south. Your task is to kill them all!"

Fisher frowned.

"Dragon Lord, to limit the gnolls' escape direction, the centaurs must fire arrows from the left and right for deterrence. Are fifteen hundred centaurs enough?"

"Only five hundred shock cavalry are needed. The remaining centaurs will all serve as horse archers this time. They won't even wear rattan armor, just carry thirty arrows. Have Wind Chaser take one thousand centaurs to attack the gnolls' hunting parties according to this standard."

"Remember, Wind Chaser is absolutely forbidden from engaging the gnolls in close combat. Just tell him that if he leads people to charge up and chop the gnolls, he won't be allowed to lead the armored cavalry to charge the gnolls when the entire army attacks."

Wind Chaser was actually eavesdropping on Artilan and Fisher's conversation. Hearing this, he finally couldn't help but rush up.

"Don't, Dragon Lord! I've been suffocating guarding the Yellow Sand Pass for months. Centaurs aren't good at defending cities. Active offense is what centaurs should do."

"My swordsmanship is very powerful. I guarantee one gnoll with one slash!"

Artilan just gave him a cold look.

"You can't even shoot arrows standing on the city wall. Your swordsmanship is so powerful, do you want me to transfer you to Green Scale Town to slaughter pigs!"

Wind Chaser immediately shrunk his neck like a chick.

"Such a big gap was blasted out by the gnolls with magic. Shame!"

Silver Ring is the dwarf leader recruited by Artilan. It's no wonder he took the wrong path. Other dwarves are called Iron Block, Iron Hammer, Battle Axe, Shield, etc., but he's called Silver Ring.

You have to say, he is indeed more refined than other rough dwarves, but one thing is still the same.

Fisher said with a smile, "Then Dragon Lord, you have to prepare more ale for them. I just finished building the Yellow Sand Pass for four months, and now I'm transferring them to pave a stone road from Great Horn Town to Water Cellar Town."

Artilan smiled and raised his eyebrows.

"That road is used to transport ale. They're working in Great Horn Town, so how can they lack ale?"

"That's not really the case. Black Bull manages Great Horn Town, and he's inflexible. Since ale is a commodity used to trade for iron armor, it can't be distributed for everyone to enjoy."

"As a result, Silver Ring and the others can only drink substandard products and fruit wine. Black Bull said that only after 100,000 catties of ale for trade have been produced can a portion of the remaining ale be distributed for everyone to enjoy."

"Most of it still has to be stored for the next transaction."

Artilan praised appreciatively, "Black Bull is doing well. Go arrange for the yaks to depart. I also need to return to the forest to find the druids for help and get a detailed population structure report of the kingdom as soon as possible."

"Yes, Dragon Lord."

After Artilan flew back to Green Scale Town, he found Leopard Woman, Taishan, and even Eagle King, who was in seclusion, and the sloth who had been sleeping for a month had all come.

"Is everyone having a party in Green Scale Town today?"

Wine Woman looked at him seriously and questioned, "How dare you say that? You suddenly flew away halfway through the performance that day, and we knew something must have happened in the wasteland. But after seven days, you still haven't notified us."

"Leopard Woman discovered that the soil fort town had been burned to the ground when she went to plant trees on the river bank. You, a dragon, used energy rain to dispel the demons' pollution. Do you even consider us friends?"

Artilan frowned slightly. Didn't you tell me to separate the affairs of the forest and the kingdom? Why are you questioning me like this now?

"Purifying pollution is just a small matter. I have a big matter here that I need you to help me count, which is how many warriors, farmers, and children I have under my command."

Taishan blinked blankly.

"I thought you would ask us to help you fight the gnolls, but that's it?"

Artilan nodded quickly and said seriously, "This is to prepare for fighting the gnolls. In addition to counting the population, I also want to ask you to help me ripen the wheat and black beans planted in Hedong."

Leopard Woman patted her chest and guaranteed, "Leave it to us. How many acres in total?"

"Twenty thousand acres of wheat and forty thousand acres of black beans."

Leopard Woman was so surprised that she couldn't close her mouth.

"How much did you say!? I remember that you only planted three thousand acres of wheat and seven thousand acres of black beans in the previously developed Hexi, right?"

Artilan smiled triumphantly, "That was old news from half a year ago. Now, even Hexi has swollen to 10,000 acres of wheat and 20,000 black beans, not to mention Hedong, which has relatively fertile soil."

Leopard Woman's eyes widened like copper bells.

"Doesn't that mean your goal of 100,000 acres of land is about to be realized! What about your population of 50,000?"

"Isn't that what I'm asking you to count? Moreover, 100,000 acres is no longer our goal. Now the goal is one million acres of fertile land!"

The 30,000 square kilometers of Hexi land initially only had 100,000 acres suitable for planting, but Fisher believes that the terrain and soil improvement plan he promoted can expand the arable land to 200,000 acres and millions of acres of fruit trees.

He even wants to transform the entire wasteland into grassland for grazing horses and sheep.

Behind this is naturally Artilan's credit. The problem in the wasteland is the lack of water, and Artilan's recent cultivation involves extracting water vapor from the Hedong wetlands to form rain clouds.

Then he maintains the rain clouds and allows them to drift to Water Cellar Town, the driest place in Hexi, and rain. The rainwater, mixed with a little water of life, allows the yellow soil, which is full of wind and sand, to grow emerald green shoots.

Scattered tender grass, symbolizing vitality, prompted Fisher to boldly propose the Green Grass Plan.

"Starting from Green Scale Town, I'll ask everyone to help with the statistics."

Wine Woman and the others were actually quite curious about how big a kingdom force Artilan had created in a year.

"Leave it to us."

After simply dealing with the druids' questions, Artilan came to Water Cellar Town, where the dwarves brought the first batch of iron armor to deliver.

The leader of the dwarves was a well-known forging master from the Dwarf Kingdom, and Silver Ring had also studied with the master for a period of time before being expelled from the school for counterfeiting.

The master is also a powerful warrior. At least when facing Artilan, the master was not affected by Artilan's dragon might at all. Instead, he was completely attracted by a crystal stone that Artilan took out.

"Does the Dragon Lord want me to use this dragon crystal to forge a suit of armor for you?"

"No, I want to break this crystal, which carries my magic, and integrate it into the iron armor you forge for me, so that my army can form a interconnected dragon aura."

The master took the dragon crystal and was silent for a moment.

"Dragon Lord wants three thousand suits of dragon armor! That is indeed an excellent idea."