Chapter 68 Food Problem

  In the face of absolute strength, Li Xie almost effortlessly took control of the entire Chrysanthemum City, and also received a total of 15,000 militia soldiers. The remaining militia soldiers were all entrusted to Jack Rothschild by Li Xie, whose method was simple: kill them, then burn their bodies!

  At noon, a raging fire and black smoke can be seen in the northern part of the city, rising up to 30 meters high!

  Next, a team of guards will carry the corpses of Larry Brown and others on a cart to parade through the streets, reading out Larry Brown's evil deeds on one hand, and on the other hand, constantly proclaiming how the new Lord Duke is kind to the people.

  The civilians in the city were so outraged that on one hand they threw garbage at the dead, and on the other hand they praised Li Xie's merits.

  Li Xie, who had never met with ordinary people before, suddenly became the most wise and sacred lord in their hearts!

  These things are still ongoing.

  But as Li Xie himself, he was almost exhausted from shaving his head! Taking down a city is easy, but managing a city is a whole different story, with many problems to face!

  The various government positions in Chrysanthemum City are all held by the nobles within the city, and have been basically cleaned up by Li Xie, making Chrysanthemum City temporarily present a state of no government. However, this has not had much impact on the common people. Although most of the shops belonging to the nobility have closed their doors, those are just markets for the upper class, while the markets for the common people remain open. The common people have food and shelter, and they don't care about the changes in the officials above them!

  It's just that this matter needs to be resolved sooner or later. Without personnel in government positions, it will lose order in the long run, and civilians will have to rely on their own survival needs to become self-sufficient. Chrysanthemum City can't develop, let alone prosper! Moreover, if civilians don't produce much and there's no business trade, a shortage of supplies will soon appear, especially for the 20,000 guards in Chrysanthemum City, who might go hungry then!

  Fortunately, Li Xie took Jack's advice and left some nobles responsible for agriculture and engineering to survive and build for a while!

  Now what needs to be solved are the several major problems of Chrysanthemum City!

  The first problem: Larry Brown, in order to plunder more slaves, opened the city without restriction, so that many refugees and poor people ran to Chrysanthemum City. The city of Chrysanthemum, which can accommodate a population of one million, has about 10,000 nobles, 200,000 commoners, but 300,000 refugees! These 300,000 refugees are not engaged in production, only begging, wandering, picking up leftover food, doing odd jobs, etc. Normally, they would be sold as slaves or forced to do hard labor, at least having a mouthful of food to eat. Now, they can exhaust Chrysanthemum City by eating, and if they are not given food, they will starve to death! How to deal with them?

  The second problem: Larry Brown left 50,000 slaves in the slave market! These people are also not engaged in production and face the same problems as refugees, but refugees can still move, they cannot! This is also a huge mouth that needs to eat away from the stored grain of Chrysanthemum City.

  The third problem: Chrysanthemum City has very little arable land! It should be said that the arable land has been abandoned by the nobles! The main source of income for Chrysanthemum City is the slave market, luxury goods market, black market, smuggling and other trades, while agriculture, which is the most fundamental, has always stagnated. Every year, they must purchase grain from Sunflower City to make up for it! This is the most critical point! Because now that Mid-Autumn Festival has passed, there are not many food reserves left, and it can only maintain the current situation for about two months. Two months later, even the city lord Li Xie might not have enough food to eat! And if they provide food for the slaves, refugees, and commoners, the grain that Chrysanthemum City currently has and will harvest can only last for one month!

  "It's all about food, when it comes down to it!"

  Li Xie sat in the hotel's lobby, with Ze Enna and Van Di Sel on either side of him. Jack's sister, Little An, sat at one end, while two others sat across from them: a man named Tiel, who was in charge of agriculture for Chrysanthemum City, and another man named Vandersa, who was in charge of engineering.

  "Tiel, you're in charge of food, what should we do now?"

  Now, the remaining nobles in Chrysanthemum City are terrified of Li Xie, and they don't even dare to breathe loudly in front of him! They all know how lucky they are to be alive, while last night, at least nearly ten thousand people died in the city! This Duke Xie would not mind adding one or two insignificant lives for a small matter!

  "Sir..." Ti'er replied nervously, "Following the usual practice, we would now dispatch two horse-drawn carriage teams. One team will head to Sunflower City to procure grain and fodder, while the other team will go to Plum Blossom City in the west to purchase grain, as well as daily necessities. The round trip will take about two months, which should just resolve the food shortage issue in Chrysanthemum City."

  "What's the maximum amount of grain that can be purchased in Plum Blossom City?" Li Xie didn't think that the matters of Chrysanthemum City could be hidden from outsiders, Right Minister must have planted some informants inside the city, and whatever happened here would soon spread out.

  In the Sunflower City under the control of the Cheetah Legion, it is unlikely that they will sell grain to Chrysanthemum City. Moreover, Li Xie must also consider whether Sunflower City will harbor malicious intentions towards Chrysanthemum City!

  Therefore, the only one who can relieve the urgent situation is Meihua City! Meihua City belongs to Li Xie's territory. Currently, Li Xie has not appointed a deputy city master, and the highest official in Meihua City is still an officer appointed by Mercedes VII. As for whether he belongs to Mercedes VII's faction or the Right Prime Minister's faction, even Li Xie is unclear.

  "Sir, Meihua City doesn't have much grain output either. It can only purchase about one-tenth of what Taiyanghua City has, which is only enough to sustain consumption for around fifteen days."

  "One-tenth is just one-tenth, that's all!" Li Xie nodded and said: "Besides purchasing grain, is there any other way to alleviate the pressure on food?"

  "Now the only thing to do is to sell the slaves, drive out the refugees, and then cultivate the land with all one's might. If we just maintain the residents of this city, we can hold on until next year. By that time, the spring harvest will be good, and the food crisis will also be resolved."

  "No, refugees can't be driven away, and slaves can't be sold!" These are all human beings, who can be said to be the most honest and obedient, and also the most willing to work hard for a small reward. In short, they are high-quality laborers, it's a pity to sell them, and driving them away is not supported by Li Xie's emotions. He has always felt a sense of not belonging in the noble circle, but towards refugees, he feels a special closeness: "Is there any other way?"

  Tyr shook his head slightly, not selling slaves and not driving out refugees was really helpless, and Tyr also didn't dare to say that Li Xie's method would starve countless people in Chrysanthemum City to death!

  "Sir, shall we not buy grain from His Majesty?" said Vandyssel.

  "Too far away!" Li Xie shook his head, he had thought of this method a long time ago. Now Chrysanthemum City is Li Xie's private territory, except for paying taxes to the imperial court, everything else is self-sufficient, and food can only be solved by itself. Mercedes VII will not allocate food, of course, it is indeed possible to buy from Mercedes VII, and Mercedes VII will definitely provide sufficient food, but the problem is that the Imperial Capital is too far away from Chrysanthemum City!

  A total of over 1,300 kilometers of road!

  Transporting grain is not like Li Xie's horse-drawn carriage team, which can travel 100 kilometers a day. At most, it takes one day to walk 20 kilometers, and just the distance will take more than 60 days! Moreover, if there are wind and rain on the road, they will be delayed, some mountain roads are difficult to walk, and one day may not even reach 10 kilometers! Calculated, without counting Li Xie's time going up to the imperial capital, just the imperial capital side sending down grain, it takes about 100 days of journey!

  Chrysanthemum City can also only hold on for a month!

  Another point, the layout of the castles in the Tudor dynasty is in the shape of a "回" character. The outer castles are not far from each other, while the north-south direction castles are very far apart, which is to prevent external enemies from invading. However, it also makes the three castles near Chrysanthemum Castle, with Plum Blossom Castle in the west and Sunflower Castle in the east, all about 300 kilometers away, and Peach Blossom Castle in the north, about 600 kilometers!

  According to the calculation that it takes two months for a round trip to Meihua City to purchase grain, it would take about four months to go to Taohua City to make a purchase. Because purchasing grain from other cities is not as convenient as buying from Mercedes VII. Mercedes VII will directly dispatch a team of horse-drawn carriages to transport the grain, and there are also many grain reserves, which greatly saves time. When buying grain from other cities, you have to send your own team to transport it, plus the time spent on purchasing grain, although the distance is shorter, the time required has not decreased much!

  "Ugh..." Li Xie let out a heavy sigh: "I regret it now, regret becoming this crappy city lord! It's only the first day as city lord and trouble has already come, and it's still just the beginning of cleaning up the mess! No way, I'll have Old Seven take back the territory later, being a duke in the Imperial Capital is much more comfortable and free!"

  "Heh heh......" Xia An couldn't help but burst out laughing beside him.

  Li Xiezheng was sulking and fiercely stared at the little girl: "What are you laughing at? I'm annoyed!"

  Xiao An wasn't afraid of Li Xie staring at her, covering her mouth and saying: "Brother Xie calls the emperor 'Old Seven', Xiao An just finds it funny."

  "Go and have fun." Normally, Li Xie would definitely tease this little beauty, but now, there was only one word in his mind - annoyed. He didn't have the mood for it at all!

  "Do you really want me to leave?" Xiao An stood up, smiled slyly and said to himself: "Xiao An was thinking of coming up with a plan, if I have to leave then I'll go back to the room to see how Little Chicken's injury is doing!"

  The little chicken is Xiao An's nickname for the Golden Feather War Chicken. This demon beast is now being taken care of by Xiao An, although the Golden Feather War Chicken has regained its vitality, its injuries still need to be slowly recovered, and it will not be able to move for a long time. Fortunately, Xiao An is an alchemist, which is just right for taking care of this severely injured demon beast.

  The so-called pharmacist is a completely different profession from the priest, who uses divine light or magic to cure injuries and illnesses, with quick results and good recovery effects, making it the mainstream treatment profession. Pharmacists, on the other hand, use herbal medicine to treat diseases, with slower results and general recovery conditions, but there are some diseases that priests cannot cure while pharmacists can, so pharmacists' treatment abilities are not inferior to those of priests. However, pharmacists usually only treat common people, making it a profession that is not recognized by the nobility in the Great Divine Continent.

  "Offer a plan?" Li Xie glanced at Xiao An's lovely face and said with a smile, "Then tell me, if you can help your brother solve this food problem, I'll grant you one wish, as long as I can do it!"

  "Really?"

  "Have I deceived you?"

  "Alright! You said it! Hmph, what's so difficult about solving this problem!"