45. Now read the end of the story. Answer the question: "How did the king solve (решил) his problem?"

The King's Solution:

The provided text states: "The mice chased every elephant out of the palace. But now the poor king was right back where he started (пришёл к тому, с чего он начал)! Mice! Mice! They were everywhere!"

The text implies that the king's initial attempt to deal with the mice problem, which involved chasing them with elephants, backfired. The mice, instead of being eliminated, became a more pervasive issue, and the king was left with the same problem, or worse, "Mice! Mice! They were everywhere!" The text ends with the king thinking, "What can I do?" for three long days.

Therefore, based on the provided snippet, the king did not successfully solve his problem. His attempt to use elephants to drive away the mice led to an escalation of the problem.