Chapter 455: The Beginning of Civil Unrest (Part 2)
How could this be...
The demonstrators directly killed a hereditary earl?
When Yang Ming saw the live video that Lu brought, his head was full of question marks.
He certainly knows that marches and demonstrations are inevitably mixed with violent elements, and in some areas there have been serious incidents in which thousands of people have been injured and arrested.
But these clashes mainly occurred between radical elements in the march and local security forces.
Those great nobles either dispatched a large number of security personnel to protect their own houses, or simply had their own private soldiers to use force to intimidate the protesting crowds; even some of the less powerful nobles would take the initiative to hide in some remote residences at the beginning of the demonstration.
Was this hereditary earl who was killed by the protesting masses a man who had fallen on hard times and had only an empty title?
The opposite is true.
Along with the video of the crime, detailed information of the deceased was also sent to Yang Ming.
The hereditary earl of the Empire, Marlowe Quigan, owns a small fiefdom. Although the administrative planet where the fiefdom is located is not rich, the conditions are not bad. After years of accumulation, Earl Quigan has a strong family fortune.
Like many noble families, Quigen did not like living in his narrow territory. ——In today's empire, it is very rare to be directly awarded a planet like Yang Ming, mainly because Saka was in ruins at that time.
Count Quigan has lived on Yaha Planet for a long time and owns many private properties on Yaha Planet. The group of companies under his name involve many resources such as media, culture, and mineral trade.
Simply put, Quigen himself is a wealthy nobleman, and he enjoys good popularity and high reputation among the aristocratic class.
If something happened to such a person suddenly, it would most likely cause a backlash from the aristocracy.
Yang Ming clicked on the video and calmly watched it quickly.
At the beginning of the video, Count Quigan stood in front of the French window, chatting and laughing with several business partners.
Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows is a bustling street scene, with bustling crowds holding signs, souvenirs, and symbols related to the White Ghost, and shouting slogans such as "Heroes are innocent."
Count Quigan seemed to find the scene in front of him very interesting, and took a few pictures of the street scene below with his network access terminal.
The source of this video is the surveillance video outside the street, which cannot capture the full view of the interior.
Then, Count Quigen seemed to suddenly see something, turned his head and shouted twice, then threw the cup in his hand towards the far corner.
The two friends beside him were dazed and confused, and stepped forward to ask Count Quigen what was wrong.
Count Quigan pushed the two people in front of him away, rushed to the back as if he was running for his life, and entered the security elevator in a panic.
More than a dozen strong and fat private guards carrying "limited-power" laser pistols loyally protected Count Quigen, but they could only hear the Count's heavy breathing and constant roars.
The video footage was transformed into a surveillance perspective inside the building, and the entire process was seamless.
Count Quigen rushed to the street, seemingly trying to avoid something with the help of the dense crowd in front of him; the guards followed the Count's orders and forcibly separated the crowd, which attracted complaints from the surrounding people.
The most bizarre scene in this incident happened:
Count Quigen's legs suddenly went weak, and he fell to the ground, but was supported by the guards around him. Then, as if enraged, the Count started to curse at the protesters around him.
"You untouchables!"
"Don't come over here!"
"You will die a miserable death! I am a noble! I am a count! Stay away from me!"
The people surrounded them fiercely.
A street fight broke out passionately.
Faced with a large number of people, the guards did not dare to actually shoot even if they took out their laser pistols.
The chaos lasted less than half a minute. Accompanied by a woman's scream, Count Quigen, who was surrounded and slapped several times, lay motionless on the ground.
He was sent to the hospital for emergency treatment, but died.
…
“There is a problem.”
Yang Ming pushed his non-existent glasses.
Lu's voice came out of the hidden headphones:
"It's not just that there are problems, it should be said that there are too many problems, but it has an inexplicable persuasiveness."
"Looking at the situation, the drink that Earl Quigen drank might have been tampered with. He suddenly lost control and acted extremely terrified. He might have taken hallucinogenic drugs."
Yang Ming analyzed seriously:
“Although I didn’t watch every detail of the video, I did notice when Lord Quigan and his guards were beaten together.
"The guards were very diligent in protecting Earl Quigan, and Earl Quigan only took two or three mild blows. It shouldn't have been fatal.
"There are too many loopholes. It's obvious that someone has planned to kill him."
"Yes, boss," Lu smiled, "I checked the records of that hospital, and the diagnosis records inside showed signs of being modified. The initial diagnosis was death due to toxins and rapid brain atrophy, but the report sent to the local security team was changed to a neurological stress response caused by intracranial impact. In the end, the proportion of neuronal necrosis was too high and rescue was unsuccessful."
"A shoddy murder."
Yang Ming made a judgment.
Lu said, "But Boss, the impact of this murder case is very bad for the empire, especially at this critical juncture."
"Do you think it was done by the CIA? Or some other force?"
"Uh, I feel like... it's us who did it..."
"What the hell?"
"This is a perfect timing, Boss," Lu praised. "Look, we first used your influence and the Sherman family's inherent arrogance to launch a war of public opinion and a large-scale parade, and then... create a panic event to trigger a confrontation between the nobles and the common people. Isn't this just the right thing to do?"
Yang Ming wondered, "You did it?"
"No, Boss, I just feel that way."
Lu immediately returned to his normal state:
"What interests me more is not the neurotoxin, but the speed at which this event spreads.
"Obviously, someone created a very inflammatory rumor that a hereditary earl of the empire was beaten to death by protesters, which caused panic among the aristocracy. Then, the rumor was spread at an extremely fast speed and spread to portal websites and social networks in every corner of the empire in the shortest possible time.
"This efficiency is about the same as mine."
Yang Ming leaned back: "You mean, this might have been done by Li?"
"It's very likely, Boss," Lu said softly, "Otherwise, there is no explanation for why the incident spread so quickly. Our resources have not been mobilized, and there has been no movement from the CIA. If we use the process of elimination, then this is the only possible explanation, Boss."
Yang Ming frowned and thought.
The door at the side was suddenly pulled open, and the shielding light film around Yang Ming dissipated at the same time.
Daphne's pretty face turned pale, her breathing became heavy, and she stared at Yang Ming with a pair of tired eyes: "Something happened again, Hanton."
"What's up?"
"A count was beaten to death by the demonstrators!"
Yang Ming nodded calmly.
Sister, the news is too delayed.
…
The vehicle of human social history may occasionally have disastrous consequences due to a loose screw.
Just like the case of the murder of 'Count Quigan'.
When future generations study the impact of this murder case, they will inevitably sigh and admire it.
Just over ten minutes after Count Quigen’s death, the scene of him being beaten by protesters on the street appeared in every corner of the unified network within the empire.
For a time, the aristocracy was excited.
In many places within the Imperial Star Circle, there were parades exclusively for the aristocracy.
Hundreds of great nobles in the empire immediately mobilized a large number of private soldiers and asked local governors to quell the local unrest as soon as possible.
Conflicts intensify;
The conflict escalated.
The originally peaceful parade suddenly seemed to take a different turn, and the head-on clashes between the security team and the marchers intensified.
Some people on the Internet pointed out that the real cause of Count Quigan's death was probably not related to the beating of civilians, and that there were many abnormal things about Count Quigan.
But this argument was immediately attacked by the nobles.
'This is justifying the thugs!'
'These civilians are protecting the civilians. Their goal is to overthrow the empire, establish a so-called democratic regime, and take away everything we have.'
'Unite! Nobles of the Empire, unite! Our noble status was earned by our ancestors with blood and sweat!'
Arguments like these soon filled the entire Internet.
Before the imperial officials had time to respond, the fire had already spread across the prairie.
The nobles ordered their private soldiers to fire guns at the people in protest, the nobles' private soldiers acted as security teams to forcibly disperse the marching teams, and the nobles used small fleets of ships to release tear gas at the marching people...
New casualties have occurred.
If we say that the previous war of public opinion and the subsequent disputes over the White Ghost and the Sherman family were slow simmers;
The scene that is now appearing is definitely a raging fire.
The conflict is escalating.
The nobles and the common people quickly began to fight each other.
The streets of the empire's prosperous cities became smoky and chaotic, violent suppression became more frequent, and people's resistance became more intense.
At this time, the authorities arrived at the front line in a timely manner.
However, they might as well not have gone off.
The imperial officials, that is, the imperial government department, jointly issued a joint announcement with the local security department of Yaha Star, announcing the arrest of all the people who participated in the beating of Count Quigen. The people who appeared on the street at that time were required to actively cooperate with the work of the sheriff.
The imperial government took a clear stand and chose to support the aristocracy.
As soon as the news came out, the network in the empire almost collapsed.
More and more people are flocking to the online world.
The original "Support the Imperial Heroes" parade also became a "Protect the Brave" parade.
Driven by an unknown force behind the scenes, the voices of the people were highly consistent - to protect those compatriots who beat up Count Quigen and to implement comprehensive supervision over the imperial nobles.
The nobles simply did not believe in the official and muddy talk. After they clearly felt the crisis of survival, they quickly began to band together for warmth and demanded that the empire severely deal with those "assassins" and maintain the dignity of the imperial nobles.
With a snap, Yang Ming, the absolute protagonist in the past 24 hours, instantly became a supporting role in the world of public opinion.
The huge bomb of the relationship between nobles and civilians within the empire has shown a tendency to explode completely because of the death of Earl Quigen.
