Chapter 1178 Old Acquaintance

Ai Ze wanted to reward Zhang Tong's thigh, because judging from the current situation, Zhang Tong was obviously more powerful than that seventh-order mage. That mage was respectful in front of him, he must be a big shot.

It's not that Aize has never seen a mage. He still remembers that a fourth-order mage came to the family more than three years ago. He only stayed for a week. All the big shots in the surrounding towns came to visit him. Those city lords and great nobles who were usually proud and arrogant bowed their knees in front of the mage one by one.

Another earl expressed very humbly that he wanted his child to go to the Immortal City to learn magic, and was willing to be an apprentice in front of the mage. If the fourth-order mage is willing to accept his child, he is willing to offer five hundred gold coins as a tuition fee every year.

Five hundred gold coins is a lot of money! You can buy a manor with luxurious villas, servants and two thousand acres of land.

However, the fourth-level mage just asked the earl's child to take a test, and then said that the child was not very talented, and it would be difficult to reach the stage of a first-level mage in this life, so he directly rejected the earl's request.

Mage is a superior existence in this world, because they are extremely powerful and can influence nature, they are the most powerful force in this world.

But now, that man with thick eyebrows and big eyes can let an ordinary-looking high-ranking mage take orders from him, this man must be good.

Ai Ze made up his mind, he was going to hug this thigh fiercely.

On the other side, Zhang Tong and Qin Kuiren also planned to ask Ai Ze carefully, because Ai Ze's behavior was not like that of an ordinary fleeing child. He looks like he should be about eight years old, of course it is not ruled out that he is small in stature and may actually be a little older.

The kid had a maturity not befitting his age.

"Your name is Ai Ze, right?" Qin Kuairen can only communicate with Ai Ze now, after all, Zhang Tong doesn't understand the language of this world.

"Yes, sir, I am." Ai Ze behaved very well, obviously very hungry now. But when Qin Kuairen asked questions, he put down Tudou politely and concentrated on answering.

"Where did you come from? How did you get here?"

Ai Ze sorted out the word order and said, "My lord, I came from the Dawn Kingdom in the east."

"Are these children your brothers and sisters?"

"No, I met them on the way to escape. Then they walked together. They came from all over the world." In Ai Ze's description, the current problems of the world began to be gradually exposed to Qin Kuairen and Zhang Tong.

Just as Qin Kuiren and Zhang Tong guessed, Ai Ze is not a child from an ordinary family, as can be seen from his conversation and upbringing.

He is the only son of a second-class baron in the Dawn Kingdom. The division of nobility in this world is basically similar to that on Earth. The highest is the royal family, then the prince, and then the holders of titles such as princes and uncles. The lowest privileged class is the knight, and the knight is not considered a noble.

The titles of Duke and Bozi are divided into three classes. The first-class duke is the highest rank of nobility outside the royal family, and the third-class baron is the lowest rank among nobles.

Ai Ze was born into a second-class baron family, the lowest among nobles. But even the nobles at the bottom are still much stronger than commoners.

There are more than ten servants in Ai Ze's family, and eight guards who can wear leather armor, bend bows and shoot arrows, and fight with swords. Aize's house has more than fifty rooms, a stable, a garden, and more than 3,000 acres of land. And Ai Ze is actually eleven years old this year, but because of his slow body development, he looks young and short. He looks like an eight or nine-year-old child. He is only 1.38 meters tall.

Because of his superior family background, Ai Ze has been receiving cultural education since he was three years old, and now he has basically learned basic characters. And finished the Enlightenment "A Brief History of Hela Continent", "Legendary Mage Story", "Hela Epic" and other books.

He also learned archery and long sword fighting from the guards at home since he was eight years old. However, because his body has not yet developed, although he has a good grasp of technical movements, he cannot really fight.

Originally, if everything goes smoothly and nothing goes wrong, after the death of the old baron, Ai Ze will become the new baron and own all the property.

Originally things should be like this, but the whole continent began to slowly undergo some changes nine years ago (that is, when Qin Kuairen traveled back to the earth).

It started from the Ice Country in the north, and it was just a small piece of farmland that didn't attract anyone's attention.

However, in the second year, the agriculture of the Icefield Nation began to shrink on a large scale. Most of the crops were infected with unknown diseases, and a quarter of the country's farmland lost production.

The king of the Ice Country panicked and asked the neighboring countries for help. But for the Ice Country's request for help, most countries actually hold the mentality of watching a show. Even some countries that did not deal with the Ice Country took the opportunity to increase the price of food to the Ice Country to make things worse.

The Icefield Nation has been begging for a year and has not waited for rescue from other countries. No other country cares about how the Icefield Nation has experienced a reduction in food production.

But in the third year, terrible things happened. The three countries bordering the Icefield Country all experienced food production reductions of different scales. And the Ice Country, where problems first appeared, has already experienced a large-scale famine, because one-fifth of the country's food crops have not been harvested.

Now the human kingdom has begun to pay attention, but they paid attention too late. By the fourth year, the diseased, reduced crop had spread to eight countries. Nearly half of all human nations have experienced food production declines.

But at this time, the mages who had never cared about the Immortal City of the human kingdom realized the seriousness of the matter. They sent the largest team of mages in history, 3,000 mages went to various parts of the world to investigate the reasons for the reduction in food production.

The reason was finally determined. At the beginning, some mutated crop diseases appeared in the Icefield Kingdom and infected part of the farmland. And this farmland disease is extremely contagious, and these sources of infection have spread to all parts of the world because of the circulation of food.

It's like humans are infected with the plague, but this time it is the crops that are infected with the plague.

Moreover, this plague can infect almost all human staple foods, from potatoes to barley and so on.

Because it is impossible to be infected with the plague like humans, one can be found to isolate the other. Mages don't know how to quarantine infected crops or fields of crops that are not yet infected but suspected to be.

The Supreme Mage Council of the Immortal City issued an ultimatum to human countries all over the world. Once infected farmland is found, all of them must be burned and disinfected, and the grain harvested from suspected infected fields must also be burned.

This decision cannot be said to be wrong, but it has come too late. By the time the mages figured out these things, the time had come to the sixth year.

Almost all of the seventeen mortal kingdoms in the world suffered from food diseases. Crops infected with this food plague will show a situation in which the green leaves are withered and yellow, unable to absorb nutrients. For example, if wheat is infected with this disease, it seems that it can still produce ears during the harvest season, but the inside of the ear is empty, or the grains in the ear are shriveled and small.

Food shortages began to appear all over the world, but at this time the mages of the Immortal City asked the mortal country to burn the food?

Which country can agree?

Even if the country agrees, can the common people, small landlords and nobles below agree? At that time, the problem of food plague may be solved, but at the same time, the owner of the country will have to change his surname!

The Aize family originally had a wealthy family, but as barons, they had to pay the nobility gold to His Majesty the Emperor of the Dawn Kingdom every year to guarantee their title of nobility.

This is somewhat similar to the aristocratic system in the Eastern and Western Han Dynasties. The aristocrats and offshoot royal families in the Eastern and Western Han Dynasties all needed to pay a sum of money to ensure the inheritance of their titles. For example, the famous Liu Xuande, he was the queen of King Jing of Zhongshan, but why did he weave straw sandals instead of becoming a nobleman?

The reason is that at the time of Liu Bei's father, their family had no money to pay the noble gold to maintain the family title.

Mr. Gonghou Bozi, each rank of nobles needs to pay a fixed amount of noble gold every year, and it will not be changed easily. Originally, with the family background of the Aize family, it was not difficult to pay this noble fee every year.

But unforeseen circumstances caused the crop plague to infect Ai Ze's family's 3,000 mu of land. Ai Ze's father was decisive. After reporting to the mage, he burned all the grain of the 3,000 mu of land in one go. The land was almost harvested. This fire is heartbreaking.

Ai Ze's family has savings and food storage, and it is not a big problem to rely on savings and food storage for a year or two.

But this was only the beginning of the disaster. Aize's family could hold on, so they burned all the crops. But there are many owner farmers and small landlords who can't hold on! So some people took chances and didn't report to the mages, let alone burn their own crops. They all said to themselves: What if the mages are wrong?

Unfortunately, the mages were right.

When the crop plague spread to the province of Dawn over Genoa where Aize was located, it was actually doomed to be a tragedy.

After all, there are only a small number of people like Ai Ze's father who are on the verge of stopping. The grain production in the province of Genoa fell by 20%, and many people fell from a state of food and clothing to a state of sometimes starving. And this is not the worst of times, but the last gleam of a golden age.

In the second year, the grain production in the province of Genoa was reduced by half. There were 3 million people in the whole province, and nearly 1.5 million people were about to go hungry. As for how much will starve to death? No one can count anymore.

The largest refugee wave in the history of Genoa Province broke out, but Genoa Province did not have food relief for so many refugees. Because crop plagues are breaking out all over the world, the price of food has gone up.

And the Ice Country, where the crop plague first broke out, is already on the verge of extinction. Their food production is only 40% of what they were in their heyday, and they can't feed so many people no matter what.

The situation in the province of Genoa was not as good. A large number of refugees could not receive relief, and they became the most terrifying force of destruction. Hungry humans are more terrible than the most powerful locust in the world.

No weeds grew where they walked, and everything that could fill their stomachs went into their mouths. When they traveled all the way to Aize's hometown, everything Aize had known was over.

A city of more than 30,000 people was overrun by hundreds of thousands of refugees, and they ate whatever they had. The food accumulated by Aize's family is the most important fat in the eyes of refugees.

They only have food in their eyes, only food, and everything else is not important. The guards who have been loyal to the family for generations were originally the guardian gods in Ai Ze's eyes. They are strong, tall and mighty. Captain William is so strong that he can kill a 1,500-jin brown bear with his bare hands. In Ai Ze's eyes, he was like a Hercules.

But on that day, Ai Ze saw with his own eyes that the protector in his eyes was besieged by a group of refugees. He fought hard until the sword broke. He was lifted high by the angry refugees, and then countless people pulled his limbs, pulling William's limbs alive.

He even saw refugees throwing themselves on William and eating his flesh. He was still alive at that time!

Standing on the third floor of the house, young Aize witnessed everything. And his father had already put on his full body armor, and pulled Aize and the remaining three guards to escape on horseback.

Facing the inexhaustible tide of refugees, no one can resist.

Escaping their homeland, Aize's family also became refugees. When my father went out, he brought a lot of gold coins, but it was useless, and even if he had money, he could not buy food.

Father and three guards could only dig wild vegetables and eat bark in the wild. During the days of fleeing, the Aize family and several other families went together. Because if the number is too small, it is dangerous among refugees. Don't think that cannibalism does not exist. Many stranded refugees in the refugee wave may disappear one night, and when they are discovered, they will turn into a pile of bones.

Ai Ze's father didn't go with everyone, he only accompanied those families who were willing to take their children with them when they fled. Because there are children, it proves that this family still has the most basic humanity and the most basic bottom line.

And the direction where Ai Ze's father fled was the Immortal City. Because Ai Ze's father firmly believes that even if all the mortal kingdoms fall, as long as there are mages, the Immortal City and the eight surrounding satellite cities will not fall.

However, they were finally blocked outside the Black Mountain checkpoint, because the Immortal City had already issued a retreat order, and the food plague had not yet occurred around the Immortal City. But the mages feared that the refugees carried the plague. Therefore, the two checkpoints for entering the Immortal City, the Black Mountain checkpoint in the west and the Red Velvet checkpoint in the north, are already in full swing to prevent refugees from entering or leaving.

However, in order to prevent the refugees from attacking the two checkpoints, the Immortal City still carried out a certain amount of food relief, and each person could receive a bowl of thin barley porridge that could reflect the figure every day. Relying on this barley porridge cannot feed people, it is only the difference between early death and late death.

Aize's father used all the more than 300 gold coins he was carrying to bribe the guards of Montenegro.

"These are children, I beg the general to let them live. It's better to beg in the Immortal City than starve to death here with us. I beg the general!"

Ai Ze's father wept bitterly. As a nobleman, he knelt down and kowtowed to a squadron leader guarding the city checkpoint. Maybe it's because of the role of money, maybe it's because seeing Aize and the others is really miserable. The squadron leader took the risk of letting Aize, as well as the children of the family who traveled with Aize's family along the way, sneak into the checkpoint.

Zhang Tong and Qin Kuairen both heaved a sigh of relief after hearing this story.

"Then your father and their parents are still outside the checkpoint?" Qin Kuairen asked, he couldn't say that he was waiting to die outside the checkpoint like this!

Ai Ze nodded: "Yes. Father and uncles and aunts are still waiting for us outside the checkpoint. Father gave me a token. Take this token and go to the Immortal City to find Master Feng Meier. He can save us."

Qin Kuairen heard the name a little familiar: "Feng Meier, I seem to know this person!"

Zhang Tong glanced at him: "What, old acquaintance?"

"If the Feng Meier Ai Ze mentioned is the Feng Meier I know, then he is really an old acquaintance. He is another disciple under my teacher's name, and he is my junior!"

As soon as Qin Kuairen finished speaking, there was a commotion outside the tavern. A group of soldiers walked into the tavern and said to the manager of the tavern: "Master Feng Meier will lead the mage team to Sylvie City tonight and stay in your tavern. Hurry up and pack a box and prepare a good meal." .Master Feng Meier will have a good rest tonight, and tomorrow he will inspect all the farmland in Sylvie City!"