Chapter 005: Feeding All the People Under Heaven

When Wang Bo arrived at this city, he did not see a scene of blooming flowers, but rather a very dilapidated sight. The pedestrians on the streets were sparse, and the shops on both sides were either closed or out of business.

In the streets and alleys, a group of ragged beggars were either squatting or lying down, each with a wooden expression and despair in their eyes.

Only then did Wang Bo realize that this era was no longer the prosperous Tang.

It was the late Tang.

In the late Tang period, the emperor had no real power in economy, politics, or military affairs, leading to the formation of separatist regimes by military governors. Eventually, various factions broke away from Tang rule and became independent regimes.

Thus, the late Tang government focused mainly on quelling rebellions and had no time to attend to economic and cultural development.

Coupled with the An Lushan Rebellion, the Tang dynasty's national strength declined steadily and never recovered.

The Li-Tang dynasty never restored its former glory.

So in this era, constant warfare and the people's misery were the norm.

Wang Bo entered this city, which was only a small one, and it seemed to have recently experienced a war, leaving nine out of ten houses empty.

The beggars on the streets had long given up hope and were filled with despair for life.

Many had abandoned the will to live, staring blankly at the sky, waiting for death to come.

Wang Bo saw a young woman holding a baby in her arms, but her eyes were already dead. She gently patted the baby and hummed an unknown lullaby. The baby in her arms had a sallow complexion and lacked even the strength to cry.

The baby's eyes were dull, long devoid of any liveliness.

Wang Bo could tell that the baby was beyond help, already on the verge of death, and could die at any moment.

The woman seemed to have sensed this and had already resigned herself to fate.

So she was waiting for the baby to die. When the baby died, Wang Bo was certain that this woman would not live on alone, because her eyes were already dead.

Beside the woman, an old man with white hair lay quietly on the ground, his body already cold.

Without a doubt, this was a damned world.

Wang Bo walked over to the woman, crouched down, and performed a small spell to save the baby.

The baby's sallow complexion quickly improved, and after its bodily functions returned to normal, it burst into loud crying.

Hearing the baby's cries, a glimmer of hope gradually returned to the woman's dead eyes. She looked down at her child, then at Wang Bo, and two streams of hot tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Thank you, thank you..." the woman said, about to kowtow to Wang Bo. Wang Bo raised his hand to stop her and comforted her for a while.

Then, from his Time Villa, he summoned a thousand demons transformed into human form and ordered them to treat all the people in this city. The demons would not disobey Wang Bo's orders; they all nodded and began to act.

They gathered the beggars together, distributed food and water for free, tidied up the uninhabited houses, and gave the beggars a stable home.

Several demons also joined forces, broke into the city lord's mansion, captured the city lord who was still feasting inside, defeated the soldiers in the mansion, and forcibly occupied it.

The next day, Wang Bo took over the nest and became the master of this city.

The soldiers who had served the former city lord either switched sides and joined Wang Bo's ranks or were imprisoned by Wang Bo.

Of course, there were also some who wanted to defect to Wang Bo but were rejected. These fellows had a long record of misdeeds, feeding on the blood of the people. Wang Bo had no use for such characters.

He directly had the demons take them out and behead them.

Afterward, Wang Bo found a few officials with no major misdeeds and had them help him manage the city.

After a busy few days, this nameless small city was finally put in order by Wang Bo. At least there were no more beggars on the streets.

Everyone had food to eat and a house to live in.

In a sense, the entire city had taken on a new lease on life.

But several officials under Wang Bo were not so optimistic, because they discovered that the city had about a few thousand people, and all the water and food were provided by their top boss.

Although they were not quite sure how much food their heaven-sent boss had, they assumed it couldn't be too much.

After all, in this chaotic era, even the landlord had no surplus grain.

Once the food ran out, this seemingly revived city would collapse again.

So a few of them discussed it and sent a representative to ask Wang Bo exactly how much grain he had and how many days it could last, while the rest discussed how to raise more grain.

To be honest, their top boss seemed ruthless, having his men kill quite a few people, but he was truly good to the common folk.

They were all willing to work under him.

After all, none of them wanted to live a life of uncertainty about their next meal, so everyone wanted to desperately maintain the hard-won stability.

"How much food and water do we have?"

When a man named Zhao Weimin found Wang Bo and asked this question, Wang Bo replied generously, "The grain under my command can feed all the people under heaven."

Zhao Weimin gave a wry smile and said, "Sir, please don't joke with me."

"When have I ever joked with you?" Wang Bo led Zhao Weimin to the city lord's warehouse. The grain there had long been distributed by Wang Bo, and now the entire warehouse was empty, spacious enough for horses to gallop.

Zhao Weimin asked in confusion, "Sir, why have you brought me here?"

Wang Bo said, "You know my methods, but you don't know my origins. Today, I'll show you what it means to create something from nothing."

With that, Wang Bo waved his hand lightly, and the empty warehouse was filled with bags of white rice and bags of white flour.

Zhao Weimin's eyes nearly popped out.

"Is this surprising?" Wang Bo chuckled and waved his hand again. This time, instead of rice and flour, baskets of vegetables appeared.

These items were collected by Wang Bo from other worlds, intended for use now.

He knew that as he frequently traveled between worlds, he would inevitably encounter worlds where the people were destitute or apocalyptic worlds, so bringing extra water and food was no problem.

More importantly, Wang Bo had a Replication Mirror, so replicating water and food was not an issue.

That was why Wang Bo said he could feed all the people under heaven.

This was not bragging, but the truth.

With the Replication Mirror, food could be produced in unlimited quantities, inexhaustible, with no need to worry.

After Zhao Weimin left the city lord's mansion, he was as excited as if he had been injected with adrenaline.

When he returned and recounted what he had seen and heard, the officials of the entire city erupted like a pot boiling over.