Embers Ad Infinitum

Over the years, little benefit has been gained, but a lot of pain has been experienced. A large number of citizens had strong emotional fluctuations because of Gaius's words.

The security guards and city defense troops who were responsible for maintaining order around them all felt a little bit in their hearts and had a bad premonition.

Looking at the crowd of citizens in the square, they couldn't help but swallow their saliva, their mouths were dry from nervousness:

If so many people were stirred up by Gaius and flocked to the Senate, Government Affairs Hall and other places, showing serious violent tendencies, should I stop them or not, shoot or not?

Although there were orders from above not to be soft-hearted, and they had tried hard to dissuade their family members, relatives, and friends from attending this citizens’ rally in advance, the initial city was certainly not small if it was small. It's not too big. After excluding the foreign wanderers, the huge slave group, and the people who participated in the army and the reclamation regiments stationed in other settlements and subordinate city-states, the number of citizens is only a few hundred thousand, and many people can be related in a roundabout way.

Anyone would be hesitant and soft-hearted when it comes to shooting an acquaintance.

Besides, was Gaius telling a lie?

No, in the eyes of these citizen security guards and city defense soldiers, every word of this general spoke from the bottom of their hearts, and was the reality they saw and heard on a daily basis.

Gaius did not follow the thoughts of everyone present and went on to talk about how the great situation of the "Prime City" was slowly eroded and destroyed. He instead said:

"Many of you probably don't have your own land anymore."

This sentence was like a spark falling into a frying pan, instantly detonating the atmosphere.

People in different places in the square shouted loudly:

"We want land!"

"We want land!"

Gaius stretched out his left hand and pressed it down, signaling everyone to be quiet and listen to himself:

“There are many reasons why you lost your land:

"In some cases, when extreme weather occurs, food production is greatly reduced, and you have to borrow money from certain people or institutions. The interest accumulates day by day. After similar things happen again and again, you are forced to sell supplies to repay, and in the end What is surrendered is land;

"Some have had a good harvest of grain, but as a result, those who occupy a large amount of land deliberately started a price war, so that you can only fill your own stomachs, but you lose more than you gain in other aspects, and you have to pay taxes in full. Year after year, you are still embarked on the path of borrowing;

"Some of them have family members who are seriously ill; some of them encounter robbers; some of them have problems with guaranteeing others; some of them encounter sudden disasters... In short, they are forced to borrow money and fall into a vicious cycle.

“And what did the Senate and the people in charge of the Government Affairs Office say?

"Say that this is either your own fault, your own problem, or it is normal competition or misfortune that deserves sympathy but cannot be helped from a legal perspective."

Listening to Gaius's speech, many people recalled what happened to them or their fathers.

Each of these can be applied to yourself or your family.

After repeated propaganda from their superiors, they indeed believed that it was mainly because of themselves, so they became even more aggrieved and angry. They could only hope that the "First City" would continue to expand outwards so that they could trade the fire in their hearts for new land. .

At this time, Gaius deliberately paused for a few seconds before saying:

"No, they're lying!"

His voice was suddenly amplified, and with the help of the microphone, everyone present had their ears buzzing and their hearts were in turmoil.

Gaius looked around and said:

“It is true that some people ruined their families and had to sell their land because of alcoholism, laziness or indulgence, but these are only a minority.

“The vast majority of citizens will be forced to sell their land when food production is reduced, and when the food harvest is good, they will slowly start selling their land, but it will only last a few more years.

“In this reality, no matter what you do, your land will eventually be concentrated in the hands of certain people.

"Are you a little confused about the reason? I'll tell you why!

“When you encounter extreme weather, food production is reduced, and you need relief, where are the Senate and the Government Affairs Office?

“When the grain harvest is bumper and prices drop, and official purchases are needed to maintain stability, where are the Senate and the Government Affairs Office?

“When those unreasonable interests accumulate again and again and become exaggerated enough, where are the Senate and the Government Affairs Office?

“When you only need to reach out once to tide over the difficulties and enter a virtuous cycle, where are the Senate and the Government Affairs Office?

“Some of them are busy acquiring cheap land, lending you loans through spokesmen, and arranging people to accuse you in newspapers, on the radio, and on TV of not knowing how to operate and not willing to learn. , not good at farming!”

When Gaius paused briefly, the entire Hope Square fell silent, so silent that Sheriff Wall and other noble descendants suspected that a huge whirlpool was brewing.

At this moment, they felt as if fire was coming out of the eyes of the security guards and city defense soldiers around them.

Gaius, who had always been serious and expressionless, let his face become excited:

“They are busy attending banquets, using up one cow and multiple sheep at a time, busy counting orei, buying exquisite clothes and accessories, busy worshiping evil gods, indulging their desires, and entangled themselves naked in the Together!

“They are busy colluding with the cult, colluding with our number one enemy, colluding internally and externally, and consolidating their power!

"Everything in the 'Prime City' was purchased with the heads and blood of all our citizens. The power of the Senate was given by us through the Citizens' Assembly, and they treat us like this?

"We are the masters of the 'Primary City', and we need strong representatives to eliminate those moths and supervise their every move!"

Gaius shouted at the top of his lungs, making every citizen present have a fanatical light in their eyes.

Just when Wall thought the powder keg was about to explode, Gaius changed the subject:

"I think you have heard that Senator Varro colluded with the 'Salvation Army' and the 'Anti-Intellectual Cult' to endanger the 'First City', but was protected by some people in the Senate and could not be convicted."

As soon as Gaius finished speaking, a deafening cry rang out in the square:

"Punish Varro severely! Punish Varro severely!"

Uh... Wall was a little surprised when he heard this.

He did not expect that the final target of his father-in-law was Varro, who was about to be deprived of his status as a senator, not the consul and commander-in-chief Beuris, nor the upper-class people in the Senate who were either conservative or neutral and unwilling to radically change the status quo.

This is okay, this is okay... At least the conflict can be controlled to a certain extent and will not cause major turmoil... Wall relaxed a little.

But he didn't dare to be too reassured, because this was just the current situation. If the people in the Senate refused to compromise, things would naturally become intense, affecting the whole city, and would never be dealt with again.

…………

The Red Wolf Zone is somewhere near the Golden Apple Zone.

Shang Jianyao put on his sunglasses, walked a few steps quickly, bent down and took out something from a gap in the wall of a building.

That was Phocas's pass to find someone to put him here.

After placing the pass under the windshield, Bai Chen drove the car and turned into the Golden Apple area.

Soon, they encountered their first temporary checkpoint.

The soldiers of the city defense army confirmed the authenticity of the pass and let them pass without any search.

"Huh..." Long Yuehong in the back row exhaled slowly.

"Don't talk!" Shang Jianyao warned with a "cautious" look.

"I didn't want to say it." Long Yuehong couldn't help but retorted.

Giuseppe "Garibaldi" among the two looked left and right, wondering why they were arguing about this.

At this time, Jiang Baimian looked at the rearview mirror, considered it and said:

"Giuseppe, after we meet that person, our subsequent actions are likely to be carried out in strong winds and waves. Do you want to find a place to get off the bus in advance and wait for everything to calm down before joining us and leaving the city?"

Not to mention compared with Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao, even if Long Yuehong is brought in, Giuseppe is not his opponent and is not suitable for participating in such an action that emphasizes personal abilities.

Giuseppe thought for a while and said:

“Just put me down when you enter Emperor Street.

"I have a friend who is a guard captain nearby and can take me in for a while until the turmoil ends."

If there had been no turmoil, the "old tune group" would not have taken any follow-up actions.

"Okay." After Jiang Baimian nodded, he looked ahead and didn't speak for a long time. He didn't know what he was thinking about.

This made Long Yuehong feel a little nervous and couldn't help but ask:

"Team leader, what are you thinking about?"

Jiang Baimian withdrew his gaze, nodded gently and said:

"I am taking advantage of my last free time to review the changes in the situation in the First City and speculate on possible developments."

"That's it..." Long Yuehong breathed a sigh of relief.

Before he finished speaking, Jiang Baimian added:

"The more I think about it, the more I realize we have some blind spots, very important blind spots..."

"Indeed, we all think that we have overlooked something." Shang Jianyao raised his hand and touched his chin.

This... Long Yuehong's body tensed up again.

Bai Chen, who was driving, tentatively said:

"The attitude of the consul and commander-in-chief?

“What is the attitude of those awakened from the ‘Soul Corridor’ and above in the First City?”

"These are all factors that must be put into the model for analysis from the beginning..." Jiang Baimian shook his head, "I have considered this matter many times when I finalized the plan, but I have never found it. Blind spots, well, I’m going to take a quick look at my past experiences and see if I can find inspiration.”

Having said this, she took the opportunity to teach the team members:

"When you reach a dead end when thinking about a problem, you can try to jump out, analyze your own accumulated experience, and draw parallels."

"Yeah." Long Yuehong said she learned.

The jeep moved forward slowly, and everything was quiet inside. Everyone was seriously thinking or deliberating about the subsequent changes in the original city.

Nearly ten minutes passed, Jiang Baimian suddenly sat up straight and blurted out:

“I was reminded of our experience at Red Rocks.

"You and I were watched by the old 'Yougu'."

When Long Yuehong and Bai Chen were a little confused, Shang Jianyao clenched his right fist and struck his left palm:

"Yes, what we ignored was Zhi Sui!"

Jiang Baimian said "hmm" and said in a low voice:

"The changes in the situation in a small place like Hongshiji are all watched by Zhi Sui. How can we ignore the civil strife in the 'Primary City', the largest force in the earth, and ignore the attitude of Zhi Sui?"

…………

Somewhere in the Golden Apple District.

Beuris, the consul and commander-in-chief of the "Primary City", walked alone into a secret room with thick curtains and an extremely dark environment.