Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

The Kotas all agreed with the statement but also felt that the hearth-keeper would not have come up with such reasoning themselves. Among them, one Kota thought to himself, it must have been the hearth-keeper's "Echegke" who had prepared the words for him.

Echegke is a term for father, and as the hearth-keeper's biological father had passed away, the only one who could be respectfully referred to by him as Echegke was the "Translator" who had escaped to the wilderness thirty years ago.

"Just tell us what to do!" the hearth-keeper's uncle interrupted his nephew rudely, "Enough with the reasoning!"

"All right!" the hearth-keeper didn't dilly-dally and declared resolutely, "This winter is warm, the pastures have not all withered, the horse herds have not lost much fat, and still have strength for another campaign. The bipeds will definitely not expect us to mount an offensive again.

"Let every Kota go back and gather their men and horses, this year's winter pasture will be divided according to contribution, more contribution gets the richer, closer pasture, less contribution gets the poorer, farther ones. There's nothing else to say, let's decide by casting beans!"

Having said that, the hearth-keeper slapped the table, and two slaves brought in a gold vase and two bowls, each bowl containing red beans and black beans.

The hearth-keeper took the lead, taking one bean from each bowl and walking over to the gold vase. With a clang, he dropped one bean into the vase.

Other Kotas, according to their status and power, picked up the beans and cast them into the vase in turn.

Kotas without sufficient power did not have the right to cast beans, and those who were qualified to cast beans were not allowed to abstain, each Kota had to choose a side. This was the method of decision by casting beans, a simple, crude but highly efficient voting method of the Herders.

With his back to the gold vase, the hearth-keeper waited until the bean casting was over before turning around.

He shook the gold vase up and down three times and in one breath, emptied the beans from the vase onto a clay plate.

The red and black beans were clearly distinguishable; apart from two black beans, the rest were red.

"Witnessed by the gods!" the hearth-keeper bellowed, and with a fierce smash, broke the clay plate, declaring the ceremony complete.

...

As the Terdon Tribe began to assemble their troops, Iron Peak County, a hundred kilometers away, was also mobilizing their forces.

The assembly order was sent to each garrison village at the earliest opportunity. Horse-drawn carts laden with weapons rumbled out of the Arsenal, closely following the messengers.

The weapons and armor of Iron Peak County's infantry regiment were usually centrally stored but were now distributed to individuals.

To minimize logistical pressure as much as possible, Winters instructed his soldiers to prepare two weeks' worth of rations themselves.

Smoke rose from every military village as each household was busy grinding flour, kneading dough, and baking.

It was at this time Second Lieutenant Bart Xialing discovered a serious problem—there were simply too many bachelors under his command.

The infantry regiment of Iron Peak County had been reconstituted from the surrendered Iron Peak garrison. When Major Ronald had recruited the army, he had deliberately chosen the homeless without families to enlist.

Homeless people without family responsibilities were more dangerous and needed less food because they had no families to burden.

The new infantry regiment naturally inherited this structure, so the majority of the soldiers had only themselves to feed.

On ordinary days, they could make do with a meal. But when it came time to prepare two weeks' worth of rations, everyone was in over their heads—included Bart Xialing himself.

After walking around the village, Bart Xialing immediately called a halt to the one-family-one-household method of military food production.

He gathered the men, women, the elderly, and children of the whole village. The second lieutenant had seen how old Saint Reed organized the soldiers for baking dry rations and decided to imitate that method, collectively preparing dry rations for all the soldiers of his platoon.

Muscular tasks such as kneading and grinding were left to the men, while the few women in the second village handled delicate work like baking and water adjustment.

A temporary oven was set up in the village square, and everyone worked together, sweating profusely—it felt like a festival. However, witnessing the bustling scene, Bart Xialing suddenly felt a pang of desolation.

While the second lieutenant was frantically busy, Winters was equally occupied.

Dealing with the blacksmith guild's matters, Winters left it entirely up to the blacksmith Poltan and his son-in-law, the playwright.

As the founder of the blacksmith guild, old blacksmith Poltan knew the guild inside and out. Since they had chosen to "play the long game," there was no one more suitable than old blacksmith Poltan to handle the task.

After discussions with the old blacksmith, Winters' perspective wasn't limited to just the blacksmith guild any longer. He arranged for Xial and Tess to work together secretly, to survey all the guilds in Iron Peak County.

But all these things had to give way to the war. Winters organized the assembly routes for each company of the infantry regiment, collapsed on the bed for less than two hours, and then was woken up by Xial.

Elders from nearby villages and farmers recognized for their skill in cultivation had been summoned to Revodan, waiting for the Protection Officer to discuss matters.

It couldn't be helped; one must eat bread one bite at a time and handle matters one step at a time.

Although war loomed close, the first issue Winters had to resolve was the agricultural disaster caused by the warm winter.

In a sense, this matter was even more important than guarding against the Herd Barbarians.

Warm winters were rare but not unprecedented. Regarding the premature jointing of wheat, the farmers suggested all sorts of strange methods, such as holding a market in the wheat field.

A farmer from Saint Croix Village earnestly promised that simply holding a market in the wheat field would easily solve the problem of the wheat sprouting early.

Winters appeared to listen seriously, nodding occasionally with "hmm-hmms." In reality, his thoughts had already flown to the wilderness; his mind was full of the topography of Iron Peak County.

Compared to governing a county, marching and fighting were his stronger suits, more comfortable and more secure work for him.

Colonel Bod was also present at this meeting.

Regarding Winters' "rebellion," Colonel Bod remained non-committal, and the two got along as harmoniously as ever, as if Winters was still the Centurion of the Expeditionary Force.