I Pioneered Scientific Magic

Among the nobles and wealthy merchants, rumors of famine quickly spread throughout the kingdom, and the price of wheat almost increased every day, causing panic that even reached the City of Fire Oil!

In the laboratory, Lynn, who was contemplating how to convert the Big Nuclear Blast Technique into the Big Hydrogen Blast Technique, was also forced to halt his research and dragged into the conference room.

After reviewing the report, Lynn couldn't help but furrow his brow.

In just half a month, the price of wheat per kilogram within the kingdom had increased from two copper coins to more than ten copper coins, exceeding five times the original price!

"How come no one reminded me of such a big issue before?" Lynn asked incredulously.

He immediately realized that someone intended to disrupt the entire kingdom by manipulating grain prices, and the best way to deal with it was to nip it in the bud. Once it escalated, it would be difficult to handle because everyone would start hoarding spontaneously, and no amount of food would be enough!

Lame Loude, who was in charge of grain procurement, poured out his bitterness helplessly.

Due to the production of the fusion reactor, all the speakers and grand wizards were busy, and there was no way to convene a meeting unless it was an emergency.

Moreover, consecutive wars often led to an increase in grain prices, and fluctuations in the price of wheat in the short term, even doubling, were quite normal.

However, they had been controlling the price of wheat through grain collection and distribution, so in the past year, it had only increased by about fifty percent, which did not cause any waves compared to the several-fold increase in wages for the poor.

This led Lame Loude to initially not pay much attention to the rising price of wheat, dispatching more grain to various places as usual to stabilize prices until he found that the situation was completely out of control, prompting him to report it as an emergency.

Alves, who was responsible for trade, also added that just the day before yesterday, the church suddenly established outposts in the border cities of the empire and rigorously inspected departing caravans, resulting in an eighty percent reduction in caravans coming from the empire, meaning they could no longer purchase grain on a large scale from the empire!

Two consecutive pieces of bad news left the assembly of parliamentarians worried.

Even though most wizards lacked a theoretical foundation in economics, they understood the importance of grain. The people could tolerate wearing old and torn clothes, could forgo buying novel alchemical inventions, but they could not go without food!

After some contemplation, Raphael proposed implementing rationing, specifying the maximum amount of bread each person could purchase, with penalties for exceeding the limit.

Some parliamentarians even suggested saving some grain by cutting back on lunch supplies at the workshops.

Previously, he had heard wizards from the alchemy workshop complain that due to the council's requirement to provide one meal a day, many extremely frugal poor people would deliberately skip breakfast and dinner and eat their fill only at the workshop.

"No, this will only cause greater panic. We don't have enough grain in hand as it is!" Harof directly rejected the proposal, knowing full well that all strategies to reduce food supply would further drive up bread prices.

Aurora then turned to Lynn, pondering and asking how much wheat they had left and whether it was enough to supply the entire kingdom. She had received reports earlier that large swathes of farmland in the eastern territories of the kingdom seemed to have been abandoned.

"It's not abandonment; in fact, I'm planning to consolidate these lands to cultivate some cash crops," Lynn explained.

Hadralata was known as the kingdom above the mines, which was its advantage, but sometimes also its disadvantage.

Mountainous terrain meant few plains suitable for large-scale cultivation.

The scattered fields in the kingdom's interior could not make much use of mechanization.

Lynn believed that the cost-effectiveness of planting wheat was too low, so it was better to plant fruit trees to enrich the townsfolk's diet and improve the kingdom's per capita night blindness situation.

Moreover, it was also to ensure that some self-cultivating farmers could earn similar incomes to those who entered the workshops. Otherwise, who would want to farm?

As for grain supply, of course, it was sufficient!

Since more than a year ago, after capturing the southern part of the kingdom, Lynn had started laying out plans. Because this area had the kingdom's only alluvial plain, he had the musketeers join forces with the liberated mine slaves to cultivate many new lands there in a fully mechanized large farm model!

Nowadays, over seventy percent of the kingdom's grain was produced from this super farm...

Although the assembly of parliamentarians did not fully understand what Lynn meant by mechanized farms, they still grasped one point: they had enough grain on hand.

Realizing this, Harof and others breathed a sigh of relief, then asked somewhat strangely.

"If there's enough grain, why are we still buying so much wheat from the empire?"

"Of course, it's to prevent famine caused by large numbers of refugees," Lynn said casually. "Having a little more grain reserve is always safer, isn't it?"

Once they defeated the Holy See, they would have to face tens of millions of paupers from the empire, so it was better to be prepared early than late!

Lynn had not expected that his integration of eastern farmland and the large-scale purchase of grain from the empire would lead to a miscalculation by some people, thus triggering a grain war.

"Lame Loude, have you found out who's behind the scenes manipulating this?" Lynn asked after a pause.

"I suspect it's related to the nobles within the kingdom," Lame Loude hesitantly replied.

Because there were too many people buying wheat in large quantities now, many traders and even commoners had joined in. In the short term, he couldn't determine who was the mastermind behind it and who was just following the trend to make a profit, but one thing was certain: there must be a large number of kingdom nobles involved.

However, he had already instructed the psychic wizards to investigate, believing that it wouldn't take long to get results.

"Nobles..." Lynn's expression immediately turned cold.

Busy dealing with the empire and the church recently, he had almost forgotten about this group of parasites in the kingdom who relied on their estates and didn't work.

Previously, he hadn't dealt with them all at once because he considered that the wizards had only recently occupied the kingdom and hadn't gained the trust of the people. Acting rashly against these people might cause the hard-won stability to collapse again.

Moreover, not all nobles were so unscrupulous. Some noble children who understood flexibility and possessed knowledge were willing to embrace the new era, so it wasn't right to kill all these people.

After pondering for a moment, Lynn gave orders. "Since they're willing to buy grain at high prices, let them continue. Release our stored grain bit by bit!"

He didn't intend to send people to arrest all the hoarding wheat merchants; first, there were too many of them, and second, the kingdom didn't have such a law.

But this didn't mean he didn't have other ways to deal with these people.

Also, it was a good opportunity to let those businessmen who wanted to take advantage of the situation and profit from the country's difficulties know that trade freedom had limits, and once they crossed the line, they would have to bear the consequences!

'071, help me bring up the artificial starch technology...' Lynn silently recited in his mind. He hadn't planned to reveal this technology so soon.