Chapter 452: The Evil Guest Rowell
Yang Qiu was not surprised at all that Brother Lowell would encounter setbacks.
That’s right, this guy is the only remaining top fighter in the Prosperous Church. He has rich experience, extensive network of contacts, and great prestige in the Principality of Shiga.
But the so-called connections and prestige are only useful when used to unite people with common interests, and not vice versa.
Similar examples can be found by flipping through the history books of the Chinese nation.
Liu Zhanxiong, a descendant of Duke Xiao of Lu during the Spring and Autumn Period, was a descendant of a noble. Wasn't his status high enough? Wasn't his network of contacts wide enough?
He led an army of 9,000 and swept across the Yellow River Basin. "With 9,000 soldiers, he roamed the world and invaded and oppressed the princes." All the vassal states were defeated. How powerful is that, right?
What are the results?
Not much.
Liu Zhanxiong, who led 9,000 slaves in an uprising, was falsely accused of being "Dao Zhi" and "Jie Zhi" in ancient books from the pre-Qin period. They angrily accused him of "driving people like cattle and horses, taking people's women, forgetting his relatives for greed, not caring about his parents and brothers, and not offering sacrifices to his ancestors." It was also said that he "cut up people's livers and fed them to the people"... that is, he ate human flesh.
This is considered a routine operation... Who asked Liu Zhanxiong, the descendant of a slave owner, to lead slaves to fight other slave owners?
Because he didn't sit in line with the "mainstream", Liu Zhanxiong deserves to be cursed for all eternity.
King Zhou of Shang was in the same situation.
What good thing did King Zhou of Shang, who was repeatedly cursed and whipped in various official and unofficial histories, do?
In fact, he didn't do much, just "not employing noble relatives and old ministers, employing villains, listening to women's words, and not paying attention to sacrifices." and so on.
This series of charges can be translated as follows: King Zhou of Shang, the "tyrant", refused to appoint old noble ministers, but instead promoted lowly villains to serve. He did not give power to nobles, but to people of low status.
Listen to women's opinions and suggestions, and give women authority - the status of women in the Shang Dynasty was not low. Fu Hao, the wife of Shang King Wu Ding, was able to lead troops into battle. She also beat up the Aryans who tried to invade the East Asian continent, captured the Aryans and made them slaves, and buried them with her after her death.
When women are in power, no matter if they are capable or do bad things, they are all "stealing power and disrupting politics" and "the hens crowing at dawn" - the latter word was invented specifically to insult King Zhou of Shang.
Also, he opposed large-scale sacrifices and the use of large numbers of human sacrifices - King Zhou of Shang abolished a large number of sacrifices to the royal family's side branches and sacrifices to God and natural gods, and no longer allowed the killing of hundreds of animals and people as sacrifices.
He always opposed the upper power group and did not care about the feelings of the privileged class at all. It was not unjust that the Shang Dynasty was destroyed, and it was not unjust that King Zhou of Shang was branded as "the greatest tyrant of all time."
The slave-owning nobles of China were angry that King Zhou of Shang did not allow them to use human sacrifices to thank God for bestowing them with "noble blood". They slandered Daji as a fox demon and made up a "legendary novel" in which all the gods and Buddhas joined forces to attack King Zhou of Shang... Brother Lowell, the big brother who tried to turn the world of the Principality of Shiga upside down and shake the foundation of the interests of the Shiga nobles, was only dealt with perfunctorily and passed the buck. It was considered that he had a high prestige and was capable enough that he was not easily overturned.
If Brother Lowell had been a little bit weaker... he would have "died of illness" on some unknown country road by now, instead of staying in a crowded gathering and sulking.
Observing the much more destitute Lowell from Anthony's perspective, Yang Qiu calmly... decided to continue waiting and watching.
He respected Brother Lowell's decision. Before Lowell took the initiative to speak, he would neither give random advice nor interfere at will. If he had not contacted the rear of the Earth, Yang Qiu did not think he could do much better than Brother Lowell, and naturally he would not think he was qualified to dictate Lowell's choice.
Lowell had the courage and determination to get things done. After returning to the Principality of Shiga, he went back to his own fiefdom as planned to prepare for a pilot reform.
His descendant, Viscount Lowell, who was many generations older than him, was very excited about his ancestor's return, and seemed to be very cooperative with the monk's instructions...
Not long after that, the Guardian Cavalry Regiment that returned with Lowell was transferred away by the Church of Prosperity.
The excuse was ready. The border of the Principality of Shiga was not peaceful to begin with, and Joyce Andre, who followed Lowell loyally, was originally a prosperous paladin responsible for defending the territory. The church could not transfer Lowell, but it was easy to transfer Joyce Andre.
After all, Brother Lowell had no intention of breaking off relations with the church, so he reluctantly sent away the reluctant Joyce Andre.
Next... the obedient great-grandson, the current Viscount of the Lowell family, also received a summons from the Noble Council, inviting the Viscount to the royal capital to discuss the next term of the Noble Council.
The contemporary Viscount seemed to bid farewell to his great-great-grandfather with great difficulty and reluctance, and quickly packed up his things and left, leaving only his son behind to help the old ancestor.
Young Master Lance, who had already been strongly against the "idiotic ideas" of his ancestors, would certainly find ways to cause trouble for the monks...
At this point, no matter how unwilling Brother Lowell was to believe it, he knew that he was being targeted.
Count Dimos, who was sent to Innadri, or someone else, revealed his intention to return to the country to the church leaders and the royal family. Both sides were unwilling to officially break up with Lowell, so they simply withdrew the useful people around him and made him give up the idea himself.
After realizing this, Brother Lowell vaguely regretted his "carelessness".
At this time, the only person left by his side was Anthony, the "messenger", but he did not give up hope. He remained encouraged and determined to continue looking for like-minded people.
Afterwards, Brother Lowell began to travel around the country, looking for like-minded people who could work with him - he firmly believed that there must be many such people. After all, when he was in the Rhine, he had seen Charlie Rex, who was also full of ideals, Tuttle Joe and Hal Maxwell, who worked diligently after turning over a new leaf, and those clerks and operators who could immediately display their talents after getting the opportunity.
And then... Brother Lowell began his journey of encountering obstacles.
In ten days or so, Lowell ran across half of the territory of the Principality of Shiga, but gained nothing.
"Anthony."
Yang Qiu, who shared Anthony's vision, saw Brother Lowell turned his head in anger and confusion, and said to Anthony: "Why can't these people give it a try when they can clearly understand my ideas and understand that referring to Innadri's route can make Shiga better and benefit their own families? Why can't the Shiga people understand what the Rhine people can understand?"
Anthony scratched his head with a headache and said, "I don't understand either, monk. You know I've been staying in the Exile Town for the past two years and haven't seen many outsiders. How can I know what those outsiders think?"
The Kenyan man, who looked rough but was actually very careful, paused for a moment and said, "But I don't think it's a problem with the Shiga people or the Rhine people. Mia and Collins are also Shiga people. I heard that the Shiga people from Camor Town are doing well after leaving the Exile Town."
Brother Lowell sighed.
He stayed in Westham for a long time, and dealt a lot with Mia, the former Westham housekeeper, and Collins, who is still working in the organization in the countryside of Westham... These people are his compatriots, and he would naturally care about them extra.
Mia, who used to be a textile worker, had poor eyesight to begin with. In order to do Westram's logistical work, she had to do the accounting with her class until late at night every night. Every day when she woke up, her eyes were dark and bloodshot.
Collins, who broke his leg when he was a cotton farmer, has difficulty walking. In order to fully understand the growth of crops in the countryside he is responsible for, this old cotton farmer tied his disabled foot to the bicycle pedal and rode hundreds of kilometers in the countryside every day...
It is also because Brother Lowell is full of confidence in the future of the Principality of Shiga after seeing how hard these Shiga people work to make everyone's life better and to prove their own worth.
But now, the monk is really confused.
While the two were talking, the owner of the yard came out of the house with servants and a tray of food.
"It's time for lunch, monk, Mr. Anthony." The owner of the courtyard was wearing a complicated traditional Shiga uniform. He had a square face, neatly combed hair, and a shiny beard. He enthusiastically directed the servants to place the food on the stone table. "Today's weather is good and the flowers are blooming beautifully. Let's have dinner in the courtyard."
Brother Lowell thanked him politely, and Anthony, who was already hungry, strode over.
The servant put down the meal and left. The host sat down to entertain the guest. With a smile on his face, he introduced the food on the table to Anthony, a foreigner with distinctive features. He then rolled up his sleeves enthusiastically and poured wine for Brother Lowell.
The climate in the Principality of Shega is good, with distinct four seasons, warm springs and cool summers, but the winters are a bit unbearable. The demand for textiles is greater than that in the Kingdom of the Rhine, and the Shega people are proud of having enough clothes. Traditional Shega clothing is beautiful for its complex structure and abundant materials. When eating, the slightly wide sleeves need to be pulled to the elbows and then fastened with special straps.
After the guests and hosts finished their lunch happily, the host called the servants to clean up the place and respectfully handed the purse filled with gold and silver coins to Brother Lowell with both hands, saying that he could not help the monk much and hoped that the monk would accept the travel expenses as a gift.
Giving travel expenses as a gift is, in fact, driving people away. Brother Lowell's face suddenly became uglier than before the meal.
Anthony didn't care about that and accepted the money bag on behalf of the monk.
After being respectfully escorted out of the country house by the host and his servants, Brother Lowell walked a long way along the country road in silence, before he could not help but express his discomfort: "Anthony, I am being treated as a bad guest who will bring trouble."
"Yes, monk," Anthony said readily.
Brother Lowell was so angry that the beard on his chin that he hadn't taken time to shave off trembled slightly. "I just... I just came to ask if his family has any temporarily idle children who can follow me to learn from the experience I brought back from the Rhine Kingdom, and can also be helpful to his family's fiefdom - how can I become a bad guest?!"
Anthony looked at the monk, seeming to want to say something but stopping himself.
"Go ahead," Brother Lowell urged.
"Then I'll be frank with you," Anthony said. "Father, after you found out that the upper echelons of the Principality were against you, you chose to contact people like Joyce Andre who you thought were eager for change in the Principality of Shiga. But in my opinion, your approach is completely different from Yang's."
"What do you mean?" Brother Lowell frowned.
"You know, Yang tricked me, Tuttle, Hal and the others into coming to Tarantan. That guy said he could arrange a safe place for us to live where we wouldn't have to worry about being hunted down or besieged, but he ended up dragging us to Exile Town and forcing us to live with the undead."
"Charlie Rex was a madman who forced his way through the first door and almost had a mental breakdown. In the beginning, he was often in a semi-crazy state. It took him a long time to stabilize in Exile Town."
"Mia, Collins and the others are useless people abandoned by the town of Camor."
"Shirley, Ben, Sibel, Phoebe, these are people whose names I often hear in Exile Town, not to mention where they come from."
Anthony turned sideways and pointed at the country house that the two men had left behind. "Do you think any of these people could be the owner of such a big house before being picked up by Yang, and could easily afford to pay generous travel expenses to send away the 'evil guests' who came to the door?"
Brother Lowell suddenly turned his head, stopped and looked at Anthony.
Anthony was a former thief who had been in Exile Town for a long time and had never held an important position. He spoke without any scruples and said bluntly, "If you ask me, I don't understand why you have to go out and find some fellow travelers. Take back the fiefdom you earned from your descendants, drive away all the disobedient ones, and find some Mia, Collins, Shirley, Sibel, and Phoebe from your subjects to help you. Then you can start doing what you want, right?"
Anthony found it incomprehensible that Brother Lowell became discouraged because he could not find "like-minded" companions.
Ever since he was tricked into the Tarantan Wasteland, he hadn't seen Yang finding any fellow travelers. He only saw this guy constantly cheating and even kidnapping people...
