The poisonous smoke of iron smelting drifted away with the wind, bringing the first "industrial scent" to the West Coast. And three hundred li north with the south wind, past the towering Divine Revelation Tree that pierced the clouds, lay the Tolowa Tribes, numbering in the tens of thousands. For the salt marshes at the borders of their tribal hunting grounds, the tens of thousands of Tolowa had split completely into two small tribal alliances, centered respectively on the Redwood Great Tribe and the Leaf Grass Great Tribe, constantly arranging duels and butchering one another. And because of the arrival of the kingdom's fleet, because of the deliberate inflow of metal weapons, the scale of war between these tribal alliances was growing fiercer by the day!
The kingdom's passing fleets brought metal weapons, glittering gems, and cultivated miscellaneous grain crops once every half year. But what the kingdom's fleets took away was not merely the produce of the mountains, but also warrior captives from the war between the two great tribes. In a little over two years, four hundred able-bodied captive warriors had already been transported north one after another, replenishing the kingdom's North Port. And the one directing this strategy was none other than High Priest Kejie, who held command at North Port and was swollen with ambition!
"Main God as my witness! Across the entire pioneering West Coast, aside from the most central West Mountain Port, the second most prosperous place will surely be North Port, where I personally hold command! North Port lies on the lower reaches of the Great River that stretches for thousands of li. From here, whether it is the River Mouth Alliance downstream, the Kalapuya tribes upstream, or even the mountain hunting tribes still farther upriver, all will fall under the kingdom's influence,