Chapter 915 – Where Would the People Go If There’s No Country
Abadi’s suggestion had placed the Somalia King on the spot.
Chasing his people away as bait was really vicious. As a player, Abadi did not care about the lives of the people. However, as the ruler, he had to consider the influence of their sentiment.
If he agreed to this, he could not be king anymore.
Abadi said, “Your majesty, we have no other chance. Without a country, there will be no people. The country is more important than hundred thousand people.”
The Somalia King gave Abadi a deep look; he sighed, “That seems like the only way.”
A look of irony appeared on Abadi’s face. The king might look like he was in a pitiful state, but he did not even hesitate in his heart.
If a king really loved his people, he would not collude with pirates.
Abadi rose up rapidly when Farrah became a pirate, replacing him as the top adventure gamemode player.
Speaking of which, Abadi had to thank Ouyang Shuo. If it were not for that pirate operation that revealed Farrah’s true colors, Abadi would not be so famous now.
The Somalia people and even the players hated the Somalia King; this idiot pushed the entire Somalia into the abyss.
Originally, Abadi thought he could live a free life in Somalia. However, just like that, he could be sent to the land of trials at any moment.
Just the name itself told them it was not a good place.
No one would be happy to go there.
In truth, Abadi and Aidid did not think about letting the king continue to rule Somalia. When the war ended, he would step out to reveal the king’s actions and chase him down from the throne.
At that time, Somalia would be totally under the players.
“To make the civilians exit the city, we need to increase control of the food. Only when they are hungry will they take the risk to leave the city,” Abadi said.
The Somalia King nodded; he did not reply, as he understood such a theory.
…
8th month, 1st day, Mogadishu.
For these past few days, the Somalia royal family had continuously told the army to send a signal to the soldiers to keep their strength and reduce the food provisions to the city.
Each person’s rations were reduced by half, and the civilians could only feel a little full now. The more time passed, the fewer rations they had; they did not even get half.
The food even had sand mixed in with it.
Now, the royal family did not even give flour; they just gave bread to people by the head.
One person, one dry piece of bread every day.
If it were before, this bread could not even be fed to dogs. Now, it was really precious.
All of a sudden, the civilians grumbled, but the royal family did not care. They said that the soldiers were not full either, and they asked the people to bear with it.
Even the hundreds of thousands of camels were gathered by the royal family.
With that, hunger spread like a plague throughout the entire city. Hungry people walked the streets, robbing shops to find something to eat.
Riots and chaos was everywhere. As long as people were not killed, the royal family was okay with it.
This allowed things to escalate further and further.
Players who were hungry would naturally snatch the food of civilians. To the defenseless people, the combat strength of the combat occupation players was even greater than that of the guards, so how could they defend?
Civilians robbed one another; young men robbed the old, and men robbed women. The strong robbed the weak.
Hunger was slowly corroding their humanity and bringing them back to a primitive state.
As a result of the pillaging, their grain quantity grew more and more disproportionate. Some of the elderly could not even get a single piece of bread and could only go hungry.
As this continued, they would just die of hunger at home.
Death further escalated their fear, and more and more robberies happened.
As this concerned their life or death, more of these battles happened in the city.
To protect a piece of bread, people did not mind risking their lives.
They all split up into families as a unit to form small groups. Either they starved, or they robbed others to make them starve.
As more of these events happened, there were unavoidably casualties.
On this matter, the royal family was really adamant; the murderer would be executed.
They did that as a warning to prevent law and order from totally collapsing. Even the Guards could not control it, and the people’s fear increased as planned.
“The imperial city can be in chaos, but it cannot go over what we can control.”
This was their bottom line. The guard soldiers patrolled day and night, and if they noticed a killer, no matter who it was, they would execute them.
Fear and hunger spread around the city, making the air really heavy.
Everyone knew that Mogadishu would not be able to last for more than a few days.
…
Outside the city barracks, central tent.
Di Qing looked at the situation that the sky had sent to him, and his eyes shone bright. He knew that the war he was hoping for would start at any moment.
The good news was that the 10 thousand cavalry that went down south had already completed their mission, so they had returned.
Di Qing ordered the troops to remain alert and be prepared to fight at any moment.
However, he was also doubtful, “Since they cannot hold on, why not fight?”
Di Qing really could not understand what benefits dragging on the matter would give to the Somalia Alliance Army. On the contrary, the fear and panic would spread to the Alliance Army.
“What scheme are they planning?”
Without actual intel, Di Qing could not come to a conclusion.
…
The Somalia country war was a hot topic for everyone.
At the current moment, there were numerous eyes staring at Mogadishu, and there were even many war reporters bringing frontline news for the people.
The people of Mogadishu were going hungry and riots were occurring. Some people were unhappy and stepped out to scold Great Xia, saying they were inhumane war devils.
Ouyang Shuo scoffed at such comments.
War was not a game of words, and there was nothing humane or inhumane.
Not to mention that in the game, everything was set by Gaia. The wilderness was survival of the fittest, and since Gaia allowed it, it was not wrong.
Smart players naturally would not bother about such people, as no one would pity the NPCs in game.
If one really did, they would be fools.
Those so-called humanitarians either had brain problems or had other intentions.
If the African and Mediterranean Lords did not act, Ouyang Shuo would remain defending in Shanhai City. However, if they jumped out, Great Xia would react.
The two legions of the Guards Legion Corps were on alert to move. If needed, Ouyang Shuo could use the Dragon Legion Corps, the Morocco Formation, and the like as aid.
Great Xia was never afraid of fighting.
Of course, this was the worst-case scenario. Ouyang Shuo hoped that Somalia could just fall easily and not cause too many problems.
After all, each country war burned a lot of time and resources. It was a huge burden to the dynasty.
…
8th month, 3rd day, morning.
The sun rose from the horizon as usual, shining down on Mogadishu.
What was different was that the city felt dead, and there were corpses lying everywhere. Every day, there would be hundreds of bodies thrown down the city walls.
If they did not clear these bodies out, it could cause diseases.
Hungry people walked the streets like walking zombies.
Hunger was corroding their fighting spirit, and more and more people begged to open the gates to surrender.
Due to the Farrah matter, the people were really unhappy with the king. Seeing that they had no food, this unhappiness grew, and they just wanted to surrender right away.
This made the Somalia King more decisive, “These people deserve to be sacrificed.” At this point, he did not feel burdened anymore in his heart.
The palace was guarded by guards, and the civilians could not enter easily. They could only grumble as they crowded around the palace, asking for them to open up the gates to allow people to exit the city.
News spread out.
They said that when Great Xia attacked Morocco, the civilians that exited were unharmed, and they were even compensated for their dead family members.
Some even said that the army outside the city had mountains of grain. As long as they left the city, their stomachs would be filled.
Such rumors grew more and more rampant. If one paid attention, with how fast the rumors were spreading, they would notice that someone was purposely spreading it.
The Black Snake Guards spies had naturally noticed this anomaly, but they could not understand it. Logically speaking, the city being in a mess and the civilians wanting to escape was good for Great Xia.
Who was so nice to help them from the dark?
Since the Black Snake Guards could not understand the situation, neither could Di Qing. He guessed that the king had some other mysterious power in his control.
Thinking about this, Di Qing stopped himself.
This idea was too dangerous.
As a result, he did not think about approaching the king to seek confirmation. Regarding such matters, it was best if one acted like he did not know.
If not, and the king doubted him, it would not be worth it. Especially for Di Qing, who was posted overseas. For him, the king’s trust was even more important.