Don't Mess with That Dragon-Chapter 680 - 068 Hardships

For the citizens in the city, those ninety percent living in the filthy and chaotic slums, hunger and cold are the norm, living a day-to-day existence, completely separated in class from the nobles in the city center who indulge in luxury.

These city poor, who primarily work as manual laborers, short-term workers, bankrupt tradesmen, washerwomen, drywallers, and dung carriers, have unstable sources of income by nature.

Exhausted from work every day, they barely earn enough to put a morsel of food in their belly.

To them, having black bread to fill their stomachs is the greatest happiness.

Yet, the prosperity of a city largely relies on the exploitation and oppression imposed upon them.

Without a vast supply of cheap labor, it's impossible to produce various handicraft goods, and thus impossible to attract more people to trade, bringing prosperity to the city.

In any city, the majority is always this impoverished class living at the bottom.

And in recent years, with the dumping of a large number of cheap industrial and commercial products from the Southern Blue Dragon Kingdom,

the lower classes in the Southern Countries have been severely affected.

These uneducated lower-class citizens naturally don't understand the connections, nor do many traveling merchants comprehend the economic principles involved. Those big merchants who do understand are certainly not benevolent enough to explain to a group of mere commoners, instead focusing their time on participating in large-scale trade with the Southern Blue Dragon Kingdom to reap substantial profits.

Although they don't understand the cause, one thing is clearly visible.

With the influx of various cheap industrial and commercial products from the Blue Dragon Kingdom, the handicraft industries in major cities have been significantly affected, business has become increasingly difficult, and the lives of these vast numbers of city-dwelling poor who rely on short-term work and assistance have worsened.

In Siller City, there's a grain merchant so notorious he's almost universally condemned. Many commoners curse his name as that of a heartless scoundrel tainted by the grease of a frying pan.

Because it's him who sells black bread adulterated with more than half sawdust!

The so-called black bread is not made from flour like white bread but rather from the husks of wheat ground together to make a dry, hard bread.

This black bread is not the fermented, soft, and nutritious black bread from Austin's past life. Its flavor can be imagined as akin to the middle world women casually swinging a loaf to knock out a thief invading their home.

Because the crushed wheat husks are very dry and taste like sawdust, some unscrupulous merchants add a substantial quantity of sawdust during black bread production to profit.

This method rivals those of unscrupulous ancient merchants in Austin's past life who mixed sand in grain.

This is obviously a deceitful merchant.

Those who adulterate black bread with more than half sawdust are the most deceitful among deceitful merchants.

However,

the business of such a deceitful merchant has actually been growing in recent years among the many lower-class commoners, becoming bigger and bigger.

Why?

That is precisely because the black bread he sells is the cheapest.

Only his black bread can those who live in large numbers in the slum, with sallow complexions and exposed ribs, afford to buy.

Even if it contains more than half sawdust, so what?

At least it can still fill the stomach.

The dumping of industrial and commercial products by the Blue Dragon Kingdom has caused significant destruction and impact on the still-primitive handicraft industry, causing many city workshops to close, thus depriving a large number of city-dwellers of their main economic source of livelihood.

In recent years, the lives of many commoners in the cities have deteriorated, with many families barely scraping by, often not even knowing when was the last time they had a full meal.

The endurance of the lower-class citizens has almost reached its limit.

In this year or more, as the wave of refugees fleeing from natural disasters headed south, a batch of life-struggling short-term handicraft workers left the cities, escaping south, which barely kept these cities afloat.

Yet despite this, the law and order in the cities are increasingly chaotic, riots frequently occur, and in some dark alleys, one might not even find a body the next day if someone is not careful. When family members pass away, they dare not dig a random pit for burial, fearing the bodies might be dug up by those vagrant fellows.

Hunger drives people mad.

People driven to extreme hunger might do anything.

This is an era of despair.

With fewer and fewer means to survive, frequent natural disasters, skyrocketing grain prices, coupled with the threat of war from the Southern Blue Dragon Kingdom, the King's war taxes, when implemented, are further increased by several times.

These poor struggling at the bottom live even worse than pigs and dogs.

Within such a context, the coming and governance of the Blue Dragon Kingdom, accompanied by the building of grassroots administrative systems and wartime measures, provide an opportunity for these vast numbers of city-dwelling poor to eat their fill.

The vast public sentiment is rapidly turning supportive.

For these broad masses of poor people spread throughout most of the city, the daily life has long oppressed them to numbness and apathy. They do not understand concepts like human supremacy and wouldn't care that their rulers have changed from a King to a Dragon. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

They only know,

His Majesty Blue Dragon Austin came, and they have bread to eat.

"...May your Majesty's brilliance shine upon us forever."

A scrawny six-year-old with protruding ribs and a dirty face, upon receiving his share of food, first earnestly clasped his hands together in prayer.

Then, he devoured the white koryza rice voraciously.

This is an unremarkable little beggar York, mixed in the cities, orphaned early in life, barging into this harsh world like a small innocent beast, barely surviving with occasional help from a few kind neighbors and scavenging.

Lately, life hasn't been good for anyone; those kind aunts also worry about not having food. Little York hasn't had anything to fill his stomach for a long time, with useful rubbish not to be found.

That day, he was so hungry he had no strength left, lying on a pile of moldy straw, unconsciously chewing grass blades stained with dirt to ease his stomach a bit.

At that moment, he felt an unprecedented cold enveloping him as if Death God had come to his side.

Then suddenly, he dreamed of lots and lots of delicious food, appearing before his eyes.

There were countless white bread loaves, food supposedly only the nobility could have, piled high in a whole room, right in front of him, and little York was just about to pounce forward.

Then,

a loud booming explosion sounded, startling him awake.