Chapter 2024: Chapter 1479: Willing to Be the Chief Divine’s Naginata!

"Loshanda, there’s no sign of progress with Rokube’s matter, so let’s set it aside for now. The old grandmother of the Mountain Tribe is not only our matrimonial ally but also the spiritual leader of the Far North Snow Plains’ Mountain Tribe, a true elder shaman whose words carry weight! Since she has spoken now, it means the Mountain Tribe, having gone through the white disaster, has made a decision. How many from the Mountain Tribe does she wish to migrate south?..."

"Senior Zuwaro, when I went to the Mountain Tribe for marriage, I had several good discussions with the old grandmother. She is indeed a shaman whose words carry weight, and she possesses some mana and foresight!..."

Loshanda’s eyes slightly lowered, recalling the pungent deer blood wine and those half-asleep conversations after drinking, like divination after inhaling divine smoke, filled with mysterious and distant illusion. He pressed his heart firmly, silently reciting the name of the Chief Divine, before he continued seriously.

"Witnessed by the Chief Divine! As I see it, the Mountain Tribe’s intention this winter is unknown. Considering just last year’s snow disaster, the shrinking deer population means that each tribe cannot support its population... They probably need to migrate about a thousand people south to probe and seek survival!"

"A thousand people?... Hmm... How exactly should they migrate? How do they want us to help?..."

"Witnessed by the Chief Divine! I discussed two plans with the old grandmother, both require you to make a decision... The first plan, proposed by the Mountain Tribe, is their most common ’Great Tent Migration.’ It involves tribal leaders negotiating to select two tribes of several hundred people to abandon their original hunting grounds, pastures, and camps, transforming into migrating ’Great Tents.’ Then, these tribespeople from the ’Great Tents’ would sail south on our ’Brother Sea Tribe’ fleet to find new ’hunting grounds’ on the Great Island... Oh! They would also convert to the Chief Divine, which is a basic condition..."

"In the ’Great Tent Migration,’ we only need to provide ships, supply half a month’s food, and inform the two migrating ’Great Tents’ of nearby weak tribes that can be plundered... Then, the ’Great Tent’ would mobilize its tribes themselves, pillaging the surrounding smaller tribes, annexing territories and hunting grounds, seizing enough resources to survive..."

"Once the ’Great Tent’ plunders enough food and population, annexed sufficiently large hunting grounds, it will choose a ’good place’ to formally settle the migrating ’Great Tent,’ transforming into tribal camps and begin farming deer herds. During the plundering process, they will allocate a portion of the spoils and population to us as compensation for assisting the two ’Great Tents’ southward. They are also willing to join us in the plunder, dividing spoils based on troop deployment and harvest..."

This plan, once spoken, is full of the bloody chill frozen into ice shards, full of the harshness of the Northern Snow Plains. Zuwaro listened with a furrowed brow, having personally participated in Mountain Tribe’s two-thousand-mile sled raid, he knew the combat capabilities of these sled tribes well! As long as the migrating Mountain Tribe can land and establish footholds, they’re incomparable to the Ainu people on the Great Island!

One thousand-plus Mountain Tribe migrating southward might extract over three hundred archery warriors, enough to face and crush thousands of Ainu tribal warriors head-on. And if winter comes, letting these archery warriors of the Mountain Tribe ride dog sleds, enhanced by fast mobility... then the hundreds of miles of surrounding Ainu tribes, whether Ishikari, Sumunkur, East Plain, are mere targets of plunder! Even the spear formation samurai of the Japanese are nothing but targets surrounded by arrows!

"Great Tent Migration, plundering everywhere, jointly distributing plundering spoils?... That’s like putting wolves from the Northern Snowfield into the deer herds of the Maoshili Island! Yet the Ainu tribes on Maoshili Island are all potential followers of the Chief Divine, and can gradually become integrated as the ’Gummy People Branch’ as long as our power is sufficient..."

After a moment of contemplation, Zuwaro shook his head. He had long viewed Maoshili Island and its hundreds of thousands of Ainu tribes as the "Chief Divine’s basic domain." He also didn’t need anything in return from the Mountain Tribe allies moving southward, such as "worthless spoils of war." Because he could entirely obtain better supplies through "gold trade" with the south!

It’s known that all the Ainu tribes on Maoshili Island are extremely poor, producing just furs and coal. Only the Japanese clans in the far south are worth plundering. But he had managed to open the trade channel with the Japanese, exchanging "cheap gold" for a stable supply of craftsmen from the Japanese hinterlands. If he turned on them for plunder now, wouldn’t all that effort be wasted?

Moreover, even if he occupied the entire Japanese land, obtained a small piece of territory, the loss of the southern gold trade window with the Japanese renders it worthless. Furthermore, should the "Shandan Tribe’s mass migration southward" provoke the Japanese Great Chief ’General’s punitive expedition corps, it would be another big trouble! The current situation is far from the right time...

"Loshanda, the Mountain Tribe migrating to the Great Island cannot behave as they did on the Northern Snow Plains, doing nothing but killing and robbing, shooting arrows and swinging swords recklessly... They must convert to the Chief Divine and obey the Kingdom’s command! Their force must be the Kingdom’s guarantee of managing Maoshili Island, not uncontrolled, unruly wolves..."

Zuwaro’s expression was stern, firmly negating the Mountain Tribe elder’s first plan. Then, he looked at Loshanda and earnestly asked.

"Witnessed by the Chief Divine! What about the second plan? I think the second plan you discussed should be more beneficial to the Kingdom and the Gummy People’s future!"

"Yes! Senior Zuwaro, I indeed proposed a different suggestion to the old grandmother, discussing the second plan... And the reason I highly praised the old grandmother’s foresight is precisely that she accepted the second plan, allowing the Mountain Tribe to further integrate with us!..."

Loshanda struck his chest, his expression excited, and then revealed another method of southern migration.

"Blessed by the Chief Divine! The second method, called ’Divert Population from Camps’! It involves dozens of Mountain Tribe, each tribe giving us the unmaintainable ’several camps,’ which means several ’surplus men, women, and children,’ to our ’Brother Sea Tribe’ to seek survival, obeying our command..."

"In other words, the over a thousand people diverted, thus become members of our ’Sea Tribe,’ establishing a deeper bloodline connection... And as a reward for the tribes diverting people, we must provide a sufficient return for each ’camp’ that joins! Whether it be salt, food, wine, or weapons and armor..."

"Moreover, we cannot treat the diverted ’camps’ as Sea Tribe slaves or war fodder, but as brothers and kin! If these ’camps’ are dissatisfied from lack of food, they can return to their original Mountain Tribe after repaying us for the price given, and we cannot prevent them..."

"...! ’Divide assets and send out people,’ joining the Kingdom as brothers? We must offer something in return for joining, while the joining camps still maintain some degree of autonomy?..."

Upon hearing the second option, Zuwaro’s eyes lit up but he remained silent in contemplation. The grandmother of the Mountain Tribe was always so decisive.

These two migration options were: the first was ’Make friends, and go for looting together,’ the second was ’Become family, recognize the Kingdom as the alpha.’ As for the unspoken, implicitly hinted third option, if the Mountain Tribe is not allowed to move south for survival, it would likely result in ’Become enemies, seize the Kingdom’s camp for winter!’

With these three options laid out, Zuwaro naturally had no doubt that he would choose to "become family," further incorporating the tribespeople of the Mountain Tribe to expand the power in his hands. Even if the Kingdom needed to pay a more astonishing material price from the perspective of the Mountain Tribe for these joining "camps!"

"Good! Loshanda, choose ’divide assets and send out people.’ The more Mountain Tribe camps willing to join the Kingdom, the better! Next spring, you will represent me, bringing the materials, to finalize with the old grandmother, exchanging the first batch of people moving south. As for the materials these ’camps’ will demand to join, I, Zuwaro, will shoulder it all, trading from the Japanese Land in the south!..."

"May the Chief Divine bless us! Once more than a thousand tribal members join the encampment at Kutadai Port... we can establish a second station for herding and farming in the valley to the north of this peninsula!... And with more tribal warriors, we can further pressure and integrate the Ainu tribes... The Ishikari Clan, who hold the coal, should marry off several daughters of Tribal Chiefs to you, this young priest! Haha!..."

At this thought, Zuwaro smiled and gave a heavy pat on Loshanda’s shoulder. Upon hearing that the senior intended to "give him a wife," Loshanda’s smile froze, his face becoming quite a spectacle.

Zuwaro, the High Priest, had already reached the apex, becoming the chief figure in the West Sea District and no longer needed to consider "progression." However, Loshanda was still a High Priest, aiming to "progress" in the Kingdom! What use was this Western Sea Tribal wife to his upward path in the Kingdom? He was not like his senior, who was enamored with beauty...

Unless, like Zuwaro, he too would permanently stay on the Western Sea Continent, joining the vast and distant West Sea District, never to return. Perhaps, this was also Zuwaro’s unspoken hope...

"Ahem! Senior Zuwaro, the matter of intermarrying with the local tribes can wait for later... The Grand Priest Kimier wishes to send his regards to you! He also asked me to bring back an ’important person’ with me, to help with the Kingdom’s further plans in Japan..."

"? An important person? A plan by the Grand Priest Kimier?..."

"Indeed! A devout priest devoted to the Chief Divine, a Divine Descendant Nobility among the Japanese!" 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"Hmm?! We actually have a Divine Descendant Nobility of the Japanese with us?!"

"Yes! He converted to the Chief Divine, passed the test of Divine Smoke questioning, and should not be lying... The Grand Priest Kimier nodded and confirmed this plan. Anyway, it’s only a hundred jin of gold as an initial investment; it’s no big deal if it fails. But if this really spreads the Chief Divine’s faith, planting a foothold deep in Japanese territory for the Kingdom, then it would most definitely be worthwhile!..."

"?!..."

Seeing Zuwaro’s expression of surprise, Loshanda High Priest smiled and turned to call out to the samurai on the ship.

"’The Great Temple of the Coiled Flying Snake’... Ryuzoji Temple Jia Hong! Come over to pay respects to High Priest Zuwaro!"

"Yes!"

Responding to the call, the former monk soldier Watanabe Masumi, now Chief God Priest Ryuzoji Temple Jia Hong, clad in a robe of a low-ranking priest, strode forward. Then, he knelt with a thud, placing both hands on the deck, revealing eight fingers, and bowed heavily three times. When he raised his head, the Chief Divine Hummingbird on his forehead was visible, the indelible mark of spirit and body. Then, in fluent Mexica, he loudly replied.

"First Level Chief God Priest, Ryuzoji Temple Jia Hong, pays respects to the West Sea District Chief, High Priest Zuwaro!"

"I beseech the High Priest to bestow a decree, allowing me to carry the Chief Divine’s spark, with the ’Golden Light’ of faith, back to the West Country Kyushu!"

"Witnessed by the Chief Divine! I, Ryuzoji Temple Jia Hong, swear by the ancestors of the Mizue Clan! As long as I can reclaim the position of Family Head with the support of the ’Main Divine Kingdom’... The twenty thousand stones of the Ryuzoji Clan in Hizen will fully convert to the Chief Divine, establishing a Shrine to the ancestors, offering up the Chief Divine’s Hummingbird, and becoming the sharpest Naginata of the Chief Divine!"