Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 1356 - 1349: The Inclusion of Kyushu People

Chapter 1356: Chapter 1349: The Inclusion of Kyushu People

Over the next month, the Demon Clan entered a full strategic defensive phase. Although they had not signed a non-aggression treaty with Dongsheng Empire, as both were in a defensive mode, they tacitly reached an agreement where neither initiated attacks.

Linglan intentionally kept the Beast Head Tribe out when forming a new group of demons, and from her series of attitudes, she would rather have Kyushu’s people join the Southern Yao Race than allow the Beast Head Tribe to join.

The reason Linglan was so wary of the Beast Head Tribe was that, although these three major groups were strong in battle, their will to fight was not steadfast.

During the Tribal Alliance period, she had to communicate repeatedly to get these people to fight; now, as she started to build a unified national community, Linglan really did not want these people to interfere and cause chaos.

But she was also well aware that without the Beast Head Tribe joining Abisien, the Dongsheng military would not dare to offend easily. If she alienated the Beast Head Tribe now, causing them to retreat to the northern West Outer Heaven, the existing forces of the Beast-Ear Race alone could not withstand the counterattack of Dongsheng Empire.

Therefore, while integrating those hundreds of thousands of Kyushu people, she was also actively pacifying the leaders of the three major Beast Head tribes, just to stall until the Kyushu military was formed. By then, even without the Beast Head Tribe, relying solely on the military formed by Kyushu people, Linglan could wage a decisive battle to the death with Dongsheng Empire.

Linglan was a very ambitious and thoughtful leader, serving as the nominal leader of Abisien; she sought not just a nominal title, but actual power.

As long as she could manage the internal conflicts of the Beast-Ear Race well, she could essentially stabilize the current situation. As for those hundreds of thousands of Kyushu people, it had already been mentioned that there was no need to worry about them, because their next generation would be fully assimilated into the Beast-Ear Race.

In fact, the strength of the Beast Head Tribe was stronger than that of the Beast-Ear Race, not only because the Beast Head Tribe was physically robust and strong in battle, but also because their appearance was indeed not liked by the people of Kyushu.

Besides conquering territories, another significant gain from war was the capture of populations. The people of Kyushu were indeed worried that the demon people would affect their descendants, but just as the people of the Western Continent liked to hunt Elves, the people of Kyushu also had a demand for the Beast-Ear Race.

Whenever war broke out, the empires from Kyushu would plunder a large number of the Beast-Ear Race’s people from the south of West Outer Heaven and sell them as slaves to Kyushu. Generally, most of them were female, and their fate can be imagined.

Thus, the population of the Beast-Ear Race continued to decrease, not only because they were slaughtered but also because they were captured and enslaved.

However, Dongsheng Empire was not so polite to the Beast Head Tribe, except for a very few who had value and became slaves. Whenever the Dongsheng military caught Beast Head Tribe warriors, all they did was execute them, even cutting off their heads as a form of totem.

The risk of being slaughtered forced the Beast Head Tribe to resist desperately, fighting tenaciously even when at a disadvantage, until they died in battle. They knew they would surely die if captured, so they preferred to die in battle.

Compared to being slaughtered, the treatment of the Beast-Ear Race was slightly better, albeit still terribly awful.

Once enslaved, the descendants of the Beast-Ear Race people would also become slaves. Nearly every year, a steady number of mixed-blood demons were born in Kyushu. These children were either continued to be enslaved or driven to the vassal state of Fengyu, thereby increasingly the number of mixed-blood demons in Fengyu.

As before, because the dominant genes of the Demon Race were very strong, the people of the East Continent Clan did not acknowledge any mixed-blood theory at all; the offspring of demons were inevitably demons, making Fengyu nearly become a kingdom of demons.

But it should be noted that Fengyu was still ruled by the Shanyue people, and the vast majority of demons in this country were also oppressed.

Actually, if the war in the West Outer Heaven could end, Abisien could entirely recruit those mixed-blood demons from Fengyu to supplement the manpower in West Outer Heaven. For the demons in Fengyu, rather than being oppressed there, they would prefer to return to their homeland and live with their own kind.

Because of the dominant genes of the Demon Clan, its members did not regard their mixed-blood compatriots as aliens, but still treated them as their own.

In fact, historically, the Demon Clan had continuously absorbed genes from other groups. It could be said that the Demon Clan members Luo’er saw, including leaders like Linglan and Zisu, were not purebred Demon Clan members; their bloodlines all contained blood from other races.

On the other hand, those from the Demon Clan who had fled to the Western Continent initially had much purer bloodlines than the native Demon Clan. Of course, as they joined Lipei, they too began to assimilate foreigners.

Luo’er had always been curious about whether the genetic traits of Elves or the Demon Clan were stronger, and whether the children born would be Demon Clan members or Elves.

With Luo’er’s continued propaganda, more and more Kyushu citizens began to believe that even if they merged with the Demon Clan, they and their offspring still qualified to practice cultivation in another form.

For Kyushu citizens, cultivation had almost permeated their entire lives, so changing their views was not easy; hence Luo’er never thought about altering them.

It is better to guide than to block; rather than calling for these Kyushu citizens to give up cultivation, it was better to provide them with a hopeful solution.

Seeing through the phenomenon to the essence, Luo’er could see that most of the concerns of Kyushu citizens revolved around cultivation; thus, by addressing the issue of cultivation, he could mobilize more Kyushu citizens to join the Demon Clan and strengthen it.

Apart from Luo’er’s vigorous propaganda, Linglan was also actively engaged in helping these Kyushu civilians integrate better into the Demon Clan, providing them with land and houses, and actively arranging spouses for them.

It must be said that as the leader of Abisien, Linglan truly had great courage. It was this courage that allowed the Demon Clan to miraculously establish an elite army, taking advantage of the Dongsheng army’s defensive position to seize many cities.

If Abisien had to choose a leader, everyone knew without thinking who was more suitable. Linglan’s sensitivity to reforms and her attitude towards outsiders were enough to show that no one was more suited to the role than her.

As the propaganda continued, more and more Kyushu citizens began to integrate into the life of West Outer Heaven, actively participating in pioneering and construction work, laboring for their small families.

When a man had a house and land, as well as a wife, he instinctively began to defend what he already had.

Although the integration work continued and most Kyushu citizens had not yet fully joined the Demon Clan, despite this, Linglan had already recruited more than three thousand Kyushu citizens, beginning to train them to rebuild the systematically eliminated infantry lines of the Demon Clan.

With large amounts of land, cities, and mines at her disposal, Linglan had enough leverage to take loans from Kyushu merchants. She even used the mines as collateral to exchange cash from Kyushu merchants, ensuring stable production.

Among the surrendered Kyushu people there were also many craftsmen, who were all gathered to begin manufacturing weapons for the Demon Clan army. With the help from the scientists from Gao Feng, the Demon Clan had achieved a certain level of industrial capability, though it was just simple hydropower and steam power, it was enough to meet the production needs of the Demon Clan.

The increase in productivity allowed the Demon Clan to begin manufacturing new style firearms. The new firearms still primarily used flintlock smoothbore guns, as it was impossible to etch rifling on all guns for rapid and large-scale armament.

But in addition to the large batch of firearms needed by the army, with the help of scientists from Gao Feng, the Demon Clan also began to manufacture rifled guns in small quantities, to be used as cavalry weapons.

Based on the advice of Gao Feng’s military advisors and combining combat experience, the Demon Clan planned to form an elite cavalry troop, consisting of cavalry and riflemen. They were primarily equipped with rifled guns to harass and attack enemy positions before and after battles, targeting high-value individuals.