A Tale of Strategies For the Throne

The city of Vinal, a city famous for its prosperous trade, at the same time, because the Venal River, the largest tributary of the Enki River, one of the two mother rivers of Aaron Landis, surrounds the city, so it is also the The most important food producing area in the southwest of Landis.

The Vinal River brought abundant water and fertile soil to the city, coupled with the subtropical climate, the city's crops are harvested twice a year.

However, the existence of this great river also has advantages and disadvantages.During the high water season every year, the Vinal River will rise. If there is too much water, it will break the embankment, overflow the farmland and the city, and cause floods.The city of Vinal has suffered from floods many times in history. Therefore, the maintenance and reinforcement of the embankment of the Vinal River is the top priority of the work of the successive consuls of Vinal.

In the kingdom of Aaron Landis, there are two ways of governing cities.

One is family inheritance, father to son, blood inheritance, as long as the current city lord declares his desired heir and gets the royal approval of the king.

The second type is directly under the city, a city directly under the jurisdiction of Wangcheng, without a city owner, and is managed by a consul sent by Wangcheng, and the consul generally changes every three years.

And the city of Wiener is the second type.

After two days and two nights of galloping on horseback, King Kamos and his party finally arrived near the city of Vinal.

On the third day after arriving here, near noon, King Kamos stood on a high mountain on horseback, and the whistling wind brushed his brown hair.He looked down at the huge city surrounded by rivers below, something seemed to pass by in his golden brown eyes, he was meditating, as if he was thinking about something.

A small white hand stretched out and tugged him, waking him up from his contemplation. He looked down at his little brother who had tugged him, and smiled.

"Brother Wang, I want to go down."

Garlan, who was sitting in front of Kamos' arms, tilted his head and said to Kamos.

"it is good."

Kamos said with a smile, got off his horse, and patted the neck of his dark old man. The black horse neighed in a low voice, then turned its head, reflecting the sun, its dark fur shone like satin in the sun. Moving beautiful luster.

As soon as he stretched out his hand, Kamos hugged Garlan down and put him on the ground.

Garlan took two steps forward, and the wind with the scent of the jungle passed over his cheeks, bringing with him a strange smell that he couldn't smell in the royal city.

When standing on the top of the mountain and looking down, you can see the huge city in full view.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, and the muddy water crisscrossed the city, surrounding those collapsed buildings.

And outside the city, most of the large expanse of farmland that should have been emerald green at this time was swallowed up by the turbid water.Occasionally, a part of it is exposed to the surface of the water, and there is no green in the muddy field, only an ugly yellow-brown.

Garlan could tell that in the city of Vinal, in the first half of this year, the food crops for this season were probably in vain.

While Garlan was still looking down at the flooded city below, King Kamos, who had been thinking for a long time, spoke.

"Garlan, get ready, let's go down and have a look."

"Okay, Brother Wang."

After arriving near the city of Vinal, King Kamos did not directly bring the five hundred cavalry into the city, but deliberately made a big detour, found a hidden place in the dense forest next to the city, and set up camp. down.

Then, he sent dozens of soldiers disguised and went out to investigate the situation of the city separately.Garlan could tell from King Kamos's face that the news he found out might not be very good. Although Brother Wang still smiled at him, he could feel the people who surrounded him during the past two days. A wave of rage.

"What are you thinking about?"

Looking at King Kamos who was busy changing his clothes after returning to the camp, Ximuer frowned and asked.

"Go out for a walk."

Kamos answered as a matter of course.

He had already taken off his dark brown leather armor and put on ordinary riding clothes.What's more, it looks like a slightly loose riding suit, with long sleeves and trousers, which can well cover up the traces of strong muscles on his arms and legs, making him look like an ordinary tall man.

He thought for a while and said, "Call Heymos over."

Prince Heymos, who was arranged by Kamos to stay in a team of cavalry, soon came over, and then was thrown away an inconspicuous dress for him to change into.

After tidying up, Kamos took the two princes and a dozen cavalrymen, pretending to be ordinary nobles passing through the city, and set off.Of course, he didn't ride the black horse Tucker, the king of horses was too conspicuous, he just found an ordinary horse at random.

Garlan sat in front of King Kamos, and with the galloping horse beneath him, the huge city on the horizon slowly appeared in front of his eyes from far to near.

When looking down from the high mountain, I already felt that the disaster was terrible, but when I got closer to see it, it was even more shocking.

The raised road in the middle was half covered by shallow water, and it had become a muddy road. The running horseshoes stomped heavily on the muddy muddy water, splashing the muddy water out.

Most of the farmlands on both sides that were lower than the road were completely submerged in the yellowish-brown sewage, and it was clear that large areas of crops that were about to mature were lying in the muddy water, and almost all of them had been soaked.

The leader, King Kamos, reined in the reins and slowed down. Garlan turned his head and looked around, only to see some poorly dressed peasants, or rather serfs, standing sparsely in the flooded farmland.

Most were haggard and terribly aged, with lines lining 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 muddy water with their naked children, picking out the crops that were not soaked very bad one by one, and putting them into bamboo baskets full of mud.

These serfs who had lost half a year's labor and were about to starve did not show any expressions of grief on their faces. Their expressions were more dull, with no light in their eyes, a kind of numbness of accepting their fate. But it is this insensitive expression, without the slightest hope for life, that makes people feel even more heavy-hearted.

Approaching the city gate, Garlan looked up at the huge city gate.There are soldiers guarding the gate of the city closely, and they must check when entering and leaving.Near the gate of the city, there are two places that seem to be refugee shelters, and from a distance, a large earthen pot can be seen cooking porridge.

Garlan turned his head to look at King Kamos behind him. Kamos seemed to have seen it, and nodded slightly, but soon frowned again.

Because the so-called food relief point is very wrong. It stands to reason that where there is free food distribution, the refugees who were hit by the disaster should flock to it, but in that porridge place, there are only a few very old people. Ask for porridge.

Kamos turned his head and whispered a few words to a guard behind him, and then the guard dismounted and went to the shelter to inquire about the situation, while the others dismounted at the gate of the city, looking around while waiting.

Garlan thought for a while, then ran quickly to the soup kitchen on the left, leaned over, and stared hard into the cauldron.

The porridge soldier standing there was bored and wanted to chase people away, but he saw that it was a cute child. The child leaned over to the steaming porridge pot, looked inside, sniffed it greedily, then raised his head and looked at him. looked at him innocently.

"Is this delicious?"

The soldier chuckled.

"Little guy, it smells good, doesn't it?"

He also saw that the child was cute, so he joked a few words.

"Go back and find what your adults want to eat. This is not something you can eat."

As he spoke, he stretched out his hand, wanting to pinch the child's little face.

But before the soldier could reach out, a hand stretched out from behind and grabbed the child, pulling and dragging the child backwards.

Heymos, who was chasing after him, dragged Garlan behind him, and blocked the soldier's sight without any trace.Then, he smiled and apologized to the soldiers, and then grabbed Garlan and walked back.

"Heymos."

"what?"

"It's full of water, it's not porridge at all."

Garlan thought of the so-called porridge he saw just now, the bottom was clearly visible, there were some wild vegetables floating on the water surface, and there was hardly any food to be seen.

"……yes."

The young man replied, he had not let go of Garlan's hand since just now, and held it tightly.

He said, "What do you want to do next time, tell me, and I will help you do it."

Not noticing that Heymos was holding his hand tightly, Garlan was still looking left and right, when suddenly, his pupils contracted violently.

He saw the edge of the city wall, near the river, where a mountain of corpses were piled up there, many of them were soaked in the water, and the corpses were soaked in the water, emitting a rancid smell, attracting countless people. Flies and worms crawled over the carrion.

Moreover, from time to time, soldiers brought new corpses and threw them there at will.

……no.

Doing so would definitely cause a plague. This river is the source of water for the city. If they drank the water, most of those who managed to survive the flood in Vinal City would probably die again.

Garlan thought.

After returning, he must tell Brother Wang about it.

…………

Everyone walked around the city of Vinal slowly. The rich and powerful areas of the city were fine, with only a little trace of flood left, but in the ordinary residential area and the poor area, many houses collapsed, and It seems that it has never been rebuilt, it is full of ruins, lying on the ground in a mess, and occasionally even a few uncontained corpses are seen under the collapsed house.

They wandered around for a long time, didn't leave the city until evening, and then hurried back to the camp deep in the forest.

King Kamos frowned. It wasn't the first time he had come to Venal City, so he was very unhappy when he saw that the bustling and bustling city in the past had turned into the dead silence it is now.

He knew that such things as natural disasters were unpredictable and irresistible by human beings, and it was impossible for him to blame the officials of Vinal City for natural disasters.

but……

But what if it wasn't a total disaster?

You know, when Vinal City was hit by a disaster, he immediately dispatched a large amount of supplies to help the disaster.

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

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

"It is said that several refugees died of diarrhea after eating the porridge from the soup kitchen. After that, very few refugees ate it."

"It is true that a large amount of food has been transported into the city of Vinal. However, in the past month or so, food has only been distributed to the city residents twice, and the amount is not large. It is estimated that more than half of the allocated food should be left. .”

"The same is true for medicines. I have inquired about them, and they only distributed a little herbal medicine as a token."

"The fishermen on the river said that since the second half of last year, the embankment of the Vinal River has rarely been repaired and maintained."

Hearing this, King Kamos, who had been sitting quietly all this time, smiled.

"Those guys are still saying that the food and medicine consumption in Vinal City is extremely high, and a large amount of relief materials need to be dispatched again."

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

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

King Kamos said: "The governor of this city has been asking me for money and food to repair the embankment since last year—"

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

"King Kamos!"

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

"Please come out and have a look."

Standing at the door, he kept opening the curtain of the tent and said to Kamos, a faint cry came from behind him.

Kamos walked out quickly, and everyone in the tent followed suit, Garlan was no exception.

As soon as he went out, he saw [-] or [-] people kneeling on the ground, including several women and two children in their arms, all sobbing softly, with expressions of undecided shock.

"what happened?"

King Kamos glanced at the man kneeling on the ground and asked.

"I took a few people to investigate the thieves in the vicinity, but it was strange that many people couldn't explain clearly. Moreover, I also checked the terrain around here, and there were no traces of places suitable for thieves' dens."

Shemur 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 money, but they chose To attack these refugees who have lost their property in the floods."

"It seemed to me that their main purpose was to take women and children from the crowd."

The surrounding air cooled down little by little, and settled down, as if an invisible aura emanated from King Kamos who was listening to Shemuel's words without saying a word.

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

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

The frightening Lion King, just standing there, his horror is enough to make people unable to breathe.

"King Kamos, I suspect that the so-called large group of thieves reported to us are soldiers in disguise."

Shemuer continued to speak with a gloomy expression.

"Under the instigation of some people, taking advantage of the fact that many people suffered from the flood, and when it was difficult to count the dead and missing persons, the army was disguised as thieves and abducted the surviving citizens, especially women and children, for human trafficking……"

Just as he said this, he was suddenly interrupted.

Hearing the loud bang, King Kamos slapped the big tree beside him heavily with one hand.

"Those people...damn it!"

He said his voice was terribly low as he uttered the last two words.

The golden brown eyes seemed to be burning with flames, they were the eyes of an angry beast.

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

"The entire city of Vinal, from top to bottom, should be cleaned."

The young king spoke a terrible order in a calm tone.

Kamos thought that it was probably because he had been busy fighting with other countries on the border in the past few years, and he didn't kill people in the territory of Aaron Landis, so some moths felt that they were easy to talk about.

It's time for those guys to see blood again and know the value of life -- and remind them of their fear of 'The Lion King' once again.

"Get on the horse."

As soon as King Kamos finished his words, with a swish, all the cavalry present got on their horses in almost a second, ready to go.

The horses below them snorted, breathed hot air, and pawed the ground.

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

"Wait a minute, King Kamos."

Shemul stopped Kamos.

"Not yet."

He said, "Following those so-called thieves, I have already checked out the place where the people who were taken away by them are being held, and I can rescue them at any time."

He shook his head.

"However, none of the children who were taken away could be found. I suspect that they moved those children to another place for some ulterior purpose."

"It's very easy for us to deal with those guys in the city, but I'm worried. In order to protect themselves, they will frantically annihilate the evidence--kill all those children secretly. In this case..."

Ximuer hadn't spoken yet, when someone cried out and interrupted his words.

A man kneeling on the ground kowtowed desperately to Shemuer while crying loudly.

"Please! Please! Help my daughter! She's so young, she's only five—"

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

"And my boy—he was taken yesterday."

"My son is definitely alive, definitely alive, please help me rescue him!"

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

Shemuer pursed her lips, resisting the discomfort of being soiled by that dirty child, and did not push the child away, but turned to look at King Kamos.

"In a short period of time, it may be difficult for us to find those children who were taken away." He frowned tightly and said, "However, after a long time, I am worried that something will happen, especially once our traces are exposed, Those people will destroy the criminal evidence first, and those children are likely to be..."

For a while, except for the cries of those kneeling on the ground and kowtowing, the night was very quiet.

All the cavalry were silent, including King Kamos who was already on his horse. He was deep in thought, as if he was thinking about something.

Amidst the crying, a long sigh seemed to be heard.

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

"For kids, here's one."

Under the reddish firelight, the pale golden hair of the little prince who was talking with his finger was shining brightly and softly in the darkness, like a light halo on his head.

"Let them take me away, and you will know where those children are sent."