This... even dead people could victoriously withdraw?
Elashia was stunned.
As a modern person, she wasn't completely ignorant about these things. She knew many official media would selectively report only news favorable to their side during wartime.
And calling defeat a victorious withdrawal was actually quite normal.
But... this was really too ridiculous...
The Blood Cult Leader was killed by her own hands... dead people victoriously withdrawing was really something...
"Hmph hmph... flip further back, there's even more ridiculous stuff..."
Looking at the confused Elashia, Ileina covered her mouth and laughed softly:
"You can look... you even appear in it."
"I appear in it too?"
Elashia was stunned.
"Mm... it can't really be said that you appear, you'll know when you look."
Ileina pulled out a relatively newer newspaper from several old ones.
"Look, this is the news from when we started using the Magic Crossbows you provided."
Taking the newspaper from Ileina somewhat skeptically, Elashia looked at it...
[Fire Bandits Suddenly Gain Strong Support? Behind All This is Actually an Elasian Conspiracy?]
"Ah?"
Just seeing that outrageous title, Elashia was stunned.
"Don't just look at the title, look down, the really fun stuff is still coming."
Ileina smiled and urged Elashia:
"Look down quickly!"
Elashia's gaze followed Ileina's jade finger downward...
[According to Sources, Elasians Sent a Large Army Through the Northern Forest and Reached a Traitorous Agreement with Fire Bandits to Sell Out the Holy Kingdom!]
[According to Sources—Northern Fire Reached a Traitorous Agreement with Elasia's Emperor, Planning to Exchange Half of the Holy Kingdom's Territory for Elasia's Strong Military Aid. Our Holy Court Will Surely Crush the Elasians' Sinister Plot!]
"Pfft..."
Seeing this, Elashia almost spit out!
Who was this "source"?
Half of the Holy Kingdom's territory... even if Ileina gave it to her, she wouldn't want it!
And this "Elasian Emperor"... obviously wasn't actually referring to her...
After all, she was Elasia's Empress, not Emperor...
So... that "Elasian Emperor" should be referring to the old emperor...
When she sent the Magic Crossbows to Northern Fire... the old emperor had already been dead for nearly half a year. How could he sign this "traitorous agreement" with Ileina...
"Hehe... Little Shia, how about it, ridiculous enough..."
Ileina covered her mouth and laughed:
"Actually, when 'Blood News' was first founded, some people in the Holy Kingdom still believed it, but as the Holy Court and Blood Clan repeatedly overdrew the newspaper's credibility, the current 'Blood News' has become a complete joke..."
"Little Shia, do you know, we Northern Fire leadership have a very interesting activity during holidays..."
Ileina covered her mouth and laughed:
"Every time we compete on the number of times we've been reported dead or captured in 'Blood News', and the person with the highest numbers wins..."
"The current record holder is Caroline, since she always personally commands battles on the front lines... so she has the most deaths and captures reported by 'Blood News'... If I remember correctly, she should have died thirty-two times and been captured twenty-one times."
"The second record holder is me, died thirty times, captured eighteen times..."
"Then should be Catherine, she's been captured over twenty times... but only died twelve times."
"As for Adeline... she has the most deaths at nearly forty times, but ranks last because she's been captured too few times... only three times."
"After all, her performance on the battlefield... it's hard not to associate her with berserkers."
"Stop, stop..."
Looking at this outrageous newspaper, Elashia was so annoyed she laughed.
"So Miss Caroline's plan is to publish this as a joke book..."
...
"Did you see! 'Spark News' says Northern Fire plans to directly use market methods to sell all the grain in warehouses to us at low prices!"
"It's over! All my family's savings went into hoarding bug rice before! Now I don't have money to buy grain!"
"Ah! Shouldn't have hoarded grain before! Screwed!"
Northern Fire had been in the city for less than a month and had already ignited public opinion three times...
In "Spark News," Northern Fire sent an extremely clear signal to the public—large quantities of grains like corn, wheat, potatoes, and rice from before the great disaster period would soon begin large-scale sales to the market at state-run grain stores...
And the selling prices were extremely shocking—grains with relatively lower yields like wheat and rice cost only five copper coins per pound, while potatoes with the highest yield cost only two copper coins for a full pound!
What shocked people even more was—the response wasn't limited to the Holy Capital. The grain policies of Northern Fire's major base areas were almost completely consistent!
Even in some regions with more abundant land resources, the prices of those high-yield crops could become even lower!
Especially in places suitable for growing potatoes, potato prices had already dropped to almost exactly the same level as before the great disaster...
This time... only one type of person in the entire Holy Kingdom was unhappy...
With Northern Fire's new grain policy rollout, the Holy Kingdom people's confidence in Northern Fire was greatly boosted again.
And with people's increased confidence in Northern Fire, no one would heavily hoard grain anymore...
The people of the Holy Kingdom now completely understood—the era of bug rice was completely over.
When spring came next year, not even a single grain of bug rice would appear in the Holy Kingdom's fields...
Those merchants who had heavily hoarded the bug rice Northern Fire was selling really lost everything this time...
Northern Fire's Political Committee even announced in newspapers that to protect farmland productivity from being wasted, Northern Fire would impose a super heavy tax of one-third on farmers planting bug rice next year, completely cutting off bug rice's last bit of soil in the Holy Kingdom...
Everyone in southern Holy Kingdom now clearly understood—current bug rice would have no use whatsoever except for eating this winter...
So... with Northern Fire's new policy rollout, bug rice prices welcomed an avalanche throughout the Holy Kingdom...
In most areas without grain problems, dozens of pounds of bug rice couldn't even be exchanged for one copper coin...
And in the Holy Capital... due to experiencing the previous grain war, the entire Holy Capital's bug rice holdings had far exceeded the actual needs of Holy Capital residents. Now there weren't even individual merchants doing bug rice business in the market...
Faced with affordable traditional grains, bug rice completely lost its last value...
After the latest issue of "Spark News" came out, even the poorest people in the Holy Capital no longer needed bug rice...
In the Holy Capital's grain market, hundreds of pounds of bug rice couldn't even be exchanged for a single copper coin anymore...