Chapter 78 The History of the Kingdom of Eryokabu (Please read it later)
"Very capable."
The old man's attitude did not fluctuate.
It seemed that in his eyes, no changes in the world could affect his heart.
However, when he saw the paper flowers placed in front of the family portrait in the living room, he was still somewhat moved.
"Thoughtful."
The old man took out a set of tea sets from the kitchen and cleaned them.
Long and the members of the Self-Yong Army also sat cross-legged at the square table twice, quietly waiting for the old man.
"There is nothing to entertain at home, drink some water."
The old man distributed the cleaned tea cups to everyone, and then filled them one by one with hot water in his hand.
"This water is the old man's collection, clean water, drink it while it is hot, foreigner."
Long raised the tea cup in his hand, and the water in the cup was slightly turbid.
He believed that the old man would not do anything to them, and raised his head to drink it in one gulp.
The taste of the water was strange, with a bitter and hoarse feeling.
But Long did not show any strange color.
On the contrary, some members behind him showed a trace of unbearable expression after drinking.
The old man lit a pipe and held it in his mouth to suck.
"The water tastes bad, young man."
Long shook his head and lowered his head to look at the teacup in his hand:
"It's not bad, but it has a strange taste."
After hearing Long's answer, the old man laughed and showed his yellow-brown gap teeth:
"How can it not be bad? I, an old man, find it bad myself."
Long did not respond, but picked up the kettle and poured himself another cup.
"Old man, my name is Monkey D. Long, from the East China Sea. I am currently a traveler, traveling around the world with my companions."
This is Long's external statement. He didn't think an old man would know his secret, and the navy didn't issue a wanted order for him.
After the old man took a puff of the cigarette, his mind fell into memories:
"Remember many years ago, there was a navy with muscles bigger than his brain, also named Monkey. What's your relationship?"
Long was surprised. He didn't expect that the old man in front of him had met his father, Monkey D. Karp, many years ago.
He couldn't help but be 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 obeyed the words of old man Snow very obediently.
"Uncle Snow, I want to know about your Eryokabu Kingdom. Why is the Eryokabu Kingdom completely different from what is written in the book."
"Why is it different? Is it because the pollution is very serious and beyond your imagination?"
Old man Snow showed a mocking expression on his face.
Monkey.D.Long nodded, took out a notebook from his travel bag, and prepared to start recording the old man's words.
"Before I tell you, answer me a question first. What is your purpose in going to the Eryokabu Kingdom?"
The old man's eyes became sharp, and he looked at the dragon in front of him like a falcon staring at a hare.
And the dragon did not give in, looking at the old man with a firm look and a solemn expression.
"We are a group of people who want 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 the original intention of my founding the Self-Yong Army. Now we are traveling around the world, trying to find answers."
After listening to Long's explanation, the old man didn't say anything, but glanced at the family portrait placed in the living room, and then said:
"Great idea, but in my opinion you are still too young."
"Before you go to this kingdom to find the answer, I, the old man, can tell you something."
Long wrote quickly in the notebook, because the old man's words contained too much useful information.
"A long, long time ago, probably during the time of my grandfather.
At that time, the Kingdom of Eryokabu was still just an agricultural kingdom. The mountains were green and the sky was blue.
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 found some black stones.
The common people didn't know what they were, but they knew they were good for burning firewood. Some people even presented them to the king.
At first, no one took it seriously until a passing merchant revealed the secret.
It turns out that black stones are called coal in the outside world. They are very important industrial resources and can be sold at sky-high prices.
The nobles thought that this thing was good and could be sold at a high price, so they ordered the common people to start digging.
Soon, the first batch of coal was successfully sold to the merchants who transported it, and the king and the nobles made a lot of money.
They thought that the output of this thing was higher than growing grain, so they simply ordered the common people to reduce farming and let more people go to the coal mines to dig.
After several years, my grandfather got the position of supervisor because he did a good job in the mine. Later, he passed it to my father, and my father passed it to me.
When it was my turn to take over, the economic structure of the kingdom had changed. People outside thought that coal needed to be transported, and the process was too troublesome, so they chose to move all the industries in.
The king and nobles who could collect land rent and taxes were naturally very welcome, so their factories were built smoothly.
It was after that that the fate of the Kingdom of Eryokabu changed for the second time.
A large amount of coal was directly transported to steel mills, power plants and other factories that needed energy.
More than a dozen furnaces in each factory kept swallowing coal dug from the mines day and night, releasing a large amount of black smoke to pollute 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 nearby scenic island, and the king's guards and supervisors in the mines usually controlled the people who mined. "
Hearing this, Long roughly understood the history of the Kingdom of Eryokabu.
It was still that group of greedy nobles who did not treat civilians as living people, and relied on violence to threaten and force them to mine.
As for the pollution caused by mining and vigorously producing factories, they didn't care at all, because their hearts and eyes were blinded by 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 don't take your lives seriously, then why didn't you start an uprising to overthrow these evil nobles."
Old man Snow showed a mocking look on his face, and said with a bitter tone:
"How do you know that we didn't start an uprising?"
