Planetary Museum

"Hurry up brother, run faster, if you go late, you won't get the cookies."

"But I don't feel hungry yet, I ate too much last night..."

"No, when we wait in line, we will naturally be hungry."

Prince Elis was walking on the street, and couldn't help but look around suspiciously. The sword and shield flags of the Elis family could still be seen everywhere on the high places of the surrounding buildings. This was indeed the royal city of Elis.But the difference from Prince Elis' memory is too big.

It was just morning, and there was only a small sun in the sky. It was the most comfortable time of the day in summer. If it was normal, the streets should be full of people coming and going.But at this moment, Prince Elis looked around, and the whole street was empty.He just stayed at home for a few days and didn't go out. What happened to Elis King City in these few days?

The prince walked to the bulletin board at the entrance of the street and quickly saw the reason.

A brand-new notice was pasted on the bulletin board. The most conspicuous thing on the notice was a pie drawn. The area of ​​this cake took up most of the small paper of the notice.The prince looked at the cake on the announcement in surprise—he had seen many first-class painters' works, but even they probably couldn't paint a cake so realistically, and they could even see the cake clearly in the picture. There is a slight bulge on the top, and a faint heat coming out.

There was an arrow under the cake. The prince didn't understand the meaning of the arrow, but he still walked in the direction of the arrow.

Then came the second pie and the second arrow, then the third, and the fourth... When the prince found the seventh arrow all the way, the pie pattern disappeared, and there was only a simple arrow, but at this time, He no longer needed the arrow's instructions—the street that was empty before was already full of people standing in front of the prince.With a glance, he couldn't even see the end of the crowd.

But the strange thing is that so many people are all neatly arranged.The prince has seen the scenes of the army going out many times, and has participated in some wars with the army. He knows what the army looks like.To be honest, even in the army, it is difficult to see such a neat scene. Even when the king is reviewing the troops, everyone habitually swarms up, and sometimes even has to use the guards to maintain order.

But now, these civilians are all neatly lined up in a straight line, and some people who can't bear their temper can only stand on tiptoe, or simply jump up, to see the scene in the distance.And those who dare to step out of the queue, or even try to jump in, will be pulled to the last row by soldiers with sticks.

The prince was a little curious, and he continued to walk along the line of people.Most of the people in the queue recognized that this luxuriously dressed young man was their prince, and they all avoided a little distance, and returned to the queue again after the prince passed in front of them.

In front of Prince Elis, there were all awe-inspiring faces. They lowered their heads and waited for the prince to pass by, but behind him, there was a lot of noise.In this cacophony, the prince's ears automatically picked up the harshest sounds.

"The prince is still in the royal city? Didn't he go to the fiefdom?"

"My God, he's so handsome... I thought Ellis would have a handsome king in the future."

"I heard that the prince is going to fight in front tooth castle?"

……

The prince didn't bring any entourage with him this time, so naturally no one came to warn those who spoke rudely for the prince. For the first time, the prince felt that everyone around him was so strange, unlike those Elises he was familiar with before. The people of Wangcheng are completely different.

The prince once took the lead in holding many celebrations in the royal city, most of which were collective prayer ceremonies for his father in the name of Dayang Sect.At those ceremonies, what the prince felt was everyone's sincere expectations and appreciation for him. Every time he finished his speech, there would be applause like a storm.Both the bishop and the common people praised his virtue and kindness, the girls would salute him shyly, and the old people nodded to him... But, with just two words from his father, all of this disappeared overnight Now, all the high-pitched praises that used to be face-to-face have now become whispers behind the back.

This short journey has turned out to be so difficult.When the prince finally reached the end of the long queue, he finally saw the key to making these countless people line up.

It is cake, it is countless, piled up like a hill of cake, and the cake is exactly the same as the one drawn on the paper.On the square that the prince saw in front of him, there were more than a dozen huge long tables on display, and on each table were stacked layers of cakes that were half the height of a person.The chefs were on one side of the table, busy putting the freshly made cakes on the empty space where the table could still be placed, while the crowd in line stood on the other side, and when everyone passed by, they consciously He took a piece of cake with both hands, put it on his chest, lined up one by one, and waited for the soldiers to check and make sure they didn't take too much before entering the next link.

In a house next to the oven, the prince saw a large amount of flour brought by a carriage, a large amount of sugar, and water for kneading.The handymen passed between this house and the houses outside, and they were very busy.The prince noticed that there were special marks on the sacks containing flour, and he remembered those marks—he had also checked his father's treasury, and knew that all the grain came from his father's long-term accumulation over the years.

But now, must have been bewitched by those pagans, the old and dizzy father actually began to squander the important strategic assets of these kingdoms.Use the precious accumulated military rations for the war to expand the influence of this heretical sect that has never been heard of.

The prince was heartbroken. Looking at the happy-looking civilians who were holding cakes, he naturally thought of the scene where these people would turn into starvation in the future when they faced the siege.

The civilians who received the bread were not allowed to eat the cake immediately, but lined up and came to a corner of the square.Here, everyone was arranged in a rectangular formation. After confirming that the team had reached the standard, a soldier took out his whistle and blew it, and then everyone quickly started to eat the pie in their hands.For a moment, the prince could only hear the sound of chewing and swallowing from all the mouths.

"No waste, offenders will be applauded! No take-out is allowed! Violators will stick! Everyone eats and leaves together!" While the crowd was eating the cakes in their hands quickly, the soldiers patrolled beside them, paying attention Is there any abnormality in everyone's pie-eating movements, while announcing the latest pie-eating discipline regulations.

Looking at the scene of hundreds of people standing together and eating cakes in a proper manner, the prince was in a trance, and subconsciously thought of the scene of one of his hunting trainers training dogs at home.The trainer has more than 100 high-quality hounds, each of which is a good helper for the nobles when hunting.The prince once personally saw the scene where the trainer trained the dogs, and ordered all the dogs to come to the food, not to eat first, and not to make noise.After making sure that the dogs were quiet, the trainer whistled, and all the dogs began to eat their food quickly... How similar was that scene to the one before us.

They are treating people like dogs!The prince felt that his blood was about to boil because of this anger.

However, those who participated in eating the cakes did not seem to be as unconvinced as the prince imagined. On the contrary, each of them was so devoted and focused when eating.Some eat fast, and after eating, the expression on the face is completely satisfied.Some who were familiar with each other were still whispering, not about the shame of standing and eating the pie, but about the taste of the pie: "Today's pie is not as good as yesterday's."

"Yeah, it's been out for a long time, it's not fresh."

"But with more sugar, it's sweeter."

"It's very sweet... Hey, there are too many people queuing up now, otherwise we can queue up to eat again."

"I asked you to come here five days ago. At that time, I could eat five cakes in one meal! You still don't believe it."

"Stop bragging, five cakes, have you finished eating?"

The prince looked around the square, and there were three or four of such cake-eating squares on the square.Each has a different soldier to command, but the procedure is much the same.In short, after a certain number of people who received the bread in front gathered up, the soldiers who were free would organize them and eat the bread together.

Prince Elis found the person in charge in the bakery. This official prince knew him before, and he was the illegitimate son of a baron.

"Your Highness," the clerk saluted the prince, "Why did you come to such a place?"

"Who came up with this way of eating cakes!" the prince restrained his voice and asked in a low voice, "Are you going to turn King Elis into a joke of the whole continent! The largest dog training ground in the world?!"

"I don't know," the clerk shook his head. "This is the third method. I tried other less...unsightly ones before, but they didn't work. This method is the most trouble-free."

"Just to save trouble?!"

"Yes, I'm really too busy," the clerk said. "There are targets every day, and if you don't meet them, you will be fined... If you don't do this, you won't have time to eat, and you won't be able to supervise."

The prince did not understand what the clerk meant.

"Your Highness," the clerk explained, "the envoys request that all the food in the bakery be eaten under supervision, and civilians are not allowed to take it out. If you find the same cake outside the bakery, the quantity If the limit is exceeded, the clerk will be replaced. But I only have [-] soldiers under my command, and there are thousands of people who come to eat cakes every day. Everyone was busy before, and it is inevitable that some people will be carried out to take the cakes here. Go out and sell for money. The envoys called us for a meeting, and someone proposed this method... I don’t know if it’s for dog training, but the envoys think it’s okay. They also call it the assembly line method, saying That's the most efficient way."

"But this is a trample on the dignity of all people!"

"This cake is free, so you don't have to come if you don't like it." If it wasn't for the prince, the clerk wouldn't have time to talk to him now, "His Royal Highness, look at this line, there will be more people here during lunch and dinner , These people are all lined up, waiting to be trampled on."