Chapter 225: Army Pressing on the Border

"I hope Liu Sheng and the others can bring back more grain," Meng Yifan muttered.

It is a year of famine, and in many places, the grain harvest has failed completely; however, the Great Wu Heavenly Dynasty is vast and rich in resources, with four great rivers spanning from east to west, two major canals running north to south, and the east and south bordering the endless sea.

Therefore, even though Heaven has not sent down heavy rain for a long time, those places near the great rivers and canals, where irrigation ditches have been built to use river water, are still able to guarantee grain production.

The grain-producing area closest to Luolong County is Linjiang Prefecture, and the smuggling team led by Liu Sheng went there to trade for grain.

It is just that now, within Dongchuan Prefecture, Demon Beasts are running rampant everywhere, roads are blocked, and they have to constantly take detours.

Even on small, rarely trodden paths, they often encounter Demon Beasts; Liu Sheng and his men can deal with small groups of Demon Beasts, but if they encounter a large number, they must flee for their lives immediately.

Liu Sheng and his men set off fifteen days ago, and logically, they should have returned by now.

The grain in the Luolong County warehouse is insufficient and urgently needs replenishment; otherwise, the existing grain can support them for at most two months, and if they continue to receive refugees, the number of people eating will increase, making the grain storage in Luolong County even more strained.

Another day passed, and on this day, more than a thousand refugees came to seek refuge in Luolong City; many of them were already skin and bones from hunger, tottering and swaying, and if they did not eat, they would truly starve to death.

Meng Dayong knew that the grain in the city warehouse was insufficient, and seeing so many refugees arriving every day, he was filled with anxiety and said to Meng Yifan, "Yifan, there are enough refugees in the city, and we don't have much grain left; why don't we stop accepting refugees?"

"Father, if we don't accept them, they will all starve to death. Can you bear to watch them be starved to death alive?" Meng Yifan asked.

Meng Dayong sighed and said, "Sigh! Yifan, it is not a question of whether we can bear it or not, but that we only have so much grain; there are too many refugees, and we simply cannot hold out for long."

"Perhaps in a little over a month, the whole city will be short of grain. If we don't accept refugees now, at least the people currently in the city can barely survive; if we continue to accept refugees without restraint, all the common people in the city will end up starving to death along with them."

Meng Dayong voiced the inner thoughts of many people in the city; they had long been dissatisfied with Meng Yifan's insistence on accepting refugees, but because Meng Yifan had the greatest strength and highest prestige, no one dared to question his decision, so everyone spoke to Meng Dayong in private, asking him to persuade Meng Yifan.

"Father, Liu Sheng and the others will be back soon, so don't worry; I have a way to solve the grain problem."

Meng Yifan has a one-thousand-cubic-meter Space Ring, and he plans to follow Liu Sheng to Linjiang Prefecture to trade for grain the next time Liu Sheng returns.

When the time comes, he will fill the Space Ring, and at worst, he can make a few more trips back and forth, which will be enough to let all the common people in the city have their fill.

As long as they can hold out for another three months or so, once the Potatoes and Sweet Potatoes in the fields mature, Luolong County will basically have solved the problem of grain shortage.

That afternoon, Meng Yifan was patrolling the city defenses on the gate tower when he saw Liu Sheng running over, covered in blood and his clothes in tatters, shouting, "Master, Demon Beasts are attacking, prepare for battle."

Meng Yifan felt a shock in his heart and hurriedly had the soldiers on the city wall sound the alarm; the urgent alarm bell rang out over the entire Luolong County, and the common people in the city all knew that something terrible had happened—Demon Beasts were attacking.

Following previous drills, all officers and soldiers of the Salvation Army were fully armed, quickly rushed to the city wall, took their respective positions, and prepared to meet the enemy.

The able-bodied men in the city were organized into the Civilian Militia, preparing to transport gunpowder, cannonballs, stones, Rolling Logs, and other defense supplies to the city wall.

The strong women were lighting fires to boil Golden Juice, and once the Golden Juice was boiling, they would carry the buckets to the city wall, ready to pour it down.

A Demon Beast siege is a disaster for everyone in the city; if they cannot defend it, everyone in the city will end up as food for the Demon Beasts.

Therefore, once the alarm bell rang, everyone in the city entered a state of war, and everyone was of one mind, working together to resist the Demon Beast attack.

Liu Sheng was hoisted up to the city wall in a basket, and he said to Meng Yifan, panting, "Master, I was leading the smuggling team, driving twenty ox carts, carrying ten thousand catties of grain, and just as we reached Sandaokou, I saw the Monster Army rushing over from Cuijia Town."

"There were too many Demon Beasts, simply overwhelming, and I couldn't see the end of them at a glance. We had no choice but to abandon the grain and flee, but those avian Demon Beasts were too fast; my brothers were all eaten by the Demon Beasts, and only I, being a Third Grade Martial Artist, was faster, fighting my way out and luckily escaping back."

Meng Yifan stood at the highest point of the city wall and looked into the distance; in that direction, smoke and dust were rolling, and it was clear that a large number of Demon Beasts were advancing toward Luolong County.

"Screech! Screech!" Two minutes later, hundreds of eagles with wingspans of over three meters, like hundreds of fighter jets, let out piercing eagle cries and flew toward Luolong County as fast as lightning.

The eagles blotted out the sky and sun, circling above Luolong City; their sharp claws and teeth flashed with cold light, and their keen eyes stared at the soldiers on the city wall, ready at any moment to swoop down, grab a human, and feast.

Five minutes later, groups of Wild Wolves the size of small cars appeared outside Luolong City; these huge Wild Wolves, like the eagles, did not rush to attack the city, but stopped one kilometer away, their fierce gazes fixed tightly on the soldiers on the city wall, as if they were looking at chunks of fresh, juicy meat.

"Croak! Croak!" The last to arrive were piles of ugly creatures similar to Toads; each of them was as big as a millstone, and their pitch-black backs were covered with dense, festering sores, looking very disgusting.

Their movement speed was very slow; every time they moved, the sores on their backs would shake, and some milky-white, viscous, thick liquid would flow out; this liquid was highly corrosive, and if it dripped onto the ground, it would corrode a small pit in the earth.

The surrounding Wild Wolves kept their distance from these Toads and were unwilling to get close to them, and even the eagles circling in the sky were unwilling to circle above the Toads, as if the smell on their bodies made the eagles very uncomfortable.

The Wild Beasts outside the city were gathering more and more, covering the mountains and plains, everywhere; in terms of species, they were mainly divided into three types: the ubiquitous Wild Wolf army, the eagles circling in the sky, and the Toads; none of them launched an attack, and it was unknown what they were waiting for.

Another ten minutes passed, and suddenly the Wild Beast army parted to form a passage, and six huge black rhinoceroses pulled a large cart that was twenty meters long and wide as they emerged.

On that large cart sat a wolf demon only one meter tall; its fur was snow-white, smooth, and soft, and on top of its head grew a single horn with spiral patterns, looking very beautiful, as if it were a divine beast that had walked out of a myth or legend.

This wolf demon was lying on the large cart with a thread-bound book in front of it, as if there were something very interesting in the book that had it enthralled, reading with great relish.

A Demon Beast reading a book—this scene is a bit eerie.