Mengmao City is located on the east coast of Mengmao Prefecture, with a straight-line distance of less than 600 kilometers from Silver Moon Bay, but the distance from Silver Moon Bay to Jingallan Port is three times that distance.
Although the Tasang River is rapid and its drainage basin is not as wide as the Yongliu River, it can still benefit two or three states and cover 20 to 30 million people.
It has a unique geographical advantage and is close to a group of "cat slaves" who are good at doing business. However, this settlement has never developed, which is quite confusing.
The population of Mengmao Prefecture is said to be in the tens of millions, but Mengmao City, the only settlement, has only about 800,000 people.
The reason why Golden Gallen Port was poor before was the empire's problem, but the poverty here does not seem to be the fault of the empire.
After all, the empire's control over the local area has always been in a state of a lake. Although it is nominally the territory of the empire and is home to the empire's nobles and people, because there is no road network and river transportation links, Tiandu itself often
Forgot that I still have this land.
In other words, the degree of autonomy here has always been very high, and only on rare occasions would Wu Tuo think of taking charge of it.
Regarding this phenomenon, Ms. Han Mingyue, a social science researcher of the Alliance Scientific Research Team, conducted an investigation and initially came to the conclusion that serfdom caused a part of the population to be imprisoned in noble manors, hindering the "urban development" of Mengma City.
ization” process.
Another reason is that the "infrastructure access" in Mengma Prefecture is too poor. The crops produced cannot be transported out, and the goods from outside cannot be transported in. Farmers only need to produce the food they consume, and there is no exchange of needed goods.
Necessary, and naturally there is no need to gather in cities.
The second problem cannot be solved in a day or two, but the first problem was solved by Uncle Lacy quickly.
The manors of the nobles were all located along the Tasan River. Even the embankments used for flood prevention and irrigation were built by the noble gentlemen with their own funds.
If we blow up the embankment, wouldn't the problem be solved?
Now the land in the hands of the nobles and the local army they raised have been soaked in the overflowing floods.
Even if this serf didn't want to escape from the manor, he had to join the fleeing team...
…
Outside Mengmao City.
The flood that suddenly overflowed the river not only destroyed the fence wall outside the city, but also washed away the village not far from the fence wall.
The weather has improved over the past two days, and the floods have finally receded. The villagers who had taken refuge in the mountains and forests finally returned to their homes carrying large and small bags.
When they saw the situation at home, they all fell into silence. They looked straight at the collapsed wooden house, the fence and the missing animals. For a moment, they all had no idea and didn't know what to do.
That's it.
Slowly, people seem to finally recognize the reality.
Some people began to move around, numbly walking towards their collapsed houses, trying to pack up some things that could still be used, things that had not been picked up by those who came first, at least with their families to get through today.
.
Others were wandering around, silently rummaging through the ruins, or asking everyone they met if they had seen their family members.
However, everyone knows that this is in vain.
"Mom! Dad——! Where are you?"
Next to a collapsed wooden house, a child of thirteen or fourteen stood alone, staring blankly in one direction, shouting from time to time.
His voice was weak and his throat was almost hoarse, but no one paid attention to him until a group of people with white bandages on their arms came over.
Carrying the LD-47 rifle on his back, with the shoulder strap tightly welded to his shoulders, Ackerman stopped next to the child and looked him up and down.
This kid looks a bit like him a month ago, with no father or mother, and a cowardly look on his face... He should be the person Lacy is looking for.
He didn't waste any time and asked directly.
"your name?"
The young man stared blankly at the fierce-looking guy in front of him, then at the men with guns, and subconsciously moved his lips.
"Udi."
Ackerman asked next.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm looking for my mother...she seems to have been swept away."
Udi whispered while looking at these people expectantly, hoping that they could take him to find his family.
However, to his disappointment, even despair, the child in front of him, who was about the same age as him, did not do this.
"She's gone." Ackerman took a captured Ripper rifle, put it directly into the child's hand, looked at him and asked, "Can you use it?"
The boy looked blankly at the gun in his hand, then looked at him again, with an expression of bewilderment.
Ackerman patted him on the shoulder.
"It doesn't matter if you don't know how to use it. I'll teach you. Now you are my soldier."
"But... I have to wait for my mother to come back." Udi took a step back with some fear, but his shoulder was pulled.
"I told you, she is gone, as well as your father, your brothers and sisters. If they were still alive, would they leave you here?"
Looking at the child who fell silent, Ackerman squeezed his shoulder tightly, and then released his hand on his shoulder.
"Everyone will experience this day. I have experienced what you have experienced, until a man grabbed me by the collar and told me that as long as the empire still rules here, what I have experienced will happen again and again, around me
All of us will go through this again and again unless we put those nobles to the gallows and kill every one of our enslavers."
"...It's the Empire." The boy muttered silently, his breathing gradually became rapid, his eyes turned red, and he held the Ripper rifle tightly in his hand.
Looking at the young man holding back his tears, Ackerman patted the back of his head appreciatively and pulled him to his side.
"Yes, follow me."
…
The villagers outside Mengma City didn't know what happened, and the survivors inside Mengma City also didn't know what happened.
Most people just yawned before they heard someone shouting "The water is coming!" and then the flood came over.
The first thing to be washed away was the fence wall outside the settlement.
That thing was only used to ward off wild boars, wolves and crocodiles, and was of no use against the roar of the Tasang River.
The next most unlucky ones are the messy shacks in the city and the brick houses built directly on the mud. The former were washed away when the first wave of floods came, while the latter were forcibly destroyed by the river water that flooded the streets.
Soaked up.
In addition to the nobles with good financial strength, only the church of Silver Moon Church and the houses where some merchants of Silver Moon Bay survived.
Due to the habits they developed while living in Luoxia Province, they are used to burying foundations under buildings so that they can sleep safely.
However, seeing that the whole city was flooded, only one of them was not affected. The merchants from Silver Moon Bay did not dare to stay here any longer. They packed up their belongings and boarded the boats and ran away. Only the missionaries who were not afraid of death stubbornly stayed.
Didn't leave in the church.
The first thing Lacy did after entering the city was to send a company to the church next to the fishing boat dock to protect the clergy there.
It's not that he believes in such nonsense as "the Moon Goddess of the Yue Clan and the Silver Moon Goddess of the Silver Moon Church come from the same sect", it's purely because the development of Mengma Prefecture requires those wealthy magicians.
Regardless of whether he believes in that stuff or not, at least he has to act like he respects the other person's beliefs.
As for himself, he led his people to directly occupy the city lord's palace in Mengma City and used it as the headquarters of the resistance army. At the same time, he arranged for the resistance army's men to lead people to provide disaster relief, and at the same time he directed his followers to attack the wealthy gentry and nobles in the city.
"Please" come over.
Sitting on the city lord's chair, Lacy looked down at the group of trembling dignitaries with their heads lowered and shivering with a hint of contempt in his eyes, his military boots raised on his knees.
"I don't care what titles you had on your heads in the past. From today on, if anyone dares to put any noble lord's name in front of me, I will chop off his head with the title on it!"
Everyone was silent, feeling like they were standing at the entrance to hell, with two-headed dogs watching on both sides. They didn't dare to say a word, and their knees were weak but they didn't dare to kneel down.
Seeing no one objected, Lacy cleared her throat and continued.
"I came here to do three things, but you only need to know one thing."
"From now on, slaves are prohibited in Mengma Prefecture. Anyone who dares to keep a slave will have his head moved somewhere else!"
The sound was neither light nor heavy, but it reverberated in the ears of all the nobles present like thunder.
Looking at the silent City Lord's Mansion, Lacy narrowed her eyes slightly when she saw that no one responded, and suddenly yelled at a higher volume.
"Did you hear that? Speak!"
Startled by the sound, all the nobles could no longer hold back the fear in their hearts and fell to the ground with a thump.
"Yes, yes! Sir!"
"I, I, I will go back and free the slaves at home!"
"We don't dare anymore!"
"We... don't want to embarrass the people of the Yue clan... It's all His Majesty... Bah! It's all the orders given by the witch, and we have no choice..."
After all, the Yue Clan are nobles of the previous dynasty. Although not everyone is a noble, the overall living standard is still much higher than that of snakes, rats, insects, and birds, and the proportion of educated people is not low, so there are many well-educated people.
Handsome men and beautiful women.
Because of His Majesty's order, all Yue people throughout the empire were reduced to slaves, and they did take advantage of the situation to collect some "beautiful canaries" and keep them in their houses as playthings.
Even if you want to, you can't wash away these things. You can just ask someone in the city.
Lacy looked down at them and said with a sneer.
"I am not talking about people from the Yue tribe. Slaves from other tribes are not allowed. From today on, Mengmao Prefecture will talk about equality!"
At this point, he didn't care how blank the faces of the kneeling nobles were, and just continued slowly.
"Besides, I said you are not allowed to kneel."
After saying that, he waved his hand.
"Drag them out and give each person ten lashes before leaving."
"yes!"
The guards standing aside received the order, with fierce gleams in their eyes, strode forward, and dragged the nobles who were lying on the ground to the yard like chickens.
They have long wanted to take action.
If it wasn't for discipline, how could they allow these lackeys of the empire to walk into this mansion standing up.
One by one, they took the whip and used all their strength.
The screams of the nobles and the sound of whips echoed one after another in the empty courtyard, and the ground was dripping with blood.
Looking at the nobles being whipped, although the elders of the Resistance Army felt something was wrong in their hearts, they did not say anything in the end due to Lacy's majesty.
Although Narashi said that equality should be emphasized, this forced equality is somewhat different from the equality they imagined.
They always feel that there can be a better way, just like what the alliance did in Jingallang Port, using a gentler method to promote changes in Mengma City.
But it's useless to think about anything now.
The number of resistance troops is no longer the two thousand as they were earlier, but is now expected to number tens of thousands.
That guy's prestige in the military is getting higher and higher, and almost all young guys regard him as a spiritual leader and role model.
Even if they wanted to replace him, they wouldn't have the chance...
…
"Wow——"
Governor Bamut, who was in a coma, was awakened by a basin of cold water.
When he raised his wet head, he found that General Dasina and other officers had disappeared, replaced by an officer full of gangster spirit and several teenagers with wolf-like eyes.
The sight that seemed to be capable of killing people caused cold sweat to break out on his forehead for a moment, and he woke up with a jolt.
Memories like a lake of jelly gradually poured into his mind. He vaguely remembered that when the flood came over, he hugged a crooked tree tightly, kicked the guard holding his thigh unconscious, and wrapped his sleeves around the branches.
Then he soaked in the muddy river water, and soon passed out.
Later, a raft came close to him, and several guys with white bandages on their arms grabbed his arms and pulled him up.
Then he lost consciousness.
As for the current situation, there is no need to ask more. Judging from the environment here, it is obviously a prison cell in Mengma City.
Obviously, he was captured.
"Ahem, I will pay the ransom..." Before he had time to reflect on how he lost, Bamut coughed and said quickly, "According to the sacred contract, you need to guarantee my three meals a day and personal safety.
If you are violated, of course, I will cooperate with you as much as possible..."
The young men smiled when they heard this, and their amused looks clearly meant that they didn't take his words seriously.
A trace of anger flashed in Bamut's eyes, but he didn't dare to lash out with his clenched fists. He just stared at the officer sternly and inwardly, trying to scare him away with the majesty of a noble, but he didn't expect to receive a slap on the face.
The slap stunned him, and his eyes widened even more.
"You! How dare you hit me——"
"Say!" the officer suddenly yelled, interrupting him in mid-sentence.
Startled by the voice, Bamut's tone softened unconsciously. He suddenly lost his aristocratic airs and shrank like a mouse.
"Say, what did you say?"
However, the officer didn't ask, he just stared at him for a while, then smiled coldly and said slowly.
"You dare to be so stubborn, give me a beating!"
Bamut: "???"
Before he could recover from what had happened, Bamut heard a "swish" sound in the air, followed by a whip on his face.
The whip was probably soaked in salt water, and it made him scream in pain. He regained consciousness not long after, and almost lost his breath from the pain. He wanted to use his arms to protect his head, but found that his hands were tied to the back of the chair behind his back.
, twitched for a long time and couldn't move at all.
Having been a master all his life, he has only whipped people with a whip, but when he was whipped, that quick greeting made his tears flow out together with his yellow ones, and he kept begging for mercy, looking so cowardly.
However, those soldiers didn't care about his title at all, they just waved the things in their hands to him.
"I...I said..."
Hearing the weak voice, the officer raised his hand, and the young man holding the whip stopped what he was doing and stared at Bamut standing aside with a fierce look.
The dying Governor Bamut lowered his head, panted for a while, and weakly squeezed out a sentence from his mouth.
"Wait a minute, do you... know who I am..."
Everyone looked at each other after hearing this, with mocking expressions on their faces.
When did this happen?
This guy is still dreaming.
The officer was also amused by this senseless remark, walked up to him, held his chin, lifted it up, and smiled kindly at him.
However, in Bamut's eyes, the smile was not friendly at all, and even looked like an evil ghost. He was so frightened that he swallowed the words on his lips and no longer dared to say a word.
"Who are you? Oh, don't say you're just a duke. Even if Wutuo himself comes here, I can make him look like a dog, making him unable to live or die."
Hearing these disrespectful words, Bamut's eyes widened, and the whites of his eyes were covered with bloodshot eyes, but there was no trace of anger, only deep fear.
At this moment, he finally truly understood the situation in front of him and understood his situation.
This group of Yue people had no intention of asking for any ransom, let alone cared about it. They just wanted to get back the suffering they had suffered from him, a noble of the empire.
Now he only regrets why he didn't act cruelly before.
So much so that the Yue Clan people fled to the edge of the Tasang River and blew up the dam there.
This not only suffered for himself, but also for the affected manors along the river.
Mengma Prefecture was already poor, and now it is so poor that it even has no food...
The officer didn't talk nonsense to him. He saw that he woke up and spoke.
"I'm asking you, all you have to do is say yes,"
"Yes..." Bamut said on the verge of death, not daring to show any disobedience.
The officer continued.
"Did you blow up the embankments of the Tasang River?"
Just as the word "Yes" was about to come out of his mouth, Bamut suddenly came back to his senses with a cold sweat and said quickly.
"No, no... Sir, how could it be me -"
The officer raised his hand to interrupt him and just looked at him coldly.
"What did I just say?"
The look in his eyes made Bamut feel as if he had fallen into an ice cave, and he forgot to breathe for a moment.
"It seems you still don't have a long memory. I'll come back and say hello to you later."
The officer laughed, stood up from his chair, waved to the young soldiers with sharp eyes next to him, and said one clean sentence.
"Don't kill me."
The soldiers' eyes flashed with fierceness, and they answered sonorously and forcefully.
"yes!"
…
The door to the cell was slammed shut, but the finger-thick door panel still couldn't stop the miserable wail.
The officer didn't listen and walked outside expressionlessly. He looked at Lacy standing at the door of the prison and gave a military salute.
Looking at his confidant walking towards him, Lacy returned a military salute and asked casually.
"How's the situation?"
This man's name is Shava, and he is the leader of the stormtroopers he appointed.
The so-called stormtroopers are another unit that directly serves him in addition to the personal guards.
And it is a combat force, mainly performing some special operations missions.
For example, infiltration, sabotage, assassination of enemy important personnel, purge of enemies within the team, etc.
Most of the members of this unit are young men aged 15 or above but under 19, especially young men from the Yue tribe.
Most of them were born as slaves, without fathers or mothers, and were absolutely loyal to Lacy himself.
And Lacy did not treat them badly. They were not only equipped with LD-47 assault rifles produced by the alliance, but also equipped with a small amount of bulletproof breastplates and even exoskeletons, and were trained by him as reserve grassroots officers.
The reason for establishing such a force is that on the one hand, the Yue Clan Resistance Army does have a need in this regard, and on the other hand, it follows the example of the alliance managers.
Most people in Golden Gallon Port are learning things from the Alliance, whether consciously or unconsciously, including himself.
When he was still serving as the leader of the militia, he heard that the administrators of the alliance had a regiment of guards. From then on, he was thinking about setting up such a force.
Now that he has resigned and gone to the guerrillas, with the opportunity to flex his muscles, he finally has the opportunity to put all his thoughts into action.
A ghost-like force can form a powerful deterrent to both enemies and internal dissenters.
Although this stormtrooper has only one battalion, its firepower configuration is not inferior to that of the empire's thousand-man team. It was their work that blew up the embankment of the Tasan River before.
However, it is certainly impossible for them to drink this dirty water by themselves.
From the beginning, he had planned to pinch the noses of the imperial nobles and pour this bucket of dirty water into their stomachs.
"...There is no move yet, but it should be soon." Hearing the boss's inquiry, Shawar grinned, with a disdainful expression on his face, "The nobles of the empire are all soft-footed shrimps, and the bigger the nobles, the more so.
, I just touched his face and he peed all over his pants."
What a coward.
He was once hung at the entrance of the Lowell camp for three days and three nights. He was so exposed that he could only breathe without begging for mercy.
When he followed Lacy in conquering Camp Rowell, he personally hanged the warden on Tower Road to avenge the guy's destruction of his family.
He still remembered that Lacy pointed at the warden hanging on the tower and said that one day he would hang all the nobles of the empire.
From that moment on, Shava decided to follow the man in front of him.
Whether they are Japanese nobles or Mengma nobles, they are all nobles of the empire.
Their persecution of the Moon Clan is the same, and there are many slaves of the Moon Clan in their manors.
In their eyes, the Yue people were like animals in a sheepfold, so naturally he and this group of nobles had nothing to be polite about.
What's more, compared to the hardships he suffered at Camp Rowell, a few severe beatings were simply too merciful for the nobles of the empire.
Lacy nodded expressionlessly and then asked.
"Has Darcyna been found?"
That guy is the commander-in-chief of the Mengmanzhou local army.
Originally, they planned to put a hat on that guy's head, but they didn't expect that he slipped away very quickly. They didn't know whether he was washed away by the flood or disappeared, but they didn't catch him.
It's a bit far-fetched to let Bamut take the blame. After all, that guy is a big noble himself and has a lot of land by the Tasang River.
In comparison, it is much more reasonable to let Darcyna do this——
[An incompetent general misjudged the rapidity of the Tasang River and blew up the river embankment in order to drown the Yue people who were forced to the river. As a result, his cleverness was mistaken and he was killed. 】
This story is at least logically coherent.
Shava shook his head.
"Not yet, but that guy shouldn't be able to run far. His organization has been broken up."
Although it was a troublesome thing not to find it, Lacy didn't pay too much attention to it and just gave a brief and concise instruction.
"Keep looking."
After a pause, he continued.
"In addition, send a letter to the Assassin Gang and the Federation. First, tell them about the establishment of the new authority in Mengma Prefecture, and inform them of the good news of our victory. Then we will mention the disaster and lower it.
We asked them if they had any surplus food. If you could help us, the residents of Mengma Prefecture would be very grateful."
Those people will definitely help.
He can be sure.
"Yes!" Shawar looked solemn, stood at attention and gave a military salute, then turned and left.
Watching his confidants leave, Lacy walked in the other direction, leading a group of personal guards beside him out of the prison in Mengma City.
Bamut is just an explanation to the local survivors. You can give it at any time, there is no rush at this moment.
The most urgent task now is to form a new authority.
Otherwise, as the officers of the Menghu Army laughed openly and secretly, grassroots bandits will always be grassroots bandits and will never become a climate change.
This flood, a magnitude that no one expected, provided him with an excellent opportunity.
When he entered the city in the name of disaster relief, he took control of Mengma City with almost no effort.
From the local squires and ruffians to the wealthy businessmen and even the aristocrats who had been whipped, no one did not cooperate with him. They responded to the call of the resistance army, dismissed the slaves at home, and firmly supported the new authorities.
all decisions.
On the one hand, because the disaster was so severe, they really couldn't afford to feed those slaves.
The other reason is because all of them know that a large team of refugees, like locusts, is coming towards them.
Among them were serfs who had escaped from the nobles' estates, as well as free people who had lost their homes.
No matter what identity these guys had before, they are all hungry people. These people are far more terrifying than a group of resistance soldiers who look like bandits.
The few servants they have at home cannot stop these people. If there is no strong army to protect Mengma City, they will be eaten by the refugees in minutes without even leaving their bones.
Bamut and his local army are finished. They have no choice but to offer their loyalty to the new master and must hug the new master's lap tightly.
Lacy was certain that even if he robbed the entire city, no one would dare to say no.
However, of course he would not do such a thankless and stupid thing.
Although Mengma City has the word "city" in it, it is as poor as a large rural area. Even the families of big nobles don't have much money and wealth. It is not comparable to Jingallang Port where there is a Kraba Market.
Even if he robs, he won't be able to grab much, but it will affect the Federation's evaluation of him. What's more, this is his territory now, so how can there be any reason for him to rob himself?
He will do three things here next.
The first is the abolition of slavery!
Only by abolishing slavery can we implement compulsory education and liberate the productivity of Mengma Prefecture!
The other is to take advantage of the defeat of Bamut and the unprecedented decline of the local nobles who supported the empire to seize the land they have accumulated!
Thanks to the flood, both of these things were easy to do.
The manors of the nobles were basically close to the river, and the most fertile land had long been enclosed by them.
Nowadays, these manors are also the most severely affected. The serfs who could not escape have basically drowned in them, and the price of the land has been reduced to worthless. The new authorities can easily take over the land with just a little pressure.
In your hands, you don’t even need to bleed too much.
Part of this land can be used to build large farms operated by the authorities themselves, and the remaining part can be distributed to farmers and soldiers.
As for the last thing, it is the most important of the three things he has to do.
Mengma Prefecture is an agricultural province. It is impossible to grow bullets and rifles from the ground. If you want to get rid of poverty, you must develop industry, and if you want to develop industry, you must first have foreign exchange.
He carefully read every "Daily Survivor". Although he didn't have a systematic understanding of how to develop industry, he at least had a concept of a model lake.
The industrial take-off of Golden Gallen Port was largely due to the inheritance of backward production capacities eliminated by the alliance, and the use of its own population and raw material cost advantages to give these backward production capacities a second spring in the land of Borneo Province, and later caught up with the industry.
The tide of the times for the Clay Community to establish a new order in the wasteland.
Although Mengmazhou started a little late, it is not completely without opportunities.
Coinciding with the end of the civil war in the southern seas, the northern islands are in dire straits and are waiting for reconstruction. The huge infrastructure market and huge labor gap form a sharp contrast.
It is said that the local engineering unit gave us silver coins!
There are 800,000 people in Mengma City and tens of millions of people in the entire Mengma Prefecture. What he needs most at the moment is people, especially the poor who cannot survive.
Although the slave trade was banned, a certain gangster with no reputation had set a good example for him with practical actions.
There are many ways to make money from people.
In addition to "labor agencies", there is also the method of "labor dispatch"...