The Natural Empire of the Oceanic Dragon

In order to avoid degenerating into a shameless politician, Atilan felt that when helping Vereesa build her own forest kingdom, he should not be so shameless.

If he went too far now, how would he bring Vereesa into his camp in the future?

The Natural Empire was not built in a day, nor could it be built by him alone.

The Atlantis Kingdom was just a beginning, and he would follow up with both war annexation and political union.

Like the Dwarf Kingdom, which already had considerable connections with him, and the Forest Kingdom that Vereesa was about to establish, Atilan planned to first form a political alliance between these two kingdoms and the kingdom he established.

A natural alliance of kingdoms, or rather, a united empire.

Without strong external pressure, or internal voices for unification, it would not be easy to promote Atilan's kind of united kingdom, which was similar to annexation.

Originally, the country could have the final say, but who would be willing to have someone suddenly come out on top to manage themselves, and also need to provide resources.

It seemed that the area governed by Vereesa was an integral part of the Water Elf Kingdom in the form of offerings. In the past, the Mage King's mage system and Vereesa's druid system relied on the fact that everyone was a wood elf to unite into a country.

Now, everyone can also unite into a country with the druid camp as the core.

Therefore, persuading the Archdruid is the key to whether or not Vereesa's 50,000+ wood elves and this land spanning 200,000 to 300,000 square kilometers can be taken down.

If the Archdruid died, it would be easier for Atilan to annex the wood elf ranger forces.

However, for the sake of the Natural Council, the wood elf Archdruid was very valuable to win over, even if she was a little repulsed by druids who did not believe in the natural gods.

But Atilan believed that as long as he gave enough, the Archdruid would be willing to lean towards the Natural Council.

Just like Atilan sent troops to help Vereesa, and Vereesa gave four times the price, the troops under his command dared to charge forward despite the magic bombardment of the mage group.

Grain is an important strategic resource in any era.

As the grain output of Atlantis's farmland increased, it could no longer keep up with the consumption of their growing population. The wood elves were willing to hire them to fight with a large amount of grain.

Every warrior hoped to be selected to fight, rather than stay at home and farm.

Every time a war was won, Atilan would give rewards to the participating soldiers, and brave warriors with outstanding achievements could also receive Atilan's personal commendation.

Part of the reason for the unrest was also that after Atilan's retreat, many rewards that required Atilan to provide magic power to create could not be made. The rewards became worse, and everyone was naturally unhappy.

"Dragon Lord, after arranging the soldiers guarding the east and west sides, how many more soldiers can you send to the south with me to resist the Mage King's attack?"

Atilan frowned.

"Didn't you say you wanted to expand the army first, attack the dark elves' underground city, and rescue the abducted civilians?"

Vereesa snorted coldly and squeezed the grapes in her hand into mud.

"I know the Mage King best. Once I disobey his orders and expand the number of ranger troops to more than 5,000, he will definitely send troops north to reprimand me."

"If I still don't disband the extra soldiers, he will send troops to wipe out all the ranger troops, leaving only me."

Vereesa shook her head again.

"If something unexpected happens to Grandma, I think he won't wait for me to make mistakes at all. I'm afraid he will directly and silently send troops to eliminate me and the ranger troops."

Atilan's eyes narrowed, and he asked worriedly:

"Is the Archdruid okay?"

The smile on Vereesa's lips was a little bitter.

Atilan raised his hand to signal Panther Woman to calm down.

"I know that the Archdruid is worried that she will not be able to ascend to the kingdom of the God of Nature after death, but I think that instead of worrying about the problems after death, we should first think about how to live our lives well."

"Besides, is our Emerald Dream of the Natural Council really worse than the kingdom of the God of Nature?"

"Also, if your grandma obtains the secret arts of the Natural Council, she might be able to break through the legend smoothly. At that time, she might be able to live for thousands of years."

"Is it still so important to go to the kingdom of the God of Nature if you can live for thousands or tens of thousands of years?"

After being bombarded by Atilan, Vereesa suddenly felt that it made sense. If she could continue to live, then naturally she didn't need to consider whether she could go to the kingdom of the God of Nature.

"You have grown up, and you can make your own decisions about some things. Whether or not to invite the legendary druid of the Natural Council to take action, you can completely think from the perspective of personal willingness."

"What do you think?"

Vereesa nodded and said:

"Then I will trouble you to ask Master Jaina to take action and help my grandma in the secret realm of nature."

Atilan narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at Vereesa curiously.

"What is this secret realm of nature you are talking about?"

Vereesa looked at Atilan with a hint of pride and explained:

"The reason why my grandma was able to establish this kingdom in the first place was actually because she received some favor from the God of Nature after defeating the magical beasts that occupied this land."

"The remaining divine power of the God of Nature was transformed into an oak seed. After this oak tree grew up, it gradually separated from the real world and formed a dimensional space based on the oak tree itself and absorbing the four elements in the void."

"Because it is easier to feel the power of the God of Nature in it, my grandma often meditates and cultivates in this secret realm of nature."

Hiss, it seems that persuading the Archdruid to lean towards the Natural Council is not very realistic. As expected, we still need to use Vereesa and refer to the methods of the Liangshan heroes to directly transfer the Archdruid to the mountain.

Once the established facts are formed, then you can't blame the Natural Council for splashing dirty water on her. It was her granddaughter who voluntarily joined the Natural Council camp. As Vereesa's grandma, she was naturally dragged into the water.

If the Archdruid is the God of Nature placing a bet, then the Mage King's lineage is very likely the Goddess of Magic placing a bet.

Sure enough, it is not so easy for the Natural Council to occupy the entire world.

If his natural empire wants to be wholly owned by the Natural Council, annexing other kingdoms may be more difficult than he imagined. Maybe he can only fight.

Speaking of which, although Atilan had already agreed to Vereesa to send troops to quell the chaos, he had just emerged from seclusion and did not even know exactly how many people he had under his command or how many combat troops he could pull out.

This meal was almost over. He believed that Vereesa must still have a lot of work to do, so he would not delay Vereesa's time and would leave immediately.

Just as he was about to speak, Atilan suddenly thought of a good idea to delay time and let him train his troops.

"Vereesa, since the Mage King will monitor you if you form a new regiment within the Water Elf Kingdom, then you won't be discovered if you form a new regiment outside the kingdom."

"I have an idea, I don't know if you want to hear it?"

Vereesa gave him a roll of her eyes.

"Just say what you have to say, aren't you tired of pretending like this?"

"Cough cough... Since you want to hear it, then I will reluctantly tell you. First, you should select new soldiers from the civilians under your rule on a large scale. Remember to publicize the tragic situation of this city in advance to arouse everyone's indignation."

"Then, in addition to the soldiers who are openly replenishing the old regiment, you should let the other qualified soldiers go north all the way to my territory for training."

"It just so happens that the weapons made by the dwarf blacksmiths can be used directly by them, so I don't need to help transport them down so hard. As for the instructor problem of the new regiment..."

"You can directly select your confidants and dismiss them on the grounds that they performed poorly in this war. At the same time, you can report more casualties, so that on the surface you will only have 5,000 people."

"But secretly, you can use these veterans to form another 5,000-man ranger regiment. At the same time, because there are too many new soldiers, you can ask the Mage King to allocate a batch of equipment."

"It is best to take the replenished ranger regiment south to show the Mage King that after this battle, you and the ranger troops are no longer a concern."

Vereesa gave Atilan a thumbs up.

"It seems to be an idea, but you have given me three ideas. The Dragon Lord is really amazing."

Deceiving the sky and crossing the sea, eating empty salaries, pensions, showing weakness to the enemy.

"Since the ranger troops are recognized by the Mage King, it is already too much for him not to send troops to rescue them. Is it possible that he doesn't even plan to pay the pensions?"

"If you need to pay the pensions yourself, Vereesa, do you still have the resources to form a new regiment?"

You don't say, Vereesa really doesn't have it, especially after spending a lot of money to hire Atilan's troops as shields, Vereesa is no longer as willing to sell grain to the Mage King at a low price as before.

Atilan felt that he was asking for a very high price, but Vereesa was not stupid. After calculation by her and her adjutant, selling the grain to Atilan and buying weapons from the Dwarf Kingdom.

The profit is actually three to five times that of selling to the Mage King.

"It is indeed a little short."

"How about this, you first meet the daily rations of the army I sent, as for the extra part, I will allow you to pay in installments, but paying in installments will definitely cost a little more than paying in one lump sum."

"Do you think there is no problem?"

"What does paying in installments mean? Please tell me specifically, Dragon Lord."

Vereesa could roughly understand what Atilan meant, but she didn't understand what the specific process of paying in installments was.

After Atilan explained, Vereesa waved her hand.

"No problem, since we used the iron farm tools made by the dwarves, our farmland and grain output are actually increasing. The previous wooden farm tools can be used, but the efficiency is definitely not as good as iron."

Atilan asked curiously:

"How much farmland do you have?"

"If calculated according to the Dragon Lord's method, the amount of farmland we have should have increased from the original six million mu to eight million mu."

"Because we need to plant for one year and let it rest for one year, the actual utilized farmland area is only four million mu. Moreover, because the farmers' management is relatively rough, the yield of green wheat per mu is less than two hundred jin."

"But Dragon Lord, rest assured, I can't care about the soil fertility during this difficult time. I will definitely make up for the grain shortage for you as soon as possible."

Attilan raised his eyebrows. He didn't expect the wood elves' grain output to be that much higher than he thought. It seems that it might not be so easy to use debt relations to intervene in the future forest kingdom.

Hmm, should he stop trying to trick Vereesa into building a country, and directly have her bring her people and land to join his Atlantis Kingdom?

That doesn't seem impossible either. Vereesa, that girl, usually just likes to hone her ranger skills and protect the peace of the area. She is not that enthusiastic about establishing and governing a country.

If the Mage King hadn't been so oppressive, Vereesa would probably have just been a ranger general her whole life.

"Rest assured, next year's grain output will definitely be above one billion jin!"

Damn it, if it's less, even if Attilan sends out 30,000 troops to help Vereesa fight the Mage King for a year, the grain she needs to pay is only less than one billion jin.

Vereesa only needs two years to pay off this debt.

An annual output of one billion jin definitely needs to deduct the wood elves' own grain needs. People eat and horses chew. A wood elf ranger needs to consume even more grain per day than a centaur.

"Then the leopard woman and I will go back to prepare. Whenever you need people, send someone over to tell me in advance. We will go back first."

After returning to Greenscale Town, Attilan told the old merman about his deal with Vereesa, and the old merman was so excited that he almost had a stroke.

"Dragon Lord, we're rich!"

"It's just a business of nearly a billion jin of grain a year, what are you so excited about? This almost requires us to send out all of our soldiers, and may even affect our own grain output."

The old merman took a deep breath to ease the heart rate that he shouldn't have at his age.

"What Dragon Lord knows is already the past ration share. In the past, the tauren only needed to eat ten jin of grain a day, but now, after several years of training, those guys have completely become rice buckets."

"Lista has divided the tauren into three combat legions and one logistics legion. The combat legions are all adult tauren, regardless of gender, divided into first, second, and third according to combat power."

"Naturally, the three thousand tauren of the First Legion are the elite of the elite, but the problem also comes: precisely because they are elite, they must be fed well every day, right?"

"The worst guy in there can also eat twenty jin of wheat flour a day. If there is pork available, then they can eat a little less, but how much pork can there be?"

"They can eat that much!?!"

Attilan was stunned. In this world, food intake is directly proportional to combat power, at least that's the truth for the warrior and barbarian classes.

"What is Lista and Fisher's current food intake like?"

"Lista eats ten jin of fatty pork, fifty jin of wheat, ten jin of various fruits, and a small bucket of wine a day. Fisher is similar to Lista except he doesn't drink."

"When barbarians reach a certain level, their food intake no longer increases. Their bodies gradually learn to absorb external energy to supplement their body's needs."

Attilan nodded. If he only relied on eating to replenish the energy his body needed, he would have starved to death long ago when he was sleeping. If you can't directly absorb energy to supplement your body's needs after reaching a certain level...

Then you're mostly useless. That kind of guy has no possibility of further advancement.

"I heard that Dragon Lord has awakened. Lista and Fisher, Wind Chaser, and Connors have already rushed back. Does Dragon Lord want to meet them?"

"Of course, they are all my trusted and beloved generals! By the way, why haven't I heard Ophelia's name?"

The old merman searched his forehead with a headache.

"Her, along with Mep and Trina, went back to Mep's hometown. They've been gone for almost half a year, and they should be back soon."

"If it weren't for Mep returning home to visit relatives, Old Blind Eye wouldn't be so eager to make trouble."

Attilan smiled. He didn't expect that Mep really had some skills. He really showed the strength of a prime minister when he appointed him as prime minister.

"Okay, what did Mep go home for?"

"I heard that he is preparing to marry Trina. Although he has fallen out with his father, he feels that it is still necessary to talk to his father about such a major event as marriage."

"Marriage is a matter for the two of them, what is Ophelia going for?"

The old merman smiled.

"Ophelia said that she only has one sister, and she can't let the half-goat people bully her. At the same time, the Fairy Forest is within the territory of the Northern Kingdom, and Dragon Lord will take action against the Northern Kingdom sooner or later."

"She took the snake people to make arrangements first, and when Dragon Lord sends troops, it will be easier to take down the Northern Kingdom."

Attilan slapped the ground in appreciation.

"As expected of Ophelia, she did a good job. I do have plans to attack the Northern Kingdom. If it weren't for Vereesa needing me to send more troops to the Water Elf Kingdom."

"After I come back this time to count the troops and train for a period of time, I will go north to attack the Northern Kingdom."

The old merman chuckled.

"Dragon Lord, helping General Vereesa fight for a year means we will have military rations for the next three years of our conquest of the Northern Kingdom. It's not a loss."

"According to my calculations, General Vereesa may need to pay us 3 billion jin of grain, enough for Dragon Lord's rice buckets to eat for three years."

"Get me something to eat, with a slightly stronger flavor. The wood elves' things are delicious, but they are too bland. The green wheat they grow makes bread with a grassy taste."

How should I put it, the taste of green wheat bread is probably similar to the taste of green grass cake that Lazy Sheep likes to eat, because the wood elves add a kind of cheese made from the milk of their farmed wood-horned sheep to the bread.

It tastes more like green grass cake.

As Attilan was eating, the tauren Lista, the merman Fisher, the centaur Wind Chaser, and the lizardman Connors walked in, respectfully lowering their heads to salute.

"Greetings, Dragon Lord!"

"Have you eaten? Want to eat something together?"

Lista walked forward unceremoniously and tore off a large leg from the roasted pig.

"Thank you, Dragon Lord, I'm a little hungry."

"Everyone, start eating, do you want me to personally entertain you?"

As soon as Attilan said this, Fisher and the others immediately stepped forward and tore meat from the roasted pig to eat.

"Connors, you are very smart. Originally, I thought that the most dishonest person after I fell asleep would be you. I didn't expect you to be smarter than I thought, and you have restrained the lizardmen you lead."

"Let me think, what reward would be better for you?"

The lizardman immediately knelt on the ground and respectfully said loudly:

"This is all I should do. Dragon Lord doesn't need to reward me. Following Dragon Lord is the most correct decision I have made in my life!"

What's so good about being a lizardman king? Every day, I have to think about how to feed everyone in the tribe, and I have to worry about attacks from other surrounding tribes, and I may even have my head chopped off by my subordinates.

Since surrendering to Attilan, the lizardmen have been living a life of luxury.

With the lizardmen's skills, let alone brewing wine, they can't even roast meat properly.

Connors used to be able to endure eating raw food, but now that he has taken refuge in Attilan and lives the life of a civilized person, how could he be willing to be a barbarian king?

Capital household registration or ethnic minority household registration in remote areas, everyone knows how to choose.

"Eat, and by the way, report to me how many warriors you each have. You may not be able to count the specific number of children, but you know how many warriors can fight, right?"

Lista directly patted his chest and shouted excitedly:

"Dragon Lord, we tauren have 8,437 warriors, ready to serve Dragon Lord at any time!"

Fisher was much calmer than him.

"The mermen have 11,347 warriors, but only less than 5,000 are mature warriors, most of them are recruits who have just come of age and have not trained enough."

Wind Chaser was a little embarrassed. Old Blind Eye was the one who counted the specific number of centaur warriors. He only knew that the three thousand centaurs he commanded were elites.

"Dragon Lord, as long as you give an order, no matter how powerful the enemy is, I can lead all the centaurs to crush them!"

"How many centaur warriors are there? I hope you won't be unable to answer the next time I ask you. From today onwards, you will be responsible for managing all the centaur warriors."

"Old Blind Eye is old, so he should do some stable logistics work in the future. He shouldn't go to the battlefield anymore. If he serves me, I will definitely let him spend his old age in peace and comfort."

Wind Chaser clenched his fists excitedly.

"Yes, Dragon Lord! I will go back and count the number of centaur warriors!"

Connors respectfully said:

"The lizardmen have 4,557 warriors. Including the hatched cubs, the total number is more than 7,000. In another five years, Dragon Lord will have at least another thousand lizardman warriors."

"What about the number of snake people warriors? Did Ophelia say who was responsible for managing them before she left?"

The old merman stepped forward and said:

"Dragon Lord, I am in charge. Ophelia took away five hundred elites, and there are almost four thousand warriors, most of whom came from the rainforest, or from the east of the rainforest."

"Then did they say what forces are outside the rainforest?"

"They are not very clear either. Anyway, humans, elves, dwarves, earth goblins, and the like can be seen in the east. There doesn't seem to be a unified kingdom."

Attilan narrowed his eyes and tapped the table with his dragon claw.

"Leave it alone for now, but in the future, that land will be waiting for Lista, Fisher, Wind Chaser, and Connors, and Ophelia, who is not here, to help me conquer it."

"Remember, the five of you are my five most trusted generals!"