Chapter 343 Pre-War Preparations (Part 3)
The tricycle with the horn on it returned to the camp outside the slum under the gaze of the residents, and then returned to the slum with the stove, cooking pot and vermicelli.
A dinner that only cost two copper coins was provided. When the volunteers packed up their stalls before dark, they all smiled and told the local residents who were concerned about the whereabouts of the Innaderites: "We will not leave, we will come again tomorrow. We will continue to sell vermicelli and broadcast radio dramas."
The residents cheered and were happier than during the winter festival.
When the night fell and no fire could be seen in the slum, which was as big as half the size of Dutata City, groups of furtive figures slipped out of the city and ran into the deep alleys of the slum.
During the day, while volunteers and contract workers worked diligently to gain the trust and identification of slum residents, Ban brought a group of agents, and through waiting and fooling people, they "invited" more than 600 local gang members to the camp for tea in half a day.
This unscrupulous behavior of fleecing local gangs was finally exposed after it got dark and the local gangs of all sizes started to gather...
Each underground gang has its own territory, and most gang members have little discipline or organization. It is very common for one or several people to disappear for a few days and then suddenly reappear.
It is also very common for a small gang, or a small group within a gang, to discover an unexpected source of income and secretly take all the money for themselves, then suddenly reappear after a while, waving money around and spending money recklessly.
In other words, if Ben had been a little less ruthless, like stopping after a few hits, maybe he wouldn't have been discovered so quickly...
The total number of gang members who can be supported by the money they scrape from the poor people in and outside the city is only about two thousand!
The leaders of the major gangs gathered their men at night, but were shocked to find that the number of members who showed up had dropped by 30%.
It was not until the evening when the major gangs held a big gathering that the small leaders and thugs at the bottom realized that the people coming from outside the city were not merchant groups, but siege troops from Innadeli...
It is impossible to expect the gangsters and the small leaders who lead these gangsters to parade on the streets to have much cultural level, and of course it is impossible for them to have the habit of reading newspapers.
Although the news that a viscount was provoked by a female viscount from Innadli had long been spread in the city, the lower-level gang members only regarded this as an internal fight among the nobles - many of them had even received a small amount of money in the past to search for the female viscount in the southern city for the viscount.
The gang leaders knew from the steward sent by the nobles that the Innadeli people outside the city had bad intentions, and they took over the business of helping the nobles, but they never expected that so many of their own men would be taken away by them in just one day...
"These Innaderis are so disrespectful. Why are you here to fight a territory war and pick on us street scumbags?!"
The big leaders were very angry and sent people to act at night with gritted teeth.
Old York had just fallen asleep when he heard someone knocking on his door outside. The knocks were very light, but very frequent and rapid.
Old York propped himself up from the reed mat and pushed his youngest son to open the door.
When the youngest son got up in a daze and went to open the door, Old York stood up with the help of the wall, first lifted the mat under him to cover his daughter who was also awakened, and then reached out to touch the match on the wooden table in front of the window to light the oil lamp.
Old York was not married. His two sons and one daughter were all adopted from the garbage dump under the South City Gate. His healthy eldest son went to the countryside to do odd jobs in the fall, while his youngest son who was born with a cleft lip and his mute daughter stayed with him.
The mute daughter, who had lived in poverty since childhood, was dark and thin and not pretty, but she had grown up to marrying age after all, and old York had already found a marriage partner for her. During the time when the healthy eldest son was away from home, old York had to take good care of his daughter.
Old York lit the oil lamp that he usually didn't want to light. The person knocking on the door had already walked into the wooden house he had built when he was young.
When Old York saw who was coming, he suddenly felt unhappy.
This man was not a stranger, but the son of a water carrier living in the same alley.
The old neighbors in this alley didn't like the water carrier's son very much, and Old York was the same... A few years ago, this brat even tried to get his eldest son to join a gang, which made Old York very angry.
The son of the water carrier didn't care what the old man with the oil lamp thought of him. He lowered his voice as soon as he entered the door and said in a very urgent and urgent tone: "Something big has happened, Uncle York, do you know what those Innadri people outside are here for? They are here to fight! To attack the city of Dutata!"
"What are you talking about?" The impatient youngest son said unhappily, "We are not here to fight, don't talk nonsense!"
"Really? Don't disbelieve it! It's all in the newspapers!" The water carrier's son gestured, "The gentlemen in the city are all saying that these Inadre people are just like the Halifax people in the past, coming to attack us, robbing our money, and taking our people away as slaves and prisoners!"
"You may not know this, but they have secretly captured so many people just today! Hundreds of people! They may capture even more tomorrow!"
"Otherwise, why would those people give you benefits for nothing? It's just to make you not be on guard against them!"
"People living in the city are at least separated by the city walls, but what about us outside the city? It's very dangerous!"
"If you don't believe me, don't regret it later!"
Old York's face looked increasingly uglier under the oil lamp, and his youngest son, who was considered by many to be an ominous person because of his cleft lip, also became frightened.
The water carrier's son was not a professional lobbyist. He just said what the gang leader asked him to say and then left in a hurry to knock on the door of the next old neighbor.
There are many, many gang members like this who come from the slums and specifically look for acquaintances to "warn" them. If teenagers who grew up in the slums do not want to be trapped in the slums for the rest of their lives like their ancestors, there are really not many paths they can choose.
There are many people like Old York who become restless and unable to sleep all night after being woken up.
After dawn, Old York got up early as usual, opened the door, and couldn't help but look to the south.
The shacks in the slums were very low. Looking from the direction of Old York's house, one could vaguely see the tops of the tall tents in the Innadri camp. Due to the distance, only a small white tip could be seen.
Old York thought of the friendly women who pulled their tricycles deep into the alley to sell vermicelli yesterday. It was really hard to connect them with the kind of people who were randomly arrested as described by the water carrier's son.
He has been a leather craftsman for many years. In the early years when he was still relatively healthy, he would occasionally be asked to do work in the city, repairing blowers for blacksmith shops, or repairing more expensive leather goods for some citizens at their homes.
Because of his experience in providing door-to-door service in the city, Old York knew very well how the city people viewed those from outside the city - although there was only a city wall between them, in the eyes of the city people, the slums seemed like a terrible hell on earth, a terrifying devil's den on earth; the people in the slums also seemed to be all unforgivable and extremely evil, and the city people would feel uncomfortable if they got too close, and would have to frown and cover their noses and walk away quickly.
When the carriage passed through the road in the middle of the slums, the ladies sitting in the carriage would secretly look outside with their curious and fearful eyes, which made the young old York's self-esteem feel as if it was crushed by the wheels.
But the Innadri people did not hate them so much.
There were only three or five of them, pulling their tricycles loaded with goods into the depths of the alley. They would chat and joke with the residents in a friendly manner, naturally talk about family matters with them, and ask about the children's ages and names as if they were acquaintances...
It was hard for Old York to believe that such friendliness was just fake - the son of a water carrier who came to the city to become a gangster would look at his old neighbors with disdain and arrogance, but the Innaderis didn't do that!
Old York stood at the door of his house in a daze.
Suddenly, he heard a noisy sound coming from the other end of the alley.
Old York turned his head and saw the water carrier's son carrying a big bag and walking out, while the water carrier's wife held the bag tightly and scolded her son loudly.
The water bearer's son shouted impatiently that the Innaderites were about to break in and rob everyone, and asked his mother to let go and take the valuables in the house to the city for safekeeping. His mother refused to believe him and only scolded her son for not even letting go of the last valuables in the house.
Old York became immediately furious, and together with the old neighbors in the neighborhood who had long been fed up with their son's behavior, they surrounded him and yelled at him to put down his bag.
The water carrier's son was not even a semi-professional. He just relied on being a street thug to eat better and be stronger than the residents. He did not dare to offend the public, so he had to let go of the bag and walked away while cursing.
The water carrier's wife cried while holding the bag that she had managed to keep, and the old neighbors comforted her with concern for a long time.
Old York spat in the direction where the water carrier's son left, called out his mute daughter, asked her to help the water carrier clean up the messy house, and then turned back to the house.
He is really old, and even the nonsense told by those gangsters can make him suspicious .
Not long after, Innaderil entered the alley with a tricycle loaded with vermicelli just as he had said yesterday. Even old York, whose five senses had deteriorated, could smell the aroma of food from afar.
The neighbors hurriedly brought wooden and ceramic bowls from their homes to buy noodles. Some people who had no scruples about their mouths and didn't like to use their brains even asked the Innadri people who came to sell noodles whether they were going to attack the city of Dutata.
"Hey, don't you know yet?" Mrs. Hank, who came to this alley to sell vermicelli, said with a hearty smile, "We are here to avenge Mr. Coulson O'Neill, the cousin of Lady China Darcy. It turns out that the news hasn't spread outside yet?"
"Revenge?" Old York, who was queuing with his young son who was born with a cleft lip, exclaimed in surprise.
"Yes, this matter has been reported in the newspapers. After Mr. Colson O'Neill's father died, his uncle, Viscount O'Neill, was very evil. He conspired with Earl Ezekiel to frame their family, rob their house, and then rob their farm..."
Mrs. Hank openly told the residents the extremely legitimate reason for declaring war that Innadelli had prepared long ago in a very easy-to-understand way: "Mr. Coulson O'Neill, who originally came from a good family, could hardly support his mother, and could only carry a tool box to the street to repair tires for people! His mother is the aunt of Lady China Darcy. Miss China was furious when she knew about this, so of course she wanted to avenge her aunt and cousin!"
"So that's how it is!" The residents who had been as uneasy as Old York suddenly realized.
Any ethnic group that values family will be highly tolerant .
The plot of helping to take revenge when one's relatives have been wronged is also very much in line with the simple values of the people of this world.
The volunteers walked from one end of the alley to the other, and the story of "Colson O'Neill's Revenge" also spread from one end of the alley to the other end...
After the "morning rush hour", when the volunteers were packing up their stalls, they told the residents with a smile, "We will play radio dramas again later, and you can listen to yesterday's two radio dramas again." The residents, who had been looking forward to it for a long time, completely put behind them the "rumors" spread by gang members last night and cheered.
It is eleven noon in the other world time, and five o'clock in the afternoon on Earth time.
The players, totally unaware that their reputation had frightened the nobles of Dutata City, were still playing their games in a dull manner.
A group of players who were preparing to go to the Spider's Lair to quietly farm some materials before the online evening rush hour arrived were stopped by "Lord Yang" who was strolling on the street when they passed the intersection of Exile Town. They were surprised to receive the pre-tasks for the territory war.
At the front-line camp under the city of Dutata, Ban and a group of operators are working hard to expand the prisoner camp.
The leather craftsmen who were busy working in the leather workshop were relaxing and discussing the plots of two radio dramas that were about to be rebroadcast.
The water carrier's son and several thugs ran into the alley, shouting along the way that the Innaderis were about to launch an attack on the city, and urged the residents to quickly protect themselves. They also rushed into the courtyard and asked the men to make preparations early.
The leather craftsmen in the courtyard promised to make preparations, and after the thugs left, they continued to discuss the plot of "The Legend of Susan".
