A Tale of Strategies For the Throne - 25. Chapter 25

Vernal City, a city known for its prosperous trade, at the same time, because the largest tributary of the Enki River, one of the two mother rivers of Aaron Landis, surrounds the city, therefore, it is also Aaron The most important food producing area southwest of Landis.

The Wiener River has brought abundant river water and fertile soil to the city, coupled with the subtropical climate, making the city’s crops twice a year.

However, the existence of this big river also has pros and cons. During the rainy season of each year, the Wiener River will rise. If the amount of water is too much, it will break the river embankment, overflow the farmland and the city, and cause flooding. The city of Wiener has suffered from floods many times in history. Therefore, repairing and strengthening the embankment of the Wiener River is the top priority of the successive Wiener City consuls.

In the kingdom of Aaron Landis, there are two ways to rule the city.

One is the family inheritance, father to son, blood inheritance, as long as the current city lord reports his heirs to be approved by the king.

The second type is directly under the jurisdiction of the city. The city is directly under the jurisdiction of the royal city. There is no city owner. The governor sent by the royal city is responsible for the management. Generally speaking, the governor is changed for three years.

And Wiener City is the second kind.

After two days and two nights of horse riding and galloping, King Camos finally came to the vicinity of Venar City.

On the third day of arriving here, near noon, King Camos was riding a horse on a high mountain, and the whistling wind passed over his brown hair. He looked down at the huge city surrounded by river water, his golden brown eyes faintly seemed to be passing by, and he was meditating, as if thinking about something.

A little white hand stretched out, tugged him, and woke him up from contemplation. He looked down at the little brother who was tugging himself, and smiled.

“Brother Wang, I want to go down.”

Garlan, who was held by Camos sitting in front, tilted his head and said to Camos.

“good.”

Camos said with a smile, rolled over and dismounted, and patted his dark old man on the neck. The black horse neighed low and turned his head, reflecting the sun, and the dark fur flashed like silk in the sun. Moving with a beautiful luster.

As soon as he stretched out his hand, Camos took Garlan down and placed it on the ground.

Garlan took two steps forward, and the wind with a jungle breath passed over his cheeks, bringing a strange smell he couldn’t smell in the royal city.

When standing on the top of the mountain and looking down at the bottom, you can capture all of that huge city. He didn’t know what the city looked like before, but at this moment, one-fifth of the city was covered by yellow-brown sewage. The muddy water crisscrossed the city and surrounded the collapsed buildings.

Outside the city, the vast expanse of farmland that was supposed to be aquamarine square at this time was swallowed by muddy water. Occasionally a part of it is exposed to the water, and there is no greenery in the mud field, only the ugly yellow-brown.

Gallan could see that in the city of Wiener, there was probably no crop in this season in the first half of this year.

While Garlan was still looking down at the flood-stricken city below, King Camos, who had been pondering for a long time, spoke.

“Gallan, get ready, let’s go down and take a look.”

“Okay, Brother Wang.”

After arriving near the city of Venar, King Camos did not directly bring the five hundred cavalry into the city, but deliberately went around a big bend, found a shelter in the dense forest next to the city, and camped. Down.

Then, he sent dozens of soldiers disguised and went out to inquire about the situation in the city separately. Gallan could see from King Camos’s face. The news he inquired about was probably not very good. Although Brother Wang was still smiling at him, he could feel the surrounding brother Wang during the past two days. A raging anger.

“What are you thinking?”

Seeing King Kamos who was busy changing his clothes after returning to the camp, Xie Muer frowned and asked.

“Go out and stroll around.”

Camos answered it for granted.

He has taken off his dark brown leather armor and replaced it with ordinary riding clothes. Moreover, the slightly loose looking riding outfit, long-sleeved trousers, can well hide the strong muscle marks on his arms and legs, making him look like an ordinary tall man.

He thought for a while, and said, “Call Hiemos here, too.”

Prince Huimos, who was arranged by Camos to stay in a cavalry squad, soon came over, and then was thrown away an inconspicuous clothing and asked him to change into it.

After finishing packing, Camos took the two princes and a dozen cavalry, disguised as ordinary nobles passing by the city and set off. Of course, he didn’t ride the dark horse Tucker, the king of that horse was so conspicuous, he just found an ordinary horse at random.

Garlan sat in front of King Camos, and as the horses ran under him, the huge city on the horizon slowly appeared in front of him from far to near.

When I looked down from the mountain, I already felt that the disaster was terrible, and when I looked closer, it became more shocking.

The elevated road in the middle was half-covered by shallow water, and it had become a muddy road. Running horses stomped heavily on the muddy muddy water, splashing the muddy water out.

Most of the farmland on both sides of the land lower than the road was completely submerged by yellow-brown sewage. It can be clearly seen that large tracts of crops that are about to mature are lying down in the muddy water, almost all of them have been soaked.

King Camos, who took the lead, took the reins and slowed down. Gallan turned his head and looked around, only to see some poorly-dressed peasants, or serfs, standing sparsely in the flooded farmland.

Most of their faces are withered and extremely old, with wrinkles on their foreheads.

They stood barefoot in the mud, staring at the soaked crops in a daze. There were also some old women squatting in the mud with unclothed children, picking out the crops that were not so badly soaked one by one, and putting them into the mud-filled bamboo baskets.

These serfs, who had lost most of their work for half a year, did not show grief on their faces. Their expressions were more sluggish, there was no light in their eyes, a kind of numbness of recognizing their lives. But it is this expression of insensitivity and hopelessness that makes people feel more heavy.

Approaching the gate, Garlan raised his head and looked at the huge gate. Soldiers guarded the gates of the city closely, and they had to check in and out. Two places that seemed to be refugee shelters were set up near the gate of the city. From a distance, you could see a large earthen pot cooking porridge.

Gallan turned to look at King Camos behind him. Camos seemed to have seen there too, nodded slightly, but soon frowned again.

Because the so-called food relief point is not right. It stands to reason that there is a place where food is distributed free of charge. The refugees who have been affected by the disaster should flock to it. However, in the place where the porridge is served, there are only a few very old people. Ask for porridge.

Camos turned his head, whispered a few words to a guard behind him, and then the guard dismounted and went to the asylum to investigate the situation. The others dismounted at the gate of the city and looked around while waiting.

Garlan thought for a while, and ran to the porridge spot on the left, leaning over, and looking at the crock pot.

The porridge soldier standing there was bored and wanted to drive people away. He looked like a cute child. The child approached the steaming porridge pot, looked inside, sniffed hard, and looked up. Looked at him innocently.

“Is this delicious?”

The soldier chuckled.

“Little guy, doesn’t it smell good?”

He also saw the child’s cuteness, so he ridiculed a few words.

“Go back and find something your adult wants to eat. This is not something you can eat.”

As he said, he stretched out his hand, trying to squeeze the little child’s face.

But before the soldier’s hand had time to reach it, a hand stretched out from behind to grab the child, pulling and pulling, dragging the child backward.

Himos, who was chasing, dragged Garland behind him, blocking the soldier’s sight without a trace. Then, he smiled and apologized to the soldier, then grabbed Garlan and walked back.

“Himos.”

“what?”

“There is water in it, not porridge at all.”

Garlan remembered the so-called porridge he had just seen. The bottom was clearly visible. There were some wild vegetables floating on the water, and there was almost no grain in sight.

“……Yes.”

The boy replied, his hand holding Garlan has not been loosened since just now, and it has been held tightly.

He said, “Next time what you want to do, tell me and I will do it for you.”

Without noticing that Huimos was holding his hand tightly, Gallan was still looking left and right. Suddenly, his pupils shrank sharply.

He saw the edge of the city wall, near the river, where there were mountains of corpses, many of which were soaked in the water. The corpses were soaked in the water and rotten, emitting a rancid smell, attracting countless people. Flies and bugs crawled on the carrion.

Moreover, from time to time, soldiers took new bodies and threw them there at will.

……no.

Doing so will definitely cause a plague. This river is the water source of the city. After drinking the river water, the people in Venal City who finally survived the flood will probably die again.

Gallan thought.

After going back, he must tell Brother Wang about this.

…………

Everyone slowly turned around in the city of Venar. The rich and powerful areas in the city were okay, with only traces of floods remaining, but many houses in ordinary residential areas and slum areas collapsed, and It seems that it has not been rebuilt, it is full of ruined and broken wood, lying on the ground in a mess, and even occasionally a few uncontained corpses are seen under the collapsed house.

They wandered for a long time, and did not leave the city until the evening, and then hurried back to the camp deep in the forest.

King Camos frowned. It was not the first time he had come to Venal City. Therefore, he was very unhappy when he saw that the bustling and bustling city in the past turned into the deadly silence of the present.

He knew that such things as natural disasters could not be predicted and resisted by manpower, and he could not use natural disasters to blame the officials of Venal City.

but……

But what if this is not a complete natural disaster?

You know, when the city of Wiener was in the disaster, he immediately allocated a large number of supplies to the disaster relief.

If the officials are effective, the city should not be what it is now after more than a month.

With the return of King Camos and others, the soldiers who went out to inquire about the news in the day also returned one after another and reported what they had heard to Camos.

“It is said that several refugees died of diarrhea after eating the porridge. After that, few refugees went to eat.”

“It is true that a large quantity of food was delivered into the city of Vénar. However, in the past month or so, only two foods have been distributed to the city residents, and the amount is not large. According to estimates, more than half of the food allocated should be left. .”

“It’s the same with medicines. I’ve heard about them, and they just gave out some herbal medicines symbolically.”

“Those fishermen by the river said that since the second half of last year, the embankment of the Wiener River has rarely started and maintained.”

Upon hearing this, King Camos, who had been sitting quietly, smiled.

“Those guys continue to say that the food and medicine consumption of Wiener City is extremely high, and a large amount of relief supplies need to be allocated again.”

He said that the understatement and the indifferent tone gave people a great sense of oppression for some reason.

Everyone stood in place, their heads down, silent at this moment.

King Camos said: “The consul of this city, since last year, has been asking me for money and food to repair the river embankment–”

He said, word by word, the last few words were almost forced out of his teeth.

“King Camos!”

A hurried shout came from outside, the curtain was lifted, and the priest of Shamash walked in quickly with a sullen face.

“Please come out and have a look.”

Standing at the door, he kept the posture of opening the curtain of the camp and said to Camos, a faint cry of weeping faintly came from behind him.

Camos walked out quickly, and everyone in the camp also followed out, and Garlan was no exception.

As soon as he went out, he saw twenty or thirty people kneeling on the ground. Among them were several women, holding two children, sobbing in low voices, with an expression of uncertainty on their faces.

“what happened?”

King Camos glanced at the kneeling man and asked.

“I brought a few people to investigate the thieves around here, but it was strange, many people couldn’t explain it clearly, and I also saw the terrain around here, and there were no traces of places suitable for thieves’ dens.”

Xiemuer replied.

“On the way back, we happened to encounter this group of people being attacked by thieves… Those thieves are very strange, they actually have a lot of weapons and horses. And it stands to reason that they came out as thieves to rob for money, but they did it. Go and attack these refugees who have lost their property in the flood.”

“I think their main purpose seems to be to take away women and children from the crowd.”

The surrounding air cooled down a little bit and settled down, as if an invisible aura radiated from King Camos who was silently listening to Sheemur’s words.

King Aaron Landis stood there, in the dark night, the light of the burning torch next to him was reflected in his golden brown eyes, making his eyes light up as if there was fire burning at this moment.

The cavalry on the side lowered their heads in silence, and the kneeling people fell deeply on the ground, and the atmosphere did not dare to take a breath. Even the ignorant children stopped crying as if they were afraid of something at this moment.

The frightening Lion King, just standing there, he was terrible enough to make people unable to breathe.

“King Camos, I suspect that the so-called large group of thieves reported to us were disguised as soldiers.”

Xie Muer continued speaking with a gloomy expression.

“Under the instigation of some people, taking advantage of the floods that have caused many people to suffer, when it is difficult to count the dead and missing people, let the army disguise as thieves to abduct the surviving citizens, especially women and children, for use. human trafficking……”

As soon as he said this, he was suddenly interrupted.

Only hearing the loud bang, King Camos slapped his hand heavily on the big tree beside him.

“Those people…damn it!”

He said that when he said the last two words, his voice was terribly low.

The golden-brown eyes looked like flames burning, that was the look in the eyes of a beast that had been angered.

Natural disasters may be terrible, but more terrible than natural disasters are man-made disasters!

“The whole city of Wiener, from top to bottom, should be cleaned again.”

The young king gave a terrible command in a calm tone.

Camos thought that it was probably because he had been patronizing the border to fight with other countries in the past few years, instead of killing people in Aaron Landis, so some assholes thought they were easy to talk.

It’s time to let those guys see the blood again, know the preciousness of life-and let them remember the fear of the’Lion King’ again.

“Get on the horse.”

As soon as King Camos’ words fell, the cavalry on the scene turned on their horses almost within a second, ready to go.

The steed underneath them snorted and sprayed heat, and their hoofs were scratching the ground.

As long as their king gives an order, they will rush into the city of Venal and bloodlessly wash away the greedy guys who have angered their king.

“Wait a minute, King Camos.”

Xiemuer stopped Camos.

“Not yet.”

He said, “Following the so-called thieves, I have found the places where their abducted people are held, and I can rescue them at any time.”

He shook his head.

“However, I couldn’t find the children who were taken away. I didn’t find any of them. I suspect that they moved those children to another place with some ulterior motive.”

“It’s very simple for us to solve those guys in the city, but I’m very worried that in order to protect themselves, they will frantically annihilate the criminal evidence-and solve all the children secretly, in this case…”

Xiemuer hadn’t spoken yet, and someone cried out and interrupted him.

A man kneeling on the ground was crying and kowtow to Xie Muer desperately.

“Please! Please! Save my daughter! She is so young, she is only five years old—”

As soon as the man cried, other people who were holding back also cried and pleaded.

“And my child-he was arrested yesterday.”

“My son must be alive, he must be alive, please help me to rescue him!”

There were even children who rushed over and hugged Xiemur’s leg while crying, begging him to save his brother.

Xie Mu’er pursed his lips, resisting the discomfort of being soiled by the dirty child, did not push the child away, but turned his head to look at King Camos.

“In a short period of time, it may be difficult for us to find those children who have been taken away.” He frowned tightly and said, “However, over time, I am very worried about what will happen, especially once our traces are exposed. Those people will destroy the evidence of crimes first, and those children are likely to be…”

For a while, except for the cries of people who knelt on the ground and kept kowtow, the night was very quiet.

All the cavalry were silent, including King Camos who was already riding on his horse. He was meditating, as if thinking about something.

In this cry, it seemed to hear a long sigh.

Then, a child’s clear, soft voice sounded in the dark night.

“If you are a kid, there is one here.”

Under the reddish fire, the pale golden hair of the little prince who was speaking with his fingers flashed bright and soft in the dark, as if there was a light halo on his head.

“Let them take me away and you will know where the children were sent.”