Yang Hao was surprised that Nia actually said in front of him that she wanted to take the things back to the village, while Nia said helplessly that if smart people could speak more directly to each other, not only would it make both of them feel more relaxed, but more importantly, the conversation would be more comfortable when they become further allies in the future.
"After all, we in Isgard don't want to have to double-check that the patterns on the paper aren't some strange text when we sign a contract with the United Nations in the future... Let's just be direct. It'll be good for you and for me, and it'll also be convenient for each country to make adjustments. Isn't that good?"
"I think so. Then I'll be frank - it seems that Ishugard has nothing that can be used for such a transaction?"
"It's not that I don't have any, it's just... I might have to go back and make a list."
"I think you don't have much to offer, Nia. I'm afraid you may have to ask your president to come over for negotiations for the rest."
"How do you know I think so?"
Nia was a little surprised, and Yang Hao's mouth twitched.
If it was anyone else, he would definitely think it was a joke.
But this is Nia, who has sufficient executive power. She might actually bring her own daughter, the president, over and let the president negotiate directly with her...
It's not impossible, but it's too early now - so you'll have to wait a while.
He found an excuse to temporarily put the matter aside, and then continued to work all night long.
On the other side, in the Khan's tent, Khutot Khan and the Qiexue gathered together.
He first severely criticized the unauthorized actions of the Polan people and the losses caused by the missing Polan commander's reckless advance.
As the Khan's exploitation of the Polan tribal army and then reorganization was not opposed, given the greater good and all the soldiers knew what the Polans had done.
Then, the Khan raised a good question: Are they really facing the Romans, not other countries? Even if the elves form an alliance with the Romans, they will only stay in their own territory. The elves will not send out their precious Hippogriffs for the Romans. In other words... are they fighting a faction that is not Roman this time
"The Romans, even if they were given ten years to develop, they would not have been able to develop to the point they are now—with those magical tactics, those magical weapons, those ridiculously disciplined soldiers, and even those soldiers who would not get carried away by military exploits...
To put it bluntly, the Romans are just like us. They can take one step ahead under the leadership of the emperor, but they can't take ten steps ahead! I know the Romans, and that's why I am so confused about the enemy in front of us.
Are they really Romans, and not some other faction? But besides the Elven Kingdom between us and Romans, the only other people left are the demons in the Monster Forest, right? "
Hutot Khan's continuous questions and statements made the Qiexue people look at each other for a few seconds.
Then, a Qiexue said that the people there should not be demons. If they were demons, they would not have the ability to develop civilization to that level.
Secondly, they did not have the resources and technology to build such a terrifying fortress.
Only humans can build those forts and buildings. Even if it's the elves, those old-fashioned elves are simply incapable of designing new products...
"In other words, we might be facing a group of humans who are not Romani? But it can't be that the people underground have crawled out, right
Impossible, they have been fighting the devil for thousands of years, let alone whether anyone is alive, the best outcome is that the bones are not completely decayed and can be admired by people. "
Hutot Khan obviously did not believe that the people who were now stopping him from moving south were the people of the ancient empire who had fought against demons underground thousands of years ago.
He was more inclined to believe that it was the country across the sea - after all, the weapons they used were incompatible with the continent of Elusia. If they were colonists from across the sea, this would make sense.
But have the countries across the sea developed to this point
This further strengthened Khutot Khan's determination to move south: because if he did not move south to obtain abundant resources and a fixed residence, the Khutot Khanate would simply not have the conditions to develop new technologies.
The Khan and the Kheshig discussed tactics for dealing with the fortress all night.
They found that what stopped the Polans from attacking were two insidious "barbed wire fences" that looked inconspicuous from a distance.
They soon realized that laying wooden boards on the barbed wire or simply letting the trolls trample and destroy it was the best option, and planned to prepare sufficient consumables for tomorrow's battle.
Facing the firepower projected from the city walls, the Khan and the Keshiks believed that they had to fight quickly and decisively, and they must not fight in a dense formation like before. In the face of such explosive power, a dense formation would only bring more results to the opponent.
But in the end, faced with trenches and strangely tilted walls... they couldn't come up with a good solution.
The catapult's range is too short and it might be directly covered by the enemy's city defense facilities, and the stones it throws out cannot pose any threat to the city wall that is more than six meters thick.
It is impossible for a battering ram to approach the enemy's city gate under such circumstances, not to mention that the enemy's city gate seems to be a retractable mechanical structure rather than a pull-up drawbridge.
Are we just going to use ladders to attack the city under enemy fire? But even if we can climb the wall, who can guarantee that the enemy won't build an inner city inside the castle
The more the Khan and Keshig talked about it, the more their scalps tingled. This fortress really couldn't be attacked. If they really had to attack, they had to wait until the Khutot Khanate had the same weapons.
After all... this really isn't a man-made natural barrier that can be dealt with by steel knives and iron armor.
Khan sighed heavily in his heart.
Finally, an idea suddenly came to my mind:
Since the other party is not Romani, why don’t we negotiate with them and then go south
He presented his ideas to the Qiexue people.
Finally, after a strange silence for a while, all the Qiexue ignored the feelings of the Polan people who acted on their own and said, "Okay!"
…
At the same late night, when the Khan of the North was ready for negotiations, the God of Light once again showed his "divine grace" at St. Peter's Cathedral.
But unlike the last time, this time he did not release golden mist, but instead shone the golden light into the underground area of St. Petersburg—to be precise, the former underground area, the bottom floor that was now rising again.
There, in some secret rooms, the God of Light discovered the remains of many demons and Bayezids.
It would be a pity to let these remains go to waste, so now that the faith of the God of Light is becoming increasingly scarce and the power he has seized is shrinking, he has decided to further develop the "Corpse Rebirth Art" and strive to become the "Corpse God" as soon as possible. Become a conceptual god.
But before that, he must prove that he has the ability to rule over corpses.
Crunch...
Under the golden light, the remains of the demon made a fragmented sound—
This was the result of the struggle between magic and divine power. Even if it was a demon's corpse, as long as there was magic left on it, the God of Light would not be able to use it easily.
With one crisp sound after another, the demon's remains shattered into pieces, and finally turned into powder and dust under the illumination of the golden light, and finally disappeared without a trace.
There seemed to be a sigh in the darkness. But soon, the God of Light set his sights on the corpses of the Bayerjans.
Although it was just some bones, and it looked like it could be shattered at any time by various external forces, at least there was no magic left on it. In other words, it was a good thing that could be accommodated by divine power.
He tried to cast his magic on the corpses of the Bayezids.
With one crisp sound after another, this time, the corpses stood up under the influence of divine power.
Although they have no consciousness or power, these corpses can become the cornerstone for the further development of the God of Light in the future.
In the past, the God of Light had survived by absorbing the light of the Bayerjans' faith. Now, he wanted to suck the marrow from the Bayerjans' corpses to go higher and further.
He arbitrarily manipulated the bones to make them look lifelike, and finally set his sights on the place where the Protestant religion was.
He could feel that the faith that the saint who transformed the power of light gave him was getting less and less... Perhaps he had to occupy this body in advance.
"But not now."
The tomb chamber fell into silence again.
This time, the God of Light no longer cares about the believers on the surface.
Chapter 5: The Three Kingdoms Alliance, the Fall of the Sky Continent 8K
Early morning of April 5th.
On the devastated battlefield, the barbarians once again appeared in front of the barbed wire.
The difference was that they were holding high a flag representing their "willingness for peace talks", and the four Qiexue in front, who were not carrying any weapons but were dressed in noble clothes, each held up a long pole and propped up a small curtain on the wasteland.
However, due to the existence of the barbed wire that was re-laid last night, they were unable to approach the bastion and could only shout from a distance in the hope that the United Nations would send someone to negotiate.
Seeing that they had placed a table and chairs in the tent, Yang Hao thought that he had achieved part of his strategic plan - at least the barbarians were willing to lower themselves and negotiate, which was a good thing.
But no one can guarantee that both parties can achieve satisfactory results during negotiations.
So after repeatedly considering his own weak physical strength and the generally strong physique of the barbarians, Yang Hao chose to bring Finn and an elf guard with him. He also asked the archmage to cast protective magic on each of them. Then he accepted the invitation of the barbarians and prepared to take a closer look at what these people were going to talk about.
"So, is it really okay to negotiate with them in the wild?" Fen asked, and Yang Hao nodded slightly. "At worst, it would be okay to ask them to come in and negotiate?"
"This involves a balance between the two sides - and to put it bluntly, we have to give them a way out. This will not only facilitate the subsequent negotiations, but more importantly, it will show our attitude. It will show that we are willing to negotiate with them on a relatively equal footing."
"I know. But we are the one with the upper hand now."
"We don't want to waste manpower in the north fighting with these barbarians. If Theresa were here, she would have explained to you how much trouble Bayerjans is causing her. But she is not here, so you may not understand the current difficulties Bayerjans is facing in terms of human resources."
Although the human resources of Bayer Zhans seem to be very sufficient at this stage, when the farming season arrives, Bayer Zhans will exclude the farming population, and the available labor force will immediately decrease a lot...
Not to mention, after ascending to the ground, the baby boom is gradually coming. More and more women are pregnant, which not only means that the country will have more and more newborns in the future, but more importantly, it means that the current labor force will become increasingly scarce after a period of time.
Especially when pregnant women's bellies begin to swell, residents who were able to work will temporarily be unable to work, which will further increase Bayer's labor shortage...
Not to mention that newborns need manpower to take care of them after they are born. Even if they are raised in a socialized way, they still need to hire some knowledgeable people to educate those lively babies day and night...
In this case, Yang Hao and Theresa still have to prepare for the next trip south -
After all, the elves don’t have many soldiers, and the Golem operators, the Ling girls, also need enough manpower to protect them. Moreover, after occupying several reserved locations in the Roman Empire, putting the mines there into production also requires human resources...
…
In general, the manpower gap is really getting bigger and bigger in a short period of time.
Moreover, the shortage of manpower may continue for at least ten years - unless the small golems can increase their production in a short period of time, the labor shortage will become the top priority facing the United Nations.
But the current production capacity of small golems is limited. Unless the number of Ling people can be further increased, otherwise... probably the total number of golems and golems that can be produced each year is only that much at most.
It is almost impossible to increase the labor force in large quantities in a short period of time through golems and golems.
And on this basis, if Yang Hao and others really failed to reach an agreement with the Khutot Khanate and really had to continue the confrontation with this nomadic country... there is a high probability that the already scarce labor resources will become even more scarce.
After all, the Monster Forest's territory is so large that the elves cannot ensure surveillance of the border, so this will inevitably require the soldiers of Bayerjans to take over.
And setting up outposts in border areas will inevitably require more manpower and soldiers...
All of this will eventually become a huge snowball that will continue to devour the human resources of the United Nations until the day comes when the United Nations or the Khutot Khanate can no longer hold on.
In order to avoid such an endless cycle, Yang Hao must negotiate with the Khan about the next major compromise and cooperation concession. This is not for the sake of face, but for the sake of making the United Nations a better place.
What's more, Yang Hao has the confidence to reach an agreement with the Great Khan.
After all, the Khan's move south is a "necessary need" rather than an "optional need", and the United Nations' hope to coexist peacefully with the Khutot Khanate is "optional" rather than "necessary".
The fundamental goals of both parties were unequal from the beginning - in a sense, even if Yang Hao said nothing, the probability that the Khan would bow his head first was very high.
But the specifics... we can only wait and see.
After crossing the gap in the barbed wire, Yang Hao and others came to the tent set up by the Khan's envoy.
After letting his personal guards follow him into the tent, Yang Hao finally had the time to look at Hutot Khan who had been waiting in front of him for a long time.
He was a nomad in the truest sense of the word, possessing some of the characteristics of nomads that Yang Hao knew.
With his broad shoulders and strong build, his rough beard and hair made him look like an enlarged version of a dwarf in a fantasy story.
It seems that every nomad has bow legs. Just as Yang Hao was thinking about this, he heard the Khan ask directly:
"So, you are not Romani? An unknown elf queen and a king of an unknown country? What is going on in the south right now?"
Nomads always seem to like asking questions so straightforwardly—Yang Hao nodded, indicating that Fen should just be a mascot beside him, and then he answered:
"We are the United Nation - a new country created by the joint efforts of Caparia and Bayerjans, not part of the Roman Empire. You can call me the Regent, and she can just be called "Fen". "
"Okay, Mr. Regent, Ms. Finn... Then can you tell me what's going on in the south? The Polans in my army thought you were Romans and didn't obey orders and just ran over here. Please believe that our Khutot Khanate has no ill intentions. Also, Khutot is my name, and "Khan" means "king" among our nomads."
As if he heard some extraordinary name, the Khan was visibly stunned for a moment, and then continued the conversation as if nothing had happened.
“That’s understandable.”
As for Yang Hao, he obtained an important message through Khan's voice.
He directly put the blame on the troops that attacked without authorization - or those Polan people had completely become abandoned pawns in the Great Khan's army, and no matter how much they complained, they would be suppressed.
Either this Great Khan's skills are indeed so superb that even the Polan people have no complaints.
Yang Hao thought about it and determined that communicating with smart people would ensure the smooth progress of the subsequent negotiations. He then explained the changes in the south to the Khan in a concise manner.
Among them, Yang Hao concealed a lot of things related to the Roman Empire. On the one hand, the relationship between Hutot Khan and them was still unclear. In order to prevent Hutot Khan from doing anything that was detrimental to the United Nations and Isgard, Yang Hao slightly concealed some of the current situation of the Roman Empire.
Of course, all he did was conceal the fact that the Romans ate people and that there was a large group of zombies in the Roman Empire.
Following Yang Hao's statement, Hutot Khan finally understood what kind of chaos was going on in the south...
"In short, the Roman Empire is in civil strife, and their ally Alesse was planning to rob us, but ended up underestimating our strength?"
"right."
"And your United Nations is fighting against the Roman invasion with Isgard, but because of the geographical location and the observation of our army's gathering, you have to build a bunker here to intercept us?"
"right."
"And more importantly... you were once the regent of the Roman Empire? No... I have heard that Emperor Benjamin does have a capable brother... So that brother is you? May I ask if His Majesty Benjamin is doing well now?"