Similar to Rigal, most urban areas in the Crescent are actually more vulnerable to disasters than rural areas.
The reason for these problems is very simple: rural areas are relatively sparsely populated, and because of the existence of large tracts of cultivated land, there are often only a few dozen households in an area of the same area as a city; while cities not only have a higher population density, but also consume more resources. There is no cultivated land yet, so we can only rely on input from surrounding rural areas.
A qualified mayor or mayor of Rigal will always count the number of people coming and going every day to adjust the proportion of emergency rations in stock - if you save too much, it will rot easily and you will need funds to buy; if you save too little, you will encounter a crisis. Time may not be enough.
It is common practice to adjust barn reserves in a timely manner and sell older grain and grass to large merchants with cooperation in exchange for some funds. As for what the merchants who bought these old grains would do with them, most of the time they would mix moldy old flour into new flour and sell it to the common people, or supply it to a rural baker who used cheap flour. He used the old flour to make bread and then resold the new flour given to him by the villagers, making two money.
A more honest businessman might label the goods as old flour and sell it to people in slums at a cheaper price, but honest businessmen are as rare and marginalized as black sheep. If the water is clear, there will be no fish. If there is no profit, businessmen will not be willing to work. Therefore, in order to ensure the normal operation of the city, any Rigal city officials will more or less turn a blind eye to such behavior.
As long as it doesn't make things worse, I won't care. After all, some things have to be compromised for the overall operation.
The Crescent Continent is not much different from Rigal in this regard. Both the demographics and the food reserve department exist. It's just that the refugee population from Wanzhou that has poured into Maotian has exceeded the number of local residents and troops by more than half, and people are still arriving one after another. If they were to be provided with food rations, it would obviously put a huge pressure on Maotian's reserves.
To transfer from other places, the government's budget must be used; and to apply for this budget, it must be reported at various levels. As a result, nothing could be done but the refugees could only starve and wait here for approval from above.
"Rebirth of the Great Era of Fighting Waves"
The irony is that in this crisis, while others were starving and freezing, it gave Henry and his party a huge advantage in purchasing food and grass.
Because the merchants holding these supplies were eager to exchange the heavy and inconvenient supplies for silver and quickly left Maotian.
After all, Crescent Continent is a little different from Rigal - merchants in Rigar can form guilds, and they have the right to bargain with the nobles. For example, in the Southern City-State Alliance, even all cities are run by merchants, large and small. However, the social status of the merchants in Crescent Continent is at the bottom, and the power of the aristocracy in this country is far more powerful than that in the Rigal country. To put it bluntly: once Maotian's Li Zheng is unwilling to part with the rations in his warehouse and asks the merchants to give the supplies they have to the refugees, then they can only do so.
In addition, the huge number of hungry people was not in a high position among the merchants, and they did not have the same awe of them as the nobles. If the other party is not afraid of you, and you hold something they urgently need in your hand, everyone will feel a sense of crisis and want to get rid of it as soon as possible.
The cost price or a small profit is sufficient. Being able to quickly dump these inconvenient items and then escape has become the consensus reached by capable businessmen in the past few days. It doesn't matter who they sell to. Originally, they would keep an eye on suspicious persons and the like, thinking that they might be able to get some rewards if they reported it to the government. But now that they can't protect themselves, they don't care about that much.
After confirming this, Henry and his group disguised themselves as almost everyone except the ghosts and dispatched the entire army, intending to purchase the supplies in one go.
Instead of using horses and trailers, everyone walked. Because there are not many things in Maotian now but there are many people. Pulling a cart full of supplies is very conspicuous, but they are also people who are bundled up tightly because of the cold, and they are not the only ones holding packages in their hands. . Hidden in the forest, this method is less efficient and more labor-intensive than two or three people in a car, but it is more secretive.
Chaos is their cover, but it is also the enemy's cover. If the pursuers of the domain are hidden among the refugees, it will be difficult for them to detect them until they attack.
Now in this situation, they have to incorporate caution into their daily lives.
Fortunately, wise men understand this well.
Henry and Mira, who were born as foreigners, are not suitable for buying large quantities of food. They are travelers, southern barbarians who have come all the way from another distant continent. The most suitable places for visitors from other places to hang out are often shops related to certain local specialties.
Ayong's injury has not fully recovered.
The Elven Hound's horrific attacks leave wounds deep into the bone, and the poison has the ability to paralyze and slow healing. I don't know whether the young samurai's awakening is lucky or unfortunate - it is true that he can eat to get more nutrients to help recover after waking up, but after so long, the wound is still bleeding, and the itching and pain that breaks when he moves and heals are long-lasting. The rising and falling feelings also caused his mind to suffer.
Ayong, who woke up earlier, would still try to get up and do something, but gradually his temper became more and more irritable, and now he often just lies there without saying a word.
In addition to the wounds that have not healed for a long time, the fact that he is almost a disabled person and needs to be taken care of has also severely damaged the self-esteem of the proud warrior.
But their journey must continue. And the medicinal materials that had been lost due to the previous battle finally ran out in the face of the lingering injuries. Just like food, if it is not replenished, the risk of the subsequent journey will increase dramatically.
Jianye and Ying couldn't live without each other, and the others couldn't recognize the medicinal materials, so the travelers were Henry and Mira.
A visitor from a foreign land travels thousands of miles in search of medicine. While the sage explained to the boss in Kazuto's language that suddenly became lame, the Luoan girl kept an eye out for anyone following her around.
She didn't stand like a stake like a typical layman and stare viciously outside. The kind of idiot who stood still could easily be killed directly with a crossbow or other throwing weapon outside the house. Mira walked back and forth using the door as the central point, cleverly using her girlish appearance to act like a curious young man.
——Although she is indeed a curious young person.
The elderly store manager looked at this scene with a bit of fondness in his eyes. He probably thought of his grandchildren, so he didn't stop her.
Even if the language is different and the appearance is different, there are still many things that people can understand each other.
The movements are natural, but avoid staying too much at doorways and windows, and use various internal medicine cabinets and display shelves as cover. No matter which direction you go, you are always alert to the entrance, and you can respond immediately if any situation arises.
There were many medicinal materials in Kazuto's shop that she didn't recognize. In addition to various medicinal herbs, there were mummies of geckos, centipedes, scorpions and other small creatures on the display shelves. In addition, there were sliced antelope and deer antlers, and there were even some things that looked like bones but had the texture of stone placed nearby.
Although they have been cut open, some clues can still be seen - these are obviously the remains of a creature several times larger than common creatures.
"That's a dragon bone. Don't touch it. You're a Nanman girl. It's for men to drink." The manager of the old pharmacy noticed this scene and reminded him.
After hearing these words, our Mr. Sage turned his head and looked over, and Mira noticed that his eyes flashed with gray-blue light. Then he took out his funds from another pocket.
"I want that too."
————
The attacker who followed them did not appear after all. A large part of the medicinal materials purchased by the two men was ground powder from a plant called Panax notoginseng. It is used in a similar way to the dragon blood fat commonly used by Rigar people. They are ground into very fine powder and sprinkled on wounds to stop bleeding.
Henry suggested that A Yong's wound should be sutured in the Rigal style, but Jian Ye, who had never been a female celebrity in his life, could not do it in the end. On the contrary, Sakura quickly accepted this unusual approach in New Moon Continent and finished the work while staring at the bloody wound without saying a word.
However, the wound after closure would still ooze blood from time to time and healed from the inside out. In order to prevent A Yong, who was already pale and weak enough, from not being able to survive the wound recovery, they had to pay attention to stopping the bleeding at all times.
The finely ground Panax notoginseng powder will be mixed with several beneficial medicinal materials by Jianye's hands as a dressing. Most of the other medicinal materials are also ordered by them verbally. For various reasons, the consumption of mineral and plant ground powders is the most serious. .
The funds used are naturally the reserves of the Qingtian family, although in today's world, with prices soaring, this money is becoming increasingly insufficient.
But the Luoan girl noticed that Henry bought the keel with his own money.
Of course she was very curious about this.
"They are the remains of creatures from the long past." When Mira asked, Henry answered: "It is formed under specific conditions and has a gem-like effect, which means it stores magic power."
"If ground into powder, it can be used for magic-related things." He said, the rune stones he brought had been consumed before. The enemies they were dealing with obviously had supernatural powers, and it was a bit difficult to deal with them only with swords. It’s strenuous.
Henry has never been able to cast magic due to a congenital disease. Although he has relevant knowledge, using spells like a magician still requires more reliance on external objects and preliminary preparation.
"What we are making this time is a hidden potion to interfere with the ghouls' senses." Henry said this. They had previously confirmed that the ghouls had the ability to track themselves, but they lacked the materials and there was nothing they could do. .
This special sense is related to magic power. If they can't solve it, even if the concealment in conventional methods is reached to the extreme, they still won't be able to get rid of the pursuers.
"The magic power of a magician is like a beam of light, a ball of fire, and a shining heart in a special field of vision." He explained to Mira in Avenela language, while people were coming and going around, but no one was there. No one pays any attention.
"The most special kind of magic vision cannot see any physical entity. It can only feel the traces of magic power." Henry said: "It's like fire, you can't see its existence when you close your eyes. "
"But you can feel the warmth." Mira nodded, as if she had some understanding.
"And what if you are not a ball of fire, not so hot, but the surrounding environment is very warm?" His words were always so simple and clear, and the Luoan girl understood it immediately.
"So try not to use magic. Grind the remains of these magical creatures into powder and sprinkle them near the carriage to hide them." The Luoan girl said, and the sage nodded, but also shook his head.
"At best, it only disturbs their senses when they are far enough away, because the nature of magic is not simply polarized like warmth and cold. It also has personal characteristics." He said: "When the animals are close enough, When the time comes, they will be able to identify the magical characteristics of humans and other creatures.”
“This kind of power is like a collection of sound and temperature. When you are far away, sometimes the wind sounds like a human cry, but when you are close enough to have a face-to-face conversation, you can clearly distinguish the voice from the background sound. "While Henry was explaining, they had slowly walked out of the city gate where refugees were everywhere and crowded.
"So it is still necessary to continue on your way. This kind of thing is not powerful enough to make you invisible in front of the ghoul."
The ground changed from a stone road to a gravel road and then to a dirt road. After waiting for a while when they returned, other people who went out also returned to the convoy with large and small bags of supplies.
The weather is still cold, and this coldness reminds Mira of many bad things.
She comforted herself that it was indeed getting close to cold weather, but at the same time she did not forget the series of events that were obviously not unrelated.
If a ghoul crisis breaks out here, she doesn't know where everything will go.
The war against ghouls in the Padrosi Empire was completely different from the situation faced in the Moon Country.
This is a country that has closed itself off.
In several battles with the feudal army, even if you didn't see the battlefield with your own eyes, just hearing the results and looking at these refugees can already understand one thing - I am afraid that even if the bloody facts are in front of them, these people care more I still live my life step by step and keep my official position.
because.
The great Moon Kingdom has existed for more than four thousand years.
And from now on she will exist for another four thousand years.
