Chapter 109 The Dark Clouds of War (for further reading)
Chapter 109 Clouds of War
Although it is already late spring and early summer, the weather in the Odin Empire can only be considered not cold. On the towering peaks not far away, you can still see the white snow shining brightly under the sunlight.
The Odin Empire is located to the north of the Norman Empire. It has a vast land area that far exceeds that of the Norman Empire. It is the largest country in the entire continent.
But it is helplessly sparsely populated, so that almost more than 60% of the population is concentrated in the Novkamen Mountains and the east and west coasts near the border.
The land north of the Novkamen Mountains is mostly dominated by mountains and wilderness. It has a high altitude and a cold climate, which is extremely unsuitable for human survival. Only a few food crops can grow in the wilderness, but due to its poor soil conditions
and extreme climate change, resulting in extremely low yields.
To the south of the Novkamen Mountains, the vast plains bordering the Norman Empire can be called the most suitable place for farming in the entire Odin Empire. The annual grain output can even account for one hundred percent of the Odin Empire's total grain output.
More than seventy percent.
The tall Novkamen Mountains block the cold winds from the Far North Ice Sheet on the other side of the mountains, which also gives the plains south of the mountains relatively warm climate conditions.
However, the food output in this plain area is far from meeting the growing food needs of the Odin people, so many Odin people can only make a living by hunting wild beasts and picking berries in the mountain forest wilderness.
Such harsh living conditions also greatly tempered the blood of the Odin people.
Those Odin warriors who were able to tear apart tigers with their bare hands and fight bloody wolves often became great heroes that were passed down by word of mouth among the Odin people.
It was under the influence of these generations and spurred by harsh living conditions that the Odin people gradually set their sights on their southern neighbor, the Norman Empire.
Hunting wild beasts in the mountains and forests can only fill your stomach with this meal, but if you grab more land that can grow food from the hands of the Norman Empire... that will be able to satisfy yourself and your descendants.
They all fill up your stomach!
Furthermore, fighting the Normans seems to be much easier than fighting wild beasts...
Ever since, I don’t know when it started, the friction and conflicts between the Norman Empire and the Odin Empire gradually became more...
On the long border between the two countries, from the Winter Fortress in the west to the Anglian Province in the east, the conflict between the Odins and the Normans has lasted for nearly a hundred years.
Over the years, every generation of Odin monarchs has regarded going south as the most important goal to prove their merits. They have used troops again and again to move south, repeatedly breaking through fortresses and entering the Norman Empire, burning, killing, looting, and plundering wealth.
As for Norman... Each generation of Norman emperors regarded decorating their magnificent palace as a top priority. As for the Odin Empire in the north...
Haha, that's just a country established by a group of barbarians!
The luxurious and chaotic palace life had long since caused the nobles of the Norman Empire to lose their original blood, so that they turned a blind eye to the threat from the north and were still immersed in their own gentle countryside.
Only this time... the royal palace guards luckily intercepted intelligence from the Odin Empire and threw a noble member of the Regency Council into prison!
Because the words in the intelligence made the nobles of Saint Lawrence realize with horror that the new Odin monarch currently in power seemed to be no longer satisfied with burning, killing and looting within the empire!
The Odinians want land!
The people of Odin want to own vast lands suitable for farming!
And this... finally touched the bottom line of those imperial nobles who had always turned a blind eye!
According to the thinking of these nobles, you Odin people are relatively poor. If you come to rob civilians sometimes, I will forgive you because we are all neighbors.
But you can’t demolish my house directly! You can’t touch the interests of our nobles!
This is the bottom line!
As a result, almost overnight, the empire's border was in turmoil, and the cloud of war... seemed to have enveloped the two countries.
Most of the noble lords in the northern part of the Norman Empire had received orders from Saint Lawrence, and one after another the noble private armies began to gather towards the Winter Fortress.
And those imperial soldiers who are directly subordinate to the emperor have also begun large-scale mobilization within the empire.
At the same time that the Norman Empire began to prepare for the upcoming war, the Odin army was actually ready to go.
Unlike the Norman Empire, which had a large number of powerful noble lords, Lord Odin was the supreme ruler of the Odin Empire and had complete control over Odin's army and Odin's civilians!
Therefore, once a war breaks out, those Odin civilians who have lived on the Armandche Plain (the vast plain south of the Novkamen Mountains) for generations will become qualified Odin soldiers in a very short period of time!
All the people are soldiers!
This is the greatest impact that the harsh living environment of the Odin Empire has had on the Odin people!
In the inherent values of the Odin people, an Odin boy who has not participated in hunting will not be called a man, and an Odin man who has not killed a beast will not be worthy of having a wife!
The strong are respected. These four simple words represent the values deeply imprinted in the bones of Odin people.
The alpine wasteland north of the Novkamen Mountains not only brought barrenness and desolation to the Odin Empire, it also gave the Odin people the best war horses in the world.
So much so that the Odin Empire used the highland horses they domesticated from the northern wilderness to exchange large amounts of food and supplies with the Normans every year.
With the support of a large number of highland horses, these Odin people who mounted their horses to serve as soldiers and dismounted to serve as civilians had a combat effectiveness that was no less than that of the Norman Empire army. At the same time, they also possessed the Norman
The ability to move quickly that the army does not have.
It is with these that the Odin people won most of the victories in the conflicts with the Norman Empire in these years, obtained the resources and food they needed through war, and consumed the excess population.
Although this sounds cruel, it is under such a grand strategy that the physical fitness and combat capabilities of the Odin people have increased day by day, and they have become the number one enemy of the Norman Empire in the past hundred years!
It can be said that if the Winter Fortress and other fourteen fortresses and cities were not firmly anchored to the northern land of the Norman Empire, the Odin people would have marched straight into St. Lawrence, the capital of the Norman Empire!
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Thanks to the "First King" for the reward! Rush the duck!
It will be on the shelves this Friday! This is the first time for a new author to be on the shelves. I hope everyone will subscribe!
Before it was put on the shelves, I had to wait for recommendations, so I wrote more restrainedly, so the data was not very ideal. After it was put on the shelves, the author started writing more freely! Go, go, go!