Pirate: I'm just slacking off, do you really think I'm a noob?

The dragon nodded.

He had traveled all the way along the Grand Line, and although he had seen many people living in difficult circumstances, there was hardly any other country like the Kingdom of Eryokabu.

The nobles fled from here, but ordered the common people not to leave, and watched the common people die for their own benefit.

The fate of this country is like the black fog covering the sky, thick, deep and dark.

But Long couldn't understand why the people in such a place wouldn't revolt?

"Young man, there is no hotel. But there are not many people at the old man's house. If you don't mind, you can go to my house for a drink."

The old man seemed to see the difficult situation that Long and his group were in, and took the initiative to speak.

He was not worried that Long and his group would do anything bad to him, because there was no difference between him being alive and dead.

"Thank you very much, old man."

Originally, Longdu planned to return to the port and spend a night on the boat.

But now there is a place to stay and a local person, which will help Long to understand the history of this country.

Half an hour later, the group followed the old man into a two-story building.

At the door, Long shook off the dust on his body before entering the house.

Everything in the house looked a little old, and most places had not been cleaned for a long time.

There was only an old, discolored photo in the middle of the house, which had been wiped very clean.

Above is a photo of four people. Judging from the photo, it should be a family portrait of the elderly couple and their son and his wife.

But looking at the current situation, the son and his wife probably haven’t visited the old man for a long time.

"Please sit down for a moment. I'll make you some tea."

The old man said something to Long, then went to the basement to get water.

Long looked around and said:

"Everyone, I have a feeling that this will be a place where we can grow rapidly. The experience we have learned in other kingdoms can be put to use here."

"But Chief, where should we start first? I think the people in this city are busy in the mines. There are almost no people on the streets."

A younger member of the Self-Defense Force raised his hand and said.

Long nodded, and then said:

"Yes, but fortunately we met an old man. Perhaps, this old man knows many secrets of this kingdom."

Long was not idle either. While discussing the direction with the members, he cleaned the old man's house.

When the old man came up from the basement carrying water, the whole house looked brand new.

Chapter 78: History of the Kingdom of Eryochab

2024-09-07 23:29:49 Author: Mu Chenxin

"You're quite capable."

The old man's attitude did not fluctuate.

It seems that in his eyes, no changes in the world can affect his heart.

However, when he saw the paper flowers placed in front of the family portrait in the living room, he was still moved.

"Have a heart."

The old man took out a set of tea sets from the kitchen and cleaned them.

The members of the Longhe Ziyong Army also sat cross-legged at the square table, quietly waiting for the old man.

"There's nothing to offer you at home, so drink some water."

The old man distributed the cleaned teacups to everyone, and then filled them up one by one with the hot water in his hand.

"This water is the old man's treasure. It's clean water. Drink it while it's hot, stranger."

Long raised the teacup in his hand. The water in the cup was slightly turbid.

He believed that the old man would not do anything to them, so he raised his head and drank it in one gulp.

The water tastes strange, astringent and throat-irritating.

However, Long showed no surprise.

On the contrary, some of the members behind him showed an expression of unbearable pain after drinking.

The old man lit a pipe and put it in his mouth to smoke.

"The water tastes terrible, young man."

Long shook his head and looked down at the teacup in his hand:

"It's not unpalatable, but it has a strange taste."

After hearing Long's answer, the old man laughed out loud, revealing his yellow-brown gap teeth:

"How can it not be unpalatable? Even I, an old man, find it unpalatable."

Long didn't respond. Instead, he picked up the kettle and poured himself another cup.

"Old man, my name is Monkey D. Long, and I come from the East China Sea. I am currently a traveler, traveling around the world with my companions."

This was Long's statement to the outside world. He didn't think an old man would know his secret, and the navy didn't issue a wanted warrant for him.

After the old man took a puff of his cigarette, his mind was lost in memories:

"Remember many years ago, there was a navy man with muscles bigger than his brains, also named Monkey. Is he related to you?"

Long was surprised. He didn't expect that the old man in front of him had met his father, Monkey D. Garp, many years ago.

I couldn't help but become respectful:

"Old man, the man you are talking about should be my father. May I ask your name?"

The old man knocked his pipe on the table and said with a complicated expression:

"Barnett Snow, you can just call me Uncle Snow."

Long also obediently followed old man Snow's words.

"Uncle Snow, I want to know about your Kingdom of Eryokabu and why it is completely different from what is written in the book."

"Why is it different? Is the pollution serious, beyond your imagination?"

There was a mocking look on old man Snow's face.

Monkey D. Dragon nodded, took out a notebook from his travel bag, and prepared to start recording the old man's words.

"Before I tell you, please answer me a question first. What is your purpose in coming to the Kingdom of Eryokabu?"

The old man's eyes became sharp, and he stared at the dragon in front of him like a falcon staring at a hare.

And Long did not back down. He looked at the old man with a firm gaze and a serious expression.

"We are a group of people who are eager to change the world. In the first half of our lives, we have always been upper-middle class people, but one day we suddenly discovered."

"This world is very unreasonable. The nobles who are high above control everything of the common people, including their lives. The common people can only be forced to accept it. They have become exploited creatures."

"We want to change all this. This is why I founded the VATU. Now we are traveling around the world to try to find the answer."

After listening to Long's explanation, the old man said nothing, but glanced at the family portrait placed in the living room, and then said:

"Great idea, but I think you are still too young."

"Before you go to this kingdom to find the answer, I, old man, can tell you something."

Long wrote quickly in his notebook, because the old man's words contained so much useful information.

“A long, long time ago, probably around the time of my grandfather.

At that time, the Kingdom of Eryokabu was just an agricultural kingdom. The mountains were green and the sky was blue.

At that time, my grandfather loved to catch rabbits in the woods and fish in the river.

When my grandfather grew up, the Kingdom of Eryokabu experienced its first transformation. At that time, an old hunter in the mountains discovered some black stones.

The common people didn't know what it was, they just knew it was a good thing for burning fire, and some even presented it to the king.

At first no one took it seriously until a passing merchant revealed the secret.

It turns out that black stone is called coal in the outside world. It is a very important industrial resource that can be sold at a sky-high price.

After the nobles thought that this thing was good and could be sold at a high price, they ordered the common people to start digging on a large scale.

Soon, the first batch of coal was successfully sold to transportation merchants, and the king and nobles made a fortune.

They thought that the output of this thing was higher than growing crops, so they simply ordered civilians to reduce farming and let more people go to mine coal.

Several years passed like this. Because my grandfather did a good job in the mine, he was promoted to the position of supervisor. Later, he passed the job to my father, and my father passed it to me.

When it was my turn to take over, the kingdom's economic structure had changed. People outside felt that coal needed to be transported, which was a very troublesome process, so they chose to move all their industries in.

The kings and nobles who could collect land rent and taxes were naturally very welcoming, so their factories were built smoothly.

It was after that that the fate of the Kingdom of Eryokabu changed for the second time.

Huge amounts of coal are shipped directly to steel mills, power plants and other industries that need energy.

In each factory, more than a dozen furnaces continuously pump out coal dug from the mines day and night, releasing large amounts of black smoke that pollutes the air.

Originally, the king wanted to move these factories out of the Kingdom of Eryokabu, but after the merchants gave a large sum of money, the king chose to move out of the kingdom with the nobles.

A new capital was built on a beautiful island nearby, and the people who mined were usually controlled by the King's Guard and the mine supervisors. "

After hearing this, Long roughly understood the history of the Kingdom of Eryokabu.

It's still that group of greedy nobles who don't treat civilians as living people and rely on violence to threaten and force them to mine.

As for the pollution caused by mining and large-scale factory production, they didn't care at all, because their hearts and eyes were blinded by the pictures of Bailey.

Hearing this, Long couldn't help but interrupt and said:

"Uncle Snow, I have a question."

"If the king and the nobles do not value your lives, why don't you rise up in rebellion and overthrow these evil nobles?"

Old man Snow showed a mocking look on his face and said in a bitter tone:

"How do you know we haven't had an uprising?"

Chapter 79: The supervisor's son rebelled, so ironic (please read it later)

2024-09-07 23:29:50 Author: Mu Chenxin

Since the discovery of coal, the Kingdom of Eryokabu has seen more than a dozen uprisings.

Every time the outbreak occurs, it is because the workers work too long and do not get enough rest.

The most recent was the uprising ten years ago, the largest miners' uprising in history.

The riot involved almost all the miners, with more than 150,000 people participating.

"One hundred and fifty thousand! My God, that's twice the population of my country combined."

A member of the Self-Defense Force shouted involuntarily.

Long and the others also had expressions of shock on their faces.

I knew that due to the vastness of the ocean, there were almost no large continents. (Red Earth Continent is not included)

The country is located on a network of islands.

The larger the island is and the better the environment is, the more people live on it.

The island is small and the environment is harsh, so fewer people live there.

In Long's impression, a country with a population of more than 150,000 can be called a medium-sized country.

Most countries have populations ranging from 70,000 to 100,000.

These countries also make up the largest number of member states of the World Government, with only a few large countries.

It is really surprising that the Kingdom of Eryokabu could organize a riot of more than 150,000 people.