While the blacksmiths, vampires, mage apprentices, beastman laborers, and cyclopes were all working together to build the running water system, the farmers had not been idle.
Across the Moonlight Plains, a vast tract of reclaimed land had already been planted with wheat seedlings. It was estimated that when spring returned next year, golden grain would once again be harvested here.
At that time, Dawn City would truly have no worries about food or clothing.
The land produced grain, the grain fed the humans, the humans satisfied the vampires’ needs, and the vampires provided the military strength to protect this land.
In this way, a simple closed cycle was formed.
This was also the foundation of the sustainable development strategy.
Of course, there were still many factors that could affect it, but one couldn’t deny that this was the general direction.
All the things Li De had done were driven by the same initial purpose, develop the vampires, strengthen Dawn City.
Whether it was conquering the cyclopes, developing the Crimson Mage Tower, resisting the Dark Pact, marching on the Dwarven Valley, or rebuilding the Lionmane Tribe, his will had always been the same, farming.
Though he’d fought several wars, at heart it was always to better develop Dawn City, not to wage war for the sake of war.
At this moment, the Lionmane Tribe he had rebuilt was also developing rapidly.
After Li De decided to restore the Lionmane Tribe in the Dwarven Valley, Dawn City spared no effort in supporting them.
The dwarves were forging armor for them, the Logistics Department was preparing all kinds of daily supplies like pots and pans, and the tailors were making thick winter cotton clothing.
This was the advantage of having a powerful backer. Craig, that lucky wolfman, didn’t need to worry about anything, he just had to focus on gathering people.
Furthermore, with Stanley, the high-IQ administrator whom Li De greatly admired, overseeing the overall situation, the Lionmane Tribe was developing at an astonishing pace.
As of the 10th, Li De received a report from Stanley.
At present, the number of beastmen in the Dwarven Valley had already exceeded 8,000.
Eight thousand beastmen, last winter Dawn City had only managed to capture just over 9,000 humans.
The Lionmane Tribe was growing at a pace that was simply staggering.
It turned heads.
Because food shortages were especially severe this year, those beastmen tribes who in past winters could barely survive on stored supplies were having an even harder time.
Many tribes had run out of food reserves before the Months of Deep Winter had even arrived and were already going hungry.
This enormous crisis drove the smaller tribes to the brink of desperation, just to survive, they were willing to sacrifice almost anything.
In this environment, when word spread that a powerful tribe was willing to take in ordinary beastmen, and even provide ample food, warm clothing, and sturdy armor. It was already obvious that as soon as the Months of Deep Winter came, nearly every small beastmen tribe that could see their own doom ahead would be tempted.
Only those determined not to abandon their tribal heritage remained unmoved. Those who didn’t even have enough food for the next day flocked there in droves.
Their eagerness left Craig, who had always relied on brute force to subjugate others, utterly dumbfounded.
He’d never imagined that recruiting could be this easy, just offering food and shelter was enough to attract a huge crowd to join.
However, most of the beastmen arriving like this were whole families, with plenty of children and elders among them.
For this reason, Craig had even specifically asked Li De whether to accept these beastmen who had little combat power.
After thinking it over, Li De still nodded.
As a human soul in a vampire’s body, he neither cared about the lives of beastmen nor had any time to deal with such trivialities.
But he did want to establish a new city in the Dwarven Valley, a city under beastman administration. And such a city couldn’t be made up only of strong warriors.
Women, children, even experienced old beastmen all had roles to play.
Young beastmen with exceptional talent could be sent to Dawn City to train as powerful warriors.
Women could bear new generations and help ease the warriors’ burdens.
Any beastman who managed to live into old age must have some merit that could be used. In the end, everyone could contribute.
What he needed to provide was merely a certain amount of basic supplies, which for someone as wealthy as he was, posed no burden at all.
And so, at present, there were 8,000 beastmen living in the Dwarven Valley. Among them, about 2,000 were young warriors between Levels 4 and 8. Over 5,000 Level 3 to Level 5 beastmen warriors had been assigned to mine at the mithril veins.
The remaining fewer than 1,000 were the elderly, the infirm, and the weak, these beastmen handled logistics in the valley and were building shelters.
So far, everything about rebuilding the Lionmane Tribe was proceeding normally, even so smoothly that Li De himself was a bit surprised.
But what kept him cautious all along was that the real Lionmane Tribe had gone completely silent after their last defeat, as if they had vanished.
They hadn’t tried to retake the Dwarven Valley, nor had they sent anyone to investigate or negotiate when Craig announced plans to rebuild.
Li De had once instructed Craig to pay special attention to them. But the Lionmane Tribe’s territory was in an easily defensible location that was nearly impossible to probe, and they were so wary that no useful intelligence could be obtained, so in the end, he had no choice but to give up.
This abnormal silence made Li De extremely vigilant.
Logically speaking, if your own people were defeated and your only king was captured, even if you didn’t send an army to rescue him, you would at least send someone to gather information or try to negotiate.
But the other side had vanished as if into thin air. This was far too abnormal.
Since they made no moves, Li De was happy to enjoy the quiet and let the Dwarven Valley steadily accumulate strength.
Whatever schemes they were plotting, becoming stronger was the way to deal with it all.