Chapter 391: The Chain of Suspicion at the Border!
The birth of the Holy Light Law did not cause much commotion, and the lords were still fully focused on preparing for war in the following days.
They led the soldiers to conduct high-intensity training, constantly improving their combat effectiveness and combat skills.
However, this high-intensity training brought huge rune consumption, which meant greater exploitation of the lower-class people.
Each lord was doing his best to squeeze runes from the lower-class residents.
But the problem was that the effect of the Xiao people hoarding a large amount of runes without using them had begun to show, and a large number of blessings could not return to the golden tree, causing a large deficit.
According to the order of the principle of regression, if the golden tree did not recover enough blessings, it would reduce the blessings released.
The golden people relied on their own survival and absorbed the runes produced by other animals and plants, which began to be insufficient to support the lords' high-intensity exploitation.
But many lords did not realize this problem, so their tax officials still squeezed runes in the same way as before.
The consequences of this series of events were extremely serious. The lives of a large number of lower-class people were squeezed dry of all the blessings and eventually returned to the embrace of the golden tree.
In just a few months, nearly 30% of the people in the border area died due to the excessive exploitation of runes. Faced with such a tragic situation, no one could sit idly by.
Although the tax officials' miscalculation leading to the complete death of serfs is not a very low probability event, on the contrary, people die every year due to the exploitation of runes.
However, the number of deaths in recent times is really shocking. Such a large number of deaths has dealt a heavy blow to the Golden Law and has far-reaching impacts.
The source of power of the Golden Law is the huge number of golden people. Although the death of a large number of people has provided sufficient nutrients for the Golden Tree in the short term, in the long run, this practice is tantamount to killing the chicken to get the eggs.
Although it has gained temporary benefits, it will no longer be able to enjoy a steady stream of resources in the future.
The return of a large number of people to the tree accelerated the decline of the Golden Law. The Golden Tree only lasted for a few months in its heyday before it fell into decline again, and this time the degree of decline was even worse than before.
Large golden leaves fell one after another, covering the entire royal city of Rodel. Everyone could truly feel that the life of the golden tree was about to come to an end.
However, the decline of the golden tree did not stop the lords from exploiting the people.
On the contrary, they became more greedy and cruel, and exploited the runes of the people more recklessly.
The reason for all this came from the invisible chain of suspicion. A question spread in the hearts of all the lords:
Who stole the huge amount of runes, leading to the decline of the golden tree and the death of a large number of people.
The most reasonable explanation is that some lords, regardless of the lives of their people, madly exploited runes to develop their military power,
which first caused the death of a large number of people, and then led to the reduction of the blessings of the golden tree. The reduction of blessings further aggravated the blessings that the people could obtain, and finally led to the death of a large number of people.
But the problem lies here. The first person who killed the people on a large scale must have a lot of runes in his hands. If these runes are transformed into power, the threat to other lords may be fatal.
All the lords also know that the large number of people only means that the territory has great development potential in the future, but the problem is that the border is now divided into two major factions.
The Demigod Alliance and the Blessed King Defense Army, no matter which side wins, will cause a devastating blow to the other side.
Even if the territory has more development potential, that is a matter of the future. Only by converting potential into combat power can we win the future war.
Human nature is selfish, especially for those lords who are used to being domineering.
If the second battle of the royal city fails, they will inevitably lose all their existing power and wealth.
They will never allow themselves to lose their current status because of their momentary kindness.
Instead of handing over the precious people to outsiders after the defeat, it is better to use those untouchables to develop their own power and win this war.
As long as they can win, the lost people can be compensated by plundering the resources of the defeated;
As long as they can win the war, they can continue to maintain their ruling position and gain more people and land.
Therefore, under the influence of the chain of suspicion, the lords became more and more cruel and ruthless to their people, and even started a large-scale massacre regardless of everything.
After their own people died, some of them turned their attention to the territories of other lords without hesitation and brutally killed the people of other lords.
This vicious cycle is like a virus, constantly intensifying, causing the whole world to fall into chaos and blood.
Chaos quickly began to spread in the border area.
Faced with this situation, neither Latan nor Mungert could remain calm.
What they expected was not a ruined border area.
If the lords and nobles were allowed to go crazy, no one knew how many innocent people would die.
Therefore, the two sides reached a tacit understanding and began to summon their respective armies to prepare for the final decisive battle.
Here, the second battle of the royal city Rodel officially began.
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On the side of the Ratan coalition, the Red Lion Knights led by Ratan, the Kalia Knights of Rakkad, and the mages formed the vanguard.
They took the Decathus lift to assemble an army on the Yatan Plateau.
What followed were the Valkyrie's Rotten Knights and Michaela's Holy Tree Legion.
After the war against Lienia, the Valkyrie Malenia did not lead the army back to the Holy Snowfield, but chose to stay in Sunshade City near the volcano official residence to rest.
After receiving Latarn's summons, she immediately led her army from the Sinner's Bridge outside Sunyin City and went straight to gather outside the Fengfu Forest where the coalition troops were stationed.
At the same time, the forces at the Volcano Mansion where Xiao was located were also summoned.
The powerful combat power of the Dragon Legion is eye-catching, and Latarn will naturally not miss such an aerial force.
Xiao led the snake-men army, the god-skin army and the dragon army to assemble the army near the Boiling River, the official residence of the volcano, and led the dragons all the way to the outskirts of the fertile forest.
At the same time, shortly after the Latarn coalition set off, another team also arrived at the Yatan Plateau in the Decodas lift.
The leader of this team was Greg, who rebelled during the first Battle of the Royal City and was hanged by King Blessing. In the end, he could only rely on Marika's artifact to escape from the Royal City of Rodel disguised as a woman.