The desert will always leave a very deep impression on people, and it is also full of the feelings of the heroic knight. In ancient China, there were many magnificent poems praising the desert and showing the majesty of men.
However, in the real world, the desert is not friendly to life. There is a lack of water resources and infrastructure cannot be developed. Everything is desolate, and civilization seems to have stopped its progress here.
In a place like this, water source is everything, so the most prosperous city here must be near the water source, and it will constantly change with the migration of the water source.
The Orc Empire is not an empire. Most of the time, in most aspects, it is more like a tribal alliance.
Each village has its own wizard priest, and the work performed by the wizard priest is basically the same as that of the village chief. The basic alliance of many villages is called a tribe, and the leader of the tribe is sometimes called a chief, who is a relatively high decision-maker within the orc social structure.
Further up there are the great chiefs and beast kings, similar to ministers and emperors, but they only have war and diplomatic powers, not economic and other rights.
Because in earlier times, the orcs basically had no economy at all. Most of the time they wandered around in simple economic activities such as nomadic herding and reclamation, and it seemed that they did not need too much management at all.
There are also some orc tribes that have their own iron mines and gem mines - the life of these orcs is actually not good. The ores they mine can usually only be sold at low prices to the human traders who exploit them in exchange for some of the things they urgently need. Food and other supplies.
Although each tribe respects the Beast King and believes in the primitive beast god religion, this loose tribal alliance system has no way of impacting the organized and disciplined societies of humans, elves, and dwarves.
Especially after the Cyric Consortium improved its muskets and brought the world into the age of flintlocks, the orcs, who were not strong in their own right, truly became a piece of meat that could be exploited by others.
Their war machine mobilization mechanism is more backward than that of other races, and their weapons and tactics are not advanced, so they have been at a passive disadvantage in so many years of competition.
The only thing that can protect them is the terrain: deserts and wastelands, as well as oases dotted among them, are areas that other groups cannot occupy for a long time.
The cost of the expedition was too high, so there was no need for any country to attack. This is the fundamental reason why the Orc Empire has always existed.
But with the emergence of a consortium called Datang Group, this situation seemed to be broken. When some businessmen who had dealings with the orcs brought information about the railway, all the orc managers instinctively felt the danger.
If a convenient and fast transportation method becomes popular, then places that were previously inaccessible will no longer be so marginal.
For the stronger side, any place that is no longer on the edge... may be an option to expand territory. Especially when the strong ones discover that the aboriginal people in those places are vulnerable.
The Orc Empire soon realized the seriousness of the problem: near the Steel Fist Fortress, their losses were increasing day by day, and the rate of population decline had exceeded the limit they could tolerate.
In the past, in order to reduce their population, they had to take the initiative to attack Qin's western wall defense line. But now, in a state of passive defense, they have basically achieved their goal of controlling the population.
What does this mean? This means that the offensive and defensive momentum has begun to change! Once a large number of things called railways appear in the Qin State, the Qin State is likely to reconsider seizing the Steel Fist Fortress.
And this time...if Qin succeeds, the orcs may never be able to recapture that fortress. If the Steel Fist Fortress cannot be recaptured, it means that the villages, cities, pastures, water sources... behind the Steel Fist Fortress will all be lost one after another.
While the orcs were anxious, they suddenly discovered that the number of merchants coming from Shu was increasing at an alarming rate.
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The Cyric Consortium that originally controlled this trade route had always been wary of selling supplies to the orcs, but now this taboo seems to have been completely broken.
As long as the orcs are willing to pay, whether it's food or steel, whether it's rifles or bullets... Cyric can provide it.
Moreover, the weapons and equipment provided this time are simply different from those in the past!
After the Orcs experimented with the Cyric Type 1 bolt-action rifle, they immediately purchased 300,000 units. What surprised the orcs was that these weapons were delivered to them without even having to wait long.
There is news that a railway has been built in Shu to connect the Orc Empire and support trade and transportation between Shu and the Orc Empire.
That’s a total of 300,000 rifles! In the past, when the Orc Empire was buying Cyric flintlock guns, trading hundreds of them at a time was a huge business.
As a result, after delivering 300,000 rifles, a salesman from the Cyric Consortium came to visit and let the generals of the Orc Empire appreciate the heroic performance of the Maxim heavy machine gun.
The orc generals and high-ranking officials who were present at the scene couldn't even believe their eyes: they really couldn't believe that humans had become so greedy that they were even willing to sell such large weapons.
In their view, as long as their troops are equipped with these new weapons, it is not impossible to break through Qin's Western Wall defense line.
But then they realized that they were overthinking, and Qin's western wall defense line was also strengthened. Qin's troops not only took the lead in upgrading their tactics, but also obtained more advanced weapons and equipment than the orcs.
Soon the Orcs encountered Qin's large-caliber artillery, a terrifying crossfire machine gun position, and armored vehicles...
After a bloody encounter on the Western Wall defense line, the orcs suddenly realized that it was not the Cyric Consortium that was too greedy and dared to sell advanced weapons to the orcs; Weapons and equipment no longer seem to be the best weapons and equipment.
Only then did they realize that the world seemed to have undergone tremendous changes, and they, the orcs, seemed to have barely caught up with this development.
The Orc Empire, which thought it had enough troops and food, had to join an arms race that they were destined to be unable to succeed, but they had to participate.
The Orc Empire purchased an additional 200,000 Cyric 1 rifles, purchased 3,000 Maxim heavy machine guns, and stored more than 200 million rounds of ammunition.
At the same time, they did not hesitate to purchase 100 old-fashioned biplanes from Cyric businessmen and 2,000 cars of various models.
In order to support these high-tech equipment, they also hired many human maintenance technicians and established a little basic industry in some cities near Shu.
Because Cyric is willing to sell anything and dares to sell anything, the orcs can purchase the most primitive low-precision machine tools and purchase some simple tools, allowing them to improve their strength more easily than before.
The long-term secret trade with Shu has made the orcs in the southern region come under the influence of Shu. The orcs did not dare to harass Shu easily for fear of affecting the only trade route. This is a very interesting situation in itself. In the southern region, which is more prone to war, the Shu State and the Orc Empire are in peace and even trade. In the north, which is least suitable for war, the Qin State is at war with the Orc Empire.
What the Orcs don't know yet is that the Cyric Consortium that they have been trading with is actually controlled by the Datang Group. The products of the Cyric Consortium they purchased were actually sold to them by the Datang Group at a high price.
Not only that, even the expansion and smoothness of this trade route... were ensured under the instruction of the Tang Empire.
