The barbarians who live in the Ural Mountains are only barbarians in the broad sense, including non-human races such as gnolls, werewolves, goblins, ogres, etc., who have no civilization and live there in the most primitive way, in a family or tribal way.

These tribes did not have a unified faith, some of them had their powerful ancestors as their faith, some worshipped the powerful creatures around them, and some accepted gods from the outside world.

Because of different beliefs, different races, different locations, these tribes are in conflict and war every day, in addition, the object of their war is not limited to other tribes, those powerful beasts living in the mountains are also enemies, they will gather to attack the beasts around the tribe's location, to ensure the safety of the tribe.

Therefore, every day there are tribes dying out in this land, and after the destruction of large tribes, they will split into several small and medium-sized tribes, and several small and medium-sized tribes will gather together to form new tribes, and the population has been maintained at a certain size because of the ability to reproduce.

The melody of destruction and rebirth has been playing in this region, from thousands of years ago, to thousands of years later, it is still the case, the Attila Empire has not changed this, and perhaps the Baltic Empire, which is about to complete the unification of the Northlands, can change all this, not with swords, but with civilization.

So, are these tribes living in the Ural Mountains strong?

In a sense, they are indeed very strong, because the adult barbarians are strong enough to fight the white bears alone, they can also drive dragons and thunderbirds to fight for them, and there are witch doctors in the tribe who can perform magic.

However, such strength also depends on what kind of enemy they are fighting against, and if the opponent is still the tribes of the Rus region under the rule of the previous Attila Empire, they can easily plunder a large amount of wealth every time, without much effort.

After the fall of the Attila Empire and the Baltic Empire took over the Rus' domination, their plundering became much more difficult, and the pesky centaurs were always able to hold off their ranks after they had plundered, forcing them to give up a lot of loot.

It's not like they didn't want to fight the centaurs and kill these pesky guys, but in a flat, well-opened place like the grassland, the speed at which the centaurs move at high speed makes them very difficult.

The Barbarians can't keep up with the speed of the Centaurs, their mounts are the ones that can dash short distances, but can't run long distances, and the only ones who can counterattack are the driving dragons and thunderbirds.

However, a target as big as a Wyvern and Thunderbird in the sky will also become a target for Centaur attacks, and don't underestimate that those magic arrows produced in the Jutland Arsenal can be powerful enough to inflict damage on Thunderbird and Wyvern as long as they can get hits.

It can be said that in these years, the barbarians living in the Ural Mountains have not had a smooth life, because they have no way to obtain a lot of wealth without hard work.

Not only that, but the goblins who had come to the Ural Mountains to trade with them had disappeared, and in their place were a group of other people, bringing goods that were more delicate and beautiful, and the prices were also more expensive than before.

The two sides of the transaction have completely different levels of civilization, soft exploitation has existed from the beginning, and unequal transactions are squeezing every penny of wealth out of these barbarian tribes.

The barbarians did not realize this, and in order to obtain those scarce goods from the hands of merchants, such as sharp weapons and strong armor, they consumed the wealth they had accumulated before, and then went frantically to find scarce magical materials and hunt for precious prey.

Since the beginning of the trade with the merchants, the barbarians have begun to obtain less food, and the plundered cattle and the game they have hunted have been sold to the merchants, and the rest of the farmland has long been barren, because they can get enough food and liquor from the merchants for a long time for a small price.

There are also spices that I don't know what the ingredients are, but just a little bit of it can make the food very delicious and make even the weakest children stronger.

In addition, dried seafood and air-dried meat are their favorite foods, because they only need a little bit, with some wild vegetables, they can cook a large pot of soup, which can be used by a family, and it is also very full, not digested all at once, and become hungry, and the salt contained in it can supplement their physical strength and make them stronger.

In addition to food, spirits are also something that these barbarians cannot refuse, there is no wine in the Ural Mountains, they have not mastered the art of winemaking, but the people here have a fanatical pursuit of wine, and those who have tasted it will never forget that taste for the rest of their lives, which makes them extremely eager to get wine from the outside world.

Of course, as barbarians, they refused to trade with the merchants at first, because they preferred to loot rather than trade, but when the merchants were plundered in the Ural Mountains, for a long time there was not a single caravansera.

At that time, it was the Northern Goblin Group that controlled the trade with the Ural Mountains, although they were very greedy, but in such a situation, they were still able to understand that by uniting together, they could get more benefits and ensure their safety.

This was not until the tribe that plundered the merchants was destroyed and all the people were reduced to slavery, and the merchants reappeared, and trade between them continued to normalize.

One such situation is enough, and the people of the Ural Mountains do not want to go back to their previous life after a second situation, and after enjoying the convenience of trade.

It was as if the entire Ural Mountains had entered a situation of prosperity, but in the opinion of Alice and Semiramis of the Baltic Empire, these tribes were only one step away from death.

You don't even need to send any troops, you only need to adjust the price slightly when you trade, and then these tribes will destroy themselves, because their economy has been manipulated by merchants from the Baltic Empire.

The simple way is to raise the purchase price of slaves, and those large tribes will act against small and medium-sized tribes, and the small and medium-sized tribes will naturally unite to resist in order to protect themselves.

The war must have brought about a large loss of population, a large number of deaths of soldiers, and the forced cessation of production activities, all of which could only survive by relying on commercial trade in order to continue the war.

If, at this time, preferably in the period of autumn and winter, the merchants cease to trade with the Ural Mountains, then these tribes, which are not producing, have barren fields, and have no food for war, will perish in the bitter cold.

Cold, hunger, and wild beasts are the three most threatening in the Ural Mountains, and every winter, tribes are destroyed because of these three, including large and medium-sized tribes.

Then, in the spring, when the Baltic Empire launched an attack, the Ural barbarians, who had been tormented by cold, hunger, and wild beasts for a winter, could not resist at all, and if they wanted to survive, they could only choose to surrender, they could not even escape, they had no weapons, no food, no safe place to live, and in the Ural Mountains, they could not survive for a few days, and they would become food for the beasts.

There may be no precedent for such a story in this world, because there is no germ of even the simplest economics here, but in Alice's previous life, there was a story called "The Strategy of Hengshan", which told a similar story.

Therefore, in the final analysis, the Baltic Empire's attack and encirclement of the Ural Mountains this time is really just a military training, so that the newly established few legions can see what war is, and by the way, give those tribes a small lesson.

Among them, there is a deeper reason, that is, the transfer of contradictions within the empire, seven years seems to be a very short time, but it is also very long, so long that the wings of various forces within the empire are gradually full, and conflicts begin to appear.

The conflict between the main forces and the second-line forces is a microcosm of the contradictions between the two classes of citizens and freedmen, between the navy and the army, between Jutland as the economic center and the island of Les as the political center, between those who come from outside and the original inhabitants of the Baltic Empire, and, most seriously, between the various races.

Originally, in the expectations of Semiramis and Alice, these contradictions did not explode so quickly, but it is very rare that the development of reality is different from what they expected.

Those former tribal leaders did not completely choose to give up their rights, but they did not have the strength to compete with the laws of the empire.

They still hold the wealth accumulated over the years in their hands, as well as great prestige, using these things, they open factories in the interior of the empire, try to obtain wealth, and then use this wealth to transform into force, recruit mercenaries, win over spellcasters, and gradually form a small force.

None of this violated the laws of the Empire, nor did it violate the rules of the political game set by Alice and Semiramis, who complied with them perfectly, and because of the need to maintain a certain amount of stability, Alice and Semiramis did not resort to unpopular tactics such as assassination.

The rulers of the empire prefer upright intrigues to those secret intrigues, such as this war, if they win, then they will receive various rewards from the empire, such as all kinds of precious knowledge, such as extraordinary status.

The Empire was clearly telling those people that they could get everything they wanted if they won on the battlefield, and of course the dangers of this battle also told them that the Ural barbarians were powerful.

This is not a problem, they have not been afraid of those barbarians when they have not joined the empire before, and after joining the empire, they have those exquisite and excellent weapons that they can only dream of, they will not feel afraid of these barbarians.

In addition, in the past few years, the empire has been encouraging civil forces to conduct small-scale explorations of the Ural Mountains and the Black Forest, and obtain information about these regions through activities such as capturing slaves.

The empire wants to use this small-scale war to divert the contradictions within the empire and weaken the power of these people, this is the news that many people can decipher, of course, the crisis and the benefits coexist, they will not feel that they will be the losers who are eliminated, they have the confidence that they can survive to the end and become the ultimate survivor.

Then, in addition to the Sixth Legion, which was being assembled in Rus', these civilian forces also began to assemble, and they could fight with the Legion as mercenaries, or they could fight the enemy according to the battle plan of the Baltic Empire.

This suited their wishes, and they were able to use their advantages as much as possible without restraint, to fight against the barbarians, and then to win the war.

The commander of the Sixth Legion smiled disapprovingly at their approach, he was just a soldier, and he only needed to complete the orders issued by the Empire.

Moreover, he did not think that with the wisdom of the Empress of the Empire, such a thing would be so beneficial to those fellows, that there must be secrets hidden in it that he could not understand.

"Forget it, don't worry about those guys. ”

The commander of the Sixth Legion ignored those things, he continued to prepare for this war according to the plan, it was already summer, it was just right for the war, and it would not be good if it was delayed until winter.

The cold winter in the Northland, that is impressive to everyone, no one would want to continue to fight a war in such a climate, and it can even be said that General Winter is almost invincible in the Northland, and he is invincible.

"Let our scouts keep an eye on the surrounding tribes, I don't want an enemy to burst into the flank while we're fighting. ”

The commander of the Sixth Army gave the order to the herald to fight, and before the army moved, there were two things that were most important, one was to do a good job of intelligence, which was carried out by the scouts and intelligence personnel in the army, and the other was logistics.

The logistics of the Baltic Empire has a very complete set of logistics system, and the troops from the production of those materials to the front line have special people to manage and have special troops to escort.

It can be said that in terms of logistics, the Baltic Empire will not be at all weak, even compared with those powerful countries in the south.