Chapter 222 "The Legend of Susan"
Mr. Gerry had never heard of any "legendary" hero in Innadri. The protagonists of the legendary novels in his study were either the chosen ones of the capital or the outstanding descendants of the noble families, and none of them had anything to do with Innadri.
Until more than a hundred years ago, Innadri was still a barren land with a total population of no more than 200,000. Bandits and robbers were rampant, and only the farms and estates of the nobles could guarantee basic peace.
This chaotic situation continued until the Bartles family arrived.
The ancestor of the Bartles family, the wise and brave Adela I, drove away the previous lord, raised an army and eliminated most of the bandits in the territory. Innadri was finally freed from the frequent banditry, the population flourished rapidly, and the town developed to the level of a large territory.
In the eyes of the older people who lived longer in Innadri, both Adela I and Adela II should be regarded as heroes of Innadri, but this recognition is only accepted within the territory of Innadri.
Outside of Innadri, people in other territories don't recognize the Bartles family - a nouveau riche family that hasn't even reached five generations dares to boast of the glory of their ancestors? Let's get the title of earl first!
Innadri does not deserve glory, let alone being a hero. This is what Mr. Gerry's experience working in the secretariat of the City Hall told him - traveling merchants with aristocratic backgrounds and out-of-town clients who do business with the North City factory area, when they come to Innadri and look at this land and the people who live on this land, they can't hide the curiosity and frivolity of people from big places when they come to a small place for a "visit".
When Mr. Gerry went from the city to the countryside to visit his parents who lived in a small town, he also had this condescending attitude towards the people and streets in the town.
It was for this reason that Mr. Gerry sent his son to go to school in the capital - even though it was only a third-rate private school, it was still a school in the capital after all, and at least his son could get to know some people from big cities.
In the territory of Innadri, Mr. Gerry, who has a high annual salary of fifty gold coins and a relatively high social status, has never been proud of being born in Innadri. There is really nothing worth boasting about in his hometown.
Mr. Gary, who lived this kind of life as usual, was shocked to see the front-page headlines of the weekly newspaper full of praise for the "legendary hero of Innadri".
The second page of the weekly report contains three high-definition black-and-white photos, showing the scene when the undead found the skeletons of the four heroes.
In addition to the photos, there are also a large number of text descriptions. For example, Webster, the first person who had been waiting for his companions near the stone tablet for more than two hundred years, narrated his life experience under the photo in which he was discovered, how he enlisted in the army in 801 new calendar more than two hundred years ago, how he fought bravely on the banks of the Barcelo River, how he risked his life to participate in the operation of luring the enemy and risked his life to protect the Rhine Kingdom.
Under the second photo, the weekly reporter spent a lot of time and effort to introduce the Innadri hero Susan, who was buried at the foot of the mountain, and published a lot of well-documented information about her life, describing why this brave female warrior, who was born in the town of Newin, went into battle in armor, how she performed well in the Battle of the Barcelo River, and how she was included in many legendary novels of that period, how she considered the people of her hometown during the battle to lure the enemy, and how she persuaded the military leaders to lead the enemy into the Tarantan Wasteland...
Mr. Gerry stared at the photo and the long text below it in disbelief for a long, long time.
He had an impression of the name Susan Ken Radisson; this name appeared in several of the legendary novels in his study that were published after 800 years in the new calendar.
However, these legendary novels either tell the story of this rare female warrior in a curious way, or use the tragic fate of this short-lived female warrior to express the protagonist's situation, and have never described her directly!
Mr. Gerry didn't even know that she was from Innaderi or that she was born in the same town as him!
"Is this actually true? Is there really such a thing?"
Confused, Mr. Gerry looked at the third page, which was filled with a huge color photo. The scene in the photo showed the new lord, Charlie Rex, personally appearing and solemnly receiving the remains of four heroes from the hands of the dead, supported by a large group of people.
Mr. Gerry was stunned.
Yesterday... he seemed to have seen this scene downstairs from his office in the City Hall...
Next to Rex, there was a former colleague from the secretariat, the betrayer who had surrendered to Rex without any bottom line...
Mr. Gerry suddenly felt a tightness in his chest.
His work experience in the Secretariat told him that this was a major event that would go down in history and be known throughout the country, but it had nothing to do with him.
It just feels terrible.
It also made Mr. Gerry feel vaguely regretful.
Why didn't he learn from the traitor's behavior? Then, maybe his son would see him in the newspapers of the royal capital.
Forcing down the uncomfortable feeling, Mr. Gerry turned to page 4 of the weekly newspaper.
This page is full of text. The weekly reporter (actually written by Zhao Zhenzhen) describes in depth and vividly the specific performance and main achievements of the four warriors in the battle in the year 801 of the new calendar (actually the content is excerpted from many legendary novels). He also describes in a sad tone how tragic the "last words" of the two heroic souls who still had some consciousness were when the ghosts discovered the remains of the four warriors.
When the undead of Tarantan discovered the remains of heroes deep in the wilderness, the remaining souls of Webster and Susan remained in this world due to their strong obsession. It was not until the undead promised to send them back to their hometown that they felt at ease to leave their "last words" and enter eternal sleep - such a thing is entirely possible in this alien world, and the popular base is very broad!
It's not made up at all! No one can find fault with it!
Anyway, the four civilian soldiers did exist in history, and they did participate in the plan to lure the enemy in order to protect the Rhine Kingdom and were buried in Tarantin!
Unless the righteous god of the Western Death Pantheon sends messengers to investigate at the place where the undead claimed to have discovered the event, it will never be exposed!
Very steady!
The "mission plot" written by the two old bastards can even move Chinese players who have been tested by melodramatic film and television dramas. It is invincible when used to attack the indigenous residents of this alien world. At least Mr. Gerry, the "little Bourgeois", couldn't resist it.
Whether it was Webster Jack, who resolutely committed suicide while shouting "Let our souls meet again in our hometown" so that his companions could escape without any psychological burden, or Susan Ken Radisson , Mr. Gerry could not control his emotions.
Under the astonished gaze of his wife, housekeeper and maid, Mr. Gerry hid in the study with a newspaper to cover his red eyes.
This morning, there were many people whose emotional defenses were broken down by the front-page headlines of the weekly newspaper.
Many people going to work buy a newspaper on the roadside. At first, they read it while walking. After reading for a while, they stop on the roadside, hold the newspaper in their hands, read the words carefully, and sniff softly.
Even among the nobles in Midtown, many of them forgot to eat breakfast after opening the weekly newspaper.
And this is not the end...
If Yang Qiu wants to wage a propaganda war, he cannot just rely on newspapers - the illiteracy rate in this world is really too high. Apart from the aristocratic middle class, the only people who can understand newspapers and are willing to buy them are workers with stable incomes. Most people would not know what the newspapers are about even if they get them.
On the same day that the weekly newspaper went on sale, the city hall organized a literacy class. The clerks who gave the lectures each had a newspaper in their hands and explained the contents of the newspaper to the contract workers, their families, temporary workers who were attending the class, and others who were attending the class.
If you tell civilians that more than 200 years ago some people left their homes to fight on the front lines to defend their country, most of them will have no reaction.
Most of the Innadri civilians have never even seen a map of the Rhine Kingdom, and don't know where the capital of the Rhine Kingdom is. The country, the king, and the royal family are just extremely distant and vague concepts in people's cognition. Even if the heroes in history sacrificed tragically to defend their country, people just think that it is something very far away from them and has nothing to do with them at all.
But people in my hometown can understand me.
More than two hundred years ago, in the year 801 of the new calendar, in the town of Newin, which was only twenty kilometers away from the city of Innadri, there was a young woman who had no father and depended on her mother and thirteen-year-old brother for everything. In order to protect her hometown, she put on ill-fitting armor, picked up the long sword that her mother had made for her with her dowry, and went to the front line to fight desperately.
Why did she risk her life? Because the enemy was attacking the Rhine Kingdom along the Barcelo River, and her hometown, Innadri, was also on the banks of the Barcelo River. The river ran through the territory of Innadri, and most of the people of Innadri used the water from the Barcelo River and its tributaries on a daily basis.
If the enemy captures the royal city, they will be very close to Innadri.
At that time, Innadri was very weak and did not even have a city defense force.
The small town girl who was born in Newin didn't want her hometown to fall like the northern territory of Tachia, so she went to join the war.
She suffered from bullying and exclusion in the army, but she was also lucky to meet a partner who was worthy of her trust.
She fought side by side with her companions until the crisis came and she had to risk her life to lure away the main enemy force.
She and her companions fled into Innadri and looked in the direction of her hometown from afar. She wanted to go home so much, but she couldn't lead the enemy there. In order for the people in her hometown to continue living in peace, she resolutely turned around and rushed deep into the Tarantan Desert with her companions.
Once you leave, there will be no looking back.
Until she died, died in that strange wilderness, she became an ugly skeleton without a human form, but she still did not forget her companions, she still did not forget the oath she and her companions made together to return to their hometown...
The clerk was speaking on the podium while holding a newspaper and sobbing, and the people in the audience were wiping their tears while listening.
When these listeners went home, many of them bought a newspaper on the way. Based on what they had heard in class, they used their limited vocabulary to struggle to recognize and read the words in the newspaper, and then stutteredly told their relatives and friends at home.
There were no decent entertainment activities in this world, especially in a poor place like Innadri... clichéd legendary novels were the spiritual food of most middle-class and above people. If the nobles wanted to listen to the opera, they had to take the magic steam train to the theater in the neighboring earldom.
"The Legend of Susan the Hero of Innadri" is undoubtedly a folk legend that most people can listen to with their heart and soul.
Through newspapers and word of mouth, the "Legend of Susan" soon spread from the city back to Westham, and to small towns such as Kane Town, Horseshoe Town, and Susan's hometown, Newin Town...
