Chapter 23: The Kingdom's Predicament

  "Ah! Then he won't be back... Sigh, it's better that way." Upon hearing Liu Yu say that the little mouse man would follow him for his entire life after growing up in the Earth Fire Fortress, the mouse tribe woman first whispered a sentence with some loss, then her expression changed and she muttered to herself with some comfort.

  "Hmm! He won't be back, I'm leaving first!" Liu Yu didn't give the woman another chance to speak and quickly ran towards the village with the little mouse in his arms, afraid that he really couldn't hold on any longer.

  ..........

  "Alas, I told you not to go." Not long after, on the snowy ground on the other side of the village, Liu Yutouleimi said somewhat helplessly, looking at him with red eyes like a wild beast that might go crazy at any time.

  "The mouse people are a stubborn race, the child is not really unable to live, they will not give up. As soon as I saw him with my first glance, I felt that this child was already dead. You went there too, it's all in vain." Tolemmy patted Liu Yu's shoulder and took the infant from his arms.

  "That year on the battlefield, I was seriously injured and the Dalu tribe leader took care of me for several months. This kindness I have never forgotten, how could I abandon him to die?" He added a little explanation but saw that Liu Yu still had no reaction, helplessly shaking his head, he hugged the small mouse person and walked into the distant snowy field, soon his figure disappeared in the deep night snow.

  Ptolemy made it clear that it's better to let Liu Yu be for now, so he can calm down and face the cruel reality, which is the only way to become a truly strong Golden Demon Warrior.

  "Fano'der, I will destroy you, I will." Long after Ptolemy had gone, a low, barely audible whisper emerged in the snowy night.

  .........

  "You haven't told me where that jar of wine came from yet?" Several days later, on a vast grassland, Liu Yu rode a tall black warhorse and looked at Ptolemy who was riding a giant white wolf beside him with a smile.

  "What's the big idea?" Tolomei rolled his eyes and spoke to Liu Yu as if they were old friends, without any airs of seniority.

  "Are you guilty? Is it because of corruption or did you steal from the palace?" Liu Yu asked with a sly face after rolling his eyes.

  "You little brat, you've learned to throw dirty water at such a young age!" Ptolemy was indeed somewhat annoyed by Liu Yu's wild guesses.

  "You're still a bit short, old man." Liu Yu smiled complacently and maintained his usual nonchalant demeanor. After spending more time with Tolomei, the fat guy, the distance between them gradually decreased, and this intergenerational friendship also alleviated some of Liu Yu's negative emotions after witnessing the poverty of the mouse people.

  "Alas, nothing much, the camp's excess rations have to be handed over, I naturally couldn't use some to brew wine, so when clearing out those demonic beasts, I conveniently picked some wild fruits and brought them back to the camp to brew my own fruit wine."

  "There aren't many fruits in the forest that can be brewed into wine, and even fewer that taste good. This is a small batch of wine that I spent a long time brewing, so you can't just drink it all up." With a light sigh, Tolemmy finally gave in and revealed the answer.

  "Oh, I didn't expect the majestic and powerful Duke Tollemi to be collecting wild fruits to make wine like a monkey. You're really letting loose, haha... Cheers!"

  When Liu Yu heard this answer, he immediately imagined the image of Ptolemy's fat figure jumping and picking wild fruits in the forest. A long-lost joy suddenly lingered in his heart, and Liu Yu involuntarily urged the war horse under him to gallop forward.

  "Haha, this kid is finally doing better." Tolomei, who was still riding his giant wolf and moving forward slowly, looked at the smile on Liu Yu's face and the figure disappearing in the distance, and secretly let out a sigh of relief.

  The grudge between the Kingdom and the Empire of Fano must be remembered, but it cannot be lived with hatred all day long. Only by letting go of this knot can future strength make greater progress, so Liu Yu's smile is what he most wants to see.

  ...........

  Liu Yu and his group stayed in the Mouse Tribe's territory for only one day before Ptolemy formally took out King Croak's golden decree, announcing that all young Mamon would follow him to visit the northeastern part of the kingdom, while the mice who followed them would return to their camp on their own.

  The northeastern part of the kingdom is the domain of the centaurs. When Liu Yu and his men entered this place, they were warmly received by the centaur tribe and provided with a large number of horses for them to ride.

  At the camp, Marlan, the captain of the guards, also taught them horse riding. Although their horsemanship was average, they could still ride horses to hurry along the road. This time, riding horses to hurry along the road also gave many young people opportunities to practice horse riding with Mong.

  In addition, Ptolemy specifically stated that all the young men of the Baimen tribe could ride at their own pace as long as they didn't fall behind and didn't have to maintain formation. This gave them the opportunity to practice riding skills, so there were many Baimen who rode horses and galloped wildly like Liu Yu.

  Liu Yu's mood was great as he galloped away, the gloom of the past few days was swept away, and several consecutive days on horseback also raised his familiarity with the battle horses to a new level.

  "'Reading ten thousand volumes and traveling ten thousand miles" seems like this trip is going to be a thoughtful one for the clan." Liu Yu thought to himself after galloping several miles before slowing down his horse.

  It was also in a few days that Ptolemy told Liu Yu many things he didn't know before, and the current state of the kingdom was much worse than what Liu Yu understood. Before, when he was by King Kro's side, he had seen too little.

  On the one hand, the grain-producing areas of the Beastman Kingdom are concentrated in the east, and frequent wars have seriously affected food production. Liu Yu had long known this, but the problem was not just that.

  Frequent wars forced the Orcish Kingdom to maintain a large army, and many young laborers participated in battles instead of staying home to cultivate the land. As a result, the already low-yielding western lands of the kingdom were not fully developed, leading to a decline in grain production and an increasingly severe food shortage problem for the kingdom.

  On the other hand, among the Beastmen Kingdom's races that can truly go to battle, there are only three: the Minotaur, Centaur and Wolfman.

  Others, such as mouse people, rabbit people, and ant people, are not capable of participating in battles. At most, they serve as miscellaneous workers on the battlefield. Their populations are not large, with only about 1.2 million for the Mongols, while the centaurs and wolf people have populations that are roughly ten times that of the Mongols.

  This ordinary border war is not a war of extermination, it is impossible for all people to take up arms, the old, weak, women and children are not on the battlefield, so the troops of the three tribes often have to face two or three times their own Fanoede army on the battlefield. For this reason, the three tribes put all their energy into the army and strive to improve the combat effectiveness of the army. As for farming, herding, producing living materials and other things, they do not undertake them.

  Everything produced within the kingdom is undertaken by the mouse people and ant people, these vassal races. Their innate magical abilities are extremely poor, not even comparable to those of humans, yet they have a large population and strong reproductive capabilities, which has exacerbated their food shortages, making it difficult for more vassal race members to get enough to eat.

  Conversely, the vassal races that have been hungry for a long time have poor physical fitness and can't bear the burden of military service or pioneering.

  Like Cro-Wang decided to develop the Desa mountain range, he had to mobilize strong mouse people from the Bimon tribe's territory, but after one withdrawal, it was found that there were very few qualified and slightly stronger ones that could be withdrawn without affecting local farming. As a result, the development of the Desa mountain range has not achieved significant results for a long time.

  These two aspects ultimately converged into a huge vicious circle, the vast vassal races needed a large amount of food, but the kingdom's land could not produce so much food.

  Facing Fandor's nearly uninterrupted consumptive offensive, the kingdom had to fight for a long time, and the full-force response of the three tribes of Bimon, Half-Horse, and Wolfman, who were completely detached from production, could not be separated from the vassal tribes, making the burden on the vassal tribes heavier, almost every year plagued by famine.

  Liu Yu finally understood why King Kero often stared blankly at the map of the kingdom, the Beastman Kingdom was now in a fragile balance point, if there was a major defeat or a major famine, it would break this balance and bring disaster that the kingdom could not withstand.

  "Alas! ...." It seemed as if he had seen the scene of the kingdom's collapse. Liu Yu's forehead suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, and he couldn't help but pull on the reins to slow down the horse's pace, allowing himself to catch his breath.

  "There is no way out unless Fanode is defeated and the two vassal kingdoms of Lein and Sas are recovered." Savoring this conclusion, Liu Yu understood that the war between the two countries would not stop until one side fell.

  ..........

  The central city of the Centaur territory is Steel Axe Fortress, which is both the largest city within the Centaurs and their greatest military stronghold. This time, many young Mimon who came to visit the northeastern part of the kingdom thought that their destination was Steel Axe Fortress. The young Mimon, who had never seen a large city other than Earthfire Fortress, all had some excitement in their hearts, but Ptolemy disappointed them once again.

  The land of the Beastmen Kingdom is roughly divided into three parts, with the western and central parts being the territory of the Bimon tribe, while the eastern part is divided in two, with the northern part being the territory of the Centaurs and the southern part being the territory of the Wolfmen.

  Liu Yu and his men have been walking along the border between the werewolves and centaurs for days, heading east. Ptolemy still hasn't given the order to head north towards Steel Axe Fortress, and Little Bimon is getting impatient within the group.

  "Are we going to Steelhaven, sir?" Two days later, a sturdy youth named Huang Jinbimont, riding a sorrel warhorse, caught up with Tolemym, who was riding a giant wolf, and reined in his horse to ask.

  "When you get there, you'll know." Tolemy touched the snow-white wolf hair under his seat and replied calmly after glancing at the other person.

  "Can you tell me now?" The young Huang Jinbi asked persistently.

  "Hmm!" The obviously impolite remark immediately caught the attention of Liu Yu, who was walking alongside Ptolemy. He gave a slightly puzzled glance at this young Huang Jin Bimon, who was none other than the strongest and most talented among these young Bimons - Buga Ning·Saber.