With Hudson's tacit approval, cartload after cartload of military equipment was sent to the docks and loaded onto ships.
Ever since the kingdom's mage corps began clearing the coastal reefs, smuggling had gradually entered the 2.0 era, shifting from overland operations to a combination of land and sea routes.
Compared with traditional overland transport, sea transport was not only cheaper but also far safer.
Not attacking merchant caravans was an established rule, but with so many Beastfolk tribes, there were always a few that refused to follow it.
As long as they did it cleanly, smugglers who died had died for nothing. No one would stand up for a bunch of corpses.
The price was simply that routes where accidents frequently occurred would no longer see merchant caravans in the future. It was practically a business that cut off its own future.
Without merchant caravans, procuring supplies became exceptionally difficult. Trading with other Beastfolk tribes often came at an even higher price.
Those who did such things were generally small tribes that could barely survive. To stay alive, they gave everything they had and had no time to consider the future.
By comparison, large tribes with stronger risk resistance considered matters more comprehensively. For the tribe's long-term development, they usually prohibited the robbery of merchants.
Some quick-witted Beastfolk tribes even took the initiative to cooperate with caravans, opening markets in their own territory to attract nearby small tribes to trade and taking commissions from the transactions.
Unfortunately, precisely because they were neighbors, Bibopzhenglin was having such a miserable time. Smugglers might be shameless profit-seekers, but they were certainly not fools.
"What's going on? Didn't I tell you to contact the human merchant caravans?
"Even if we offered a quota of ten million gold coins, the nobles outside would snatch it