Chapter 714: The Rise of the Black Smut Faction
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A quadcopter flew over the city, its hatch opening in the whirring sound, and then the shaking camera lens was aimed at the city street diagonally below.
On the main road in the city, members in black robes moved forward in silence. They formed a coordinated team, crossed their wrists, and walked forward slowly. Opposite them were the shield-wielding special police who were ready for battle.
The black shields were spliced together to form layers of rock-like defense lines on the street, and then a blue light curtain emerged, forming a light wall that blocked the entire street.
"Hello everyone, this is the first news channel of Lusheng Star Region. Now we are reporting on the protests in Shuilu City, the largest city in the star region..."
"About 120,000 people participated in this huge march. They blocked the six main roads in the city and marched towards the square in the center of the city."
"In order to deal with the sudden chaos and violence in an emergency, the federal star region government has mobilized police forces from Shuilu City and surrounding areas. About 10,000 police officers have been deployed on the main roads. They will maintain order and block the teams from moving forward." "
...Shuilu City was built in the 287th year of the Sixth Era. It is the hometown of the singer Bai Sheng, 'Summer of the Reed'. Because of Bai Sheng's great influence in the early years of the Federation, this star region has also developed rapidly. In addition, because of the many ballads she wrote in her life that depicted her hometown and childhood, the beautiful scenery in the star region has left a deep impression on many people in the Federation."
"Currently, the statue of the singer Bai Sheng, 'Summer of the Reed', still stands in the central square of Shuilu City. It is an important venue for many large-scale events. Every generation of star region governors has the tradition of delivering their inaugural speeches in the square."
"According to insiders, the protesting group is trying to occupy the square, expand their influence to the entire star field and even the federation, and express their political demands."
"Star field security and defense officials said that they had not received any application for the march before. This is a completely illegal and sudden action, which contains immeasurable dangers. They will take necessary measures to ensure the safety of urban residents and maintain the order of the star field..."
The host's voice was accompanied by the whirring sound of propellers, which was a little unclear, and many viewers focused more on the pictures shown. The protesting crowd was completely different from the people who kept shouting slogans and holding tall signs in the past. They were silent and had a repressive momentum, which made it difficult for the audience to laugh.
The parade team was like a long dragon, spreading from the street to the back. Unlike the loose protest activities, they seemed to be very determined. Everyone lined up in rows with their wrists crossed, so that no one could easily fall behind, and it was difficult to suddenly break away from the team and escape.
The protest team marched forward at a slow and slow pace, approaching the blue light curtain wall step by step, and finally squeezed in front of the light curtain. Unlike expected, these people did not stop, but the people behind kept moving forward, squeezing forward, even though the front row was already sticking to the heavy light curtain.
At first, the special police who maintained the front line were a little relaxed, thinking that it would not be a big problem to stop these people, but as the team advanced layer by layer, the members in the front row began to be squeezed and deformed, not only their facial features were deformed, their limbs were twisted, and they began to bleed. Such a scene made the special police who were accustomed to violent scenes feel heavy in their hearts, and even a little cold.
Many aircraft in the sky that were broadcasting live recorded such scenes. In the data counted by the AI, fresh lives began to die one by one, and such a scene had to cause many live broadcasts to be cut off.
The death toll continued to rise, from the initial 100 to 1,000, and then began to break through 2,000, 3,000... Blood began to spread on the streets.
The security and defense officials who were in charge of the crackdown began to sweat as they watched this scene. No matter how successful the order maintenance was, with so many people dead and a huge storm of public opinion, someone would definitely take the blame in the end, and he was the one who would be the hardest to escape.
"Disperse, disperse... let them go." He gave the order almost tremblingly.
The special police, who had long been unable to hold on, removed their shields and light curtains, quickly retreated, and left on both sides of the road.
Then the team began to move forward again. They wrapped their dead companions with black cloth, then lifted them up, and continued to move towards the central square. The atmosphere was so depressing that it was suffocating. Such momentum silenced many residents who were watching in the city. They instinctively made way and watched these members who were collecting the bodies of their companions and moving forward.
After several hours, these teams gradually arrived at the square in the center of the city, and arranged the bodies neatly under the snow-white statue. Then someone placed orange lanterns next to the bodies, and someone comforted and arranged the twisted bodies so that they no longer looked hideous, but rather peaceful.
Then they held hands, stood in rows, circles, and layers of densely packed people in the square for a grand chorus, and the resounding sound spread to the entire city through a special ceremony.
The chorus included many classic songs, including the ballads of Bai Sheng in the past, "Summer of Reeds", but those once joyful ballads now carried a particularly sad and tragic feeling.
For local residents, Bai Sheng in the "Summer of Reeds" can be said to be the spiritual symbol of the Lusheng Star Domain. Her songs have long been familiar to tens of millions of families, and now singing under this night sky has also triggered the emotions of countless people.
Over the years, the star domain economy has rapidly declined, the unemployment rate has continued to rise towards 70%, many families have been broken up, and there are actually very few people who live happily.
The sad song spread throughout the city. At first, only some people in the city center followed the chorus, and then as the special ritual effect expanded, the voices following the chorus spread like sparks throughout the city.
From the south to the north, from this metropolis with 30 million people to all the residents sitting in front of the screen, they were unconsciously infected by this emotion, because the sadness brought by the times is something that everyone can feel and resonate with.
After the night ended, a marginal member of the Star Region Government suddenly announced online that he fully supported the new reforms, guaranteed the lives of all poor residents, increased taxes on high-income groups, etc.
What he promised was not detailed, probably slogans, and this person had not made any outstanding contributions before, and his face was not pleasing to people, a little crooked, and could be said to be the bottom of the list of members.
People who know a little about politics can easily guess that he probably wants to take a gamble. Anyway, people like him probably won't be elected in the next election, so why not take a risk this time and see if he can seize the opportunity.
Soon, his remarks spread online, and later many members followed suit and began to say similar words, trying to win votes, and promised to work hard to improve the living conditions of the lower-class residents and unemployed residents, etc.
Faced with such a situation, many people responded online, saying that they would vote for these congressmen and so on, which in turn set off a storm of public opinion and triggered disputes among various groups.
Under such circumstances, representatives of the groups that had previously gathered and marched finally came out to issue an announcement that they would not specifically support a certain member of parliament, but if they really wanted to, please come to the central square of Shuilu City to participate in the mourning and prayers on the spot.
Such a notice made many councillors stop in their tracks. They wanted to use it to win votes, but they didn't want to be really tied to such a group, because then they would have no way out in their future actions and would be very passive.
In the end, three councillors took the risk and came to the central square of Shuilu City. The 120,000 people gathered here had been on hunger strike for nearly three days, drinking only a small amount of sugar water to maintain their lives. The
three people on the scene changed into black clothes provided by the protest group and read eulogies in front of the dead one by one. These more than 3,000 bodies were undoubtedly a long process. In the end, only one councillor persisted. He had a thin face and dark skin, and looked like a farmer in the countryside, although there is no such profession as farmers now.
After the end, he discussed with the leaders of the protest group for a long time and finally reached a consensus.
After that, a new party appeared in Lusheng Star Region. They would fight for the interests of all the poor and be committed to supervising the society, eliminating all kinds of injustice and deception against the lower-class residents, including all kinds of unreasonable contracts, high-interest illegal loans, nested fraud insurance policies, etc., and advocated the establishment of food collection points in various places in the star region for the hungry and homeless to use for free.
Judging from the projects advocated alone, it does not seem excessive, because these have been mentioned by congressmen before, but many people have a feeling that the situation will be different this time.
Soon, in the storm of various quarrels, the supporters of the party grew rapidly, because the protesting groups were all wearing black robes, and their main topic was related to hunger relief, so they were called the "Black Smut Faction".
In the following six months, the group spread rapidly in Lusheng Star Region, and they had more and more supporters, and then many people began to imitate and learn, and put on the same black robes.
Under such momentum, in the new election, this faction defeated other factions with a high score and became the main ruling faction of the Star Region Government. As soon as the leader of this faction came to power, he began to push forward the various things he had promised before.
Although such policies were recognized by officials at the bottom and top levels, as the intermediate implementation link, various inherent forces were intertwined. Whether the local governments allocated funds or implemented them specifically, they would not be effective. Some people even took advantage of this to embezzle and make money, completely ignoring the desires of many people.
Ordinary people in a normal and peaceful environment sometimes cannot imagine how evil some groups can be, and how shameless they can be.
In the past, such policies would probably be popular for three days, and institutions at all levels would pretend to do their job, and then they would do what they should do after the limelight passed, just like in the past.
However, this time it was completely different. The first to be exposed was still the officials in Shuilu City. When purchasing food and relief supplies, they falsely reported numbers and prices, and reduced the number of food collection points to complete the task. Such behavior was directly exposed by the "Black Smut Faction".
That night, before he was suspended from his post or arrested, the official was dragged out of his home by an angry crowd and hanged in the central square. The process was very exciting.
Originally, even if such a person was arrested, there would be a long judicial wrangling, and in the end, he would not be sentenced to death. He could live in a prison with good conditions and wait until the storm was over, and then come out with various excuses. This was also the tacit understanding among many officials, and they would not be too harsh.
But now the trial process was skipped directly, and the official and his family died in the square. The video of the process was still leaked by many niche media.
Such a scene shocked some members of the organization and restrained their greedy behavior in the past.
Soon after, the "Black Smut Faction" branches in various places began to be established, and were guided and directed by the original faction members. Under the reporting and supervision of many members who were not afraid of life and death, many dark connections in the past were exposed, and various accounts that had never been made public in the past must be fully disclosed at the request of the ruling party.
Under such a high-pressure environment, many accumulated dirty deeds were exposed, which triggered the anger of many people. It turned out that these institutions had done such evil in the past.
As a result, a large number of personnel were purged, and the vacant positions were quickly filled by the core members of the "Black Smut Faction". Unlike the peripheral members, these core members were devout in their beliefs. Most of them were fanatical and advocated that all members of the group should help each other and strictly suppress those selfish people.
Similar actions were carried out vigorously, and a large number of grassroots personnel in government agencies were replaced and occupied by the "Black Smut Faction". Under such circumstances, some old officials and personnel in the middle, even if they wanted to seek personal gain, had to face extremely high exposure risks and pressure, and had to cooperate with various policy bills issued by the ruling party.
In this way, the personnel of the Star Domain Government were greatly streamlined, and administrative efficiency began to increase rapidly. It is unimaginable that even though the export share did not increase much, the economy began to show signs of recovery. This is probably due to the gradually clean and fair business environment, which made many high-risk investments and operations become controllable and cheap.
As a result, the reputation of the "Black Smut Faction" continued to rise. Not only in the Lusheng Star Region, but also in several surrounding star regions, similar groups gradually emerged, began to imitate and learn, and brought about many reforms.
The source of the spiritual beliefs of the "Black Smut Faction" and the composition of their personnel were gradually investigated and understood by various organizations, and gradually became clear.
Unlike the current political parties that generally focus on "singers" or "political ideas", they are actually closer to religious organizations, with unified and clear beliefs, and use them to unite members. Some customs and rules can even be said to be retro, and there is no intellectual reason that an interstellar society should have.
However, for the objective reality of economic decline, using various theories and empty slogans is obviously unable to convince a large number of voters who have reached the end of the road, and the huge resentment accumulated in the past and the overly rational and mild judicial regulations are also difficult to make the people feel relieved and convinced.
Maintaining calm and rationality is not an easy thing, and it is easier to compromise for various reasons.
In such an environment, religious organizations that directly follow simple morality, repay blood with blood, are not afraid of life and death, and have extreme behaviors that transcend blood ties and friends begin to be recognized by more and more people and absorb a large number of members.
At this time, even elites with ideals and practical ability will consider whether to join such an organization out of pessimism about the actual environment, and complete their original ideas from another curve.
Idealism is a double-edged sword. It will make people run into all kinds of obstacles in reality, but the spirit of passion and diligence often enables this group of people to go further and deeper in their professional fields, surpassing their peers who act purely for money.
With the addition of this group of people, religious organizations that were originally only able to occupy the bottom grassroots began to gain the support of the upper elite forces, and began to truly attract the attention of various forces and be valued by major groups in the federation.
(End of this chapter)
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