Pioneering

Chapter 264 The Great Famine and the Prelude to the War 【Two in One】

In September of the 4th year of the Asian calendar, people were hungry and people ate each other.

……

The sky was engulfed by a scorching sun, without a cloud to blot out its heat.The land was dry and cracked, and not a blade of grass grew.

Skinny people are looking for food everywhere, and bloodthirsty poisonous beasts have become their daily targets.

Men, women and children who used to be rich and poor, as long as they were not aristocrats, all competed with each other for a little food, and were trapped in the quagmire of famine and could not extricate themselves.

People who were so hungry, some of them took up the courage to pick up farm tools and enter the dark forest to poach the wealth of the lord;
Some evils start from the heart and slash at the weaker, and start to run rampant in the countryside, doing all kinds of evil, just to grab any little thing that can fill their stomachs;
Others have been eroded by mad dog-like hunger, and stretched out their hands to the same kind...

Mountains of corpses in towns and on the moors rotted in the dry heat, reeking of carrion.

The plague is also brewing in this hell-like world.

This is not a special case of one country or two countries, but a general tragedy on the entire continent.

It's not that Zhong Ming is so capable of waging a trade war, but it's the inevitable result of the Ice and Snow Goddess being eroded and polluted half of the "temperature" power.

Even though Frostia has tried its best to restore the distorted authority and adjust the temperature environment of the material world, the climate has been very unstable in the past three years.

Even though the Mother Earth and the Goddess of Nature have promised a good agricultural harvest environment in the human world, the God of the Sea also controls the weather. Without the "hot" link in the water and heat conditions, the agriculture in this world has not been very good for three years.

It can be said that it is not advancing but retreating in general.

The Ice and Snow Goddess is currently being polluted by retreating to wash away her authority, and she strives to solve the problem.

Without the active temperature regulation of the Ice and Snow Goddess, and affected by the remaining one-fifth of the pollution power, Zoya World experienced large-scale climate anomalies in the second half of this year.

Those other stubborn races already lived in the underworld, hell, abyss... and the slightest abnormal climate is not worth mentioning.

But the races in the material world, especially the farming-based humans, are hard to say how they will be affected.

Under severe drought and high temperature.

The Central Continent has always been rich, even if the harvest is completely extinct... Well, that would be unbearable, but under the leadership of the Central Continent's two emperors and eight kings to take the lead in relief, the impact is not considered to be hurt.

The trade in the western continent is prosperous, and the adjustment of the ocean climate is the most obvious. The 36 kingdoms headed by the whole country can bear the loss as a whole.

There are many water veins in the eastern continent, and it has the "top of the gods" known as the ancestor of the water veins. In addition, the eastern continent has always had the habit of saving. Although the disasters suffered by the three eastern empires are painful, they also hold .

The soil in the southern continent is fertile, and technology has been at the forefront of the continent before Zhong Ming appeared, and water conservancy projects are also the most developed. The southern continent led by the five southern empires has also survived this drought.

Even so, there are countless principalities and other small countries with poor disaster resistance capabilities that have turned into uninhabited restricted areas.After all, its size and mobilization power cannot match that of a powerful country, and its ability to resist risks is not enough, so it is not surprising that it suffered heavy losses.

The Northern Continent is miserable.

Since the "Holy See of Light" collapsed, the foundation of the God of Light, Alairi, has naturally been "cared for" by the victors.

All the human kingdoms that were closely connected with the "Bright Empire" before the disintegration, without exception, all disappeared in "unexplainable" accidents, and were once again dismembered into a large number of small kingdoms.The largest volume in the Northern Continent is only the Kingdom of Winkrel.

Originally, according to the overall cold climate of the Northern Continent, this wave of temperature anomalies had the least impact on it.

However, they are all small countries, their ability to resist disasters is not strong, and their savings are not enough.There is also a mysterious person who secretly relies on the productivity of industrial countries to disrupt their agricultural systems.

The results were, of course, catastrophic.

The small and medium-sized nobles in the principality can still guarantee the food and clothing of the whole family, and the small and medium-sized nobles in the uncle country who have been severely affected by the disaster will start to starve.

In order not to be starved to death, or to watch the territory turn into a dead zone, six small counties have taken the initiative to join and merge into Assia.

Yaxia's territory has grown by more than 50 square kilometers, reaching about 230 million square kilometers, and there are 800 million more people waiting to be fed.

This is the number after the disaster has screened out a group of old and weak...

The situation of other small countries can be seen.

The Principality of Dimen believes in the Goddess of Silver Moon, so obviously it can't bring much help to her people. The reduction of agricultural land and the interruption of the smuggling trade in Yasha, and the shrinkage and closure of food exports by various countries, the situation is not optimistic.

The Principality of Wised believes in the sun god Alor, which is of no use. You can't let Alor consume a lot of divine power to reduce the light in Wised, right?
In the past, it was Wized who was the most ferocious in counterfeiting Yashai's new weapons, and spent the most money to trade weapons with Yashai. This meeting has become too noisy.In the territory of the Grand Duchy of Wized, a rebel army with the slogan "God's Wrath" has already appeared.

The disaster situation in the Principality of Magzek is neither good nor bad.

Over the past three years, relying on the achievements of Le Qi's participation in the research of super crops, Magzek has obtained super crops, advanced farming techniques, imported a large number of iron farm tools and fertilizers, and even bought some farm machinery.Many terraced fields have been reclaimed, and some water conservancy projects have been built, making it a grain exporter.

When natural disasters came, after Magzek completely stopped exporting grain, the disaster was considered controllable.

The Winklell Kingdom, blessed by the Sea God, has frequent rains. Although it cannot completely offset the impact of the high temperature, the human kingdom that believes in the Sea God is relatively less affected by the disaster.

There are even quite a few small kings who choose to fight with the religious authority in the country, and those who win declare that they have embraced the belief of Sea God, and those who lose...

There are more than a dozen small countries near Winklell who have requested to join Winklell... Of course, under the condition of insufficient food, Pope Will only agreed to join eight of these small countries, expanding the territory by nearly one million square kilometers.

For a while, Sea God seemed to be the only god who benefited from the drought. He didn't need to use his divine power to help his believers. The more divine power he invested, the more new believers he could produce. It also expanded the strength of the Sea God Church under his command. strength.

However, Winkler's domineering increase of tariffs was originally only intended to target small countries, but the subsequent implementation will inevitably become a one-shot, which has aroused great dissatisfaction among the allies, and countries have expressed serious protests to him.

There was even a bloody conflict between the grain merchants of the Duchy of Dimen and the tax collector of Winkrell... The trust that was already shaky is now even more torn apart.

It cannot be said that the Allied forces are in dire straits, it can only be said that it is a mess.

The disaster in Yaxia can be regarded as minimal, and the transportation loss in Yaxia, where a large number of roads have been built, is already low.

In addition, Zhong Ming got the news early on through his relationship with the Ice and Snow Goddess, built a large number of water conservancy projects, and prepared a large number of freight vehicles.

Yaxia also has super crops that have been harvested year after year, and advanced grain storage technology...

After Yaxia was hit by the disaster, even if the grain production was cut in half, it would still be considered a bumper harvest compared to other countries!

It can be said that there is basically no large-scale starvation phenomenon.

As for whether the coalition army after the disaster will come to attack Yaxia again, Zhong Ming's judgment tends to-yes.

Not only will it, but it will even be done in advance, with an unimaginable mobilization force!
Transferring conflicts externally is a good strategy tried and tested by the rulers, not to mention that Yaxia has relatively abundant food, and if you grab it, you will earn it.

Zhong Ming can't wait for them to make a move!The weapons, armor, food, etc. in the warehouse have been waiting until they are about to go moldy!
The morality of anti-aggression, the revenge and counterattack of blood debts, and the time of famine are also convenient to win people's hearts after the war.

However, just to be prudent, he is also doing what he should do to prepare for war—checking the inventory, cleaning up the rats; making allies, and dealing with powerful enemies.

Now, Zhong Ming used the excuse of taking Le Qi to relax, and made a surprise inspection of the warehouse.

Sure enough, there are no major problems, but there are a lot of minor problems, shoddy, shoddy, food deterioration...there are already signs of it.

It's just that the time is short, the perpetrators are not courageous enough, and the losses are still within the acceptable range.

From arrest, verification, confession, trial, to final execution.The whole journey was turbulent, and the speed of light was processed. In less than two months, more than 20 key warehouses have been inspected, and the inventory is not far away.

Zhong Ming estimated that the total loss should be between [-]% and [-]%.

Fortunately, the current international mobility is not high, and only a small number of corrupt officials can rest assured that their families can transfer assets to other human kingdoms.What can be recovered is the assets and cash value of corrupt officials, which is not much different from the loss of storage materials.

However, it has long been difficult to find the whereabouts of the materials.

"Ming," Le Qi squeezed Zhong Ming's arm tightly, "Isn't it too cruel to do this?"

Before the gallows, the family members of the corrupt officials who heard Le Qi's words seemed to have grasped at straws, begging for forgiveness of the death penalty.

Zhong Ming pondered silently, as if he had never heard of it.

'Obviously, it's only a year or two, at most less than three years. It's only such a short time for these bureaucrats to graduate from the government affairs council.

Why, why did you dare to be so insane? '

'Do you remember to eat or not to fight?Never finish? '

'Even in a world with spells, vindictive spirits, gods, and the kingdom of hell, bureaucrats are still like this?Are you really fearless?"

'Liberty, Democracy, Liberation, Fairness...

Haha, universal values? Human liberation? Underneath the glorious slogan is a blind desire for profit. '

'Is the greed of human nature really uncontrollable? '

"Zhuo, don't force me to use golem puppets to rule the country, and engage in the era of AI." '

Seeing Zhong Ming wandering in the sky, Le Qi stepped on her feet angrily, grabbed Zhong Ming's shoulders, and shouted into his ear:

"Ming, are you listening! The crimes of these corrupt officials are so serious that it is not a pity to die. Why do they implicate so many innocent people?"

After regaining consciousness, Zhong Ming cleared his throat and said:
"Innocent, they are not innocent.

Take this Rick as an example. He was an orphan and street child a few years ago. It was I who gave him the opportunity of education and allowed him to get a decent job with a salary that was enough to support the family.

However, how did he repay me?
Colluding with administrative officials, reselling storage materials, lowering the price of grain purchases, stealing the price difference, breaking the grain protection price law, beating and killing farmers who are prosecuting everywhere, known as the "King of Baili", tsk tsk.

As for the kid who begged you for mercy just now, the one who yelled the loudest, hehe, he beat an 11-year-old kid.His mother spent money to bribe the judge, and after she escaped without guilt, she even worsened and ruined no less than a hundred truly innocent women!
Oh, and the girl who killed more than 20 innocent passers-by with her car, the one who yelled at you the sweetest, she took pleasure in running over people to death!
There is also the old immortal, who is like a gluttonous demon thirsting for land. When his son becomes an official, he will go to heaven. He will buy and sell a lot of good land by force.

In the end, they were all suppressed by their relatives through connections and money. Hehe, are these family members really innocent?
......"

"Do you want me to continue talking?" Zhong Ming became colder as he spoke, his eyes seemed to be looking at the most foul-smelling maggots.

This taste, this operation, this virtue, is so familiar!
Le Qi lost her voice, and stared blankly at Zhong Ming ordering these people to be hanged. She obviously didn't understand the dangers of the human heart very clearly when she was young.

Aristocratic education can let her know that people's hearts are sinister, but it can't make her truly realize how ugly people's hearts can be.

Practice brings true knowledge.

"Ming, why? Why not use noble knights, but use these...these..." Some of the indignant Le Qi Ceremony couldn't find a suitable term to describe these corrupt officials.

"A stinking bureaucrat who gave birth to a child without an asshole?" Zhong Ming vulgarly and directly scolded Le Qi's emotions.

"Hey, I really want to replace it with something else, but what good are knight nobles?
Are the "high moral" knights in your mouth the majority or very few? "

"The bureaucrats have to go through a procedure to make profits according to the procedures I set to avoid legal trials. Nobles, hehe..."

"..."

After venting his nameless anger against the bureaucrats, Zhong Ming also calmed down, "Le Qi, war is coming, war is coming."

"Really?" Le Qi's eyes dodged a little.

Zhong Ming took Le Qi's hand and walked in the secluded wilderness:
"Yes, soon, soon, maybe today, maybe tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow. In short, war may break out at any time."

He suddenly turned his head to look at Le Qi, looked at this "research partner" who had been together for several years, and looked into her extremely beautiful and delicate eyes: "Will you stand by my side?"

"I, I don't know..." Le Qi was a little at a loss.

"Then let me be more precise, no matter how your father chooses, do you want to stand by my side?"

Le Qi stared at Zhong Ming, and said seriously: "I want to stand by your side."

"I'm used to standing by your side, and I want to continue to stand by your side, I just don't know, my father...I can't betray my father."

"That's enough," Zhong Ming raised his mouth slightly, and put his arms around Le Qi, "I will make your father have to stand by my side..."

In the middle of the night, an order was sent to 9527, Hughes, and Archbishop Derek...

(End of this chapter)