I, the prince in distress, send money

Chapter 69 Preparation for War (I)

Sitting under a poplar tree outside the town, Mia was earnestly reciting the Chinese pinyin in the book in her hand and learning Chinese words by herself.

The book is custom-made with A4 paper, folded and bound by hand, with fine lines running through the pages, connecting them together.

The cover of this book is made of thick cowhide, which is rough and strong. It has no gorgeous decorations, only a few traces carved by time, which can protect the knowledge inside from being damaged by external forces to the greatest extent.

Mia cherishes the books in her hands very much. When she turns the pages, she will carefully pick up a corner of the page and gently flip it.

This Chinese teaching book is very precious. It was a task assigned by Chris, and then a player who is a retired Chinese professor in real life spent three days to compile the book.

After finishing the writing, this intellectual player who loves to teach others, after completing the task and gaining reputation, silver dollars, and medals, spent an extra four days to update the illustrations for the book by hand.

According to this player.

“How can a textbook that teaches people to read and write be without illustrations?

What? You mean we can just make do with it? What the hell? Education is not something you can just make do with! It has to be done with care, and care, and care!
"Game? Even if it's a game, I can't mess around. If my friends in the teaching world knew about this unillustrated teaching book, it would ruin my reputation in the teaching community!"

The player always insists on doing something strange, but that's not a bad thing. Chris didn't stop him. He even appointed the player as the principal of the Bagnia Defense Force Night School.

You know what, the professor player was extremely happy after getting this position. He spent all his gaming time on this job all day long, making a huge contribution to the spread of Chinese.

"I've been a professor my whole life, and I've never been able to become a president. I never thought I could fulfill my long-cherished wish in a game... Hey, this is really interesting."

After becoming the principal, the player's first task was to set up a printing workshop, recruit more than a dozen workers, and have them print teaching books.

However, due to inefficiencies, incomplete machines, and a lack of paper, textbooks were still scarce. Militiamen attending night school and civilians and children eager to read could only share a book with a few others.

Mia can get a Chinese textbook by herself, which is a privilege brought by her special identity. How big is this privilege?

Let’s put it this way, there are only five people, including the players, who can own a textbook right now.

Chris was the first, followed by Isaac, Connie, and the player who was the principal.

The last fifth person is Mia.

Because of this book, Mia can do whatever she wants in the Defense Force and Beach Town. She can eat whatever she wants and not do anything she wants.

Moreover, thanks to this book, Mia can now speak a few words of Chinese and communicate with players in a clumsy way.

Reading and receiving education is a very luxurious privilege. It has been like this since ancient times. However, modern children do not take it seriously because they enjoy it naturally.

Mia was well aware of how precious what she had obtained was.

So, she carried the book with her from morning to night, and even prepared a soft cross-body bag for it. She would read it every day in the shade of a tree under the sun, learning the knowledge in it.

But today, Mia was destined to be unable to continue her daily life.

Because of the noise, for some reason, everyone stopped working today. They dragged shovels from the mountains and carried hoes from the fields. They all ran back and gathered in the barracks outside the town, making a lot of noise.

Even though she was hundreds of meters away, Mia could hear the excited shouting of the country guys, which made her unable to rest.

After enduring for a long time, Mia finally couldn't bear it anymore. With a sigh, she gently closed the book, put it gently into her bag, put two fingers into her mouth, and whistled.

A whistle sounded, and soon a few pig grunts were heard from behind the bushes not far away. A big white pig slowly walked out from the bushes, its big belly shaking, and roared with its mouth open, responding to Mia's call.

Aisha looked up with some dissatisfaction and glared at Mia with her two glass eyes. She was taller and fatter than before, but she immediately ran towards Mia in small steps.

Aisha is very fat. She is now more than two meters long, fat and strong, with thick and powerful forelimbs, the muscles on her shoulders faintly visible under the skin, round and firm buttocks, slightly arched back, and a small saddle on her back.

Mia brushed the grass off her butt, stepped on the footrest on the pig's belly, turned over and sat on it, kicked the pig's belly with her heels, and pointed at the crowd gathered in front of the military camp.

"Come on, Aisha, let's go take a look."

Aisha also saw the gathered crowd and immediately became interested. In her impression, when humans gathered together, it was mostly because there was food there.

So, Aisha excitedly spread out her four hooves and galloped towards the military camp.

Children in the city probably don’t have the opportunity to see pigs running. When they think of pigs, they always think of the image of pigs walking slowly, and then think that pigs are clumsy creatures.

However, this impression is not comprehensive in nature. When necessary, pigs can also run, and the larger the tonnage of the pig, the more astonishing speed it can burst out when sprinting.

The phrase "pig rushes forward" is enough to explain it all.

Aisha completely ignored the bushes and ditches that stood in her way. She just lowered her head and ran into them. She only went in a straight line and didn't bother taking detours.

It only took Aisha a minute to take Mia to the gate of the military camp, outside the crowd.

When Elsa stopped, Mia brushed off the dirt, grass clippings, and branches on her body, turned over and jumped off the pig's back.

Riding a pig is definitely not easier than riding a horse, and it can even be said to be more difficult, but Mia has gotten used to it, and when Elsa runs, she also pays attention to the ups and downs behind her, trying her best not to throw her away.

Despite this, bumps are inevitable, and riders need to pay more attention to oncoming debris.

Just like now.

After tidying up her appearance, Mia followed Aisha's example and walked towards the crowd with square steps. She didn't need to squeeze in, just watching and listening from outside, and she understood what was happening here.

A man with long hair was shouting loudly in the crowd. His face was red, he was dancing, and his open mouth was spewing a lot of saliva.

"Why don't you let me participate? I'm so strong!!!"

The man was shouting with all his might, his voice was shrill, snot and saliva were flowing from his face, he looked so dirty and miserable that the people nearby tried their best to squeeze out a small space for him.

However, despite the man's tumbling and rolling about, the clerk sitting behind a desk near the barracks gate remained unmoved, neither shaken nor sympathetic. "988, your work points are 158. The labor squadron leader, team leader, and women's labor committee member have all given you a below-average performance rating.

This proves that you are habitually lazy in your daily work and fail to complete your work targets in time.

The militia brigade is currently recruiting grain transporters, who need at least 200 work points. Two of the three evaluations are above average, and you fail to meet both criteria."

The clerk's well-reasoned rebuttal left the lazy man speechless, but it was impossible to let him leave in disgrace.

The remuneration for the grain transport team members is written on the side.

For each trip, each person can get a ten-pound bag of refined rice and ten pounds of fine flour. If a battle occurs, the grain transport team will be needed to participate. As long as they make some gains and kill an enemy, they can get ten silver dollars. If they unfortunately die in battle, they can get a fifty-silver dollar allowance.

If you perform well in battle and kill two or more enemies, you can be transferred to the militia. (Note: the grain protection militia also has rewards, and they are more generous)

Not to mention the benefits of silver dollars and militia land, let’s just talk about rice. For the locals in Beach Town, this is really a rare commodity.

After Chris came here, he changed the original staple food of rice into coarse grains and flour. The reason was that rice was expensive. Even broken rice would cost about one dollar and thirty cents per pound if it was wholesaled in large quantities.

The local staple food crops are wheat, barley, rye, oats and buckwheat. Wheat is a refined grain that requires careful care, good weather, and fertile land to have a good harvest.

Therefore, the people of Beach Town basically eat porridge and bread made from barley and rye all their lives.

Unlike the 21st century with developed productivity, in Bagnia, a country where handicrafts are still the main productive force, barley and rye that are cooked into porridge after primary processing or even without shelling are actually not tasty.

One of the things that makes them unpalatable is their hoarse throat.

If you want barley, rye, and wheat to taste good, they must go through a coarse grinding process, a fine grinding process, and then sifting three or more times to get fine wheat flour.

Except for the industrial age, ordinary people and even small nobles in the handicraft age could hardly afford such fine food.

Not to mention rice, which requires a lot of water, careful care from farmers, good weather, and fertile land to harvest.

People in Beach Town had only heard of rice, but had basically never had the chance to eat it.

It wasn't until Chris came that the country folks in Beach Town had the opportunity to taste the broken rice porridge a few times.

Therefore, in the eyes of everyone in Biqi Town, the militia is definitely a popular position, not only because of the twenty acres of militia land, but also because as a militiaman, you will have the opportunity to eat at least one meal of dry rice with two large pieces of fat meat every day.

The militiamen would not feel bad if they could not eat rice, because they would have the opportunity to eat steamed buns made from all-purpose flour.

It is no exaggeration to say that in the eyes of the militiamen, the steamed buns that modern people think are dry are sweet in their mouths. They can eat a big bowl of them without any side dishes.

Now, as a member of the grain transport team, you can get ten kilograms of rice and ten kilograms of flour by walking along the mountain road. In the eyes of the country folk in Biqi Town, this is simply worth it.

If it weren't for the work of the grain transport team, they would never have the chance to eat fine grains in their entire lives.

Some people may find it difficult to understand, but in times of war and famine, these twenty kilograms of fine grains are enough to kill several people.

Birds die for food, and so do humans.

After the treatment of the grain transport team was written out, most people in Beach Town signed up enthusiastically. They were not worried that Prince Chris would cheat them. Eating the prince's food for a month was enough to prove that His Royal Highness the Prince had a strong credit.

He said that he returned to Bagnia to prevent people from starving to death. Now in the town of Biqi ruled by the prince, no one starves to death, and even lazy people who don't work can get three meals of porridge every day.

This is the most difficult promise to fulfill, and Prince Chris has done it very well so far. Even the most picky people cannot say against their will that this is not a good thing... If he dares to say it, those who drink His Royal Highness the Prince's multi-grain porridge will beat him up.

The militia signed up enthusiastically, eager to follow Prince Chris to join the war.

Death is terrible, but poverty is even worse.

Compared to dying of starvation in bed or on the roadside, or being shot or killed by arrows on the battlefield, it is a merciful relief.

The people of Beach Town, who had been starving since childhood, not only believed the rumor that Prince Chris was short of food and wanted to go to war, but also firmly supported his actions.

Farmers all have a simple idea...it is better to die in the war than to starve to death at home with your wife and children.

The militiamen and townspeople were convinced that if they died fighting for Prince Chris on the battlefield, he would never let his families starve to death at home.

The lazy guy who was not chosen was still throwing a tantrum, but when the clerk coldly announced the next one, he was lifted up by everyone and thrown out of the crowd.

With a "thump", the lazy guy fell right in front of Mia. When he knelt on the ground, pounded the ground hard, and cried unwillingly, he woke up Aisha.

So the big white pig took two steps back, then rushed forward and bumped its nose into the lazy man's face.

All of a sudden, the lazy guy flew up half a meter with his head raised. When he fell to the ground again, blood was gushing from his nose and he was motionless.

Mia knew that the lazy guy was fine, he just fainted, and Elsa was showing mercy.

Since he's not dead, that means everything is fine.

So Mia leisurely walked around the lazy man lying on the ground and ran towards another exit of the military camp.

All the people who signed up to join the grain protection team here have blocked the main gate, and it is impossible to rush in even if you ride Aisha.

So, Mia needs to find another way out.

Why do you insist on going in?

Because Mia also wants to go to the war, she wants to help good-looking people, and she thinks she can help... This is what Aisha said, it said that Mia has a talent for war.

(End of this chapter)