The raging flames climbed up to the wooden eaves, illuminating the dazed and stunned faces.
The rising black smoke was like a homeless ghost, and the crackling cry stood out in the silence of the crowd.
This is the southwest corner of Mengmao Prefecture, a small village called "Stone Village"...or it used to be called this name.
Most of the people who live here are free citizens of the empire.
However, the empire is the opposite of other areas in the wasteland, and the free people here are not something to be proud of.
Since most of the fertile land along the rivers was in the hands of the nobles, most free people lived in poverty even if they had land to farm.
If the average serf had to eat red soil six times a week, then the free people might have to eat seven or eight times a week, basically maintaining a state of half-death.
Of course, except for those who can survive in settlements or near settlements.
The same goes for Stone Village. Since it is far away from the Tasang River and there are no small rivers or lakes nearby, the land is not easy to cultivate. Most of the villagers rely on the lake for food and clothing.
These guys who live like weeds really can't get much profit out of them, and the empire generally doesn't bother to pay attention to them. Apart from collecting taxes, they usually just let them fend for themselves.
Of course, the tolerance of this gift is limited to ordinary times.
Walking five or six miles south from Shitou Village, you can see the boundary monument of Mazhou. However, it was only five or six miles away that the fire of "Strong Walls and Clear Fields" burned here...
At the entrance of Stone Village, an old man over fifty sat slumped on the ground, looking up at the tall centurion, crying with snot and tears.
"Sir, we have lived here for many years, and you burned this place down. Where do we live..."
The centurion looked at him expressionlessly and said coldly.
"Next door is Mazhou, and further south is Huzhou. It has legs on you. As long as you don't go north, you can go wherever you like."
The old man begged and said.
"But...how can we live without land?"
"How to live?" the centurion sneered, looking down at the old man lying on the ground, and said in a sarcastic tone, "Can't you just find a manor and sell yourself... don't cry so much, you old man
Things are getting old and it’s time to put them into the ground.”
Seeing the old man looking at him blankly, the centurion thought that he was indeed not very particular about what he said, so he softened his tone slightly and said.
"Okay, there are bandits here. It's for your own good to let you go. Don't be so ungrateful. I'll give you time to pack your things. Get out as soon as nothing happens."
"Bandit trouble?! But, those Yue tribe people didn't care about us..."
Seeing the centurion taking steps to leave, the stunned old man suddenly became anxious. For a moment, he kept talking, but he forgot the identity of the military master in front of him, and what the Yue people meant to the empire.
What.
When the centurion heard this, he stopped and looked at the old man up and down with squinted eyes, his eyes slightly unkind.
"Have they been here?"
Not only was the centurion squinting at the old man, but the soldiers on the side also put their hands on the Ripper rifle.
Sensing something was wrong in the atmosphere, the old man was frightened and stammered for a moment.
"I……"
The centurion stared at him.
"Why not send word to a nearby outpost?"
"Wha, what outpost?"
Big beads of sweat oozed from the old man's forehead. Before he could explain, the centurion waved his hand to the soldier next to him.
"Take it back for trial."
The two soldiers strode forward, grabbed the old man by one shoulder each, ignored the latter's screams like a slaughtered pig, and carried him to the cart like an animal.
The young men in the village wanted to go up and stop them, but they were so stared at by the murderous gaze that they did not dare to move forward. They could only watch helplessly as the elders in the village were taken away...
Similar scenes not only happened in Stone Village, but also happened in other places.
Even worse.
More than 50,000 gray wolf troops marched into Mengmo Prefecture occupied by the rebels with great momentum, and they made plans from top to bottom to avenge their past humiliation.
While Alaiyan sent out scouts to detect the movements of the resistance forces, he steadily opened up the front line and at the same time sent small groups of troops along the border to advance his strategy of fortifying the wall and clearing the country.
The old man who was suspected of having contact with the Resistance Army was not the only one who was taken away.
There were also men, women, children, and animals kept in the barns who had no idea what was going on.
These imperial soldiers didn't even let go of the eggs laid by the hens.
Of course, not all villages are so docile and obedient. After all, given the ecological conditions in Borneo, it will take some skills to withstand the land annexation by the nobles.
Some indignant young men brought out dung forks, bows and arrows, blunderbuss and even cannons, trying to fight against the empire's gray wolf army.
However, their righteous indignation not only failed to scare away the gray wolves of the empire, but instead brought death to themselves and their families.
Although the Gray Wolf Army was almost drowned by the Alliance into the Eternal River when they were outside the city of Golden Gallen Port, it was not a problem for them to deal with a group of poorly clothed poor people. It was just a charge, and all the soldiers
Then he killed this group of weeds that didn't know the height of the sky and the heights of the sky, and the blood flowed like a river.
And once the bayonet sees red, things will not end so easily.
What's more, today's Gray Wolf Army has been riddled with holes by the Tiger Army and Black Panther Army. Both their fighting will and discipline are far inferior to half a year ago... Although they were not much better half a year ago.
Already.
After venting their fury on the weaklings who survived, a group of gray wolves who had had enough fun lifted up their pants, rewarded the "captives", threw their heads onto the cart, and took them back to the camp as the heads of rebels.
Go take the credit.
Just on the hundreds of kilometers of state border between Mengma Prefecture and Mazhou, the burning flames were like a long winding snake, devouring one village after another.
The behavior was like a wild beast, just like the wolves crying and ghosts howling on the Shifeng Mountain.
Not even more generous...
"...These beasts!"
At the edge of the dark forest, Ackerman stared at the soldiers leaving the ruins, with blazing anger in his eyes.
When the long-haired woman was dragged into the cowshed, he thought of his mother...
The same goes for the soldiers who followed him. Everyone was clutching the rifles in their hands, eager to rush forward and devour the centurion alive.
Especially the young man named Udi, if his companions hadn't pulled him along, he might have already rushed forward.
"There are too many of them... We only have ten people, so we are no match for them."
After taking a deep breath to calm down, Ackerman said in a deep voice.
"Lasi told us that if we want to defeat opponents who are much stronger than us, we must not only have the courage to fight without fear of death, but also learn to use our brains."
A tall boy with freckles looked at him and asked in a low voice.
"what should we do?"
"You take Udi with you, and you, you..."
Ackerman counted out five local recruits and handed them to the veteran who had fought all the way from Huzhou. He lowered his voice and continued to instruct, "Go north and tell the villagers what is going on here, and tell the people from the empire to come."
If you don't want to die, kill anyone you see. If you don't want to die, run north."
"It's no use even if they go there," Udi interjected and whispered, "It's all flooded there..."
"It's only temporarily flooded. The flood season has passed and winter will soon come... When spring comes, the flooded land will be the most fertile. Lord Lacy will allocate the nobles' land to them for planting." Ackerman said.
Said without hesitation.
The land along the Tasang River that originally belonged to the nobles has been annexed and can be used to resettle these displaced villagers once the flood season is over.
Those lands are far more fertile than here, and Lacy said he would allocate some to the locals. Mengma Prefecture is now the territory of the resistance army, and they must manage this land well.
When they heard about the land division, the eyes of the two young men lit up, including Udi.
His village is outside Mengma City, and it is the territory of the nobles. His parents have farmed land for the nobles all their lives, and they do not have any land of their own. Now, someone is willing to give them the nobles' manors and plantations.
, they were so excited that they wanted to cheer.
Only a few veterans from Huzhou looked at their innocent appearance and smiled.
Farming?
There's no way out of that thing.
They have suffered enough from the hardships of farming in the mountains and valleys of Huzhou. They can only live a good life while carrying guns.
The freckled face frowned slightly, looked at Ackerman and asked.
"Why do those villagers believe us?"
"Go there and pick up some things to take to them. It's up to them whether they believe it or not. We only save what we can."
Ackerman pointed to the ruins of the village not far away, motioning for him to go there to pick up some physical evidence, and then continued in a lowered voice.
"It should be these villages today. The gray wolves don't dare to walk at night, but it's hard to say after dawn. You'd better move faster and finish everything before dawn... Remember, you have to
All villages within half a day’s walk have been notified!”
The six young men nodded solemnly, got into the bushes on the side and carefully moved towards the village, and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
As for Ackerman, he took the remaining three people and followed the retreating Hundreds of Gray Wolf Army in an attempt to find their "regiment headquarters."
If you're lucky, you might be able to find a chance to fuck them a few times!
At the same time, on the other side, at the headquarters of the Gray Wolf Army, General Alaya looked at the sand table expressionlessly, his thoughts drifting away unconsciously along with the chess pieces on the sand table.
I still remember that at the beginning of the year, he was still the God of War revered by thousands of people.
In just six months, those who admired him regarded him as a disgrace to the empire and stepped hard into the sewer.
How high those people praised him at the time, how hard they threw him down later. But it was precisely because of that incident that he completely woke up——
These thugs don't deserve his sympathy.
He shouldn't treat them as humans, even though he didn't care much about them before.
To this day, he still will not forget the injustice he suffered in the Port of Golden Gallen. Those poor people who lived inside and outside killed his scouts for a few silver coins, sold his information, and deliberately used the trench as a tomb.
He dug so hard that his soldiers couldn't even reach out of the trench with their hands raised above their heads.
There are also reed marshes by the Everliu River.
Those guys would rather be shot and drowned than be dogs of the Alliance, but they refuse to stay in the empire and be good people.
He knows better than anyone else that if he gives an order to a strong and clear country, the people below him will definitely use "their own methods" to do whatever they want.
But so what?
Rather than leaving this bunch of pigs to hold back on the front lines, intentionally causing harm and doing a disservice, it would be better to use their blood to scare those who dare to oppose the empire.
At this time, the officer in charge of clearing the country walked into the tent, looked at General Alaya standing in front of the map, saluted respectfully, and reported.
"Sir, 80% of the Moon Clan resistance forces have been here."
"They will definitely come, there's nothing surprising about it. In a moment, you can check who has relatives in the Resistance Army, whether they are distant relatives or close relatives. Take them out and form a separate team. I will keep them for use."
Staring at Mengma City on the map, Alaya continued expressionlessly.
"That Lacy is an officer trained by the Alliance, and the people who left Golden Gallen Port with him were also trained by the Alliance. What these people are best at is intersecting, infiltrating, breaking them into parts, and using less to defeat more... In Luoxia Xing
When we were in the province and the valley, those people relied on these tricks to make the people of Willant suffer a lot."
The officer's expression condensed and he whispered.
"If that's the case, I'm afraid this battle won't be easy."
"I'm afraid?" Alai laughed cheerfully, curled his lips and continued, "Don't expect a quick victory. It will take at least three or four months to completely wipe them out. If they want to fight guerrillas, let them fight.
, let’s set up our formation——”
Before he could finish his words, there was an explosion in the distance.
The two people in the tent were stunned. Alaya's expression changed first, and he hurried out of the tent and looked in the direction from which the voice came.
The officer followed him out of the camp, and then heard the second explosion from afar.
His face changed slightly, and the officer said tremblingly.
"155mm!"
Alliance's 155!
The impression left by that thing on him was so unforgettable that he would never forget the buzzing feeling in his head.
"You don't need to talk nonsense..." Alaya cursed, took off the walkie-talkie hanging on his shoulder and started yelling.
The first few rounds of artillery shells were just "school firing"!
There must be guerrilla scouts and communication radios near the troops being shelled, reporting the impact points of the bombs!
The fact is exactly what Alaya thought.
Soon the boiling sound of artillery exploded on the position of the 7000th Regiment of the 10000th Regiment, giving the Gray Wolf Army a blow to the head that had originally had high morale.
Because the anti-artillery fortifications were not dug in place, the entire thousand-man team suffered heavy casualties. Only 60% of them escaped from the position and were rescued by the 6,000-man team who came for reinforcements.
The first confrontation between the Gray Wolf Army and the Moon Clan Resistance Army ended with the latter's small victory, but the victory or defeat of just one battle was not enough to reverse the latter's disadvantage.
The military strength gap between the two sides is still huge.
Alaya has fifty thousand troops at his disposal, and they are an elite division equipped with Valantian equipment. Their chief instructor is the famous general of the Eastern Army, McClun.
As for Lashi, although he relied on the trick of "flooding the army" to destroy the Mengmazhou local army, allowing the resistance army to face the Gray Wolf Army's attack intact, but even so, what his men could use
The total number of troops is just over 20,000, and more than half of them are new recruits.
Although the residents of Golden Gallon Port and even Fries Port donated tens of millions of silver coins to the Yue Clan Resistance Army, if the latter cannot win on the battlefield, all ideals will ultimately be empty talk...
…
In the waiting hall of the passenger terminal in Jingallan Port, Qian Duo from Shuguang City was flipping through the "Survivor Daily" in his hand with great interest.
The Survivor Daily here is completely different from the one in Dawn City. It mainly reports on news that is of interest to the locals. As for the war situation in the Seashore Province and the matters in the River Valley Province, it only mentions a few things.
As for today.
Almost all newspapers in Jingallang Port focused on the front line in Mengma Prefecture.
【...There are all witnesses and evidence! Shameless executioner Alaya!】
[Roger, Secretary-General of the Golden Gallen Port Federation, strongly condemned the barbaric acts of the Imperial Gray Wolf Army, and one hundred thousand survivors held up placards to protest against the authorities’ deportation of prisoners of war!]
[Yodu, the Secretary-General of the Governor General who has always refused to express opinions on empire-related affairs, made a rare speech and denounced the crimes of the empire, "It is not just Stone Village that has suffered tragedies, there are countless more places that we cannot see!"]
[A Chinese teacher who did not want to be named and came from the southern sea expressed shock in an interview: "Shame! I will write to my relatives and friends on the round island, and I will go to the representative meeting to petition! The survivors of the southern sea are absolutely
Don’t cooperate with cannibals!”]
"More than a hundred villages were burned down, hundreds of thousands of survivors were expelled, and countless people died during the migration... Tsk, tsk, these Xilan people are quite cruel to their own people."
Looking at the shocking photo, Qian Duo couldn't help but click his tongue, but he just clicked his tongue and turned to a new page.
Mengma Prefecture is the place he will go to soon, and he is waiting for the flight to go there in an hour. But to be honest, seeing the fighting here is so tragic, he feels a little nervous.
One hundred thousand people...
How many thousands are there in Dawn City now?
Three hundred thousand?
Or half a million?
If we include the floating population, it would be a bit difficult to calculate.
Han Long, who was sitting next to him, raised his eyelids and said casually.
"Is it the bone-chewing tribe that is not ruthless, or the mutants from Jinchuan Province are not ruthless... It's rare to see more strange things."
"Haha, that's true... But having said that, if the Alliance doesn't plan to take action between 50,000 regular troops and 20,000 stragglers, I think this city will probably be doomed." Looking at the comparison of the strength of the two armies on the next page,
In contrast, Qian Duo said this casually with a smile.
"If the alliance takes action, the legion will probably have to come to an end. Well...it's really not easy to handle." Han Long added thoughtfully.
At this moment, a strange voice suddenly came from beside him.
"He can't be finished."
Han Long ignored him, while Qian Duo looked at the person who interrupted the conversation with interest. He saw a man who looked gentle, elegant and easy-going.
He looked like a man of distinguished status, but the attire he wore was not very valuable. There was a suitcase at his feet, and it looked quite big. It was probably going to go far away.
Curious about what the locals thought, Qian Duo asked curiously.
"Oh? Do you think he can win even if the alliance doesn't take action?"
Zayin De smiled faintly and said in a very soft voice.
"It depends on how you define winning or losing. If the goal is to defeat Alaya, it won't be a problem for him. But if the goal is to defeat the program proposed by the federation, he has no chance of winning."
Qian Duo laughed.
"What you said is very interesting, but my opinion is the opposite of yours. If the Gray Wolf Army loses again, the empire will never be able to make a comeback, and collapse will only be a matter of time."
Zayin De shook his head and spoke clearly.
"Our views do not actually conflict, but 'collapse of the empire' and 'realization of the Federation's program' are two different things."
Qian Duo became more and more interested in this guy and said with a smile.
"You mean Lacy wants to be the emperor? But I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing. Even if it's a little feudal here? At least it's more civilized than the current situation where people drink blood... I'm sorry, I said it a bit directly.
, but in my eyes, as an outsider, this is indeed the case.”
After all, they are immortals who can compete with things like the Bone Chewing Tribe that have been buried in the soil. The barren place in Red River Town is probably much more advanced than them.
Zayin De was not angry, he just smiled and said.
"Everyone can see that Lashi wants to be the emperor, and you are not the only one who can see that. But it is a pity that he does not have this opportunity. The survivors of Borneo Province do not need an emperor, or what the people here have never needed is
Emperor, but the final result allowed them to get His Majesty...Of course, what they need is not equality, but someone who can make decisions for me."
Qian Duo raised his eyebrows with interest.
He had done sufficient market research before coming here, especially after reading Ms. Han Mingyue's survey report repeatedly.
What this guy said is completely different from the research results of the alliance scientific expedition team, although it is not completely opposite.
"Don't you think Lacy is the one?"
Zayinder shook his head.
"Obviously not."
Qian Duo asked curiously.
"Because he was born a slave?"
Zayin De shook his head again.
"of course not."
Qian Duo asked again.
"Then why?"
Zayin De looked at the ceiling and thought for a while.
"Because... he wants to be a good emperor."
Qian Duo couldn't help laughing.
"What's wrong with that?"
Zayin De smiled calmly and did not answer the question directly.
"There is a logical paradox in this land. Let me call it...'the rat-man theorem', or the 'rat-man theorem' for short. People who want to be good generals will definitely not be good generals. People who want to be good will not be good generals."
Someone who is an emperor will definitely not be a good emperor, even if he just wants to be a good person, he will definitely not be able to be a good emperor. Whether it is Lashi or Wu Tuo, whether it is a young man from the Federation or Wu Tuo's old nobleman, the harder they work, the more they struggle.
The more you run counter to your own ideals.”
This seemed like a theory he had made up, after all, he had been thinking about the name of this theory for a while.
But in order to better understand the market at his feet, Qian Duo continued to listen with interest.
"Sounds like a hopeless fate."
"is not that right?"
Zayinde glanced at the clock on the wall in the waiting room. It seemed that there was still some time, so he continued talking eloquently.
"...The invisible curse entangles everyone on this land, whether they are the rat tribe or the moon tribe. Some people realize that the source of the curse is red soil and the city of thousands of pillars, but more people just think that
I realized that I actually didn’t understand anything, so I set my sights on the red soil and the thousand pillars. It was like picking flowers in the mirror, fishing for the moon in the water, or looking for horses in the cowshed.”
"The only person who can make decisions for the survivors of Borneo Province is a perfect 'saint'. They strive for excellence at this point and are even more pious than the believers in Silver Moon Bay, so they finally got what they wished for."
Will...you may say that Lowell died a long time ago, but isn't that witch Tuo another Lowell?"
"In fact, he never left. He has been cursing the people who buried him in the red soil. Now his children have found a new answer, and it is something they have never thought of before, that is, you give them
'Equality'."
He lowered his eyebrows and sighed quietly.
"Everything seemed beautiful, but unfortunately the curse broke out, or the 'Rat Man Theorem' came into effect - a mouse who longed to be a good person could not even be a good mouse. When all the survivors of Borneo Province deliberately
When they unintentionally crave for 'equality', they will eventually get something completely opposite to it."
Qian Duo was stunned for a moment, then said with a smile and a joke.
"If there were such a perfect saint, let alone you, we would need one too... You don't have to say laziness is something unique to you."
Zayin De smiled and shook his head and said.
"You don't actually need it, you are just talking. You are completely different from us. Let me give you the simplest example. If it is in Borneo Province, a group of people may not look serious, but in general they are doing
People who do bad things are not liked by anyone and will go to hell."
"Are you talking about the residents of the shelter?" Qian Duo took a look around, and there happened to be a few blue coats nearby, and then said with a smile, "I think the people in Golden Gallon Port also like them quite a lot."
Zayin De said softly.
"That's because they haven't left yet... Moreover, you see that Golden Gallon Port seems to have been renovated well, and it seems that they have finally got the equality they dreamed of. But in fact, they don't realize that they just finally found a place that can work for them."
The people who call the shots, or the group of people who can rest their exhausted souls.”
This sounds like saying that the survivors in Borneo are all spiritualists, but the "Survivor Daily" in Kinggallon Harbor advocates materialism, just like the Alliance.
Qian Duo raised his eyebrows with interest, although he didn't agree with his point of view at all.
"Your inference is very interesting, but it has no basis... In fact, you might as well follow Ms. Han Mingyue's example and write your inference into a more organized paper and publish it. We look forward to the debate between you."
Zayin De suddenly laughed.
"That kind of thing doesn't make any sense. Will you write down the specific steps to make money in a newspaper? And don't forget the Rat Man Theorem I mentioned. I don't want to be the first victim of this paradox. I will pay for it.
And too many people have died. Time will prove my judgment... My flight is about to arrive, I wish you a pleasant journey."
As he spoke, he picked up his suitcase and stood up from his seat. Suddenly, as if he had thought of something, he looked at Qian Duo with a smile and took off his hat.
"In addition, Mengmao Prefecture is indeed a good place, and I am also optimistic about the future there."
Leaving the surprised Alliance businessman behind, Zayinde walked to the security checkpoint. He seemed to have an argument with the people there, but he finally went up.
Qian Duo looked at Han Long beside him and said excitedly.
"Damn it...this guy has something. He actually figured out that we were going to Mengma Prefecture for inspection?"
Interesting guy.
He should have asked for his name.
Han Long stared at the man's back for a while, and his electronic eyes swayed left and right.
"I only care about the boss's business... Having said that, this person doesn't seem to be very optimistic about Lacy? Do we still need to go?"
Qian Duo laughed and said.
"It's his opinion that he's not optimistic about it. There are a lot of people in this world who have different opinions from us. Don't let a passerby's bullshit affect your judgment. What's more, our opinions are not all opposite. At least he is optimistic about it.
Mengmazhou, this is the same as me."
If Lister Group wants to keep up with the trend of the times, it must expand its overseas business like Baiyue Company and join the new supply chain that is taking shape.
In the future, the products of the Alliance will no longer be produced only in the two industrial zones of Dawn City and Boulder City. The invisible logistics network will connect all the backward and advanced productive forces in the Sticky Community.
However, although business expansion is critical, risk control is even more critical.
And this was exactly why Liszt asked him to go to Mengma City, but he made his first stop at Jingallang Port.
Only the nouveau riche only focus on the rate of return.
Before considering profits, he must first find a way out.