Chapter 367 Catalina's "Great Discovery"
In order to win the favor of her target, Catalina had to agree.
"Great." Garen's smile was full of anticipation. He couldn't wait to say, "Then I'll arrange for you to go to Zaun tomorrow."
"Huh?" Catalina was slightly stunned.
She was stunned: "Zuan?"
Do I have to go to Zaun for class?
"No, it's not just for class." Garen explained: "It's mainly because, Ms. Kana, according to the coalition's regulations, you are supposed to go to Zaun."
Because Wuji Village is too close to the front line and may be affected by the war at any time, in order to ensure the safety of non-combat personnel, prisoners of war and refugees need to be transferred to Zaun, the rear base of the Leader, through the Hextech gate after a short rest.
Katarina, LeBlanc, and Talon are no exception.
"This..." Catalina was embarrassed.
Zaun is a million miles away from here. If she went to Zaun, how could she come back to seduce Garen?
"Lord Galen." She could only bite the bullet and say, "Can we not go? I'm not afraid of danger, I just want to be closer to you."
"Don't worry." Garen explained with a smile: "Zuan is not far from here at all."
If you take a boat, it takes about 2 months to go from Zaun to Ionia. But...
"Do you see that?" Garen pointed out the window, at the three giant Hextech flying gate arrays standing between the mountains and forests, emitting dazzling magical light in the afterglow of the setting sun.
"That's the Windleader's ultra-long-range Hextech Flying Gate. It can directly connect Zaun and Wuji Village across space, making the two places thousands of miles apart instantly accessible."
"Our logistical supplies are all transported from Zaun to Ionia through it, and the wounded, prisoners of war, and logistical personnel can also use it to return to Zaun instantly."
"Because of the frequent demand for the movement of personnel and materials, the Hextech teleportation flight from Wuji Village to Zaun and back now has one every 10 minutes."
The Leader almost used the Hextech Flying Gate as an "intercontinental bus", completely connecting Wuji Village and Zaun, which were thousands of miles apart.
That's why Galen said that these two places are not far away at all.
After all, there is a Hextech flying gate every 10 minutes. Taking the "intercontinental bus" from Zaun to Wuji Village may even be more convenient and faster than driving from Zaun to Piltover.
Wuji Village has almost become a district of Zaun.
In order to help the soldiers on the front line relieve the pressure of war and ease their tension, the Leaders Association even luxuriously allowed them to return to Zaun in batches for rest.
Soldiers often drink tea and watch movies in Zaun in the first week, play with drones in Wuji Village in the second week, play football and hold sports games in Zaun in the third week, and return to Wuji Village to drop drones and bomb Noxus devils from a distance in the fourth week...
Fighting this war is more enjoyable than a leisure vacation.
"So even if you go to Zaun, I can always come to see you, Miss Kana." Garen said sincerely: "When I have a day off in a few days, we can also... ahem... hang out in Zaun together."
Galen expressed his affection implicitly, but Katarina was too busy to pay attention.
She was just shocked.
She could never have imagined that while the empire's 100,000 troops were guarding the mountain miserably and wiping their tears as they wrote suicide notes to their families thousands of miles away, the leader on the mountain could actually live such a luxurious life.
They can take turns to rest, have holidays, go home to visit their families, and even ask girls to go shopping in Zaun? Is this still a war?
"I've also heard something about the Hextech flying gate from the merchant in the city."
As an island province rich in maritime merchants, Baruo has relatively closer trade exchanges with Valoran than other regions in Ionia. Therefore, even a "country girl" like her can reasonably come into contact with a lot of news from overseas.
So, Katarina pretended to be curious and asked calmly, "The merchant said that the Hextech Flying Gate in Piltover is made of gold. It costs a lot of money to activate it once."
But the leader uses this thing like a bus and regards it as the main logistics transportation force of a large army.
"General Galen, how come the Leader is so rich?"
"Well..." Garen thought about it and found it difficult to explain.
There are many reasons for this.
On the one hand, Wuji Village was surrounded by an enemy force of 100,000, and could only transport supplies in this way;
On the one hand, the leader has mastered the entire industrial chain of Hextech Flying Door from energy production to application level, and the cost is not as high as imagined.
Of course, the most important thing is:
"We leaders are indeed rich." Miss Lux on the side could not help but say proudly.
And her pride is not based on the wealth of the leader, but on her contempt for her enemies.
"We are rich, but most of this money comes from Noxians," she said with a smug smile.
"Given by the Noxians?" Katarina's heart moved.
The Empire is now fighting with the Leader in Ionia, and it’s just short of an all-out war. Why would it still be giving money to the Leader?
Could it be that she accidentally uncovered a major case of corruption and aiding the enemy within the empire?
"What does this mean?" Catalina asked subconsciously.
But Leblanc gave her a secret look, as if telling her not to meddle in other people's business.
But it was too late.
Lux had already opened up and revealed to her:
"It's not like Noxus is giving money to the Windwards for nothing, but they are still doing business with Zaun, overtly or covertly."
"Even though we killed Noxus' general Urgot two months ago and fought with them in Baru, the trade volume between Noxus and Zaun has continued to rise over the past two months."
"The business between Noxus and Zaun has never been interrupted. Their money naturally flows into the pockets of the Wind Leader like water, turning into explosives and drones, hex gems, and the artillery shells that fall on the heads of Noxian soldiers, which seem to be free of charge."
The mocking smile on Lux's lips made Katarina realize something instantly.
Yes! Why doesn't Noxus impose sanctions and blockade on Zaun from a trade perspective?
Zaun’s largest trading partner is Noxus, and its largest source of income is also foreign trade with Noxus.
Although the Leader is now also looking for trade cooperation with other countries such as Demacia, trying to reduce their economic dependence on the Noxian Empire.
But it is difficult to turn a big ship around, and a trade structure adjustment of this scale cannot be completed in a day or two.
At this moment, the Leader has temporarily solved the most serious food security problem through cooperation with Demacia.
But Zaun is still very dependent on the market and raw materials provided by the Noxian Empire. At least six out of ten of their dollars come from Noxus.
And those Bluebird drones that blew up Katarina's father so much that he was in a state of panic were manufactured and transported by Zaun using the money earned from Noxus and the raw materials purchased from Noxus.
"Why are Noxians so stupid?" Katarina couldn't understand.
Although Zaun's economy is not small, it is not as impressive as the behemoth Noxus.
The Noxian Empire is fully capable of completely cutting off trade with Zaun and completely blockading Zaun.
For Noxus, which is huge in size, has high defense and high health, doing so would be a pain at best.
At most, the nobles would buy one less yacht, the wealthy businessmen would buy one less car, the middle-class citizens would buy one less radio, the landlords and farmers would buy less alchemical fertilizers, and a few more worthless serfs would starve to death next year.
The empire can fully afford this price.
But for Zaun, this can be said to be a devastating disaster.
Without the raw materials and market orders provided by Noxus, most of Zaun's factories would quickly go bankrupt and stop production in a short period of time. At least hundreds of thousands of people would lose their jobs, and the bankruptcy storm and unemployment wave would quickly drain the funds of the Leader, making it unable to support a costly war.
Even so, this would certainly not defeat the Leaders Association, which is united by faith.
But it can only make the leader less arrogant and extravagant, so extravagant that he can use the drones transported by the Hextech Flying Gate to carry out carpet bombing, making it impossible for the empire's 100,000 troops to capture even a mountain.
So , here comes the question:
Since a trade blockade has so many benefits and Noxus has the ability to implement it, why doesn't the Empire do it?
"Well..." Lux smiled: "According to the official Noxian statement, this is because Zaun and Noxus have not yet officially gone to war, so the Empire should not sanction Zaun yet."
"..." Catalina was speechless.
Indeed, in theory, it is the Ionian leader, not the Zaun leader, who is now at war with the Noxian Empire.
And the Windleader has been using this excuse to maintain an ambiguous peace with Swain of Piltover.
But unless your eyesight is worse than Lee Sin's, anyone can see clearly: this is just an excuse that Zaun uses to cover up the fact that it doesn't want to go to war with Noxus and doesn't want the trade between the two countries to be cut off.
But how come the Noxian masters used this excuse of the Zaun people?
Zaun's Hextech Flygate is clearly visible here. They said they didn't participate in the war, and you believed them?
"Of course they have to believe it." Lux smiled, "Because every penny Zaun earns from Noxus has a share of the imperial nobles."
More than just one.
Given the business environment in Noxus, the profit sharing should be at least 30% and 70%.
70% belongs to the nobles, and Zaan only earns 30% at most.
And just a small part of this 30% profit is enough for Zaun to use the Hextech flying gate as an intercontinental bus, transport hundreds of suicide drones at any cost, and bomb Noxus's 100,000 troops into a state of distress for months, unable to advance an inch.
“Ms. Kana, do you understand now?” Lux smiled and said something that refreshed Katarina’s worldview: “The Noxian Empire is indeed capable of blocking Zaun.”
"But the Noxian nobles are not able to blockade themselves."
