During the war years, there were two things that, once they began to fall, were even faster than meteors in the sky.

One is the monetary value;

The second is human nature;

"What do you want us to do here?!Do you want us to come out and sing and dance?!"

The woman brandished a rolling pin, her dress was torn several times and covered with dust, her thin arms looked like a piece of sticky bone, and her hands were covered with tears and calluses. The emaciated cheeks could still be seen as before, and the bloodshot eyes were full of hatred and anger. Not far away, in the slightly open crack of the door, several pairs of small eyes mixed with horror and disgust were looking this way.

The woman spat on the ground, and the hysterical voice sounded again.

"Grab me from my corpse! We have nothing left anyway! Flour, wheat, onions, chickens, geese, livestock...... There are always soldiers passing by, all of them with a virtue, and they have replaced everything with a pile of broken paper!! Now we have nothing but the paper that we can't eat or wear!!"

The emotionally uncontrollable lady burst into tears, and a small sound came from the surrounding wooden houses, which, although inaudible, was concluded by Captain Raphael, the logistic staff, was not a good word.

After much effort to calm the lady down, and looking at the silent village of Shahr, where all the doors and windows were closed, the captain sighed and turned around and left with the same dejected GIs. On the dusty country dirt road, the belly roar was particularly harsh.

The army is a continuously depleting unit that is consumed in both peacetime and wartime, with the difference being only in numbers. Wartime consumption alone cannot reflect the actual situation with the phrase "much higher than usual", and it is almost the same as "extremely terrifying". Because it is not only the need for nutrients and calories that soldiers consume a lot of physical energy in combat conditions, but also include various losses in the transportation process.

As the war dragged on, the loss of young labor and livestock into the army and military production units, coupled with the withdrawal of consortia and the naval blockade, Charlemagne was unable to obtain imported fertilizer, and food shortages became apparent every day. After the capture of the Crown of Ostoria and St. István, a large number of important agricultural areas were under Charlemagne's direct control. In order to ensure the food supply of the territory, Charlemagne looted all the food from the occupied areas and sent it into the country, and at the same time forbade soldiers and officials to give food to the people of the occupied areas, resulting in a man-made famine in the occupied areas, and a large number of hungry people died on the roadside and turned to bones. In some areas, there have even been many horrific incidents of attacking passers-by, the elderly and the weak, and snatching human flesh.

Even so, Charlemagne was unable to contain the deterioration of the food supply situation, and the Argent-Toratonon offensive launched in order to "make a last stand" gave Charlemagne's people a taste of never-ending hunger and despair – the days when the people of the occupied territories had just begun to starve.

Up to this point, there were still quite a few people who had confidence and trust in the government, believing that the difficulties were only temporary. They have the bravest army in the world, and the saint maidens who continue to create miracles and are invincible, and the final victory must belong to Charlemagne. The abundance of supplies is bound to triumph with the army clothed in the glory of victory. There will always be bread, as will coffee and salt.

It is with this vision in mind that everyone endures hunger and struggles silently at work. However, along with the victory of the left and the victory of the right, it was not the rich material rewards, but the massive gold yuan coupons and inflation.

Roland correctly predicted the possible consequences of the malicious adjustment of the exchange rate and the printing of gold yuan, but he underestimated the speed and scale of the outbreak of these evil consequences, and what he did not expect was that it was not Alfheim who contributed to the trouble, but the problem that he had ignored or was reluctant to face positively - national speculation.

It is human nature to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, and it is not difficult to support each other and share together.

When it was learned that the official exchange rate for the Jarfheimmark and the Halo was set at 1:300, Charlemagne's Halo Vouchers from all over the country immediately poured into Agen Toratone like a tsunami from various channels. In addition to purchasing materials, the vast majority of them are used to exchange foreign exchange for marks and profits.

You read that right, the patriotic people of Charlemagne exchanged their gold yuan for the spurned Alfheim mark with unparalleled bravery, and then took the mark on the black market to exchange it for goods, precious metals, or other countries' currencies - anything worth more than gold yuan.

At a time when the value of the gold yuan is constantly depreciating, this is the only way for ordinary people to ensure that their property is not lost. You know, although the Alfheimmark is theoretically uncirculatory within Charlemagne, it is extremely strong on the black market and in international trade. Even if the fall of the Iserlon Fort caused some fluctuations in the exchange rate of the mark a while ago, the market is still full of confidence in the mark with the guarantee of sufficient industrial products and precious metals. At a time when Charlemagne was severely short of supplies and the black market trade was rampant, people would do their best to collect marks as much as they could to ensure their daily necessities.

Now that people are told that there is an opportunity to exchange the Halo for marks, and that they are redeeming them at an incredible rate, it is not difficult to imagine what the hungry and destitute will do.

As a result, a large number of gold yuan coupons poured into Agen Toraton, and Agen Toraton's limited marks and supplies were swept away in a very short time, and in order to make up for the vacuum left by the one-way influx of gold yuan coupons, all the money printing machines were running at full power. More gold yuan bills flowed into the market, and at the same time, the foreign exchange reserves, precious metals and material reserves did not increase, so the depreciation of gold yuan bills accelerated, the mark and prices accelerated appreciation, and the market material became more scarce......

In this inflationary storm in which Charlemagne put the whole people into operation, the depreciation of the gold yuan is not calculated on a monthly, daily, or hourly basis, but on a minute-by-minute basis. In Lüdes, a week ago, a 100 yuan coupon could buy two eggs, the next day you could only buy one egg, on the third day you could buy one-sixth of a baguette, and on the fourth day you could buy a handful of flour...... On the seventh day, you can only buy 1.45 thousandths of a grain of wheat.

In many cities, workers, civil servants, and teachers exchange their salaries for all kinds of goods, from food, cloth, hardware, and even medicinal materials, which are worth more than gold yuan coupons anyway. After receiving the military salary, the army went straight to the black market to exchange gold and foreign currency, and then issued the military salary at the market price (directly issued gold yuan coupons, and the soldiers could eat the old men raw), and the remaining difference went directly into the pockets of officers at all levels.

In the words of a Treasury official: "Everything is traded on the black market." ”

Against this backdrop of scarce supplies and soaring prices, how can people be expected to greet the government and the military with a smile?

Not to mention, Charlemagne's army, which once fascinated countless people, has now completely transformed into a group of professional bandits in military uniforms.