It seemed this Ashwinder was also quite extraordinary; the intelligence provided by Thunderbird back then hadn't recorded that Ashwinder possessed such a unique skill. Perhaps these two Short Spears who had been stationed at the headquarters for many years also had their own special methods, and Alan's interest in the Silver Spears headquarters was growing.
After receiving the Portkey and potion from Ashwinder, Alan left the headquarters. His role as Thunderbird this time was highly successful, and his gains were significant. It could now be basically concluded that there were several directors in the German Ministry of Magic who were connected to the club—most likely the three directors who sided with Minister Peter. The condition for enticing these directors to join was most likely the Elixir of Life; otherwise, there would be no need to specifically promise them that they would become leaders without having to undertake external missions.
According to the club's regulations, the biggest difference between a leader and a Short Spear, in addition to the authority of a branch manager, is the access to information and channels for obtaining the Elixir of Life. It seemed that due to the Silver Spears' gradually expanding ambition, their current modus operandi was much more aggressive than before, even somewhat unlike Golden Knight's previous style. One must know that in the past, stability, concealment, and safety were the primary concerns for the club and Golden Knight. Sure enough, time could slowly change a person's thoughts; were these old immortals also unwilling to continue hiding in the shadows?
However, the Silver Spears' increasingly aggressive behavior, in addition to becoming more dangerous, also revealed many flaws. Alan already had his next action plan in mind.
Upon returning to his residence, Alan opened his magical briefcase. His briefcase, limited by the weight of the Flamel alloy, although not as luxurious as Newt's, still had an internal space of nearly tens of thousands of square meters. In addition to equipping his laboratory and residence inside, Alan had also reserved several spaces the size of football fields, and his current idea was to utilize these empty spaces. He planned to take the initiative and raid several of the club's magical creature breeding bases within Germany.
Although Alan was not sure how many magical creatures Rune Serpent consumed to refine one batch of the Elixir of Life, he had probed Ashwinder, who knew some inside information, and found out that the number of magical creatures smuggled from outside was no longer enough for sustainable development, and they had even started consuming existing stock.
That's right, the Silver Spears actually had a strategy for sustainable development! This was initially proposed by Golden Knight. After he first learned about the Elixir of Life, he quickly proposed to establish their own magical creature bases, specifically for the rearing and breeding of magical creatures. Because he knew that magical creatures were not weeds that would grow back next year after being cut down, and the policies of various countries regarding poaching and smuggling magical creatures were highly likely to become stricter as their smuggling frequency increased. Therefore, the number of smuggled magical creatures could not increase year by year; it would always reach an extreme value, and it might even become difficult to continue due to Ministry of Magic crackdowns.
Taking Germany and France, where the club first started smuggling activities, as an example, in the early days, magical creatures captured from just these two countries were enough to support the consumption of all the club's leaders. But as their smuggling activities became more and more rampant, they quickly aroused the vigilance of the local Ministries of Magic, which began to severely crack down on smuggling crimes within their borders and established special magical creature protection parks, where the authorities equipped powerful guardian forces. They even extended monitoring arrays to the coast and strengthened defenses along the coastline, which was why the club never considered directly landing smuggled goods from America on the German and French coasts.
For instance, in Britain, the Ministry of Magic, to conserve energy, generally didn't expand monitoring arrays to the west of Ireland, where there wasn't much wizard activity. Even if they weren't stingy with magic, if Britain insisted on expanding detection magic to cover the entire territory, the array would even cover a part of northern France. This would not just be a matter of resource waste; unauthorized use of detection magic to probe other countries involved diplomacy. So, even if Minister Bagnold knew of the Silver Spears' existence within the country at the time, she never thought of using detection magic to deal with smuggling issues. And the Silver Spears at that time truly considered Britain an excellent transit port for this very reason.
However, relying solely on external magical creature resources was, after all, a highly unstable matter, so Golden Knight had began working on the construction of breeding bases very early on. After so many years, as Alan learned from Thunderbird, the Silver Spears had three large breeding bases within Germany. And those smuggled magical creatures, except for some that were to be sold, were all placed in the breeding bases. Then, magical creatures in poor condition were given good care to ensure they were strong and healthy, while those in good condition and in pairs were allowed to breed, and young magical creatures were cared for until at least maturity at the breeding base. This was also why Alan, although he could already form a mental connection with that young Thunderbird, was not in a hurry to rescue it, because he knew that the creature was at least safe for now.
According to Golden Knight's vision, the future club would be self-sufficient simply by relying on these magical creature parks. Paired adult magical creatures would be allowed to breed naturally, young ones would be slowly raised, and old or unpaired ones would be provided to Rune Serpent for potion making. It could be said that his idea was very beautiful, and even at the current pace, if the breeding bases could be expanded by more than double within twenty years, it might indeed achieve sustainable development.
In addition to increasing revenue, Golden Knight would also consider the issue of cutting expenses. In the early days, Golden Knight also had strict control over the consumption of the Elixir of Life; therefore, except when increasing branches and needing to send out external missions, the club rarely increased the number of leaders, all for the sake of reducing supply.
Looking at the club's current strategy, Alan estimated that at least three leaders would suddenly be added in the short term, which would also increase the demand for magical creatures. If the number of smuggled magical creatures was sufficient, supplying three more leaders with potions was certainly not a problem, and it wouldn't even require consuming the breeding base's stock. But at this time, the transportation route in Britain was blocked, and magical creatures from America could not be delivered, so the club would most likely be forced to use resources from the breeding parks prematurely. Of course, the club had reserves of magical creatures in three breeding bases, so supplying the Silver Spears for a few years was no problem. But if the magical creatures in these breeding bases were all gone, what kind of scene would appear within the club?
Alan's plan was precisely this: he intended to wipe out all of the Silver Spears' bases in one fell swoop. Doing so had several advantages.
First, it could stir up trouble within the organization. The leaders in the club already lacked trust in each other, and the destruction of the breeding parks directly threatened their lives, which would certainly exacerbate the cracks between them. This was also why Alan despised the Silver Spears for using things like the Elixir of Life to prolong their lives. To put it bluntly, this potion converted the life force of magical creatures into the wizard's body; once the supply of magical creatures was lost, it was equivalent to having their pulse choked. At that time, in order to obtain the Elixir of Life and survive, and without a way to increase supply, those leaders might even resort to active elimination of their peers. A civil war might even erupt within the Silver Spears because of this! Even if things didn't escalate to that point, Alan could try to sow discord, as the Thunderbird he impersonated was notoriously crazy in the club. At worst, he would directly intervene and play the role of a troublemaker, causing the club to split from within.
Secondly, doing so could also force Rune Serpent, who had been hiding behind the scenes, to come out. After all, a major crisis would have occurred in the club, so presumably, this old scoundrel would show up no matter how cowardly he was. Only by truly seeing Rune Serpent could Alan use this opportunity to track him; he hadn't forgotten that his main purpose in coming to Germany was to expose this bastard.
However, while the plan to raid the breeding bases sounded good, it was not that simple in practice. One must know that there were three breeding bases, and each base was very large, comparable to the magical creature park owned by Scamander, with a massive number of magical creatures inside. Alan's space briefcase alone, even if crammed, would struggle to hold the magical creatures from one base, let alone three. Therefore, this operation could not rely solely on Alan and his two companions; helpers must be called, and their number could not be small. Because when attacking one of the breeding bases, even if he deployed various jammers in advance to prevent news from leaking out, it won't be hidden for long. Then, if news of a base being attacked got out, the other two breeding bases were highly likely to relocate or strengthen their defenses. So the key to this action plan was the word 'fast'; efficiency must be high, maximizing the speed of eliminating enemies, loading, and moving.
As for why not divide into three groups and simultaneously raid the three bases, Alan also had his own considerations. First, doing so carried too much risk. One must know that this was not about destroying three smuggler hideouts, but about dealing with three large parks that bred magical creatures, many of which were very dangerous. Back then, the Silver Spears had to dispatch more than twenty smugglers just to transport a dozen magical creatures, and it wasn't just for defense; preventing those high-risk magical creatures from going rampant alone required a lot of manpower. One must know that when fighting in a magical creature park, the most dangerous elements were not necessarily the wizards.