ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 658 Drought hits and news from Rome
"Oh, that's right." Burcos reminded again: "Our Ministry of Agriculture has specially investigated the grain storage in people's homes in Thurii, Crotone, Grumentum, Cosenza, Locri and other cities. Due to the situation, their food can last until November at most!"

"How is the situation in Sicily?" Antaolis asked.

"Sicily has plenty of rain this year. There should be no problem with harvesting crops in cities like Catanai and Naxos." Burkos replied.

"What about Campania?"

"The farmland conditions in that area are not bad." After Antaoris reminded him, Burkos continued: "Carthage in Africa has no drought conditions. Only Central Greece and the Peloponnese have experienced the same situation as us. situation, but their situation is slightly milder.”

After listening to his subordinate's report, Davos couldn't help but tap his fingers on the table, his face also looked a little ugly.But soon, he stretched his brows again and said slowly: "The sky is uncertain, and people have misfortunes and blessings. The gods cannot take care of us Dionia forever. This upcoming drought is exactly what we need." The test of the kingdom. But what do we have to be afraid of! We have been prepared for a long time, haven't we! In the past, at the Senate meetings, someone did not always say, 'Except for occasionally supplying the legions for war, those granaries we built will be used most of the time. It's a complete waste to sit there empty.' And this time, these seemingly wasteful granaries will save the lives of millions of our Dionians!"

Davos' words made Lysias, Melses and others feel ashamed.

After a small knock, Davos continued to ask: "Burkos, have you ever done statistics on how long the grains in these granaries in our kingdom can sustain the food of the people in South Italy?"

Burkos had already prepared for this, and he said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, there are now nine granaries in our kingdom, which are located in Grumentum, Turui, Cosenza, Crotone, Trina , Locri, Catanai, Udia, and Silvium (they correspond to the garrisons of the 10 major armies), with a total of about 10 tons of grain, and the population of South Italy is about 150 million. If each person eats two meals a day , if we just maintain food and clothing, we can guarantee food supply for about six months."

"It's only been six months! This food cannot supply the people until next year's autumn harvest!" Weisba sighed.

Several other rotating presidents glanced at him.

In order to prevent him from being embarrassed, Mariji immediately explained: "In the past few years, citizens have made a lot of money from selling grain due to successive bumper harvests, and there are very few poor citizens. The grain in our granaries is not provided to them free of charge, but in exchange for A lower price is sold in the market so that everyone can afford it to tide over this difficulty, so as to prevent grain merchants from taking this opportunity to raise grain prices crazily and cause panic among the people..."

Davos pondered: "10 tons of grain is still not enough. We must have sufficient grain reserves to cope with the upcoming drought. And we also need to save enough wheat seeds for next year's sowing, so Melses, before the news spreads, use the treasury and send people to Carthage, Cyrenaica, and even Egypt to purchase large quantities of grain."

"Okay, Your Majesty, I'll do it right away!" Melses answered simply, without hesitation or shirk at all, because he knew that this was the most important matter of the kingdom.

"Mariji, your Ministry of Commerce must strictly control the markets in various cities, so that grain dealers who sell grains can sell grains at appropriate prices, and must not wantonly disrupt the market and blindly raise prices... For those who ignore warnings and insist on messing up grains, business, allowing the Ministry of Commerce and the court to impose severe penalties on them!
At the same time, you must work together with the chief executives of each city. When selling the grain in the granary, you must check the identity of the buyer. Each person is only allowed to purchase a certain amount of grain per day and cannot exceed it. You must prevent someone from reselling the grain in the granary. Taking advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune, if anyone who behaves despicably like this is discovered, he will be severely punished! "

"I understand, Your Majesty!" Mariji also looked serious.

"Burkos!" Davers turned to the Minister of Agriculture: "Now that the drought is coming, the rivers have become shallower, and the role of waterwheels has been greatly weakened. To solve the problem of people's drinking water, digging wells is a good solution. You and The Ministry of Construction must work together to dig deep wells in various cities to solve the problem of water shortage among the people.”

"Okay, Your Majesty, I'll rush to the Construction Department in a moment!" Burkos looked slightly relieved.

Davos's eyes finally fell on the five rotating presidents: "My lords, the Senate needs to hold an urgent meeting to discuss a proposal to deal with the drought as soon as possible to remind the people to save food and water in the coming time. And we need to store more water at home... At the same time, we also need to reassure them that they don’t need to panic and stay calm. With the blessing of Hades and the full help of the kingdom, they will definitely get through this difficulty!”

"Your Majesty, we will hold a meeting in the afternoon." Cornelus replied immediately.

Davos nodded and glanced at everyone present. Their solemn expressions showed nervousness, so he asked loudly: "Lysias, when there was a drought in Magna Greece 25 years ago, how did you do it?" To deal with it?”

"Your Majesty." Lysias recalled the situation at that time, with a look of pain on his face: "At that time, the people in Crotone raised gold and silver and went to Carthage to buy food, but the cunning Carthage When people knew we had a drought, they immediately increased the price of grain several times. So we couldn't buy more grain. The council had no choice but to draw lots and send some people to colonize Iberia. Later, these people were sent to colonize Iberia. All the people died in the attacks of the Iberian natives..."

"Yes! The country is small and weak. When encountering such a natural disaster, it can only endure the pain of separation from relatives and friends, and the destruction of families. But the Kingdom of Dionia has the ability to prevent every family in the kingdom from suffering such suffering. We have to see This drought is a bad thing, but it is also a good thing! It will make those few people who are still obsessed with the long history of the original city-state and dream of urban independence see clearly and understand that only by staying in such a powerful kingdom can peace be guaranteed. Only by surviving every natural and man-made disaster can their homeland gain long-term peace!"

Davos's words lifted the spirits of the senators present and aroused their resonance. After working hard in this kingdom with a unique political system for more than ten years, even Lysias, who was the latest to join, has become more and more aware of this. powerful country.

....................................

After Davos sent Cornelus and the others away, before he could take a breath, Aristelas walked in: "Your Majesty, the Intelligence Department has sent news about Rome from the north."

As soon as he heard about Rome, Davos immediately cheered up and asked hurriedly: "What's going on?"

"The Wolsci to the south of Rome united with the Aequi to the east of Rome and the Hernics to the southeast. At the invitation of the rebellious Latin ally of Rome, the Praeneste, Invaded Roman territory, with a reported strength of about 2 men.”

Prinister?Davos thought for a while, but there was no impression in his mind. He immediately turned around and said to the clerk Henipolis, "Heni, go get the map of central Italy."

The map was placed on the desk. Davos lowered his head and looked carefully, and finally found the location of this Latin city-state: Pliniste is a larger Latin city-state located more than 60 miles southeast of Rome and close to the mountains. It is the entrance to the lowlands between the mountains, guarding the entrance to the Aequi and Herniki.In turn, it means that its rebellion will allow the Aequians and Hernicians to easily invade Rome's Latin allies and threaten the city of Rome itself...

"Have all the troops that Rome went to its north and attacked Etrunia transferred back?" Daves asked again.

"I haven't received any news yet." Aristelas replied.

Davers touched his chin, lost in thought.

In the third year of Dionia (390 BC), the Celtic king Brennus, who was entrenched in the upper reaches of the Po River in northern Italy, united most of the Celtic tribes and invaded the Itte in the south. Runians.

Along the way, they defeated many Etrunian forces and captured many towns.Just when they began to besiege the city of Clusium, Rome, as an ally, sent troops to rescue them. As a result, the Celts and Roman armies fought near the Aria River, and Rome was defeated miserably.

What Davos didn't know was that since there was no envoy sent by Dionysius in this life (Dionysius died at the hands of Phibidas two years ago), the Celts did not abandon The Etruscan towns along the way did not attack, but advanced quickly, approaching the city of Rome, but continued to kill and loot all the way, and did not cross the Tiber until more than two months later.

At this time, the Roman city wall was dilapidated and did not even completely surround the entire Roman city. In addition, half of the young adults in the city had been killed or injured in battle, and most of the civilians had suffered from conflicts between the nobles and civilians in the previous few years. The conflict finally left the city of Rome angrily and went to settle in the city of Viai.Therefore, there are not enough troops to defend the city of Rome. Except for a few old people who are old and weak and unwilling to leave their homeland, there are still a few people who are willing to stick to the Capitoline Acropolis. Most of the people have to evacuate the city of Rome. .

Some of them went to Viai, and a small number went to a Latium city called Ardea south of Rome.Camillus, the famous Roman general who once conquered Viai but was expelled due to false accusations, lived in seclusion here.

The Celts easily occupied the city of Rome and massacred the old people in the city, but they could not attack the Capitoline Acropolis in a dangerous terrain for a long time, so they had to surround it. At the same time, they sent other troops to the surrounding areas to collect grain and grass, so the Latium area Towns and villages were ravaged.

　Thanks to Thirteen Cats for the tip!Your support is the motivation for me to continue writing! !
　　
　
(End of this chapter)