Chapter 328: Propaganda Tool
The station town has only one street. When night falls and people put down their work to enjoy a rare rest, the broadcast in front of the station sounds and people in all the buildings in the town can hear it clearly.
If this happened on Earth, it would be considered a nuisance... But in this world where there is basically no entertainment, the radio programs from dusk to bedtime every day can be considered spiritual food for most people.
When a horn sounded from the direction of the station, Ross, who was taking notes in the hotel room, frowned and skillfully took out a cork earplug from his jacket pocket.
When he was in the Holy Land, Rhodes also liked to listen to the radio on time, but the radio station of Innadri seemed so crude to Rhodes that it was incomprehensible... The kind of radio drama with a farmer as the protagonist, and all the content explaining how to grow crops and raise poultry - let's call it a radio drama - the kind of shoddy plot and dialogue could not bring people any spiritual enjoyment at all.
Just as he was about to put on his earplugs, Rhodes suddenly noticed that the content pushed by the radio station today was different.
There is no background sound of roosters crowing, dogs barking, or the shouting of a hoarse-voiced peasant woman, but instead a piece of music with a beautiful melody.
"A big river with wide waves, the wind blows the wheat waves and the fragrance is fragrant on both sides..."
Ross turned his eyes toward the window in surprise. During his stay in Innadri, this was the first time he heard a play other than "Farmer's Life Diary" (compiled by an Earth writer).
Well... this is actually a rebroadcast of an "old drama" - "The Legend of Susan", which has been broadcast several times, appeared on the radio again after half a month.
The scriptwriter of this "Susan Legend" is still Brother Lowell. Due to the insistence of this older literary youth, the whole play, like "Our Struggle", has been crammed with many pieces of music, barely taking on the format of a musical.
After the opening song of "Barcelona River", a modified version of a famous Earth song, ended, the actress who played Susan Ken Radisson began to introduce herself through monologue - a resident of Innadrinewin Town, with a warm and happy home with a mother and a younger brother.
Different from the overall relaxed and cheerful atmosphere of "Our Happiness", the atmosphere of "The Legend of Susan" is very tense from the beginning - Susan just turned eighteen and the war broke out.
In the year 801 of the new calendar, Halifax, the northern kingdom, launched a massive invasion of the Rhine Kingdom. Within half a month, they captured the territory of Tachia and marched straight to the capital!
The enemy army moved down the Barcelo River. If the capital fell, the only thing standing in the way of Lord Innadri would be the Territory of Adler. Lord Innadri was extremely anxious and recruited soldiers from towns across the territory.
Susan's father had passed away and her brother was still young. In desperation, the girl, who had just turned 18, had to persuade her mother to sell her dowry to prepare weapons and armor for her so that she could go to the war in place of her brother.
"When Halifax's cavalry trampled through the Territory of Tachia, the blood of the people even dyed the upper reaches of the Barcelo River red... Mother, this was just reported in the newspaper!"
"I'm not going to fight for anyone. I just want to protect our hometown. Mother, if the enemy comes to Innadri, I can't imagine the scene of your and your brother's bodies being thrown into the river!"
The determined voice of the girl came from the station and floated into Ross's ears. Unconsciously, he put away the cork earplugs...
The City Hall wanted to make "The Legend of Susan" into an epic, so the tempo of this radio drama was destined to be very fast. In order to ensure the shocking effect of this radio drama, the 125-minute drama was not cut into any parts, and each replay was pushed out all at once.
This kind of radio drama with a tense plot and a fast pace not only makes ordinary people intoxicated, but also makes it difficult for "upper class" like Rhodes, who have no shortage of spiritual entertainment, not to be attracted...
Ten minutes into the film, Susan Gradison, a small town girl, is away from her hometown and enters a military camp she has never been to before.
Suffering bullying in the barracks, gaining companions, a fierce battle on the banks of the Barcelo River, the army retreated step by step due to supply interruption, and was pressed by the enemy to the foot of the royal city. In order to save the royal capital, Susan and her troops had to take on the mission of luring the enemy with a risk of death... Such a large number of compact plots are concentrated in the first eighty minutes of performance.
The focus of the performance in the last forty minutes is on four young warriors: Susan Gradison from Innadri, Webster Jack from Adler, Matthew Belt from Tachia, and Thomas Bullard.
The Tarantan wilderness is full of dangers, the pursuers are chasing them, and the comrades who are left behind and died one by one, with no way to retreat and can only move forward in desperation to survive...
At the last moment, the young people who still clung to hope in despair made a vow in the wilderness to eventually return to their hometown.
But this hope eventually disappeared like fireworks, and death soon followed.
Webster, trapped by a group of monsters, committed suicide in order to force his companions to escape, shouting that they would meet again in their hometown.
Susan ran away crying, regretting that she had not lived and died together with her companions; even after turning into a ghost, she still wandered in the wilderness all day long, trying to find her separated companions.
Matthew Belt and Thomas Blood, the Taqia people, did not live to see the day when their hometown would come back to life; they struggled to climb to the top of the mountain before the last moment of their lives, looked at their hometown from afar, and died facing north.
The last five minutes of the show are a series of news reports.
The Tarantan ghosts found the remains of the four warriors and sent them back to Innadri. The City Hall found traces of the four heroes in the old papers and pieced together their deeds. They also found the descendants of the Gradison family and the descendants of Susan's brother in Newin Town...
The two-hour radio drama ended, and Rhodes, who had listened to the entire drama without realizing it, finally came to his senses.
The middle-aged man from a noble family in Kenya was stunned for a moment, then he suddenly stood up and ran to the window, looking out at the street.
On the only street in the station town, both the station staff and the workers in the hotel delicatessen moved their small stools to sit on the street side, facing the station loudspeaker in silence, listening quietly to the female singing after the show ended.
The focused and serious faces of these locals were dimly visible under the moonlight.
For no apparent reason, Ross felt a palpitation.
He could imagine that at this moment in Innadelli, no matter in towns or villages, wherever there were external speakers installed, there would be countless civilians sitting on the streets, listening to the closing song of the radio drama quietly like the people here, and reminiscing about the soul-stirring heroic epic that even he could not help but be attracted to.
Roz slowly and quietly moved away from the window and sat back in his chair.
The radio drama "The Legend of Susan" is not a toy for people to kill time... but a powerful tool to unite people!
A civilian hero who died two hundred years ago and left no official historical records because of his humble status, and who had a nearly perfect personality, can of course be allowed to be whitewashed by Innaderi and used as an invincible propaganda tool to deceive people!
This story is remembered by everyone and believed as true history. When the lords here need to recruit soldiers from the civilians, countless Susans, countless Websters, countless Thomases and Matthews will appear!
What's worse is that Lord Innadri... No, the Nightmare Butcher's ambition is not limited to this!
The four civilian warriors in "The Legend of Susan" were obviously soldiers recruited by the royal family, but from beginning to end, they were portrayed as guarding the Barcelo River and protecting their hometown, which weakened the presence of the royal family!
This radio drama can not only be used to fool the common people of Innadri, but also the entire Rhine Kingdom and wherever the Barcelo River flows, those ignorant common people will be bewitched by it!
In other words... the Nightmare Butcher is obviously not satisfied with just having an earldom like Innadri!
The evening breeze blew in from the open window, and Ross, who was touched by the cool breeze, found that his neck, shoulders and back were cold... He even broke out in a cold sweat without realizing it.
Loosening his collar, Ross forced himself to calm down.
The Nightmare Butcher was indeed very good at bewitching people, so there was no need for him to - even a firm believer in the Night Watch like Walton was willing to follow this evil black magician. It was normal for the hearts of the common people here to be manipulated.
Fortunately, the Nightmare Butcher chose the Rhine, and the Rhine is far enough away from the Empire and Middle-earth, so the Empire still has time to completely eliminate this hidden danger.
"We must make the Empire truly understand the terrifying nature of this enemy... If this investigation unfortunately falls into the hands of the enemy, it would be better to pretend to be bewitched by him like Walton. This way, it will be easier to understand his methods."
Ross thought he knew the enemy well enough, but he was still shocked by the enemy's methods one after another, so he made up his mind secretly.
The next day, when the young people in the investigation team mocked the ignorant Innadri people for praising four civilians as heroes, Ross said nothing the whole time and had no intention of explaining the pros and cons to his subordinates... Knowing less is not a bad thing for these young people who still need experience.
After nine o'clock in the morning, a convoy of pneumatic vehicles emerged from the depths of the Tarantan Wasteland and appeared in the station town.
"Is there a team of adventurers who want to go deep into the wilderness and take a ride with us?"
The person in charge of the convoy is Sam Hank, an operator who has been working in the field for a long time. When he heard from the station staff that someone wanted to hitchhike, he came to the hotel enthusiastically to greet them - the financial allocation of the Transport Department is generous, but the expenditure is indeed very large. When there is income to subsidize the expenditure, everyone will be very motivated.
"Are you all Kenyans? Kenyans are quite rare here!"
When seeing Ross, who claimed to be the leader of the adventure team, Operator Sam came up to shake his hand enthusiastically.
Ross usually leaves the work of dealing with people to Gajeel, but that doesn't mean he's not good at socializing. While shaking hands with Operator Sam with a smile, Ross naturally said the excuse he had prepared: "I'm bringing some young people out to see the world, and the next stop is the Principality of Shiga. I originally wanted to cross the Sorensen Mountains, but I heard that I could get a ride by going through Tarantan, so I came here."
"If you want to go through Sorensen, you'll have to take a long detour." Operator Sam said with a big smile on his face, "You can take our car to go a hundred kilometers inside. We can't help you with the rest of the journey, but we can provide you with a map. As long as you don't deviate from the direction, you will be able to see the Principality of Shiga within a week!"
The area of the Tarantan Wasteland is actually not very large. If you cross it in a straight line, the distance is only about 500 kilometers. However, there are no , and it is easy to lose your way without a map for reference. When the players followed Hal, Tattle and others out of the wasteland, they took a lot of detours.
"Thank you so much." Ross thanked him sincerely, controlling his eyes and not looking at the row of cars parked on the street outside the hotel.
The aerodynamic vehicles driven by the operator Sam Hank in front of them were something that these Kenyans from the great mechanical creation country had never seen before - they were all Wuling Hongguang.
It is heavy-duty, durable, and has a low average price. It can pull half a ton of steel rails (the batch of factory and mine-specific steel rails that Province G half-sold and half-given to Yang Qiu is about 50KG/meter) and can run on bad roads with a puffing sound. There is absolutely no reason for Yang Qiu not to choose this Chinese magic car.
The biggest reason is that the roads built by the prisoner road construction team while laying the rails are of poor quality, and heavy trucks cannot run on them...
After the convoy loaded the easy-to-haul supplies and invited the guests on board, Rhodes and others once again experienced what it meant to be shocked - this unprepossessing pneumatic vehicle that looked like a moving cube of bread could even fit their ground lizards!
