Chapter Twelve: Wrist and Tactics
No one likes to be controlled, but whether it was Wuguli, Gulopu, Monterrey, or Uli, they all felt a deep sense of powerlessness and exhaustion from being manipulated at will—like poor butterflies or grasshoppers trapped in a spider’s web. Their desperate struggles only wasted more energy and brought them closer to death, with no real value or meaning. Everything had already been decided.
Everyone involved knew that no matter how sincere they appeared, they could never regain the trust of their former allies. Once cracks formed, they could never be repaired. If one still tried to earn trust through honesty at such a time, everything they said and did would end up on Comer’s desk. No one would be willing to sacrifice a “partner” who shared the same goals just to gain the favor of a ruler.
A weak alliance filled with mutual hatred and surveillance was much easier to manipulate than scattered and dangerous tribes. Comer was well aware of this. He had no intention of involving the Sanjia tribe, as he already possessed a force that could balance things as needed. As for the remaining tribes, they were nothing more than targets for tactics like coercion, manipulation, and pressure. Dealing with tribes pushed to the brink by survival issues was effortless—even trivial—for Comer. Yet this was not his ultimate goal.
Causing them to split, fight among themselves, and hate one another was merely a process and tactic, not his ultimate aim. What was the purpose and value of these barbarians? Apart from providing a large number of low-level laborers, nothing else truly interested Comer except their value in war.
Natural soldiers—aside from other reasons, these barbarians were born soldiers. They could serve as infantry, and taming the magical beasts unique to the Cordillera wastelands was their specialty. If their strengths could be fully utilized, Comer believed these special troops could play a crucial role in any future war against the beastfolk.
Of course, it was still too early to talk about such things. Right now, the barbarian alliance was quite fragile. Even if Comer infiltrated it with Caucasian forces bit by bit, gradually seizing power, this wouldn’t yield immediate results. It required patience and time.
But with such a start, Komer was already quite satisfied. Ilot wasn’t particularly outstanding—a poor skill in political maneuvering and scheming. To be precise, Ilot wasn’t even a decent general; aside from his unquestionable loyalty, he had little to offer. His strength lay in thoroughly implementing his own plans to achieve desired results—he wouldn’t give up on his tasks due to some unimportant sense of face. What did over 600,000 barbarians mean to him? Komer couldn’t imagine. These barbarians were now trapped by his seemingly fragile net, and a new alliance that appeared loose and weak had become an important tool for controlling them. As for obtaining the greatest benefits at the lowest cost, it depended on how he handled this high-stakes acrobatics performance. Komer wasn’t overly worried. In his view, the submission of the Sanjia tribe had already implicitly given these still-unsubdued barbarians a clear psychological signal: Look, the Sanjia tribe has now submitted to the Caucasus, yet their lives seem much better than before, and they receive far more than when they were at the bottom of the hierarchy in the alliance. So why would these tribes, exhausted by war and hatred, refuse Komer’s carrots and sticks? Though this psychological signal seemed trivial, its impact was actually enormous. All animals have a tendency to follow blindly, and humans even more so—they instinctively choose familiar examples rather than take unfamiliar risks. The seamless cooperation between the Minglan Knights, Blackflame Knights, and the Mage Corps left a deep impression on these barbarians, making them realize that among mortals as well, there existed powerful warriors, and when they united, even barbarian warriors couldn’t guarantee victory. Of course, the barbarians still retained a high degree of independence to a large extent, and they might sometimes try to strengthen this trait, but Komer had no intention of giving them that chance.
As soon as the new alliance was established, Komer clearly instructed Ilot to tell those barbarian chiefs that the Caucasus would soon build a road running through the entire Cordillera Wasteland, starting from Bahomun and ending at Antwerp. The more than a thousand kilometers of this road would largely use the existing paths of the barbarians, connecting these long stretches together. Although its condition could hardly compare to the roads in the human settlements, it would still be a real road, allowing the interior of the Cordillera Wasteland to be revealed to humans. It was believed that adventurers, explorers, miners, and merchants would soon flock there in large numbers.
Komer’s decision sparked the first dispute within the new alliance. Though they had already submitted to Komer’s dominance, the prospect of exposing everything their ancestors had built to humans filled these mountain people with resentment and anger. They hadn’t expected Komer’s authoritarian style to be implemented so quickly among them.
There was no room for negotiation regarding Komer’s decision, and Ilot began his visits and attempts to gain support according to Komer’s wishes. He secretly met with each tribal chief and subtly spread misleading information, leaving the leaders of the ten tribes uneasy. No one knew what response their allies would give to Komer’s demands, and even if told, they wouldn’t believe it. The only solution seemed to be a final vote, which made these tribal chiefs even more anxious.