Chapter 308: The genuine leader is coming?
Master Wuji and Leader do have some similarities, but they are also very different.
Compared with leaders who value activeness, the Wuji masters are more like a group of supervisors with a transcendent status who value inaction.
They do not participate in the daily governance of Wuji Village, but they play an important role in supervising power and improving the atmosphere invisibly.
Rural families in other places who don't have children may be bullied by village tyrants, bad neighbors, or even their own relatives may come to eat up the whole family, so having children is not an option.
But the villagers of Wuji have no such concerns at all. They live in a good social environment under the supervision of Master Wuji, and in an agricultural society they enjoy the same or even better protection of laws and order than in a developed industrial society.
In other words, Wuji villagers can ignore the negative effects of having fewer children.
What about positive motivation?
Don’t the villagers of Wuji want to be like the farmers in other places in Ionia and have a few more free “hired workers” so that the children can help the family earn more Soul Blooming Coins?
In response to this, Master Yi replied:
"Blossoming Spirit Coin?" He was stunned for a moment, then asked: " What ?"
Riven: “…”
Only then did she realize... In Wuji Village, there is no such thing as "money".
Wuji Village has no contact with the outside world. Master Yi has never left the mountain in his life, and neither have most of the people in Wuji Village.
So they didn't even recognize the Blossom Coin, the common currency of Ionia.
In this isolated, self-sufficient village, which is still in the primitive barter stage, everyone lacks the means and awareness to accumulate wealth.
They have never seen money and have no interest in it.
"But even without currency, we should be able to divide the wealth, right?" Riven asked thoughtfully, "Don't you want to have more children to make life better... um..."
Halfway through the question, she realized .
In Wuji Village, having more children will not make life better, but will most likely make life worse.
Because Wuji Village is too small.
The population here has long reached the environmental limit, and there are no more arable land resources in the mountains to continue to be cultivated.
There are only so many fields in the family. Having more children will neither increase the yield of the fields nor open up wasteland to increase the area of the fields. It will only add a few more mouths to feed in the family.
In the outside world, if there are too many people and no land to farm , the children can go out to work and earn money to subsidize the family.
In short, as long as the children have work to do, it will never be a loss to have more children.
But in Wuji Village...almost everyone here is a self-sufficient small farmer, and no one needs to hire workers.
Blacksmiths, tailors, doctors and other rare secondary and tertiary industry personnel in the village have basically passed down their professions from generation to generation in their families. The number of people can always meet the needs of Wuji Village, and there is rarely any external recruitment.
In other words, there are almost no extra jobs here - so the extra population has completely become a burden on families in Wuji Village.
Having more children will only add pressure to the family.
There are no negative effects of having fewer children.
In addition, the people of Wuji Village have a cultural tradition of maintaining balance, so they naturally and actively control the population size, so that the total population of Wuji Village always maintains an appropriate dynamic balance with natural resources.
Without fierce conflicts between people and land, there would naturally be no class of untouchables.
Therefore, there are no untouchables in Wuji Village.
So……
"Can the experience of Wuji Village be used as a reference for the entire Ionia?"
After learning the details, Riven immediately realized that the situation in Wuji Village was very special and might not be copied to the outside world.
Ionia, a country with a vast territory and a large population, certainly cannot completely learn from the small country of Wuji Village.
But not being able to copy it doesn’t mean we can’t learn from some aspects.
At the very least, Windleader can play the role of a perfect supervisor for the entire Ionia, just like Master Wuji.
They can create a good social environment where people can live and work in peace and contentment even if they have fewer children.
Coupled with the fact that Ionia's philosophy of balance is deeply rooted in people's hearts, it is also easy for everyone to accept the progressive concept of controlling population and maintaining balance...
Perhaps Ionia’s untouchable problem, or population problem, can be solved.
"The key lies with the leader..." Riven sighed deeply.
It turned out that the answer she had been looking for was right beside her all along.
“Ionia cannot have tens of thousands of Wuji masters, but it can have tens of thousands of leaders.”
" So only the leader can change Ionia!"
She completely forgot that she was just a self-proclaimed leader of the Leaders Chapter, and her heart was filled with great pride.
But after the passion...
"President Orianna?" Master Yi asked tentatively, "Should we continue to discuss how to get down the mountain?"
"Uh..." Riven came back to her senses.
Once she came to her senses, she had to face the bleak reality of the moment:
Not to mention saving the entire Ionia, the Leader is now blocked by enemies in the mountains and doesn't even dare to leave Wuji Village.
The "three strategies for going down the mountain" given by Riven before:
Waiting for Noxus to withdraw its troops, praying to the goddess for help - both of these are obviously unreliable.
The last one is to hope that Fia can go out to sea smoothly after coming down the mountain and go to Zaun to seek support from the Wind Leader headquarters.
And this one...
"President Orianna, I'm back!"
Riven was praying that Fia could leave Barue safely and go to Zaun to ask for reinforcements...
A familiar voice was heard from the sky.
"Fia? Why are you..." Riven felt a sinking feeling in her heart as she watched the cat-eared girl riding the air currents and slowly descending from the sky in front of her, as well as the sailors following behind her.
It takes nearly a month to sail from Barue to Zuan.
Feiya and the others have only been away for a few days, and they're back already?
This shows that…
"Orianna, something terrible has happened!" As expected, Fia brought back extremely bad news: "All ports in the Barou Province have been occupied by the Noxians."
"Not only did they capture all the towns along the coast, they also set fire to the civilians' boats."
"We searched all around Barue Island... We couldn't find a large ocean-going ship that could go to Zaun, or even a small sampan!"
After Feiya landed, she didn't even have time to stand firmly before she hurriedly reported what she saw and heard.
"This..." Riven felt increasingly uneasy.
It would have been fine if the Noxians had captured the town, but why did they burn civilian ships?
"Oh no!" She quickly realized, "The Noxians want to trap us to death on Balue Island - this time they are coming for us, the Wind Leader!"
"That's right!" Fia added hastily, "When we were scouting at the foot of the mountain, we saw Noxian troop transports coming from the sea in an endless stream."
"Now there are Noxian garrisons in almost every coastal port and plain town in the province of Baruo."
"They have even begun sweeping and searching from the coast to the inland, from the towns to the countryside - they are searching for us, the Leaders!"
"..." Riven remained silent after hearing this.
But her increasingly solemn expression still betrayed her mood.
It's over. It's completely over now.
She never expected that the Noxian Empire would put so much effort into completely blockading the strategically worthless Island of Barue just for her, the self-proclaimed leader, and tens of thousands of insignificant Ionian refugees.
Why?
How much manpower and resources will it take to blockade Balue?
Are their heads worth so much money?
Riven couldn't understand the reason behind this, but she was aware of the desperate situation she was facing.
Barue Island is neither small nor big. If Noxus deploys its troops regardless of cost, they will sooner or later be able to search every corner of the Barue Province and finally find Wuji Village in the mountains.
And with Barue Island being completely blockaded, there was no way Riven would be able to successfully break out with tens of thousands of people - even though they were all now shallow believers of Janna and could all fly.
Because Barou is an island, one has to cross the sea to reach the Navoli Province on the other side.
Using the borrowed divine power also consumes mental energy. Their flying skills also consume energy and have a CD.
These tens of thousands of people can indeed fly.
But they are mortals with weak mental strength after all. As long as these tens of thousands of people fly a little further, they have to fall back to the ground to rest.
When Riven led them to escape from the Yipu River to Wuji Village, there were continuous mountains along the way for them to stay.
But to escape from Barue Island... there is no place on the sea for tens of thousands of people to land and rest.
Not to mention, the sea is now full of Noxian warships.
And Noxus also has flying magic bird knights and flying battle mages. As long as the enemy is prepared this time, tens of thousands of ordinary people with weak divine power will be tens of thousands of living targets for slaughter if they fly into the sky.
Even if they could break through the siege and reach the Navoli Province on the other side... once they got there, it would still be an occupied area of the Noxian Empire.
"What should I do?" Riven was also a little anxious.
There was no way up to the sky, and no way down the mountain. The Noxians could come into the mountain at any time.
Fortunately, just when Riven felt desperate, Fia told her the only good news:
"There may be some of our comrades in the mountains near Yipuhe Port."
"What?" Riven was stunned for a moment: "Yipu River Port? Didn't our people evacuate from there? How come there are still leaders nearby?"
"I don't know either." Fia said, "I also secretly heard from those Noxian soldiers:"
"It is said that there have been guerrilla activities of the Leader near Yipu River Port, and they have attacked many Noxian soldiers who went to the countryside to sweep..."
"So the Noxians all believe that the Wind Leader is hiding near the Yipu River Port. Their search focus has always been on the rural areas and mountainous areas upstream of the Yipu River."
The Noxian people's attention was drawn to the Yipu River, so no one cared about Wuji Village, which was hundreds of kilometers away from the Yipu River.
"It seems that we are relatively safe here for the time being."
This is indeed a blessing in disguise.
"But..." Riven was increasingly confused: "Guerrillas?"
She didn't send any guerrillas to Yipu River.
So who are these leaders who have been active near the Yipu River?
Could it be that...
Hope flashed in Riven's eyes: "Is he the real leader?!"
