"Oh, yes." Burkos reminded again: "Our Ministry of Agriculture has specially investigated the grain storage situation in the homes of people in the cities of Turiyi, Krotone, Grummentum, Cosenza, Lokrie, etc., and their grain can last until November at most!" ”

"How's the situation in Sicily?" Antaollis asked.

"Sicily has had a lot of rain this year. There should be no problem with bumper cereal harvests in cities such as Katanay and Naxos. Burkos replied.

"What about Campania?"

"The farmland in that area is in good shape." Reminded by Antaoris, Burkos continued: "There is no drought in Carthage in Africa, only Central Greece and the Peloponnese are experiencing the same situation as we are, but their situation is slightly lesser. ”

After listening to the report of his subordinates, Davers couldn't help but tap his fingers on the table, and his face was also a little unsightly. But soon, he stretched his brows again, and said slowly: "The sky is cloudy, people have good and bad luck, the gods cannot take care of us Dionya forever, and this upcoming drought is a test for our kingdom. But what do we have to be afraid of! We were prepared, weren't we? In the past, at the Senate meetings, it was not always said that 'the granaries we have built are all wasted except for the occasional supply of the legions for war.' And this time, these seemingly wasteful granaries will save the lives of millions of our Ionians!" ”

Davers' words put Lucias, Merses and others to shame.

After a small tap, Davers continued to ask: "Burkos, have you made a statistic on how long the grains in these granaries in our kingdom can sustain the people in southern Italy?" ”

Burkos had been prepared for this for a long time, and he said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, now our kingdom has a total of nine granaries, which are located in Grummentum, Turiyi, Cosenza, Crotone, Trina, Lokri, Catanay, Oudière, and Srvium (they correspond to the stations of the 10 major armies), with a total of about 100,000 tons of grain, and the population of southern Italy is about 1.5 million. ”

"It's only been six months! This grain will not be enough for the people to eat until next year's autumn harvest! Vesbah sighed.

Several of the other Chairman-in-Office took one look at him.

In order to prevent him from being embarrassed, Mariji immediately explained: "In previous years, citizens made a lot of money selling grain because of successive bumper harvests, and there were very few poor citizens. The grain in our granary is not supplied to them free of charge, but sold in the market at a lower price, so that they can afford to buy it in order to tide over this difficult situation, so as to prevent the grain merchants from taking this opportunity to raise the price of food wildly, thus causing panic among the people......"

"100,000 tonnes of grain is not enough, and we must have sufficient food reserves to cope with the coming drought," Davers mused. And we have to reserve enough wheat seeds for next year's planting, so Merses is to use the treasury and send men to Carthage, Cyrenaica, and even Egypt to buy large quantities of grain, before the news spreads. ”

"Okay, Your Majesty, I'll do it right away!" Merses replied simply, without hesitation or prevarication, for he knew that this was the most important thing for the kingdom.

"Mariji, your Ministry of Commerce must strictly control the markets in various cities, so that grain merchants who sell grain can sell grain at a reasonable price, and must not wantonly disrupt the market and blindly raise prices...... For grain merchants who ignore warnings and insist on messing around, the Joint Court of the Ministry of Commerce is allowed to severely punish them!

At the same time, you must work together with the chief executives of the cities to check the identity of the purchasers when selling the grain in the granary, and each person is allowed to buy only a certain amount of grain per day, and not to exceed, and to prevent anyone from reselling the grain in the granary in large quantities and taking advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune. ”

"I see, Your Majesty!" Marigi also looked serious.

"Burkos!" Davers turned to the Minister of Agriculture: "Now that the drought is coming, the rivers are shallower, and the role of the waterwheel is greatly weakened, digging wells is a good solution to the problem of drinking water for the people." You and the Ministry of Construction need to work together to dig deep wells in various cities to solve the problem of water shortage for the people. ”

"Okay, Your Majesty, I'll rush to the Ministry of Construction in a moment!" Bulkos looked a little dark.

Davers's eyes finally fell on the five rotating presidents: "Ladies and gentlemen, the Senate needs to convene an urgent meeting to discuss a proposal to deal with the drought as soon as possible, so as to remind the people to save food and water in the coming time, and to store more water at home...... At the same time, we should also comfort them not to panic, to stay calm, and with the blessing of Hades and the full help of the Kingdom, they will definitely get through this difficult time! ”

"Your Majesty, we will have a meeting in the afternoon." Cornerus replied immediately.

Davers nodded, his gaze swept over everyone present, and their solemn expressions revealed nervousness, so he asked loudly, "Lycias, how did you deal with the drought in Great Greece 25 years ago?" ”

"Your Majesty." Lycias recalls the situation, and her face shows a little pain: "At that time, the people of Crotone collected gold and silver and went to Carthage to buy grain, but the cunning Carthaginians knew that we had a drought and immediately multiplied the price of grain several times. So we couldn't buy more food, and the council had no choice but to send some of the people to Iberia to colonize by lots, and all of them died in the attacks of the Iberian natives......"

"Yes! The country is weak and weak, and when it encounters such a natural disaster, it can only endure the pain of the separation of relatives and friends, and the destruction of families. But the Kingdom of Dioonia had the power to spare every family of its people from such suffering. We need to see that this drought is a bad thing, but it is also a good thing! It will make the few people who are still obsessed with the long history of the original city-state and delusional about the independence of the city see clearly and understand that only by staying in such a powerful kingdom can they ensure that they can survive every natural and man-made disaster safely, and their homeland will be peaceful for a long time! ”

Davers's words stirred up the spirits of the senators in the audience, and even more resonated with them, who had worked hard for more than a decade in this unique polity, and even Lycias, who was the last to join, increasingly identified with this powerful nation.

………………………………

After Davers saw Cornerus off them, before he could catch his breath, Aristias walked in: "Your Majesty, the Ministry of Intelligence has sent news about Rome from the north. ”

As soon as he heard Rome, Davers immediately lifted his spirits and hurriedly asked, "What is the situation?" ”

"The olsci in the south of Rome, together with the Aequi in the east and the Hernicũ in the southeast, invaded Roman territory at the invitation of the rebellious Roman Latin league Praeneste, with an estimated 20,000 men."

Prinister? Davers thought for a moment, but had no impression in his mind, and immediately turned to Henipolis the clerk and said, "Heni, go and get a map of central Italy." ”

The map lay on his desk, and Davers looked down and finally found the location of the Latin city-state: Priniste, a large Latin city-state located more than 60 miles southeast of Rome, near the mountains, which happened to be the entrance to the lowlands between the mountains, guarding the access to the Ekyu and Helnikians. This, in turn, meant that its rebellion would allow the Aqueids and Helnihians to easily invade Rome's Latin allies and threaten the city of Rome itself......

"Have all the Roman troops to the north and attack Etrunia been brought back?" Davers asked again.

"I haven't heard from you yet." Aristias replied.

Davers touched his chin and fell into deep thought.

In the third year of Dioonia (390 BC), the Celtic king Brenus, who was entrenched in the upper valley of the Po River in northern Italy, united most of the Celtic tribes and invaded the Etrunians to the south.

Along the way, they defeated many Etrunian forces and captured many towns. Just as they began the siege of Clusium, Rome, as an ally, sent troops to the rescue, only to see a meeting between the Celts and the Romans near the Arria River, resulting in a crushing defeat for Rome.

What Davers didn't know was that, in this life, without the demagogy of the messengers sent by Dionysius (Dionysius had died at the hands of Phoebidas two years earlier), the Celts did not abandon the Etrunian towns along the way and did not attack, but quickly advanced to the city of Rome, but continued to kill and plunder all the way, until they crossed the Tiber River more than two months later.

At this time, the Roman walls were dilapidated, and they had not even completely encircled the entire Roman city, and half of the city's young men were killed or wounded in battle, and most of the commoners had finally left Rome in anger a few years ago due to conflicts between nobles and commoners, and settled in the city of Vitae. Therefore, there were no more troops in the city of Rome to defend it, except for a few old people who were old and weak and unwilling to leave their homeland, and a few people who were willing to hold on to the Acropolis of Capitolius, and most of the people had to evacuate the city.

Some of them went to Avid, and a few went to Ardea, a city of Latium south of Rome. Camillus, a famous Roman general who had conquered Viet but was expelled for being falsely accused, lived in seclusion here.

The Celts easily captured the city of Rome and slaughtered the old men in the city, but they could not take the Capitoli Acropolis for a long time, so they had to surround it and send other troops to the surrounding area to collect food and grass, so the towns and villages of the Latin region were ravaged.