Chapter 428: City-State

Early spring was the most inconvenient season for transportation across the Icefield Plain. The snow and ice had begun to melt, rendering sleds unusable, while the muddy, thawing ground made wheeled transport nearly impossible.

However, with nearly a thousand undead bison and undead moose working tirelessly day and night, Nagrand still managed to transport sufficient food and weaponry to the lowland regions to support Barros’s new campaign just after the arrival of spring. The Divine Knights also deployed two newly reorganized detachments under the banner of “protecting the faithful and preventing humanitarian disaster.”

With ample supplies and no worries about logistics, Barros immediately launched a full-scale mobilization. His entire force moved to strike the eastern Warsong Clan. With help from agents within the clan, he dismantled their existing leadership in a single day.

Wu Qingsong did not personally take part in the battle. Instead, he observed the entire process through a telescope from the nearby mountains, with Nina by his side.

The beastkin tribes had rudimentary defenses to begin with. 

The infiltrators Barros had planted successfully stirred up resentment among the lower ranks. The newly appointed clan chief, who had risen to power amidst internal strife, lacked both authority and capability to swiftly suppress the unrest. When Barros’s forces appeared outside the clan’s main camp, several beastkin with booming voices stood at the gates and loudly read Barros’s promises to the clan members.

And just like that—with hardly any fighting to speak of—the Warsong Clan changed hands.

Massive amounts of frozen fish and grain from Nagrand were hauled into the camp before the eyes of the Warsong tribespeople and distributed on the spot. That act shattered all resistance and dissolved any lingering hostility. The remaining chieftains and elders were dragged out of their tents and denounced by the people in a frenzy of accusations. One by one, they were executed publicly, their heads hung from the clan’s totem pole.

“It’s almost too easy,” Wu Qingsong sighed.

“That’s because he’s one of them,” Nina said. “That makes it easier to earn trust. If we had done the same thing, it would have worked too, but it definitely wouldn’t have gone this smoothly.”

“I know.” Wu Qingsong nodded. “It’s just… seeing all this, I can’t help but feel Barros is both too lucky and too clever.”

“But that’s also a kind of shackle,” Nina said. “He gained power by exposing the corruption of the previous chiefs and elders. That means he and his followers now bear the burden of living up to that righteousness. If they ever start becoming as greedy, as decadent, and as corrupt as those they overthrew, then they lose the very foundation of their legitimacy.”

“You don’t have faith in this method?” Wu Qingsong asked in surprise.

“I’m not sure,” Nina replied, shaking her head. “From a standpoint of justice and morality, there’s nothing wrong with it. But… I just don’t know how many people can truly stick to that path for the long haul.”

She looked at the Warsong Clan’s camp in the distance and said, “Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about where Silvermoon should go from here. You know, when the chiefs and elders died, and you and I disappeared, Silvermoon faced a real threat of extinction. And yet, it entered a vibrant period of growth and reform. Daryl became king during that time. But now, the people around him are starting to long for the past, to return to the days when power lay in the hands of elders and chieftains.”

“A tribalist backlash,” Wu Qingsong said. “It’s a regression.”

Silvermoon now found itself in an awkward position. Technically, it was an equal ally to Nagrand, but in nearly every field, from economy to military, it was heavily reliant on Nagrand. And the people had grown used to that dependency.

Yet because of this so-called alliance status, they couldn’t lower themselves to become full-fledged vassals like the other clans. With Nina and Ram’s status, such a thing was impossible. As a result, whether it was in the spread of Xuanyuanism, the building of settlements, or the recruitment of soldiers, Silvermoon had started falling behind the other clans.

The so-called New Silvermoon City was really nothing more than a standard tribal encampment on the open plains. It had not developed into a true city like Nagrand. Ironically, it was the towns located between Silvermoon and Nagrand, though small, that had begun showing the first signs of urbanization.

Daryl’s rule over these towns, which were technically under Silvermoon’s domain, was nominal at best. As time went on, these towns would either gradually integrate into Nagrand or evolve into new, semi-independent minor clans under Silvermoon’s loose authority.

The new Silvermoon had absorbed too many wolfkin from the wastelands, which diluted its original population. The customs they had learned from the Empire were rapidly being assimilated over the past few years.

Daryl knew he couldn’t copy Nagrand’s system wholesale, nor could he revive the old traditions from Silvermoon’s time in the Tecks Mountains. Watching Silvermoon get pushed to the fringes, caught between two entirely different ways of life, he didn’t know what to do. 

In the end, he turned to Nina and Ram, but neither of them had a clear answer.

Silvermoon’s greatest problem was geographic. It was south of Nagrand. 

If the Elves ever uncovered Nagrand’s true nature, Silvermoon would be the first to suffer. That threat had kept them from fully committing to the idea of building a real city. And in comparison to Nagrand, that hesitation only made them seem more and more out of place.

“I think the best option now is to build a new city near the western edge of Boyle Clan, closer to the Stampede Plateau,” Wu Qingsong said after some thought. “Or better yet, find a suitable spot within the mountain range itself. Relocate Silvermoon there entirely, and turn its current territory into a buffer zone.

“Nagrand’s trade and interaction with both the Stampede Plateau and Mojina Plateau are growing rapidly. That region really does need a city to act as a relay hub. As smuggling along the southern routes declines, the area will become ripe for entrepôt trade or direct industrial and commercial expansion. There should be enough wealth to support the birth of a true city-state.

“The surrounding plains are large enough to open pasture and farmland. Silvermoon’s territory might shrink, but it’ll be able to support more people. And its control over its own land will be stronger. Nina, the tribal system is doomed to disappear. That’s just the natural course of civilization.”

“You’re probably right.” Nina thought for a moment, then nodded. “I’ll talk to Daryl and to the clan leaders under him. If Barros can do it, there’s no reason Silvermoon can’t.”