"Whoosh."
A flashing red fireball with a layer of light green on the outside drew a bright trajectory in the night sky and landed on the tundra about a kilometer in front of the camp.
"Boom."
The moment the fireball landed, it immediately let out a fierce explosion and a bright light shone in the sky.
Along with the light and the sound of explosions, there were also the faint howls of wolves.
If one were to look closely, they would be able to see that within the flames in the distance, there were countless figures flying up at the same time before exploding in all directions.
"These werewolves set up such a dense formation, it saved us quite a bit of effort." Hogan put down the binoculars in his hand and nodded with satisfaction.
Baron Franklin on the side looked up at the glowing Magic Cannonballs in the sky with a complicated look. Then he turned to look at the Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards operating the military magic machines outside the camp, not saying a thing.
The operation this time had been planned before they set off, so he knew very well that the werewolves of the Wolfe Tribe would attack the caravan tonight.
Because this was the warning he had given to Hogan in the first place.
The first reaction of the beastmen living in the tundra when they met a human caravan wasn't to interact or do business, but to rob.
When he saw the New Flyer's caravan bring a large amount of necessities, Baron Franklin was certain that they wouldn't easily let go of such a fat piece of meat that was sent to their doorstep.
The reason the werewolf chased them away was to find a good time to rob them.
Hogan had asked Baron Franklin why they didn't pretend to do business with them and invite them into the tribe since they were like a piece of meat to the beastmen. Wouldn't it be easier to rob them then?
Baron Franklin's answer was very simple.
First, the werewolves didn't have the intelligence to do so.
Second, even if they had the intelligence, they didn't have the guts.
If a human caravan was ambushed in the wilderness of the tundra, the Malor Empire couldn't do anything even if they wanted to. This was because the tundra was originally under the control of the beastmen. Without enough support, the Malor Empire wouldn't use so much manpower and resources to deal with this matter.
Moreover, the Malor Empire had already warned all human caravans not to rashly enter the beastmen's territory because it was the same as sending sheep to the tiger's den.
Now that their caravan had courted death and barged in, the Malor Empire wouldn't do anything without enough support.
If the werewolves invited them into the tribe to rob them, it would be equal to giving the Marlow Empire a reason they couldn't avoid.
If a human caravan disappeared after entering a beastmen tribe and a noble was among them, they couldn't be fooled.
The beastmen weren't all fools. Even if the tundra was under the control of the beastmen, they wouldn't do something that would anger the Malor Empire and cause trouble for themselves.
So now, ambushing in the wilderness at night was the best choice.
However, the werewolves of the Wolfe Tribe would never have thought that they would kick an iron plate this time, and that this was a trap that was specially set for them.
"Manager Hogan, the military magic machines your company sold to the empire's military might not be this powerful …" Baron Franklin stared at the battlefield where the werewolves were being slaughtered and suddenly asked.
Hogan turned his head to look and replied with a smile, "The newest military magic machines are naturally given priority to the company's guards, there's no doubt about that."
"Then these are the most advanced and powerful military magic machines that your Frestech Chamber of Commerce has right now?" Baron Franklin asked.
This time, Hogan only smiled and didn't say anything.
Seeing the smile on his face, Baron Franklin immediately understood.
What he saw definitely wasn't the most powerful military magic machines the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had, but what he saw in front of him was already enough to shock him.
The tundra of the Malor Empire had always been under the control of the beastmen. This fact had always made many people in the Malor Empire unhappy.
After all, such a large area of the empire wasn't under their control. It really didn't make sense.
However, the reason why the Marlow Empire didn't take back this piece of land from the beastmen, other than the fact that this piece of land didn't have much value, there was another important reason. It was because the price they had to pay to take back this piece of land was too large.
Beastmen were naturally much stronger than humans. Adding on the fact that these beastmen lived in the tundra of the north, they were even more ferocious due to the harsh environment.
Although the total number of orcs in the northern tundra was about five hundred thousand, more than half of these five hundred thousand orcs could immediately become powerful orc warriors.
According to the estimates of the empire, if they wanted to completely defeat these beastmen, the empire would have to mobilize at least three hundred thousand soldiers.
This was a very difficult operation for the empire's military to bear.
Apart from the war with the Kandla Empire, the Malor Empire had never mobilized such a large army.
So after some consideration, the Malor Empire could only allow this piece of land to remain under the control of the beastmen.
Now that Baron Franklin had personally witnessed the powerful military magic machines of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, with less than three hundred Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards, they had easily crushed the Wolfe Tribe's wolfmen that attacked at night. He couldn't help feeling emotional.
If the empire's military could be fully equipped with such powerful military magic machines, wouldn't they be able to easily chase these beastmen away and take back the tundra of the north?
Naturally, Baron Franklin wasn't a member of the military, so he only thought about it for a moment before suppressing it.
After the battle continued for a while, the magic communicator in Hogan's left hand suddenly flashed with a red light.
Hogan quickly picked it up.
"Captain Auston, what's the situation?"
"Manager Hogan, the werewolves have already started retreating. Should we pursue them?"
"No need. We don't have enough people, so let's not pursue them. Let them escape.
Captain Auston, I'll have to trouble you to continue being vigilant. "
"No problem."
After hanging up, Hogan stretched and smiled at Baron Franklin. "Alright, Lord Baron, everything is fine now. We can finally have a good night's sleep."
Baron Franklin looked at the dark wasteland in the distance and thought that even with the ferocity of the werewolves, they were forced to retreat after ten minutes of fighting. It could be seen how much damage they had suffered.
Even the werewolves could only choose to escape in the face of such an attack. What if it was the empire's army?
###
The next morning, the caravan set off again. However, they didn't continue into the depths of the tundra of the north. Instead, they returned to the Wolfe Tribe.
This time, the caravan wasn't stopped outside the tribe. Instead, they were directly invited into the tribe. They also successfully met with the chief of the Wolfe Tribe.
After the five beastmen sent by Xu Yi from the Black Rice Wasteland and Hogan's detailed explanation, the Wolfe Tribe finally let down their guard against the humans and agreed to cooperate with New Flyer.
In the end, both sides signed an agreement. The Wolfe Tribe would first provide a thousand strong werewolves as employees to New Flyer's Stratholme magic industrial base. In return, New Flyer would pay these thousand werewolves a salary of at least five gold coins a month. They would also send a batch of daily necessities to the Wolfe Tribe every month.
At the same time, the Wolfe Tribe would also help New Flyer get in touch with the other beastmen tribes in the tundra of the north and strive for more cooperation.
For the members of the Wolfe Tribe, this was undoubtedly a very novel experience.
Because before this, the human merchants were synonymous with swindlers in their eyes.
But this time, not only did the human merchants not use their large amounts of high-quality daily necessities to ask for the precious items they had painstakingly obtained, they even took the initiative to provide them.
What they needed was just a few young men in their prime.
What surprised the werewolves the most was that the human merchants actually said that they would pay the hired werewolves a salary!
Moreover, it was five gold coins a month!
This made the Wolfe Tribe's werewolves feel incomparably astonished. This was because the valiant force displayed by the human merchants that night made them unable to even think of resisting.
According to normal inferences, these human merchants had the ability to conquer their entire tribe and turn all the werewolves in the tribe into slaves and work for them for free.
This was the fixed relationship between the humans and beastmen for thousands of years and had never changed.
But now, this group of human merchants actually said that they would pay them a salary!
This was simply ridiculous!
However, regardless of whether the werewolves believed it or not, they didn't have the ability to resist. Secondly, the five beastmen who claimed to be from the Black Rice Wasteland described the attitude of the New Flyer towards the beastmen in the southwest corner of the continent. This made them somewhat believe that the New Flyer was indeed sincere, so in the end, they obediently signed this agreement.
And with the Wolfe Tribe, the number one beastmen tribe in the tundra of the north as an example, Hogan's following actions in the tundra of the north became incomparably smooth.
In just three months, Hogan represented the New Flyer to sign employment agreements with twenty three beastmen tribes in the tundra of the north, deciding on a total of ten thousand beastmen to be hired.
So the most troublesome problem of manpower had been solved.
At this time, it was spring and countless large transport Magic Cars filled with large amounts of goods were coming from the south.
The Stratholme Magic Machine Industry Base was finally prepared and they were entering the construction phase.