"Ridiculous!"

Although Horn was full of confidence, this petition didn't even pass the Secretariat of the Advisory Council.

The Secret Monk glanced at it, then tossed it to the floor as if throwing away garbage.

The dozens of onlookers immediately erupted in an uproar.

"What are you shouting about? Be careful, I'll call the Night Watchers to take you all away." The monk glared at them.

Proposing a re-election of the Autocrat, what kind of joke is this?

Indeed, Horn had not completely abolished the Autocrat up to this point, just temporarily managed the entire Thousand River Valley as the wartime Pope.

Legally, this indeed poses a problem.

This is mainly to appease the Mountain Knights and the nobles, telling them there is still hope and giving them a way out.

The so-called Autocrat is just a ghost title, an honorary post.

The empire did not acknowledge it at first but now does, while the Holy Alliance used to recognize it but now ignores it.

In the petition delivery room on the first floor of Baihua Cathedral, the monk glared at the group of citizens: "These are exceptional times, don't look for trouble without reason."

Leading the crowd of deliverers stepped forward was none other than Liborole, who once contributed during the Bloodless Night.

He picked up the petition: "According to the 'Provisional Ordinance of the Advisory Council', a petition signed by more than five thousand citizens must enter the adjudication process."

"Why?" The Secret Monk, sitting behind the desk, couldn't help but find it amusing, "Look at what your petition says. You say His Eminence is illegal, it's more like saying the law violates His Eminence, absurd."

"Why is it absurd?"

"Where did the news come from that the Leia people are seeking peace? Not to mention that the idea of re-electing the Autocrat making the Leia people withdraw their troops is pure nonsense."

"This is a legitimate demand, regardless of whether it can pass, I only hope it enters the process and is placed in front of the representatives."

"Impossible, don't waste the administrative resources of the Holy Alliance, okay?"

Remembering the monk's face deeply, a much thinner Liborole looked at the monk.

"You'll regret this!"

......

"We want bread, not war!"

"There's clearly grain on the grain ships, why can't we eat!"

At the end of the catwalk, the dinghy bobbed with the waves, with rows of gendarmes holding hook spears and iron-clad short sticks forming a human wall.

The crowd swayed before the gendarmerie human wall, with laborers and impoverished citizens poking their heads out from the shoulders and armpits of the gendarmes.

They stretched their necks hard, as if that could reach the food within arm's reach.

But the soldiers transporting military grain didn't even glance at them, just loading bag after bag of wheat flour from the transit warehouse into the ship's hold.

"You bloodsucking devils." A citizen picked up a stone and hurled it at the transporting soldiers.

The soldiers merely gave them a cold glance and continued transporting.

Having eaten root paste and sweet beans for too long, the citizens were faint with hunger, almost forgetting their past sacrifices.

Root paste and sweet beans were just enough to prevent starvation, not enough to provide the energy for activity.

So far, everyone had lost weight, and some even fell sick from hunger.

This sense of hunger, further fueled by skyrocketing prices, turned into panic.

Not only nobles, guilds, and merchants massively hoarded, but even ordinary citizens were hoarding on a large scale.

The County Monastery's grain mostly went to support the front lines, leaving little surplus.

This panic quickly turned into rumors and anger, which erupted after the rumor of the "Advisory Council rejecting the Leia people's peace proposal."

"No more war, there's no need for it, we want bread."

"King Ginijis has already forgiven the Saint's Grandson, stop the war."

"Withdraw the troops, give the bread back."

In the current war, although supported by the Falans and maneuvered by the Holy Alliance's Cardinal Conference, the daily increase in prices was not very fierce.

But with the nobles fanning the flames and Horn's second conscription, price increases became almost unavoidable.

The skyrocketing prices drastically shrank orders for various informal economies like services and non-essential workshops.

Many laborers turned into urban poor, the brave ones enlisted, the timid resorted to day labor.

The higher the prices, the less purchases, the workers lost jobs, unable to afford grain.

It's undeniable, this was indeed a mistake by the entire Saint Father's Association, the Cardinal Conference, and even Horn himself.

Horn didn't have a mind control tower that could brainwash all farmers and workers with a single button.

The manpower of the Saint Father's Association wasn't sufficient to explain the current situation household by household.

From the perspective of many ordinary citizens and farmers, they sent their children to war, yet were recruited for their grain.

Didn't they say there would be no grain taxes when the Saintess arrived? Why is the Saintess imposing heavy taxes now?

The solution was actually simple, currently being advanced by the ry Court Barracks.

In short, there are four directional agricultural projects: improved seed selection, fertilizers, irrigation, and pesticides.

And using the two major monasteries, the Holy Hoe and the Holy Sickle, to regulate grain distribution and promote agricultural technology.

However, as with most of Horn's problems, the enemy came too fiercely and too quickly, leaving them with no time.

This led to the Holy Grandson's mistake, leaving citizens helpless to beg for food.

"Go home! Please go home!"

An unexpected person appeared, the former farmer representative Rangbang climbed onto the pyramid-shaped stack of wooden boxes.

"You're asking us to go home, but our home is empty."

"Yeah, you have money and can afford bread, we're starving to death."

Standing atop the boxes, holding a megaphone, Rangbang yelled with all his might: "Everyone, the grain issue is only temporary..."

Before he finished, a clump of mud hit him heavily on the forehead.

With that mud as the signal, filth, feces, and even bricks were thrown at Rangbang.

"The holy war of the alliance is at its most intense, I urge everyone to endure, we..." Rangbang's face was covered in sludge from the mud.

"Endure what? Why should I endure? Is the Holy Grandson my grandson?"

"Whether the alliance wins or loses doesn't matter to me, I only know I'm hungry, and I want to eat bread."

"I also want the alliance to win, but I'm about to starve to death, you have to let us live first."

In the crowd there were extreme ones, reasonable ones, and a few rational ones trying to steer the chaos.

Rangbang, battered black and blue, his body covered in several patches of canine feces, continued to shout: "Our club has pooled funds to purchase grain from Black Snake Bay and Falan, please wait a few more days, let the military grain ships leave first..."

Before Rangbang could finish, someone shouted: "Look!"

A large, wobbly square-ended barge appeared at an unknown time, violating regulations by entering the canal reserved for military grain ships.

Rangbang realized what was about to happen, jumped off the boxes, and shouted towards that direction: "Quick, stop it."

The grain ship hurriedly turned the rudder to dock, just a step too late, as its stern was met head-on by the barge.

The grain ship lost control, crew members screamed desperately trying to control the rudder, but the bow crashed straight toward the shore.

Seeing the shadow of the bow and mast getting closer, Rangbang finally thought to shout: "Run!"

The gendarmes also pushed citizens away.

"Boom——"

Wood shards flew, the catwalk shattered, nails and planks sent people scattering, cradling their heads to avoid.

Only after the grain ship stopped did people dare to poke their heads out to observe.

The massive bow had smashed the wooden barrier of the pier's embankment, like a giant whale resting on the shore.

The citizens who had rushed the pier stood up, needing no more hindrance from the gendarmes, and a shout of "Grab!" rose from someone.

Like zombies, the citizens charged toward the ship's hold.

As for Rangbang, he stood there bewildered, staring at the river. The catwalk was shattered, the square-ended barge sunk, and the canal—blocked.