"Kill!"
"Damn it, why are these monsters suddenly so restless?"
"Let's fight them to the death."
"No!"
"I don't want to die, I don't want to die."
The image in the projection abruptly ended.
"Everyone, this is the footage seen from the survival watch of a soldier from Lanfeng City who could not be saved."
Inside the command tent,
Several heavily armed generals sat on their seats. Standing in the center of the tent was the Lord of Lanfeng City.
On him,
Blood that had not completely dried could still be seen.
"Our Lanfeng City has suffered a devastating blow."
"The entire main city, the surrounding affiliated cities, and the resource cities have all fallen."
"Our Lanfeng City is gone!"
The Lord of Lanfeng City slumped back, his eyes filled with unwillingness and despair.
"My thirty thousand soldiers."
"In the end, fewer than 50 survived. They all died in and outside the city, they..."
Sobs interrupted the Lord of Lanfeng City's hushed words.
No one in the entire tent spoke. Everyone could understand how devastating the sudden monster attack and the destruction of a city would be for its lord.
"Viscount Lanfeng."
"I think there's no point in saying all this now. Your city has fallen, that's a fact."
"What's more important now should be your purpose."
"Why did you suddenly summon the lords of these cities here? What do you need us to do? Do you want to warn us to be careful of the surrounding monsters, or do you need our cities to provide you with support?"
One of the lords spoke in a deep voice.
"Support would be difficult, wouldn't it? Viscount Lanfeng already said his city has fallen."
"His entire territory has fallen."
"Even if we wanted to help him retake the city, we have no base of operations."
"Camping in the wild, if discovered by monsters."
"We'll all die!"
The lords nodded thoughtfully, and the Lord of Lanfeng City sighed with a look of resignation.
"I don't expect to retake the city."
"I just want to ask all of you if you can take in my citizens."
"They are the people our soldiers bravely saved."
"Can you..."
At that moment, the lords in the tent all showed embarrassed expressions.
Accepting refugees was a burden for any city.
More importantly, Lanfeng City had a considerable number of citizens. With such a large influx of refugees, the city would need to solve their survival problems and provide them with corresponding jobs so they could become self-reliant.
Grain, every city was short of.
"Brother Lanfeng, it's not that I, as your elder brother, am not helping you, but you know my city has always been short of grain," said an elderly-looking lord. "Last year, our city invested a large amount of manpower in agricultural expansion, but the results were very poor. This year, our city is suffering from famine, and the grain in the city is being bought at high prices from outside. I really can't help with accepting refugees, but since you've asked, our city is willing to squeeze out a few tons of grain for you, what do you say..."
"Our city is also short of grain."
Another lord spoke with a sigh.
"Accepting refugees is too much of a burden for us. Our city is also willing to provide you with a few tons of grain, but if you ask us to accept all those refugees, our conditions truly don't permit it."
"That's right!"
The lords in the tent began to chime in, but no one was willing to accept the refugees.
The Lord of Lanfeng City's eyes were filled with despair.
He looked at his former colleagues, thinking of their past demeanor, and then at the coldness in their expressions now.
"Aren't we all for..."
"Viscount Lanfeng, what's the use of saying all this now?" someone in the crowd interrupted him directly. "If you want to mention the Lord, why don't you try contacting him and see if he can help you at this time? Your city has fallen, and frankly, you have nothing now. You have no money, no grain, no city, only a mouth... oh no, it should be hundreds of thousands, millions of mouths, asking us to take them in. Are we a welfare institution?"
"Hey, don't put it so harshly,"
Another lord stepped in to smooth things over and said, "We are all colleagues. If a colleague is in trouble, we can't be so indifferent. We should provide some humanitarian aid."
Saying this, the lord looked at the Lord of Lanfeng City.
"Lanfeng, I can provide you with 500,000 tons of grain. If you need some equipment, we will do our best to provide it to you. However, I really cannot help with the refugees. My city does not have that much space to accept so many refugees."
The lord glanced outside the tent.
Everywhere were citizens fleeing from the city, densely packed like locusts.
"You guys..."
"I know accepting refugees will have a great impact on you, but I never said you had to accept them alone. There are dozens of lords here. If each of you takes away ten thousand, is that really that difficult?"
Lanfeng's eyes were filled with pleading.
"I'm sorry, the most help I can offer is this. If you accept it, fine. If you don't, I can't do anything about it."
As he spoke, the lord got up from his seat.
"If you need grain, contact me again. I need to return to my city to arrange defenses, so I won't stay here any longer."
"We will also take our leave."
More and more lords left the tent. The commoners outside saw the lords appear, and their eyes revealed a glimmer of hope.
It was a pity that none of the lords even glanced at them.
They left the area where the refugees were gathered with their subordinates.
Only Lanfeng and his confidantes remained in the command tent.
"City Lord."
"How laughable. When my Lanfeng City stood tall, these people were all like sworn brothers. Now, it's as if..."
"Should we contact the Lord?"
"Him?" The Lord of Lanfeng City snorted. "As soon as he heard Lanfeng City had fallen, he directly blacklisted my contact information. When he wanted money, he was very diligent in contacting me. When something happened, he ran away faster than anyone."
The confidante also frowned.
"Then what about our citizens..."
Lanfeng listened and looked outside. These citizens were those who had narrowly escaped the city, and they were the ones the soldiers had fought and bled for.
In the past, the common people were a symbol of the city's prosperity.
Unexpectedly, these common people had now become a burden.
"Should we take these citizens..."
"Impossible!" Lanfeng directly interrupted his confidante. "How many of these are relatives of our fallen brothers? If I abandon them, am I still human?"
"The problem is we can't take these people with us."
"There must be a way."
Lanfeng bit his lip tightly, his teeth drawing blood from his lips.
"Take them to Fengqi City."
Suddenly, a low whisper reached Lanfeng's ears, and then he saw Chen Yu and Mi Ye appear in the tent side by side.
"Refugees, our Fengqi City will accept them."