Chapter 154 Who will take the lead?
"Set sail!"
The Siren sailed out of the port of Piltover, made a small turn on the sea, and stopped on the coastline of Zaun.
Sarah climbed to the bow of the ship and looked out, telescope in hand.
At this time, she had changed out of her iconic captain's tricorn hat, tied her bright red wavy hair into a bun, and put on a wide-brimmed naval officer's hat with the leader's blue bird emblem and golden tassel patterns.
And those former pirates, like their Captain Sarah, have shed their wild, bare-chested outfits of the past and put on well-shaped and neatly designed white sailor uniforms.
If there wasn't a "big green jelly" standing on the bow who was too big to wear a uniform and was wearing a straw hat, the military style and appearance of this "Coast Guard" would look even more solemn and dignified than the navy of the Noxian Empire.
"Tsk tsk... 1, 2, 3... 12 in total."
"Zaan's Alchemy Baron is quite fat."
Sarah observed the coast of Zaun from afar through a telescope.
This was the shipyard owned by Baron Takeda Saito and also the private port where he ran his arms smuggling business.
The port was filled with 12 huge armed sailing merchant ships; and in the open-air dock of the shipyard, there was even a steam ironclad ship that was almost completed.
This made Sarah, the "navy commander" who only had one ship to command, blush.
"President Levi, we are already in place."
"What's the next mission? Land and rob a ship? Hijack that ironclad ship?"
Sarah asked the bluebird standing on her shoulder.
This blue bird is not Janna's real body, but an incarnation of Janna manifested by divine power.
Before radio technology was invented by Victor's scientific research team, the countless blue bird incarnations of Janna were the "military radio stations" of the various combat teams of the Leader Association.
Levi also used this method to "airdrop orders" to the frontline soldiers and directly command the squad.
"No, Comrade Sarah." The Bluebird Avatar used airflow to simulate Levi's voice: "Our mission is not to seize the ship, but to seize this entire shipyard."
"This shipyard is an important asset of Takeda Saito. If the shipyard is lost, Takeda Saito will definitely organize a large force to support it."
"In this way, we can attract Takeda Saito's main force to appear in a decisive battle, and try to achieve our goal in one battle, thus avoiding the losses that a long-term war would bring to Zaun."
"Okay!" Sarah was eager to try: "Then I will lead everyone to land and take over this shipyard now!"
"No, this mission does not require you to land and fight." Levi said, "Your mission is to provide long-range fire support at sea."
Sarah was slightly startled, but quickly reacted:
That's right... If Levi just wanted to use them as marines, he could just fly them over from the sky. There would be no need to sail to the waters off Zaun.
The Siren was brought here specifically so that it, with its belly filled with cannons, could provide artillery support from the sea.
Because the sea off Zaun has always been the territory of Piltover, the "little overlord of the sea". Piltover only allows its own people to rob Zaun, and cannot tolerate pirates from other places coming to rob Zaun.
Moreover, when it comes to pirate culture, the two cities that relied on colonial plunder to complete primitive accumulation and started the industrial revolution are the ancestors of pirates all over the world.
As an old veteran who has already cleaned up his mess, how could Shuangcheng be afraid of those little scoundrels who are still engaged in primitive accumulation?
So this place has almost never been attacked from the sea.
The alchemist barons never thought of building any coastal defenses for their smuggling ports and shipyards.
So, when the Wind Leader Association ignored the rules set by Piltover and drove its gunboats to the waters off Zaun, this shipyard was like a peeled orange, nakedly exposed to the muzzle of the Siren.
"No problem, I'll get the gunners ready now."
Sarah understood her mission, but she was still confused:
"We provide fire support, so who will be responsible for the main attack?"
She looked at the open sea around her and the still calm coast, but did not see any friendly forces from beginning to end.
"Don't worry, I'm watching you from the sky," said Levi.
Sarah looked up and saw a figure standing in the sky.
This gave her instant confidence.
Levi is Janna's choice. He alone is enough to take on the main attack task and help his teammates attract firepower to "gather monsters".
This is Runeterra after all, and heroic power is everything.
But Levi said: "No, I'm not the main attacker this time. I'm just a safety."
“The real focus of this action is on the oppressed working masses.”
"Huh?" Sarah was slightly stunned.
She thought Levi was just shouting politically correct slogans.
But Levi said: "Our propagandists have already sneaked into this shipyard and carried out effective propaganda of Janna's ideology to the oppressed slave workers in the shipyard."
"Not only did the slave workers generally accept the Jannah faith, but under the leadership of our propagandists, they also successfully formed an underground Wind Leader branch under the enemy's nose."
"With faith, organization and popular support, I think they already have the ability to independently launch an armed uprising."
Levi's tone was calm and firm.
But Sarah objected vehemently: "No, this won't work!"
Like most leaders, she believes that the working masses are powerful, but this power must be transformed into real armed force through the goddess Janna and Levi, the chosen one of Janna.
The task of the working masses should be to improve production.
The battle should be left to Levi, Zack, Zelie, Seraphine and other powerful extraordinary people.
"That's what I thought." Levi said.
He believes that when there is a struggle in the extraordinary world, ordinary people should just stay put and wait to be rescued.
Doing so can minimize unnecessary bloodshed and reduce casualties among ordinary people.
However, during the past three months of practice, Li Wei discovered that the negative impact of doing so was also very serious.
Although everyone sings "There is no savior", the masses still believe that Janna is the savior, the omnipotent god, and the wise monarch.
Because they didn't do anything, they were rescued and lived a good life.
Their good life is not something they fought for, but a gift from the goddess.
This also makes them unable to understand the true thoughts of the leaders, and makes them not believe from the bottom of their hearts that they are powerful and do not think that they should be equal to the strong in personality.
The leader helped everyone stand up.
But they are still kneeling in their hearts.
But if people are still kneeling in their hearts, they cannot become true leaders.
As a result, the spread of the leaders' beliefs encountered many obstacles because of their "nanny-like" liberation of the suffering.
Although the number of people exposed to Janna's thoughts has been increasing exponentially.
However, after a period of explosive growth, the number of formal members of the Leaders Association has gradually slowed down.
Because those who are highly conscious and can understand Janna's thoughts without profound education are ultimately a minority in the Twin Cities.
Most of the remaining people were ordinary people who had been kneeling for too long and could not get up.
They only think of themselves as the people crawling at the feet of the goddess Gana, and never dare to regard themselves as comrades who are equal to the goddess.
"Who is a leader? A leader is someone who is not afraid of the Immortal Emperor and dares to punch all the strong for his ideals!"
"This so-called 'struggle' of lying down and waiting for charity from the powerful will not produce a true leader."
“We must make these workers realize that they have their own power—when conditions are ripe, they can use their own hands to fight back against this old world that enslaves and oppresses them!”
Levi said in a serious tone.
Sarah still objected after hearing this: "No, President Levi, don't shout any high-sounding slogans here!"
"Didn't your booklet also say that leaders should seek truth from facts and proceed from reality in everything they do?"
"Ordinary people have productivity but no fighting power. This is an objective fact! If you let a bunch of workers who can only swing hammers to resist the Alchemist Baron, you are sending them to their deaths!"
Sarah strongly disagrees with Levi's point of view.
There are no mass movements in Runeterra.
No matter how united and powerful you workers are, can you defeat Takeda Saito's reformed fighters?
"It really works." Levi said.
He is certainly not crazy. He is just messing around for the sake of political correctness and has to show the "power of the masses" in the battle.
He had disagreed with launching a mass movement before, but now wants to do it. It's not because he has gone crazy from reading the scriptures and has ignored the objective fact that the working masses in Runeterra have no fighting power.
But this objective fact has quietly changed with the "evolution" of Goddess Gana.
"Don't forget, they are not ordinary workers, but believers of Janna led by the Wind Leader underground organization."
"In a sense—"
"They are already 'superhumans'."
"This..." Sarah's pupils shrank.
She subconsciously spread out her palms, chanting in her heart while gathering a breeze in her palms:
"You mean... the wind?"
Janna is different from her peers.
Most gods are very stingy and are unwilling to share their power with their believers easily.
For example, Nagakabouros will only grant his believers power after they have passed a soul trial that can lead to death.
For example, the immortal thunder Volibear. Any believer who accepts his divine power will be corroded and transformed by his power and become a bear man controlled by him.
But as a god, Janna's attitude towards her believers is -
As long as you need it and use it reasonably, she will generously grant you divine power.
Just say hello in your heart, and the borrowed power will be credited to your account immediately. The procedure is simpler than that of a bank.
Therefore, every Janna believer, even if he is just a shallow believer, is, in a sense, an extraordinary wind elemental mage.
Everyone has his own style, and everyone is extraordinary.
"But what can this weak wind do?"
Looking at the weak whirlwind in her hand, Sarah murmured.
"The wind of one person is weak," said Livy, "but what about ten people, a hundred people, a thousand people, tens of thousands of people?"
"When the breezes that refuse to be oppressed gather together, they become the wind of change that sweeps away everything in its path."
And these breezes were not actually given to them by the goddess.
After all, Janna's divine power originally comes from her believers.
The wind used by believers is their own power.
Janna is just a "bird-shaped converter" that helps everyone transform the faith condensed from mortals' spiritual power into divine power that mortals can also use.
"So I say, the masses are powerful—"
"They can afford this main attack!"
