Great time travel

Chapter 49. Inescapable Death
The plane of "Doraemon", a Japanese restaurant in Nerima District, Tokyo

"...to celebrate Doraemon-kun paying off his debts and getting rid of the troubles of usury! Cheers!"

Sitting in a large box with tatami mats, Wang Qiu, Ma Tong, Professor Guo, Ju Chuan Shizuka, Nan Lixiang, Hansel, Gretel, Nobita Nobi, Minamoto Shizuka, Kou Chuan, Takeda Takeda , and Doraemon's younger sister, Dorami, raised their glasses together to congratulate Doraemon.

"...Good, good! Cheers, everyone! Cheers! Hey, in the past few days, I understand how hard it is to be in debt to usury."

Doraemon blushed and drank a glass of sake in one gulp, and said with emotion, "...Everyone, let your stomachs go and eat as much as you want! This meal is my treat!"

After everyone clinked glasses with each other, they also drank one gulp, then put down the cups in their hands, and started to attack the assortment of Japanese dishes on the table - on several tables arranged in the shape of a back, there were raw tuna, Japanese Japanese style fried shrimp, thick egg yaki, octopus balls, chawanmushi, grilled saury, tempura, tonkatsu, beef sukiyaki and other Japanese dishes, as well as Dorayaki, which is essential for Doraemon.Although the number of dishes is pitifully small, the colors are very bright and lively. Adults drink sake, and minors drink fruit juice and cola, and they enjoy themselves for a while.

"...Hey, if it wasn't for the usury owed by Doraemon, perhaps it would be impossible for all of us to gather here..."

A clear and mellow liquid slowly flowed from the small white porcelain bottle into the small wine cup the size of a thumb belly again. The purple-haired and brown-skinned Nan Lixiang was obviously a little drunk at this time, so she took a drink from the wine glass, Then staring at the empty wine cup, he muttered incoherently: "...It's really a good thing, by the way, Wang Qiujun, do you still remember, when was the first time you drank in your life?"

"...I'm sorry, I don't quite remember." Wang Qiu, who was pouring wine for her from the bottle, replied, "...it must have been a long time ago."

"...Really, what a pity..." Nan Lixiang continued after drinking another glass of sake for herself, "...I still remember that the first time I drank was before I participated in the first battle, when everyone was a police student , but suddenly went to encircle and suppress the gangsters with guns. Everyone was very uncertain and didn't care about discipline, so they raised some money to find some wine to calm the shock. In the end, I was choked and spilled half of the wine on the ground... …In retrospect, among those students who secretly drank at that time, I was probably the only one who was still alive. Life is really a helpless thing..."

Recalling the past that happened in another world, the eyes of the former policewoman Nan Lixiang suddenly seemed to become a little hazy.

"...Then you're such an obedient boy, Big Sister Nan, you probably didn't drink alcohol for the first time until you were of the legal age! Unlike us curious bad boys who secretly collected money for drinks in middle school... ...Although it's just some beer and canned rum..."

Wang Qiu smiled and clinked glasses with her, then tilted his neck and drank the sake in his glass - this kind of Japanese sake is sweet and tastes like low-alcohol rice wine, but it is difficult to taste. It is a little sticky to the mouth, and has a lingering aftertaste... But the alcohol content is actually much higher than that of rice wine. Wang Qiu, who miscalculated this and has an average drinker, already felt a little dizzy after drinking a few cups.

"... Doraemon, first of all congratulations on paying off your debts and getting what you want! Second, after paying off so many usury loans with high interest rates, do you still have money to pay the bill for today's banquet? No At that time, let the store deduct it and tell you to wash the dishes to pay for it!"

He yelled at Doraemon through his drunkenness, "... Otherwise, we'd better treat you here, don't force yourself for the sake of face..."

"...should...no problem, right! I paid off the usury owed to the bank, and the money I borrowed from Kazuki Koizumi's 'organization' before, and paid off the credit for buying magical props at the future department store, In the end, there are about 2000 million yen left... No matter how you calculate, it should be enough!"

Doraemon, who also drank a lot of alcohol, said with a little inarticulate, "...so... just eat and drink as much as you want!"

"...What? The last remaining fraction alone is 2000 million yuan? This income is really good!"

Hearing this number, Mr. Gu Chuan, who was not very clear about the amount of Doraemon's debts, immediately held up a glass of juice and was very speechless, "...you have been angels and heroes this time, and you have saved the world. Thousands of Limin people can earn so much money, it is really both fame and fortune!"

——Wang Qiu and Ma Tong exchanged glances, deciding not to expose some unscrupulous and inhuman shady scenes, so as not to poison the hearts of children.

But Professor Guo hiccupped and sneered, "...Save the people? Hey, maybe! We did drag some people out of the hell of the Black Death, but who knows what will happen next Is theirs another, more terrifying hell?"

——This slightly ironic remark immediately aroused the unanimous dissatisfaction of Wang Qiu and others: no matter how many private goods were caught in the process of saving sentient beings and how much money was squeezed out, at least so many lives were lost because of time travel. They survived through the hard work of the survivors, so they always think that they are merciful and meritorious... It is unbearable to be so dismissive by Professor Guo now!

"...What do you mean by this old saying? Could it be that we are wrong to save these medieval Europeans?" Ju Chuan Shizuka frowned.

"... Saving lives is of course absolutely right no matter what the era, but doing a good job of dealing with the aftermath is even more difficult."

Professor Guo stretched out his hand and poured himself a glass of sake, and replied slowly, "...During the European Black Death catastrophe in 1348, relying on Doraemon's magical props, we saved Marseille and Avignon Weng, saved Rome, as well as Toulon, Nice, Florence, Pisa, Padua, Verona, Venice, Athens, Geneva, Vienna, Barcelona... and many other famous European cities, allowing millions of citizens to live down. But have you noticed that there is a common problem among these saved places?"

"...the common problem? I really can't see it." Wang Qiu rolled his eyes and thought about it, but still couldn't come up with anything.

"...the common problem is that these are big cities! Most of the medieval Europeans we saved were urban populations!"

Professor Guo sighed, "...But what about the countryside? The agricultural population in the countryside is still dying in large numbers due to the Black Death! And the cities don't grow crops, and there is no way to grow food! Don't forget, There were no pesticides in Europe in the Middle Ages! With chemical fertilizers and agricultural machinery, the grain output per unit of land area was terribly low, and even a single farmer might not have enough surplus products to feed a city population that was detached from the land!

Under the ravages of the Black Death, agricultural production has collapsed, and the remaining farmers can't even support themselves. What should the citizens eat? "

——In an instant, the wine glasses in everyone's hands fell to the ground together, and the expressions on their faces were even more unpredictable and shocking...

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As we all know, since the population, power and wealth are all concentrated in the cities, all the "angels come" and rescue operations by the traversers take the central cities as the stage.As for the sparsely populated and wealth-poor medieval European countryside, it is gorgeously ignored.

Therefore, when the epidemic in those urban agglomerations in Italy was gradually brought under control and began to calm down, the death frenzy of the Black Death was still rampant in the remote countryside.Whole villages are often exterminated.Whether it is day or night, many people always die on the road.And more people died at home, and the neighbors would not notice until the corpses rotted and stink-if the neighbors didn't die first.

Even in the Italian peninsula, which had the highest level of urbanization in Europe at that time, the rural population still accounted for more than 75% of the total population.Because the agriculture in medieval Europe was not developed enough, the poor peasants could not squeeze out too much surplus food to supply the excessive urban population after feeding themselves and the lord's belly... In this case, the rural population because of The Black Death raged and continued to die in large numbers, but the urban population benefited from the "angel's arrival" and more people survived. Then the chain of agricultural production and food supply in this area would collapse instantly, and those who had just received the "angel's arrival" would collapse instantly. "'s rescue from the plague, secretly rejoicing the joyful citizens, will soon usher in another round of nightmares of full-scale famine!

Alas, for these medieval European citizens who have suffered eight lifetimes of misfortune, this is the real "just out of the tiger's den, and back into the wolf's den"!

What's more terrible is that even those farmers who survived the ravages of Yersinia pestis and survived by luck and resistance may not continue to farm well in this era of panic and despair-according to the traveler We have seen with our own eyes that in this terrible plague, the vast majority of farmers saw the doomsday coming, thinking that the time of death had come, and they were no longer willing to do farm work, and only cared about using the last time to eat and eat. Drink, let the wheat and fruits rot in the fields, and the cattle, sheep, chickens and ducks flee to no one knows where.Under the shadow of death, the country women abandoned their chastity, and the country men forgot their morality, drinking and drinking day and night, gathering in groups for prostitution... and then died suddenly in the depraved carnival!

Obviously, after the plague passed, even if some farmers survived by chance, they might have already delayed their farming work. After eating up what they and their neighbors could find, they could only wander all the way to the In the cities, they compete with the citizens for the few remaining grains, or they look forward to the relief from the government... But in this era, grain production is based on a yearly cycle. Where should the government get this much grain for all the people? Eat last year?So that they can persist until the next round of crop harvest?This seems like an impossible task!
——The whole of Europe is almost in such a situation. Even if you want to import food with coins, you can't find a place to buy it...

At that time, the rulers of all countries will regret it one after another, thinking that there are too many people who survived the plague and need to eat!

As a result, a considerable number of citizens who have just escaped from the clutches of the Black Death will die of starvation or violence among each other in the near future before they have time to cheer and celebrate—after all, this world is material and pious Faith cannot replace bread after all. As more and more people are hungry and driven mad by hunger, the social order is bound to collapse again before the next season of grain harvest: as a city that needs continuous input of foreign materials, once the basic If the logistics system and currency payment system fail, its order will collapse far faster than in the countryside.Gangs of bandits of all stripes would then overrun, hunting down any one of their kind for a morsel of bread, just to keep themselves alive.

And in the countryside where there is still food production, those farmers who own land and crops will also have to take up arms and kill those who want to get something for nothing, or be killed and looted by them... Just like the end of many dynasties in China where bandits are rampant , like the tragic scene of purgatory that happened.

In short, people who have escaped the plague by chance will take up arms for their own stomachs. No matter whether it is law, belief or morality, they can't stop this cruel killing for survival-mass death will continue and will continue forever. Until the gap in food supply is smoothed by death.

——As Stalin famously said, death may not solve problems, but at least it can eliminate them!
What's even more regrettable is that even Doraemon's magical props seem to be unable to solve such a big problem that affects the whole society.

In fact, they could not even stop the Black Death from destroying the European countryside and destroying agricultural production.

Thinking of this, except for a few primary school students who didn't quite understand, everyone in the restaurant felt a little sad. They didn't even know whether they should hope that more people would survive the plague, or let them die according to the historical trajectory , so as not to suffer another disaster of famine and riot.

"...From this point of view, what we did in Europe in the Middle Ages is probably really just pulling them out of one hell, taking a breather in the world, and then falling into the next purgatory... Those who were originally destined People who are going to die, I am afraid they will die soon..."

After a long silence, Doraemon took a sip of wine with dorayaki, then sighed with compassion on his face and said——After all the loan sharks were paid off, the value of morality in him, which had already fallen to the bottom, seemed to start to rise again. There was a slow rebound, "... First, it gave hope to those who were already desperate, and then pushed them into even more bottomless despair... Sigh, it feels like we are really guilty..."