September, and it was now autumn, but Kuri still looked like summer. Thankfully, Kuri's summer wasn't unbearably hot, and it was currently the season when the rice was ripening.
A large number of Tenryubito's men had to come to harvest the rice, as it was all official land, and everything harvested would belong to the daimyo's treasury.
Kuri had only been stable for about a year, but they had already stored up a great deal of grain. After this rice harvest, these fields would either be left to rest for a while, allowing cattle and sheep to be moved over to serve as pastures, or they would be planted with other crops.
This time, when Ren left, he brought back many seeds from the outside world. Many of them were very suitable for planting in an environment like Kuri's, and he had also purchased crops that could grow in the environment of Onigashima, as well as crops that could grow on barren land.
The daimyo on the other side of Ringo would surely be very interested in these seeds.
However, these seeds couldn't be sent out now. It would do nothing to help Kurotsu Ourochi's plans.
Ren didn't intend to rule this country by force. When the people of this country discovered that the people of Kuri lived a prosperous and peaceful life under his rule, they would yearn for Kuri.
In this way, after he became the master of this country, everyone would support him.
And in reality, he could indeed allow the people of this country to live a better life. He had been at sea for only a little over two months, but he had brought back many foreign seeds and items, which could all improve the lives of the people of Kuri to some extent.
But after going out to sea, Oden had gone through so many adventures, yet he returned with empty hands. He had reached Laugh Tale, seen the prophecy left by the people eight hundred years ago, and knew that this world would face great changes, that everything was magnificent and lofty, but he deliberately turned a blind eye to the suffering of the people.
More advanced overseas productivity, excellent crop seeds, medical knowledge... these could all develop the Wano Country's economy and could save many people from hunger and disease, but he brought nothing back.
From the very beginning, Oden wasn't a qualified ruler. After he built Kuri, Kuri's finances were always in deficit, and he had no idea how to make up for it.
If it weren't for the Shimotsuki Yasuie family, the Kuri he had built would have long been finished. Later, Kuri was also maintained by the Nine Red Scabbards.
Having learned a lot from the Yasuie family, the Nine Red Scabbards at that time were already quite competent, able to handle most matters, large and small, so that after he left the country, Kuri didn't change much.
If it weren't for Kaido, Kuri could have continued to be maintained. After Kaido came to this country, Kuri's situation became very bad, but Oden didn't change the situation at all after he returned.
There was simply no difference to this country whether he was here or not. In Ren's view, Oden was truly a joke; he simply could not live up to the country's expectations of him.
The Kozuki family in this country was actually no different from the Celestial Dragons. Although it was not shown much in the anime, his past deeds showed their transcendent status.
Things like forcibly snatching common women were nothing to this family; it had even become a legendary tale of heroism. This was something Ren could not understand.
If he were in power, Oden's past actions would have been enough to have him executed more than ten times over. Ren stretched and picked up a newspaper from beside his desk.
There were newspapers within Wano Country itself, and news from many other villages would spread through them. Kuri's prosperity was also spreading through these newspapers, and the residents of other villages yearned greatly for Kuri's affluent life.
However, it had become very difficult to move into Kuri.
The newspaper Ren was looking at now was not an internal Wano Country newspaper, but an overseas one. News birds couldn't fly into the airspace of Wano Country.
In the past, if Ren wanted to know what was happening overseas, he could only wait for messages from Kurotsu Boa. But there were too many big and small events in the outside world, and Kurotsu Boa could only pick out what she considered major events to report via Den Den Mushi.
Now that he had Shiyaru, it was much more convenient. He just had to have someone wait in the open sea outside Wano Country from time to time, and then have Shiyaru go and pick up the items.
It wasn't just newspapers; when the quantity of goods was small, she could also temporarily serve as a transport vessel.
"Rocks D. Xebec is having friction with the Marine again?" Ren looked at the newspaper.
Recently, it seemed that the conflict between Rocks and the Marine, and the World Government, had become increasingly intense. However, the historically significant battle of God Valley, which involved multiple forces, was next year, so a degree of friction like this was normal.
Ren didn't know that he had also added a lot of fuel to the fire between the two sides. The people like Jack who were arrested by Zephyr were vassals under Big Mom, and having their subordinates captured by the Marine was a disgrace to Big Mom.
Starting from a small Nightfire Pirates, the conflict had constantly escalated, to the point where the smell of war was now faintly present.
However, this matter could at most be considered a fuse. Rocks' ambition to overthrow the world was the irreconcilable conflict between him and the World Government.
Now, everyone in the sea could feel a tense atmosphere, to the point that Kurotsu Boa was considering whether to come back temporarily to avoid the storm. Developing forces at a time like this was a bit conspicuous, but on the other hand, it was also a good opportunity to muddy the waters and fish in troubled times.
However, amidst this environment, besides Wano Country, which seemed to be outside the world, there was also a group of people who seemed completely unaffected by the current atmosphere of the sea. This group was the Roger Pirates, led by Gol D.
Roger.
A few months ago, Roger and his crew arrived at Reverse Mountain. In the common sense, people thought this was the end of the Grand Line, but Roger didn't think so.
After arriving at Reverse Mountain, the chaotic pointer made him believe there was another unknown island, and it was the existence of this island that caused the magnetic field to become disordered. But as for how to find this island, he had no clue at all.
It was as if a normal compass would lose its effect and start spinning wildly after entering the Grand Line, and the Log Pose in his hand had now become the same situation. It was as if it had completely失效.
"It seems we can't rely on this Log Pose to continue our journey," Roger said with a smile. He had been徘徊 around Reverse Island for some time, trying to find the right direction, but had found nothing.
However, he wasn't completely without gains; at least he had a clue.
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