Chapter 29: Territory Exploration

Sakavi, who returned to Agrik, directly ordered all tribes under his rule to submit a registered map of their scope of activities and a population registration form within one month. Anyone who did not submit on time or missed people, Sakavi would personally go to communicate with them well and "solve" the problems in their work.

If you want to know the detailed map of your territory, it is definitely most appropriate to ask the local forces. They know exactly where there is anything in their own home, and there are people in any place where people can live.

After a month of chaos, various crooked population registration forms appeared on Sakavi's desk. As for the map, Sakavi directly asked Tali Featherlight, who had been following a mercenary group of the Rosen Empire Adventure Association after graduating two years ago, to be responsible for checking them one by one and drawing a complete map of the territory.

Who let himself be the only person who had studied professional mapping knowledge? Whether it worked or not, he had to use it. After checking all the population registration forms, Sakavi finally knew how many people he had under his command.

This territory is about the same size as the country of the Third Brother on Blue Star, but the population is pitifully small. There are only a mere one million people. Originally, there were more than three million people here, but later the Warcry Tribe moved away to the Loka Plain, where the land is more fertile, and only some low-class demi-humans were left.

The land of the entire territory is also barren enough. Half of the places can only grow a plant called Foxtail grass. In this high-altitude wilderness area, only races that can eat grass, starch-based food, and meat, such as Minotaurs, Centaurs, and Ogres, can survive tenaciously. Of course, there are also countless Gnolls.

Foxtail grass is a plant that looks like foxtail grass, but its seeds are wrapped in a starch layer like sweet potatoes on the outside, looking like a hybrid of foxtail grass and bananas, with wheat starch genes mixed in. After peeling and grinding into powder, it can be made into pancakes or porridge. People can also steam it directly and eat it.

The fruit of this Foxtail grass tastes particularly bitter, the yield is very low, and it is difficult to digest raw, so it must be heated to a high temperature to be edible. In summer, various tribes on the wilderness can only eat grass to survive. In autumn, there are various berries to satisfy hunger. In spring and winter, they can only rely on this to barely maintain survival.

The remaining places, besides the Bohe Plain which occupies one-fifth of the remaining land, also have a hilly area that occupies two-fifths of the area. There is no flat land in this place. Two-fifths of it are the flood area of the Bohe River, and the soil salinization is very serious.

Sakavi felt that it was still necessary to personally go and see his territory. It is easy to be deceived by listening to the accounts of these stubborn people. The reason why the Warcry Tribe was so persistent in guarding this place is definitely not just the 300,000 square kilometers of planting area in the Bohe Plain. The climate of one harvest a year here is only attractive to creatures like dragons.

At that time, Grapp led the Hobgoblins to kill 100,000 orcs on the banks of the Bohe River before they moved. It is said that the water of the Bohe River was dyed red and it took five days to fade. Of course, this is mainly because Grapp, in order to deter these orcs, left them there directly after killing them, causing the blood to constantly seep into the river.

The Bohe River does not originate in the wilderness, but from the Dragon Spine Mountains at the northernmost end of the territory, which are isolated from the world. The eternal glacier at the top of the highest peak, "Weeping Snow Peak," melts into trickling streams in the sun, forming the initial source of the river. These streams are cold and pure, rushing down from the steep black basalt cliffs and gathering into a river.

On the steepest and most barren southern slope of the Dragon Spine Mountains, there is a cliff that is almost perpendicular to the ground. This place is called "Screaming Cliff" and is the core nest of the Harpies. The surface of the cliff is covered with thousands of natural caves and weathered rock ledges of various sizes, which are as dense as a beehive and difficult for ordinary creatures to reach.

Harpies are thorough bullies. What they enjoy is not the killing itself, but the process of imposing fear and dominating the weak. Their bullying methods are diverse and highly targeted. They will swoop into the camp from high altitude when adult warriors are out, trying to snatch Minotaur cubs or Ogre women.

When the Centaur herd migrates, they will continue to hover at low altitude, making harsh screams, disturbing the herd, making them unable to eat and rest with peace of mind, just for fun.

Kobolds and Goblins need to transport minerals through the Stone Blood River. The Harpies will block the sky over the river section, demanding that they hand over the shiniest ore or coal as "sky tax," otherwise they will use stones to smash their rafts.

In the large area at the foot of the mountains, Ogre tribes are sporadically dotted, with simple walls made of mud and thorns. Mud huts are half-buried in the ground, shallow pits are dug directly on the ground, wooden sticks are used as frames, mud is pasted on, and the roofs are weeds and moss.

The huts are crowded together without any planning, connected by narrow, muddy paths. Around the tribe, a large number of Ogres are busy searching for all plant roots that can be eaten.

They are the primary miners of obsidian, and the iron hammers or pickaxes they trade for from the ogres are their main tools for extraction. They weave rough vines into large nets or wrap obsidian fragments directly in animal hides. Then, they drag these bundles along the mud or use the slope of the terrain to let them roll directly to the collection point. The efficiency is low, but for them, it is labor-saving enough.

Muddy Anchorage: Located at the edge of the Ironhoof Wasteland, it is a river bend on the upper reaches of the Bohe with slow-moving water and muddy banks. The air here is filled with the pungent, gamey odor peculiar to ogres, the stench of rotting garbage, and the cold, dusty scent of obsidian powder. There is no proper stone riverbank, only a black mud pit, knee-deep, trampled by countless pig hooves.

The path extending down from the direction of the mine is made into a rough, muddy slide. The Ogres kick the animal skin packages containing obsidian directly off the slide, letting them roll and slide all the way to the riverbank, saving the effort of carrying them.

The so-called "pier" has no fixed structure, only dozens of rafts that are unbelievably rough. These rafts are bundled together with the crudest, unpeeled logs, and the gaps are filled with moss and mud. Many rafts have been soaked for a long time, half of them have turned black and rotted, and mushrooms have grown on them. They look more like a pile of floating garbage about to fall apart than a means of transportation.

A group of Ogres stood in the turbid river water waist-deep, grunting as they took the packages that slid down from the slide, and piled them on the rafts in a mess. They didn't care about balance at all, and often the rafts capsized due to uneven loading, triggering a burst of irritable roars and mutual cursing.

Flying down along the Bohe River, looking down at the Iron Hoof Wilderness below, this vast wilderness is not a pure grassland, but a high-cold, arid rock plateau. The ground is covered with black gravel and sparse, iron-needle-hard thorn grass. The strong wind is the eternal master here. It is barren, but it contains rich open-pit iron ore and basalt veins, like the exposed black blood vessels of the earth.

Flowing out from the iron-rich mining area on the west side of the wilderness, the river water often carries a trace of rust-red iron vein river, which cuts into the hard iron ore rock layer in the south-central part of the Iron Hoof Wilderness, forming a deep canyon, and then merges into the Bohe River.

The confluence forms a small but very conspicuous reddish-brown delta due to sediment deposition. There is no dense vegetation on the delta, only some extremely metal-tolerant, twisted thorn shrubs, whose roots are deeply rooted in the iron-rich soil, and the leaves also show an unhealthy dark red.

This is a strong collision of power and color. The rust-red river water of the Iron Vein River, rich in iron oxide, merges with the clear blue-green water of the Bohe River main channel here, forming a clear and never-merging red-green dividing line, which can be described as distinct. On both sides of the canyon are exposed, iron-rich crimson rock walls, shimmering with metallic luster in the sun.

In the canyon, war totems built by Minotaurs with whole pieces of obsidian and giant beast skeletons stand tall. Simple black basalt stone houses are distributed irregularly in this canyon, and blast furnaces are emitting thick black smoke, and the sound of beating is endless.

In fact, the entire tributary is occupied by the Minotaurs, the most powerful race on this wilderness. Relying on a large amount of iron ore, the Minotaurs have accumulated a lot of wealth on this wilderness. The finished iron ingots and simple farm tools are transported along the Bohe River to orc towns or dwarf kingdoms.

Giant Stone Port is located on a riverbank with relatively slow water flow upstream of the "Crimson Sanjiaozhou". There is no artificially built pier. Minotaurs use giant rocks that naturally protrude into the water on the riverbank as loading and unloading platforms. These black-red giant rocks have been polished smooth by countless hoofs, and are covered with deep hoof prints and traces of battle axe chopping.

In the vast area on the east side, there are Centaur tribes of various sizes, and huge fur tents that can be quickly disassembled and assembled. The frame is an arched structure made of tough wilderness shrubs, covered with multiple layers of hardened buffalo hide or thick felt. The tent is teardrop-shaped, with the narrow end facing away from the most common wind direction of the wilderness, reducing resistance and preventing it from being blown away by the strong wind.

In fact, Centaurs are bandits on this land. They are famous for their superb riding and shooting skills and powerful mobility. On this land, they are the nightmare of all merchants. Sometimes the scimitars of Centaurs will also dance in the orc villages on the Bohe Plain.

The transition zone between the wilderness and the plain is the rolling Claw Hills. There is slightly more vegetation here, with low shrubs and drought-tolerant coniferous forests growing. Under the hills, coal, tin, and a small amount of silver ore are buried.

The caves that look like hornet nests in the hilly area are the entrances to Kobold mines, often abandoned mines, reinforced with broken mine carts and wood. They live in the mines that do not see the sun all year round, and only come out when trading with merchants or Goblin coal merchants. It is precisely because of their existence that the Minotaurs on both sides of the Iron Vein River have sufficient coal.

The Black Water River originates from the coal seam of the hills, and the river water is as black as ink, carrying a large amount of fine coal slag and rock powder. Its confluence completely changed the appearance of the Bohe River. The clear blue-green and the rust-red of the Iron Vein River were swallowed and mixed by the darkness of the Stone Blood River here. From this point on, the downstream Bohe main channel became a turbid, dark, and near-dark gray torrent.

In the junction area between the hills and the plain in the southwest, the gradually flat terrain allows the coal slag and black rock debris carried by the Black Water River to deposit here. The river mouth is dyed into a turbid ink color, mixed with the water of the Bohe River, forming an ominous "Black Water Swamp". Bubbles produced by rotting plants emerge on the water surface, and the air is filled with the stench of sulfur and swamp gas.

This impassable swamp, however, was turned into their coal trading pier and toll station by the cunning Goblins. They used rotten wood, ropes, and stolen metal parts to build simple and dangerous pontoon bridges and crumbling watchtowers at the narrow waterways of the swamp. Any upstream mining raft or small merchant ship that wants to pass through here must pay them a toll, usually ore, food, or shiny little things.

Located at the "Black Claw Pier" on the edge of the Black Water Swamp, there is no fixed pier structure, only countless simple wooden boards and logs extending from the shore to the water, covered with black coal ash and mud, extremely slippery.

Countless slender rafts bundled with logs drift from the upstream mines, piled with mountains of coal. A large number of Goblin coolies poured onto the rafts and piers like a black tide. They used simple vine baskets and back baskets to unload the coal with their hands and feet. The whole process was full of pushing, screaming, the plop of falling into the black water due to overloading, and the sound of the supervisor whipping.

The Goblin town is a shantytown built with all the garbage that can be found. Rotten wooden boards, rusty iron sheets, broken cloth, and animal bones are building materials, with strange shapes and no aesthetic sense. The buildings look like they will collapse at any time, relying on each other to form a very unstable structure. The Goblins themselves know where they can walk, but outsiders entering is like stepping into a minefield.

Next is the most fascinating and ironic area of the entire territory, located in the middle reaches of the Bohe River. The terrain here is low and flat, and the soil is fertile enough to squeeze out oil, thanks to the minerals washed down from the upstream hills and wilderness.

In an ideal situation, it should have been the granary of the kingdom. But the reality is that this plain is vast and sparsely populated. Scattered indigenous villages can only be established around a few stable water sources, reclaiming insignificant farmland. Most of the area is lush, weed-grown abandoned farmland, full of deer herds, wild boars, and potential dangers.

On the edge of the junction between the plain and the saline-alkali land, an inconspicuous riverbed that is almost dry all year round only has water flow when there is heavy rain or a large amount of snowmelt from the upstream hills, and it flows into the end of the river channel where the Bohe River is about to disperse.

Usually, this is just a deep erosion gully, full of cracked mud. But when the water comes, it instantly turns into a turbid, surging mudslide, wrapping the fertile topsoil of the plain, violently rushing into the downstream, aggravating the siltation and salinization of the river channel.

This creek valley has become a blurry boundary between plain creatures and saline-alkali land creatures. Lizardman scouts will monitor the movements of the plain here, and predators on the plain will also occasionally come down to drink water. This is the front line of conflict and exchange between the two ecological zones, full of danger and opportunity.

Sakavi continued to flap his wings and fly downstream. The river flows into the sea here. The terrain is extremely flat, and the flow rate drops sharply, causing a large amount of sediment to deposit, and the riverbed is higher than the ground, forming a "river on the ground".

Historically, this river has experienced periodic flooding and channel changes. Seawater backflows with storm surges, and after the river floods and evaporates, a large amount of salt is left on the soil surface. Over the years, this vast saline-alkali land shimmering with sickly white light has been formed.

The Lizardman tribes are built on deeper waters or solid islands. They are built with mud bricks, rammed earth, and woven red willow branches, and the surface is covered with sun-proof clay. The main body of the building is on the water, connected to the shore by log or stone slab bridges, and equipped with retractable drawbridges. Inside, there are stone slab platforms higher than the water surface, used to store food, weapons, and hatch eggs, keeping them dry.

Lizardman fishing grounds usually center on a natural, slightly deeper pool or slow-flow area, surrounded by several concentric or spiral artificial waterways. These waterways vary in width and guide the movement of fish schools like a maze. Sturdy logs are driven into the bottom of the water as pillars, and tough vines and water plants are woven as fences and nets, pasted with thick mud to reinforce the structure and make it blend with the environment.

Continuing to fly downstream, looking around, the cracked land is covered with white salt crusts, and only the most salt-tolerant red willows and alkali plants are sporadically dotted. The air is filled with the salty and dead silence. In the wasteland, many seasonal saltwater swamps and lagoons are scattered, which are scars left by the last great flood.

The Murloc tribes are huts built on the shallows of saltwater swamps. They are bundled with reeds collected in the swamp to form a dome, and the outside is pasted with thick mud that insulates salt. The huts are built on wooden piles to prevent them from being flooded when the tide rises. Canoes are tied to the bottom of the house, and they can evacuate or attack by water at any time. The village is not connected by roads, but by intricate waterways that can only accommodate one boat, and outsiders are easily lost.

The area enclosed in the distance is the Murloc salt drying field. Looking down from high altitude, this area located on the edge of the saline-alkali land and close to the saltwater swamp is like a huge and ugly scar embedded in the pale coastline.

The salt drying plant consists of dozens of shallow pools of various sizes and irregular shapes. They are not carefully planned, but are dug by Murlocs along natural low-lying areas and built with mud ridges, as if they were pools of ink-green muddy water splashed on the ground at will.

Simple waterwheels made of giant beast ribs and broken wooden boards are driven by slaves in shackles or tamed swamp beasts, squeaking and introducing saltwater from the swamp into the reservoir at the highest point.

In the crystallization pool at the very end, the edges of the turbid water surface and the bottom of the pool are already covered with rough, gray-white salt crystals with impurities. Low-level Murloc workers, hunched over, use scrapers made of tortoise shells or large shells to scrape these slippery salt crystals together and pile them into small piles.

The inferior salt produced by Murlocs cannot be sold to all parts of the world by sea, and can only be imported into the Bohe Plain area and the northern wilderness upstream through merchants on the Bohe River. It is precisely because this low-quality salt cannot be sold for a good price that Murlocs can continue to survive on this territory. ===== CHAPTER 30 =====