The black and white dog-headed man in front of him didn't look ferocious. From a distance, he looked a bit like a standing husky, even a little silly and cute. In fact, when the entire Gnoll tribe is not grinning and looking fierce, they look quite docile. Most of them look like golden retrievers, and a few of them are ugly and muscular, a bit like pit bulls. After all, they are kobolds, not ferocious species like boarmen and gnolls. Looking at the black and white dog-headed man in front of him, Leo thought for a moment, smiled, and said firmly: "No!" The black and white dog-headed man - let's call him the Husky for now - suddenly had a fierce look in his eyes, bared his teeth, and let out a threatening roar from his mouth. The golden retriever and the bitch behind also started barking. Leo said quickly: "We don't want food, your home, we don't want it, we are a peaceful race!" The Husky was stunned, and restrained his fierce look, but muttered: "We don't believe it. The smile is very treacherous. Humans are very treacherous. The common language is very poor." Leo quickly regained his composure and said seriously, "Trust us, we are a peace-loving race. We can trade. Use your iron to exchange for our food. Your home is still your home." The Husky was in hesitation and looked back at his own people. A group of golden-haired people also stayed where they were, unable to make a decision.
On the contrary, a few Bitmen who obviously had the characteristics of war maniacs were still grinning, roaring softly, and ready to fight at any time. Leo was not to be outdone. He tilted his neck forward and reached out to pat the carotid artery in his neck. Several bitmen stared at his neck, then moved their gaze to the chain hammer hanging around his waist. They made "whimpering" sounds and shrank back into the team. They obviously couldn't defeat this peace-loving human. Seeing that he couldn't convince them, Leo turned back to the militia and said, "Hand over all the rations!" Because the distance to the kobolds' lair was unknown before setting out, Uliyan allocated two days' worth of dry food to each militiaman in case of any unexpected situations. Two days' rations for fifty people are not a small amount when piled together. Leo threw the collected rations into the acorn pile. As the hard bread fell to the ground, a swallowing sound suddenly came from the kobold team. Leo pointed at the rations and said, "We will exchange our food for your iron, and we can coexist peacefully." "As you can see, we came here just to farm, not to fight." "You, farm, we, iron." The Husky muttered in a low voice and fell silent. When it looked up and was about to agree to this proposal, which would not do it any harm, Leo said, "But I have a small condition." "Woof?" "You must send at least twenty cubs to our camp and learn our language. Only by maintaining communication can we maintain peace." The husky bared his teeth again, "Humans, treacherous, let us leave, and the kobolds will never be slaves! Woof!" "Food and lodging are provided. Adult ogres can also go, and there is no limit on the number of people who can go. They can come and go freely." Leo used his trump card. As he spoke, the dog-headed people's eyes suddenly lit up, like a group of golden retrievers seeing food. "If you can't accept my conditions, then I'll have to ask you to leave here." Finally, after some whispering between the Husky and the Golden Retriever, they agreed to Leo's request.
Gnolls have a very strong reproductive capacity, with an average litter size of four or five. As long as there is enough food and nutrition, gnolls will multiply all over the ground. Moreover, kobolds grow very quickly. It only takes three years for a kobold cub to grow from birth to adulthood. This small tribe of ogres has lived in the upper reaches of the Anzelo River for generations, surviving by hunting small prey, fishing, and gathering. Their main source of food, apart from the rats in the mines, is acorns from the oak forests on the south bank of the Anzeno River and pine nuts from the red pine forests on the north bank. Don't expect these small ethnic groups whose intelligence is even lower than that of primitive people to have any sense of crisis. When food is abundant in summer and autumn, they mine and forge iron without worries. When food is scarce in winter, they can only hide in caves and starve, watching their cubs starve to death. When it was discovered that these humans had entered the sacred gathering ground, conflicts naturally arose. Now, as the defeated party, the ogres have been mentally prepared to be slaughtered. With this calculation, it seems that sending twenty cubs out as hostages is not a bad idea. If they do not agree to the conditions and choose to migrate in the winter, the cubs will most likely starve to death along the way. Moreover, you can exchange iron ore for food in the future. You don’t have to go out to look for food all day. Everyone can mine happily! The conditions offered by Rio were so tempting that many golden retrievers did not want to leave their homes. A few hundred years ago, the kobolds in the north were still a vassal race of the orcs. They could be seen everywhere north of the Anzeno River. There were countless kobold settlements in the Wolf-Driving Plains. They had a mature clan culture, shamanism and magic heritage, and even built a kobold city. However, as the human clans on the south bank of the Anzeno River joined the Orlantis Empire, bringing with them powerful imperial heavy cavalry and heavily armored elite infantry, and driving the orcs into the northern snowfields, the culture of the kobolds also disappeared. Most of the kobolds died in the war or were enslaved, and the rest, like other vassal races, fled into the vast primeval forest and settled in the southeast foothills of the magnificent barrier. After hundreds of years, these small tribes have degenerated to the primitive stage and live a life like savages. The entire southeastern foothills of the magnificent barrier are filled with these small alien tribes, which survive cautiously in hidden corners on the edge of human society. Only when the tribe grows too large to support the extra population will it attack nearby human villages. Uliyan was stationed at the western watchtower in the past, nominally to be on guard against dragon attacks for a thousand years, but in reality the main enemy was this small alien race. To some extent, the ogres have always wished to go back hundreds of years, become a vassal of a powerful race, gain a little living space, and preferably be able to mine and forge iron freely. Tell a joke: Kobolds will never be slaves! However, humans simply look down on them. When they see them, they only think about how to kill them, drive them away, and catch them and sell them for money. Even those groups of adventurers who are new to the wilderness like to attack ogres to hone their combat abilities. The Husky, along with nine golden retrievers and twenty furry Kobold cubs, followed Leo on the mountain road to the River Bend Camp. The kobolds have a good talent for languages, and half of them can speak a few words of Imperial, but they do not have enough courage to go to the human camp, and can only be led by their new leader, the Husky. Twenty strong and young villagers each carried ten baskets of iron ingots and ten baskets of selected iron ore. Although they are called iron ingots, they are actually just a pile of scrap iron. They are sponge iron obtained by the kobold blacksmiths through the primitive underground block iron smelting method. They look like dirty and deformed black sponges. Roughly processed sponge iron is coarse and full of impurities, but soft enough to be well suited to forging. The Husky people introduced that a piece of such sponge iron can be made into an iron spear head or iron pickaxe head through ten days of repeated forging and processing by the Gnoll blacksmith.
Every adult kobold will be given a small iron pickaxe so that they can happily mine and look for the shiny gems they desire. Every ogre warrior will be given a hunting iron spear, which is the javelin used by the militia at this time. This iron tool, made with the most primitive iron smelting technology, is still a powerful weapon in the wilderness and the magic weapon for the survival of the gnolls. It enables them to hunt prey of the same size, cut down trees, mine ore, drive away wolves and guard their homes. Looking at the baskets of sponge iron and iron ore, as well as the bags of dried fruits, Leo couldn't help but fall into deep thought. "Where did you get your baskets and linen bags?"