Great time travel

Chapter 25. This country is so useless

"...The Great Tomb of Nazarick and Ainz, the Lich King, if they want to rule in that fantasy world, even if they can rely entirely on undead and monsters to fight, they must also have land and subjects. Taxes and materials to achieve sustainable development. First of all, land is not a problem, and there is a lot of undeveloped fertile wasteland near the Great Tomb. But the population is more difficult to deal with, and ideas must be obtained from several nearby countries.”

"...And among the three main countries in the surrounding area. The Slian Theocracy in the south seems to have been established by the previous groups of traversers, and at least has a deep relationship with the traversers, so the domestic ruling order is very strict, very Modern color, it is the only country in the world that has a universal household registration system. At the same time, it has been pursuing human supremacy for hundreds of years, and the whole country is extremely hostile to foreigners. It is really inconvenient to start with this country in the early days.

Although the Bajas Empire in the east is slightly less stable than the Slan Theocracy, because successive generations of emperors have worked hard to rule, suppressed local nobles, and pursued a centralized policy, the country is now flourishing, and it is not a soft persimmon that is easy to pinch. "

Standing in front of the small blackboard, Wang Qiu talked so eloquently, "...and the rest of the Kingdom of Yestige is the weakest link among the Three Kingdoms, and it is also the main stage of the original plot. As the saying goes, flies It’s not seamless. And in this kingdom, there are too many gaps that can be used! In order to completely collapse the main line of the plot and completely smash the main stage of the original work. I think it is necessary to set off a war in this kingdom. Devastating chaos..."

--inside.The Kingdom of Yestij, a human kingdom with a population of 900 million, was founded nearly 200 years ago.

But it is also a decadent regime that is filled with decay and chaos from the inside to the outside, and looks like it is about to kick its legs to the ground.

According to "Li.The report of the Social Survey and Analysis of the Kingdom of Yestij shows that compared with the already highly centralized Slan Theocracy and the Bajas Empire, it is much worse.The Kingdom of Yestijie is still implementing a backward feudal lord system. Among the national territory, the territory directly controlled by the royal family accounts for about [-]%, the territory of the six major nobles and princes accounts for [-]%, and the remaining land is occupied by many small nobles, autonomous cities and Owned by semi-barbaric tribes nominally loyal to the kingdom, they are like countries within a country. The authority of the central government is weak and continues to decline, while local forces maintain a delicate balance with each other.

This country has never established a standing army, and its armed forces mainly rely on the personal guards of noble lords, as well as temporarily recruited armed farmers.

Although the royal family theoretically owns [-]% of the country's land, these lands are not contiguous, but fragmented.With the passage of time, the royal family's control over these territories has been declining, and many places can no longer even collect taxes.

Originally, although the power of the royal family has been slowly declining for a long time, relying on the righteousness of the monarch and taking advantage of the contradictions and conflicts among the local nobles and princes, the kings of all dynasties have continued to use their strengths to shift and move, and they can barely control the domestic political situation. maintain order.

But as time goes by, ri.Most of the hereditary feudal aristocratic lords of the Kingdom of Yestij gradually formed a powerful political alliance called the Noble Faction, and joined hands with each other to attack the royalist party in the country and continuously weaken the power of the royal family.Coupled with the royal family's ineffective response, the authority of the monarch or the central government has declined sharply over the years, and the country has gradually fallen into a state of anarchy and chaos.

inside.The current king of the Kingdom of Yestij is Rambusa III, who has reigned for 39 years and is now 60 years old.Although this king is not fatuous and cruel, he is not a very courageous and wise monarch. He is basically an ordinary old man who is mediocre and getting along.

Therefore, in the face of the civil and military battles of the great nobles and princes in the country, the king has almost been retreating steadily for decades.In the hands of Rambosa III, Li.The royal power of the Kingdom of Yestiger declined further, and finally fell to a jaw-dropping level.

Specifically, the country's central institutions, royal guards, and territories directly under the king's jurisdiction were gradually infiltrated by the great nobles, and the actual power of the royal family became weaker and weaker.During his reign, the royal family even gradually lost control over the capital city of Lolonti. A considerable part of the capital's garrison troops no longer obeyed the king, but became a sharp sword hanging over the royal family's head.For this reason, Rambusa III had to make an exception and promote Gazef, a commoner, as the commander of the warrior, and build a new army completely loyal to the royal family in order to protect himself.However, due to financial limitations - not only the treasury, but even the king's private treasury were usurped.Therefore, the troops under Captain Gazef's command were only a few hundred people, and the weapons and equipment were patchwork, as desolate as bandits and bandits, without the slightest trace of the grandeur of the Royal Forest Army.

In recent years, even the court has been basically out of control.King Lanbusa III is no longer "government orders not leaving the capital", nor is it "government orders not leaving the palace", but government orders are not easy to use in the palace. A man who is truly loyal to the royal family.So much so that even the servants who manage the treasury can openly resist the king's orders, but the king cannot punish or replace them.

The reason why this poor and mediocre king has not been killed so far, or has been put under house arrest and completely reduced to a puppet, is because the aristocratic faction is not united, and the six most powerful nobles in the country are similar in power , are very jealous of each other, there is no strong leader who can overwhelm everyone and replace the royal family.If anyone openly commits regicide or rebellion, he will become the target of public criticism.Therefore, relying on the contradictions and confrontations of these powerful vassals, the king finally had some room for survival, and even managed to organize a little bit of his own direct lineage in the capital.

On the other hand, Li.No matter how decadent the royal family of the Kingdom of Yestij was, after all, a lean camel was bigger than a horse. There were still a few relatively reliable territories under the direct control of the country, such as the fortress city.Randyll is one of them.This is also the foundation of strength for the royal family to maintain its status.

In addition, there is another factor, that is, the military threat of the Bajas Empire, which also makes those ambitious nobles quite afraid-if they block all their capital, carry their infamy, and take risks, they raise troops to overthrow the royal family and overthrow the royal family. If you want to conquer the kingdom, but the result is to allow the empire to take advantage of it, then wouldn't it be a waste of time?Moreover, under the rule of the empire, the situation and status of his family at that time would probably be far worse than it is now!
However, despite these concerns, the prevailing aristocratic faction was not ready to overthrow the royal family immediately and blatantly, but they were still very consistent in continuing to weaken the royal power.In recent years, the aristocratic faction has been trying to force the old king to abdicate: no matter how mediocre King Lanbosha III is, after all, he has been in power for ten years, and he has more or less power and cronies. He has also been tempered with rich political experience, which is not so easy to handle .If it is replaced by a powerless and unscrupulous boy, then no matter whether the aristocratic faction intends to sway the royal power like the modern British parliament on earth and implement a constitutional monarchy; or simply abolish the royal family and establish an aristocratic republic like ancient Rome Much easier.

But King Rambusa III also understands this. Although he is old and frail, he still occupies the throne stubbornly. There are not many available people at hand, and the results are minimal.And the old king's two sons are useless: the eldest prince has been fooled by the nobles, and in order to snatch the throne, he does not hesitate to sing against his father and act as the puppet of those great nobles.Although the second prince is a little more sober, he is far from being excellent. At the moment when the authority of the royal family is extremely degraded, it is very difficult for King Lanbusa III to abandon the elders and establish the younger ones—in fact, even he himself has Possibility of being dethroned.

Finally, Rambusa III had several daughters, one of whom was not only beautiful but also very talented in politics. She was known as the Golden Princess and had engaged in many social improvement movements, such as the abolition of slavery.However, under the resistance of the nobles, it was basically a formality and failed to really have any effect.

right here.When the ruling class of the Yestijie Kingdom is so intriguing and disorganized, the livelihood of the people at the bottom of the country is also extremely depressed.

——According to the rumors heard by "cat scouts" in the streets and alleys of the fortress city, combined with the original content of "Overlord King of the Undead", the final judgment is: like the Karn Village I have seen before, the villagers can live three times a day. There are only a few "rich" villages in the entire kingdom where there are brick houses to live in, and only need to take out [-]% to [-]% of the wheat harvest to pay taxes.

Because Karn Village is located in the territory directly under the royal family, there are relatively few exorbitant taxes, and it is in a desolate border area, where the traditional aristocrats are not strong, so there is such a lenient treatment.And the price is that it may be devastated by war and monsters at any time - Kahn Village, located on the edge of the forest, escaped the flames of war because it was too remote and far away from the main roads.And many other nearby villages were burned and killed in the years of war between the kingdom and the empire, and turned into a piece of white land.Other remote mountain villages that also escaped the war disaster were massacred miserably by monsters running rampant in the forest...

It was entirely because of good luck that the residents of Karn Village were not affected by military disasters or invaded by monsters. They were able to enjoy light wages and riches for a long time, and lived a relatively leisurely and comfortable life... It is a pity that with the Even the intrusion and massacre of the Theocracy Knights, the good luck of Karn Village is over.

On the other hand, in most parts of the kingdom, although they were able to stay away from wars and monsters, they were burdened with appalling taxes.Due to the exploitation of officials and nobles, the extremely decadent royal family was unable to control the exploitation within a reasonable range. As a result, the annual taxes that farmers in the Kingdom had to pay were at least equivalent to [-]% of the grain harvested in the fields. In many places, The collection amount has even reached [-]%!This is not counting the rest of the miscellaneous taxes and tax collectors who obtained benefits privately.Many low-level people had to sell their sons and daughters to make ends meet.

Under such circumstances, it is already very good for farmers to be able to maintain one meal a day without starving to death.In fact, many people starve to death in the countryside every year.

And these expropriated wealth are almost completely used for various extravagant pleasures.The extremely corrupt aristocratic ruling class doesn't say anything about organizing production, building water conservancy, or even the most basic law and order, allowing bandits and monsters to run rampant.In addition to paying such heavy taxes, the common people have to find a way to raise money and hire adventurers to hunt down monsters in order to obtain the minimum security.

Next, the successive invasions of the Bajas Empire made it even more difficult.The people's livelihood in the Kingdom of Yestij was further worsened: the Bajas Empire used a completely out-of-production standing army, which not only had stronger combat effectiveness, but also sent troops to fight without being restricted by the agricultural production cycle.There is no standing army on the kingdom's side. If they want to be evenly matched, they must mobilize hundreds of thousands of peasants and soldiers in order to barely fight against each other.

But the empire deliberately chooses to send troops around the autumn harvest every year.For this, Li.If the Kingdom of Yestijie mobilizes a large army to fight back, no matter the winner or loser, it will seriously affect the autumn harvest because too much labor is taken away from the fields, which will lead to famine in the coming year.But if they just sit idly by, then the professional army of the empire will massively invade the hinterland of the kingdom, burn, kill and loot, and do the same.Great damage has been done to the Kingdom of Yestij...

——Basically, it is Tang Gaozong's strategy of harassing and destroying Goguryeo. No matter how the opponent responds, the result is continuous blood loss and decline.

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"...In short, Li. The Kingdom of Yestiger is currently a dilapidated house full of holes. From the foundation, pillars to beams, it is almost decayed. As long as someone kicks the door hard, then The whole house will come crashing down..."

Wang Qiu finally concluded this way, while Li Wei raised his hand and raised his doubts, "...Brother Wang Qiu, I admit that your social survey analysis and final conclusion are very correct, but the question is, who should give it to Li Wei?" The last funeral kick for this dilapidated house in the Kingdom of Yestij?

You know, unlike the time travel you have experienced before, now we don’t have a time-space door leading to that world, except for the useless novice account, there are only [-] player accounts that can be cheated and leveled up That's all, they are all non-human races... Whether it is twenty kittens, or twenty iron golems, twenty slimes, or twenty goblins, I am afraid that such a huge and complicated project cannot be completed. Mission! "

"...You are right. For the time being, our strength in the different world is indeed very weak, but please rest assured that we don't need to do this at all, and someone will naturally do it for us." Wang Qiu replied, "...You all also need to do it. Have you read the original book! In just a few days, there will be an indigenous evil terrorist organization named 'Zilanong', attempting to set off a natural disaster of undead in the fortress city Ye. It has been arranged for many years. It was only when the protagonist Ainz showed his might that he was suppressed. But what if these guys succeed?" He changed the subject.

Everyone in the command center suddenly realized, "... Then, what should we do about this matter?"

"...It's very simple, just find a reasonable excuse to send Ainz and his servants away from the city as soon as possible... With the strength of the 'Zhiranon' terrorist organization shown in the plot, in this There should be no opponents in the city who hinder them." Wang Qiu said calmly, "...Of course, in order to get more reward points, you can also save a few small characters who are scheduled to die..."

So, on the seventh day of traveling through another world, Lich King Ainz left the fortress city with a few boxes of purchased books and all kinds of basic knowledge about the world he had collected.Lantil, and then opened the [random door] outside the city to return to the Great Tomb of Nazarick.

Through the investigation in the past few days, he has initially understood his own strength and the weakness of this world, but he has also discovered his own shortcomings.

——That is illiteracy, to be precise, not knowing the characters of this world.In the past few days, Ainz's reading of documents from other worlds was entirely dependent on the cat scholar squatting on his shoulders, continuously using the scholar's professional skill [Language Proficiency], and providing personal translation.

Therefore, he plans to immerse himself in studying as soon as he returns to the Great Tomb of Nazarick. At the same time, he also wants to let the guild guardian NPCs of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, as well as the battle maids and other main members to participate in the study, so as to master the text of this world as soon as possible— ——Just like the kitten-man scholars and players who analyzed alien magic props and historical culture with him said: "...knowledge is power, and this is an undeniable truth in any world. Mr. Ainz, No matter what plans you have for the future, you can't accomplish anything big with a group of illiterates..."

Ainz was deeply convinced of this, and decided to take the next step after learning the characters of this world.

At the same time, another group of uninvited guests stepped into the fortress city.Lantel's Adventurers Guild...