For a nation to prosper, it must possess abundant resources.
Wealth resources like minerals and timber are crucial, and population resources such as armies and labor are equally important.
It would be even better if, in addition to a super-large population, a nation could also boast exceptionally high per capita wealth and resources.
The Kaldorei Empire possessed great wealth, but its population was truly too small.
A population of several hundred thousand spread over more than one hundred thousand square kilometers of land could only be described as vast with sparse inhabitants.
Even so, Sin'dorei accounted for half of that population, and Suramar for about a quarter.
Other lords' fiefdoms, with even a thousand people, were considered large, severely limiting the Kaldorei Empire's development.
If not for the numerous Mages and the powerful combat strength of the Kaldorei army, they would have probably been annihilated by the Trolls long ago.
Azshara evidently recognized this, and her previous solution was to seek alliances.
The Pandaren, who lived south of the Well of Eternity, were numerous but peace-loving.
Before the Kaldorei Empire had fully developed, they could provide protection and resources to the Kaldorei Empire.
The Pandaren were not hostile towards the Kaldorei, and after the alliance, the two sides maintained a very close relationship.
Just as Azshara had imagined, the surplus labor of the Pandaren indeed helped the Kaldorei greatly.
The Pandaren contributed significantly to the establishment of Sin'dorei.
However, later, the Kaldorei learned Arcane magic from the Well of Eternity.
To enhance their strength, the Kaldorei Mages used it without any restraint.
This caused dissatisfaction among the Pandaren, who believed in the path of nature and expressed concern about the unrestrained exploitation of the Well of Eternity.
Yet, the Kaldorei Mages went their own way, simply assuming their allies were jealous of them.
The conflict between them grew, and the interests of the two races began to clash.
To avoid war with their allies, the Pandaren chose to migrate south, moving away from the center of the continent.
Azshara expressed regret about this, but by then, the Kaldorei already possessed sufficient strength, so she did not try too hard to retain them.
Moreover, after the Pandaren left, the Kaldorei could fully enjoy the Well of Eternity for themselves.
Thus, Azshara built the Eternal Palace over the Well of Eternity and constructed numerous Mage Towers around it, completely incorporating the Well of Eternity into the territory of the Kaldorei Empire.
This is also why the Well of Eternity is not large, and Sin'dorei was built on one side of it, rather than completely surrounding it.
After many years of development, the Kaldorei Empire expanded beyond the vicinity of the Well of Eternity, building Suramar and Nathalas Academy on the Titan Remains to the north, and extending the empire's borders to Val'sharah further north.
The vast land brought a large amount of resources, allowing the Kaldorei Empire to develop rapidly and forge its current magical civilization.
However, magic alone could not sustain the Kaldorei Empire's development indefinitely.
Too many Kaldorei, after accumulating sufficient wealth, chose to become unproductive, causing the empire's finances to grow slowly.
The nobles, and even Azshara herself, were living off past gains, and even raising military funds became difficult.
Gale chose to open a Forging Factory precisely because he saw this opportunity.
The Mages were all focused on researching magic and magical items, completely overlooking the profits in the arms sector.
After the Forging Factory was built, it immediately filled this void in the industry.
Similarly, because the Mages looked down on manufacturing weapons and equipment, the market for high-tier weapons was severely depressed.
Handicraft workshop-style manufacturing made it difficult to produce epic-grade weapons; without enchantment assistance, an ordinary craftsman might never be able to forge an epic weapon in their lifetime.
Therefore, war was inevitable.
Moreover, Azshara had to ensure that after the war, she could acquire a large number of Troll slaves to serve as cheap labor.
At the same time, she also had to ensure that Kaldorei casualties were not too high, otherwise there would not even be enough people to manage the slaves.
Gale opposed this, not out of a bleeding heart for capturing Troll slaves.
Rather, he was once again appointed Quartermaster, responsible for the logistics of the entire campaign.
This completely disrupted his plans, and Azshara did not give him much military funding, but instead allowed him the right to exchange spoils of war for military funds.
It seemed Azshara had seen the benefits of Heda'shal handling spoils of war, as it eliminated the need to provide military funds upfront.
Gale felt speechless; Heda'shal was an exception.
After all, that was a defensive battle, and handling spoils of war was easy.
This, however, was an offensive war, and transporting spoils of war back would also incur a significant cost.
Especially in a situation of labor shortage, transporting spoils of war was a very luxurious endeavor.
But the appointment letter had already been issued, and Gale had no choice.
If he could not resist, then he could only accept his fate.
Gale immediately placed an order with the Forging Factory for one million judgment arrows.
This war's duration was unknown, so arrows had to be plentiful.
He also ordered three thousand Sanction Swords and three thousand Wind Powers.
The former were for reserves, to replace damaged weapons.
The latter were to equip the entire army, to use ranged attacks as much as possible to deal with the Trolls and avoid excessive casualties.
Gale recruited a group of alchemists in Sin'dorei to mass-produce Regeneration Potions.
This life-saving potion, at least one per person, was for critical moments.
At the same time, he also issued a recruitment order to the Elune Sisterhood, seeking priests skilled in healing to serve as military medics.
He also merged the alchemists into the military medic team, serving as apprentices.
High Priestess Dyganna sent a force of over a hundred priests, most of whom were skilled in healing.
The remaining small portion were skilled in combat, used to protect the healing priests.
And Maiev once again became the commander of this force.
Upon seeing Maiev, Gale was very happy.
The two had cooperated many times and had already developed a rapport, which would make their collaboration much smoother.
Gale integrated Navoli's group of five into the logistics team and had them recruit some mercenaries to help transport supplies.
As for supplies, Gale needed to purchase them from farms around Sin'dorei and Suramar.
Both cities also consumed a large amount of food, and buying in the city would leave many Kaldorei hungry.
Despite this, Gale still could not gather enough food, only managing to buy enough for a month's supply for ten thousand troops.
With no other option, Gale had to turn to the fish in the surrounding rivers.
However, to fish, he needed to build boats.
During Heda'shal, the Trolls' boats were stolen from the Vrykul, and Gale also wanted to borrow some from the Vrykul.
He led the logistics team to Jarvik, only to find that the Vrykul there had already left their dwelling.
In their large houses, Gale found shipbuilding blueprints.
Following the blueprints, Gale used Arcane to manipulate wood and built a fishing boat.
Arcane was that simple; a shipbuilding process that would take the Vrykul years to complete, Gale finished in less than a day.
Gale did not even take an hour to weave the fishing nets, which were particularly troublesome to make.
Taking the logistics team aboard the boat, Gale used magic to locate schools of fish and successfully hauled in tens of thousands of pounds of catch.
----------------------------
✨ Love the story? You can support me and unlock more chapters on Patreon!
👉 [[email protected]/TripleCrown07]