Above the mage!

Chapter 587 The Secret of Wolf Taming
The currency issue was within Gaode's expectations.

After all, this had been planned for a long time, and he had even personally participated in it, contributing many ideas.

So, in addition to the surprise, there was a greater sense of certainty that things would fall into place naturally.

But the second major event that Sunafa calmly recounted greatly exceeded Gaode's expectations.

"The Frostwolf Clan sent envoys two months ago, expressing their willingness to submit to us as a whole?" God raised an eyebrow in surprise, looking at Sunefa for confirmation.

“Yes.” Sunefa nodded again, indicating that it was true.

"This year's severe cold lasted a month longer than usual, which reduced the Frostwolf Clan's hunting grounds by 30% due to the blizzards, and their already insufficient food reserves were rapidly depleted."

"Two weeks after you left, the Frostwolf Clan's food reserves were almost completely depleted."

"At that time, Helica only had three options: either slaughter half of the snow wolves in her tribe to reduce food consumption."

"But for them, snow wolves are not only tamed beasts, but also comrades-in-arms and partners. Asking them to make such a decision will inevitably lead to different opinions among their tribesmen."

“Either they mobilize their entire clan to raid our grain reserves. Phoenix’s grain reserves are enough for the Frostwolf Clan to eat for several years, but they are no match for us.”

"The third point is submission."

"Herika was very sensible. At the clan assembly, she overruled the objections of several pro-war elders, suppressed their anger and resentment, and finally finalized the matter of submission."

"The Frostwolf Clan envoy brought her handwritten blood oath, swearing that the Frostwolf Clan will forever serve Phoenix as their lord and never rebel." Sunefa's lips curled into a very faint smile.

Helica, the Warmother of the Frostwolf Clan, was once known for her iron fist and had a feat of slaying a giant ice bear on the snowfield by herself and her wolf.

Such a person actually chose to surrender without a fight.

Of the three major tribes in the North, Winterhammer has been conquered, and now the Frostwolf Clan has also surrendered. This means that the North has been initially unified.

Gao De was filled with mixed emotions.

Unifying the North was his established goal, and he had been planning for this day ever since the Zhenbing tribe had supported him as king.

After acquiring Winter's Hammer, he instructed Phoenix to suspend food trade with the Frostwolf Clan, intending to wear down their spirits and force them to submit through long-term sanctions.

But to everyone's surprise, Helica was so decisive and made her decision so quickly.

According to Gao De's understanding of the people of the North, these tribes, especially the large ones, are often very "stubborn" and would rather make a painful sacrifice than easily submit.

The Frostwolf Clan's maturity surprised Gao De.

Regardless, taking down the Frostwolf Clan without bloodshed is certainly something to celebrate.

Gao De let out a long sigh and looked out the window of the city hall.

Sunlight pierced through the clouds, shining brightly on the streets of Phoenix.

“In that case, the North has truly won over.” Gao De said softly.

“Yes,” Sunafa’s eyes flashed with a rare gleam, and her voice softened slightly, “Our Iceborn race is the oldest lineage in human history. Even in its most prosperous period in ancient times, we have never had true unity.”

"Now, at our weakest moment, we have accomplished what no one before us has ever done. My king, this is all thanks to you."

Sunafa doesn't usually praise people, so when she does, it's genuine and heartfelt, making people feel very pleased, even making Gaode a little embarrassed.

At that moment, Elsa stepped forward and handed Gaode a thick roll of parchment:

"These are the census statistics of the Frostwolf Clan. Because of their special tribal nature, when I conducted the census, I not only counted the population, but also conducted a detailed census and classification of the number, age, and rank of the snow wolves."

Gao De's heart skipped a beat.

He took the heavy roll of parchment.

This census was not specifically assigned by him, but was completed by Elsa on her own initiative.

This means that Phoenix City Hall has truly understood and implemented the refined management philosophy he promoted, no longer simply issuing orders, but knowing how to proactively pave the way for the foundation of its rule.

With the monetary system in its initial stages, the unification of the North imminent, and talented individuals emerging under his command, three joyous events are on the horizon.

As he thought this, Gaode had already unfolded the parchment with great interest.

The densely packed ink characters are neatly arranged, clearly outlining the entirety of the Frostwolf Clan.

First, let's look at population statistics.

The Frostwolf Clan has a total population of 300,000, a number far smaller than that of the True Ice Clan, which is also a large tribe.

After all, the Zhenbing tribe is the only tribe in the North that has "built a city," and it has unique advantages in resources.

The Frostwolf Clan has 11,000 Iceborn mages, fewer than the True Ice Clan.

The reason is even simpler: with a smaller total population, the number of Iceborn mages will certainly decrease proportionally.

However, this number of Ice Mages is enough to significantly bolster Phoenix's mage force.

The overall structure of the Frostwolf Clan is quite similar to that of the True Ice Clan.

There are three Iceborn sorcerers in the fourth ring: Warmother Helica, Elder Snowri, and Frostwolf Beastmaster Thorne.

With the addition of these three, the number of fourth-circle mages in the Northern Territory has just reached double digits, which can be considered a small breakthrough.

Compared to population, Gaode Maps is more concerned with the "wolf population" data of the Frostwolf Clan.

The entire Frostwolf clan has approximately 80,000 snow wolves.

A typical wolf pack consists of 5-12 individuals. When the Frostwolf clan domesticated snow wolves, they followed the pack-living habits of the wolves and distributed the snow wolves to tribal families in groups.

Each core family with a mage of level one or higher is responsible for a regular wolf pack.

The tribe of 30 people was divided into families and then domesticated.

This group-based domestication model can both preserve the wildness and hunting ability of snow wolves and adapt to the management level of the tribe.

The positive impact of 300,000 new residents on Phoenix's development is a well-established fact and needs no further elaboration.

However, under the current circumstances, the value brought by these 80,000 snow wolves is temporarily greater than, or even far greater than, the 300,000 people of the Frostwolf Clan.

Because they directly fill the urgent transportation gap in Phoenix.

On the snow-covered plains, there are almost no roads in the traditional sense, and coupled with the unpredictable weather and frequent snowstorms, conventional livestock transportation is extremely inefficient.

Originally, each tribe lived independently, with no exchange of goods, resulting in low transportation efficiency.

However, Phoenix has evolved beyond its original stage and formed a two-pronged development system of Vallar Bay and Phoenix, and now it has an additional branch city, Ironforge.

Forming an efficient closed loop among these three entities is not a simple task.

Eighty thousand snow wolves, skilled at moving across the snowfields, could form a transport team that, at least for now, could connect the three points of Valar Bay, Phoenix, and Ironforge, enabling the smooth flow of supplies between the three locations.

Phoenix serves as a central hub, ensuring the timely transport of grain between the two locations. Currency from Ironforge, along with forged tools and ores, can be quickly delivered to Phoenix and the port of Valar Bay for sale by ship.

Overseas supplies from Vallar Bay can also be quickly replenished to Phoenix.

In this way, the resource cycle in the North can be considered to have been initially established.

After the two had finished reading all the contents of the parchment and looked up, Sunefa said, "As for the Frostwolf Clan, after we took over their original territory, we did not build a city on the spot like Winter's Hammer did."

This is easy to understand.

Building a city is no child's play. The reason for establishing Ironforge as a branch city is that the forging resources of Winterhammer are extremely important and cannot be transferred.

The Frostwolf Clan, however, is different. Their most important resource is the snow wolf pack, which is easy to take away.

Moreover, Phoenix cannot afford the massive additional manpower and resources required to establish a branch city.

The Phoenix City Hall alone is severely understaffed and constantly needs to be replenished.

In this situation, where would they find the spare resources to spare some manpower to manage a new branch city?

However, the Frostwolf Clan's territory contains natural wolf dens and vast hunting grounds, making it extremely suitable for the breeding and growth of snow wolves. It would be a great pity to simply abandon it.

Therefore, Sunafa chose to transform it into a dedicated snow wolf breeding base, named Wolf Den, which is specifically responsible for the domestication, breeding and optimization of snow wolves.

The wolf den is managed by Thorne, the former chief beast tamer of the Frostwolf clan, who also left behind about two hundred skilled Frostwolf clan members to assist him, ensuring the breeding and training of the snow wolves.

The rest of the Frostwolf tribe, along with ninety percent of their snow wolves, migrated towards Phoenix.

—The clustering of towns and the centralized allocation and management of resources is a policy that Gaode has always adhered to.

He wants to leverage the unique circumstances of the North to allow Phoenix to skip the intermediate steps of urbanization and move directly towards large-scale development.

Gaode largely agreed with Sunafa's decision.

It can be said that Sunefa has fully grasped his ideas.

Just as he was about to say something, he saw Sunefa reach into his robes and take out a roll of parchment that was completely different from the previous one.

The edges of this roll of parchment are yellowed, and the texture is more flexible. You can even see faint animal hide textures on the surface, which means it was tanned from aged snow wolf skin.

The handwriting on the pages also bears the marks of time, clearly indicating that it has been passed down for a long time and is by no means a newly made item.

"What is this?" Gao De couldn't help but ask curiously.

The parchment felt slightly heavy in my hand and carried a faint, almost imperceptible fragrance, like a mixture of pine resin and snow frost, suggesting that it had been properly preserved over a long period of time.

"The foundation of the Frostwolf clan, the secret to their rise, lies in the complete record of the snow wolf taming method," Sunefa said slowly.

"When Helica sent her envoys to surrender, she offered up this secret of her tribe. It was this sincerity that convinced us that she was not feigning surrender, but genuinely wanted the Frostwolf Clan to integrate into Phoenix."

oh?
Upon hearing this, Gao De's eyes lit up slightly.

The Frostwolf Clan's real name is actually the Frost Snow Clan, which was originally a relatively inconspicuous medium-sized tribe among the many tribes in the North.

Like most other tribes, they are often troubled by harassment and attacks from snow wolves.

But even under these circumstances, a genius among the Frostwolf clansman developed a method for taming snow wolves. Through diligent effort and generations of refinement, this method eventually became a systematic and secret tradition.

And with this, they gradually grew stronger until they became a large tribe that could stand alongside the True Ice Tribe and the Winterhammer.

This rise to power, though not as legendary as Phoenix's current unification of the North, is still a force to be reckoned with.

This set of wolf-taming secrets is an invaluable treasure of knowledge.

Since the rise of the Frostwolf Clan, countless tribes and self-proclaimed skilled beast tamers in the North have attempted to emulate their taming of snow wolves, but all have ultimately failed.

With a sense of anticipation, Gaode gently unfolded the parchment.

The secrets of taming wolves recorded on the parchment consist of only three steps, which are much clearer and more straightforward than Gaode had imagined, and can hardly be called complicated.

The first step is to obtain wolf cubs.

This is the first step in establishing a relationship, and it is the fundamental reason why the Frostwolf Clan was able to successfully tame snow wolves, something other tribes have never been able to do.

According to the secret tradition, there are strict requirements regarding the timing of obtaining wolf cubs.

It must be done during the warmest time of the year, coinciding with the middle of the snow wolf's lactation period.

At this time, the mother wolf has recovered her physical condition, and the wolf cubs have grown fine downy fur, have been initially weaned, and can adapt to food other than mother's milk. Their survival rate is much higher than when they were first born.

More importantly, prey is plentiful during this season, and while the mother wolf's protective instincts are strong, she will not become extremely irritable due to food scarcity.

Furthermore, the method of acquisition was more like trading than plundering.

The Frostwolf tribe first sends out experienced hunters to track down and locate the wolf den, but never disturbs the mother wolf.

Subsequently, fresh prey that had been killed was placed in a safe area near the wolf den for several days. These prey were mostly snow hares and young deer, which snow wolves liked, as if they were offering tribute.

Once the mother wolf becomes accustomed to and accepts this "tribute," the frost wolf hunter will quickly enter the den while the mother wolf is out.

They will only take one or two wolf cubs from a litter, usually choosing the most lively and curious ones.

Before leaving, they will leave behind double the prey and a token bearing the unique scent of the Frostwolf Clan.

The key logic here is that after doing this, when the mother wolf returns, although she will be anxious because her cubs are missing, the abundance of food and unfamiliar scents will confuse her and weaken her desire for direct revenge.

Subconsciously, it may vaguely associate this smell with food and non-lethal threats.

Furthermore, the entire process involves not killing the mother wolf, not destroying the wolf den, and not engaging in any conflict with the snow wolf pack.

In contrast, other tribes or animal trainers either kill the wolves and take their cubs as their first step in taming snow wolves, or try to use magic to forcibly tame and suppress the wildness of the snow wolves.

This means they are destined to never be able to establish this delicate relationship with the snow wolf.

After obtaining the wolf cubs, the second step is social integration, allowing the wolf cubs to regard the human clan as their own wolf pack during the critical growth period.

Within the Frostwolf clan, there are women specifically responsible for this matter, who are called foster mothers.

They fed the wolf cubs with soft cloths soaked in goat's milk, mimicking the licking of a mother wolf. They ate and lived with the cubs, taking responsibility for feeding and grooming them, thus establishing the most basic relationship of dominance and dependence.

Once the wolf cub is a little older, its foster mother will take it to roam the village within a limited range.

This process is to familiarize it with the scents, sounds, and activities of a large number of humans, and to subtly accept that this is its territory and its people.

The final step is collaborative training.

This step is equally crucial.

(End of this chapter)