novelSusiti Chapter 171 Not Shooting at Starving People
Chapter 171 Not Shooting at Starving People
The secret letter, handwritten by Dr. Corettis, was like a red-hot steel needle, traveling hundreds of kilometers through the fastest channels of the Royal Intelligence Service, and finally landing on Constantine's desk.
The edges of the paper curled slightly from the force of the ink, and the last sentence, "What's needed here isn't a scalpel, but a bayonet!", was permeated with the aura of blood and fire in every stroke.
Constantine's finger lingered on that line of text for a long time.
The study door was pushed open silently, and Alexandros walked in, neatly stacking a pile of secret reports, like snowflakes, sent back from Thessaly, on the corner of the table.
Every report is a lament of a village.
Every page of paper is soaked with the blood and tears of a family.
"...In the village of Amori, south of Larissa, sharecropper George Pappas was beaten on the spot with both legs by the landowner and his men for trying to hide half a sack of bran. His wife and daughter were forcibly taken away and their whereabouts are still unknown."
"...Terikala region, Megara village. After the locust plague, the entire village suffered a complete crop failure. The villagers pleaded with the landowner Christos for mercy, but were driven away by his private army. At night, the villagers tried to dig up grass roots to eat, but because they crossed the boundary of the landowner's estate, three of them were shot dead on the spot, and their bodies were hung at the entrance of the village as a warning."
"...Karditsa, Sofiades village. Aid team doctor's record: Seventeen children starved to death in the village within three days. Cause of death: organ failure due to extreme malnutrition. Local landlords have blocked the granaries and raised grain prices; the price of a bag of flour is now equivalent to a year's indenture for an adult woman."
Constantine turned the pages one by one, his face expressionless. But the air in the study seemed to have been sucked out, so oppressive that it was hard to breathe.
Meanwhile, in the Greek Parliament, this golden hall symbolizing the will of the nation, a completely different scene was unfolding.
The news from official channels was carefully embellished by the landowning class. The report stated that although the locust plague was severe, "with the generous help of the gentry and celebrities," the Thessaly Plain was "orderly and the people were in stable spirits."
However, the truth eventually came out. As the famine spread, sporadic disturbances began to occur. Starving peasants started storming landlords' granaries, and small-scale brawls broke out from time to time.
These messages became the best weapon for the big landowners' spokespeople in parliament.
"A mob! A complete mob!"
A member of parliament from the Thessaly constituency, whose family owns tens of thousands of acres of land, is standing on the podium, waving his arms and spitting as he speaks.
"My people tell me that Thessaly is experiencing a terrible upheaval! A bunch of lazy, unruly people, instead of working, are taking advantage of the natural disaster to riot and attack the property of us law-abiding citizens!"
His voice echoed through the magnificent parliament hall.
"What's even more despicable is that there are some malicious agitators mixed in with them!" He then shifted his focus, pointing the finger at the royal aid team, "They use the guise of charity to spread dangerous ideas in the countryside, sowing discord between us and our tenant farmers! They are the root cause of this unrest!"
A chorus of agreement rang out in the hall.
"We must send troops immediately! To maintain order in Thessaly!"
"Severely punish those troublemakers! Arrest the instigators and bring them to court!"
"This is a blatant provocation against the laws of the Kingdom of Greece! Where are the king's troops? Why haven't they suppressed this?"
The shouts rose and fell, as if those starving farmers who were gnawing on tree bark were a vicious rebel army.
The atmosphere inside the palace was equally somber.
Prime Minister Trikoupis, an elderly man who had dedicated his life to Greece, stood before Constantine with a worried expression.
"Your Highness, the pressure from Parliament is immense. The landowners control the nation's economic lifeline; we cannot afford to completely sever ties with them." He wearily rubbed his temples. "I suggest temporarily withdrawing the aid teams. Then, dispatch troops to seal off the disaster area, primarily to prevent the situation from escalating further."
He paused, lowering his voice even further: "Your Highness, the treasury is empty. We have no money to carry out a large-scale disaster relief effort covering the entire Thessaly. Forcing it will only bring down the entire government."
King George I sat silently on the throne. In one hand, he faced starving famine victims; in the other, the deeply entrenched landowning class, who held the nation's economic lifeline. To gravitate towards either side could trigger violent social unrest. This dilemma troubled him greatly.
All eyes were on Constantine.
Sending troops to suppress the unrest was the quickest and simplest way to quell the situation. This was also the choice of the vast majority of nobles and officials.
Constantine stood up.
He made no comment on the Prime Minister's suggestion, but simply picked up the stack of blood-stained reports on the table.
"Get the car ready," he said to Alexandros. "To the council."
Half an hour later, the Greek Parliament.
When Constantine, dressed in his Crown Prince military uniform and carrying a stack of documents, walked straight to the podium amidst the astonished gazes of all the members of parliament, the entire hall fell silent instantly.
He did not look around at the crowd, nor did he make any opening remarks.
He simply opened the first document and began reading it aloud in a tone devoid of any emotional fluctuation.
"Dr. Corettis reports: George Pappas, 32, a sharecropper from Amory village, has suffered comminuted fractures in both legs and is now disabled. His wife, Maria Pappas, 26, is missing. His daughter, Elena Pappas, 8, is missing..."
He read very slowly, each word like a stone crashing into the deathly silent parliament hall.
"Report from the aid team teacher Nikolaos: In the village of Megara in the Trikala region, three tenant farmers were shot dead for attempting to cross the border in search of food. The deceased are: Yannis, 41 years old; Kostas, 35 years old; Mikhail, 19 years old..."
"Karditsa Health Center Report: In the village of Sofiades, seventeen children have been registered as having starved to death within three days..."
He read them one after another.
Read about the old man who coughed himself to death in his thatched hut because he couldn't afford medical treatment.
Read about the young tenant farmer who was beaten to death while trying to protect his wife's last bit of food.
Read about those children who were so hungry they didn't even have the strength to cry, and who quietly died in their mothers' arms.
The parliament hall was deathly silent.
The members of parliament who had just been clamoring for suppression all lowered their heads, not daring to meet the Crown Prince's gaze. They seemed to smell blood and hear the groans of the dying from the plain and straightforward words.
Constantine finally finished reading the last report.
He raised his head, his gaze icy as he swept across the entire room.
"Gentlemen."
His voice wasn't loud, but it was like a warhammer, striking everyone's heart hard.
"You want me to send in the army."
He paused for a moment, emphasizing each word.
"Do you want my soldiers to point their guns at my people, who have even gnawed off the tree bark?"
The audience was silent.
Constantine's voice suddenly rose, filled with barely suppressed rage.
"No!"
"I would never fire a shot at my own starving people!"
He slammed the report he was holding onto the podium with a loud bang.
"An army that cannot protect its people is a disgrace to the nation!"
"A government that cannot feed its people is a failure of the monarchy!"
After he finished speaking, he didn't look at anyone again.
Constantine turned and strode out of the parliament hall amidst a deathly silence and the stunned gazes of all the members of parliament.