Chapter 605: Dispute over Evil Horses

Yama Island, Iya Mansion.

People are gathering together to discuss local government affairs and the situation on the island.

Sitting at the head of the hall is Chiba Oriko, the queen of Yama. As the fifteenth generation, she has governed Yama for more than 20 years. Before Dongsheng openly rebelled, the kingdom was stable. But after experiencing the competition of many forces, she is obviously a little overwhelmed. Not only has she lost several circles of weight, but she also speaks less and less in meetings. Most of the time, she lets people she trusts make decisions for her.

Mayu Haruka is one of them.

Although she returned to her homeland a month ago, it was her first time to return to Iya Mansion since she went to the mainland.

Compared with a year ago, there were obviously many more people attending the meeting, and the voices were much noisier, which showed that the situation was changing for the better - Dongsheng's momentum was no longer the same as before. Even if it could not achieve complete victory in a short period of time and completely destroy the rebellious princes, at least Iya and the surrounding areas would no longer be threatened by the enemy.

However, she did not feel happy at all.

The topic soon turned to population migration.

"Your Majesty, I think this matter cannot be continued." A middle-aged man in a gray long gown spoke first, "Jinxia requires the migration of 20,000 people every year, and each town will have thousands of people. If they are all sent away, who will cultivate the fields? Who will defend the kingdom? Moreover, Jinxia is only a city, can it really accept so many outsiders? The officials and people under my rule are already worried, fearing that they will become victims of the transaction. If something happens, I will be ashamed to face Your Majesty."

May Haruka cast his eyes on this person - Fujiwara Shinji, a major lord of Yama, who manages the Bali land north of Iza, and is considered a core figure supporting the great witch.

With him taking the lead, other participants also responded.

"Yeah...it's not easy to find thousands of people. The battle with Dongsheng killed many young people, and now many places are abandoned. Can we wait a few years before starting the migration?"

"Will we not be short of people in a few years? I think this agreement should not be signed at all!"

"Lord Qi, this is a bit too much. After all, they did help us repel the enemy's attack."

"How about asking Lord May to talk to them again and increase some silver as compensation?"

"You pay for the additional silver? I can't afford so much money anyway."

The hall suddenly became noisy.

The Queen of Xiema just sat aside and watched, and did not intervene in the dispute. It seemed that in her opinion, such discussions were conducive to the balance of power.

At this time, a white-haired old man brought the topic to May Yao, "Lord May, what do you think?"

His words made the discussion stop.

As the assistant of successive queens, the Minamoto family has always been a prominent family in the Yama Kingdom. Although the current head of the family, Minamoto Hisachi, is old, he is still the most trusted minister of Chiba Oriko.

"The connection with Jinxia is maintained by you alone. It can be said that no one present knows Jinxia better than you." He stroked his beard and said slowly, "What do you think will happen if we want to revise the alliance treaty?"

The figures of the people in Jinxia City appeared in May Yao's mind.

Especially Lord Xia, who gave her a glimmer of hope in despair.

There is no doubt that the other party is the friendliest ruler she has ever seen.

She couldn't imagine the scene where Jinxia would turn around and fight against Yama.

"Probably... will be very disappointed." May Yao said softly.

"Pfft-disappointed? What is that?"

"Ahem, Lord May, did you say that the other party would only sulk?"

There was a burst of sneer at the scene.

"That's it?" Yuan Jiu frowned, "Do you think they won't take any sanctions, or turn to support Dongsheng or Anjia?"

"I think... this possibility is very low." Wu Yue said frankly, "Jinxia needs to deal with the pressure from the Privy Council of the other five countries, and has no energy to take care of the Kingdom of Xiema for the time being. Of course, such a breach of contract will also make us completely lose our mainland allies."

After a moment of silence in the meeting hall, a voice rang out, "Then what do we have to worry about?"

This sentence was like the voice of everyone, and instantly caused a wave.

"But we can't express our attitude so directly. We still need to buy more weapons." Fujiwara cleared his throat and said, "Lord May, I may need to trouble you to make another trip for this."

"What about the trade port? It's always a good thing to be able to do business."

"We can first send a group of envoys or monks to Qiguo to publicize the matter of Xiema. Now that the waterway is open, even if Jinxia cuts off diplomatic relations with us later, it can't resist the merchants below."

May Yao looked at Her Majesty the Queen, "Do you think this is... really a good thing?"

"Ah..." Chiba Oriko finally changed her sitting position and sighed, "Yama has its own difficulties. Repairing the damaged towns requires silver and manpower, and the fields also need farmers to cultivate. Silver can still be spared, but it is really difficult to gather manpower. And you also mentioned that Jinxia is fighting with the royal family of Qiguo, and the Privy Council of the neighboring country is also ready to make a move. How can you let everyone feel at ease?"

"What if I can convince everyone?"

These words were like a stone thrown into the water, and immediately caused ripples in the crowd.

May ignored the whispers, stood up and looked directly at Fujiwara no Masaru, "Master Fujiwara, can't you spare a thousand people from your territory? I didn't come to Isa immediately after returning to Yama, but went to the surrounding areas to check the actual situation. There are a large number of farmers who have lost their land in your territory, and the number is more than a thousand. But they are all controlled by the big landlords and noble families, and they cultivate farmland that does not belong to them day after day. Am I right?"

"Master May, is there any problem with this? I can't force them to hand over all the people who bought it, right? Besides, if good land is not cultivated, it will be abandoned. In order to avoid famine, my territory must continue to maintain production."

"But what I see is that the residents of the lower city are all pale and thin, and they don't look like they can meet their basic needs, and the output of the farmland is estimated to exceed the total needs of the Bali area." May Haruka raised his voice, "Where did all the extra food go? It's impossible that they disappeared!"

Fujiwara no Masaru's face darkened.

The two attendants behind him also glared with anger, revealing an expression of humiliation.

But Mayu Haruka was unmoved and said to himself, "In fact, everyone here knows where the grain has gone - because this kind of thing does not only happen under the rule of Lord Fujiwara, but is a common practice of all of you. They are all in the granary surrounded by high walls and courtyards, waiting to be exchanged for other more valuable materials, such as jewelry, such as musket ammunition! What you lack is not people, but your greed that you are unwilling to give up!"