Vinal City, a city famous 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, the Vinal River, the largest tributary of the Enki River, surrounds the city, therefore, it is also Aaron The most important grain producing area in the southwest of Landis.
The Vinal River brings abundant river water and fertile soil to the city, which, coupled with the subtropical climate, makes the city's crops twice a year.
However, there are pros and cons to the existence of this great river. During the high water season every year, the Vinal River will rise. If there is too much water, the river bank will be washed away, overflowing farmland and cities, causing floods. The city of Wijnal has suffered from floods many times in history. Therefore, the maintenance and reinforcement of the embankment of the Wijnal River is the top priority of the work of the successive consuls of Wijnal.
In the kingdom of Aaron Landis, cities were ruled in two ways.
One is the family inheritance type, father to son, blood inheritance, as long as the current city lord reports his desired heir, and gets the king's royal approval.
The second type is directly under the city. The city directly under the jurisdiction of the king city has no city owner.
And Vernal City is the second type.
After two days and two nights of riding and galloping, King Camos and his party finally came to the vicinity of Venar City.
On the third day of his arrival, near noon, King Camos rode on a high mountain, and the roaring wind brushed his brown hair. He looked down at the huge city surrounded by river water below, his golden brown eyes faintly seemed like something was passing by, he pondered, as if he was thinking about something.
A small white hand stretched out and tugged at him, waking him up from his contemplation. He looked down at the little brother who had tugged him, and smiled.
"Brother Wang, I want to go down."
Garlan, who was sitting in front of him and was held by Camos, tilted his head and said to Camos.
"it is good."
Camos said with a smile, got off his horse, and patted his dark old man on the neck. The black horse neighed in a low voice and turned his head away, reflecting the sunlight, his dark fur shimmering like satin in the sunlight. Moving with a beautiful sheen.
As soon as he stretched out his hand, Camos took Gallan down and put it on the ground.
Garlan took two steps forward, and the wind with the jungle breath swept across his cheeks, bringing a strange smell that he could not smell in the royal city.
When you stand on the top of the mountain and look 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 with yellow-brown sewage, and the turbid water criss-crossed the city and surrounded the collapsed buildings.
Outside the city, the vast tracts of square farmland that should have been green at this time were mostly swallowed up by the turbid water. Occasionally a part of the water surface is exposed, and there is no greenery in the mud field, only an ugly yellowish brown.
Garlan could see that in the city of Vinal, in the first half of this year, this season's food crops may not be harvested.
While Garlan was still looking down at the flood-stricken city below, King Kamos, who had been pondering for a long time, spoke.
"Garlan, get ready, let's go down and have a look."
"Okay, Brother Wang."
After coming to the vicinity of Vinal City, King Camos did not directly bring the five hundred cavalry into the city, but deliberately made a big bend, found a hidden place in the dense forest next to the city, and set up camp. down.
Then, he sent dozens of soldiers out in disguise to explore the city separately. Garlan could see from King Camos' expression that the information he had inquired out might not be very good. Although his brother was still smiling at him, he could feel the people who were surrounded by him in the past two days. A faint anger.
"What are you thinking about?"
Looking at King Camos, who was busy changing his clothes after returning to the camp, Xie Muer asked with a frown.
"Go out for a walk."
Camos answered rightly.
He had already taken off the black-brown leather armor on his body and put on a normal riding suit. And it is a slightly loose-looking riding suit, long-sleeved trousers, which can well cover up 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 Heimos too."
Prince Heimos, who was arranged by Camos to stay in a squad of cavalry, came over quickly, and then was thrown away with an inconspicuous piece of clothing and asked him to put it on.
After packing up, Camos took two princes and a dozen cavalry, disguised as ordinary nobles passing through the city, and set off. Of course, he didn't ride the dark horse Tucker, the king of the horses was too 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 got closer to see it, it was even more shocking.
The raised road in the middle was half-covered by the shallow water, and it had become a muddy road. The running horses' hooves stepped heavily on the muddy muddy water, splashing the muddy water out.
Most of the farmland on both sides 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 which have been soaked.
King Camos, who took the lead, pulled the reins and slowed down. Garlan turned his head and looked around, only to see some shabby peasants standing sparsely in the submerged farmland, or should be said to be serfs.
Most were haggard and very old, with wrinkles on their foreheads.
They stood barefoot in the mud, staring at the soaked crops. There are also some old women squatting in the muddy water with their naked children, picking out the crops that have not been soaked very badly and putting them into the bamboo baskets full of mud.
These serfs who have lost most of the fruits of their labor for half a year and are going to starve in the future do not show sad expressions on their faces, their expressions are more dull, there is no light in their eyes, a kind of numbness that accepts their fate, But it was this insensitive expression without the slightest hope for life that made the heart feel even more heavy.
Approaching the city gate, Garlan looked up at the huge city gate. There were soldiers guarding the gates of the city, and they had to check in and out. There were two places near the city gate that seemed to be refugee shelters, and in the distance, a large pot of earthenware could be seen cooking porridge.
Garlan turned his head and looked at King Camos behind him. Camos seemed to have seen it, and nodded slightly, but soon, he frowned again.
Because the so-called food relief point is very wrong. It stands to reason that there are places where free food is distributed, and the refugees who have been affected should flock there. However, in the place where porridge is provided, there are only a few old people who are too old. Ask for porridge.
Camos turned his head and whispered a few words to a guard behind him. Then the guard dismounted and went to the shelter to inquire about the situation. The others dismounted at the gate of the city and looked around while waiting.
Garlan thought for a while, then ran to the porridge shop on the left, leaned over, and looked hard at the cauldron.
Standing there, the bored porridge soldier wanted to chase people away, but when he saw it was a cute child, the child leaned over to the steaming porridge pot, looked inside, sniffed a little greedily, then raised his head and looked up. looked at him innocently.
"Is this delicious?"
The soldier chuckled.
"Little guy, doesn't it smell good?"
He also saw that the child was cute, so he laughed a few words.
"Go back and find what your family wants 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's hand could reach it, a hand reached out from behind and grabbed the child, pulling and pulling the child, dragging the whole body back.
Heimos, who was chasing after him, dragged Garlan behind him and blocked the soldier's sight without a trace. Then, he apologized to the soldier with a smile, and grabbed Garlan and walked back.
"Heimos."
"what?"
"It's full of water, 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 food in sight.
"… yes."
The boy replied, holding Garlan's hand, which he clenched tightly since just now.
He said, "What do you want to do next time, tell me, and I will help you do it."
He didn't notice that Heimos was holding his hand tightly, and Gallan was still looking left and right when suddenly, his pupils contracted violently.
He saw the edge of the city wall, near the river, where the mountains of corpses were piled up, and many were soaked in the water. Flies and bugs crawled over the carrion.
Moreover, there are soldiers from time to time with new corpses, and throw them there at will.
… no.
Doing so will definitely cause a plague. This river is the source of water in the city. If you drink the water from the river, most of the people who survived the flood in Wijnal City will probably die again.
Garland thought.
After returning, he must tell Brother Wang about this.
…
Everyone walked around the city of Wijnal slowly. The rich and powerful people in the city were fine, only a few traces of the flood remained, but many houses collapsed in the ordinary residential areas and the slums, and It seems that it has never been rebuilt. It is full of debris and broken wood, lying on the ground in a mess, and even occasionally see a few dead bodies under the collapsed house.
They wandered around for a long time, and did not leave the city until evening, and then rushed back to the camp deep in the forest.
King Camos frowned. It was not the first time for him to come to Vernal City, so he was very unhappy when he saw that the bustling and bustling city in the past had turned into this dead silence.
He knew that such things as natural disasters could not be predicted or resisted by manpower.
but…
But what if it wasn't a total disaster
You must know that when Wijnal City was hit by a disaster, he immediately dispatched a large number of supplies to come 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 during 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 provided by the porridge. After that, few refugees went to eat it."
"It is true that a large amount of food has been delivered into the city of Wijnal, but in the past month or so, the food has only been distributed to the city residents twice, and the amount is not large. It is estimated that there should be more than half of the allocated food left. ."
"The same is true for medicines. I have inquired about them, and they have only given out a little herbal medicine symbolically."
"Those riverside fishermen say that since the second half of last year, little work and maintenance has been started on the banks of the Vinale River."
Hearing this, King Camos, who had been sitting quietly, smiled.
"Those guys are still saying that the food and medicines in Wiener City are extremely consumed, and a large amount of relief supplies need to be allocated again."
He said in an understated tone and a light tone, but for some reason it gave people a great sense of oppression.
Everyone stood there, bowed their heads, and remained 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 embankment—"
He said, word by word, the last 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 gloomy face.
"Please come out and take a look."
Standing at the door, he kept the posture of opening the tent's curtain and said to Camos, and there was a faint cry from behind him.
Camos walked out quickly, and everyone in the tent followed, and Garlan was no exception.
As soon as he went out, he saw 20 or 30 people kneeling on the ground, including several women, holding two children, all sobbing in a low voice, with expressions of shock on their faces.
"what happened?"
King Camos glanced at the person kneeling on the ground and asked.
"I brought a few people to investigate the thieves in the vicinity, but it's very strange. Many people can't tell. Moreover, I have also seen the terrain nearby, and there are no traces of places suitable for thieves' dens."
Shemuel replied.
"On the way back, we happened to meet this group of people who were attacked by thieves... The thieves are very strange, they actually have a lot of weapons and horses. And it is reasonable to say that they came out as thieves to rob for money, but they went out of their way. Attack these refugees who have lost their property in the flood."
"I think their main purpose seems to be to grab women and children from the crowd."
The surrounding air cooled down a little and settled down, as if there was an invisible aura emanating from King Camos, who was listening to Xie Muer silently.
King Aaronlandis stood there, in the darkness of the night, the light of the torches burning beside him reflected in his golden brown eyes, making his eyes glow as if they were burning at this moment.
The cavalry on the side bowed their heads in silence, and the kneeling people fell to the ground deeply, not daring to take a breath, and even the ignorant children stopped crying at this moment as if they were afraid of something.
The terrifying Lion King, just standing there, he's scary enough to take one's breath away.
"King Camos, I suspect that the so-called big group of thieves reported to us is a soldier in disguise."
Xie Muer continued to speak with a gloomy expression.
"At the behest of some people, taking advantage of the floods, many people suffered, and when it was difficult to count the dead and missing people, the army disguised as thieves and kidnapped the surviving citizens, especially women and children, for use in human trafficking… "
As soon as he said this, he was suddenly interrupted.
He only heard the loud bang, and King Camos slapped the big tree beside him heavily with one hand.
"Those people... dammit!"
He said his voice was terribly low as he uttered the last two words.
The golden-brown eyes seemed to be burning with flames, the eyes of a beast who had been angered.
Natural disasters may be terrifying, but more terrifying than natural disasters are man-made disasters!
"The whole of Wiener City, from top to bottom, should be cleaned."
The young king gave a terrifying order in a calm voice.
Camos thought, probably because he has been visiting the border to fight with other countries in the past few years, and he has not killed anyone in Aaron Landis, so some worms feel that they are more comfortable to talk about.
It's time for those guys to see blood again and know that life is precious - and, to remind them of their fear of 'The Lion King' once again.
"Get on the horse."
As soon as the words of King Camos fell, with a swish, the cavalrymen present had turned on their horses in almost a second and were ready to go.
The horses beneath them snorted and snorted with heat, their hooves scratching the ground.
As soon as their king gave an order, they would rush into the city of Venar and mercilessly wash away the greedy guys who had angered their king.
"Wait a minute, King Camos."
Shemuer stopped Camos.
"Not yet."
He said, "Following those so-called thieves, I have found out where the people they kidnapped are being held, and I can rescue them at any time."
He shook his head.
"However, none of the kidnapped children could be found. I suspect that they moved those children to another place with some ulterior motive."
"It's easy for us to deal with those guys in the city, but I'm very worried that in order to protect themselves, they will obliterate the evidence of their crimes in a frenzied manner - secretly deal with all those children, in this case..."
Before Xie Muer said anything, someone burst out crying and interrupted him.
A man kneeling on the ground kowtowed to Xi Muer desperately while crying.
"Please! Please! Save 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 child - he was taken yesterday."
"My son must be alive, he must be alive, please help me save him!"
There was even a child who rushed over and hugged Xi Muer's leg while crying, and kept begging him to save his brother.
Xie Mu'er pursed his lips and resisted the discomfort of being soiled by the dirty child. He didn't push the child away, but turned his head to look at King Camos.
"In a short period of time, I'm afraid it will be difficult for us to find those children who were taken away." He frowned tightly and said, "However, after a long time, I am very worried about what will happen, especially once our traces are exposed, Those people will destroy the evidence first, and those children are likely to be…”
For a time, except for the cries of those who were kneeling on the ground and kowtow, the night was extremely silent.
All the cavalrymen were silent, including King Camos, who was already on his horse. He pondered and seemed to be thinking about something.
In this cry, a long sigh seemed to be heard.
Then, a child's clear, soft and waxy voice sounded in the dark night.
"As a child, here's one."
Under the reddish firelight, the pale blond hair of the little prince who spoke with his finger flashed brightly and softly in the darkness, like a light halo on his head.
"Let them take me away, and you'll know where those kids were taken."