Chapter 187, What is your way of loyalty?
Crocker Plantation is almost the largest plantation in the northern part of Qinggu. The Crocker family name has been passed down here for four generations.
They have always been the owners of the plantations and have gradually grown and prospered. Today, they play an important role in the northern part of the Qinggu region.
The old master died of illness a few months ago, and now it is Little Crocker who is in power.
Young people are more ambitious than their predecessors.
Regardless of whether this ambition is reasonable or not, at least, Kroc Jr. feels that he is a man with great ambitions.
He was not satisfied with being just a local rich man in Qinggu area, relying on his one and a half mu of land to make a living like his ancestors - although it was all the labor of others and he just ate.
But he felt that the Kroc family could go one step further.
The disaster in Qinggu area this time and the mutual aid association established with the support of the alliance are the perfect opportunities that he values.
He actively responded to the establishment of mutual aid societies, and with his appeal, he persuaded and influenced many plantations to join.
This is not difficult.
Firstly, mutual aid societies are beneficial in nature and everyone gets what they need; secondly, as the largest plantation, Crocker Manor’s active response to the mutual aid societies did play a leading role.
And his goal, in fact, is not complicated: he wants to be the controller of the Mutual Aid Association and transform the Mutual Aid Association from a mutual aid organization formed with the assistance of the Alliance into a real political entity spanning the Qinggu region.
All the people sent by the alliance were excluded from the Mutual Aid Committee and only given observer status. The power structure was under the control of the plantation owners and militia leaders. He only needed to firmly sit in the position of chairman and be a good leader. Later, the various government mechanisms were gradually improved so that power could be truly implemented downwards.
Of course, he didn't have such a wild idea that he thought that after transforming the mutual aid association into a political entity, he would be able to challenge the alliance and the governor. It's just that... the so-called alliance is not a centralized government. Since the first governor established the alliance, we have always been a member of the alliance and have never left the alliance.
It is still under the alliance system, but it is a regional regime with strong autonomy and maintains a good cooperative and win-win relationship with the alliance central government. Isn’t this good?
Of course, he knew that with the current situation in Qinggu, it would be impossible to use force against the Alliance Headquarters. What he wanted to fight for was only political interests. In his opinion, Qinggu had a population and important food production, which was the basis for negotiations with the Alliance Headquarters.
Even in the future, it is inevitable that he will be completely swallowed up by the alliance, but at that time, he must give a decent explanation to Crocker Jr. It is not impossible for him to become a senior official in the alliance.
But he didn't expect that the alliance would not give him time.
Little Crocker was a little frightened.
Could it be that my little trick has been seen through? Is the alliance targeting me?
He convened a meeting of the committee members of the mutual aid society.
The venue is at Crocker Manor, which is also the headquarters of the Mutual Aid Society.
A circular hall, low in the middle and gradually rising around. Wooden tables and chairs are placed on the steps around, serving as seats for the committee members. The round platform in the center is the podium.
Inside the meeting place, Crocker Jr. stirred up the minds of other plantation owners.
Standing in the center of the conference hall, Kroc Jr. was giving an impassioned speech.
"I believe many people have received the news that the Central Army Group led by Commander Yan Fangxu is heading south. According to the latest order from the Alliance, we need to provide supplies to this army."
"Not only food supplies, but also the militia we have painstakingly built up over the past few months will all be brought under the command of Commander Yan Fangxu."
"Look at what happened in the so-called Central Province two months ago. A large number of settlements were closed down. A large number of survivors were captured by the Alliance. Those who had worked hard to maintain the existence of the settlements and protect their people were sent to the guillotine and found guilty."
"The Alliance is planning to take everything from us, just like they did to the people of the Central Province two months ago."
His words indeed aroused the attention of many people.
The sudden southward movement of the Central Army Group did cause panic.
The plantation owners were worried that their property would be confiscated, as under the Union's policies, it seemed that completely independent, private property did not exist.
However, even though those thoughts were aroused, people basically remained silent at this moment.
I am worried, but... do I have to go against the alliance because of this?
Putting aside other things, just look at the attitudes of those militia leaders.
Now, the military force of the Mutual Aid Society is entirely composed of militia groups.
Among the militia leaders, those nominated by the manor owners are still easier to deal with. For the time being, their positions can still be consistent with those of the manor owners who nominated them.
But those whitewashed looters who were recruited are a completely different matter.
Being assigned to the command of the Central Army Group... doesn't seem to be a bad thing for them.
The robbers who were able to be recruited and cleansed were forced to do so in order to survive. The manor owners had no mercy on them, and they had no fixed property in the Beiqing Valley area.
Anyway, they are just trying to make a living. After being incorporated into the ranks of the alliance army, will they be left starving?
Maybe there will be a chance to become a regular soldier in the future. It would be so cool to be a regular soldier in the alliance.
If you want to engage in military confrontation with the alliance, do you expect militia groups with a similar mentality to fight to the death?
That's not funny.
Moreover, let alone direct military confrontation, even if there is no war and the alliance does not use force, the mutual aid association will not be able to tolerate just a hostile relationship.
Who can supply arms to a militia of more than 100,000 people?
Can the four million people in the Northern Qinggu region survive with food alone? A large number of industrial products and daily necessities also rely on being transported in from the Twin Cities, the most important of which is medical assistance.
Without the support of the alliance, the mutual aid association would collapse.
To put it bluntly, there is no possibility of any head-on confrontation between the two sides.
Just now, Crocker Jr. himself mentioned the Central Bank Province, right?
The Central Bank Province could at least pull out an army of 100,000 people when it was completely opposed to the Governor-General and did not need any assistance. Could the Mutual Aid Association do that? Once the enemy was hostile, I am afraid that the order that the Mutual Aid Association had established in the Beiqing Valley area over the past two months would collapse.
What's more, even if we mobilized an army, what would that do?
Can they still defeat the Alliance's army? How many days did the 100,000-strong army of the Central Bank Province last?
It is true that everyone is resentful of the sudden move of the Union Army to the south, but if Little Crocker thinks that he can encourage everyone to follow him to confront the Union head-on, he is dreaming.
No one will follow him in this madness.
Of course, Crocker Jr. was not crazy enough to think that he could encourage the people in the mutual aid society to do this. Even if he could do it, he would not do it.
However, after looking at the expressions of the crowd and guessing their mentality, Little Kroc was still a little disappointed.
But he quickly readjusted his mindset.
He continued, "I know you are all scared in your heart, thinking, 'Ah, is this little Crocker crazy, how dare he say such a thing?' But I want to tell you that this is indeed a matter of life and death for us. No one wants to give up the assets accumulated by our ancestors for no reason."
"Of course, we are not going to fight against the Alliance or the Governor. I have no such intention. The Mutual Aid Society was established with the assistance of the Alliance. The Governor has helped us a lot. We, the Qinggu people, will never repay kindness with enmity. We are a member of the Alliance. We were, are, and will be. We will always be loyal to the Emperor and the Governor. This will not change."
When he got to this point, people finally became interested.
At the beginning, he said that the alliance wanted to take away everything from us, as if he was encouraging everyone to fight back, but in the next paragraph, he completely changed his tone and said that we should be loyal to the Governor and the Alliance.
What kind of analytic statement is this?
What on earth are you trying to do, kid?
But even though his words were very confusing, when he mentioned that he wasn't really going to rebel, everyone's caution and alertness were reduced a lot.
People began to wonder if this little Kroc really had any good ideas that could preserve everyone's industry without coming into direct conflict with the alliance.
"We are loyal to the Governor and the Alliance, but loyalty does not mean stupidity. We must consider the way we express our loyalty."
"We will show our will to the Governor-General through non-violent non-cooperation. We will refuse to provide supplies to the Alliance's army, and we will refuse to hand over the command and organizational power of the militia to the Central Army Group. If there is any direct threat of violence, I allow you to temporarily agree to cooperate; but after the threat of violence ends, we propose that we will continue to carry out protest actions..."
At this point, Crocker's speech suddenly quickened and became heavier:
"Commissioners, this is our way of protest. We will never engage in any direct confrontation with the Alliance's troops. Strikes, protests, and food supply suspensions will not continue indefinitely. We just need to express our demands in a civilized and bloodless way, and ultimately achieve the goal of resolving the issue through negotiation!"
His words shocked people.
My goodness, after all this time, it’s just ‘non-violent non-cooperation’, right?
But thinking back, it is not impossible.
Strikes, demonstrations, withholding of supplies... If we really encounter a gun pointed at us, then there is nothing we can do; but as long as the gun is not pointed at us, we will not do anything.
How many people are there in the Union Army?
All of them come to be supervisors in various places?
The two sides will just keep on wasting time. The Qinggu area has always been in such a bad state, how can it get any worse?
But the alliance is different.
Can the Governor-General's grand cause withstand such delay?
Make yourself look like a united front, and then try to get as many benefits as possible at the negotiation table...
This idea seems to be really okay.
But some people have raised questions: "This is a good idea, but if the alliance carries out bloody suppression, arrests or even executes the leaders of the protests, that is, us, then how will Your Excellency respond?"
Little Crocker took a deep breath. "This is the risk we have to face. First, will the Alliance do this? Aren't they afraid of provoking greater resistance? Second, we must protect ourselves. The Qinggu region is very large, or the entire world is very large. We must hide, hide in the wilderness, hide among the crowd. We also have to find a way to ensure that we can still have enough influence on the mutual aid association, food rationing and labor under such circumstances..."
Just as little Crocker was expressing his thoughts more and more seriously, the door of the circular council hall was opened with a creaky sound.
Little Crocker stopped talking and turned away angrily.
The door of the conference hall, behind the podium where he gave his impassioned speech.
Today's meeting was not a secret meeting, but it was important enough. He had already instructed people not to allow any interruptions during the meeting. The door to the conference hall should be guarded by someone, so how could anyone dare to interrupt the meeting at this time?
But after seeing the person coming, the curse on his lips was suppressed.
The man's name was Jason Morgan, a middle-aged man with an ordinary appearance. He was a little fat and not tall. He always had a very friendly smile on his face. There was nothing special about him.
However, he still made little Kroc, who was planning how to make trouble and wanted to make a big profit and felt that he was full of knowledge, feel a chill on his back.
It's certainly not that Jason Morgan himself has any magic.
That’s because behind Jason Morgan lies an invincible force that can only be dealt with secretly.
And now, the secret plan has been exposed to the sun.
Little Crocker tried hard to think of a solution quickly, no matter what it was, but his mind was completely blank, as if some physiological mechanism had been triggered, causing his brain to freeze.
Jason Morgan still had that friendly smile on his face. He walked forward a few steps, stood in front of Little Crocker, and said, "It's a mutual aid committee meeting. It's against the committee's rules to have no observers present."
Little Crocker forced a smile.
He wanted to say something harsh, and even thought about calling for help to capture Jason Morgan who broke in, or even kill him on the spot.
However, after hesitating for a moment, he just said: "I haven't had time to notify... Mr. Morgan, aren't you inspecting the disease prevention and control work in the next park? If I knew you were here, I would definitely ask you to come over..."
Morgan waved his hand and said, "I see. But it doesn't matter. Now is the right time. On my way here, I saw many militiamen with guns and live ammunition. I thought I would run into a lot of trouble on the way in, but in the end, no one stopped me. Many militiamen followed me here."
Having said this, he waved behind him.
A group of militiamen walked in with guns.
Morgan turned around again, facing Crocker Jr., and said, "Just now I seemed to have heard something about 'non-violent non-cooperation' and 'we must consider the way of loyalty' outside..."
At this point, Morgan's friendly smile seemed quite sinister to little Crocker.
"That's a coincidence. Although I don't know what 'non-violent non-cooperation' means, I graduated from the advanced class of Xifeng Zhongsi Academy and received direct instruction from the Governor-General. I think I am the most qualified person here to talk about what loyalty means."
"The way to be loyal, this issue does not need to be discussed in my opinion. Even the militia comrades behind me who can't even read a few words understand this truth deeply:"
“The best way to be loyal is to be absolutely loyal. If loyalty is not absolute, it is absolutely disloyal.”
Jason Morgan adjusted his red hat, completely suppressed all smiles, and looked at everyone present with a stern face: "I want to know, how many people still want to discuss the way of loyalty?"
(End of this chapter)
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