Banner of the Evil God

"In the past three months, the gold coin federation has suddenly increased the purchase of several war materials by the noble faction." The goblin Lakanishu Lightning, who is in charge of the bulk trading market in the void city, frowned and handed a compiled report to the Minister of Commerce Osman Ben Raunaigu.

Minister Raunaigu also frowned, took the report and studied it carefully.

After a while, he asked: "The noble faction purchased a large amount of Fiery Gel and Flash Dust... What are they going to do? Are these things consumed a lot in war?"

"As far as I know, Fiery Gel can be used for fire attacks, and Flash Dust can temporarily blind the enemy, and if used well, it can also break invisibility - these are all low-level alchemical products, which are only equivalent to the effects of low-level spells." The old goblin Lakanishu was once a tribal chieftain. He fought wits and courage with adventurers for many years and was very familiar with these low-level alchemical items.

In a cold winter more than 20 years ago, he looked at his people who were starving because their food reserves were plundered by powerful monsters, and finally decided to surrender to the nearby Dragon Roar Town and became a group of alien residents. Because he could master a small amount of lightning magic, he and his people called themselves the "Lightning Clan", and later "Lightning" became the surname of their clan. Among the goblins of the Northwest Republic, they are considered to be a group that was "civilized" earlier.

Now he is an elderly businessman, in charge of the bulk trading market in Void City. This job is actually quite leisurely, because the market is only responsible for providing venues and security, and does not ask about business transactions at all - but there is one thing, after the transaction is settled, the two parties need to submit a deposit with the transaction brief. If neither party raises any objection to the deal within three months, then 90% of the deposit can be withdrawn, and the remaining 10% is naturally the venue rental fee and the guarantee fee. If both parties have any objections to the business within three months, they can go to the Void City Business Litigation Court to negotiate or even sue. Depending on the situation, Void City can even use legendary wizards to ensure the reliability of the business.

The old chieftain Lakanishu is too old to do hard work and has no energy to make complicated calculations, but he can still rely on his experience to study and screen the data sorted out from the trading briefs and find valuable information.

For example, this time, he found something strange.

The current tense situation in the Gold Coin Federation can be seen by anyone with eyes. Generally speaking, in this situation, both sides will try to stockpile war supplies, mainly arrows, armor plates, metal ingots, standard weapons, as well as food and medical supplies.

The price of these things is not low. If adventurers buy a small amount, it is not a big deal, but if the military buys a large amount, it will be a considerable number. So the first thing to fight a war is national strength. If you don’t have money... It’s better not to think about fighting. It’s more reliable to admit defeat or run away.

At least Chief Lakanishu, or the former chieftain of the goblin tribe "Lightning", Mr. Lakanishu, has always adhered to this principle.

Is this principle good or bad? It's hard to say, but at least for the Lightning Tribe, it did get a good result. Lakanishu's desperate gamble in desperation eventually allowed his people to live the stable and prosperous life they had always dreamed of.

In addition to the need for family planning.

This is one of the basic national policies of the Northwest Republic. Those races that are particularly fertile must limit their fertility, while those races with low fertility are encouraged to have children.

The representatives of the former are goblins and rabbit people, and the representatives of the latter are naturally black and white bear people and elemental creatures.

However, it is easy to limit fertility, but it is much more difficult to encourage fertility. Black and white bear people only have the urge to reproduce in a short period of half a month a year. In most cases, they are more interested in wine than the opposite sex; elemental creatures almost completely do not understand what "reproduction" is. It is hopeless to expect them to multiply and reproduce the population.

Fortunately, Sui Xiong is not the kind of white left saint with water in his head. He will not invite a group of uncles from thousands of mountains and rivers to come back from thousands of miles away in order to expand the domestic minority population. Is there a problem with the reproduction of a race? That's difficult. They don't want to have children themselves, so is Sui Xiong forcing them to have children?

This kind of thing is not suitable for coercion.

"... Director Lakanishu, what do you think will happen if low-level alchemical items such as Fiery Alchemy and Flash Dust are used in large quantities?" Minister Osman pondered for a moment and asked uncertainly, "I think these things don't seem to be suitable for large-scale use on the battlefield. The cost is too high and the benefits are too low."

"You are right. As long as a group of protective spells can resist the damage of Fiery Alchemy. As for Flash Dust, it's almost the same. When I led the little guys in the tribe to fight wits and courage with the adventurers, I was not afraid of such means, let alone those powerful armies." The old goblin chief shook his head, "I really can't see what use they can have. To be honest, I think it's just a waste of money."

"But the nobles are not fools."

"I really don't understand. Maybe the people in the military department can figure it out." Lakanishu irresponsibly threw the blame.

The Minister of Commerce thought about it for a while and felt that this was the truth, so he used magic to send two copies of the document, one to Defense Minister Leonard and the other to Security Minister Easter.

As for what these two professionals would think? It's none of his business. He is still busy!

About half an hour later, Leonard and East took the time to bump into each other and discuss the matter.

"This is not normal." Leonard said, "It's just flaming glue. Flash dust is definitely not something that can be used in large quantities in war. It's completely meaningless!"

East nodded. According to his impression, glitter dust is generally used by adventurers, especially thieves. It is mainly used in sudden battles to dazzle the eyes of the enemy and then take the opportunity to escape.

As for using this in a formal war... He thought about it, but he couldn't figure out how to use it.

Could it be that...the cavalry throws it first when they are hedging?

But the new army sent by the merchants did not use cavalry at all. They directly used heavy crossbows, strong bows and spears to fight against the cavalry. The formation is like a mountain, if you have the guts to come over. As for cross-shooting, cavalry bows can't shoot as accurately as long-distance bows. It's just turning death into slow death.

In this world where magic is widely used, there is no mobility advantage of cavalry. What's more... it's really not easy to rely on ordinary good horses to outperform mid-level warriors on a small battlefield!

The cavalry in this world, in addition to the messengers, are heavily armored knights who are as armed as cans. To deal with them, a well-trained army only needs to put their spears on the ground to form the so-called "Dragon Spear Formation".

In fact, heavily armored knights generally do not charge into the enemy formation. Even if they do, they must first cover their bodies with multiple layers of protective magic - so the war becomes a confrontation between protective magic and dispelling magic...

East frowned, thinking secretly. Being born in a country of wizards, he has a lot of experience in understanding and using magic. He felt that he should be able to guess how the noble faction would use those blazing glue and glittering dust.

But before he could guess it, Sui Xiong had already obtained the answer through his own channels.

The noble faction plans to form a harassing and fast mobile force to attack the merchant faction's rear. These things like blazing glue and glittering dust are prepared for them.