Chapter 178 Noxians, Love War
Riven and Marit chatted with the old woman for a long time. After learning that her family's living conditions were actually quite good, they said goodbye to her with peace of mind and left .
Outside the door were the villagers waiting quietly.
Marit said that they should welcome Master Riven, so they didn't dare to leave and just waited here respectfully.
Riven's childhood friend, the farmer Crete, was also standing among the crowd.
"Oona's remains have been delivered." At this time, Marit asked her: "Should we go back now, or stay in your hometown for a while?"
"Do you have any friends you want to meet again?"
"..." Riven was silent.
She glanced at Crete in the crowd.
Crete immediately lowered his head, bent his spine, and greeted her humbly. He did not dare to look her in the eye, as if he was afraid of offending her.
So Riven said, "I don't have any friends to meet."
She had friends in her hometown, many of them, but it seemed unnecessary to see them again.
"That's fine." Marit smiled and said, "You are a little lion that grew up in a doghouse. When a lion grows up, it doesn't need to be friends with a dog anymore."
She patted Riven's arm again and said affectionately, "Now we are your friends."
"Yeah." Riven felt much relieved.
Maybe she was really a lion born in the wrong place. Lions should return to the lion group and not linger in the doghouse.
"Let's go." She jumped onto the dragon lizard, and Marit also turned over and rode on the magic bird.
The two of them walked around the village twice, strolled outside the small shabby house where Riven lived in the past, expressed their feelings about life, told a few jokes, and then slowly drove away.
The villagers followed them carefully all the way, like puppies following their masters.
The group walked to the village entrance and set foot on the dirt road back to the military camp, but Riven inexplicably made the dragon lizard stop and look at the vast fields outside the village.
"What's wrong?" Marit asked.
The villagers shrank their heads even more nervously.
"The fields over there..." Riven stood on the high hill at the entrance of the village, gazing at the fields in the distance.
That field was where she had worked hard in the past.
She hadn't noticed it when she came here. But now standing on a high ground, she looked around and found that the large fields far away from the village were abandoned.
Weeds have taken over the good land, and small trees have grown where crops were originally grown.
When Riven was a child, she was driven by the landlord's lackeys with whips. The fertile land she had reclaimed with a hoe turned into wasteland again.
A closer look reveals that compared to the past, large areas of land in the village have been abandoned, with only half of the land still being cultivated.
"Don't you farm those fields?" Riven asked curiously.
"No more planting," said the villagers.
"Why?" Riven was puzzled: "Master Kava has escaped, and now this is your farm."
When she was a child working for the landlord, she had to work for the landlord for free in his public fields every day, and only after finishing the work could she go back to plant her own land.
Most of the grain produced from the fields will eventually be used to pay rent to Master Kawa.
So, Riven dreamed of owning her own farm at that time.
The other serfs must have thought so too.
But now that Master Kawa is gone and the land has been divided, they actually let such good land lie idle?
"Well..." The villagers replied: "Master Riven, you don't know..."
"Master Kawa half-sold and half-gave the land to us, but before he fled, he sold the donkeys, horses, cows and various farm tools on the farm at a low price in order to take more money with him ."
But the serfs had no money in the first place, and after buying the land, they were left with nothing. They might even owed a lot to their creditors.
"Only good families like Ona, where someone is a soldier and there is some spare money, can afford to buy farm tools and livestock."
"And for the remaining cattle and horses, Master Kawa was not kind enough to share them with us, but instead sold them to the slaughterhouse at a low price."
"We have nothing left except hoes, and we can't cultivate the fields even if we have them..."
Noxus has a vast territory, but its population is very sparse compared to the land due to years of war.
Therefore, in Triwell, even the former serfs had an average of several dozen acres of land rented from the landlords.
Now that Master Kava has run away, the large tracts of public land he left behind have been divided up along with the shared land. The serfs have become free men and have even more land in their hands.
But if there are fields but no cows, and if there are people but no farm tools, it is definitely impossible to cultivate so many fields.
"After we divided the land, many people couldn't afford to buy cattle and horses, or purchase farm tools."
"Besides, no one in the village can afford the fertilizer that Master Kava used to import from Zaun. No one can repair the steam tractor imported from Piltover when it breaks down. Buying a new one..."
These newly liberated serfs were all poor. They couldn’t even afford farm tools, so how could they afford tractors?
"So the more you plant this land... the more it becomes barren, and the less grain it produces."
"Many people are in debt because of buying land. They can't farm the land and can't pay back the debt, so they just leave the land uncultivated and go to the city to make a living."
"This..." The more Riven listened, the more confused she became.
It should be a good thing that the landlord ran away. But why did the peasants who were given land also run away one by one after the landlord ran away?
"In fact, even if this is the case, we can get through it if we persevere."
"These fields are ours after all. Let's plant the land that can be planted first, cultivate it slowly and save money. Sooner or later, we will be able to afford cattle and horses, farm tools and fertilizers."
"but……"
The villagers complained bitterly, but stopped abruptly out of fear.
But Riven knew what they were going to say: "Is it because of the grain collection team?"
These villagers already had insufficient capital and lack of production tools, which led to a decline in productivity.
Noxian grain-collecting teams would go to the countryside for "exchanges" from time to time, and plunder all the surplus grain that they had worked so hard to accumulate.
The result was that the serfs were fortunately liberated and became small farmers, but their happiness did not last long before they went bankrupt and became refugees.
" Ah..." Riven sighed secretly.
The situation in the village now is even more difficult than when she left.
She really didn't belong here anymore. But seeing her hometown become like this, she still felt very complicated.
"Let's put it this way." Marit also saw Riven's dilemma.
For once, she put aside the Noxian sense of hierarchy and generously lent a helping hand to these weaklings:
"Since you are Riven's fellow countrymen... I can say hello to the regiment and let you all serve as soldiers."
"If you wish, you can become a glorious Noxian warrior."
"Huh?" The villagers were slightly stunned.
Then they all showed embarrassed and fearful looks and said, "Thank you, sir... No, no thanks... We are fine with farming."
"I gave you the opportunity to join the army, but you still don't want to?" Marit raised her eyebrows.
She subconsciously thought that they were being ungrateful, and then she suddenly realized...
Yes, the current imperial army is no longer the imperial army of ten years ago.
In the past, the imperial army used high welfare benefits to attract strong men to join the army, but now it has begun to forcibly recruit civilians without setting any threshold.
Serving in the military has changed from a benefit that people need to fight for to a burden that people try to avoid.
The villagers knew that they were too weak to wear the standard equipment of Noxian soldiers. Even if they joined the army, they would probably only be assigned to the cannon fodder troops to be consumed and killed.
"Don't worry." Marit then added: "I won't let you be cannon fodder."
"You can join our regiment's scientific firearms unit. The physical requirements for soldiers there are also very low."
She stressed to the villagers that she was giving them the opportunity to join the regular army.
The kind of regular army that everyone envies, with high salaries, settling-in allowances and pensions.
But only a few villagers seemed interested, while most of them were still hesitating.
"No...no thanks." Some people even declined politely.
"Why?!" Marit was really a little angry.
"Because..." The villagers said stiffly, "In recent years, almost no one who joined the army in Triwell came back alive, no matter which unit he joined..."
"That is to say..." Marit said disdainfully: "Are you afraid of death?"
Everyone was silent.
They are indeed afraid of death.
The Noxian Empire's army is now like a large meat grinder, constantly devouring the fresh blood and flesh that enters it. Who wouldn't be afraid?
"Coward!" Marit commented coldly, "It is because you are afraid of death and fighting that you will always be weak."
"Look at how pathetic you are - you would rather linger in this barren countryside than go to the battlefield to fight for your fortune!"
"Oh, you really deserve to be stuck in the mud for the rest of your life!"
Marit looked at them insultingly.
But they just buried their heads deeper and bent their waists lower.
"Since you are Noxians, you should pick up your swords, fight, conquer, and enslave!"
"What's the point of the little food the foraging team took away? Demacia, Ionia, and Shurima all have plenty of food, wine, and meat waiting for you to enjoy!"
"..."This passionate slogan also failed to inspire everyone's courage to join the army.
The villagers still stood there obediently, not saying a word.
"Forget it, Marit." Riven stopped her angry friend: "Let's go."
"Yeah." Marit finally calmed down and turned her stern face back to normal.
And just at this moment, when they were about to officially leave...
A fast horse came flying on the dirt road in the country in the distance, and sitting on the horse was a Noxian soldier wearing eye-catching red armor.
"Is that... the messenger of the regiment?"
Riven and Marit looked at each other, their expressions becoming grim.
The messenger actually rushed here? Could it be that there was a change on the front line, and a large-scale war broke out, requiring their regiment to fight?
"Captain Riven! Deputy Commander Marit!"
At this moment, the messenger came forward on horseback and shouted loudly:
"General Amistan has ordered all the soldiers of the regiment to return to the team and assemble, board the ship at Triwell Port, and move to Piltover!"
“Piltover?” Marit was stunned. “No matter which war front that place is, it’s at least a thousand kilometers away, right?”
"Why was our regiment transferred there?"
The messenger loudly explained, "Piltover has recently signed a security agreement with the Empire. Our regiment will be the Empire's permanent dispatched force stationed in Piltover."
“Huh?” Marit tried to digest the news. “Going to Piltover permanently? Against whom?”
"To deal with those rookies in the Twin Cities who can only use firearms? Just for this, do we need to mobilize our entire regiment? Including our Rune Swordsman Corps?"
Forget about mobilizing an entire regiment, Riven should be able to clear both cities alone, right?
Marit thought with disdain.
"I'm not sure either..." The messenger said, "Anyway, this is an order from General Amistan."
They were chatting like this...
When the villagers heard the news, they began to discuss:
"Piltover? Isn't that where Master Kava fled to? I heard that he spent all his money and used a lot of connections to barely get legal status in Piltover..."
"Yes! That is the most civilized and advanced city in Runeland. I heard that even the poorest people in the city have meat to eat, electricity to use, and apartments to live in every day. Their lives are more comfortable than Master Kava's..."
"Tsk tsk... Where have the Imperial troops fought to? Aren't the people of Piltover very good at fighting?"
"What a fight!" said a knowledgeable villager. "The people of Piltover are just a bunch of kids who can't even lift a hoe. The Empire didn't attack there before because it was too lazy to do so."
"Let alone the soldiers of the Empire, those spoiled guys, even we Noxian farmers can't beat them."
"Really?" Some people didn't believe it.
"Of course! No matter how weak we are, we are still Noxians. Even if we can't beat the warriors of Demacia or the natives of Shurima, can we be weaker than the wimps of Piltover?"
"Look, isn't Master Riven's regiment about to attack us now?"
"What is a small city like Piltover in front of our Noxian army?"
As the discussion went on, the atmosphere gradually changed.
They began to go from fearing war to being keen on discussing war, discussing the strength of Noxus and the weakness of Piltover.
Discuss how rich and weak the people of Piltover are.
In Noxus, if a man is both weak and rich, he is not a man, but a talking public purse.
"You said, if we can follow the Imperial Army to Piltover..."
"Will I be able to eat meat and drink wine every day, fight in wars and make a fortune like Ona's father, and then come back to buy a house and land?"
"Tsk! What's Ona Daddy..." Someone else retorted: "Master Kava went to Piltover after spending all his money. If we go there, we will be 'masters'."
“……”The villagers were discussing and fantasizing enthusiastically.
Unconsciously, they raised their heads, straightened their chests, and straightened their backs and spines.
It looked like a person who had finally stood up, or more like a beast stretching its body after waking up.
Everyone seemed to have figured something out, and then...
Riven's childhood playmate, Crete, who had previously been afraid to even look at her face, now ran out excitedly, ignoring the bloody wound on his shoulder, and knelt down in front of her dragon lizard:
"Master Riven, Master Marit——"
"I, I am willing to fight for Noxus!"
