The refreshing wind blew across the vast wasteland, rolling dry sand and dry deciduous clovers. On the abandoned land, the ditches used to irrigate had dried up due to the interruption of the upstream. A collapsed and collapsed wall fell into the soil, covering most of the yellowed weeds.

An abandoned old mill stands alone on the roadside. The huge windmill blades that fell off the mill are tragically plagued on a half-collapsed red brick wall like some kind of broken limbs and arms. Traces of burning and explosive attacks can be seen everywhere around the mill. A burned street sign stands crookedly at the intersection in front of the mill, and the vague words on the street sign are vaguely visible:

"Long-tail Woodland-Cabre Town"

A rough and thick-boned hand brushed across the street sign and wiped a layer of charred ashes.

Norris looked at the black ashes stained on his hands, then rubbed his fingers and looked at the abandoned old mill not far away.

A gust of autumn wind blew, and the cold air wrapped in the wind poured into Norris's no longer healthy lungs. He couldn't help but bent down and coughed continuously.

Several young people accompanying him immediately stepped forward, and someone supported the Minister of Agriculture whose body was slightly shaking: "Minister, are you okay?"

"Nothing, I'm old, and the wind in this season is not very friendly to me," Norris waved his hand, rejecting the support of his subordinates and apprentices, and his eyes slowly retracted from the direction of the mill. "I've heard of this place... It is said that the most fertile land near the long-tail woodland is here..."

"It's all abandoned," said a young official sighing. "When the troops fought here, the entire long-tail woodland had been occupied by the Crystal Cluster Legion, and there were less than a hundred survivors gathered together. In order to completely eliminate the monsters, the soldiers burned all towns after the bombing, including settlements around the town."

"Wild...Wild is not scary. The wasteland can still be saved," Norris said slowly, looking at the farmland covered with weeds not far away, "I'm afraid of the remaining pollution. Let's go there and take a look."

The young official who was accompanying turned his head and ordered several magic cars to park on the side of the road, then followed Norris's pace.

The once fertile fields have been abandoned and have been bombed and burned after growing weeds. After burning, new weeds have grown with several winds and rains. Now, the appearance of the farmland in the past is almost impossible to see from a distance. Norris squatted down next to a ditch that could barely be distinguished, reached out to grab a handful of soil, and rubbed it slightly at the fingertips.

The black soil mixed with wood ash has a hint of wet sticky texture, and it falls to the ground as your fingers rub.

"What a good soil..." Norris stretched out his hand and asked the entourage to look at the remaining soil in his hands. "How can there be such good soil in the south?"

After sighing, he clapped his hands and began to instruct the sampling personnel to collect local soil samples. A accompanying clerk took out the file folder he carried with him and found the corresponding report: "The land here and the surrounding areas are part of the 'Sedge Manor', which belongs to the private property of Viscount Cabrey, but it is difficult to count the specific population of the entire Cabrey town. It can only be roughly estimated that about 300 households do not include a relatively remote village and a mine."

A young technician wearing outdoor work clothes and an imperial rattan ring druid badge on his chest checked the soil, "The soil here still looks healthy and fertile, which is much better than the two contaminated areas I discovered before..."

"Temporarily mark it green," Norris stood up slowly, "Before the next sowing season, we must collect land information that can be replanted as much as possible, and we must not forget to mark severely polluted areas..."

"Yes, Minister. Wait a minute, do we want to..."

A accompanying Ministry of Agriculture official responded, but as soon as he was halfway through his words, the guard standing on the dirt ridge next to him suddenly scolded him not far away: "Who is here? Come out!!"

Several pairs of eyes immediately looked in the direction of the guard's scolding. Norris raised his eyelids and saw that there seemed to be someone shaking in the abandoned mill not far away. After the guard's second call, the two figures hiding in the mill finally walked out of the abandoned building.

It was a man and a woman. They were not very old. They were wearing gray clothes and their hair and faces were dirty. They bent over and walked towards them carefully, with humility and fear, as if they were afraid that they would be arrested by several "big people" in front of them if they took the wrong step.

The expression on Norris's face subconsciously shook after seeing the man and woman. He recalled his self a few years ago... That humble and cringe posture had been carved in his bones for decades, and he was really too familiar with it.

"Survivor? There are survivors in this area?" a young clerk exclaimed in surprise.

Norris frowned and asked after the two men approached, "Why are you here? You've been hiding here?"

"Master, we... ran back from the town in the south... We hid out before and fought the war, but then we came back after the battle."

The hunchbacked man said carefully, while he kept pulling the thread on his clothes with his hands. His words were a little confused, but Norris quickly understood the meaning of this sentence. These two people were not hiding in the mill all the time. They probably escaped with everyone when something happened before, and then luckily ran out of this hell alive. For the past six months, they had been wandering in the Pompeii or Scorland area. Now they probably heard the news of safety in the north and ran back.

Similar situations are not uncommon in this vast area. Although there are few survivors in that disaster, there are always people who can escape from the sky.

Some of these people were contained and protected by the team sent from the southern border, some may have found a place to live in the south for a long time, and some... They have found a place to live for generations, and some have difficulty giving up their only familiar hometown, or they have no way to live in the south, so they ran back and wandered on this land that has become a wasteland of war.

If left alone, most of these people will sooner or later die of hunger, cold, disease, or die of wild animals, and the rest may become bandits in the eastern part of the Holy Spirit Plain. This abandoned land will become an amazingly inaccurate area.

But the Empire will not leave it alone. Norris, the working group he led, and several other teams heading in different directions. Their task is to rebuild this "Empire Granary".

"I am not a master. My name is Norris. I came to rebuild this place under the order of His Majesty," Shaking my head and throwing my complicated thoughts out of my mind. Norris said to the man and woman in front of me, "It is not suitable for home here yet. You can go to the resettlement area in the southeast first..."

The dirty-haired woman seemed to have not understood what Norris said, but widened her eyes: "Your Majesty? Which Majesty? Isn't His Majesty Francis gone?"

Norris was stunned for a moment.

Among the escaped poor people in the central region, the news was so slow that they were so slow that they were so far behind. Not only did they not know the establishment of the empire, but they even didn't even know whether the civil war was really over. When did they start fleeing famine? How long have they been isolated from the civilized world?

After living in the advanced and prosperous city of Cecil for several years, Norris once again saw this familiar poverty and backwardness, so he forgot to speak for a while. The druid technician standing next to him couldn't help but say, "It's His Majesty Gowen Cecil, he is already the emperor."

The man and woman were stunned for a long time before finally exclaiming repeatedly.

"You go to the southeast resettlement area first," Norris said to them again. "We have a car to take you there, and some refugees who escaped have settled for the time being there. It's too dangerous for you to stay here, and there are no people here now."

The man and woman finally understood what Norris meant. They hesitated and entangled, but after seeing the escorts and guards around Norris, they looked nervous and afraid. However, except for comfort, Norris could not think of how to explain everything to these two people. He could only make some guarantees, let the escorts take out some food, and emphasized that this was "the order of His Majesty the Emperor", which made them feel relieved.

But before following the soldiers, the hunchbacked man suddenly opened his mouth again, and carefully said, "Master, we still have something... can we hold it together?"

Norris nodded: "Yes, but don't have too many, the car can't fit."

The man immediately thanked him very much, and then ran back to the waste mill quickly. After a moment, he pushed a small cart that was broken and seemed to be falling apart at any time. The cart was filled with all kinds of debris, and the worn jars and basins were piled up with rags that could no longer be seen in color, leaving a seat for people to sit.

This is the whole family of the men and women. Norris can almost imagine how they pushed the cart away from here, wandered between villages and towns in the south, and then pushed the cart back to this place.

"That's all, that's all," the man showed a humble smile on his face, "Not many."

The soldier who was about to escort the men and women to the resettlement camp took a look at the things on the car. He originally thought that these rags could be thrown away. Anyway, the resettlement camp would give refugees a set of daily necessities, but in the end the soldier didn't say that, but sighed: "Oh... you can bring things with you, but this cart can't be installed in our car."

"Old... Master," the man suddenly panicked, "I can push the car and follow you! I run very fast!"

The soldier shook his head: "No, you don't know..."

Norris interrupted the soldier: "Tie this car to the roof."

The soldier looked embarrassed: "...Sir, this..."

"Do as I said," Norris shook his head, "this is their most precious thing now."

"Yes, sir."

"Master, you are such a good person!" The woman with dirty hair quickly said, "You are a kind noble master!"

"I'm not a master, nor a noble master. Just call me a sir," Norris corrected it again, then waved his hand, "Let's go, follow this soldier, our car is waiting on the side of the road. Don't be scared by the car later."

The man and woman agreed in a hurry, but after following the soldiers a few steps, the hunchbacked man couldn't help but turn back: "Master... Sir, do you think this place can really be changed back to its original form?"

"...It will be better than before," Norris said word by word, looking at the muddy but expectant eyes, "This is exactly the mission that His Majesty has given me."

"Then... can we come back then?" The man said quickly while observing the faces of the soldiers beside him, "We are in the town, and there is still..."

Before he could finish his words, the woman next to him seemed to hit his arm secretly. Norris guessed what the unsent sentence would be, a can of wheat, a box of flour, a sickle, or a few silver coins he had worked hard to save?

He didn't ask, but just nodded vigorously: "I'll be back, this is the order given to me by Your Majesty."

The hunchbacked man laughed: "Ah, then it seems that His Majesty Cecile is such a good person."

They left.

After a long time, Norris finally broke the silence: "We have a long way."

"Yes, Minister."
Chapter completed!