It has been 6 months since I took over Southern Tribe. We have taken over the whole southern sea. It was very funny how my commanders achieved it actually. Using the ship of southern raiders, theys sent distress signals and when they showed upto help them and connect the ships with metal ramps, they would attack them and seize there ships. We used there own guerilla warfare tactics on them.
As more ships were seized, this was started to done on much larger scale, once the range of these distress flares was understood. Once the fleet patrolling these waters was reduced considerably we turned to full on attack mode. Now they only have Whale Tail Island as there only base here and strictly stick to North of it.
Now we are actually being paid by Southern Earth Kingdom provinces to patrol these water and keep it free of Fire Nation while they take back the territories lost to them.
Once the Southern Sea was secured, I immediately sent some hunters to the islands of Patola mountains and have them set up wooden villages there. The timber resources on these islands were vast with oak and pine being most common. We immediately started turning it into lumber – with carpentering and ship building being taught by Fifth Nation carpenters– and charcoal.
But when it came to mining and smithing, that's when we hit the problem. We don't have any surveyors, miners or anything among us. They were needed to be hired from Earth Kingdom. And let me tell you, they were not cheap at all. And the miners who were brought to teach us mining doubly so because they had to stay long enough to teach us everything. We specifically needed them to be from mining villages with no benders, so they could teach us the best techniques possible for us without earthbenders to help us.
Luckily, Fifth Nation had some smiths among them – Earth Kingdom has some shadow towns (AN: Pirate and bandit towns like pirate republic Nassau), though officialy they are just normal towns with corrupt officials, having no laws or system there. Here skilled people could be found and if given a good enough offer, they would work for you– who were as good as any Earth Kingdom smith and there techniques on par with Earth Kingdom – so it was only a matter of taking enough apprentices and training them. A slow process but still doable.
Some engineers, started picking small fire nation vessel to understand them and how to build them now that we have resources to build them. But even if they understand the design of the ship, welding metal plates is going to be difficult. Forge welding means everything have to be standardised. But these are temporary towns which we cannot operate after the war ends. So I also don't want to invest much in them.
So it seems transporting metal plates back to the pole and building ships there is our only option to make metal ships. Just like how the wooden ships are being built. As I said, I don't want to invest much in these towns. So only work in these towns is in timber industry, mostly run by novice waterbender learning waterjet cutting, mining, run by non benders, smithing, fishing and hunting. The population of these villages is tightly controlled so they don't grow too much that leaving them will cost us.
Now that our need for wood and metal is being taken care of by Patola mountains, we could use our money for better purposes.
We don't have much to trade with, but we have the best fisherman along with the North. And along with help of waterbenders we had fish, crustaceans (like shrimp, crab, lobster) and mollusks (like clams, oysters, mussels, scallops), octopus, squids, jellyfish. One time Tulok even showed them how to harvest Sea Urchins. Tulok turned that into a system.
Fishing became a thousand time easier with waterbender helping them, specially in catching deep sea bounty. Something not seen easily.
The pearls from oysters were also highly priced among jwellers of Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation. Tulok also started a unique jwellery culture among the tribe, jwellery made from sea shell, corals and other such things. It also gained some popularity in coastal region of other nations.
Snails were used to make high quality dyes and inks, in all kinds of colors, priced highly amongst the merchants and elites of the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation's colonised territory.
Than we have salt. Tulok organized teams of waterbenders who worked the tides in shifts, drawing vast pans of seawater onto flat terraces, then evaporating the water with bending to leave mountains of salt behind.
Another item we trade that is not even needed to be made locally is ice. We source water from the Earth Kingdom cities itself and sell it after freezing it. It's not like anyone else can replicate it and even Fire Nation's industrialization has not reached the level to make ice yet. So we still have monopoly in the trade. Actually not a monopoly but a duopoly with Northern Tribe.
And lastly, healing services. Waterbending healers are highly sought after. Especially in such war times. Broken bones, burns, laceration, trauma, diseases, internal injuries. All of these are very common during war. And once we opened shop in major towns, soldiers specially benders were willing to pay exorbitant amount to heal them fast.
Some Kings of Earth Kingdoms' city states offered a huge price to send these healers to front line but that was refused. Earth Kingdom tactics are not bearing fruit and I refuse to waste waterbender on such things. Seriously, why are they even losing. Just build fort wherever you go, let fire nation waste strength on taking these forts and when you are overwhelmed, destroy these forts and use scorch earth tactics to deny them supplies. Do what you do best and turn the land into meat grinder. That's what I would have done if I have an army of earthbenders. And that's what I would do in the South Pole as well.
The wealth was not hoarded. Tulok directed it into building forges, weaving mills and tanneries, expanding the leather and wool trade. Southern hides became prized for their durability and their waterproofing, sailors across the world began wearing coats stitched from Southern wolf-seal, marked with silver thread, using it like a brand.
The Southern Tribe coins, newly minted and used only in the tribe, started gaining popularity in the Southern Earth Kingdom as well. Merchants began arriving from the southern coasts of Southern Earth Kingdom with gold, grains and industrial goods, bartering eagerly. Within a year, Wolf Cove's warehouses were full, and for the first time since Yangchen, the South was not only secure, it was wealthy.
Once we have some major of economic security, I focused back on developing the South. A prominent naval industry is restablishing here, and with our reputation as expert sailors and navigators, I could understand why Water Tribes took over the shipping industry after war.
Living inland for anything other than mining or highly sought after animal products is foolishness. So heavily fortified dual walled towns and cities were built, with trade in outer layer and residences in inner layer.
Small fortified villages were built inland connected with under-ice tunnels, in case of attacks where we have to evacuate the cities and towns. The whole continent is dotted with such villages, though no one lives there. Using these villages for shelter while using scorch earth tactics and guerilla warfare, we could bleed any army dry if they come to attack us.