Chapter 49: The Death That Can't Be Escaped

"Machine Qì Cat" plane, a Japanese restaurant in Nerima Ward, Tokyo

“…… In order to celebrate Doraemon-kun paying off his debts, he will get rid of the troubles of loan sharks in the cup"

Sitting in a large box covered with tatami mats, Wang Qiu, Ma Tong, Professor Guo, Shizuka Jukawa, Minami Rika, Hansel, Gretel, Nobita, Shizuka Minamoto, Koo Bonekawa, Takeshi Tsukada, and Doraemon's sister Doraemon raised their glasses together and congratulated Doraemon.

“…… Well, everyone, in the past few days, I can understand how difficult it is to owe usury. ”

Doraemon drank a glass of sake with a red face, and said with emotion, "...... Let's let go of the belly and eat this meal to your heart's content."

After clinking glasses with each other, they drank it all, then put down their cups and began to attack the dazzling array of Japanese dishes on the table, which were arranged in a hollow shape on several tables with raw tuna meat, fried shrimp, thick omelet, octopus meatballs, chawan, grilled saury, tempura, tonkatsu, small sukiyaki, and dorayaki dishes, which are indispensable for Doraemon. Although the number of dishes is pitiful, the colors are very bright and bright, and adults drink sake, and minors drink juice and cola.

“…… Hey, if it weren't for this loan shark that Doraemon owes, maybe we wouldn't have all gathered here......"

The clear and mellow liquid slowly flowed into the thumb-sized wine cup from the white porcelain wine bottle again, the purple-brown Nanli Xiang was obviously a little drunk at this time, picked up the wine glass and drank it all, and then stared at the empty wine cup, and muttered incoherently: "It's really a good thing, by the way, Wang Qiujun, do you still remember, when was the first time you drank in your life?" ”

“…… Sorry, I don't remember much. Wang Qiu, who poured her wine with a wine bottle, replied on the side, "...... I think it was a long time ago. ”

“…… Yes, it's a pity......" Minami Satoka continued after bringing herself another glass of sake, "...... I still remember the first time I drank was before I participated in the first battle, when everyone was still a police academy student, but suddenly they wanted to encircle and suppress the bandits with guns, everyone's heart was very bottomless, and they didn't care about discipline, so they pooled money to find some wine to suppress the shock, but I was choked and spilled half of the wine on the ground... Looking back, I am afraid that I am the only one who is still alive among those classmates who secretly drank at that time, and life is really a helpless thing......"

Recalling the past of her life in another world, the eyes of the former policewoman Nan Lixiang suddenly seemed to become a little hazy.

“…… Then you are really an obedient and good boy, Sister Nan, you probably didn't drink for the first time until you were of legal age, aren't you like us curious bad boys, who secretly pooled money to get alcohol in middle school...... It's just beer and canned dessert wine......"

Wang Qiu smiled and clinked glasses with her, then craned his neck and drank the sake in his cup - this Japanese sake is sweet, and it tastes very much like low-alcohol rice wine, but it tastes a little sticky and has a long aftertaste...... But the alcohol content is actually much higher than that of rice wine, and Wang Qiu, who has an average amount of alcohol, has already felt a little drunk and dizzy after drinking a few glasses in a row.

“…… Doraemon, first of all, congratulations on paying off your debts and getting what you wantSecond, after paying off so many usurious loans, can you still afford to pay the bill for today's banquet? Don't let the store deduct it and ask you to wash the dishes to offset the bill."

He shouted to Doraemon through the drunkenness, "...... Otherwise, let's have a treat, don't bother for the sake of face......"

“…… Should...... No problem, I paid off the loan shark I owed to the bank, and the money I borrowed from Kazuki Furuizumi's organization, and paid off the account for buying magical items on credit from the future department store, and I ended up with about 20 million yen left...... No matter how you calculate, it should be enough."

Doraemon, who had also drunk a lot of alcohol, said with some slurred words, "...... So...... Eat and drink."

“… What the? The remaining fraction alone is 20 million yuan? The income is really good."

Hearing this number, the bone river doctor, who was not very clear about the amount of Doraemon's debt, immediately held up a glass of juice and was very speechless, "...... This time, you have become an angel and a hero, saved thousands of Li people, and you can earn so much money, it is really fame and fortune."

-- Wang Qiu and Ma Tong exchanged glances and decided not to expose some undisciplined and inhumane shady scenes, so as not to poison the hearts of children.

But Professor Guo burped and sneered, "...... Save the people? Hehe, maybe we did drag some people out of the hell of the Black Death, but who knows if what awaits them next is another hell that is even more terrible? ”

-- This slightly mocking remark immediately aroused the unanimous dissatisfaction of Wang Qiu and others: no matter how many personal goods were sandwiched and how much money was squeezed in the process of saving sentient beings, at least so many lives survived because of the efforts of the traversers, so they still thought that they were merciful and meritorious...... I can't imagine that Professor Guo is so disdainful now, it's simply unbearable

“…… What do you mean by that? Could it be that we are still wrong to save these medieval Europeans? Shizuka Jukawa frowned.

“…… Saving lives is of course absolutely right in any era, but it is even more difficult to do a good job of dealing with the aftermath. ”

Professor Guo reached out and poured himself a glass of sake, and replied slowly, "...... In the midst of the Black Death in Europe in 1348, thanks to the magical props of Doraemon, we saved Marseille, Avignon, Rome, Toulon, Nice, Florence, Pisa, Padua, Verona, Venice, Athens, Geneva, Vienna, Barcelona, ...... and many other European 6 cities, allowing millions of citizens to survive. But have you noticed that in these saved places, there are common problems? ”

“…… Common problems? I really can't see it. Wang Qiu rolled his eyes and thought about it, but he still didn't come up with anything.

“…… The common problem is that these are big cities, and the vast majority of medieval Europeans we save were urban populations."

Professor Guo sighed, "...... But what about the countryside? The agricultural population in the countryside is still dying in large numbers from the Black Death, and there are no crops growing in the cities, so you can't grow foodDon't forget, in medieval Europe, there were no pesticides, fertilizers, and agricultural machinery, and the grain production per unit of land area was horribly low, and even a peasant family might not have enough surplus product to feed an urban population that was detached from the land

Under the ravages of the Black Death, agricultural production has collapsed, and the remaining farmers cannot even feed themselves, so what should the citizens eat? ”

--In an instant, the wine glasses in everyone's hands "snapped" and fell to the ground, and their faces were even more unpredictable and shocking......

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As we all know, since population, power, and wealth are concentrated in the cities, the "angel coming" and rescue actions of the travelers are all set in central cities. As for the sparsely populated and wealth-poor medieval European countryside, it is magnificently ignored.

So, when the epidemic in Italy's urban agglomerations gradually came under control and began to subside slowly, the death frenzy of the Black Death was still rampant in the remote countryside. From time to time, entire villages are killed. Whether it's day or night, there are always many people who die on the road. Many more die at home, and their neighbors don't notice until their bodies are decomposing and they stench—if they don't die first.

Even in the Italian Peninsula, which was the most urbanized in Europe at the time, rural areas accounted for more than 75 percent of the population. Because agriculture in medieval Europe was not enough, the poor peasants, after feeding themselves and their lords, could not squeeze out too much surplus food to feed the urban population...... In this case, the rural population continues to die in large numbers because of the Black Death, but the urban population survives more thanks to the "angel coming", then the chain of agricultural production and food supply in this area will collapse in an instant, so that those citizens who have just been saved from the plague by the "angels" and secretly rejoiced will soon usher in another nightmare of famine

For these hapless medieval European citizens, this is a real "out of the tiger's den and into the wolf's den".

What's worse is that even those farmers who survived the plague bacillus and survived by luck and resistance may not continue to farm well in this era of panic and despair of the Black Death - according to the personal eyes of the travelers, in this terrible plague, most of the farmers saw the end coming, thought that the time of death had come, and one by one they no longer wanted to go to the farm, but only used the last time to eat and drink, allowing the wheat and fruit to rot in the fields, and the cattle, sheep, chickens and ducks did not know where to flee. Under the haze of death, the women of the country abandoned their chastity, and the men of the country forgot their morality, and drank and gathered in crowds day and night...... And then died suddenly in the carnival of depravity

Obviously, after the plague passed, even if some farmers survived, they would have already delayed their farming, and after eating up their own and their neighbors' homes, they would have to gnaw on tree bark and grass roots all the way to the city, competing with the citizens for what little food they had left, or hoping for government relief...... However, in this era, food production is on an annual cycle, so where should the government get this amount of food for the whole population to eat for a year? So that they can hold on until the next round of harvest? This seems like an impossible task

-- The situation is almost the same throughout Europe, and even if you want to import food with money, you can't find a place to buy it......

At that time, the rulers of the countries were afraid that they would regret it one after another, and felt that there were too many people who had survived the plague to eat

As a result, a considerable part of the citizens who had just escaped the clutches of the Black Death did not have time to rejoice and celebrate, and in the near future they would die of hunger, or of violence among themselves - after all, the world is material, and devout faith cannot replace bread after all, and as more and more people are hungry and driven mad by hunger, the social order is bound to collapse again before the next grain harvest: as a city that needs a constant import of foreign goods, once the basic logistics system and monetary payment system are finished, The collapse of order is far greater than in the countryside. Gangs of robbers of all stripes will then flood in, hunting down any one of their kind for a bite of bread just to keep themselves alive.

And in the countryside where there is still food production, those peasants who own land and crops will also have to take up arms and kill those who want to get something for nothing, or be killed and looted by them...... Just like the tragic scene of purgatory in the last days of many dynasties in China.

In short, those who have survived the plague will take up arms for their own stomachs, and neither law, faith, nor morality will be able to stop this brutal struggle for survival – mass deaths will continue until the gap in food supplies is closed by death.

-- As Stalin famously said, death may not solve the problem, but at least it can eliminate it

And it's even more regrettable that even Doraemon's magical props can't seem to solve such a big problem that affects the whole society.

In fact, they could not even stop the destruction of the European countryside and the destruction of agricultural production by the Black Death.

At the thought of this, except for a few elementary school students who still didn't quite understand, everyone in the restaurant was a little gloomy, and they didn't even know whether to hope that more people should survive the plague, or let them die according to the historical trajectory, so as not to suffer the disaster of famine and riot again.

“…… From this point of view, what we did in medieval Europe was probably just to pull them out of one hell, take a breather on earth, and fall into the next purgatory...... Those who were destined to die are probably going to die soon......"

After a long silence, Doraemon took a sip of his wine from the dorayaki and then said with a sad sigh - as the loan shark was paid off, the discipline value on his body, which had fallen to the bottom, seemed to have begun to slowly rebound again, "...... It first sends a glimmer of hope to those who are already desperate, and then pushes them into even deeper despair...... Alas, I feel like we're really guilty......"

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